Before and After – Sue At Home

House Update: New Batik Pillows and West Elm Lamp

May 20, 2014May 20, 2014 Sue Erneta

Ah, how I love a batik pillow! Remember back when I told you about those Amber Interiors ones that I was dying over? And remember how they were crazy expensive?

Well, my Etsy substitutes from OrientalTribe11 arrived and They. Are. Perfect!

They took a little while to get here–I mean, they were coming from Thailand after all–but they are as beautiful as I imagined. I was a little afraid how the navy and white batik would work with my teal walls but I think it’s divine. And obviously, I love the neon pink and orange accents. (Apologies for the couch that looks like a saggy elephant’s ass. I promise that what it lacks in appearance, it makes up for in comfort.)

They’re made really well. I’ve had them for awhile now and I’m so happy with how they look. Check out the detail:

The room looks so much better with some more streamlined pillows. Remember the hot mess of pillows I had before?

Sidebar: And see the change in that doorway to the right? I painted the hideous wood paneling in the playroom (including that stairwell that leads to it) so I’ll be telling you all about that change soon. (And yes, that means that I totally broke my resolution!)

And looky here, another change!

Did you spot it in the foyer behind the couch?

We got a new lamp from West Elm and I am loving it!

It’s the Geodesic Table Lamp and I love the openess of the brassy base. Plus that tan lampshade is so warm and sophisticated. I feel like it’s the look I was hoping for when I got the Nate Berkus for Target one, but this one…well, you get what you pay for. (No knock to Nate of course, his is still damn good for a $50 lamp!)

It’s coming together one little bit at a time.

Sue at Home

P.S. I feel like whenever I show the living room, the paint color never reads right on camera. So, here’s a swatch of the real color: Benjamin Moore Teal.

Before and After, Decor, Family, Home, My house

Hallway Gallery and Runner

May 12, 2014June 11, 2020 Sue Erneta

hallway 006 When you last met my hallway…what? You’ve never met my hallway? Oh the shame. Let’s get better aquainted.

Back in 2010 when we moved in, our hallway had brown wall-to-wall carpet (yikes) and poorly textured creamy walls.

It only took about a month before we ripped out the carpet and had the wood floors underneath refinished. We went with a dark stain downstairs but we kept the hall pale to go with the floors in the bedrooms. Check out 2 year old Lily showing off the pretty hardwood back before I fixed the stair risers. (Doesn’t she kind of look like a ghost? Boo!)

A few months after that, Pablo attempted to skim coat the walls (I’ll give him an A for effort) and we painted the walls in Benjamin Moore Coventry Gray with Cloud White trim.

That was three years ago and everyday since then I’ve had the intention of hanging some extended family pics up there. And now it’s done! Well, not done. More like a decent start. (You’ll also notice I’ve sort of learned how to use my camera too.)

I shopped for the runner for a loooooong time. That problem with my expensive taste and limited budget got in the way but eventually I fell for a pretty kelly green wool flat weave rug in a Jaipur catalog my mom had borrowed from a local decorator. I was contemplating getting one (and even paying the expensive-for-me $200+ price) when this beauty popped up on One Kings Lane for only $149. I had to go for it. Lucky for you OKL has it right now, too (for a few bucks more).

The next step was the frames and since you know me, you can imagine I tried to go inexpensive with some of the offerings at Target, Kohls and Ikea. But they all just looked too cheap to me so I ended up getting most of them at Pottery Barn. (I can’t say enough nice things about their gallery frames. Just go buy them and thank me later.)

As for the pictures themselves, the focus is on extended family: the girls’ cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. (I felt I had thoroughly covered the 4 of the us in our dining room photo wall so it was time to spread the love.) You’ll notice most of them are super casual.

One of the favorites is this picture from Thanksgiving a few years ago. It’s the last time we had my family and Pablo’s family together so it’s got a lot of VIPs in it.

The walls look a little sparse for now but the goal is to fill it up top to bottom. Something more like this.

It’s coming together but don’t look up! If you do you’ll see cracked and peeling paint and one of the noisiest flourescent lights in history.

Take a closer look at that texture.

We’re bringing some pros in soon to fix it up and I’ve got plans to replace the light, too. I’ll keep you posted.

And the view from the bedrooms needs a little love too. See that space above the stairs?

I’d love to put something inspirational there so we see if right before we head out for the day. Ya know, something like this:

Maybe we could even jump and smack it like the Notre Dame football team does with their motivational sign…?

So it’s still a work in progress but I’m happy with the changes we’ve made. It sure is nice to see Mimi, Papa, Uncle Steve, Auntie, Jonathan, Bobe, Grandpa Steve, Uncle Francis, Aunt Nicole, Baylee, Arianna, Carter, Aunt Paola, Aunt Alex, Eliseo, and Weli everday.

Sue at Home

Before and After, Decor, Home, My house

Suzani Ottoman Goodness

September 5, 2013September 6, 2013 Sue Erneta

Meet our ottoman.

It came to us at a price of zero dollars which is my favorite kind of price. (We were lucky enough to snatch it up when my parents moved on to bigger and better things.) But unfortunately, I wasn’t that into the washed red cotton skirted slipcover that came with it so it sat naked (slipcoverless) in our den for longer then I care to admit.

I considered a million different options of how to cover it. A slipcover? DIY upholstery? Professional upholstery? And most importantly, what fabric?

Perhaps a suzani?

I had fallen in love with vintage suzani textiles ever since I stayed at the Colony Palms hotel in Palm Springs. “Delicious” designer Martyn Lawrence Bullard (of Million Dollar Decorators fame) plastered the hotel with suzanis–as headboards, in picture frames, as throw pillows and just draped all over everything. (Images via colonypalmshotel.com.)

Pretty fabulous, right?

Then I spotted this image over a year ago on a blog and saved it on Pinterest with the text: “I’m thinking the mid-century man cave needs a little boho printed love. Maybe cover the ottoman in a Suzani?” (Just goes to show how long brewing a makeover can be!) Note: I pinned it from another site who used it without crediting it (booo!) so I just did a little Pin-research to find the original source. It was done by a writer named Kevin Austin from Style at Home. It was originally a coffee table!

But the problem is that this crazy idea of mine was going to go into our den, a.k.a. The Mid Century Man Cave, a.k.a. Pablo’s room. As I’ve mentioned before, he’s generally very agreeable about all my design choices (see proof in I Have a Hot Pink Chair!), but this is “his” sanctuary and he wasn’t fully convinced about how the suzani would work with our Ikea black and white striped rug. Until we saw this:

It’s the home of Amber Lewis of Amber Interiors featured in HGTV magazine. (I seem to be talking about Amber ALL the time lately, like here and here. Is this becoming a serious design crush? I would say so.)

Alas! This was the visual help I needed to convince Pablo but then came the next hurdle…how does one buy a suzani?

I considered lots of different sites and did a bunch of research and ended up finding a REALLY AFFORDABLE one on eBay. I snagged it for only $45 plus $30 shipping. (What? Do you have a cheaper shipping method from Uzbekistan? Yeah, I didn’t think so.) And considering that I looked at some that were well into the hundreds, I think $75 is a fair price to pay for something hand embroidered.

Looks pretty similar to this one on Wisteria for $900, dontcha think? (It’s no longer available. Does that mean some moron actually bought it?)

A few weeks later, we found this little bundle of joy on our doorstep.

It was sewn closed and dotted with some kind of brown doody-looking substance that had hardened to seal it up.

But inside it’s unique wrapping (and two protective layers of plastic bags), there it was in all it’s hand-sewn gloriousness.

Look at the detail from the back. It’s stunning!

See that seam going across the upper left corner? That’s because several women in the family will stitch different sections and then they’re joined together later. Don’t worry. You can barely tell from the other side. (But ironically, you can see the seam in the $900 Wisteria one shown above!)

But I was a little sad to see that if I centered the red medallion on the ottoman, I would lose all of that beautiful detail at the edges. So, I considered covering it off-center, like this pic below so I could get at least two of the edges on it. (I now know that was dumb and would have been sacrilegious to my beautiful suzani. Don’t worry. I saw the ere of my ways.) After considering a DIY (I mean, I even had out the staple gun and some scissors), I chickened out and decided to have a pro do it. And I am so glad I did.

ottoman-093

Garwood Interiors knew just what to do to center the medallion and preserve the edges of the suzani. Isn’t it a beaut? (And soooooooo much better than what me and my staple gun would have done!) And he only charged $150. I don’t really know if that’s a lot or a little for work like this but it felt totally worth it to me.

And now she’s sitting in the man cave (the most well lit one in the world) with her new friend the vintage credenza (but that’s another happy story for another day).

I like how the brown embroidery around the red medallion, ties into the brown couch that–until now–had nothing to do with anything else in there.

I know I owe you a lot more pictures of the room. It’s one of the places that I’ve barely shared with you (aside from a peek during the blackout after Sandy when we were dancing in the dark and when we looked at my spray painted chairs) but I promise that some “in progress” pics are coming very soon.

Thanks to my parents (who are celebrating their 48th wedding anniversary today! Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!) for giving us the ottoman. And thanks to you for reading this way-too-long post!

Sue at Home

Before and After, Home, My house

Landscape Before and After Update

June 28, 2013June 11, 2020 Sue Erneta

It’s been a year since we had our brand new shrubs installed so I figured it was a good time for an update, especially since it’s all looking so damn good. Before we look at the leafy prettyness, let’s see how far we’ve come. Here’s the half overgrown, half dead landscaping that we inherited on closing day.

December 2010

Then we ripped everything out.

May 2012

And then in June of last year, we had lots of beauties installed. (Read all about it here.) And as you can see, it was a huge improvement from the overgrown stuff we had before. To think, I was so thrilled with that one blue hydrangea blossom!

June 2012

This spring, I took a few pictures as the shrubs began to wake up from the winter freeze.

April 2013

And finally, let’s take a look at how the whole thing is filling in. (Note: there are pink rose bushes in the middle of each side but some recent storms knocked most of the petals off. I hope we get more soon!)

June 2013

This was the first year (of many, I hope!) that I got to enjoy all the splendor of my weeping cherry in it’s pinktastic glory. (This pic was taken a couple months ago. )

During the spring months, I had a couple pots of ranunculus on the front steps and I was thrilled with them! They just kept blooming and blooming…until one day they just didn’t bloom anymore. It was a quick and sudden death but they were so beautiful up to that point, I would certainly get them again next spring.

The best part of the rainbow is the amazing blue hydrangeas. I’m so thrilled with how they’re blooming. They just keep getting bigger and brighter every day.

And it would be wrong if I didn’t mention that beautiful lawn. It’s like Pablo’s third child. He takes of care of it obsessively.

I’ll give you an update on the backyard soon but just so you can get an idea of how well his efforts have paid off, check out this comparison on the backyard during our first spring here and the backyard this month.

More on that green carpet goodness soon!

Sue at Home

Before and After, Decor, Home, My house

Spray Painted Thrift Shop Chairs

May 14, 2013June 11, 2020 Sue Erneta

Let’s take a little trip down memory lane, shall we? Back in January I took place in the Young House Love Macklemore Thrift Shop Challenge – with great success if I might say so myself.

thrft-store-challenge-chairs-2

I spent my $20 on four busted looking chairs and I had some pretty grand plans for them. Ya know – something like this where mismatched chairs become a cohesive set thanks to some spray paint and some love.

But as I said back then, I was going to have to wait because freezing cold temperatures don’t work with spray painting. So at the first signs of spring, I took to the driveway with my chairs, some sandpaper and lots and lots of spray paint.

You may have noticed that one of the chairs was replaced from the original post. I just found one to be too wimpy. (Keep your eyes peeled – it happens again! Still, the total spent on chairs was under $30.)

Step one was to give each chair a light sanding with fine grade (220) sandpaper. I was using a spray primer first so I didn’t make myself crazy with this step. Just a little roughing up.

Next, I built myself a little area to paint with cardboard boxes and some duct tape. Obviously, I completely underestimated how much the fine mist of paint would travel and my driveway ended getting a little redish but it actually washed right off. (Note that I started with them upside-down first so I had less chance of getting any sticky marks on the parts that show by doing it the other way around.)

As for my spray paint, I went with a three product method: Krylon Primer in Gray, Krylon Gloss in Banner Red, and Krylon Crystal Clear protective coat. I’m a Krylon addict ever since it performed so well in my gold spray paint test.

It took a lot more coats than I anticipated but finally, it started to look red. I think during the process, I wiped out all the Banner Red in the tri-state area. I’m kidding of course but I did have to try 5 or 6 local stores to track down all the paint I needed. After I was done, I think I used a total of 3 cans of primer, 9 cans of color and 3 cans of top coat for the four chairs. I used every Michael’s coupon I could get my hands on and I bought a bunch at my local hardware store so I saved when I could but it definitely ended up costing more for the paint then I ever imagined. Lucky for me, the chairs were cheap!

Here’s a look at three chairs: 1 primed, 1 with a couple coats of color, and 1 all done. Yay for the all done!

Now, before I show you how cute the finished chairs look in our den, let’s take a peek at the sad spot that so badly needed them. Poor little Docksta!

And now…

Now it’s a happy place!

The chairs fit perfectly around the table and add some much needed color to the room. Check out how much better my view is from the kitchen “window”.

I didn’t sand them like crazy so they’re not perfect but I do like the slight glossyness of the finish.

Now that the weather is nicer and this room is no longer freezing, I’m thrilled to get to sit here for lots of lunches and dinners.

And I think the red works so well with lots of other things in the room. (I know this picture doesn’t show much. I promise to take more pictures of this room soon. Really! I promise!)

One thing I will point out is the little vintage Piano Teacher sign I got on Ebay. It was a birthday gift for Pablo. This room is the closest thing he has to a “man cave” so I wanted to add something personal. And since playing the piano is one of his loves, I figured it was fitting. It’s small but we both love it.

So, what do you think? I’m really happy with how they came out. They’ve got a lot more personality than something store bought and they’re a LOT cheaper!

Sue at Home

Before and After, Decor, Home, My house

House Tour: Living Room

March 10, 2013March 10, 2013 Sue Erneta

This is another one of those posts where I’m like, “What? I didn’t write that post yet?”. I mean, I’ve talked about our living room’s gallery wall and pink chair plus every detail of our foyer (which is part of our living room), but I’ve never talked about the living room itself. It’s even been featured on Apartment Therapy and yet I haven’t given you a full tour of the room! So, since I’m sure you’ve been dying to know where I got every last bit of it, here is the full tour and resource list. (And of course a beige-tastic “before” photo to start things off!)

living room 021

Paint: Benjamin Moore Teal

Rug: RugsUSA

Frames: Kohls

Manhattan Map: These Are Things

NYC area art: Aaron Straup Cope from 20×200

Canvas prints: Shutterfly

More detailed info about the gallery wall can be found here.

Media Console (we have two pushed together): CB2

Copper balls: Design Within Reach Annex (read their interesting history here and here)

Apple Bookends: Happy Chic by Jonathan Adler

Woven rag bench: Threshold at Target

Chair: PB Teen with my custom dye job (no longer available at PB Teen so try this one instead)

Je T’aime pillow: Atsuyo et Akiko

Garden stool: Home Goods

Roman shades: Handmade by the former owner. They came with the house!

Arc lamp: CB2

Brass candlesticks: Unique Thrift store (about $2 a piece!)

Coffee Table: old one from Pottery Barn (similar here)

Couch: really old one from Macy’s (similar here)

Pillows: printed on left (Country Lanes via Etsy), Monglian lamb (Pier 1, similar here), printed in middle (Nora Jane via Etsy), velvet (Crate and Barrel, similar here), printed on right (Eleen via Etsy)

Pink cashmere throw: Ann Taylor (Yup, you read that right! It was from a few years ago.)

Lucite Tray: Jonathan Adler

Brass bowl: Nate Berkus for Target (no longer available)

Foyer table: Serena and Lily (Scored for less than $100! Read the story here.)

Lamp: Target base and shade

Chevron bowl: Jayes via One Kings Lane

Runner: Ballard Designs

Mirror: it was my grandma’s :)

Hi letters: Land of Nod with Krylon Metallic Spray Paint (read the tutorial here)

Orange frame: C. Wonder

Brass bowl: Nate Berkus for Target (no longer available)

More about the foyer in these posts: the inspiration, the decorations, the table, and the reveal.

Dining Room and Hallway Paint: Benjamin Moore Coventry Gray

Antique chest: My parents bought it at a neighbor’s yard sale over 20 years ago!

Map: Future Map

Snake tray – Furbish

Skull box – a gift

Brass bunny – Antiques and Collectibles Too (read about where I found him here)

Turquoise vessel – TJ Maxx

Chevron urn – Nate Berkus for Target (no longer available)

Hope you enjoyed the Living Room tour. It sure is a lot more colorful than it used to be!

Check out more House Tour posts here.

Sue at Home

Before and After, Decor, Home, My house

House Tour: Master Bedroom

January 4, 2013June 11, 2020 Sue Erneta

If you feel like you’ve already seen our master bedroom, you’re right. But you see, I realized when I was writing about all the Urban Outfitters stuff in our house that even though I wrote a lot of posts about our master bedroom (8 in total!), I never gave a proper piece-by-piece room tour with resource listings. (Bad blogger!) So, here it is.

master-bedroom-401

Headboard – found in the garbage room of my first apartment about 20 years ago!

White sheets and white pillow cases – Lands’ End

Duvet cover – Lands’ End (No longer available. Similar available…well,nowhere!! Read all about my hunt for it here.)

Bed skirt – JC Penney (No longer available)

Shams – Urban Outfitters (No longer available. Similar here.)

Chevron pillow – Lands’ End (No longer available. Similar here.)

Linen Pillow – Atsuyo et Akiko (I’ve now moved it to my living room where it sits in the pink chair.)

master-bedroom-656

Rug – Urban Outfitters

master-bedroom-446

Nightstands – Pottery Barn (No longer available. Similar here.)

Lamps on Nightstands – Martha Stewart from way back – before the Macy’s & Home Depot lines – when she carried stuff like this on her website. (Similar here.)

master-bedroom-671

Pill-shaped carafe and glass – Jonathan Adler

master-bedroom-426

Printed curtains – Urban Outfitters (No longer available. Similar here.) Find out how I magically lengthened them here.

Black curtain rods – Ikea

White curtains – Ikea (No longer available. Similar here.)

Hidden curtain rod – Home Depot (A genius solution when you want two curtains. Check out the price!)

master-bedroom-089

Vintage dresser – Craigslist

Frames – Pottery Barn

master-bedroom-081

Lucite tray – Home Goods (similar here)

Square Bowl – gift so I don’t have a resource (similar here)

Footed bowl – I had this for so long, I can’t remember where I got it! (similar here)

master-bedroom-001

Dresser – Ikea

For Like Ever poster – Super-Rural

Poster frame – Target

master-bedroom-018

Frame with necklaces – Pottery Barn (I spray painted it black)

Wrapping paper in frame – Old Navy (no longer available)

Black lacquered box – Container Store

Red metallic pig – Daytrip Jr.

It’s still a work in progress (I mean, why would you ever want to STOP decorating?) but it’s come a long way from the bland creamy cream room it once was, huh?

For more posts about our master bedroom, check out these links:

Master Bedroom Inspiration: Olatz Schnabel

The Hunt for Master Bedroom Bedding

DIY: Lengthening our Master Bedroom Curtains

I Will Love This Poster For Like Ever

Jewelry Storage: A Work in Progress

Jewelry Storage: Phase 2

DIY: Quick and Easy Jewelry Display

What’s Wrong With My Bedroom

Sue at Home

Before and After, Decor, Home, My house

I Have a Hot Pink Chair!

September 26, 2012June 11, 2020 Sue Erneta

I have been wanting a hot pink couch or chair for like ever. Remember when I showed you all those dreamy pink pics and told you I was thinking about dying an old slipcover I wasn’t using? Well, I did it!

Here’s the best part: this renovation cost less than $10. That’s right! Ten buckaroos! How, you ask? Well, I already had the chair and a pale pink slipcover. The chair is from PB Teen but unfortunately for you, they don’t make it anymore which I think is a crime to humanity because it’s comfortable, cute and cheap and for quite a while, they were offering slipcovers in different fabrics and patterns. When I got the chair, I picked up three velvet covers: white, bubblegum pink, and pale blue. (What? I figured the chair could be used in other rooms so I wanted to have options! That’s normal to buy three, right? ) Of course, I’ve only ever used the white one.

I decided to use RIT dye in fuschia. The directions called for 1 package of dye for every pound of fabric so I went for three since my slipcover was nearly 3 pounds. I couldn’t find a bucket big enough so grabbed this color-coordinated (!!) storage bin at Home Depot and got to work. First step, fill the bucket with 9 gallons of hot water:

Then I mixed 3 packages of dry dye with 6 cups of hot water and stirred it very well until all the dye dissolved. (Note: it did not stain my measuring cup. Bonus!)

Then I added the mix to the dye bath and stirred. (Please note that I did all this on my deck and I was wearing rubber gloves. They are not kidding about the staining possibilities so take all the warnings seriously! If you don’t believe me, come and ask the few pink dots on my kitchen countertop.)

Before adding the slipcover, I pre-wet the fabric in hot water so the color would penetrate the fabric evenly. (Having the lid to the storage bin was helpful for this step because it gave me something to carry the wet fabric on.)

And then in it went! Next up, I stirred and stirred and stirred for about 25 minutes. If you’ve never pushed a sopping wet pile of velvet around with a paint stick before, I can tell you that you will use muscles you didn’t even know you had. Ouch!

Next up, I rinsed it in the utility sink (which is now pink) in my laundry room. First in warm water, then cooler until it ran clear. This was another special type of muscle torture that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy! Then the scariest part of all – into my beautiful new-ish washer it went! (Don’t worry. The washer came out unscathed.)

I gave it an air-only dry in the dryer and ta-dah! Here is the finished product!

My wise husband (who so kindly signed off on this project before I did it and then called it “awesome” because he knew how excited I was about it) was the one to point out the patterned pillow was a little too much. So, I stole the Je T’aime pillow (similar here) that used to live on our bed. Much better, don’t you think?

I love how the pink looks against the dark teal walls.

The color came out so even. I’m actually mad at myself for being so scared to do this for so long!

I love the way it pops in the room.

Maybe now guests will sit in the chair. They were always kind of scared of it when it was white.

Oh happy day! I have a hot pink chair!

Sue at Home

Disclaimer: Please do not dye anything hot pink in your home without running it by your significant other. I’ve learned that though there are many people who like the looks of hot pink furniture, there are not a lot of people brave enough to go for it. And there are many, many more people who are terrified of it. Thankfully, my husband is comfortable enough in his sexuality to not be so concerned about a little pink in his house. (Though maybe he should because I could possibly love this chair more than I love him. Kidding, honey!)

Before and After, Home, My house

Before and After: New Landscaping

August 20, 2012February 16, 2013 Sue Erneta

When we moved into our house a year and a half ago, we didn’t think much of the shrubs. Since we were coming from a townhouse where we didn’t own the outdoor space (and an NYC apartment before that) we knew very little about things that grow. But after a year of not seeing much life around our house, we knew the shrubs had to go.

Here’s what the landscaping looked like the day we closed on the house. Overgrown in some areas and dead in others. And the only decent shrubs were the prickery ones on either side of the door. It was like saying to our guests, “Welcome to our home. And now we will prick you with our pricker bushes.” And that’s just not my style.

Sure, this picture was taken in the winter but I can assure you, not much popped up in the year that followed. (That is, aside from the huge row of forsythia down the side of the house that blooms beautifully in March each year. You can see them on their way out in the pic below.) So, we decided to rip it all out. And suddenly, it looked better already! You’ll also notice below that we had several of the lower branches on the tree cut off so that we wouldn’t have them hanging down in front of the house.

We worked with a landscaper who recommended trees, shrubs, and flowers based on our laundry list of requests. Even though we knew so little about this stuff, we highly considered DIYing it but I’m really glad we hired a pro. I found that his price was not much more than the shrubs alone would have cost us and if I had added in the truck rental and mulch and the shovels and edgers, it would have been pretty comparable. And I’m sure we would have screwed it up somehow! (Local readers: We used First Class Landscaping right here in town and I highly recommend them. Just ask and I’ll give you Jeremy’s number.)

When they arrived to install everything, it was the morning after my 40th birthday so Pablo and I were in no state to supervise. But luckily, Jeremy and his team did a great job on their own. Here’s everything in place getting ready to be planted. (There were also a few small perennials that were added in around the ones pictured below.)

They did such a great job with everything.

We were just smitten with the edging. (What is it about that? It’s so simple but it just looks so crisp!)

Let’s take one last look at that scary overgrown and half dead “before” shot.

And now – TA DA! – the “after”!

There are still quite a few things I’d like to do to the exterior, like painting the door (glossy black? red? yellow? blue?), installing some new lighting and I might want to paint the shutters too. (They’re charcoal grey now and I think it would look much more better if they were black.) Suggestions welcome!

Have you done any landscaping lately? If so, I want to hear all about it! Let me know in the comments.

Sue at Home

Before and After, Decor, Home, My house

Jewelry Storage: A Work in Progress

August 14, 2012June 11, 2020 Sue Erneta

In our old house, we had an enormous master bathroom where I had enough room for a dresser whose sole purpose was to store my jewelry. Let your head absorb that for a moment. An entire dresser for jewelry! Now, in my small master, there’s barely a dresser top and one drawer for my baubles. Which means that most of them live in bags in the closet. It’s sad, really.

So, my jewelry storage isn’t perfect but it’s working for me…for now. Check it:

The neon orange acrylic tray was a Home Goods find. It’s lived all over the house but I like it best for my jewelry. I keep most of the everyday options in here – some long chain necklaces, wrap bracelets, and some bangles – big and small.

I store my cocktails rings and my dangley earrings in this little square silver bowl. (I can’t for the life of me remember where I got it. I certainly don’t love it but it does the job so for now, so it stays!)

My wedding band, engagement ring and watch live in an ashtray when I’m not wearing them. I got it in Paris and – full disclosure – I can’t imagine how it ended up in my handbag. (I’ll blame the caviar and vodka.)

Some of the bigger statement pieces – necklaces and bracelets – live in the top drawer of the dresser.

The “drawer liner” is actually wrapping paper that I got years ago at…you’re never going to believe this…Old Navy. Crazy, right? I love it and I might frame a piece of it to display in front of the poster in the room.

If you’re willing to dedicate a little more space to jewelry storage, here are some good ideas:

Monaluna‘s frame with hooks

Jewelry as wall art at BH&G

Catherine of Hallelu on the Glitter Guide

Cabinet and bowls via Martha Stewart

The great embroidery hoop trick via Apartment Therapy

Sherry’s baubles in an egg crate via Young House Love

I have way too many pieces to do any of these options (remember, you’re only seeing a fraction of my collection in the pics above) but as the mom of two girls, I know I’ll regret parting with any of it. Think of all the future “dress-up” parties we’ll need things for, right??

Tell me…how do you store your jewelry? Or better yet…how do you pair it down? For now, I’ll horde mine in the little bit of space I have…

Sue at Home

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: