house tour: part 1

Photo by Emily Mulkey Photography

There are exactly 2 ways to give a tour of your home. The Tour of Bragging (oh yes, we commissioned this thing, it's a one-of-a-kind that thing, and this cost an arm and a leg).  Charming.

Then there's the Tour of Apologies. This is my personal favorite. Designers often fall victim to this method because we assume (rightly or not) that everyone expects our houses to look like the cover of Dwell at all times. And maybe some people's do, but mine doesn't. There are 3 reasons for this:

1. Sometimes after a 9 hour shift of designing for everybody else, and then coming home and taking care of the family, I didn't feel super inspired to do it for myself. I was, however, inspired to sit on the couch, watch How I Met Your Mother, and drink whiskey. Or wine. Or both. 
2. Designer's clients (and our tastes) usually have bigger budgets than we do. 
3. And my favorite reason, because we actually live here. And living sometimes means messy. Living also means compromise (like having an ugly baby bouncer seat in your living room when you swore you never would because it buys you 15 minutes of peace in the evenings).  

So my tours are typically filled with a lot of apologies, explanations about future projects, and basically pointing out everything that's wrong with the space. Because I need you to know that it doesn't look this way because I like it, but because I'm too busy/poor/lazy to make it look as beautiful in real life as it is in my head. 

I do intellectually realize that you didn't come to my house with the express intent to criticize or judge (and if you did, you can't come over anymore). I also know that no one is perfect, and nobody holds me to nearly as high of a standard as I hold myself. 

With all of that said, please join me on a tour of my house. I will share with you what some of my plans are to fix up these spaces (apologies), but I will also celebrate what we have been able to accomplish in less than a year, especially since I've been pregnant or with newborn the entire time we've lived here. 

You will undoubtedly notice (because you are not a fool) that some of these photos are amazing and some look like they were taken by a drunk woman holding an infant. Other than the drunk part, you would be correct. My sweet friend Emily of Emily Mulkey Photography was kind enough to take many of these shots for a design book submission we are going after. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

A bit about our (my) style. I love all things mid-century. You'll see a lot of that, both in originals and reproductions. I love pieces with a story. I have many pieces that have belonged to members of our families. I like the mix of old and new and how it makes a house feel more alive. I'm not afraid color, but believe it works best against a neutral canvas. You can't go wrong with the color persimmon. Or indigo. Or chartreuse. Wood is the best, and walnut is king.

Ok, I think you're ready.  On with the tour.

Outside

Here's our 1971 charmer. 'Twas not curb appeal that drew us here, but the neighborhood. We moved from a little 2 bedroom mid-century dream in Dallas proper because of a poor school district and the need for a bit more space. The inside, thankfully, makes up for the lack luster exterior. Beige on beige on beige.

Future projects: wage war against the beige by staining the columns on the porch to help them pop, mulching the beds, planting flowers, and painting the front door and window trim. Hopefully one day paint the brick and siding. 

Front Porch

Our front door is actually not on the front of the house at all. Go figure. It's in our "breezeway" between our house and semi-detached garage (the garage shares a roof with the rest of the house). I love this little spot. It is super handy for sitting to take off muddy shoes or setting down groceries (or a baby) when you need to open the door. Also, it's covered, so we have shelter from pouring rain as we fumble to find our keys. Bench from World Market. Pillow and lantern from Target.

Future projects: find something cool to hang over the bench.

Entryway 

This is not the most glamorous part of the tour, so hang in there with me and I promise, we will get to the pretty stuff.

We lucked out with a big ol' walk in closet in our entry. About a month after Max was born, I was overtaken by an organizational bug and totally reworked this closet (and our entire house), and boy, did it need it. It houses - among other things) - craft supplies, office supplies, coats and other winter paraphernalia, boxes of photos, cleaning supplies, all of our degrees and diplomas (I've heard tales that some weirdos hang those on the walls. Odd.) and my wedding dress. Phew. I'm really happy now that I can actually get to everything. Storage units from Ikea.

We also have this tiny hallway leading to the kitchen that could be considered part of the entry. We unfortunately don't have room for a storage console piece, which would be ideal, but this rail from West Elm (from many years ago. They don't have it anymore. Sorry.), a mirror, and some art does the trick. These are the things we use most often - Henry coats, keys, sunglasses, Stella the Great Dane's leash and collar, and grocery bags.

Future projects: none.  Boom.

Sewing Area

While this isn't exactly it's own room, but a subset of the larger formal living area, I thought it deserved its own section. I love that I have a place where my sewing machine can sit out at all times. It makes me 200 times more likely to actually sew something since I don't have to drag it out of a closet to set it up. I also love this table. It used to sit in the middle of my great aunt Pat's kitchen, 3 doors down from the house I grew up in. After school I would go to her house, play dominoes, and eat cookies at this table. She also loved to sew. She passed away about 14 years ago (feels like yesterday).  Every time I sit down here to work on a project, I think of her.

Future projects: find a chair (right now I just drag one in from the dining room) and find a new home for the office junk.

Formal Living Room

AKA: "the dark."

I'll have to explain that. Whatever genius designed this house in 1971 decided that it would be a great idea to provide no overhead lighting in many of the rooms. Thanks a lot. Since this isn't a room we use day in and day out, we usually don't bother turning the lamps on. We had them on timers for awhile, but then decided it wasn't worth the electricity. If we wanted to use the room, we would turn them on. Hence "the dark."  Henry thinks "the dark" is a magical place to play. Most of his treasure hunts either start or end here. There's a use we never thought we would get out of a formal living room. Pirating.

We never had a formal living space at our old house, but I'm rather enjoying it. No TV. Wireless speakers for streaming music. And access to the wet bar. Score. The blue velvet sofa from West Elm was inspired by my beautiful (inside and out) friend and role model, Sidney. She picked hers up for $200 at Goodwill. 

I wasn't quite so lucky, but still got a great deal. Rug is also from West Elm. Chairs from Room & Board. Bookcases that we've had since our my very first apartment from Target.  And the cute little console below was a vintage find at a thrift shop for about $100. I saw it listed on One Kings Lane last month for $785. I did a happy dance.

Future projects: curtains, small secretary style desk in the corner to hold papers and office junk, hang the awesome white deer head my mother in law got me for Christmas (the drill sitting right there for when the mood catches me), and possibly installing overhead lighting if we ever just have "stupid money" laying around.

Formal Dining Room

Such grown ups with our fancy formal dining room. You know how I didn't get the deal of the century on the blue velvet sofa?  Well the universe made up for it here. We found these walnut mid-century chairs and table for $75 at a yard sale about a week after we moved into our house. Amazing. I reupholstered them in a swanky fabric from my favorite fabric shop, City Craft. The hutch was another good find from Again and Again in Dallas. It's a bit more matchy-matchy than I'd usually go for, but I couldn't pass it up. It houses the china that my Grandpoppy brought back to my Grandmommy from the Vietnam war, and a plate designed by THEE Florence Knoll herself, given to me by a former client. You're right to be jealous.

Future projects: curtains, hang cool mid century plates from my aunt Pat (yep, same one as the sewing table), and a new light fixture.

The Bar 

The room I never knew I'd always wanted. It's pretty fantastic and great for entertaining.  The location is awesome, and it forces people to get out of (my way) the kitchen and use the formal areas to congregate. We saw tons of these while we were house hunting (lots of booze hounds in the 60s and 70s apparently), but most were in weird places. Like IN the kitchen. Seriously, what's the point of that?!

The shelves are an IKEA hack that the hubs and I did a few months back. You can find the tutorial here. I love how they turned out. 

You are now beginning to spot my obsession for glasses, bar ware, and plates. It's a disease. And it's totally hereditary. I blame my Grandmommy and aunt Patti (not the same one as the table, but named after her). They feed my habit, and I love them for it. 

Future projects: replace countertops (the previous homeowner was kind enough to splatter paint ALL over the existing ones when they repainted at some point), replace floors (I smell a DIY project with power tools), paint the cabinets, new cabinet hardware, and hang some new art that we got for Christmas.

Powder Room

 

I LOVE having nothing but a half bath downstairs. It takes literally 5 minutes to clean, and maybe 10 to deep clean, because this bathroom is TINY. It was a boring beige box when we moved in. The nesting bug hit in the weeks before Max was born and I painted the wall Benjamin Moore Hale Navy (we have copious amounts of the gallon left over after painting our bedroom accent wall), added some art (prints of sketches by Andy Warhol), and bought towels in my favorite color - persimmon. The mirror is left over from the old house.

Future projects: replace vanity and light fixture.

Now we're getting to the good stuff. This triangle of greatness is what sold me on the house. I decided I had to have it before I ever walked upstairs. The Living Room/Kitchen/Playroom.

Living Room

Can we have a moment of silent appreciation for the wood wall. This was actually HERE when we bought the house. Incredible. Because it's exactly what I would have DIY'd if I had the time. There's also coordinating wood just opposite this wall under the bar (see below). I discovered that there's wood paneling under there (and in the formal dining, formal living, and powder room. This house must have been something in the 70s). The sofa is from Room & Board. The white chair was an estate sale find that we had reupholstered. TV console from Crate and Barrel. Coffee table from Target. Silver Tolix style bar stools from Overstock.

Photo by Emily Mulkey Photography

The orange chair has quite a story. One of my former clients is Southwest Airlines.  Sidebar - BEST group of people you could ever hope to work with/for. We were doing the initial renovation of their Headquarters back in 2011/2012 and this little chair was covered in a hideous dusty purple fabric, and was destined for the landfill. I saved it from a terrible fate and had it recovered, and BAM. Awesomeness.

Photo by Emily Mulkey Photography

The gallery wall was inspired by one of my favorite Dallas restaurants, Tillman's Roadhouse. They have amazingly tall ceilings and a cascading gallery wall. I always wanted one, and now I have it. 

Yes, all of the pictures are crooked. Yes, I used a level. Yes, I used templates. I don't know what happened, but I'm far too lazy to fix it. 

Opposite the gallery wall is a drawing my dad did many years back. He's an amazing artist. You may have noticed the pattern - creativity runs in the family. That and diabetes. Kidding. Kind of.

Kitchen

The eat in kitchen is nice and open. It overlooks the Living Room (left) and Play Room (straight ahead). We can seat 5 at the kitchen table, and 5 between the two bars. We had Thanksgiving at our place last year 2 weeks after Max was born. We had people at both bars and the kitchen table while we were preparing the food. It was perfect.

Big downside - this is about half of the kitchen cabinets I had at our old house. Remember the part about me being a dish junkie? Yeah, had to make some sacrifices here. And the pantry is kind of dumb. 24" wide and 32" deep. The black hole of Calcutta it is. Did a big re-org of this space, too, back in January and have been able to keep it organized for over a month *pats self on back.*

So far we replaced the oven since it was kind enough to die within a month of us moving in. Don't cry for me, Argentina, because I hated it. At our old place we had this amazing Samsung oven that takes up the space of a single oven, but divides into a double. And it has a warming drawer. And convection baking and roasting. The old oven had 3 settings: bake, broil, off. We didn't even try to have it repaired. 

So long, sucker.

We have also replaced the knobs with these minty beauties from Anthropologie. At $8 each x 23 knobs, they weren't cheap, but I kept repeating to myself "this is cheaper than a remodel. This is cheaper than a remodel" and handed them my credit card. A much less expensive update was hanging some rails for coffee mugs on from Ikea. We had to add a plant because one of the mugs was broken and it looked weird. Don't tell anyone.

So great having an area in the kitchen to eat. This is where we have about 90% of our meals. The chairs I've had since college (knock off Jacobsen chairs) and the table is an original Knoll from the 1960s that we got for a steal at a local consignment store a few years back. The art is actually a scrap piece of French fabric from my Grandmommy.

Future projects: I would love to replace the counters with stone, put in a new backsplash, and replace the cabinets while I'm at it. If someone finds a giant bag of money they don't want, send it my way.

Playroom

Photo by Emily Mulkey Photography

This is the best part of the house. No matter how dreary the day, this room is full of sunshine. It looks out onto the pool (or at least it will when we trim the shrubs back this spring). It has a fireplace for goodness sake! A real, wood burning fireplace. If you've been paying attention, you'll note that this is fireplace #2 in the house. We had exactly none at the old house, and we missed having it like crazy.

This was an addition made in the mid-80s. It sits about 8" below the rest of the house, and because of its location, you generally can't see how messy it is or isn't (but it is) until you are in it. Henry can play there while we are in the kitchen and living room. We can see and hear him, but his junk doesn't have to be everywhere in the house. He still drags it everywhere anyway, but we are working on that.

The smartest thing we did was buy some inexpensive Ikea Expedit storage units for $60 each, turn them on their sides, and fill them with fabric baskets. Sad story- they announced this week that they are discontinuing Expedit. Go stock up now! I had intended to put cushions on them for extra seating, but they are the perfect play height for the boys right now, so I've put that project on the back burner. I will reevaluate when they are older. Buckets are great for kid organization because they can help. Although they aren't labeled, Henry knows which ones hold cars, blocks, and other things and he can sort them himself. Makes my life so much easier.

Easel and side table from Ikea. White chairs from Overstock. Blue rug from West Elm. Green rug from Crate and Barrel (no longer available).

Future projects: somehow insulate this room to make it not 50 degrees in the winter and 90 degrees in the summer. It's essentially a greenhouse. Also, new window coverings.

That concludes part 1 of the tour. Part 2 - the upstairs - will come...I don't know when. I'm exhausted from typing this much. Thanks for joining the tour. And sorry for all the apologies. Yes, I apologized for apologizing. I'll start a support group for chronic apologizers first thing tomorrow.

UPDATE - find the epic conclusion to the house tour here.

Pretty photos by Emily Mulkey Photography

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