Renovation Inspiration

A few weeks ago, the Etsy Finds Decor article really stuck with me. Titled A Faithful Restoration, the article provides photos from Alyn Carlson's Flickr photostream detailing the restoration of her home, a converted church. I have been mesmerized by the images of her home, struck by the similarity of her decorating style to what I aspire to, and the complete dissimilarity of the architecture of our homes. For instance, I am likely to never have a fireman's pole in my home. I spent some time thinking about how wonderful it must be to have a home with unique architecture. Though I dearly love my home, and hope to stay here for 30 years or so, part of me does wish that we lived in an old factory, an historic rowhouse, or something with a lot of character. I live in a suburban home that was built in the early 1990s. Part of why we bought this house was its very vanilla interior. We liked the bones of the home, and we knew we would not feel guilty about ripping out the beige carpet, tearing out the laminate counters, and painting the white walls. If we had found a home that someone else had personalized, we would have felt bad removing expensive installations (that we would have paid for in the purchase price as well), or we would have unhappily worked around the choices of another family. The Flickr album of this renovated church also mentioned that this renovation has taken 28 years. So I got to thinking that maybe over the course of 28 years or so, I would be able to fix up my home pretty well, too. And my challenge is something that a lot of folks experience - creating a personal home out of standard, vanilla, suburban house. I decided to embrace what I've got, and renamed my Flick album of home pictures - now Extreme Home Transformation: Suburban Edition. As we slowly personalize and improve our home, I'll still be looking to images of the homes of others to inspire me. Alyn's home is the perfect muse. The rest of this post will feature more pictures of her home, a few pictures from my home to show our similar taste, and some items I found on Etsy that can carry the same inspiration into your home. Someday I will have a lush garden grounded by hardscaping. I've often thought of making a mosaic with broken dishes (or discarded pottery...). I have been known to drag home branches I find to use in decorating my home. I have also extensively documented my fascination with cubbies and drawers and things to put things in. I love the ethereal quality of these birds against this cloudy blue wall. This collection of items reminded me of my home. Bits of nature, remembrances, and letters with wood as a backdrop. Above and below are pictures of my studio. I keep mementos of my childhood, printers blocks, tiny antiques, and stones collected from experiences I want to remember. Below is another vignette from my home - feathers collected from my yard (and one ostrich feather from my feather duster), a basket my mom made, glass rhinoceroses, wood turned vases, and a large printers block G.

I wanted to find an array of items on Etsy that would bring a bit of the special quality of Alyn's home to your home and mine.

Shopping for letters on Etsy yields a number of attractive options, including this large Q printers block from ThreeOldKeys. I grew up with those World Book encyclopedias; they're not small books. This vintage marquee letter N could be leaned up against a wall or in a bookshelf. Find it at VintageEmbellishment. Remind yourself to mind your shop with these ETSY printers blocks from JillRuth. adripofcoffee has this vintage metal T stands alone quite handsomely. everyeskimo's metal J would be perfect in a natural and lettered vignette. I love wooden printers blocks with a wood tone contrasting with the darker background. These are from luckylittledot. This family of owls from onegiftoneworld would be right at home among vintage letters and natural mementos. Shoeforms, like these from everyeskimo, are a small, sculptural way to bring woodgrain and retired vintage into your home. 26olivestreet has a more rustic shoeform option, with less shine but just as much character.

This picture from Alyn's home reminded me of how much I love copper in a kitchen. I have a number of copper accents in my kitchen, and it goes so well with the slate I plan to use in the floors and backsplash. I found a number of copper pieces inspired by these patterned measuring cups above - snatch them up before I do.

I have a copper bowl just like this one from SunnyDayVintage. Mine was covered in green gunk, and was about to be donated when I saved it. A few coats of ketchup later, it was good as new. The person who was going to donate it didn't even recognize it as theirs later.

This set of vintage copper coffee and tea canisters would love to sit on your counter. Unless I buy them from storybookcharm first.

Don't you love the shine on these copper scoops from ModishVintage?

The texture, the shape, and the coiled handle on this copper teapot from SarahAnntiques make me swoon.

LucindaAndJane has this copper coffee maker, sugar and creamer set. I have a mug in hand and am already pulling up a chair.

I don't know that I would be able to decide between chocolate or cheese first for this solid copper fondue pot from GoodEyeVintage.

CometWreckage has this fantastic lidded jello mold that would be an excellent addition to your kitchen decor.

Alyn's home has an array of beautiful furniture, and this library filing cabinet from ShopGreenOwl reminded me of the drawers behind the fireman's pole.

This unique piece from bauerwood also had a special quality (and lovely drawers) that reminded me of all the pieces with drawers I noticed.

Be sure to check out Alyn's Etsy shop, and her blog. I am grateful for the inspiration I have gotten from Alyn's home renovation. I am equally grateful for the realizations that this kind of incredible home doesn't happen overnight, and that while my home isn't starting with unique architectural features, it's no less a home. And I intend to enjoy the journey from suburban house to personalized home.

Assembled, But Powerless

My kiln has been unpacked, located, and assembled. I had the Kiln Doctor come out and consult on where it should be located. My best options were the basement or the garage. There were positives to each, but taking all of the factors into account, he recommended putting it in the garage. I will move the two shelves that are along the wall behind the kiln, and put it in that corner. It's best to keep your kiln at least 18 inches from a wall. I will either set it in a permanent location at least 18 inches from both walls, or I will have the Kiln Doctor rig up a cart to put it on so that I can easily move it away from the wall for firing, and back into the corner for parking the car. The next step is to have an electrician come out and do his magic. There are some complicated factors, including making sure that we have enough capacity in the electrical box... The previous owners of the home have a lot of the capacity routed to baseboard heat in the basement. We had planned to take that out as we are refinishing the basement anyway, so I think that will free up enough power. If I can't free up enough voltage, the solution involves the power company and a lot of money. Cross your fingers for me.

The easy fire control panel, and the vent is on the floor on the right. Once the kiln is in place, the vent will be connected and mounted through the garage wall to vent the toxic fumes involved with firing.

I like the look of the bricks. Once the electrical work is complete, the Kiln Doctor will come back out and install the vent and walk me through some of the ins and outs of firing. Luckily, I have a large manual to read and refer to, and I will be asking a lot of questions at Manassas Clay, too. [I will leave you to determine whether the title is political commentary.]

Worm Hole

I may be the only Star Trek fan who received a worm hole for Christmas. Seriously. My parents have a friend who is a diver, and this is a worm hole found in the ocean. Unfortunately, I think it's causing a rift in the space-time continuum. I've lost something. And I can't find it. Anywhere. The only conclusion I can draw is that it's gone through the worm hole and has appeared (if at all) in another quadrant of the universe.

Bureaucratic Chic

The inspiration for my [long delayed] post today is this teal blue filing cabinet. It sits behind me every day at my office job. When I first started here 6 years ago, my government office was filled with ancient, bureaucratic government-issue furniture. Not much has changed. I work in what is supposed to be a fairly high profile office, but somehow we have the worst space and furnishings. Sometimes the people in our property management division will stop by and be horrified by what we're stuck with. Trying to be helpful, they'll offer to take away some of our rubbish and replace it with better-looking furniture. Sometimes I'll let them. But I've never been able to part with this teal file cabinet. To me, it's a screaming blue reminder that a) we're no better than any of the theoretically low profile offices, and b) sometimes something is so bad it's cool. I've collected some other retro office furnishings to share today.

A row of mismatched filing cabinets from flickr.

A variety of colored filing drawers from flickr.

Perfect patina in situ, from flickr.

A filing cabinet, right at home, from flickr. Vintage vignette from flickr. Silver filing cabinet from flickr.

Green and white filing... on wheels... from flickr.

Teal metal storage pockets from flickr.

Vintage Swingline turquoise stapler from TheFancyLamb. (I also have one of the oldest staplers known to man at my office.)

A mini Swingline stapler from nostalgictreasures.

Vintage 1950s turquoise typewriter from thefancytail.

Green metal file box (above) and teal check file box (below), both from retroology.

Vintage school chair from postroadvintage.

Retro office file organizers from backhomeagain.

Metal desk files from backgarage.

I find it ironic that if I let our property management folks take away my teal filing cabinet, it would probably wind up in a surplus sale, and it might go for $5. If I bought it, I could probably sell it for a few hundred dollars to a customer who would appreciate its history, sturdiness, and retro bureaucratic chic.

The One, The Only, everyeskimo

I have been dying to share this with you, and finally have the time to give it appropriate treatment. Unbeknownst to me, my own mother and my internet-friend Regina at everyeskimo conspired against me this Christmas season. My mom, and Etsy seller herself, knew that I drool over everything in the everyeskimo shop (and blog!). She ordered a few items for me as a Christmas gift. She said nothing of it to me, and neither did Regina. On Christmas day, as my family gathered to exchange gifts, the first gift my parents gave me said "To Tracy, From Mom, Dad and everyeskimo." I was incredulous; this was too good to be true! As the story goes, my mom purchased several items, and Regina included a few more goodies for me. This was such a happy occasion for me; the rest of the gift exchange ground to a halt as I carefully unwrapped each piece and exclaimed over each one. An apothecary bottle, glass beakers and test tube (above)!

Game pieces that spell my name (above)!

Lovely gift tags (above)! An incredible glass lens dish (with air plant supplied by my mom)!

A really lovely vintage family portrait - I had to look long and hard to see whether they might actually be relatives of mine.

The full array is above, and I've zoomed in on the turtle pins and the library book pocket below. I was (and still am) just so surprised and excited to own pieces from one of my favorite-est shops on Etsy. Once the others in my family returned to unwrapping their own gifts, ignoring my continued exclamations, I did mention to my mom how it was so funny that Regina had sent me gifts, as I had sent her a box as well. I have integrated all of the items into my studio to inspire me with the same happiness and creativity I experienced on Christmas day. The game pieces are in a letterpress tray on the wall, the paper items are tucked into my inspiration board, along with the turtle pins, and the glass pieces are resting on shelves, ready to serve in scientific or non-scientific tasks. I cannot thank my mom and Regina enough for the gifts, they truly brought me more joy than I deserve.

Be good. Be easy. xo, everyeskimo.

Migration Mobile

Cute, right? On sale at Sundance, and actually affordable ($19.99)!