Hazardous Design

Good Neighbors

2013-05-16T07:00:00.000-04:00

Chris and I received a nice note in the mail last week from the family who live in the house across the street from us.

Aw shucks :)

Let's Get to Work!

2013-05-13T07:00:00.000-04:00

Progress on our living room has been slow, but we're starting to make some headway. Most recently, we've come to a decision on the crown molding profile. Easier said than done. This has been a topic of conversation ever since we moved to Hazard Ave. (Interestingly, the house didn't have original crown when we moved in.) Being a "formal" living room and all, we want it to stand apart from the other more casually used rooms in the house. It needs to be a little fancy.

We've been back and forth on just how fancy. We both love jumbo dentil molding.

J. Savage Gibson, House Beautiful

But ultimately decided that this may not be right for our house. Plus it has a high probability of looking like a hack DIY job if done incorrectly. So we finally settled on a profile that still has a lot of detail but is a little more subdued: egg and dart.

Melissa Hawks, The Well Appointed House

Beautiful, no?

Chris has been playing around with some molding scraps and a sample piece of egg and dart.

I like where this is headed.

Going...Going...Gone

2013-05-02T07:00:00.000-04:00

The Norwood Maple in front of our house was probably planted around the time our house was built. We were aware when we moved in that the poor tree was diseased and would need to be removed, but I dreaded the thought. One of the charms of my neighborhood is its streets lined with established trees.

Last summer it was looking especially bad. It was clearly time to take action. Where we live, the trees planted on the curb are the property of the city, so I called them to take a look.

Then completely forgot about it.

Last week we were a little surprised to see half of it gone!

Seems it is our now responsibility to get rid of the unsightly stump.

Update: I love having a blog with such knowledgable readers...Per some of the comments, I contacted our city's forestry division to ask about the stump. The receptionist told me that the city WILL remove the stump, but it may take up to 10 months. She said we could remove it ourselves with a permit. Thanks readers!

Good News and Bad News

2013-04-29T07:00:00.000-04:00

The good news is that we finally got around to painting our living room walls and ceiling.

The bad news is that the room looks exactly the same.
White paint on freshly skimmed walls will do that I suppose.

Must. Add. Moulding.

Look, Ma...I'm In Print!

2013-04-25T07:00:00.000-04:00

When I was a little girl, my mom sometimes woke me up in the middle of the night. She'd make a pot of tea and together we'd sit at the kitchen table to pour over stacks of home decorating magazines. Strange? Yes. But now you understand that my obsession with shelter mags began at an early age.

Little did I know then that my guest bathroom would ACTUALLY BE FEATURED IN ONE!

Holy Moly, I don't even have words to express my excitement.

Seriously cool, right?

Special thanks to Elaine Phillips and Sarah Terry of Well Styled Home Bedroom & Baths magazine.

Neutral for the Win!

2013-04-22T07:00:00.001-04:00

Phew. It has been a manic last few weeks. Heck, months. I haven't had time to clean my house much less do any renovations to it.

So it feels like a huge accomplishment to have finally picked out a rug for our living room. When I asked you all for your opinion (colorful or neutral), the response was overwhelmingly in favor of a more colorful rug. In fact, I was even in favor of a more colorful rug.

But I kept coming back to this room in the former home of Katie Lee Joel decorated by Nate Berkus. It is sophisticated in its simplicity.

Photo: Evan Joseph

In an uncharacteristically impulse move, I ordered a neutral one from Room and Board. It is so difficult to pick out a rug online, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll like it when it gets delivered in a few weeks.

This is by far the most expensive rug I've ever purchased and I have huge concerns that Georgia is going to poop all over it within a few hours. She's lucky she's so cute.

Chris sat her down the other night and explained that if she messes on our new rug he will give her away. She looked at him like she understood, but I'm skeptical. I think I'll start investing in wee wee pads.

Field Trip: Portsmouth, NH

2013-04-01T07:00:00.000-04:00

Chris and I had the pleasure of visiting my brother and his family in the charming little seaside town of Portsmouth, NH over the weekend. Portsmouth is just a hop, skip, and a jump from the University of New Hampshire where we both went to school. I left. He stayed in the area and settled down. I'm so glad he did because this is the gorgeousness I get to come back to every time we visit.

On our little field trip, we walked through Strawbery Banke, an outdoor museum in Portsmouth's historic district. It is considered the first neighborhood in NH to be settled by Europeans. During the warmer months, Strawbery Banke opens the doors to several buildings that have been preserved to look the way they did at the time they were built. The staff dress up in period clothing to show tour-goers how people of that time lived and worked.

I was a little kid the last time I took the tour. I think I'd enjoy it even more as an adult.

Many of the homes in this area have widow's walks, rooftop walkways said to be used by the wives of mariners who would use them to watch and pray for the safe return of their husbands out at sea.

Chris and I dream about owning property here. Who wouldn't love living in a big white house with a picket fence with a view of the ocean?

Beer Budget

2013-03-17T18:25:00.002-04:00

Greetings from Boston!
I'm here in Boston for a few days on business. I was here last week too. Boston is beginning to feel like home.

View of the historic Old State House from my conference room

I've already scouted out my new favorite boutique home store in the North End, called Aquire. That's where I found this lovely cabinet which I figure would be a perfect statement piece for a big blank wall we have in our living room .

When I showed it to Chris, he agreed that it was pretty cool, but reminded me that we'd come across another cabinet during a recent Salvation Army visit that was equally as cool. If not cooler.

But I LURVE the black one.
Of course it is way expensive. More expensive than all the furniture at the Salvation Army combined.
Damn you champaigne taste!

Do you think I could find the look for less?

I Need a Vacation

2013-03-08T09:23:00.000-05:00

Guys, I apologize for my lack of presence in blogland lately. My job has me traveling all over the place and that leaves me with very little time to get any work done on the house much less write about it. I've been hinting to Chris that it would be so much fun to come home from a work trip to find that he's surprised me with a completely finished living room (a la TCL's "While You Were Out". Does anyone remember that show?). Needless to say that hasn't happened yet.

My travels have only taken me to locations as wintery as my own hometown, so I am in desperate need of a warm and sunny getaway. I've been daydreaming of South Beach, Miami. Just a short non-stop flight away, I can leave all my stresses (and passport) behind.

Last time Chris and I were in South Beach, we stayed at the Raleigh. You might recognize its iconic pool.

The Raleigh is heaven. I want my backyard to look like that patio restaurant.

But there are just so many stylish hotels to choose from in South Beach. It makes deciding where to stay a difficult decision. Like the Delano. The Delano was decorated by Philippe Starck. As you walk through the grounds and lobby, you can see his whimsical ways.

On second thought, this place may be too cool for me.

I presently have the King and Grove Tides South Beach queued up in my Orbitz "checkout suitcase". The Tides got a lot of press a few years ago when Kelly Wearstler redecorated it. The hotel has since changed management, but it looks like they kept her signature style.

My decorating senses could use a good dose of inspiration and my body could use some vitamin D. South Beach, here I come!

This or That? (and a Humble Request)

2013-02-25T07:00:00.000-05:00

Can you tell what's different in these living room mock ups?

I know, that was an easy one. What can I say? It is Monday and we can all use easy on a Monday. I'm in the process of debating rugs for our formal living room. Right now, the colorful one is winning this internal war, but I'm curious to hear what you think.

And in some very exciting news, Hazardous Design was nominated (for the second year in a row!) as a Best Remodeling Blogger in the JDR Annual Industry Blogger Awards.

I'd love you forever if you click on the badge above (or here) and voted for us! THANK YOU!

I Want White Walls

2013-02-21T07:00:00.001-05:00

I don't know about you but whenever I see a house with a dark painted exterior I assume the interior is just as dark. Being someone who lives in a dark gray house, I plan to go out of my way to ensure that doesn't end up being the case here.
So it is no surprise then that 99% of the inspiration pictures I've collected have white
walls.

Melanie Turner Interiors

Notice how many of these rooms also have pretty architectural molding. It really makes white walls more interesting, no? Chris if you are reading this, better get your protractor ready 'cause mama wants some fancy molding.

Blank Canvas

2013-02-18T07:00:00.001-05:00

As we wrap up the final details on our hallway and foyer, I'm already looking ahead to our next project, the formal living room. Formal living rooms sometimes get a bad rap for being rooms that noone ever uses, but ours is my favorite room in the house. It is where you'll find me enjoying a cup of coffee on a weekend morning or where I'm likely to doze off for an afternoon nap.

Although you'd never be able to tell from the photos I took when we did our inspection walkthrough of the house, the natural light is quite wonderful in this room.

This room has already come a long way since then.

Most recently we stripped the wallpaper,

And removed the crown molding (which wasn't original and not installed very well).

In December, the plasters installed a new ceiling and skimmed the walls.

Now I've got a blank canvas. What to do? What to do?

Math I Can Do

2013-02-13T07:00:00.000-05:00

Coffee table with brass legs

Ikea KLUBBO coffee table
photo by Bijou and Boheme

Iron empire chandelier

chandelier
photo by Melanie Acevedo

Refreshed Vinyl

vinyl chair
spray painted sofa by Johnny in a Dress

My Masterpiece

2013-02-11T07:00:00.001-05:00

I had some free time over the weekend being snowed in and all, so I took advantage of it.
I bought a gilded frame at an antique shop for $25 last fall. It just needed someone to love it, rescue it, and nurse it back to health.

It only took me 6 months, but I eventually did just that with a little rub n buff.

Your welcome, Frame.

But it was missing something. Oh yes, some artwork.

Now some people buy bread, milk, and eggs in preparation for a nor'easter, I made sure I had art supplies on hand.

I had no idea what I was going to paint on the canvas but I knew I wanted it to be turquoise. I think turquoise and gold look very pretty together.
In the end, I didn't paint anything at all. I kind of just mixed the paint and spread it all around on the canvas. I added some black streaks for good measure. I decided I liked it so I left it alone. Then I signed it to make it look like someone who knew what they were doing painted it.

I know. I'm not fooling anyone.

I hung it on the wall in a bare and blah spot in our bedroom.

I call it "Nemo".

SNOWBOUND!

2013-02-09T09:37:00.001-05:00

Looks like we're going to be stuck here a while...

Another Post About Hallways

2013-02-07T07:00:00.000-05:00

Are you sick of hearing about my hallway yet? If not, then please continue on.

Since reading this post, my mother has started a campaign to talk me out of choosing leopard for my stair and hallway runner ("Your house will look like a Vegas nightclub, Carrie!"). But I disagree. I think it can be rather tasteful and fabulous. Not to mention its stain disguising powers. I've never seen a dirty leopard, have you?

Jennifer Eisenstadt Design

So I brought home some samples from my local carpet showroom.

But the practical side of me is afraid I'll get tired of leopard before my wallet will allow me to replace it. So I am also looking at "safer" options.

Wool sisal could be kind of fun if paired with an interesting border, like this one from the 2012 Hamptons Designer Show House.

Habitually Chic

I found something pretty close at the carpet showroom.

The good news is that I've narrowed it down to these two options. The bad news is that I'm officially undecided between the two. The carpet showroom is sending out a designer to measure on Friday. Hopefully, she'll help me select one over the other.

Until then, I'm curious to hear where you stand... Spots or not?

A Grand Entrance: Foyer and Hallway Reveal

2013-02-04T07:00:00.000-05:00

Ta Da!

I have to say, this project took longer than I anticipated. In fact, it still isn't quite done (as indicated by the exposed heating element), but it is finished enough to show off some before and afters.

Here's what the front entry looked like when we first moved in. Not exactly what I'd call a warm welcome.

Same view today.

The sconces are from Barn Light Electric and the mirror is an antique find that I spray painted Rustoleum's "Safety Red". Loyal followers will remember the table I picked up from the Salvation Army. I had planned to cut it in half and use it under the mirror, but it doesn't line up right with the molding so we decided not to use it. That's okay. I like the hallway without it.

Here's another look at the staircase before. Remember that vinyl wallpaper? Gross.

And now.

We stripped the stairs and bannister then stained them dark dark dark! I hear that's all the rage these days. Chris did a fantastic job hanging all that picture molding.

Upstairs, it used to look like granny lived here.

But not anymore.

It looks clean and bright with white spindles and fresh paint on the walls. The upstairs hallway still needs to be decorated, but I haven't quite decided what to do up here. It will be a project for another time.

Writing this post is eye opening for me. When you live with something for so long, you kind of grow immune to how bad it looks. The old view from the top of the stairs.

Today. Let there be light!

Mirror shot.

Boy, am I glad that's over!
Time to put my feet up and relax...at least for a few more weeks. You know I've already got another project brewing...

A Stylish Starbucks

2013-01-31T07:00:00.000-05:00

Greetings from Pittsburgh!
I've been doing some heavy traveling lately for work and Pittsburgh was one of my recent visits. As anyone who travels for business knows, you don't get to see much other than the view from your conference room and the hotel.

So imagine my delight when I found my way through the hotel lobby of the Omni William Penn and into this Starbucks.

Holy molding Batman! And check out those black Murano glass chandeliers.... and the bistro chairs...and marble topped bistro tables...

I would have loved to ditch my meeting to have spent my entire morning here. Damn these grown up responsibilities!

Painted!

2013-01-28T07:00:00.000-05:00

Chris and I spent the majority of the weekend painting spindles, stair risers, and trim in our hallway. I hope to never have to paint another spindle again in my life.

I'm thrilled to say that we finished, but sorry to say that I've run out of time and daylight to take pictures and write a decent post for today.

Dare I say that I'll have a reveal to share next week???

Refinishing the Stairs Part 2: (Or How I Fixed a Bad Stain Job)

2013-01-21T07:00:00.000-05:00

Click here to read Part 1.

Lordy Lordy. If I said I was fearless at the start of this project when we started stripping the old finish from the stairs, I was certainly eating my words when I stained them.
I got scared. Real scared.
Everything started off smoothly. The oak banister took the dark Varathane "Kona" stain like a champ.

But the stair treads? Not so much. They were a big blotchy disappointing mess.

You can actually see defeat in the slump of my shoulders as I persisted.

No, I didn't pretreat using a wood conditioner. The directions said I didn't have to. All I can figure in my research is that the kind of wood our stairs are made from is one that doesn't take stain well. This may also explain why they looked so bad to begin with.

I seriously didn't know what I was going to do to fix it. The last thing I wanted was to sand them again and start over. Thank god for the Internet, because that is where I learned about General Finishes gel stain. I stopped hyperventilating long enough to place the order. Then naturally, my mind went to worst case scenario land as I waited for it. (As in, we're probably going to have to replace the entire staircase...)

When it arrived, I cautiously tried again. The gel stain is thick, like chocolate pudding. It smelled pleasant. I was hopeful. I used a white sock over a rubber glove on my right hand to wipe it directly on top of the bad stain job. Then I used a clean white rag in my left hand to wipe off the excess a few minutes later. I used a foam brush to get the stain in corners and around the spindles.

To my relief, IT WORKED! Top step, Varathane + General Finishes gel stain. Bottom step, Varathane only. My stairs only needed one coat of General Finishes to even out the finish.

In reading online reviews about General Finishes gel stain, we probably didn't even need to strip the wood first. Oh well, live and learn.

Three coats of poly later and the treads are done.

I really love how the dark treads look with the mahogany inlay of our floors downstairs.

Now someone is going to have to paint the spindles and risers.

I call "not it".

Picture This

2013-01-14T07:00:00.000-05:00

Shortly after we sanded the stairs, we got right to work on the walls. They'd recently been skim coated and were as smooth as a baby's bottom. Time to make them extra special.

Because we don't really have a big foyer, our front entrance needs a big wow factor. Chris and I figured that picture molding would be a good way to make a big impact in a small space.

I started by painting the ceiling and the walls the same color as the trim we're using throughout the house. (Custom color matched to our windows, cut with 25% pure white). The ceiling got flat and the walls got an eggshell finish.

Meanwhile Chris made the frames using astragal molding per his measurements. He affixed double sided tape to the back side of the frames to help him position them on the wall before nailing them in place.

One down, a trillion more to go...

I left him alone for the afternoon to go look at carpet samples.
I came home to THIS!

Chris said he really struggled with the triangles along the staircase. I'm kinda glad I wasn't around for that...

It was looking good, but not as good as it looked once we painted out the frames. Again, we used the wall color in the eggshell finish. (Btw, the paint finish on the walls and molding was a great source of debate over Christmas dinner. Some people thought it should be semi-gloss to mimic painted wood paneling. Some thought it should be flat to mimic plaster molding. In the end, eggshell seemed like a good compromise. I'm happy with that decision).

Phew. Almost done.
All that is left of this project is to paint out the trim and spindles as well as stain the stairs.
Can't. Wait.

Illuminated

2013-01-10T07:00:00.000-05:00

Remember my quest to find the perfect sconces for my hallway?
Even after all your advice and opinions, I still struggled to make a decision. Turns out, I just hadn't come across the perfect sconce yet.

But then the good folks at Barn Light Electric contacted me and offered a generous discount on a pair of sconces for our hallway in exchange for a mention on Hazardous Design. Ummmm, yes please! But between you and me, I was skeptical that I'd be able to find something that was both elegant and modern from a company with "barn" in their name.

To my surprise, there it was. The sconce I didn't even know I was looking for.

Vista Sconce

And suddenly, a decision was made.

It is sophisticated and timeless, exactly how I hope our hallway will look when we finish it.

Several others caught my eye too...

1/2/3/4

Kinda blows the whole rustic barn light image from your mind, no?

Refinishing the Stairs Part 1: Sanding Up a Storm

2013-01-07T07:00:00.000-05:00

While much of the country was experiencing blizzard like conditions the week after Christmas, Chris and I decided to create a little blizzard of our own. A sawdust blizzard, that is.
My big plan for our hallway involves refinishing the stair treads a darker color, so stripping and sanding the existing finish off was in order. Refinishing a wood floor isn't something I've ever done before, but I was fearless. As you can see from the before photo, we really didn't have much to lose.

We got a late start on the first day, then wasted a few hours using an orbital sander and a belt sander. The belt sander was doing it's thing, but the orbital sander (which we were using to hit the areas the belt sander couldn't reach) was hardly making a dent. We decided to switch to Citristrip, a chemical stripper.
We applied it to the stair treads, banister, and newel posts, then called it a day to let the stripper work its magic overnight.

The following morning we used scrapers to remove the stripper. See those pale yellow areas? That's as far as we got with the belt sander the previous day.

This time the orbital sander worked like a charm.

Looking good, right?

Now, don't think that I just sat back and took all the photos while Chris did all the hard work.

I spent hours stripping the banister and the newel posts. The newel posts were especially difficult because of all the little grooves.

By the end of the second day, my fingers were permanently stuck in the pose in the above photo, but I was quite pleased with the results. Between the freshly skimcoated walls and our unfinished staircase, our 125 year old house looks like a new build.

Smells great too! All that sawdust has a pleasing scent of a lumber yard.
Someone should make a candle and call it "Lumber Yard". I'd buy it.

Of course, we still need to apply stain and polyurethane, but we're going to hang the molding and paint the walls first. Lots more to come!

Skim This, Yo!

2013-01-02T07:00:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year!
Hope you all had a relaxing holiday. Chris and I sure did. We were productive too. The plasterers finally finished so Chris and I took the week off between Christmas and New Years Day to work on the hallway.

Let me catch you up to speed and show you what the plasterers did. (Apologies in advance for the quality of these photos. Most were taken at night).

The first thing they did was make a mess. Down came the old cracked ceiling in our foyer.

Off came the plaster going up the stairs. The plaster "keys" between the lath had broken and the plaster was starting to pull away from the wall. It was causing the wall to bulge. If you pressed against it, it moved. Not cool.
This exposed area was eventually replaced by sheetrock.

A day later, the new ceiling was installed and the first coat of joint compound went up.
Between you and me, I thought the walls were looking pretty good at this point. I would have stopped here if I had done it myself, but they went on to apply two more coats. Two more coats!

Upstairs you can see where they left off for the day.

Here's Chris admiring their work.
He's also saying "Carrie, I'm SO glad I didn't have to do this myself. Thank you so much for realizing that we needed the help of professionals for this job. You are so smart and the best wife ever."

Here's how the plasterers were able to reach the tall wall next to the stairs. One end rests on a step, and the other end is placed on a rung of a ladder at the bottom of the stairs. Looks sturdy enough, but I'm glad it was them and not me who had to stand on it.

We were adamant that the original ceiling medallions be kept intact.
And they were. They actually left it up when they took down the ceiling, and installed the new sheetrock ceiling above it.

Here are our hallways all skimmed, sanded, and looking fabulous.

With the exception of this project cutting so close to Christmas, it was quick and painless.
Well, there was also the dust factor. Even though every adjacent door was closed or sealed off with plastic, a fine powder of skimcoat dust still coated everything in our house.
Guess what Chris got as a Christmas gift from Santa this year?
A dust abatement system for his shop. We joked that we should have thought to set up upstairs...

There's more fun on the way. Who wants to refinish some stairs?

All I Want For Christmas...

2012-12-24T05:30:00.000-05:00

As promised, the plasterer started our hallway and living room project right on schedule:

"before Christmas".

Seeing how today is Christmas Eve and there is still much work to be done, I'm afraid the beautiful tree I envisioned illuminating our bay window is going to have to wait until next year.

I've been seriously stressing that the plasterers wouldn't finish in time for me to move the furniture back in the living room, decorate a tree, and make my house look "holiday perfect" in time for my guests. It is time to let all that go and accept that the situation is beyond my control.

This afternoon my family will begin arriving from near and far. There will be plenty of laughter, good conversation, tasty food, and cute little babies to hug and kiss. I may not have a Christmas tree, but I do have a wonderful family to share the holidays with.

So from myself, Chris, and our two furballs,

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!