Black is Beautiful AND we got a new rug!

Remember this photo from the treehouse tour of the upstairs?  Well, you've already seen the before-and-afters of both the dining room and the living room, so today I thought I'd give you a quick look inside the half bath project.

The upstairs powder room is located just off the living room, near the front entrance.  You can see it in the photo below; the door is open.

Not much to see here, folks. It's a teeny tiny bathroom that has a sink, a toilet and a linen closet.  And yes; I already told you there is grey carpet on the floor in there.  And yes; I know that is disgusting. But hey...let's just focus on the positive, k?

Talk about a taping nightmare.  What you're looking at here, people, is the ceiling.

As the paint went up I was terrified.  It was a total splotchy mess but it was too late to turn back so forward I marched.  No worries though.  4 coats of black paint later, we were all smiles around here.

Found this vintage painting for $15 and knew it was going to be a hit against those black walls and the celadon zig zag rug from West Elm.

Black and beautiful!  Here she is, friends, and she looks great!

The gold mirrored tray and cute little pill box are vintage and the Sydney Hale Co. candle is a little slice of Heaven that I was gifted from Twig & Willow. I highly recommend the cedarwood + vanilla scent; it is absolutely divine.  Still working on the accessories for this space.

I do love the way the West Elm zig zag rug color ties into the vintage floral artwork.  AND it hides a lot of that horrible grey carpet.  Win! Win!

Here's the view from the bathroom looking out into the living room.  Now of course, it's totally blown out due to all that sunlight bursting through the windows...amateur mistake...but you get the point.

And I know we're talking about the half bath today but how about a little love for our new living room rug too!  I recently ordered this Beaumont Adileh Natural Rug from Rugs USA.  It is so SO lovely.  Even prettier in person.

 I love that it looks like a vintage Persian without the $3500+++ price tag.  We went with the 'natural' color but we were super close to going with the 'spruce blue' which looks really pretty too. Because our entire upstairs area is so neutral and white, the living room really could handle a vibrant rug.  Instead though, we opted to stay with something neutral because, remember, at some point I plan on replacing these sofas and I didn't want to limit myself due to a crazy vibrant rug color.  In this rug, you can see some black & shades of grey, as well as some really faint apricot tones.  So far I am loving it but let me live with her for awhile; I'll do a full review in a few months and let you know how this bargain beauty is holding up. 

In other news, this is happening.  

New and improved garden wall pics coming soon!

I Spy :: furniture with feet

I love me some furniture with animal feet.  Seriously.  I can't really explain it but it makes me smile.  Maybe it's just that it's so totally unexpected.

Take for instance the bar stools in the kitchen below; if you were visiting with the chef in this {gorgeous} kitchen, it might take you a bit for you even noticed those fab hooves.

And this chair is just too much.  Doesn't it look like it wants to walk around the house with you sitting in it?  It makes me laugh.  Maybe that's it.  If you have furniture with animal feet in your home it probably means you have a good sense of humor; I love a bit of comedy in decor, don't you?

When you put your feet up after a long day, you surely won't miss these golden tootsies:

And how about this bench?  It's from a few years ago, designed by Oly Studio.  It's less funny and maybe even kind of scary.  But not in a bad way.  More like Harry Potter scary.  Okay, so that means it's not scary at all; maybe it's just a wee bit creepy is all.

So if you were paying attention during yesterday's living room progress report here at the treehouse, you may've noticed that we too like a bit of whimsy when it comes to decor.  We've actually got some hooves of very our own.

How great is our coffee table?  All those hooves!!!  I'm a little bit in love with it even though that glass top is crazy-making.  I'm convinced that there is some sort of dust conspiracy happening in this house.  It's like all the little pieces of dust communicate with each other and say, let's pile up again and see if we can make Bridgette insane today.  Seriously.  I am completely obsessed with dusting.  Can not help myself.  It's all over everything ALL the time.

But, oooooh, when she's clean, she really is so very pretty.

I have Mr. Cham+Thom to thank for this little piece of lovely.  We were living in Seattle and our vintage chrome and glass oversized coffee table just didn't fit in our tight living room area.  That and I was finally embracing my love for all things brass.  Sooooo the search began for a new table.  I mentioned it to Biff and at first, he was a little turned off by the whole brass thing. It didn't take long for him to hop on board though and once he came around HE started looking at Craigslist everyday, searching for our new table.  It happened pretty quickly too.  We scored this vintage beauty for just $35!  It was definitely a long haul to go pick it up but look at it; it was totally worth the drive.

So my friends, whether you've got big bucks to spend or are doing the thrifty thing like we are, there are fun footed furniture options out there.  One of my clients liked our coffee table so much, that she started scouring Craigslist everyday and found a table for her place that is nearly identical to the one we have!  We're still working on a few more projects at her place but I hope to have pics of that fantastic girlie glam pad for you soon.

In the meantime, whether it's animal feet on your furniture or your very own miniature gnome collection, drop the stuffy attitude and have a sense of humor when it comes to decorating your space.  A sliver of comedy is a great conversation starter among guests and in general, adds a welcome bit of happy to your home.

And who doesn't want a happy home?

images via Oly Studio & here

Garden wall teaser...

So, I guess I'm finally ready to post some pics of the interior garden wall.  I did promise after all.  This weekend I'm going to write one of my massive posts about the diy process.  In the meantime though, here's a lil' teaser.


Pretty, right???  I love the way the black pots and all that greenery pop against our white walls.  Every time I look over there it makes me happy. 
Of course, it's still a work in progress.  More plants to come?  Maaaybe...  Can we keep these plants alive?  Doubtful.  (Hmmm...that means we're going to be buying a lot of replacement plants...)  Should we buy stock in a plant nursery?  Probably.
Stay tuned!

The Treehouse :: the upstairs

Now that I've shown most of the projects we accomplished at the San Gabriel House, it's time to bring you up-to-date on a few of the more recent goings-on around here.

Cham+Thom Interiors is officially up and running & I've also been working on a ton of personal projects for the casa lately.  Did you see the cute re-do of my flea-market-find last week?  Well, if you looked closely at that post you may've gotten a sneak peak of yet another newly finished project happening in the dining room too.  More on that soon and yes; I know I'm behind schedule but I promise to post pics of the completed garden wall before this Friday!  And if you're following along on Instagram, well then you already know the dining room is looking mighty green and mighty fabulous these days.

So, you've probably heard me refer to our current house as the "treehouse".  I also like to call it Camp Cham+Thom.

It really is lovely.  It's in the hills of Silverlake with a beautiful view of the Reservoir and it truly does feel like a tree house!  We're perched on a hilltop with our main floor balcony, literally, in the trees.  We are one with the birds, the squirrels and lots of other lil' creatures (who I may or may not wish to be friends with).  We all get along for the most part though.  We have boundaries.  Well, usually.

Yes, people; that is a baby rat in my house!  I had gone out for a glass of wine with a girlfriend that night.  Seriously.  I was gone maybe 1 1/2 hours.  It was a Friday.  A hot day.  It was still early and light out when I left so I kept the balcony doors open.  I wasn't gone two hours and Bam! there's a rat in my house.  That's great.  Look at Gracie Jane Pickle.  She has no idea what to even do with this present that has fallen into her lap.  She's an indoor cat.  She only sees this stuff out the window or on the Nature Channel.  She's totally out of her element here.  Instincts?  Nope.  I don't think she has any.  She's like the big guy in The Green Mile.  She would never want to kill that poor thing; why would she kill her new friend?

Sadly, we've encouraged her killer instincts by our uncontrollable giggles and praise, as we watch her swat at her electronic toy mouse (that looks a little too similar to this fella).  So now she's swatting at this little beast (I swear he looked bigger in person) and I find myself screaming for her to stop.  Oh great.  Somehow it becomes my mission to keep the rat alive.

I called Biff and he laughed at me.  I think he expected me to kill it.  What?  HOW???  There may or may not have been some squealing.  By me.  And there may or may not have been a moment when I was standing on the sofa.  When I was squealing.  I texted Biff this picture of me (that's me last year with longer hair) after the fiasco was over and I had successfully SAVED Ratatouille's life.

Like I said.  We are one with nature here at Camp Cham+Thom.

But...I digress.

The house would only be more perfect for us if money were no option and we owned it! Then, of course, we might make a few more costly upgrades, but for now, we're all good.  We know how fortunate we are.  Our good friend is actually the owner and our landlord.  Which is how we came to know of this little slice of awesomeness and it's availability so we could pounce on it!

Here are some of the before photos taken in December 2011.  The house is Spanish built in 1928.  In this first photo I'm standing near the front door, facing to the left.  I turn a little to the right with each of these first few shots so you can get a sense of the whole room.  See those trees!  Like I said...we live in a treehouse!

The living room has a wood-burning fireplace.  Initial thoughts on the space: LOVE IT but what is up with that weird molding around the doors & windows?  Am assuming it was for draperies but why would you have curtains in this room?  No one can see in and the view is AMAZING!


In this photo you can see the dining room over to the right where the saltillo tile flooring begins.  The previous tenant left the tv you see here.  A tv mounted WAY too high in a space this gorgeous?  No thank-you. It had to go.

Here's a closer look at the dining room which steps down into our teensy weensy kitchen.  It's a nice size space and has a peaked/slanted ceiling but again, what's with the weird window framing?  I'm so curious if it was original to the house.  And although I wouldn't have them in the living room, I'm not opposed to window coverings in the dining room; our neighbor has a side door that is close by and there have been more than a few moments of awkward eye contact.  

And back into the main living room again.  Now I'm looking towards a small powder room and the front door.  The railing you see there is to a staircase that leads downstairs to the bedrooms and a full bath.

A quick look at the upstairs powder room.  Yes; that is carpet on the floor.  I know...I know...it's unthinkable, right?  Look.  I know it's not ideal BUT there's so much other goodness going on here that we've somehow gotten over it.

Just forget about the carpeted bathroom.  Instead look at this beyond gorgeous ceiling of ours.  Bathroom Shmathroom.  Like I said, we are so soooo fortunate.

So, these photos show how the upstairs looked when we moved in.  We've been here a year and half now and it feels more and more like home every day.  Things are still a work in progress and we are definitely taking our sweet time but I'm excited to show you what we've done so far.  Check in tomorrow to see that wonky molding come down and watch as the larger pieces of furniture find their place in the design plan.

Current Obsession :: spindle furniture

Are you guys familiar with spindle furniture?  I'm a huge fan.  Always have been.  

Hello, spindley chair.  You're looking mighty pretty in that traditional living room.

It's been popular since the 17th century.  Some people think the style is a little too country or antiquey.  Not me though.  I just love it.   

Carved spindles put a traditional twist (literally) on everything from side tables to candlesticks.  But nowadays, you can certainly find a more modern spin on this classic furniture style.

You can imagine how excited I was when I came across this sweet little table at the PCC Flea Market recently.  AND I scored it for just $25!

Look at those pretty spindles!  Now of course, she could've gone home with any number of suitors at the flea market that day.  But, she ended up with me, people, and as such...even though I love her au naturel look, she was destined for color!

For those who don't like painted furniture, look away, my friends; look away...  I'm seriously into shades of blue these days and my first thought was to go with a bright turquoise.  That didn't happen though.   (I know...I know...these are greaaaaat photos.  Please just stop judging.  I promise I'll get better.  Someday.)

Safety Red meet Ms. Spindle. 

Again, here she is when we first brought her home.



And here she is all dolled up in Safety Red. (I spy another diy project in the dining room...  Now what to do with those windows???)

Pretty, don't you think?  I still need to try some other styling options and that may or may not be her permanent spot in the treehouse.  I like the way she turned out though; the red is bright and cheerful and makes me happy.  And I do like the blue & white pottery with it. Take a closer look...



Hello little hedgehog (too-cute-to-be) measuring cups from Anthropologie.  

What? Am I the only one who talks to her furniture and home decor accessories?  

So there you have it.  A quick diy project on a fab flea market find.  Many more of those to share with you soon.

Have a great weekend!