Stinkerpants

Our House: Entry

January 4, 2011 in Personal Projects • Our Home

Sometime in 2009 I got the itch to start redecorating.  Unfortunately, our apartment wasn't exactly conducive to redecorating: it was small and we had a crap-ton of stuff to fit in it (our bedroom was split into an office/bedroom and our living room was split into a living room/dining room).  I started dreaming about having a house to decorate, but didn't think I'd get the chance anytime soon.

When Y and I bought our first home - a condo in Oakland - during the very peak of my pregnancy-related nesting, I was thrilled.  As it turns out, I really, really love interior design, and decorating our home has been one of my all-time favorite projects.  I just recently finished taking photos of everything, so I thought I'd share before & after pictures with you guys.  '

I've already shown you Charlie's nursery (my favorite room in the house), so now I'll go back to the beginning (quite literally): the entry.  Although that might seem like a boring area, it was actually my pet project and I love how it turned out!

Okay, so first, the before photos.  As a bit of a background, the condo is a three-bedroom, two-bathroom condo in our ideal neighborhood.  The only way we could afford something like this was because it was a foreclosure, and even then we were very, very lucky.  The only thing on our wish list that we didn't get was a back yard, and for the neighborhood, I am happy to sacrifice that.  But I digress. My point is this: this place was not in good condition when we bought it. Here are the before photos:

Yes, that is a random door in the entry way.  Well, not exactly random; it's the door to our bedroom.  These are the sorts of things you deal with when you buy a foreclosure.

And now for the afters!

The first thing you'll notice is the wallpaper (I hope).  I have been coveting this wallpaper (Julia Rothman's Daydream) ever since I saw a post about it on Apartment Therapy in 2009.  Although I loved the dark blue that they featured, this room gets very little natural light (none at all if the bedroom doors are closed).  I chose the lightest version, then matched the paint for underneath the chair rail.  For some reason, I've always wanted to do a wallpaper-on-the-top-paint-on-the-bottom-chair-rail-thing.  I love it. 

This project was one of the most expensive things we did in the house, and I didn't intend it that way.  I thought I needed two rolls of wallpaper; in fact, I thought that would be more than enough.  Uh, no. As it turns out, I suck at measuring for wallpaper, and ended up having to order two more rolls!  This is very expensive wallpaper, but I'd already started the project and couldn't exactly leave it half-done. 

Check out the wallpaper (and all it's many colors) here at Design Public. You can order it directly from the company that prints it, but I found their customer service to be sorely lacking, and Design Public was fantastic.

My one piece of advice about wallpaper is this: HIRE SOMEONE.  Seriously. Worth every penny.  The woman we hired did an excellent job lining up the design, and if I'd contacted her before I bought the wallpaper, she would have told me I needed twice as much.

Another detail that I love is our mezuzah by Michal Negrin, which I got in Israel.  It's flashy (haha).

The little entry table was my grandmother's, as is the sculpture (she was an artist of many media).  That plant is called a "Cast Iron" plant.  We needed greenery, but I figured anything we got would have to be fake to survive in a dark corner - not so!  This guy is doing just fine.

From the other direction, it's my card catalog (one of two)! It's very, very happy in its new home.  I went a little apeshit with the organization - everything from ear plugs to screwdrivers is organized in there.  Love.  On top is a really cool old sewing box I found at an antiques show.

That's it for the entry! Next comes the Hallway.