House Tour!

Posted in Redecorating, Visual Eye Candy by Mallory

It’s about time I finally took you all on another tour of the place since we’ve done a bit of updating over the last few months. Let’s get right to the photos!

We’ll start with the master bedroom which really sold us on this place as it is a true master with plenty of space and a walk in closet. It’s definitely a work in progress in terms of design: it needs a floor mirror, lots of artwork and a rug. But I really do love the space (how did I live for 30 years without black out curtains?!)

Next we move down the hallway towards the rest of the apartment. The door on the right leads to our service porch with washer & dryer (and absolutely NOTHING to see.)

This little clock gallery wall was inspired by a recent episode of Fixer Upper. Jefe saw a version in a kitchen Joanna designed and LOVED the idea. We started with the bottom 3 clocks and are just adding as we find unique and interesting ones to include. Smaller 3 clocks are from Target, silver one is from Ikea.

Through the doorway on the left is the second bedroom/office. This room has changed the most recently and we’re really happy with the way its turned out. It is a great, comfortable space to work from as both Jefe and I do a fair amount from home. And despite this really being Jefe’s domaine in terms of aesthetics, I can’t wait to finally get a reading chair in here! It gets the perfect amount of light all day and is arguably the quietest room in the house.

Continuing down the hallway, on the left is the kitchen. This room is probably the closest to being done. There’s a few small tweaks yet, like covering the black cord of our new, much needed pendant light and finding a few small items to hang on the wall. But otherwise I’m calling this space COMPLETE (or until I find something new and decide to rearrange my open shelving).

We’re going to skip the super pink tiled bathroom for the moment (until I can clean it enough to be presentable for photos!) and move on to the dining room. We’re still on the hunt for a sideboard under the windows (from this perspective you’re back is facing them), but we really have only been purchasing items to a) replace our worn down Ikea pieces and b) that we plan to keep for the long haul. Nothing has really struck my fancy so far that I don’t think I’ll hate 5 years from now so there’s no need to rush a large purchase like that; I’ll know it when I see it. So the space is what it is for now. Nice, spacious and simple with plenty of room for dinner parties where I can get my Martha on. Artwork is by my extremely talented cousin!

Lastly, we move in to the room where we spend the most time – our living room. It’s really cozy and perfect during the cooler months. We’ve been working to really incorporate meaningful pieces in to the space – each of our home state flags, photos from my hometown, a few tchotchkes from our trips. Not much left in here to do design-wise but hang some more artwork, a mirror by the front door and a mirror to hang up blankets on by the floor lamp.

So there you have it for now. Our little home. Hope you enjoyed the tour!

30Apr2015

MIA

Posted in Before & After, Design Challenges, Design Projects, DIY, Mood Boards by Mallory

So where the hell have I been? I know, I know – life just got away from me. I’ve been refocusing on myself a bit – trying to get healthier, taking care of some actual health stuff too. Then a crazy girls weekend with my bests from college followed by getting sick for a full week just as I was cutting out caffeine and anything that tasted delicious….

Today’s gonna be a quick recap of updates around Chez Sledge. Last when I left you, we were working on our office. Since then we got our new chair from Wayfair:

And last weekend Jefe hung up some more art. Can you believe he took those photos of Fenway himself? The one of the stadium’s green seats with the single red seat is stunning.

The room is really coming together; I can’t wait until we can afford that armchair so I finally have my reading nook! I’m planning to relocate that white chair to the dining room, scoot the shelf unit over and make room in the corner on the left for it, right by the floor lamp and next to the window.

Next up is a quick update in the master bedroom. We finally managed to find a new nightstand for Jefe; it was made of solid wood with a reclaimed style to it. It was the first time we ordered anything from Joss & Main and I was thrilled with the outcome. Everything came pre-assembled and well packaged. From date of order until delivery was less than 2 weeks!

We’ve slowly been switching out the furniture in this room and with the addition of the new nightstand, it admittedly looks a little more mismatched than eclectic at the moment. That’s always the challenge once you move out of matching furniture sets to create a more curated look; it can look like quite the hodge podge of random items until you get close to the finish line. Here’s a little refresher (with a few updates) of what I’d eventually love the room to look like:

If you’re following along on Instagram, you’ll notice that we’ve made some serious progress in our backyard. But there’s a few more pieces to come so I’ll just leave you with this little before & after until I can give you the full recap.

BEFORE

AFTER

Lastly, I finally got around to tackling the lighting situation in our kitchen. After a quick trip to HomeGoods during my girls’ weekend, I snagged a cheap, neutral drum shade to cover up that horrendous fake-brass boob light.

BEFORE

AFTER

I still need to add a piece of fabric to it so you can’t see the ugly fixture it’s hiding underneath, but just by hanging the shade I can feel such a difference in the room.

Jefe and I also made a quick trip to Ikea last Saturday and managed to snag the Foto plug-in pendant and I can FINALLY see what I’m cutting while making dinner! I need to use some white cord cover so it blends in a little more, but I’m really happy with it.

I tried hanging it with the ceiling screws included, but it turns out our ancient drywall is a bit crumbly in the ceiling so 3M hooks to the rescue. I only wish I had tried them before I put giant holes in my ceiling but that’s what spackle is for, am I right?!

Here’s both lights in action:

All in all, we’ve been making some great progress around the place. I’m really please with how it’s turning out!

19Jan2015

FOR SALE!

Posted in Design Challenges by Mallory

Guys and gals – we’ve got a GREAT desk up for sale via Craigslist. It’s our two-seater custom combo desk from Ikea. Legs/base are interchangeable to either side. Shoot me a note if you’re interested.

7Jan2015

Happy New Year

Posted in DIY, Life Stuff, Redecorating by Mallory

Happy New Year friends! I hope everyone had a restful and relaxing holiday. I’m still nursing my second cold in the last 3 weeks so it’s been slow going on the restart here at Chez Sledge.

What is it about the last 2 Decembers that they just flew by? Another holiday season, I blinked, and next thing you know Jefe and I are hauling our sad, dry skeleton of a Christmas tree to the curb for recycling. We had all sorts of plans this year, most of which we accomplished. It did, however, leave little time for blogging. So here’s a little recap of the Holidays with Sledge:

Black Friday – Jefe and I continued our tradition for the 5th year in a row of braving the masses at Disneyland. It truly is the happiest place on Earth and best place to start getting in to the holiday spirit. Everything is covered in lights, ornaments and general festiveness. This year we decided to try out a few new restaurants as we’ve done all of the rides so many times.

After watching CHEF, we were craving beignets and heard raves about those shaped like a Mickey at Cafe Orleans. Our lunch was delicious, especially Jefe’s Croque Monsieur, but we were left so full that there was no room for beignets. Sad Mickey :-(.

For dinner we trekked over to California Adventure to Carthay Circle. It looked like something you’d find in Beverly Hills in the 1920’s. Just a stunning combination of art deco meets spanish mission. And the food was good enough to rival any trendy restaurant in Weho.

The next day we piled in the car and headed to our favorite tree lot to pick this year’s winning Noble Fir. After little deliberation, we decided on the fullest pine tree I have ever tried to decorate. He stood about 7 feet tall. We debated whether we could have gone taller, but the 8-9 foot Firs were not looking nearly as Noble.

We invited Jefe’s parents over that night to help decorate and quickly realized that next year, we can definitely go with a taller tree thanks to our 9-foot high ceilings, but I’m still more than pleased with this year’s selection.

A holiday coffee spread to invigorate for tree decorating!

So the next 24 hours we spent decking the halls. The only new addition to this year’s festive artillery was a $2.99 traditional star tree topper from Ikea and a few ornaments from Disneyland.

The following weekend Jefe and I jetted off to New York to celebrate my birthday and decorate tree #2, Jefe’s brothers. We did it last year and it was so fun to be able to continue the tradition this year. I also managed to drag Jefe to the ballet for the first time to see “The Nutcracker” at Lincoln Center, did some holiday sight-seeing, did an awesome #museumhack tour of the Met and caught up with my high school friend Beth!

This brings us to mid-December already! After 5 months of living in our new place, we finally decided to host a housewarming / holiday / birthday party. Things were a little harried prepping for guests so I didn’t manage to get any photos but I can say that Trader Joe’s can make a mean appetizer. You really can fool anyone in to thinking something was homemade when it’s fresh out of the oven and artfully displayed on a Santa platter. I’m pretty sure 95% of the food we offered came from TJ’s. Seriously, it’s the best way to host – no cooking, just artful arrangements.

Falalala sign courtesy of Oh Joy!’s line at Target

By the following week, Jefe and I were packing our bags to head back east. Within the span of 7 days, we slept in 5 beds and traveled via UBER, plane, train and mom’s automobile. We made merry in Los Angeles, Lancaster and Tyrone, PA and New York City. It was quite the whirlwind.

Cousins reunion in Tyrone, PA

Jefe & I on Christmas Eve

My brother Casey and his “elf on a shelf” (our nephew Raylen)

And here’s a little tour of my mom’s place all decked out. I get the Christmas love honestly…

No fireplace means stockings go on the chairs 😀

I love me a good tartan tablecloth!

I love this old window-turned-mirror. Wouldn’t be Xmas without some lit garland though.

Excuse the lack of focus. This was prior to 9am and I hadn’t had ANY coffee yet….

And some of Christmas in NY (Jefe was so bummed he missed the Met #museumhack tour, we went again!):

And then I caught the plague which had me laid up on my mother’s couch for the next 5 days. New Years Eve was spent with my family, one good friend who braved my contagion thanks to a hearty dose of antibiotics, and a piping hot mug of green tea. No champe this year for the Champe Champ.

Then Jefe and I headed back to LA where we undecked the halls and dragged our poor tree out to the curb. Nothing makes me sadder than seeing Christmas trees on the side of the road. Their time is so short….

We have a lot of candy canes to get through in January….

Jefe got distracted from un-decorating by a Christmas present…

And to wrap it all up, one final shot of our beautiful tree of 2014:

20Nov2014

Office Redesign

Posted in Design Challenges, Design Projects, DIY, Mood Boards by Mallory

Last week I gave you a little preview of our office and today I’d thought I’d share the full plan and a little DIY!

For starters, gaining this space when we moved was a huge stress reliever. Jefe works from home a fair amount so he needs a quiet space to take those 6am calls with his East Coast colleagues. Our last place, although it boasted an open floor plan, left a lot to be desired if you needed your own, private space. It made Jefe’s working from home and my keeping up with yoga near impossible because let’s be honest – I love him, but I’d rather he not stare when I’m going from downward dog into ANY other pose.

So – new room means new space to decorate. As the space will primarily be for him despite my push to make it a craft room, I decided to focus the design around the few items he’s already got that he wants displayed… and I’d prefer they’re not sitting in our living room. So thanks to shelves and shelves of bobbleheads and mini helmets, I’m aiming for an old world study with splashes of vintage sports paraphernalia.

The room is still a serious work in progress, but here’s where we stand:

And where I hope to be:

Last weekend we picked up a Kallax at Ikea to replace that sad and lonely bookshelf along the wall with our diplomas. It will give us space to finally set up our scanner, spread out our books (pulling a few from the full shelves in the living room) and accessorize a bit. Hoping to have that built before Jefe gets home from a work trip on Friday!

While flea marketing a few weeks ago, Jefe also mentioned he’d be open to a new desk so I’ve got my eye on a few contenders; I’d still like something large enough that we each can have our own area, so I’m thinking an old dining table. It will give a vintage feel while still providing a long, open workspace.

The rest of the mood board is fairly self-explanatory (and I’m getting a little wordy), so time for the promised DIY!

When we first moved and established this as the office, Jefe mentioned getting a dry erase board. But why buy a boring, sterile looking thing from Office Depot when I can whip one up in a flash? I saw this and knew it’d be a cinch….

source

Famous last words. I knew you could use dry erase markers on glass, so I immediately thought of just buying a huge frame with an edge we liked. Then I’d slip some paper or fabric behind the glass to give it some added character.

Flash forward to his birthday, I got the genius idea to paint behind the glass with Benjamin Moore’s new Fenway Collection. Nothing but Green Monster Green for my Jefe. Well, apparently they don’t sell a New England baseball team inspired paint collection west of the Mississippi. So after many phone calls to 20+ paint stores, I found one that called BMoore’s headquarters, got the color formula, and custom created it for me. For those that would love to avoid this hassle, here’s the color formula:

The rest was, in fact, fairly easy. I picked up some matte board that had a bit of texture to it and just slapped a few even coats of the paint on it. I could have painted directly on the back side of the glass, but wanted the option to be able to swap it out if Jefe ever got tired of the green.

Once dry, I slipped the matte board inside the frame and voila! Instant, custom dry erase board.

I considered painting “Fenway Park” in white like it is on the scoreboard of the ACTUAL Green Monster, but second guessed myself. Luckily, Jefe likes it better this way and we can always add it later if he changes his mind.

And for those still reading, I have some exciting news! Jefe has taken it upon himself to prep a blog post for you guys! Can’t wait to share it with you all in the coming weeks!

Sledgehammer With Style

Hollywood marketer by day, design blogger by night.

Tag Archives: Ikea

House Tour!

MIA

FOR SALE!

Happy New Year

Office Redesign

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