So for those that know me, I am not the "do it yourself" kind of girl. I'm more the "pay somebody to do it because I don't want to deal with it" chick. This drives Coco crazy because he hates when I throw my Diddy dollars around for things like, painting a wall, putting up curtains, and possibly even hammering a nail. I kid, I kid. Its not far fetched, but thankfully, he steps in for much of the heavy lifting in our apartment. Anyways, I am very proud to say that I have recently undertaken some DIY projects to incorporate in our home, or even update a look, and I have to say, I'm impressed.
I love our apartment! That's not to say it hasn't gone through several incarnations, colors, style, and furniture (lots of these on impulse because of moi) as I find my true design personality. Coco is the more "let's think this out" voice in our marriage. I, on the other hand, am the "i want this now and I need to have it. It'll be great". You see where am I going with this. Example: Despite Coco's affirmative "No's", I went ahead and painted our guestroom in hot pink because I had a vision of a pink and orange room. It was an eye sore. It had a very short life span.
I wanted to prove to myself and to the naysayers, that I can certainly put my laziness and overwhelming feelings of design aside and do something small to build my creative confidence. My first task was to turn some boring dark wood coffee and console table into vibrant pieces for my living area. I made a trip to Home Depot, loaded up on paints and sand paper (how very HGTV of me!)and successfully transformed the coffee table and console into two very "new" distinctive barn yard red colored accent furniture pieces. I gave myself a nice pat on the back. I also gave my neighbors a nice view of my skillz since I felt it appropriate to paint them on my roof deck in my bra. To add a little character, I stopped at Anthropologie and replaced the knobs with some beautifully detailed hardware. Gorgy!
Now back to what this blog is REALLY about (see pic above). My photo wall. I love, actually I adore, photos. I'm that girl that has a camera in her purse and takes photographs of everything because I love memories. So I had this vision for my hallway wall over my mirrored console table, that I wanted to do a mix and match of old and new frames, mirrors, etc. Something eclectic and vintage looking. Once I brought myself down from a mini panic attack of feeling overwhelmed and not knowing where to begin or in making my vision a reality, I slapped myself out of it and began my process. In the recent fall catalog for Pottery Barn, I fell in love with this fabulous dark wood frame with a natural burlap interior. Stunning and it had such a "used" feel to it. It became the focal point of the mall and also the most expensive item I purchased. To capture that vintage, "lived in" feeling I desperately wanted, I hit up some amazing flea markets and thrift stores in the city. At the Hell's Kitchen flea market, I picked up a couple of old frames, all of them no more than $5 and a bronze painted $10 mirror. So far so good. Its happening! That same day, I rode out to Rhinebeck, New York for a shoot and decided to hit up a local Estate sale in this quaint, All American town. And I am so happy I did! I picked up two french colonial style prints in white frames for $5! Two for $5. Bananas! But my favorite purchase was actually a small caricature of a woman's profile dating from the early 1900's. With caricatures being all the rage now in design and people paying hundreds of dollars for a replica, I scored an authentic one for $5. Granted, it was very fragile. But nothing a frame store couldn't restore. It adds so much character and really tells a story. That's what this wall is- one big story. I found a great city sketch (looks like it could be a town in Germany) at a small thrift store on the Upper East Side. My last key additions to this wall were two old photographs I picked up at an antique gallery by my apartment months ago. They are actually from Mexico City and depict two curvy topless women posing in Gatsby-esque garb. They are sepia and very sexually glamorous. Now once my frame acquisition was complete, (added a couple of regular 4x6 or 5x7 frames from Crate and Barrel or from my basement), I took them to the frame store to get the backs refinished and had one of the flea market frames turned into another mirror! I kept surprising myself more and more and honestly thought I could become the female Nate Berkus and be on Oprah's show. A little bit of a paja mental, pero you never know, right?!
Enter Coco, stage left, with a hammer and some nails, and we began to bring my vision to life. Did I mention I had several old photographs of Coco's grandparents in Queens from the 40's and used them in several of the frames? Including his grandmother's cheerleading photo. It really added sentimental significance to this little portion of our home and design. After 15-20 minutes of measuring, and me telling Coco what to do, the wall was complete! We both stood back, took it in and I was left in shock. The good kind of shock. Even Coco said to me "You did a good job, babe.". My goodness! The sense of pride I had in myself just burst out of me. I was so proud. I did it. All by myself. I stepped outside of the box, put my laziness in my back pocket, and proved to myself that with some patience, time, and research, I could do just about anything! I smell more DIY projects in our future. My apartment is a space of endless opportunities.
Of course, I'm still willing to pay for any form of hard labor. It is ME we are talking about!
Here's to you. Here's to me.
Kathy.
