Arsenic Lace

interior design

One Room Challenge Week 6 of the Hallway Refresh

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One Room Challenge Week 6 of the Hallway Refresh is going so much better than last week. I’m so happy to be in the home stretch of the challenge and for the stress to be over! Thank God for that extra week or else my Hallway Refresh project would have been a complete flop. Today I’m sharing what’s complete and what needs to be finished before the final reveal shoot on Monday.

The wallpaper came last week and I installed it on Sunday. It came out better than expected and I am completely in love with it. I wanted to go with another tropical/botanical print but was nervous it would clash with the living room wallpaper but it totally doesn’t! It’s neutral enough that it blends between the living room and kitchen. It’s crazy how a simple upgrade can really make an impact and brighten up a space. This is the darkest area of the house and my main goal was to make it feel lighter. I think I’ve accomplished it.

The coat rack was hung on Monday which I thought was going to be the easiest part of finishing that wall but I was wrong. We decided to hang it with anchors but hit a stud while drilling. So, we didn’t need anchors apparently. I’m very happy with how the dark wood and gold stand out on the wallpaper. The chandelier is up and working and an electrician is coming tomorrow to do final repairs. That light has caused me the most stress so I will be happy when that problem is over. If you didn’t read last weeks nightmare post then you can read it here.

The bench is in its forever home. I did really love it in the living room too. I’m on the hunt for something similar to replace it as a coffee table. Loving how it serves as extra storage plus a landing area.

I decided to swap out that jute rug for something less busy. It was clashing with the wallpaper too much and I just wanted something simple. Luckily I had this faux fur rug in my office that I’m using instead. I put the jute rug in there, so no money was lost. Bonus! I do wish Phil was still here to photobomb my One Room Challenge posts. He loved fuzzy rugs too.

The only big project left to do for the One Room Challenge Week 6 of the Hallway Refresh is the stairs which I will be tackling this weekend. I picked up the paint today and the colors are even better than the swatches. Painting the stairs is going to transform this area into a bright, happy, and colorful place. Is it okay to hang out in the stairwell or is that weird?

I picked up some plants today to put inside the macrame for the stairwell wall. The macrame still hasn’t arrived though. I tracked it and it says “in transit to destination” so fingers crossed they come tomorrow. They will only take a few minutes to hang so I’m not that worried.

The One Room Challenge Week 6 of the Hallway Refresh has been a success and I can’t wait to show you how everything comes together.

One Room Challenge Week 5 Lighting Nightmare

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Do you guys want the good news or the bad news? I pretty much have all bad news so I’m feeling a bit discouraged. One Room Challenge Week 5 is a lighting nightmare among many other nightmares. My cat Phil who made an appearance on the rug last week suddenly became ill and died over the weekend. I’m absolutely devasted, I’ve been crying for four days straight. Dealing with FedEx sent me into full breakdown mode on Monday. They have been impossible to deal with and also it’s been impossible for them to do their job which is to deliver my packages. UGH. There is some good news before I move on to the lighting nightmare — the wallpaper arrived!

I’m going to tackle the wallpaper over the weekend so hopefully, that helps me feel better. Right about now I’m ready to throw in the towel though. Thank GOD they extended the challenge by a week because there is just no way that I would be ready to do a photoshoot for a reveal. I had a friend come by last weekend to help me get the new fixture up but what we found when we took the old fixture down is trouble. The wiring has not been updated in who knows how long and the hole in the ceiling is larger than the canopy of the fixture. I know what you’re thinking, a ceiling medallion, right? WRONG! The wires are hanging out lower than the ceiling so we can’t get the fixture flush. It’s been impossible.

This is the original fixture without the glass bowl over the top. Sorry, I forgot to take that shot.

This is what was underneath the fixture. This possibly couldn’t have gone any worse.

This is the closest we could get the fixture to the ceiling and we ordered a medallion that we thought would cover the difference but it didn’t work. This was not a DIY project. Changing light fixtures is easy when the electric is modern but we have no idea what the hell to do. I made an appointment with an electrician on Saturday afternoon. Fingers crossed he can figure something out.

If we can’t come up with a way to make this fixture work then we’re going to have to put the old fixture back up. That is disappointing to me because I really loved the new fixture and it completely transforms the way the hallway looks. The wallpaper will look great but there isn’t a ton to do with the hallway so losing one of the main focuses of the design plan makes the end result less impactful. I also can’t return the fixture because I put it together and threw away the box. I had no idea that something this awful was going to happen.

I’m sick, my cat died, my car got a flat tire, and this challenge is turning into a failure. Please send all the good vibes my way to help me get through it. If you have any solutions I would LOVE to hear them. Please tell me in the comments below. Hoping for a better tomorrow and a completed Hallway Refresh. xo

 

One Room Challenge Week 4 of the Hallway Refresh

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There is not a whole lot to report. Week 4 of the One Room Challenge Hallway Refresh has been pretty slow because I’ve been waiting for the all the items to arrive. I unpacked everything that came last night. As you can see Phil my cat has already claimed the rug.

The wallpaper shipped and the shop assured me it would be here on time. It’s coming from overseas so I’m still a little nervous about the timeline. Luckily that email the participants got yesterday was a sigh of relief. They extended the One Room Challenge by a week to compensate for all the disasters that have happened recently. Final reveal will be Thursday, November 16th.

This week I received the rug, chandelier and coat hooks. I also put the bench together that I bought at IKEA last week. Well, Ethan really put the bench together ;). We are currently using it as a coffee table in the living room and I love it. It’s possible that I might buy another. The original plan was to do the DIY Plant Wall but the macrame plant holders haven’t come yet. Hopefully, they will arrive next week so I can get that done. It will be a fairly easy project and I get to take a trip to my favorite place — the plant store!

Once the wallpaper gets here I can install, hang the hooks, and put the bench in its proper home. Next week I’m concentrating on installing the light fixture. I wanted to save the stairs for last but I may have to get that done before the wallpaper depending on when it arrives. Stay tuned to see how the Hallway Refresh unfolds!

One Room Challenge Week 3 of the Hallway Refresh

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One Room Challenge Week 3 is upon us and things are speeding along. The Hallway Refresh has progressed a little bit and almost everything has been ordered but I’m still waiting to receive the items. Luckily there isn’t a ton to do once all the items get here (except the stairs and wallpaper). I’m going to update you on some changes I am making to the plan and what I put on order. Plus I picked out the colors for the stairs. Yay!

The bench from Ikea that I originally decided on was unavailable. I found a great substitute that is a little bit more compact and way more stylish.  I actually like it better. Everything happens for a reason, right? The bench is actually a coffee table, but I saw it styled at the foot of a bed and seating for a dining room table as well. It’s going to work great as a landing space for my purse and a home for shoes underneath. A cat will probably enjoy some naps on it as well.

I’m starting with a very soft pink at the top of the stairs and fading it into a dark coral that I will be painting in groups of 3 of each color.  I chose paints by Benjamin Moore in Soft Pink, Creamy Peach, Perky Peach, and Summer Sun Pink. The stairs are going to be so happy to look at, I can’t wait for this to come together!

I had to order the wallpaper in a custom size so I contacted the shop.  Hopefully, I hear back soon so I can place that order. I went ahead and ordered the hook rack, ceiling light, macrame plant hangers, and a rug. Also, I had to change the rug because the size I needed wasn’t available, but I found this one that is 2’3″ x 3’9″ which I think should work perfectly.

We’re in the middle of the One Room Challenge with 3 more weeks to go. I’m looking forward to seeing how it all turns out and finishing another space in my home. Full speed ahead! Check out my One Room Challenge Hallway Refresh board on Pinterest to stay up to date with my ideas and items.

One Room Challenge | Design Plan + Budget

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Hi everyone! This week I’m sharing the Design Plan + Budget for the Hallway Refresh. I feel guilty for not being able to post a cocktail since my One Room Challenge post from last week but there are plenty of delicious things on the way. Plus, did you notice the refresh my site got? The hallway isn’t the only thing getting upgrades around here! I’m updating you on my progress for the One Room Challenge which I will be doing for the next six weeks. I hope you will join me in my efforts to stay motivated in finishing up the decor in my home.

I’m making final decisions on wallpaper and decor so that I can get the ordering process started. My one regret from the Spring One Room Challenge was that we ordered late and it caused me a lot of stress. I wasn’t sure if I was going to get everything in time and the wallpaper arrived two days before the final shoot. That means I had one day to get it installed and style the whole room. I almost had a breakdown but I pulled through and got it done. Thankfully there isn’t a ton to order but the stairs are going to be the most time-consuming thing which will be my last project before the reveal. I want those stairs to look super fresh for the photos.

The wallpaper was the hardest decision to make for the final design plan. At first, I wanted to do something geometric so that the wallpaper in the hallway didn’t compete with the wallpaper in the living room. Who am I kidding though? I couldn’t stay away from a tropical/botanical print and I have landed on this one from Boho Walls on Etsy. It is neutral with still adding a pop of color and some much-needed fun to this space.

The other hardest decision I had to make was what color to paint the stairs. Originally I wanted to go a dark teal because I thought it was bright enough to be colorful but dark enough to hide dirt. In the end, I didn’t think this color went with the rest of the house though. There are a lot of neutral tones in this house with touches of pink and a lot of green from the plants. I wanted to stay within these colors because I want the overall feel of the house to be cohesive. So what color did I land on for the stairs? Pink of course!

I know it isn’t the most practical because pink won’t hide dirt. I’m going to paint each stair a solid color instead of just each riser. It will be easier and the tops won’t be white at least. The paint that is on the stairs now is matte which was a bad choice because they’re really hard to get the dirt off of. I’m going to go with a semi-gloss or high gloss so that they’re easier to clean.

The light fixture definitely needs to be changed and I found one from Target that I love that doesn’t break the bank. All the products from the Project 62 line are amazing. It’s hard not to want everything! The bench I picked out is from Umbra but I’m not sold on it. I love the style but I think I could find something that’s more affordable so I’m going to keep my eyes peeled at HomeGoods. I could also get this one from IKEA for $39.99 and paint half of it white so that it looks like the Umbra bench or I really like this one as well. Both are great and a fraction of the price.

Same thing goes for the macrame plant hangers. I LOVE the ones from Anthro but if I need 3 or 4 at $58 the price adds up pretty quickly. I was thinking of doing this simple DIY one or I’ve found a ton of affordable options on Etsy. Head to my Hallway Refresh Pinterest board to see them all. Way too many to link to!

Here are the budget and order list. I can knock a few hundred dollars off if I decide to DIY the bench for $39.99 or buy the other one for $69.99. I can also make my own plant hangers or get affordable options from Etsy to save an additional $100 or so. That would bring my budget down $350 or more. Originally I only wanted to spend $5oo on this project and currently, I’m over budget so I think I may go with these two ideas. Doing this would knock off about $483 which means I’d come in under my budget!! Maybe I can get a piece of art framed for the top up the stairs with my savings? Stay tuned to find out! All items in the design plan linked below.

Rug // Plant Hanger // Ceiling Light // Wallpaper // Hooks // Bench // Paint

 

One Room Challenge | Introducing the Hallway Refresh

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One Room Challenge | Hallway Refresh Inspiration One Room Challenge | Hallway Refresh Inspiration

Hey Everyone! Most of you know that I took part in the One Room Challenge this past Spring in collaboration with Michelle Gage to design my living room. It was such a huge success and participating kept me motivated to finish the room within the six week timeframe. I’m happy to be doing the challenge again as a guest participant and to help speed along the process of me finishing the house. We’re in pretty good shape over here. I’ve been working on the kitchen and bedroom simultaneously and all they need to be completed is some final styling, wallpaper and art. I thought for the One Room Challenge this Fall I would focus on a part of the house that is much neglected. I’m happy to introduce you to the #HallwayRefresh.

Let’s take a look at the before photos!

For this project my main concern is the staircase. I would love to repaint it and make it more colorful. The skylight at the top of the stairs lets some really nice light in, but the bottom of the stairs in the hallway is pretty much the darkest place in the house.

My goal in the hallway is to create an accent wall that will brighten up the space. I would like to add wallpaper and an area to hang coats and keep things organized. This area gives me the most anxiety because it is always such a mess!

Here’s to another successful design challenge. I hope you will follow my progress for the next six weeks. You can check out my Pinterest board to see more inspiration and I will be using the hashtag #HallwayRefresh over on Instagram.

Sunday Kind of Love

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Happy Sunday everyone! What a crazy week it’s been and I’m so glad for my favorite day to finally be here. I do have a little work to do today, even though I said Sunday was off limits. The best thing about work? I get to drink frośe afterwards, so I guess it could be worse!

  • I hit 10K on Instagram this week!!! I can’t tell you enough how much I appreciate everyones support. It’s been a wild ride building my blog over the last 14 months and I can’t wait to see where it goes from here. The community over on Instagram and the whole blog world overall is just so supportive, and I’m so thankful for everyone I’ve met and gotten to work with. Thanks to all my readers that take the time to like, comment, read one of my posts, or send an encouraging word my way. You all make this possible and I promise to keep building this and creating content and cocktails that you love. I’m relaunching the website soon, I have a lot of fun things in the works, PLUS I have a very big announcement to make this week, so stay tuned!

  • My Hamilton Park Swizzle was on Imbibe this week. This was a cocktail I developed for the menu when I worked at Lani Kai back in 2010. It has mango tea infused applejack, palo cortada sherry, pineapple syrup, lime juice, and falernum in it. It was one of my first cocktails that got published and the first that got press. It was the centerfold in Imbibe Magazine for the Summer of Tiki issue in July/August 2011. It’s named after a park where I’m from in Jersey City and my first variation on a Queens Park Swizzle. Since then I’ve done a Van Vorst Park Swizzle, a Lincoln Park Swizzle and an Arlington Park Swizzle. I’m trying to cover all the parks here because if you haven’t noticed I’m very Jersey City, NJ PROUD!

  • I got some floating shelves installed in the bathroom this week and I’m in love! The bathroom is so small, and the sad part is it’s larger than my last one, lol. The upsides are the skylight, which means I never have to turn on a light (unless it’s night) and it’s perfect for putting on makeup, and the clawfoot tub. Theres a pedestal sink, which is pretty, but theres absolutely no storage and no medicine cabinet. I have some baskets under the tub, a little shelving unit under the sink and these shelves will act as my open medicine cabinet. It’s fun to display all my pretty skincare. AND since there’s light, I can have a plant. 😉

  • CB2 came out with this table and I’m dying. I don’t have a coffee table in the livingroom because it’s a little narrow. I keep bargaining with myself, asking if I move the couch a few inches backwards can there be enough room for this table? I kind of can’t live without it. How can a Palm Springs inspired livingroom exist without a gold pineapple table? Maybe I should buy it to just “see how it feels” in the room. What do you think? Please say YES!

  • Amara Living named my first Sunday Kind of Love post one of the top 25 interior design posts of July because of my bedroom progress (and the wallpaper isn’t even up). I know I’m a drinks focused blog sharing the occassional home photo, but can I expand into lifestyle and interior? I would love to! I did go to school for interior and exhibition design afterall. We shall see. Maybe just more photos of me drinking in my home.

  • Did you see my Dark ‘n Stormy popsicles go up on A Beautiful Mess? They are my favorite poptails I have EVER made. Super citrusy, bright, spicy, boozy and refreshing. Perfect for the summer. I think I like them even better than the original drink. I’m not sorry.

Hope you’re all enjoying your weekend. What have you been up to? Let me know in the comments below. I love hearing from you. Thanks again for all your support. Love you! xo

Kitchen Table Dilemma

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Four months in and I feel like I should be done decorating but I’m not. The living room took up so much of my time when we first moved in, but since that’s all finished I’ve been concentrating my efforts on the bedroom. The bedroom is pretty much finished besides a few pieces. I want a full-length mirror (something like this or this), some more decorative objects for the mantel, and I had my heart set on wallpapering one wall, but I think I’m going to hold off on that for right now. I also moved from a tiny apartment to a much larger duplex so I had to acquire some larger pieces (like my couch) which added up fast.

Now that I’m recouping from all my purchases for the living room and my new bedroom furniture, I’m on the market for a larger kitchen table. My old kitchen was tiny and I couldn’t really afford anything larger than a two seat bistro table. We moved in our West Elm Tripod Table just to hold us over until we could upgrade. I’ve been looking for weeks but I can’t come to a final decision. I thought I would turn to you guys for some advice. Also, how cute are Bowie and I? He’s the love of my life.

Here he is eating my popsicle. I mean pupsicle.

This kitchen is definitely larger than our last one. My old one was shaped like a long rectangle and this one is still eat-in but is shaped more like a larger square. The counters are on one wall, and on the opposite is a fireplace/mantel and my mid-century china cabinet. I really wanted a marble top table to give me another surface for photographing drinks on, but also because I love the look. I was pretty much set with this one from West Elm, but of course, it’s no longer available. I emailed them to see if it was coming back in stock but they assured me that it wasn’t. It’s unfortunate because it was a really nice match to the wood of my china cabinet plus the wood counter tops and gave me the top surface that I desired.

Photo from Homepolish Photo from Homepolish

This got me to rethink my original choice of wanting a round table. Maybe a square or a rectangular table would fit in this space more? I could have one side on the wall between the windows and have it come out into the room parallel with the counters. If I had company over, I could easily pull it out into the center of the room to make more space for an extra seat.

Then I thought, what about an expandable table? I have only found two that I really like, both from West Elm. This one seems like the best of both worlds. It’s round and seats up to four and expands to seat six. It’s from the West Elm x Fishs Eddy collaboration and has a white laminate top. So I can have a round or long table, but not marble which is what I think I really want.

This one is the Modern Expandable Table also from West Elm. I love the angled wood legs and pecan finish but I’m on the fence about the white lacquer top. The tripod table I have is white lacquer too and the scratches it gets from normal use drives me insane. I polish it all the time so I don’t see the scratches because I have OCD about it. I like the look and functionality of this table but I’m not 100% positive about purchasing another lacquered table. They look cool and sleek until they get a little worn in and then they just look dull and messy.

I really love this round marble table on Wayfair. It has the white marble top that I’ve been dreaming about and the polished gold legs make it look super luxurious. It says it fits up to six comfortably but I’m not sure. The thing with buying a table like this is Friendsgiving or any other holiday might be limited to four or a tight six guest list. I also really like the ghost chairs that the table is paired with in this photo. They are on my list as a chair option because I love how they take up no space visually, but we will get to that later! It all depends on what table I decide to go with.

This is the rectangular version of the last table above also from Wayfair. White marble top and polished gold legs. It would be in the center of the room going long ways parallel between the counter wall and mantel wall. I’m dreaming about the tablescape possibilities already!

This is another one from West Elm and a complete show stopper! I love this one so much. It’s called the Silhouette Pedestal Dining Table. White marble, very dramatic gold base, and seats up to four. I might have to cut my guest list down permanently.

Or should I just stick to the good old classic Saarinen Tulip table? High gloss white and marble are both options. Decisions, decisions.

I’d love for you to chime in and tell me what your favorites are. I really need help narrowing it down. You can check out my board over on Pinterest as well to see what other goodies I find!

Cheers to Monday! Hopefully, I find a table for my happy hour cocktails to land on. 😉

xo – Natalie

One Room Challenge: Progress and Perspective

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Happy week four of the One Room Challenge everyone! For those of you that have been following along on this non cocktail related journey, thank you! I promise there will be cocktails flowing on the big reveal day! Thus far all the progress for this project has been shared over on Michelle’s page but this week I’m very excited to be sharing my perspective and what the ORC has been like for me.

A few months ago I remember writing a blog post and mentioning how desperately I needed a change at home. When we lost bids on quite a few houses, we decided that maybe renting for another year or so and finding a new place was the way to go. And that’s exactly what we did! I found an amazing apartment right before we left for Palm Springs and actually signed my lease while I was still there. It was a scary decision to leave my apartment of nearly a decade for a new one but I am SO glad I did. Especially because it led me to working with Michelle Gage on my new livingroom.

I had been such a fan of Michelle over on Instagram and when she contacted me about the One Room Challenge, I pretty much fell off my chair with excitement. I shared my vision for the room with her and she seemed even more excited to make this room a reality. The crazy part about this is that all the design has been done via email and on Pinterest for the most part. I was a little skeptical about how e-design worked but now that I have done it I can understand why most designers are doing this method more and more and I would honestly do it again. The internet is a wonderful place guys.

I measured the room, made a floorplan and we contributed to a Pinterest board. The hardest part about this for me was worrying if my vision for the room was going to come through in the design but I feel as though Michelle has really listened to me every step of the way, which is really important to me. She is an absolute dream to work with and is so good at what she does, I couldn’t be happier with the way things are going.

In the past, I feel like I impulsively bought things over time and never had a room that was 100% cohesive. Planning it all out ahead, having a clear mood board to refer to and then placing items on order has defintely made me feel confident on how the room is all going to turn out. As items arrive, every day I get even more excited for the final outcome and I can’t wait to see how Michelle will style the final room.

In the meantime, I’ve been unpacking old treasures and putting props we ordered on the existing shelving. This is totally unstyled but all the pops of color already put a smile on my face!

I can’t wait to go plant shopping this weekend!

I’m really happy that we wound up using an existing rug because it looks great with the couch. I was a little bummed about the first bar cart falling through but in the end I got the one that I really wanted.

Almost everything for the room has arrived. The only things I am waiting on are some framed art, wallpaper, and the barcart should be here Friday. I can not believe I own this barcart or this pink couch. I’m here to tell you that dreams do come true!