Serving Up Style (Part I)

So, if you have been following my blog, you already know that I have been planning a few projects for my home (if not, you can see what I’m talking about here).

Well, unfortunately one has been delayed…the most important one.  The bathroom.  I had already started work on the project, taking down the towel bars, toilet paper holder, and toothbrush holder and filling all the holes in the wall, but I was informed by Tom’s mother, who lives in an apartment below us that there is a leak, so I have to hold off until a plumber comes to check everything out.  Depending on the outcome, the work I was planning may change entirely and we may (fingers crossed!!!) end up with an entirely new bathroom, which would be amazing.

That being said, I did start work on another project, (the most fun one!!) which is putting together a bar.  I am super excited about this one because, it ups my apartments cool factor by like 10,000 points, I have had this idea for a VERY long time and it’s awesome to see if finally come to fruition, and most importantly it gives us some much-needed storage.

The idea I’ve had was sort-of Mad Men inspired, because who doesn’t want their home bar to be inspired but a bunch of well dressed men that get hammered all day long at work whilst remaining highly successful and a bit over promiscuous (right?). No, that’s not why, well…not completly why anyway.  I really love the look of a 60’s bar – the mid-century modern furniture, the booze on display, the sophisticated air of it all.  And the truth of the matter is we have a ton of booze that we don’t even drink and we didn’t have a place for it that was away.  It just sat out on a storage island in our kitchen getting dusty and making us look like we had a serious alcohol problem.  I’m not even joking either, my 13-year-old nephew came for a visit and when he left he said to my father, “Wow! Julia and Tom have a lot of liquor bottles, are they alcoholics?” Ha!

Anyway, last week during another insomnia induced shopping spree, I went on to Craigslist to see if I could find a reasonably priced mid-century modern credenza that would work as a bar in my space.  I found one, and at a great price too – they even delivered it right to the spot in my “dining room” where it will reside.  It’s AHH-MAZE-ING!!!  And yesterday I took a trip to HomeGoods to help accessorize it.

So as a little teaser I’m gonna show you some bits and pieces, but I can’t wait to show you the finished product!

Taffy scented soy candle

Detailing on the credenza

Sneak peak of some decor

A fine bottle of single malt whiskey

Christmas decor with a glimpse of my favorite item – a leopard print shaker

Two bottles of sparkling peach juice and a vintage print

Barware and peacock drawer liners that smell like lemongrass

Amazing sparkly teal colored dishes

Making My House a Home

All this time stuck in my house due to the hurricane, and all of the stories of friends, and friends of friends, losing their homes has made me realize that I should be taking better care of my own home (among other things…).

Currently, at Casa de Julia (and Tom) we have started by de-cluttering and dusting.  But now, I’d like to really start doing some projects around the house to make it reflect my style a bit more.  To help cultivate this style I have been pinning things on Pinterest like a mad women for the last 24 hours or so. (check out my Pinterest here if you like).  My place has great bones (and hardwood floors!), but is in serious need of a face lift but, we only have a botox budget.  So here are a few of the projects I want to do around the house to make it look fresh and new.

There are a whole lot of updates I have in mind, but these are the main things I’d like to get done, the first of which is creating a bar area in my “dining room” with a buffet table.  I really like the idea of a sixties style bar to house all our liquor and wine as well as our nice glasses and stem-ware.  Plus, it just gives such a cute and put together look if done right.

I love this bar styling guide from a fellow blogger at landofnams.com

Another project I would like to do, is fix my awful, awful bathroom.  It’s small and a hot old mess…the tiles and all of the fixtures (i.e.: sink, tub, toilet) are Pepto pink and our vanity is maroon and falling apart.  The walls have poorly filled holes and an array of other issues that need to be spackled over and sanded.  I am not a DIY type of gal, although I’d love to be, but in this case due to my lack of funds I really have no other way of getting it done by anyone but myself.  So I came up with a few ideas I want to try; since I can’t afford to gut or really change much in the bathroom, I am going to focus on what can be done.

Bathroom issue #1: Replace the vanity.  I’d like something a but more modern, with some wood and metal accents and in an ideal design I could find a way to fit our kitty litter box under/in it so that I can work on my 3rd project which I’ll explain below.

Bathroom issue #2: Fix the walls – I plan on spackling and sanding away all of the (many) imperfections our walls have and then adding a fresh coat of paint.  The main design aspect of this would be the paint…since I can’t change out the pink I’m thinking that should actually tie it in.  My idea is to add a horizontally striped wall with pink, light grey and white stripes in different sizes….maybe if I’m feeling extra saucy I’ll do it in chevron stripes, yowza.  Anyway, I think it would add a modern and playful touch.

Kind of like this but with pink, white and grey.

The third big-ish project in my house that I would like to start working on is our spare bedroom.  Currently, it’s a storage/closet/jewelry vanity/treadmill/cat litter room that still has a Pooh Bear border from wayyy before we moved in and really ugly grey carpeting.  We just finished cleaning it out and now I’d like to turn it into a nice office type space where I can get ready in the morning – and I want the kitty litter OUT.  I refuse to put any of my makeup in that room because I don’t want to chance getting pink eye.  I constantly have to dust my perfume bottles because they are always getting covered with litter dust – gross!  I am not really sure what I want to do in there just yet, but my mind is working overtime to figure it out (thank goodness for Pinterest ha!).

Lastly, I want to spruce up our insanely outdated kitchen (we have a canary yellow oven and stovetop…ek!).  I’d like rip the entire kitchen out and start over again but I have resigned to painting the cabinets and adding some modern hardware to the doors as well as pulling up our hideous green and white vinyl tiles and adding something in a neutral tone that resembles stone or ceramic tile.  Also, if we can find something affordable I would LOVE to change out our marble patterned formica countertop/backsplash with something a little nicer and more stylish but, we’ll see.

I found this nifty guide to painting my own kitchen cabinets over at diy-guides.com

I’ll keep you guys updated on these projects as I start doing them and I’ll post some before and after pics as well.  Ah! I can’t wait to get started! 🙂