ONE ROOM CHALLENGE WEEK 2 - BURL, BRASS, CHINOISERIE OH MY!

Grab a drink, preferably glass of wine, or a mojito, or just grab the bottle of tequila because this post is long AF. Catch up on week 1 here. Week 2 of the One Room Challenge has arrived (meaning my husband is ready to cut me off! What! Already!??) And what a wonderful week it has been (I'm fucking exhausted), this challenge is not for the faint of heart folks, its very detail oriented and has a time constraint...basically its a SMART goal (google it). So-lets get to the good stuff!! I've always been pretty clear on my vision of having a burl wood dining table. Of course, my unicorn was a Milo Baughman one but alas, it wasn't meant to be. However, what was meant to be -thanks to my amazingly hilarious dealer friend Mark @Hermanssteelgarage, who knew of my obsessive search and proceeded to send me a listing for this baby, that now sits proudly in my space, behold...

A beautiful, sexy, droooooool worthy, heart palpitations inducing, burl wood parsons dining table made by Jon Stuart in 1977!! I love that the date is on the bottom of the table, this is piece of history right here!! At first it was a no go, since it was over 3 hours away in Philly- so I shed a tear and let it go. But theeeeeen, my amazing and also hilarious BFF Raf @thebeauideal came to my rescue, and picked up the table for for me since he was coming for Easter anyway! YASSSS for design obsessed BFFs who totally get you and your crazy ass ideas!! The table only set me back $300- which was half of the asking price and you really cant even get a basic table this size at target for that price, just saying. Anyway, another little dream came to fruition.  For the chairs, I really wanted Elkins loop chairs, but if you follow my IG @casacavaliere, you know all about that loss, ie., getting outbid 4 times, blood loss, torn pants, possibly calling jacoby and myers, the list goes on..

Again my boo craigslist came to the rescue with a set of 6 Milo Baughamn for Carson's brass chairs upholstered in navy velvet.

I knew I wanted something sculptural, brass, modern with a unique design so these fit the bill perfectly. The price was right at $300 and the upholstery was in perfect condition! Major, major SCORE! I love how they look against the burl wood table! I know when all the other elements in the room are installed this is going to be better than *insert whatever you really love here*..and even better than that! 

I will say time and time again Craigslist is my absolute favorite place to shop. Being that this is NYC, one of the biggest cities in the world with over 8 million people, NYC Craigslist is fan-freakin-tastic! My last 2 Craigslist acquisitions (So far) are these bomb pinch pleated and lined curtain panels in Sanderson and Sons Pagoda River in the blue colorway fabric. They also came with 2 pillows and some extra fabric, and for $300 total, I'm really, really happy with them. I cant wait to see how they'll look against the blush walls!

Already hanging on my shitty rod :)

Lastly, I really didn't think I was going to to find a Chinese screen within the 6 week time frame but again this baby was posted 22 hours before I pounced. It pays to check regularly and sometimes daily when your looking for a specific item. This screen has the most amazing bone inlay design in shades of blush and creams (again, YASSSS!). Its exactly what I was looking for and will be going against the wall behind the dining table and across from the skirted console.

Closeup of the front view

I've also FINALLY found the perfect blush color for the walls. After about 30 samples and much debate, its between these 2 colors- Behrs ¨Peach Kiss" and ¨Sea Salt¨. I actually had to try them a bunch of times because I kept forgetting which was which..oops. Regardless, the room is being painted this weekend and I'm excited AF!! My husband...not so much, but the show must go on!

Left: Peach Kiss   Right: Sea Salt

Left: Peach Kiss   Right: Sea Salt

For the start of my DIY projects, I made a table skirt for the console we have here. Its the mirrored piece you see above that I'm not particularly fond of but the dimensions are perfect. I used this tutorial from Jenny at Little Green Notebook and used the same navy velvet fabric as the chairs, since the owner gave me half a roll that she had left over. I used some of the Pagoda River fabric left over for the inside corners, so they would kind of peek through. I still have to add ribbon and steam it again to get out some wrinkles. I may even do a backup table skirt in a blush color for a monochromatic look if this navy is too dark to contrast across from the screen, but I'm an amateur so don't take my word for it..

My next DIY project is a take on this fabric- Pierre Frey's Leo, to be hand painted on my removable and washable Ikea Ektorp couch cover, cue the tears and moaning and crying if it goes wrong. It may be too ambitious of a project for a novice and hater of DIY like me but..you have to be in it to win it, and if I want something, I will make it happen! 

Just looking at this is giving me hives but...moving on. By the way, if your still reading, you must be on your second glass of wine, fill it up again, were not done....After some heavy duty research, and literal crying since everyone was sold out of this fixture until May (WTF!!), and with recommendations from my IG peeps (thanks yall), I ordered my beloved lighting from Overstock, of all places. It was about $450 estimated to ship on 4/25. I caved and ordered it on 4/8 and today 4/13 its already here!! YASSSSS HUNNNTY!!!

Via

My husband is installing it tonight so we can see if it will fit properly (after much begging and bribing and basically throwing my independent woman persona to the wind). Since this is a pre war building, there are a few issues with lighting. In addition to the hallway light, there is only one overhead light in the very front of the room- in the entry space. From there the rest of the room has some wall framing about a foot or 2 on each side and from the ceiling, meant to separate the space, you can see what I mean back in my first post, with pics of the empty room. My hope is that one of the arms can extend right under that bit of weird wall/ceiling/wtf ever and hang over one part of the couch. And fingers crossed that it doesn't look funny, but we shall see! I also want to add a medallion for super duper cool contrast, but then I would have to paint my ceiling white from that renters beige, and ain't nobody got time for that, and by that I mean I dont think I can talk my husband into doing it. Bummer.

Lastly- I've ordered this pillow and this pillow from Furbish Studio (heaveeeeen) to contribute to that quirky, playful and unexpected vibe I want going on.

To end this novel- and because by now you are surely drunk, were in good shape. Next week Ill share the room in all its painted glory, and the crazy awesome art collection I may take out of the hallway and spread around + possible new additions!! Leave me a comment to let know what you think- drunk texting is welcome and appreciated...

Xx-Nan

Dont forget to check out what everyone else is up to!

Guest ORC