Look what was delivered Saturday:
Just look at it:
Another view: 
Other than my washer and dryer, I think this couch is the nicest thing I own. I am so happy with it.
Category: decorating
Tuesday Project Roundup: Public Service Announcement
“Please, if you or anyone you know is thinking about making lined drapes, don’t let them. There’s another way. Get professional help.”
I wish I had heard a PSA like that before I started this project–but at least they’re done now:
Drapery construction is not complicated, which was the source of my hubris initially, but it is just so. much. fabric. to wrangle and feed through the machine evenly. And of course I wanted to line them, so that doubled the fabric to wrangle.
But they are done (I know I said that already; I just can’t believe it) and it’s really nice to have them to close at night:
And with these finished, all the windows in the house are now covered. That only took 2.75 months!
The Unbearable Adultness Of Decorating
I have made some serious purchases for the house lately. I know refrigerators and washers and dryers are serious, but these latest purchases feel more weighty, if only because they’re essentially frivolous. (Bear with me here.)
Remember how I wanted to copy a painting instead of buying real art? Well, the artist has been doing a lot of smaller work lately and I just went for it. Meet “Amber”:
The long view: 
I love “Amber.” I think she needs a frame, but she is gorgeous.
And remember when I wanted to buy a love seat for my old apartment–because a real couch wouldn’t fit–and I found one at Target.com? (That was so long ago that the images got lost when I moved to the new Blogger.) I remember back in 2007 that I worked two jobs to get the $400 to get that foam masterpiece.
Well, things have changed a little, because Monday I ordered this baby:
Made in Virginia to my own specifications, with my own upholstery choice (orange, of course), in six to eight weeks? I kind of can’t believe it. Because I remember working two jobs to get $400. Yes, I was in debt then, but not only am I out of debt now, I bought a house; and lately I just plop down money for non-essentials like real art and real furniture without batting an eye.
Tax returns help with the plopping down of money, of course, but regardless–it just sunk in that I’m not a struggling 20-something anymore. The unbearable adultness, indeed.
Will The Projects Never Cease?
It’s all projects, all the time here at Chez Cat Hair lately. (Idle hands are the devil’s playground, after all.) I didn’t think this should get a spot on a Tuesday Project Roundup because the only skill involved was stapling, but there is fabric—specifically, a yard of Schumacher “Chiang Mai” linen stretched over a frame my dad made.
It’s art!
It hangs on the east wall of the main floor, in what will be the dining area if I ever find a kitchen table. 
I barely had the fabric art hung before I moved on the the NEXT project: Drapes for the main floor. Must stay busy!
Burning Bright, Tangled
Last week I had an idea to search Etsy for “vintage paint by number” and look what that got me:
(I’ll tell Toby it’s a portrait of one of his ancestors.)
And my friend Kara pointed me to the work of Stasia Burrington, where I found this print called “Tangled.” I had to buy it–it has Japanese kites and the artist described it as “about relationships and sticking out your neck.”
So, despite thinking I needed to branch out, I have two more Asian-influenced things to frame now. I might as well embrace it and just call my decorating style “chinoiserie,” I guess.
Tuesday Project Roundup: In Which I Wield A Staple Gun
This week’s projects are all for the sewing room. In the 5-year plan, I want to finish the basement (I use the term “I” loosely) and move the sewing stuff downstairs. But until then, I wanted to get the room a little more done. That meant a table and lamp from IKEA and some fabric projects.
First I got my dad to deliver and cut some Homasote and loan me his staple gun (thanks, Dad!). Then my project supervisor had to approve my plans: 
Then I stretched some fabric over the Homasote and stapled and in about 20 minutes I had a bulletin board. (I still need to get it mounted on the wall–and pin things to it–but this gives you an idea. That’s the new table, too.)
I also made a new polka dotted ironing board cover. I used this tutorial and it worked like a charm:
And here’s one last shot of everything together–the “ironing” view:
Now I just need some real blinds for the rooms upstairs…I guess I can’t make those.
Tuesday Project Roundup: A Deocorating Equation
These 2 items:
plus 1 bedskirt from IKEA add up to this:
That total, when combined with 2 lamps from Home Goods, 1 new headboard, and 1 more IKEA “Rast” chest finished by one’s father, gets you a new total of:
100% FANCY. Oh yeah!
Color!
Here’s what Dorothy Draper* has to say about using color in decorating back in 1939:
Select the loveliest colors you can find–throw them together–and your own taste, resourcefulness and independence will carry you through. Above all, never be afraid of color. As I’ve said before, the day of drab, timid colors is past.
With that said, I am going with white walls in the new place for now. But look at the fabrics I’m considering:
*In this same book (Decorating Is Fun!), Dorothy Draper talks about painting ceilings in a complementary or contrasting shade, a practice that no one I know has ever heard of. As she says, “Just don’t treat [the ceiling] like a stepchild.”