OVERHAULED HISTORIC: GUEST ROOM PROGRESS

Quick update today because we did it! The push these last three days resulted in the first room in Wrightwood to be "done". By "done" I mean nothing messy, sawdusty, smelly, or complicated needs to be done to the room - which is more than I can say for all the other rooms in the house. There were more than a couple mishaps between Monday and today (mayyyybe the stain wasn't exactly the color we wanted...and mayyyybe I fell off a ladder and ended up with a bruise reminiscent of J.J. Watt's leg after his encounter with the Titans last year...mayyyybe I was holding an open can of conditioner in one hand and a paintbrush in the other and wasn't using my hands at all while climbing down). Anywho the end result is what matters here and I'm really proud. While we still need to install baseboards and ceiling trim - the room is more or less ready for furniture and guests - even if staying in the house right now is more like urban camping: the only shower is down the hall in a bathroom with no floor or toilet or sink and the only toilet in the house is downstairs. And there is still no kitchen sink. 

I can't wait to move furniture in and get this room super prettified. *Insert heart-eyes emoji here*. I know you're all dying to know if I spilled that can of wood conditioner when I fell and I'm happy to report that I was able to only spill a tiny bit by not using my arms to break my fall - it's like architecture school where your first concern when you cut yourself making a model isn't whether you were hurt but whether you ruined your model with your blood. Must protect the project at all costs.

GUEST ROOM DREAMS

This week we're tackling the upstairs guest room. In plan not much has changed, but a couple minor changes have resulted in a completely transformed space. We started with a room covered in thin fake wood paneling, acoustical tile ceilings, green shag carpet, and had a door-sized hole in one corner. Let me visually remind you where we started:

When we removed the wood paneling we fell in love with the ship lap walls...so much that we've decided to leave one wall and the ceiling exposed. What seemed like a simple decision  - like most things in the house - has turned into a pretty involved project. The wood had years of glue stains and thousands (thousands) of tiny tacks that were holding the ancient wall paper (oh yeah there was wall paper under the wood paneling) in place. Before we could sand the wood, we needed to remove as many of the tacks as possible (I would say we only managed about 50%). My extremely tenacious mother has spent the last two weeks sanding the wall and the ceiling with one of those little vibrating sander mouses - a belt sander, while faster in theory, would get torn up on the tacks and was useless. After sanding, the tacks were no longer subtle, rusty specks; the rust sanded off and there were now hundreds of tiny points of shiny silver all over the room. Attention to detail is a blessing and a curse y'all. We took a paint brush and painted "rust" back onto every little remaining tack. Even better, we left exposed shiplap in the stairwell, the hall way, and the ceiling in the office so we have a few more opportunities to perfect the process. While super labor intensive the exposed wood has an incredible affect on the room and I've never seen anything quite like it. 

I would love for this guest room to be super simple, warm and layered with textural neutrals. A simple platform bed, a place to sit, and a dresser so guests don't have to live out of a suitcase. Two walls are full of windows letting the morning sun in in all it's glory, so I have a feeling blackout shades will be nessecary as well. I'm looking for a creative solution to side lamps - I'm liking the idea of a pendant hanging from the ceiling or maybe something with an arm - windows will be behind the headboard, limiting what we can do with sconces. Aside from the dream of constantly refreshed bouquets of flowers, thats about it. 

If everything goes according to plan over the next two days, you will be able to tune in Wednesday and see the guest room in all it's renovated glory. No furniture yet, but refinished floors, painted walls, and that painstakingly (& lovingly) restored exposed ship lap. I feel like I've said it before about other rooms but I think this will be the first, officially, finished room at Wrightwood! I'll start accepting applications now for the honor of "first guest". ;)

BAYLOR BEARS DINING ROOM

WOW, this post just didn't want to be made! After so many PAWsitively unBEARable technical difficulties I thought I was going to be SIC ('em). I wanted to do a Baylor Bears nursery, but I also thought that would be a little bit of a cop out. Teddy bears and cute baby bear artwork. I also like to make too much work for myself. So sit back and relax with a Dr. Pepper and check out this modern-rustic Baylor Bears dining room - where you can eat your tortillas instead of throwing them off a bridge*.

1. Maybe it's cheating to have artwork directly depicting the schools' mascots - but I couldn't pass up these awesome geometric bear prints from Etsy artist Yolanda from Tiny Kiwi Prints. They really fit the theme of Modern Rustic and they're quirky and cute (she's got TONS of other animals too - I think these prints are just so good!) I would name the one on the left after RGIII.

2. Who doesn't love a brass sputnik chandelier? I know I've been dying to use one in real life for a while now and this one from Lambert & Fils, a Montreal based lighting company, really fit the bill. I wanted to bring in that Baylor Gold in details throughout the space and this one has huge impact. I would love to see a vintage medallion on the ceiling with this guy hanging down.

3. This skinny console table from Crate & Barrel is a great, minimalist approach to a sideboard. You can keep linens and a few key serving dishes on the lower shelf and the upper shelf is perfect for a curated bar filled with all your classy gameday drinking needs. 

4. I think these black dining chairs, also from Crate & Barrel, strike a balance between traditional and modern and the radiating lines created by the chair backs bring energy and movement to the room. I like the idea of using black as an anchor for  the space. Keeps the more modern flourishes grounded.

5. This dining table was quite a find. The steel legs are extraordinary and the raw, rustic looking top hints at a farmhouse table while keeping things clean. What I can tell from the website is that a cute German man named Philipp needed an awesome table and couldn't find one - and so he made one - which is the best way to solve a problem don't you think? Check out the website because now he makes other really beautiful things too and he's going to start shipping to the US next year. 

6. AH heres that Baylor Green! I really like the warm mossiness this particular shade of green has. It's earthy and rich and I think a settee at a dining table instead of a couple of chairs is really really interesting and comfortable! Velvet couches are to die for and this Jonathan Adler piece is pretty darn great. 

7. Since this room would obviously have beautiful, reclaimed, wide plank wood floors you need a rug to warm things up and ground your dining set. This killim from West Elm is neutral with just enough of a geometric pattern to reference back to the bear art and  the angular legs on the dining table. AND since this is a pretend room we can pretend all your game-watching friends will never ever spill wine or barbecue sauce on this rug. Ever.

8. Finally I threw in this serving dish for two reasons: one being that I've had it pinned to my "Wishlist" board for ages because look at it and two because when you Bear alums look at it you can think back on wonderful times running with the golden Baylor Line - see what I did there? Eh? Eh?

Add some gold flatware, white dishes, and some Mark & Graham linens embroidered with the only monogram that matters to you (B-U) and I think any ex-Waco-ite would be more than happy here.

So that's football post #2!  I'm realizing the challenge I set for myself is hard enough just working within the parameters of a school's colors, mascots, and traditions (special shout out to Siobhan for setting me along the right path with Baylor). I would love to learn more about people making awesome stuff in those cities as well, but man that was a tough one. This weeks room features some wonderful pieces from designers I admire and a few I found while looking for pieces along the way, but this time nothing from the great state of Texas. Tune in next week for my first out-of-state team tribute - and I'm still not totally decided on which teams I'm going to feature so let me know why your alma mater should be next!

*apparently there is a Baylor tradition where they throw perfectly good tortillas off of a bridge. I would love to hear why any self respecting Texan would do such a thing to a perfectly good future breakfast taco. Did you go to Baylor? Can you explain?