Mar 8

Impulse Rug Purcase and Design*Sponge Feature!

I’m one of those people that shops online, then goes to the store to check out an item, then I try to find it for less on amazon/craigslist/ebay—a tactic that is successful 85% of the time. I usually devote way too much time considering all options before pulling the trigger on a purchase. I’ve been described by many as “extremely picky” and “super frugal.”  Needless to say, I am NOT am impulse buyer.

Last time Aaron and I were in Los Angeles, we went to the Rose Bowl flea market for the first time. We got there right as it opened and it was already crowded. Within an hour, it was jam packed with aggressive hunters like myself. I intended to  window shop only—we lived 3,000 miles away, so the idea of schlepping anything back home seemed like too much of a hassle. I was also skeptical that I’d find anything that was truly a bargain, because there was so much hype surrounding that flea market so surely, their prices would reflect that.

And then I saw a vendor selling the most beautiful rugs ever. From runners to rugs to poufs, I wanted to buy EVERYTHING (which is unusual for me.) I knew that an 8 x 10 kilim rug with a nice modern pattern is almost always $500+, I almost didn’t bother asking for the price because I didn’t anticipate dropping that kind of money on something I didn’t really need. When the vendor told me that he was selling the beauty below for $180 I tried to contain my excitement and I pulled Aaron to the side. “That’s a really good deal… OMG. I feel like I should get it. Should I get it? It could look so great in the room. I love it. Ugh. It’s so great.” He nodded in agreement. So I scampered to the ATM and made it mine. When I got home, I noticed a price tag pinned to the bottom that said $2200.  I KNEW IT! This vendor probably sells the same rugs at boutiques for 10x the price.

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Fast forward a few months… Design*Sponge recently asked their readers to tag pictures of their fabulous rugs with #dsnicerug. For the first time in my life, I owned a nice rug! As a recent Instagram junkie, I felt the need to show off my wooly friend. To my surprise, they re-grammed my picture and posted it on their website! Soon after, Amy, an editor at D*S emailed me to ask if she could interview me for the blog. Then this happened!

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Anyway, bottom line is that I never thought making an impulse rug purchase would lead to Instagram networking, which would lead to press opportunities! Sometimes I wonder if I’m spending an unreasonably amount of time and money tweaking my apartment, so when stuff like this happens, it makes me feel like I should just keep doing what I love and one way or another it will pay off.

Posted by Jen at 9:38 am — 3 comments
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Feb 24

A Fabric Wall in my Bedroom.

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As most of you know, I lived in a teeny tiny bedroom for 6 years. My apartment has one big room and one small room and I decided early on that it made sense for me to take the small room because I travel a lot for work. It turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made—my fancy tiny bedroom received quite a bit of press, I saved money, and I met wonderful roommates along the way.

When my beau moved in with me, we decided to migrate over the big room and use the small room as a home office/guest room. As much as I loved my last roommate, Katie’s room, (which Andrea and I made over years ago), I was excited to decorate and experiment with some new styles and techniques.

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Goodbye triangles! (I still love them, but it’s time for a new look.) First things first, I painted the room a light warm grey called Collingwood by Benjamin Moore. This is one of my all time favorite neutral colors. I used it years ago in my client, Sarah’s house, and I mentally bookmarked it as  color I’d like to use in my own room some day. You can’t really tell in these pictures, but the ceiling is kind of lumpy from being patched so many times, so the line between the wall and the ceiling is not straight. It was driving me nuts, so I painted the ceiling Collingwood as well. This made a HUGE difference! It really de-emphasized the imperfect ceiling.

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After painting the entire room, the dark grey fireplace mantle felt too heavy. Something about the IKEA shelf on the left and the black dresser on the right just wasn’t sitting right with me. The room felt off balance because there was very little furniture on the other side to balance out the 3 dark pieces. If the mantle wasn’t going to be grey, the next logical option was white. That didn’t feel right either because white mantles are pretty, but a little too preppy for the look I was trying to achieve. I wasn’t sure if black-white-black would look too contrasty. After hemming and hawing for hours and auditioning every paint color that I had in my utility closet, I finally decided to custom mix a color.

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I mixed 2 parts Collingwood with 1 part white, and created this really nice light grey. I’m really happy with the way it turned out—the fireplace stands out from the wall, but it’s not a focal point that is screaming for attention. After the fireplace was painted light grey, the square in the middle (that was sealed up and smeared with concrete at some point) started to look naked, so I used the same technique—mixing Collingwood with a squirt of black— to make another custom color just for the center. Overall this wall was looking pretty swell, and any normal person would have just slapped a mirror on there and called it a day. But NOOO…I just HAD to do something zany to the wall. I guess I was used to seeing the triangles there, and without them, it looked a little lackluster. I love high impact wall treatments, like this one and I sometimes get the itch to try out new techniques, just so I can say that I did, so I started looking for a pattern that would go with the “Nate Berkus on a budget” look that I was going for. This involved another afternoon of hemming and hawing. My internal dialogue went something like this: Should I paint something? Should I use fabric? Should I used mud cloth? Is that too ethnic? Are triangles too trendy? Is this pattern going to take 90 hours to paint? Ugh. Sometimes I annoy myself. You know what also annoys me? My bad iphone photos of this project.

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I found this curtain panel on Crate and Barrel’s website, and it seemed to fit the bill: not colorful, not too girly, interesting but not indicative of any particular style or period. I went to scope it out at their uptown location and decided that for $44 it was worth a shot.

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I heard somewhere that you can use liquid starch to adhere fabric to walls. Some people use this as a substitute for wallpaper because starched fabric is completely removable. I’d been dying to try this for years, so as soon as I got the fabric, I was really excited to start, and never thought in a million years that it would be nearly impossible to find liquid starch in this city! I went to the drug store, the grocery store, Target, and 3 bodegas and had no luck. I finally just picked up 2 cans of spray starch and figured if I saturated the fabric, it would be just fine. I was wrong. My first pass at this project SUCKED. No matter how much spray starch I used, the fabric wouldn’t stick, so there were spots that were bubbling or wrinkling. My boyfriend came home in the middle of my project and had to console me because I was pouting about my botched mission. I decided to leave it up and sleep on it, hoping that it would miraculously look perfect in the morning.

It didn’t. It still looked crappy. The next day, I ventured out and searched 5 more bodegas and FINALLY found a bottle of liquid starch. I scampered home, ripped the wrinkly fabric off the wall (it came off clean!) and dunked the whole thing in a bucket of liquid starch. Let me tell ya, that made all the difference. The rest of the project went relatively smoothly.

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Guys, I got SO lucky with this curtain panel. I literally had 2 centimeters left when I was done. The panel was 4′ wide and my wall was 4′ tall. I actually had to take out the hem on the edge so there wouldn’t be a bulky bump and so I’d have just a bit more leeway with the positioning. After I smoothed the fabric onto the upper part, I cut the scrap in half and put one on each side of the fireplace, which made it look a lot more balanced.

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Oh, I also spray painted the ceiling fan. It was REALLY ugly, but it does provide a nice breeze in the summer. One thing that sucks about living in a city that has “real winter,” is that you can’t do projects outside. Spray painting indoors is basically the worst idea ever, but I’m impatient and didn’t want to wait till summer so I just did it in the room. I know, I know…loss of brain cells. I should know better . I took this opportunity to try out a new product: Killz odorless primer.   While it is far from “odorless,” it is substantially less horrible smelling than regular spray primer. It goes on super smooth and opaque and the smell dissipates faster than with most sprays, so I’m going to give it my stamp of approval.

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I was stoked to discover that the backs of the blades were plain, so I took the hardware off each one and flipped the blade over and sprayed the back side. The picture above left is after just one coat of paint. Pretty impressive, Kilz! I taped around the ceiling mounted portion and sprayed it while standing on a chair. My handy bf helped me re-assemble it.

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Well there she is! You can really see how wavy the ceiling line is and how lumpy the fireplace is, but it honestly doesn’t really bother me that much. I’ve never lived in a room this big and nice, so I’m happy to embrace this 115 year old building, lumps and all!

Posted by Jen at 8:00 pm — 5 comments
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Feb 8

Design on a Dime: Frameless Framed Art.

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As a set designer and general interior design junkie, I spend a good chunk of my life thinking of ways to fill up wall space with thoughtfully curated stuff that’s nice to look at. I love a good gallery wall as much as the next civilian but everyone knows that obtaining the art itself is only half the battle (and half the expense). Then you have to deal with frames which is a pain in the a** and often very expensive. Fortunately the Swedes blessed us with IKEA, where you can get decent medium sized frame for $20, but for once in my life, I said to myself “Jen. STEP AWAY FROM THE IKEA.”

I’m in the process of gathering furniture and decor for Natasha’s apartment makeover. Our Society 6 prints showed up in the mail a few days ago, and I’m really happy with them! They’re printed on really good paper, so the colors are extra vibrant. I needed to frame them somehow, but for some reason, I wasn’t in the mood to buy boring store-bought frames (most of the pieces were non-standard sizes, so it would have been a headache to find the right frames anyway), and custom frames were out of the budget. Natasha has a Banksy print on canvas that’s hanging on the brick wall behind her sofa, and I like the simplicity of it. No frame, no fuss. Just a rectangle floating on a brick backdrop. That inspired me to treat these prints more canvases by making wood panels for each of them.

7 simple steps to making wood panels:

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1) I Bought 1×2 clear pine and cut each piece to size using a miter saw. I made sure my outside measurements were 1/4″ smaller than the actual print so when I mounted them, I would have some wiggle room. I used a little glue and a nail gun to secure them together. This was the first time I used frame clamps and they were awesome!

2) Just for a little variation, I made 2 of the frames deeper (with the 1×2 wood on it’s side) and 2 of the frames more shallow (with the 1×2 wood laying flat). Then Aaron cut 1/8″ masonaite boards to size and I fastened those with a little glue and nails as well (not pictured, sorry!)

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3) I carefully painted the frames, but chose not to paint the edges of the masonite. I kind of liked the brown edge of the board. Each frame was painted with 2 coats.

4) I trimmed some of the excess paper off of the prints, only leaving about 1/8″ white border so I would have something to grab onto while I was gluing them down.

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5) I took the prints into the hall, put them on a clean surface, and gave them a good even coat of Super 77 spray adhesive. If you try this, make sure you use a new clean surface every time.

6) I carefully placed the print on the board and smoothed it out. It was pretty easy because the paper was thick, but if you’re doing this with a thin paper, it’s probably better to have a friend help you by holding up one side while you place the other.

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7) Lastly, I just flipped the whole thing over and trimmed the excess paper.

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And that’s it! It only cost me $20 for the lumber. Everything else I had lying around the house. The prints were about $150 total, which ain’t bad. I think they’ll add a lot to the space. Here are the prints that I chose for Natasha:

Pinky Promise by Emily Rickard

Chevron Flora II by Bianca Green

MEOW by Wesley Bird

Lions and Bears Party by Jenny Liz Rome

For this grouping, I did a mockup of the prints in photoshop and ordered them after I was sure I’d like the way they looked together. After I received them, I realized that there are definitely reoccurring motifs. 2 of the prints are black and white. Two contain pink. Two contain cats. Two contain triangular points.

I love that Society 6 has a ridiculously huge selection so if you want to do a grouping of camels or sunsets or botanicals or whatever, you have a ton of options to choose from.  A lot of people ask me for my opinion on whether or not art matches (either their decor or other art in the room). There are a few schools of thought here. The first is: choose whatever you like. If it doesn’t match, oh well. The second is: find colors, shapes, and subject matter that are similar. This is the method that I use. It sounds really simple, but it’s surprisingly difficult to strike that balance where your pieces coordinate but they’re not so similar that they clash…if that makes any sense. These days I’m trying to be a little more relaxed when I’m decorating and styling. I want to be a little more open to things that look weird together, but in a good way. Maybe next time I’ll do a post about stuff that looks good together but doesn’t match at all.

Anyway, frames are done. Dining chairs are in. Bar cart is being gold leafed this week. The rug was ordered but mistakenly shipped to Chicago (sigh, long story). More pictures and projects from Natasha’s makeover to come!

Posted by Jen at 7:47 pm — comment
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Feb 2

New Painting in my Bedroom.

I have a ton of wall space over my desk so I decided to dust off the ol’ paint brushes and make something really high impact to eat up the space. The canvas is 36″ x 48″ and it was only $65 at the Blick canvas sale. Aaron made me a skinny frame, which I love because the canvas “floats” inside the frame and it looks high end and fancy. I really enjoyed making this so I went back to Blick and bought 20 canvases (buy 20, save 70%!) I know… 20 canvases sounds nuts, but here’s the secret: if you buy 5 big canvases, you can buy 15 teeny tiny canvases which come out to $1.28 each and that drives the price of your big canvases way down. You’re welcome! Now I need to not be a loser and actually paint these canvases rather than let them sit around for 3 years which is what I did the last time I went to the Blick sale.

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Posted by Jen at 1:24 pm — 3 comments
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Jan 21

A Pretty Apartment 14 Years in the Making.

NH_moodboardpin it!I’ve never been particularly academic ­— much to my parents’ chagrin. I’ve received awards for perfect attendance at school, but even though I was physically present each and every day, I was usually chatting, doodling, or passing notes in class. Sorry mom and dad. I knew better. I just had the attention span of a fly…except when it came to art class where I unapologetically kicked ass.

I sat behind Natasha in my high school physics class. We would get to class a few minutes early and share flaming hot Cheetos and gossip. We probably laughed too loudly and talked a lot about eyeliner and hairstyles. I’ve always been pretty good at manipulating materials — hair being one of them. Every time there was a school formal, I would do elaborate up-dos for 10 girls in a row and make $350 in a night. I seriously thought I was rich.

In high school Natasha was dating some guy who would take her out on semi-fancy dates (for a 17 year old) and we got into this routine where every Friday I would do her hair before date night. That was our “thing”.

01pin it!We didn’t hang out that much outside of school, so when I shipped off to university in Irvine and she to San Francisco, we lost touch. She was busy attending sorority soirees and developing a taste for designer shoes and Michael Buble. Meanwhile, I was busy being an art freak, designing flyers for hip hop parties, and developing a taste for fine interiors but not for Michael Buble.

Fast forward a half decade — I get an email from her saying that she’s quitting her corporate job and moving to NYC! We reconnected and surprisingly, I have not braided her hair a single time.

02pin it!However, Natasha eventually started her own PR business and I helped her design her website and business cards.

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I decorated her office.

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I Designed her engagement party invites. But somehow I have never decorated her apartment…until now.

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05pin it! Plainly stated: girlfriend needs help. The apartment has great bones — it’s a charming 1 bedroom right off Central Park with a storage loft and beautiful brick walls, but everything else needs some serious love. I feel the need to save this apartment. It’s just like saving animals…except not at all. But still.

Here’s the deal: Natasha is getting married this fall so she’s on a super super tight budget. I’m totally down for budget decorating but this one is going to be tricky because she really needs to purge a bunch of her old stuff to make room for new things that will make her home more functional.  The green couch cover HAS to go. We need way more concealed storage. I need to display her momentos in a way that doesn’t make them look like clutter.

This is the plan: everything black, grey, white, pink, or gold. They already have some quirky accessories I can work with so I’m going to keep it fun and light and bright (to combat that dark brick).  I’m going to donate my services to the cause as an early wedding present and it’s going to be super cute. This is all going down in the next couple weeks and there’s going to be gold leafing involved. Stay tuned!

IMG_7886pin it!PS, if you’re wondering “Why is this lady obsessed with cats?” it’s because her cat, thoughtfully named Kitty, is TOOOO cute.

Posted by Jen at 6:55 pm — 5 comments
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