Reader Design: Nicole's Thrifted Nest

A moment of levity comes this week with Nicole's beautiful home. Now, most of you know Nicole as a #howyouhome co-host along with our very own Chelsea. Today, she's giving us the inside scoop on her Nashville home that we've come to admire often in those little Instagram squares. 

Nicole and her husband moved from NYC to Nashville several years ago and are now renting in the area. That means Nicole gets the opportunity to be extra creative about her decorating!

From Nicole:

“I like to define my style as eclectic but with a classic spin. It’s definitely a mix of midcentury modern, boho and eclectic with traditional touches. All of the styles together create a more unique look.”

Her living room here has it all - boho elements, thrifted finds, plant life, and some amazing mix-and-match patterns to keep it interesting. 

“I’m inspired by the ocean so blue seems to be my go-to choice of color to decorate with. I love pictures of the ocean, boats, and anything tropical. It just relaxes me. A home that is collected over time and from many different sources makes it more unique to you. A ton of my home is from Craigslist and thrift stores! Not only does that make my home more personal to my family but it also makes it more affordable. I prefer to keep a more polished look though so I get rid of unnecessary clutter or pieces that don’t add anything to my space. ”

I wouldn't call Nicole's style minimalist, but she's certainly careful about the items she chooses to surround herself with. 

“‘m not gonna spend a lot of money on things that are trendy. I’ll either thrift them, come up with a way to DIY it, and use accessories as a way to change things out with the trends and seasons. We’d rather spend our money on things that are timeless and will stick around with us for years to come. ”

The bedrooms are all kinds of wonderful with their textiles and wall hangings. They're the kind of bedrooms I would have loved to slumber in after Tuesday night - anyone agree? 

Nicole, thank you for letting us in to see more outside those tiny squares. Your home is beautiful! Follow Nicole along @sweet_domicile for more! 

We're off the Reader Designs next week for Thanksgiving but I'll see you all in December!

Hunter Green Campaign Chest ||And the Craigslist Experiment Results||

Back in August, I decided to conduct a little Craigslist experiment in order to test a theory.  Basically, my hypothesis was that a reserved and sophisticated muted teal piece would sell faster than my usual edgier and bolder color choices.  

1 month in, and I had a few nibbles but no solid bites.  I re-baited by lowering the price  and still hadn't "hooked" anyone.  Then I stumbled on a unique opportunity to test my theory even better.

No I didn't repaint the muted teal dresser.  I actually found an almost identical 7 drawer dresser.

Chelsea and have been crushing on hunter greens lately.  If we had our way, we'd write it in on the color-of-the-year ballot.  Scratch that, we'd probably write it in for President.  After Chelsea rolled out this piece in "Scholar Green" by Ralph Lauren, I think I started salivating at the thought of doing a piece of my own in such a moody shade.  When I found myself with another long-and-low campaign piece, it was a no brainer. 

Since the brass campaign chest was the same in size and scale, it was the perfect opportunity to pit a newer trendier color against the "safer" muted teal piece,

The second chest had brass recessed pulls and decorative T-braces indicative of a true campaign piece.

The hue is dark and moody and could be a little risky for a potential buyer.  In person, it has a velvety, buttery texture.

Taking a cue from the hue, I went all equestrian with my styling.  

The wall hanging was an easy vintage-inspired DIY that cost less than $10.

The camel leather "riding" boots and plaid blanket scarf were also inspired by my favorite fall weather (and hey, I'm really just looking for any occasion to break them out).

Although Chelsea and I are firm believers that dark green is the new neutral, not everyone can be so easily committed to such a strong look.  For that reason, I decided to style as both a living room credenza and a bedroom dresser in hopes that it would show its versatility.

On the left, the  living room credenza has a stack of books and decorative plant.

While on the right, the bedroom dresser has a makeshift vanity station on a simple tray.

So let's get to the results of my expanded experiment: last month, a potential buyer set up an appointment set up an appointment because the green piece had caught her eye, but when she arrived she realized the muted teal piece was more suited for her new home in the suburbs and purchased it instead!

The green chest sold to a fabulous inner-city couple a little over a week later.  Interestingly enough, both pieces went for about the same price.  Even though the muted teal sold first, it had been listed for nearly 2 months and only "accidentally" got a buyer.  The hunter green was only listed for a grand total of 2 weeks.  Ergo, my results are a tad inconclusive.  But hey, I didn't go to school for scientific research now, did I? LOL.

Dark Green Campaign Chest
56"W x 18"D x 29.25"H
SOLD

Even though this handsome gent already sold, you can always contact me about a custom order!  

DIY (aka Frankensteined) Chandelier || Flip List Item No.3 ||

Happy Halloween Style Mutts!  As you may well know that this summer, I made lofty promises that I would soon be posting a BIG REVEAL of my 2016 Furniture Flip Bucket List item No.3...   Well, the end of October may not classify as "soon" exactly but what better day for a reveal of a frankensteined chandelier than all hallows eve?

God must've had a good chuckle when I ended my post back in July with "I'm still working on the wiring for the sputnik chandelier and [if all goes well] will be sharing the results soon!"  Unbeknownst to me, He obviously knew I was in for a wild electrical wiring ride, a puzzle of a mounting mechanism, and a treacherous install while balancing on the back of our couch.

Before we continue, let's pause for the obligatory disclaimer: I am not an electrician.  I built, wired, and installed this light fixture at my own risk.  If you are interested in building, wiring, or installing your own light fixture - please do EXTENSIVE research before you lift a finger and consult a professional electrician.

We good?  We good.  

Ok so this project started when I found an old foyer lantern in August 2015.  The bulb apparatus inside was so cool!  The staggered lengths.  The brass finish.  I harvested what looked useful and repurposed the glass shell as an umbrella stand.  Now that I had the arms for a sputnik light, I needed to find a body.  I was considering building an angular wooden skeleton that I could route wires through until I found a quirky mid-century modern table lamp for a whopping $15.

The lamp's hollow brass square rod was perfect!  I officially had what I needed to build the frame.

And in case you're wondering, the rest of the table lamp didn't go to waste either.  It became a plant stand:

Making the complete family tree as such:

So at this point, I'm staring at the light-less frame of what could be a really cool chandelier after over a year of planning and I. Am. Stuck.

First off, the hollow cavity in the brass rod I took from the MCM lamp was very very narrow.  I tried splicing the existing wires from the foyer light bulbs and running those up through the rod.  When I finally hooked it up to a plug in socket to test it, only half of the bulbs were working.  

We need more power Igor!

Ruling out a dead light bulb or two, I had to disassemble the entire thing and start from scratch.  After consulting a professional at the Lamp Factory Outlet in Fairfax, Va, I learned that I needed to buy a new sockets for the faulty foyer bulb arms.  They were so cheap (like $2 each) that I order a new one for each of the arms (just to be safe) and picked up some new 16 gauge stranded copper wire from home depot.  I bought the wire in both black and white so I could keep my hot (black) and neutral (white) connections straight for when it came time to install.  

When I was researching all these issues, I found this tutorial by ModFruGal to be very thorough and helpful.  Plus - they have a shopping list if you a building a brass arm chandelier from scratch instead of going all Dr. Frankenstein on some poor lamp parts.

Once got all the sockets working and threaded the 8 wires (one black and one white per socket) through the center piece, I then had to conjure up a way to cap the center cavity with a chandelier ring to attach the chain to.  When working with your standard light, a chandelier ring would simple screw in to the top of your fixture.  But this was not standard light and I had to figure out how to secure a round peg in a square hole.  Now here is where I MUST reemphasize to not do this at home without consulting a professional first...

I glued it on.  I know - not the best solution.  I tried metal epoxy and couldn't get a strong enough connection for it to set.  I ended up straight up gorilla gluing it.  And it's working great so far.

Ok.  So now I have a fully wired brass lamp frame (we did it Igor!) but still have to figure out how to install it.  Caleb and I are still renting so whatever we did, it had to be reversible.  Luckily Home Depot has an awesome recessed can light conversion kit by Westinghouse and our apartment has a can light directly above our dining room table.  The kit was really easy to install thanks to a handy step-by-step video.  

Source: Home Depot

This is where it gets a little hairy to explain.  Not everyone will have the unique problems that I encountered  in my non-standard chandelier install, so for your sake, I'll spare you the details.  But you can always email me for more troubleshooting deets if you are somehow in a similar pickle.

Even with all my planning and sketching, I didn't have a solid plan for the mounting plate.  Luckily I don't often throw things away and I still have the leftovers from the original foyer lantern that started this whole thing.  Inside the lantern was a round plate with four holes for each arm and one in the center.  

I only needed the hole in the center to thread the wires through the chandelier loop at the other end of the chain.  But the extra holes did end up coming in handy. They allowed me to screw the mounting plate onto to the brace assembly from the can converter kit,  After it was secure and I could pull my screwdriver out, I capped the four extra holes with some threaded nipples, a few nuts, and four brass finishing caps,

Ok.  Enough tech talk.  Let's get to the juicy reveal already!!!

In all my mad-sciencing, I didn't think to account for the balance of the varied brass arms.  

But I don't even mind that he doesn't hang straight - it gives him an angular mid-mod playful vibe.  And hey - Frankenstein's monster wasn't perfect either.  He could only say yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarp after all.

Alright Igor - flip ze switch!

So all in all this project was a monster to gather, a monster to build, and a downright monster to install!  But when it was all said and done, I still only spent a little over $100 on this project.  Although that's a little higher than I like to spend for pieces in our own home, this was still a winner in my book compared to buying new.

Stay safe trick -or-treating out there tonight friends!  And if you need something to binge read while you're raiding your candy haul, catch up on the other completed furniture flip bucket list items: