Radio Silence

Sorry for the silence. Projects really have come to a halt around here, holidays are upon us and decorating is too expensive to get done when I'd much rather buy gifts and spend time with my kid and my husband. My friend Tara noted that the Ryckbost lifestyle is 7 shades of crazy and not only do I agree with her, I adamantly agree with her. The end of this year marks the end of a couple of things for us and I'm looking forward to a lighter and more enjoyable 2014.

 

We hosted thanksgiving at our house last week. For the first time ever. My parents have been hosting my mom's side of the family for the last 27 years but with their move to Dallas, it wasn't feasible to hold it at their current location. I was thrilled to be able to offer. We don't just meet for a meal in my family. Everyone comes early and stays late, sometimes for days. We had a total of 16 people (that being a light year) who shared the Thanksgiving holiday in our house and I loved every. single. minute of it. 

The house wasn't done. There were hundreds of little things that bugged me and I fretted until the moment people arrived. I worried they would see the imperfections of the this and the that. But they didn't and if they did they didn't say anything. They raved about the house. They asked all sorts of questions and then we just spent time enjoying it. That's the whole point of this house - to enjoy it.

We're not done, I keep saying we're not, and we don't plan to be for awhile. Paper shades still hanging in windows, windows that need work, a fire place missing a trim piece, dining room chairs, rugs, you name it, it probably needs some work and yet, I'm okay with it. I'm okay with not being done. I don't know why I am so worried about whether or not everyone else is okay with us not being done too.  

With the last of the family members heading out this morning, our house has been decorated for Christmas and we're ready for the next few weeks of celebration and the choice to be hospitable and to enjoy our home even when though the this and the that need some work.

The Entry

So speaking of tiny rooms in our house, you know the easy ones to get finished out first...we're going to talk about our entry today!

 

When we first toured the house, we came in through the living room side porch door. I don't think we walked through the front door until maybe after we had already bought the house. Back then there was a mosaic brown tile floor, two closets on either side of the room. The doorbell was attached to the back of the door, was an add on and wasn't audible from any room except this one. Not quite going to cut it. This room was small. It was tight. Like, so tight it was hard to stand in there let alone breathe.


We decided to take out the closets due to the lack of said breathing room. We could store our coats upstairs in our own closets (big enough to hold it all). I wanted this space to be a room for us to "receive" our guests and that wasn't going to happen with it's current set up. We'd be stepping all over eachother. In the process of removing the closet floors, the closets came out, then the tile, then the subfloor. 

 

We had all the exterior walls insulated with spray foam to help warm it up, we put in a vent for HVAC. It's still considerably colder or warmer than the rest of the house because we keep the glass door shut that leads into the foyer. But I love having this little room to come into first. It provides a buffer to our house. We rarely use our front door but when we start hosting more and more this next year, I hope to have people in and out of here constantly.

Then I painted the front door Totally Teal by Glidden. Over the last year I have gone from loving it, to it being so-so back to loving it again.

We put in a 2x2 mosaic tile floor that matches our large format tile. We installed gyp on all the walls, painted the Repose Gray by Sherwin Williams, threw up some base and quarter round and then left this room to sit for a very, very long time.

Sunday afternoon, Paul got into this room to take care of a couple small issues that needed to be looked at. That afternoon I was all fired up about finishing this tiny and insignificant room. A couple of quick "sale" selections and purchases really got the ball rolling. If you follow me on Instagram you saw a square and filtered version of this:

The console was on sale at Target for $115.00. I also got two square 12 x 12 walnut picture frames at Target on the clearance aisle for $4.50/piece. We placed it in the room, I left the light on and went upstairs to use the bathroom. When I came back down, the table, leaning frame and relocated greenery caught me off guard. It felt so-o-o good to have a room starting to get furnished. Even if it was teeny tiny. So I became ridiculously enamored with finishing out the space. It's perfectly square so I've decided Paul and I will attempt the crown molding ourselves. I have a feeling that we may end up hiring out the rest of the first floor (I think we can possibly pull of the smaller stuff upstairs).

I sat down Monday, gave myself a relative budget and went to work trying to piece together the final items. Here is my plan for the entry:



I am overly obsessed with color right now. But not all over every single piece. I want a really neutral background with usable pieces. I can replace an insanely patterned/colorful 3x5 rug in a few years but if I am committing to furniture I don't want it to be lime green.  Give me some walnut and I'll make my pillows and "frill" be bright.

For less than $500 I am going to completely outfit this little room, crown molding, accessories, rug, console, bench and all. Also, those antlers? Love. Their going to serve as our coat rack for guests. I got some extra cash this month for helping out some friends on some specialty software training, after I use up what I have leftover from that check we'll only be out of pocket maybe $90 for the whole thing and I'm going to push to have this room done by the end of October.

It feels so ridiculously exciting to be able to commit to one of these little spaces and feel good about actually making things happen.

In the last 24 hours I've debated spending any more money in this room at all. We need all those things I mentioned before (window coverings, a guest bed, a big girl bed, etc.) and saving any extra cash I have laying around would help us get to some of those bigger items first. But even though I'm torn, I've decided to commit to the room and worry about those other items later. It's all going to shake out.