Sunglass Style

Even in winter you need sunglasses in New York; in fact I probably wear sunglasses outside more than I do regular eyeglasses and when I find a pair I like I wear them until they fall apart, then I get the optician to fix them and wear them into submission. I have one pair I bought in Belgium in 1996 that I wear for walking the dogs - the lenses are so degraded it's almost impossible to see through them and the plastic on the inside looks as if it has been sucked on by a teething child but they are so comfortable and look so good I have never been able to part with them. Still, it was time for a new model so I went shopping and found lots of vintage inspired eyewear to chose from. They are prescription lenses so you'll have to wait a while to see what I finally picked but here are the contenders:


Teal blue, brown and black - bold and sexy Paul Smith eyewear PS-3009 in Tustl


Retro Hollywood glam Zooey in Ivory Shell with a Spice Brown Gradient. Oliver Peoples in collaboration with Zooey Deschanel.


Cool 70s inspired round frames - in tortoiseshell to accentuate the golden blonde highlights, Starbelle by Oliver Peoples.

Plumbing Porn

Wallpaper, fabric, decor accessories are all delightful - great at diverting me from real work - but is there anything more sexy than rough plumbing in a gutted master bath? No, there is not... except maybe the finished bath!

Elemental, Organic Mosaics

Designer Ellen Blakeley's singular vision allowed her to see how the vandalised glass of a bus shelter could be repurposed into a thing of beauty and elegance. She takes recycled tempered glass, mixes it with eco-friendly pigment and resin to produce custom tiles and panels of mosaic glass that can be used as a stunning backsplash, shower walls or even windows. Here are a few of my favourites:


Rich, red Pompeii from her latest collection, Elements- reinterpreting Earth, Water, Wind and here, Fire. It speaks to me an a primordial level.


The Spotlight collection, contains four sub-categories. Organic incorporates real leaves into the mosaic, here the cool, inspiring Silver Leaf - perfect for a spa bath.


Also from the Spotlight collection the sparkling Pop category in Mango colorway. I'd be happy every time I looked at this.


Finally appropriately named greens, blues and purples - Vineyard from the Core collection. It would fit right into The Cool House.

Intricate, dramatic, sustainable, unique - there is something for everyone in Blakeley's collections. You can order Ellen Blakely mosaic glass through Artistic Tile or via her showroom or you can just admire the images on her website and dream.

Black and White

Hanging the House paintings in the foyer has me re-thinking the whole gold on terracotta wallpaper vision. The black frames and stark white mattes are leading me in another direction. I wonder what tone on tone black or white would look like in the space...


This Graham and Brown Checkered pattern via Design Public echoes the geometric shapes in the house without competing for attention. Available in white or black. (I also want the Vitra George Nelson Sunflower clock so bad).


The black flock wallcovering from Romo Laurito in Ebony from the Grandis collection would certainly make a statement.


Gorgeous but maybe a little too like a snowflake? Marcel Wanders Stella wallpaper from Design Public available in white, black and a range of other colours.


Smudgy and edgy, Carlu Noir from Designers Guild also comes in Vanilla.


Or maybe a modern Anaglypta that we could paint would be the best way to go - we'd get texture while keeping control over colour. Graham & Brown paintable wallpaper in Curvy

Party Animals*

How do you celebrate Squirrel Appreciation Day?


Take one warm and welcoming home


that has a squirrel touch


or two


add a comfy place to rest


and let your friends go nuts!

*Squirrels celebrate by appreciating each other - late January is full-on mating season for the Sciuridae family!

Houses are Home

Since I brought them back to The Cool House, I've tried Nadine Bouler's House paintings in various locations: the great room, the dining room, the kitchen and my office; in the end I decided they looked best right up front in the foyer. So I moved Will Klemm's Radiant to the great room where the orange and gold pear fits right in with the new rug and placed House in Flight in its place. It looks at home here, the dimensions of the piece fill the wall space better, the colors compliment the architecture.


Then I grouped the other three pieces on the opposite wall. Now visitors to The Cool House can view the work up close and get a preview of the back yard exterior without venturing outside. Perfect... at least I think so - let's see if Nadine approves!

Shaded

I did manage to get a couple of things done last week - like finding the perfect pleated shade for the bargain lamp I scored a couple of weeks ago. Eventually I might get round to sorting the stuff on the credenza but until then - enjoy!

Backed-up!

I was going to entitle the post "Plumbers Gone Awol" but as I still have a home, and a functioning bathroom I'm going look on the positive side and not whinge or whine. I have a garage full of fixtures and a closet full of fittings. The cabinets arrive tomorrow and once they go in I can order the countertop, once the tile goes on the walls I can order the glass shower doors. Then the bath will be done... of course none of this can happen without the tiler who is waiting on the carpenter who is waiting on the plumber who has been sick for the last 8 days. Or maybe "sick".
Anyway, as a tribute to my fortitude - and yours, dear interwebs viewer, for living this renovation with me - I give you Lego Workers à la Flanders and Swann

Haiti

I can't blog about home/decor/design while so many are lives have been lost and many more are injured or without shelter. Please consider donating to Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders or another charity working to provide disaster relief. Donate online via this link.
If you want to take part in a blog auction to raise funds go to Shorehouse Chic where Laura is doing her bit to help Haiti.

Decor Encore

A couple of accessories made their way into The Cool House recently. Firstly, thanks to kind Patricia who keeps her eye out for Georges Briard pieces, a serving dish with a stunning MCM pattern on the lid


Next from a local Antique dealer at Yankee Peddler this large grey ceramic lamp. A uniquely modern bargain with a very sensual shape. It lacks a shade though and the naked CFL bulb is not doing it for me at all. What do you think - Drum? Oval? Giclee?

Notes on a Television

Lots of off-blog comments on the size of our bedroom TV - and a posted one. Apparently a 27" screen doesn't cut it; we must miss all the fine details of the programmes and we are surely harming our eyes squinting at the teeny-tiny screen. I must thank everyone who expressed concern for our well-being and inform you all that this TV is ... shock, horror.... the one we used as our sitting room set from 2000-2008.
Until summer 2004, when we moved into this house, we didn't even have a TV in the bedroom, a fact commented upon by every realtor that walked into the master suite - I know, it's a wonder we ever sold our last house - but what we didn't have we didn't miss. Then we came to The Cool House and I thought how nice it would be to lie in bed and watch movies so I lobbied hard to put in our second set, a 23" CRT TV that was, I'll admit, a little challenging to view, in the bedroom.
Over the course of the past five years I got used to having the black box in the room, watching food porn early on Saturday morning or house porn late at night. Then last weekend these Scripps channels were pulled off our local cable provider, which coincided with our temporary move to the guest bedroom that (shock again) has no cable outlet. I was staring down a black hole of six weeks or so without a TV to snuggle up to. I almost balked at the thought but eventually agreed to a television-free period. Well interwebs, I have to tell you that it's been a week and I haven't missed the TV for one second. We read magazines, books both in print and on Kindle and listen to NPR. It's just like the good old days - except now we know what we had.
The question is: When we finally move back to our bedroom should we replace the teeny teevee with a big LED/LCD flat screen or should we just not bother with a television in the master at all?

Renovation!

It's getting exciting at The Cool House. The demolition of the master bath is done, the renovation is underway; fixtures are here - mostly. For example we have the Toto maple softclose seat but no word on the toilet yet. I'm in two minds whether to go with my first thought and frame in the tub with wood panels or tile the surround and place a piece of Caesarstone to match the vanity countertops on the half wall. For that matter I'm still not sure if I shouldn't just raise the tub up a foot (with the extra carpentry and plumbing that would entail!).


Still there has been definite and positive progress. In place of the one working light over the vanity and the very noisy fan/light combo unit, I have two recessed lights over the vanity, two more lights over the bath, the newly uncovered shower light, sconces on either side of the medicine cabinet and an updated super quiet fan/light/nightlight. To add more warmth we have a heated towel bar on a timer so we can wrap ourselves in toasty towels straight after our refreshing pulsating shower. The medicine cabinet has an outlet inside so The Guy's shaver will be hidden away when recharging - I'm all for a clutter-free countertop.
Next stop - plumbers let loose!

Unexpected Benefits

Since moving the bed into the spare room last Sunday we have slept better than we have in years. Five years to be precise. Turns out we had not installed the spacers correctly when the movers brought it into the house. Even though we have changed the room round four times since we moved in and flipped the mattress at least 10 times it never occurred to us to check we had those things in the right position. Roughly 1800 nights spent tossing and turning to get comfortable, complaining about the ridge in the latex mattress, blaming old age and wear and tear on the joints and it turns out we could have solved all our problems in, oh, TWENTY SECONDS FLAT! At least we can guarantee future Cool House guests that we have a very comfortable bed for them to crash on...

House Art

We are celebrating 2010 with some new art. The Homes for the Holidays show at Ripe Art Gallery finished so these two pieces, House in Flight and Anthill we had purchased by artist and author Nadine Bouler came home to The Cool House just before the work week started.



And with them these two images of The Cool House. I asked Nadine to paint one, and got a bonus picture full of surreal imagery to display with it.

At the moment they are leaning gracefully against the walls in the great room and the dining room but hopefully Nadine will stop by in a week or so and we can decide on a permanent place to display all four as a group. They are very detailed works and the two Cool House paintings are full of wit and symbolism specifically about the house, The Guy and me - they need to be viewed close up. But even in their less than ideal locations you can see what drew me to Nadine's work. Click to embiggen and enjoy!

Golden Walls

Now that we have the furniture back in the Great Room, I asked the Awesome Designer, Julie Napoleon Brown, to bring back this paper, Grasses by Mulberry in Red/Gold to see if it would work for the foyer. Being a star, she also pulled a few more wallpapers in the same colourway. After I had carefully placed them aroud the walls, The Guy glanced around and uttered the fatal words: The trees in the forest paper is looking a lot more appealing! We'll ignore him, though and move on...


My initial favourite: Octavio by Mulberry in Copper/Red


The Guy's favourite (if he were forced to choose): Gilded Fresco in Red/Gold from Mulberry.


The two papers together in situ - maybe my choice is too geometric?


After seeing them all in daylight and by CFL lighting I'm being seduced by this Red/Gold/Rust beauty: Palm Court, Cole & Son, from their Vintage Glamour Collection.


At first I thought it was too Arts and Crafts but in real life it really shines off the wall


as does this sample of Grasses that I started with.
I'm no nearer make a decision, so Interwebs, please weigh in with you thoughts!

All wallcoverings available from Lee Jofa (trade only).

We call it progress!

We have temporarily lost a bathroom (although that tub still has to be hauled out)


Gained a "media room"


Refurnished the spare bedroom.
(Thank you to the house elves for dismantling/moving/reassembling the bed)!

Demo: The dressing room

The thing about doing the demo yourself is you get to marvel over the little renovation discoveries; insights into other peoples' lives. For instance, had we engaged a crew to knock out the master suite I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have yelled "Come see what was behind the mirrors!"


And we would have missed the saffron flock wallpaper that had once complimented the yellow shag carpet and gold cultured marble bathtub and sinks.


The splendour of the '70s replaced by sterile '90s white on white fixtures and floor to ceiling mirrors, soon to be finished in uniquely modern style circa 2010.

Demo: Day 5

Collapse: The Guy put in a full 7 AM - 4 PM day in a last desperate push to get the bathroom clear. This was taken after carrying the last cement backerboard to the dumpster. Exhaustion! He did spring up once more to remove the 42" x 48" mirror that used to sit over the vanity before heading off to shower, followed by a stiff G&T and two Alleve.


Down to the studs - cement board in the wet areas removed at last! That stuff is nasty, dusty and wicks water on to the wood - especially if you didn't use a liner between it and the joists. Instead of leaving a 1/4" gap between the shower base and the board so the board doesn't sit in water the last contractor had gone for a generous 3/4", which meant water had poured through the space - and down the stairs! See that gloopy grey stuff on the floor? That's where the tiles were mortared directly onto the plywood subfloor. This will be smoothed down when I get new pads for my trusty hand sander - and a few more dust masks!


Surprise! The Guy uncovered an electrical outlet behind the sheetrock in the shower. This is what I have been wanting for five whole years - a light in the shower. Can someone please explain why this was covered by board and tiles? Here's hoping the electricians can transform it into a wet location approved light without too much drama.

Demo: Day 4

The Guy is racing to get the cement board off the shower walls and the 70s mirrors out of the dressing room before he goes back to his paying job on Monday morning. The haste led to a little whoops moment: he chipped the last floor tile off and the screwdriver he was using as a lever shot out of his hand and down the void under the shower. The only way we'll see that again is if we take off the wallboard in the kitchen that hides the front stairs. Not Going To Happen. We'll leave it there for a future renovator to puzzle over.

Ye Gods of Snow!

I was JOKING about the snow, Gods of Irony! At least it's 2" not 2', but as Laura points out even a little snow around the dumpster makes hauling out the debris more treacherous - and increases the clean-up 100-fold.


Still, the tile is off, the wallboard too, in many places. Considering the leaks we had from the shower and the tub, it's amazing there is no visible damage to the cement backerboard, the floor or the walls behind. No mold, either.
This bathroom should be stripped down to the studs be Saturday, then the plumber and electricians can get in. Tiles arrive Jan 8th, vanities Jan 25th; all other fixtures except the Toto Nexus toilet (delivery scheduled for the second week in January) are here and waiting. After everything has been installed I can get the Caesarstone fabricators to measure for the countertops and the shower door people to fit the glass door. I'm hoping to take my first shower in this bathroom Valentine's Day 2010. That doesn't sound too optomistic does it?