The Cure – Landing Strip and Magazine Purge

I’m participating in Apartment Therapy’s January Cure and blogging about my progress. Here are a few tasks that I completed during week three (and some that I failed to complete). And here’s the first installment in case you missed it. 

Day 9: Create a Landing Strip

First, can I just say that “landing strip” is not the *best* term to describe the place you hang coats and drop your keys. That’s because landing strip already has a definition. And it has nothing to do with home decor. Apartment Therapy, did you Google “landing strip” before you asked us to create one? Did you see the listings for gentlemen’s clubs? Did you see the photos?

Ok, I’m off my soapbox. Here’s the front door. You’re looking at the inner door. We have two. You can see we already have some basics like a coat rack (and a homemade door snake to keep out drafts).

The Cure – Painting, Framing, Dinner Party

Here’s my confession: I am not a dirty person, but I can be messy. I’m really really bad at picking up after myself. It should be so easy. The scissors come out, they make a cut, and then they’re supposed to go back in their drawer. But instead they end up on the dining room table, and then I run off to do something else. Soon the table is hidden under a thick layer of detritus and the bedroom floor is covered in clothes. Sigh. The junk piles up. And then putting it away becomes an actual time-consuming chore.

But people can change, right? (Shhhhhh — they can). As a first step toward change, I decided to join Apartment Therapy’s January Cure. The goal is to get a little more organized. Each day we get a new task. Some are easy (making lists). Some are kind of awful (mopping the floors, organizing files). I haven’t been religious about every single task, but I’ve mostly stuck with the program. Here’s an update on a few of the tasks. (To see the full task list, go here.)

Apartment Therapy’s Room for Color Contest

I entered my green dining room in Apartment Therapy’s Room for Color contest in the “cool” category. (Cool as in color). I’m not gunning to win or anything — my room is not the cutest contestant. But it has been so gratifying to read the nice comments. If you’d like to vote for me, go here.

PS. I totally agree with commenter kwhit9tl. This room is crying for a rug.

PSS. People have some mad talent for using color. This room makes my heart melt. And how fun is this one? I freaking adore that mustard bench. And Natasha’s porch has me green with envy.

Bedroom Reveal

Remember the contest I won . . . the one where I got some help redoing my bedroom. Well here’s the big reveal.

Ta-da!!! See that paint color? That’s Glidden’s Dolphin Grey. I thought it was going to be gray. Nope. It’s totally lavender.

In case you have no idea what I’m talking about, let me give you a little recap. In July, some folks from Apartment Therapy and Glidden showed up to help me make over my bedroom. They brought a film crew to tape the whole process. And Nicole Balch of Making it Lovely played design guru. See the video here!

Very Exciting News

I won an Apartment Therapy contest! That means I got to spend all day yesterday with Nicole Balch from Making it Lovely. She came over to help me redo my bedroom. Yes, Nicole now knows all about the dust bunnies we keep under our bed.

But it wasn’t just Nicole who showed up at 8am, oh no. I had an entire video crew here to capture the transformation, a paint crew to help with the redo, and Anna Hoffman and Chris Phillips from Apartment Therapy. It was crazy amounts of fun and a lot of hard work. (PS. I don’t see an acting career in my future.) (PSS. I’m terrified that I may have made a very unfortunate wardrobe choice. Why did I tuck my shirt in? I NEVER wear it that way. Sigh.)

The swatches. Really ANY of these colors would be an improvement!

The makeover was low budget — we painted, we moved some things around, and Nicole added a few touches of her own. But the room looks COMPLETELY different. The video is going up on Apartment Therapy in August, but until then here’s a tiny sneak peek. I can’t wait to show you the whole space!

Can you guess which color I chose?