Personal Project: Dresser Re-vamp

Well hello there. I hope everyone had a fantastic, summery weekend! I just wrapped up what was by far my busiest week in a looong time, and between sippin' beers at the Oregon BrewFest, gettin' down at both Phantogram and Florence and the Machine, and enjoying a few backyard barbecues - one involving togas, I didn't even have time to watch The Bachelorette finale blogging has been on the back burner. Until now...

One of my best friends, Michelle, is working hard to clean out the was-his, now-theirs home she and her husband share as newlyweds, and since I was smart enough to mention how much I loved a dresser in their basement a while back... it's now going to be mine! The only place it'll fit in my apartment is the kitchen, and I've decided not to question the weirdness of that because I just can't pass up free furniture that has some smidgeon of style.  I will make it work.

what I'm working with

I think the dresser has a lot of potential, so I'm planning on sanding, priming and painting it to create a totally new look. I'm in the brainstorming phase and would love any input on colors, finishes, hardware, and so on and so forth. Thank you in advance :)

A few things I'm trying to keep in mind:

1) Since this piece will be going in my white-walled kitchen, I am leaning towards lighter colors so it'll camouflage itself a bit and not feel like it's taking up the whole space. But maybe it should stand out? Help!

2) I would also like to consider the color palettes throughout my apartment because this dresser may not always be in the kitchen; my "bedroom" is made up of muted florals, my "living room" is a rainbow of colors, heavy on the brights, and my kitchen is so basic that the only thing I might need to consider complementing is the table and chairs which can be seen here. Side note: the blueness of the table is a little intense in that photo - in real life it's much lighter.

3) I already have a lot of paint in the color below (glossy Behr "Malted Milk") and I am obsessed with it, but it happens to be what my bedroom dresser is painted right now and I don't want to walk around with "B-O-R-I-N-G" written on my forehead. Perhaps it could be paired with another color or two?

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Here are some photos I've rounded up for copying ideas....

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So... what in the world do you think I should do with this dresser?

Favorite Bedrooms Friday

Happy Friday everyone! The weekend is HERE.

Now that I'm coming upon the 1-year mark of living in my current studio apartment, I'm on the prowl for a new place, and I'm planning on making the long overdue step-up to an actual one bedroom apartment. Yea! While I love the 1920's character of my studio, not only is it unsuitable for parties (and barely suitable for book club), I can almost throw a rock onto I-5 from my window (and I'm no athlete) and I've had a difficult time embracing the trendy adjective "industrial" as a description for the neighborhood. On the bright side, the backside of the humongous billboard out my window was recently tagged with graffiti, so the view has become a little more interesting.

Luckily, I'm in one of those month-to-month rental situations so I can wait for however long necessary until that perfect new place pops up on Craigslist (I want to beat my 2-years-without-moving record so it needs to be close to perfect). As I daydream about what my new apartment might look like, what better place to start than with this new bedroom I'll be having? Enjoy the photos that caught my eye below and have a fantastic weekend!

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Doesn't look like I want to share a bedroom with a boy anytime soon! ;)



What do you love most about your bedroom?

antiques in da house!

Since I was a kid, I've been familiar with antique furniture and decor thanks to both my parents' interest in collecting it and my grandparents' and great grandparents' homes being filled with it. I knew what a Chippendale chair was before I learned what Chippendales dancers were, so when I heard of the latter I imagined scantily clad men dancing on these formal antique chairs. Even though the visual was very odd, my 9-year old mind didn't doubt the connection for a second.

My current apartment holds a pretty eclectic mix of furniture and decor styles - but I find myself loving antiques now more than ever. It hasn't always been crystal chandeliers and Staffordshire spaniels though; as a child I had quite a love-hate relationship with this old stuff all over our house. There was the solemn portrait of a George Washington-like man whose beady, following eyes kept me from cutting through the living room at night and I slept in a four-poster bed that had a beautiful canopy but also seemed to have its original 19th century mattress. And much to my annoyance (but I totally get it now), I also learned an early respect for furniture: no feet on the sofa, no leaning back in your chair, no drink glasses without a coaster and absolutely no doing homework on the table without something under it! But of course there was the fun part of antiques too: treasure hunting at the Rose Bowl Flea Market during family vacations to California and needing very little imagination to pretend I lived in the same eras as Felicity, Kirsten, Addy, Samantha and Molly. Those were the days, weren't they?

Being a sentimental person by nature, I tend to treasure old things - those passed down through the family and those found at antique fairs and flea markets that have had another life or a special purpose that doesn't make sense anymore. So, I got especially happy when I saw a tour of interior designer Hollie Wood's Charleston, South Carolina home in an Apartment Therapy post. One of the most unique tours I've ever seen, her house is filled to the brim with an incredibly diverse collection of antiques. While this tour may not be a style for most, it's still pretty fascinating to see - you can tell she has a real passion. The interview is fantastic and considering the fact that her dream source includes "Texas flea markets," I was so hyped up that I've already called my mom to tell her I'm making a special trip home in October for my favorite kind of shopping.

 Enjoy the tour, and if you want to check out Hollie's interview and more photos, look here ...

What part of Hollie's home caught your eye the most?

Keep it simple and follow me on Bloglovin'!

a favorite thing: kilim rugs

To some I am a very peculiar girl when it comes to my "must-haves" while looking for a new apartment. No dishwasher? I can live with that, I find washing dishes therapeutic, and besides, the steam's so good for your face! The apartment turns into a sweatbox on warm sunny days? Perfect, I won't have to leave home to do hot yoga!* It's less than 200 square feet? Oh yippee, an excuse to stay in bed all day since it will be my only piece of furniture! It has carpet throughout? Oh. Ummm. Yeaaah. Sorry... I really want hardwood floors. *Insider info: I've never done hot yoga, I'm not that cool. See, I do puns. And I'm convinced I would throw up if I tried it.

Of course, the whole vision of my ideal apartment includes rugs on top of these wonderful hardwood floors, but I'm not quite there yet. Because of their richly colored patterns, allusions to faraway lands and warmth under one's feet, kilims in particular are perpetually on my wish list (because the ones I want are just so dadgum expensive!). One day I hope to have a unique collection of them spread around my house, but as of now I just have one. That I love with all of my heart. So here I am... daydreaming about kilims in my future... enjoy!

I love the layered look, for some reason it reminds me of a hippie commune in the best kind of way. photo source

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I think the orangey rug paired with the blue walls really hits the spot. photo source

Not only is this entire room stunning, but they have two kilims! photo source

Pairing with a flokati seems to be really "in." photo source

Okay there is a great chance that this is not a kilim, because it looks somewhat plush like an Oriental (or pile) rug, rather than the flatweave style that kilims are known for. I'm not sure, but I lust after this little rug, so I wanted to include it regardless! photo source

Wouldn't you agree that the rug pulls this entire room together? photo source

How amazing are those daybeds? Oops, back to the point, I love the stripes in this kilim. 

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Regal, no? I think the kilim rug brings it back down to earth, where it looks best. photo source

Such a fun room made 10x better by that colorful rug. Love. photo source

Can you relate to my need for hardwood floors? What's on your "must-have" list when looking for a new home?

San Francisco in Pictures

Okay so San Francisco was totally awesome.

However, this is the first "vacation" in recent memory where I've gotten home and felt like I needed to immediately start the "don't really try this at home, kids" Master Cleanse diet, acknowledge the fact that my last name is not "Moneybags" and limit myself to Netflix blogging for all future entertainment, and spend some time looking up the symptoms and least expensive remedies for mono on WebMD. Wow what a trip. Thank god it's been a workweek with a random day off in the middle (and for me, half-days every other day heehee) or I may not have survived. And yes, I know I didn't even have to deal with a time zone change - I am just that pathetic. (I think I'm just not used to going 5 days without an afternoon nap. Sorry I'm not sorry I like to take a nap every day.)

We walked, ate, drank, cabbed, ate, trollied, photographed, ate, drank, shopped, ate, biked and ate some more. We ate did A Lot. So, the photos below don't even begin to cover our exploration of "the city," but they show some of the highlights that I happened to capture on camera. 

Some of my closest college pals - ohhh the memories. We traveled from four different cities to meet up in San Francisco. Cheers to the fact that none of these ladies are snorers! Friends 4 Lyfe! :) :) :) 

Chinatown. Classic San Francisco. (And somehow I didn't have a bite of Chinese food the entire trip. Weird and Sad.)

Dolores Park in The Mission District. Love. Just a stroll away from some dang good ice cream and pizza.

Tartine Bakery

The entrance to Tartine (and the end of the line going in to Tartine). I'm a creep, this girl is not my friend.

Another photo from the The Mission. I thought this would turn out to be an interesting shot, so I took it. The giant rainbow flag is pretty awesome.

Clarion Alley. The most amazing collection of street murals I've ever seen. 

At Tyler Florence's Wayfare Tavern, where local cuisine of the early 1900s provides inspiration for the oh-my-god-everything-looks-SO-good menu. And from an interior design perspective - I'm not sure if I've ever been to a restaurant with so much of a stepping-into-another-world (maybe I'm being melodramatic) effect. I think it's the closest I'll ever get to eating on the Titanic.

 The beautiful Wayfare Tavern kitchen where the best halibut of my life came from; served over creamed kale, topped with corn and truffle cream with a side of corn fritters. Seriously, the best halibut of my life.

Some architecture I thought was cool in the Marina. I'd live there.

Annnd more food. My friend and I actually talked about these beer-steamed mussels from Delarosa for days afterward. The whole meal was fantastic, but damn those were some nice mussels... 

Here we are pretending we are Carrie, Charlotte and Samantha having some pastries and lattes at one of our favorite bakeries during the trip, La Boulange. Apparently they were just bought by Starbucks or something and the locals are not happy about it.

And oh, just the Full House houses beyond the park there. NBD. (I may or may not have a dozen hold-out shots on my iPhone of myself with that in the background.)

And the antithesis of our beloved Tanner fam: the iconic Haight-Ashbury intersection. 

Apparently, Oregon has had an influence on me - I loved the vibe of this cafe/hotel/hippie hangout/whatever it is and quickly snapped a picture as my friends told me to hurry the heck up. 

I got really happy when I spotted Bob in the window... 

Another highlight of the trip: Magnolia Pub and Brewery in Haight-Ashbury. I'm the weirdo who wouldn't stop talking about the cloth napkins and oh-so handsome menu. But just look at it! The food and beer were equally impressive.

We are so Portland, ridin' bikes with fanny packs. 

 This is what awaited us on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge and apparently it's where the sun hangs out. It also smelled like eucalyptus trees - my fave. Now, onward, to Sausalito!

Posin' in front of the hills of Sausalito. (Don't look at my hair. Stop! Jk. But riding a bike in full fog for two hours definitely had me reconsidering the whole short hair thing. I was a mess.)

And to wrap it up, a "candid" shot (we think we're so cute) that is not really candid at all. I'm holding out the camera, isn't it obvious? I can't lie to you! 

San Francisco did not disappoint. I had some of the best food of my life, saw both interesting and gorgeous parts of the city, and I got to spend 100 hours straight with the close friends I don't see very often (and somehow we all kept our sanity!). I can't wait to go back, but I think I need to take it down a notch for my next trip and go somewhere that involves hanging out by a body of water and sipping piña coladas. At least then I'll be more likely to fit a nap into the schedule!

Have you been to any of these places in San Francisco??