What I did with Washington Post 'House Calls' design advice (autumn 2011)

Gone are the days I can watch hard-hitting news and documentaries that tug at my heartstrings. Since having kids, I've become a complete wimp, and the highlight of my week in the newspaper is its Thursday home section. Each week a designer gives advice to someone that writes in, asking for help with their home. I wrote in last year and the Post sent a photographer to capture the problem room on film. A designer worked within my budget to suggest decor changes (I didn't want to sound cheap so I said $5K was our budget, which was really $0).

The room is on the top floor and looked barren -- after moving everything else into the house, our own room just was not the priority. I spent little time in there -- I'm not sure if I was avoiding it, or if it lacked attention because I was rarely there. But either way, when an opportunity for free advice came along, I jumped at it.

Photo from the house's listing page - nice room, but awkward to fit furniture into, and very bright at 6AM!

During the first year, we did not even occupy this room. It had a few kids' toys in it, but not much else. We put a Christmas tree up there the first year. Then, as our kids got a bit older, we decided to make that our bedroom. The bed can either fit under the window or under an eave -- but neither configuration clicked with us, probably because we did not put up curtains or artwork or anything to make the room feel cozy. And the chance of sleeping in on a weekend was slim -- even if we didn't have kids, the sun pours in from every angle and is impossible to ignore. (I still have not found a solution for the skylights).

Because the room was not horrible, we did not have the incentive to attack it and make it comfortable

I thought we could chip away a bit by adding furniture. Our poster bed was too tall for this room, with overhead beams and a ceiling fan. The room is also a bit shallow, so a foot board would be bumped into. I stalked Overstock.com until I found a reasonable sleigh bed (my husband's request) without a foot board, that was cheap enough (I can't stomach anything over an IKEA price range, despite my age). Note: I measured once instead of twice, as usual, and messed up. As you can see, the headboard is too high, and creates wasted space behind it. I'm still not sure how I could have made such a big mistake. But I was not going to return it -- what a pain.

This is as far as we got: my husband wanted a sleigh bed, and the room demanded it be platform style

So in comes the Washington Post-selected designer. They had some good suggestions -- a door, for one. And we immediately moved our bed under the window, hung curtains and put an area rug under the foot of the bed. Interestingly, a lot of negative feedback came from readers on this design -- particularly those that used feng shui principles -- apparently a bed under a window is a big energy-killer. I think it's called "the coffin position" -- eek! Still, we tried it and the configuration really seemed to work for a little while.

Washington Post's team came up with this design (numbers call out specific products or suggestions)

What we didn't do (I should point out that only ADVICE was given for free):

The chaise that is pictured in the bottom right was vetoed by my husband immediately. He predicted that we would not use it, and that it would become a laundry pile. I had to agree -- we are constantly fighting clutter and trying to find homes for things. A big flat surface would be too tempting.

The biggest "no way!" was the lamps. They look fine, and I'd be happy with the style, but the price tag was eye-popping: $1,990 each! I'm cheap; I can't justify that. So I hit Home Goods a few times, and finally settled on a pair of brushed nickel orbs with drum shades; I think they were $20 each.

I liked the neutral paint that the article suggested, but kept thinking about more of a cocoon-y color, that would make waking up on a sunny day less jarring. I took a day off of work and hit Home Depot first thing, picked out one of Behr's"ultra" paints (they claim primer is not necessary) and a few drop cloths. By the end of the morning, I had the walls covered and after lunch I did a little touch-up. By the time my husband was home, the room was re-arranged.

White walls were covered with Behr Ultra in Macchiato (UL170-2)

Original purc, now in our family room

The rug I bought for the floor was great, but not great in this space. It was very large, larger than we needed, and most was covered by the bed. So I dragged it downstairs to our family room and - voila! - it immediately made that room feel more welcoming, and we all hunker down on the floor quite a bit now. In the meantime, the worn beige carpet was looking desolate. I happened to be in Target of all places one evening, picking up diapers or something, and saw a thick pile rug with a damask-esque pattern on it. I've wanted that pattern, and here was a great, cheap excuse to try it out. It was tough dragging this & my other purchases out to the car solo, but I muscled through.

I wouldn't have thought of going to Target for a rug, but it has really worked out. So squishy under foot, fun for the kids to bury their toys in (hopefully I won't step on a matchbox car one morning) -- and it brings in the pattern, but in the same neutral colors so it doesn't overwhelm anyone.

The curtains are on their 3rd iteration and will be a blog post of their own, I suspect.

After painting, I dragged the bed back under one of the eaves so we would have ample room for a desk along the other wall. The bed just ate up too much of the room when it was under the window. And the "corpse position" thing did sort of creep me out. This also gives us at least a tiny bit of respite from the window glare.

"After" shot of the bed in its current location, back under one of the eaves, with the new rug

I was not completely sold on the idea of a desk, so I bought relatively inexpensive pieces from IKEA (their EXPEDIT line) and and a top (from GALANT line). I figured if this doesn't work, I can re-purpose the pieces elsewhere in the house. So far they really have not been used, I am sad to report.

Desk area with shelves along the length of one of the eaves

We have yet to add a door, because I have no idea how to hang one, and my father warned that a half-asleep guest that opens a door at the top of a stairway may go plummeting down by accident. I'd like to put a sliding barn-style door over this opening -- that's on my wish list of projects (I need to do some research).   

Time to complete: one day plus many months of fiddling

Approximate cost: $600? Here is the breakdown from memory:

- can of paint, roller, drop cloths ($50)

- shelving ($400 for all of the pieces; $69 per shelving unit and $110 for the top)

- rug ($50)

- bedspread ($40?)

- curtains ($30, failed attempts not included)

Corner repair with molding (summer 2012)

I am not sure what my block is but I have been avoiding writing anything - or even finishing a project! - in weeks. But we just signed up on a home exchange website so there's no more procrastinating! This weekend we hacked away at a few small outstanding items, which is a big relief. Nothing to write home about, for sure. But I don't want to stop writing so here goes...

The family we bought our house from lived in it for three decades. During that time they made some questionable repairs - I think carpentry was a hobby for the Dad, which I can appreciate. And he even owned power tools, which is leaps and bounds from what I'm comfortable with. Yet we keep discovering issues -- e.g. this seam was covered with a strip of 1" molding that did not extend the length of the wall. It bothered me day in and out, and finally I plucked it down.

What lies beneath... in this case, beneath the previous owner's slap-dab repair job on our family room ceiling

My timing wasn't great. While this bothered me, I was content to lounge on the sofa and had no intention of pulling out the spackle just then. Unfortunately, if I don't strike while the iron is hot, repairs tend to wait... and wait. I sat with this for weeks. (Funny, my husband never noticed...) Finally yesterday I got out some extra trim and made the repair. I could not find my miter box and saw, and was impatient (of course), so I grabbed a little hacksaw I found in the garage and free-handed the cut. I was a half inch off, but luckily the error was excess.

The nails I had were awful. Flimsy long nails with ribbing -- there must be some purpose for them but I can only drive them about 1/2" before they start buckling. I've just snapped off the excess in frustration on other projects. Still, I have never thrown them into the recycle bin, and when I find myself in need of a nail, that little box is always right there waiting for me.

This trim matches the trim on the back edge of the built-ins below it, and it's cheap, so I figured what the heck

After nailing this up in the middle and at each end, I spackled the remaining gaps. It still looks ugly, but I can sense an end in sight.

Seam is now sealed up and ready to paint... whenever that might happen

Now I need a burst of motivation to paint. I bought some Behr "ultra" for this wall behind the TV months ago, after I painted our bedroom and got excited how fast a room can be transformed. Unfortunately, I did not have time to complete the job the day I bought the paint -- so of course it is still not done. This green seems fairly neutral but cheerful and bright; I assume it will work well with the light blue & white curtains.

Spring Green 1A59-4

I know it shouldn't take long - this is only approx. 10' x 5' and a room four times that size only took the morning to complete. This brand's claim that priming is not necessary was pretty accurate when I painted a cappuccino color over standard white walls; very few touch-ups were required. The paint is low VOC but in the back of my mind, I've used my kids' health as the reason to put this off. With the weather  turning, I should be able to get the windows open and will be out of excuses... so I should be able to update this post in the not-too-distant future with "after" shots.

Update autumn 2012: I was too lazy to paint myself. We did a home exchange over the summer and I hired a friend to do the work. He also spackled, which looks so much better than the slap-dab job I usually do.

As soon as I saw that fresh, clean wall I remembered a cork board map that was stowed in the closet. I brought it down and stapled some ribbon around the frame's edges (frame was too dark and in rough shape). I love this corner now.

Trim is lost but everything is much neater (dark mark is a hook for a lamp cord)

Because I did not complete this myself, I can't give an estimate for pricing and time. Note that the corkboard behind the map is from The Container Store (from a few years back) and affixed with spray glue (you can tell it's a little buckled but looks decent in person). The lamp is one of two from IKEA, with my kids' art project from camp, paper plate snakes, hanging from them.