The Boss

This weekend brought a pretty significant change to Holtwood House. I've shared our plans for the large set of windows here and most recently here. But as I'm sure you all can attest, one change will undoubtedly lead to another and we finally made the decision to take all of the walls back to white. When we moved in, my Pops was kind enough to paint out the room in Behr's Silver Screen. We lived with that color for the last couple of years and just could not get past it to bring the room together. Grays are tricky and this one translated blue at certain parts of the day and depending on the season, sometimes even brown. Of course, we also had our goofy window tint playing into that. But once the the tint came off and the aluminum frames were painted black, we saw the room fit for only one color - Benjamin Moore's White Dove. 

So it was that on a rainy Saturday this past weekend, the walls were washed in white by my Pops, who was again, back to paint out the same room he painted only three years ago. I've talked a bit about him before - remember the screen project on the front exterior of the house? There is nary a major project he has not touched in this house. I'm full of ideas and the projects never seem to end around here. The Mister and I can tackle a lot of them, but we've been lucky enough to have my Dad come in and help us execute all the big stuff. 

I love project days. After three years chalk full of them, we seamlessly slip right into our roles. I prepare and clean, The Mister helps with all the heavy lifting and inevitable 10 trips to Home Depot and Dad comes in and does his thing.  Dad teases me and calls me "Boss", but throughout the day, we pay close attention and learn, shaking our heads as he takes each line of the window or wall with a deft hand - never once needing to tape off. Truth be told, I'd have the entire room outlined in Blue Painter's Tape. Around Noon, we congregate at the dining room table for lunch break and then, he's back at it. I always marvel how he can neatly fit a project into an 8 hour day. 

Trust me, we know how lucky we are.

Late Saturday afternoon, as I stood back just super giddy at the way the room came together, I put my arm around him and said 'Aren't you just impressed with how awesome you made this turn out?!' He just shook his head and laughed at me. 

There is still so much to do to make it all come together, but I awoke Sunday morning, ran right to the living room and had one of those "I can't believe this is our house!" moments. Thanks to Dad, I've been fortunate to have quite a few of those. 

Fresh Ideas // Bare Root Pine in Water

I caught a glimpse of this first image right as the holidays were ending last year and for a good part of the following 12 months, thought about the beautiful simplicity achieved by displaying this familiar item in an unexpected way. Even in simplicity there can be drama.  

I've since spotted similar set ups among some of my favorite Scandinavian design blogs and what strikes me most is that this is a living display - one that feels respectful and a bit otherworldly to this SoCal native used to covering every square inch of a heavily flocked tree that seems to dry out the moment I bring it through the door.  There's something calming too about a glimpse of the bare roots still swimming in a vase of cool, clear water. It reminds me that it's not always necessary to fuss this time of year and that there is beauty to be found in even the unfussiest of details. 

clockwise from top: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5

Make This // Floral Pick Centerpiece

With the holiday entertaining season well underway, I wanted to share a quick and easy centerpiece idea that you could put together in a snap - probably with items you already have on hand. I was at my local crafts store the other day and came across some feathered floral picks that I simply had to do something with. I eventually left the store with them in my bag and by the time I pulled back into the driveway, had the idea that I could pair them up with a piece of scrap wood to create a dramatic centerpiece for our Thanksgiving table. 

To recreate a similar centerpiece, simply drill small holes down the center of a piece of 1x1 board, cut to your desired length. You could certainly insert your floral picks at this point and call it done. I took it a couple of steps further by staining the wood and adding some gold leaf into and around a few of the natural grooves in the wood. I finished it off with some spray lacquer to give it a bit of a shine and ensure the gold leaf was held intact.

 

 

I made two on the cheap and both transported well to our holiday celebration. I also had a few sheets of marble paper on hand and while helping to set the table, also whipped up some coordinating napkin rings. The 2" strips were held together with a dot of glue on the backside and added just a little more polish to our dinner table.

 



Design Dilemma // A Windows Update

 

Things have been quite busy since our return from Europe and unfortunately, the blog has suffered a bit of neglect as a result. I'm working at "balance" and not driving myself crazy trying to do it all and as badly as I feel having not posting more regularly, I have been using the additional time gained to get some of those nagging projects done around the house. One of them concerns our west facing living room windows.

 

Recall, I had shared some of our concerns about the irregular shaped window arrangement in a previous post. While managing around that was certainly our most prominent dilemma, it was just one of several we've been facing. In that previous post, I got a couple of comments that made me rethink and expand our original plan a bit.

 

The new plan:

Frame out windows with casing

Paint old aluminum window frames black

Hang rod above new casing and flank with drapery panels

 

We made a decision on the window casing and thanks to Dad, got that installed last week.  But as you all know, one thing leads to another and now I get to reveal the other (embarrassing) dilemma we were looking at solving before we could move on to painting out our frames.

 

Behold, the mirrored tint that came with all of our windows when we bought the house:

 

This is an old snapshot, but one that best illustrates what we saw everyday when the sun went down - our own reflections. Curiously, the tint allowed anyone standing on the outside to see clearly in, but prevented those on the inside from seeing out after dark. We understand why the previous homeowners installed tint. Left naked, our West facing windows certainly heat things up on that side of the house. But the mirrored tint would certainly not have been our choice. Did I mention these babies are also single paned? We had installed blinds on the windows, which hid the tint quite well. But we intend to ditch the blinds and leave the windows themselves undressed. The bottom line: the open, steel frame look we are desiring could not be achieved with the cheap looking mirrored tint still on. 

So while most of you were hitting the malls last Friday, I was tearing off our unsightly tint in preparation for a big paint job we now have scheduled for the coming weekend. It came off in big sheets and took only minutes. I smugly stood back and thought, "well that was easy". But the light coming through the following morning showed me that my work was only half done. The old adhesive was fully baked on and still needed to be removed.

 

Not knowing the best way to go about it, I consulted the guys at Home Depot (who all gave me the side eye, as if to say "don't do it"). I turned to Google and YouTube and in the end, came up with two tools needed for the job: a pack of razor blades and ammonia. So I went at it... for four hours.

 

I got creative and thought "soaking" would expedite removal. It didn't. Patience and frequent blade changing on my scraper were the only ways to tackle. Had we not had single pane windows, I would have attempted to steam. In the end though, I just didn't want to risk cracking them.

 

So that's where we are now - windows cased, stripped and cleaned and now, ready for paint. Next up: we'll attempt to get the steel frame look we've always wanted (until we can install the real thing) with a little paint. We also have a bigger paint job planned for the entire room to help brighten things up a bit and return us to a neutral canvas. Stay tuned for more updates...