One Room Challenge Now

Hello ORC Family and Friends!

Today is the day for everyone who has ever participated in the ORC or ORC Linking Party to show us what your space looks like now.

My rooms are undergoing a few subtle changes because of our upcoming move. What I can show you today, is my current state of chaos. I am trying to be ruthless in my decluttering. I refuse to move what I won't use...hey, that rhymes.
This was how you last saw my dining room

And this is how it looks today....brace yourself

The Chinoiserie panels were moved and the matching mirror needs to go up. It looks brighter like this. Oh, the pile of stuff on the table? This is where I dump everything before I give it away. 

   Immediately after this picture was taken, all the games were donated to a school program that will use them for indoor recess on bad weather days. 
I keep an open box in the corner and continually add things to it until it is full of unwanted items. 

Welcome to my real life. Now let's see what your ORC room looks like today. 
Please only link up rooms that have participated in the ORC or ORC Linking Party. And remember to link back so your readers can catch up on the other rooms, too.
I hope you will consider joining in on the next One Room Challenge Linking Party

Let's go see what the rooms look like now!

 

Room Design Contest For You

Did everyone have an enjoyable weekend? I was busy doing research for an upcoming Room Design Contest. 

I have been invited to participate in Polyvore's Project Decorate. I will be featured on Monday, March 10th. There will also be a Room Design Contest for you to enter. 

What can you win? There will be 2 winners, each receiving a $500 gift certificate to the home furnishing retailer of my choice. 

I chose One Kings Lane!

I picked One Kings Lane because that is the one I would want to win. I have no affiliation to this store (FYI. The FTC requires bloggers to disclose personal affiliations with companies). 

My feature/contest starts Monday, March 10th. I am telling you now so you can join Polyvore and start practicing :). It is so easy to create room design plans on Polyvore. I know that many of you mentioned how you want to learn Photoshop....well this is Photoshop for Dummies Designers.

Let me give you a demonstration.

1. Join Polyvore.

2. Follow me so I can follow you back.

3. Once you are a member, install the Clipper Tool to your browser.

To start your Design Board, use the Create menu and select 'Set'.

Now you start finding things for your room. One place to look is the 'Home' section where you can click on a category, or use the search bar. I like using the search section.

You can also upload anything around the internet into your 'My Items' section. To do this, you find what you like, and use that 'Click to Polyvore' button you installed earlier.

Let's make a set. I went to my Pinterest Boards and found a background of a room I really liked. From there, I clipped it to Polyvore using that tool. Now, it's in 'My Items'. When you see the image you want for your room, click on it. A window will pop up and you select 'Add to set'

All images can be resized by pulling on the corners. 

From here, you just keep layering. You can also crop out some of this if you don't want it. To do this, select 'Custom' on the right.

Inside the custom tool, you can remove anything. To remove parts of an image, drop a series of boxes around the image by clicking exactly where you want them placed. Everything inside the boxes REMAINS. You must also connect all the dots and make your way back to the original starting place.

If you think you like it, click OK. You can see that I removed the floor. Note, everything checkerboard is invisible.

After all the layering, I came up with this.

I clipped the ginger jar images from Jennifer's store. The console table on the left has a driftwood finish. Who says driftwood can't look good in a room? I should call this room Chinoiserie Driftood Chic.

Remember to save your draft (on the left side of your screen) before you hit 'Publish'. That way you will always have an extra copy. 

If you are already on Polyvore, please let me know so we can follow each other. 

Does anyone have any additional tips?

I'm sharing this post over at Best of The Nest Linking Party!

 

A Saturday Laugh

I know I usually don't post on the weekends, but hey....I like to live dangerously. 

In all seriousness, or not...I was doing some research on One Kings Lane, more on that Monday...

And I kept getting distracted by laundry, coffee, and this strange foreign light that was streaming in my windows. I think it was the sun? Because of my distraction, I put salt into my coffee (true story) and forgot to put fabric softener in the laundry cycle (we have hard water)...

Anyway, I just had to laugh at myself... or start worrying about early dementia. My vote is too much multi-tasking. All of this reminded me of a favorite quote:

No, not this one. 

This one

The thought of this made me laugh again! Which is funnier, the quote or the fact that Charlie Sheen was worth quoting?

 

A Compliment and a Reminder

I am so happy to report that the Titanic might not sink at my house. The glaciers that surround the streets and my driveway are starting to melt. 

I feel like I want to keep the happy momentum going by paying my security company a compliment. You know how I feel about my cable company.

We have had the same home security company for about 6 or 7 years?....maybe longer. I can't remember when we started with them because it has been entirely uneventful... and that is exactly what you want from your home security system. We don't deliberately accidentally set off our alarm to see if you will come... unlike my neighbor who doesn't know that I have a blog and am writing about her.  

Unfortunately, the control panel to our system was having issues. It needed to be replaced. The customer service person wanted me to sign a new contract in exchange for the repair. Since I was a loyal customer without a contract, I didn't want to do this. 

I have been with my landscaper for twelve years, my phone company for fifteen years, and my hairdresser for six...that was a trial and error situation. I am the type of customer who would prefer to make it right with the company I have before starting the arduous task of shopping for a new one. 

Of course I let the customer service person know that I did not agree with her philosophy....loyalty should be rewarded, not punished. One brief conversation with someone at a different office, and it's done! My control panel has been replaced, and I continue to remain a happy customer...sans contract. Thank you, unknown person that happened to answer the phone when I called.

If you live in the area, I would definitely recommend Slomin's Shield. You could tell them I sent you, but they would say, "Who?" 

And now my Darlings, next Wednesday is the long awaited (ok, I'm looking forward to it) One Room Challenge Now.

I have finished House of Cards and have nothing else to do for another year. That might be a slight exaggeration.

Have a lovely weekend.

 

Timeless Design

Good design is timeless. Can you guess the year this home was featured in AD?

All Images Courtesy of Architectural Digest

The year was 2007! I wouldn't change a thing.

How many years can you enjoy a room without making any changes to it?

 

First Ladies Decorate

Happy President's Day! As we celebrate the men whom have held office, I thought it would be fun to give a nod to the women behind them....and in some cases, next to them. 

Here are some of the decorating decisions made by our First Ladies.

Jackie Kennedy - 1961

Red Room Kennedy - Johnson

Red Room Nixon

Red Room Clinton - Obama

The Green Room - Bush

Michelle Obama - 2011

Nancy Raegan - 1984

I am going to ask you a NON POLITICAL question. Now let's be respectful of everyone's personal politics... we are just talking about decorating style....which decorating style do you prefer?

I think I like Nancy's the best. From what I can see, she incorporated Chinoiserie in just the right amount. 

When I took this quiz, I was more like Michelle.

How about you?