Talk me out of it, no, talk me INTO it!

I really wanna do it.  I've been dreaming of it for months.  Pros and Cons lists.   Everyone is doing it. 

What is keeping me up at night? 

I want to remove our upper kitchen cabinets on one wall and put in shelves. 

You're bummed aren't you?  You thought it was some amazing earth shaking idea, sorry.

That's the only pic of that wall I have right now and as you can see there aren't that many cabinets anyways so I wouldn't be losing on storage, I think I'd be gaining.

The blurry "thing" to the right, that's a cabinet as well, and it being gone would REALLY open up the kitchen to the eating nook.

The thing that is keeping me from pulling the trigger is having to pay to have it all done.  I know NOTHING about electrical or demo and honestly, I am just not brave enough to just jump in.  Now, if the cabinets were attached to the wall without a soffit I would try, but I have a feeling once that soffit is attacked dry wall will be necessary.

Another con is that the walls in the kitchen are paneling and I worry it would be a huge cost to tie the existing paneling in with new.

Can you see where I'm going here...cheap, cheap, poor, both of us in school, I worry I'd open a big ol' expensive can of worms.

The other big hurdle is our home was build in the 1950's and I recently saw on the news that demo in homes built prior to 1970 is now specialized and both contractor and home owner can be fined if demo isn't done in a new, safer manner.  I'm assuming this is due to lead.  SO that just adds another $$$ to the whole thing.

I just don't know what to do.  Once I get an idea I can't stop myself.  Estimates are free, might be worth a few phone calls. 

If anyone knows of a good contractor or handy man in the Columbus Ohio area, email me at kat_eyez23@yahoo.com. 

Here's an inspiration picture for you from Pure Style Home.  Serious, Laura has more creativity in one of her nose hairs than I do in my entire fluffy body!

photo: Pure Style Home

Madame Bellom sees all......

I never really decorated for Halloween until last year and only then because I found some things on sale at Michael's.  Every year I add a little more and hope to have enough "stuff" to decorate the entire house and not just the living room. 

As you'll see I lean towards the odd and unusual and not just pumpkins and ghosts.  This year I made a fortune teller's booth where Madame Bellom steals tells your fortune. I hope you enjoy!

Here's Madame Bellom's chair, her raven watching her from the top of the light, her black cat hovering above and her chalice and voodoo doll. 

I used a bouncing ball with glitter in it as my crystal ball, the base is a piece Eric made in school forever ago. The table got a coat of chalkboard paint and a "spell" written on it.

Let Madame Bellom pick your brain..

The dresser's Halloween costume.

Isn't she sweet?

Yowza, maybe not.

Love potion #9

 

Cheese dome made into a cloche to house an old turtle shell, vintage photo and lock.

Found antlers give the impression of bones.

Bleeding candles, super easy to make!

 I sure hope this lovely lady isn't offended that I used her picture as part of a creepy Halloween display.

 Jingle bell spider from last years Country Living Fair.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Lovely Laundry

It's not "done" but it's getting there.  Is anything really ever "done" though?

I'm pretty proud of this room as it's been a LONG time coming.  We worked hard to get the new front loaders and I worked my hump, my lovely lady lumps to the bone to get the room primed and painted and painted and painted before the W&D were delivered.  As if it wasn't enough work to prime and paint knotty pine I was struck down by a virus that made painting rather difficult.  Thankfully I never confused the paint rag for my snot rag. 

I want to apologize for the before pictures, I was too lazy to clean up, but I'm hoping the clutter makes for a better "after" shot.

While I LOVE Uppercase Living it was a PITA to take it down and a rather pitiful excuse for decorating.

Thankfully this room gets great afternoon light.  Our house is a 1950's up and down split so the ground is level with the window ledge. As of now I don't have a curtain up and I'm not sure I will put one up.  I so love the light that comes through and since we have a privacy fence you can't see in this window (not sure it matters if you could considering it's a laundry room. )

 Brass knob was switched out for oil rubbed bronze that I got on sale (almost 1/2 off, thanks to being discontinued) and of course I installed them myself.  Here it looks green thanks to some Frog Tape. In case you're wondering our den is on the other side of this door.

The lovely old W&D.  They worked great still which is surprising since they were both hand me downs from two different family members and both were at least 10 years old.  Don't you love the buckets of dog toys?

 And here she is, the greatest part of the before's.  The hated Booby light.  I hate these lights and they are in EVERY room of our house.  I think they look like huge boobs staring down at you.  Here you can also see the other full bath which will get a coat of the same paints I used in the laundry room.

Now, for the afters...

My beloved laundry cart.  Oh I love you.  Marry me.  We'll run away and fold towels the right way.

Hello Lovers...and thank you for being 20% off with $150 gift card so pretty much a free pedestal (in the form of a new lawnmower for E.)

Close up of the chandy, I decided to leave it as it came to me.  I just couldn't decide on a color. I'm so glad I left it alone.

Found this sweet little lamp at Goodwill for $3.99, including the shade.  The shade is a bit, well, dirty so I'm toying with covering it in sheet music or ribbon. 

 It's plastic, but I love the detail.

 Even dryer sheets can look cute. (Not to mention they perfume the room!)

I love these pictures.  I got them a couple weeks ago at the Granville Antiques Fair.  (Janet it was SO great to see you!)  What I'm not loving is the arrangement.  I just keep rearranging, just using one, using two, etc.  I think I'll put a gallery wall here just using whimsical, silly old prints and photos. 

 I just adore this photo.  I love the expression on the little girls face and the fact it has a dog it in just makes me smile.  Now if it had been a BT I would have been over the moon!

 The dresser is the first piece of furniture I bought.  I got it at Salvation Army my senior year, I only paid $20.00 and haven't touched it since.  NO paint, NO new hardware, in my eyes, it's perfect as it is.

 Well there she is.  I'm thrilled with how it all turned out so far!


I wanted to add, I just emailed the gentleman I bought the chandy from to show him the pictures of it's new home.  To me, that's perfectly normal.  I mean, I'd want to know she got a good home and is being taken care of, wouldn't you?

Yes, I'm just that odd.

I took an electrician's virginity.

It's true.  I stole his innocence and I liked it.  I paid him for it too.

What the hell am I talking about?  I had the chandelier installed in the laundry room last week and was informed by the electrician (with 25 years experience) that this was the first chandelier he's installed in a laundry room.  I was SHOCKED.  Obviously his customers don't read blogs. 

I was feeling pretty cocky.  I was the first person in Nerk, Ahia to have a chandelier in their laundry room, na-na-na-boo-boo.  I was setting the home decor curve, I was the Alpha, the bar had been set.

Then, he said it.  It broke my heart, it crushed my spirit.  It pissed me off.

"Well ma'am, I just do what the customer asks for.  I don't have to like it or understand it as long as I'm paid for it."

EXCUSE ME?  What about this doesn't make sense and are you saying you don't like the idea of a dandy little vintage chandy in a laundry room?  Do you realize the deal I got on this baby?  How I covered her with a blanket to keep her warm and safe and to hide her from admirers?  Do you not see my vision? Doesn't it all make sense?
All I could say was "I saw it online."  I might as well said "I carried a watermelon."   He didn't get it.  At all.

It's ok though. 
I get it. 
YOU get it. 
Bloggers get me. 

That's what matters.

It's beginning to look a lot like....

Haloween at Chateau Bellom

Ghoul have to wait for the rest....

The Vintage Exchange

From dream to reality, The Vintage Exchange is born.

Wow, that makes it sound so much more amazing that it really is.

Here are the W's for you...

What is it? 
Well a few weeks ago I was talking to Lisa from Urban Farmhouse and Polly from Sassafras Stuff and we discussed how it would be great to have some sort of vintage Craigslist for those of us in the central Ohio area.  I had been looking for a little vintage ladder for my living room and just happened to comment about it on Lisa's blog.  Polly saw it and said "hey toots, I got you a ladder" (Ok, she didn't say toots) but anyways, the idea was born (and I got my ladder.)

So what's this thingy do?

The list would be to help us find things we were looking for, sell/trade things we wanted to get rid of.

In trying to find ways to build such a site where members could post without passwords to blogs, etc I came up with starting a yahoo group.  This way once you're a member you may post your wants, get-rid-of's, or "hey, if you see a....would you let me know's."

I am not a good name-maker-upper so, The Vintage Exchange is as good as it gets. 

Who can join?
Anyone really, but primarily for those of us in the Central Ohio/Columbus area.  Feel free to join even if you're not from Ohio, but realize unless you'll have to have a seller willing to ship and you be willing to pay shipping if you find something you just can't live without!

Where do I go to join?
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vintageexchange/

I hope to see lots of posts and lots of goodies finding new homes!

If you have any questions, hit me up at everydaybelllom@yahoo.com

Also, feel free to share the link to group with other bloggers, friends, shop owners, etc.  The more who know the more treasures we'll find!

A dandy chandy

I have started the laundry room revamp....dun..dun...dun..dun....dunnnnnnnn

I forgot how much I hate priming, then painting.  I hate it so much I started priming, got 1/2 way through and haven't picked up a paint brush since. 

I have to get my rear in gear though as tonight I'm going to buy our new front load washer and dryer.

Be still my heart.  I have wanted these forever.  Is it inappropriate to lay awake at night thinking about an appliance?

Anyways.

I scored a rockin' deal on the perfect little chandelier this weekend for the laundry room but I'm at a crossroads on what color to paint it.

My lazy butt hasn't taken before pictures of the chandy yet, so here are some pics of ones somewhat like it from Ebay.



Mine is a three arm and it's currently just silver/rust colored. 

My quandary (ain't that a great word?) is what color to paint it.  Let me give you a run down of how the laundry room is set up.  The top half of the wall is paneling and will be painted in Glidden's Muslin White while the bottom of the wall is dry wall and will be painted Sea Salt by Sherwin Williams.

Muslin White on the left, Sea Salt on the right.  Disclaimer, these colors aren't really "real life" to me, the Muslin White is much lighter, just barely an off white.  The Sea Salt is a moody, green-blue, this just looks brown.

The bottom colors, are what Sherwin Williams has as complimentary colors for the Sea Salt.  I was thinking of going with one of those as the chandelier color.  Right now, I'm not loving any of those suggestions and I'm leaning towards turquoise.  Why?  I love it and I think it would play nicely with the Sea Salt (the real color that is.)  Not to mention it's a great laundry room color and would tie in the den color scheme since the laundry room is off the den.

Here's a picture from The Lettered Cottage.  Layla (whom I adore) has used Sea Salt quite a bit in her home, here it looks like a clean but moody blue.  Nothing at all like the above sample is it?

My initial idea for the chandy was white, but with a true white ceiling and the barely off white of the Muslin White I worried it would look weird and I want a punch of color. 

So, what do you all think?  Turquoise, white, yellow? I did think a bright shiny yellow would be fun as well, but there's NO other yellow in that area of the house, I worry it would stick out in a bad way.

What about silver?

Ohhhh, a dark moody grey?

Maybe like this.

Ugh, I have no idea.  I need your input!!