Black Out

If you were paying close attention to the shots from our Fabulous Mad Men Themed Birthday Extravaganza of the Year (that's what the associated press are calling it I bet) then you may have caught a glimpse of  our latest project.

After much debate and countless hours of staring at the walls and trying to decide what that room was missing, we went for it.  We painted the dining room black.  Why you ask?  Well, no one really knows for sure, but it seemed like a good idea.

It was a heavily debated decision, especially because I initially thought the room needed black and white horizontal stripes.

I now realize that was more than likely a slight error in judgement.

It took a while but we (and when I say "we" I mean "Evan") got started and painted the entire room white.  We (I was involved in this) taped up some paper stripes.  We stared at them.  Took them down and rearranged them.  I wasn't convinced.  For a moment I thought the room could just stay white.

But that moment was fleeting.

In the end, we had the black paint and we decided to just go for it.

We started with one wall...

Then added another...

And then a lot more staring ensued.

The weekend of the party sneaked up on us and we decided to put the room back together.  We figured we could decide what to do with the remaining two walls later on.  But once everything was in place, we were kind of digging the half&half look and so for now, it stays.

(the view from the living room) 

(the other white wall)

A little crazy.  A little cool.  But a lot of fun for sure.

Up - Gray'd

The living room is now a subtle tone of gray and I have to say we are very pleased with the results.  We're still piecing it back together and I am still deciding if now is a good time for some re-arranging of things, but the general consensus is: its a win!

Now, can we please get back to obsessing over black walls?  In the past few days I have found several amazing images of black rooms and I think I have all but decided the dining room is next.  Yep, that's right dining room --- we're coming for you!

Those windows above are to. die.

This next kitchen very, very loosely reminds me of ours.  Except for the black paint and sort of everything else...

And then this next pic - which kind of looks like it would be a disaster, but also kind of looks like the best. game. night. ever.  

Hello Pictionary?! Yeah, I'm talking to you.

Nice Foo/Fu Dog lamps too btw.

We did actually do a smaller scale version of the chalkboard wall in our kitchen, which turned out pretty cool.  We had this random door to nowhere that screamed "SAVE ME!" and so the conversion began.  It was kind of a mess to get going, mainly due to the over-spray from the can of spray chalk board paint, but it dried quickly and was ready for chalkin' in no time.

You can kind of see it here.

Oh and while we're talking about things that happened months/years ago.... the Foo/Fu Dogs?  I picked up a random set of them at an antique mall last year because they reminded me of a pair of earrings my grandma Mimi used to have.  She had lots of crazy earrings, which might explain why I have lots of crazy earrings, but aside from that --- I thought they were cool and I liked their symbolism of them as it related to ancient Buddhist tradition.

You can sorta-kinda-barely see them in this pic:

Any way, the very next week I was sitting in the movie theater with my girlfriends for Sex In The City II, when I saw the same dogs in turquoise on Carrie Bradshaw's coffee table....

And as it turns out --- basically we're twins, which I sort of always knew, but now have confirmation of.

After searching for this image today (thanks HomeBunch) I also noticed the sort-of-gray color on the walls and realized how much I need a turquoise ottoman.

And while we're on the subject of that apartment, you may as well check out the entire tour of their super posh "home" that I found today here.


I read through it and couldn't believe the price on some of those items. Nuts. Anyway, lots of great images to inspire me today.  Just wanted to share.