A Room in My Heart

04/14/2011

Written originally on 3-17-11

I love how God communicates to his children. Sometimes He uses metaphors to bring revelation—sudden, clear understanding—to a complicated situation.

…

I read every comment that’s posted on my blog. Sometimes a new commenter catches my attention and I see a link posted back to his or her blog. Usually they are other similar home blogs. A few months ago I got a comment from my now BF (blog friend, hehe) K. Her blog name piqued my interest so I clicked on it. When I finally had the courage to write K an email a few weeks later, after spending hours reading her family’s story, I told her that finding her blog felt like God was opening a new door in my heart.

It’s become more and more clear that God is leading Jason and I into a new phase of our lives, a new adventure that will be exciting, difficult, wonderful, horrible and more important that anything we’ve ever done. I’ve been looking for God’s confirmation and guidance. This morning (3-17-11) He gave me a vision of what’s behind that door.

My God is a creator, a builder, an artist. It’s no surprise that He made his children also to be designers and inventors. And it’s also no surprise that He would use mid-century modern interior design—my hobby, (my specialty?), to speak to me about what He’s doing in my life right now. The current state of my heart is a result of nearly 27 years of building, designing, rearranging, decorating, spring cleaning and upgrading all done by the Master Designer. There are many different rooms, different dimensions that are purposeful and together form a unique house unlike any other. My heart.

Behind the newly discovered door is a room. The room was formed when I was a child. Back then it was just an empty shell. The structure was there but I had no idea what it’s purpose would be. Had I opened this door too soon I wouldn’t have made any sense of it; it wasn’t ready yet. In recent years, God has started filling that room up with furniture. He’s a collector. Some of the pieces in the room are vintage, sturdy, time-tested and reliable. Some of the pieces are new, never-used, and in perfect condition. The Master Designer pulls all the artful pieces together into one cohesive room, a space with a specific purpose, a beautiful mix of old and new.

When I cracked opened this door a few weeks ago and peaked into the room (figuratively…follow me?), my heart leapt! Where had this room come from? I hadn’t known it was here! My Father, who delights in giving good gifts to His children and who conceals matters for the joy of His kids finding them, had created a surprise for me. A dramatic room reveal. And yet, stepping into the room, I started to remember bits from my past. Yes, I remember when this room was built. I remember the time that piece was added, and that one. Yet, I had been completely oblivious to the beautifully designed space my Father was making in my heart.

This place in my heart is not for me, though. God has some specific people planned for it. I don’t know them yet but I long for them. Did you know you could miss someone you’ve never met? I long for them to fill this lovely room with their energy and joy. I, just like my Father, look forward to revealing this beautiful room to my future children. I long to see the delight on their faces when they discover what has already been created specifically for them, a place that no one can take from them, a place that’s safe and bright, a mix of past and present, a place to grow.

Jason and I also have a physical equivalent of this room in our house. It’s purpose is not clearly defined yet. It was an office, a guest room and now it’s a storage room. We call it the spare room. But, we have plans for this room. Design ideas. A mix of old and new. A safe, relaxing, functional and creative space for some littlies we only dream about.

Have I confused the heck out of you yet? Here’s the B&W:
Jason and I are becoming certified as foster parents!

20 Comments | Art, Art: interior design, Art: kids room, Faith, Family, Family: Foster Parenting | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

5 Gallons

04/13/2011

Guess who took advantage of Sherwin Williams’s 40% off sale last weekend?

You guessed it … We’re about to repaint the whole house. Almost. Master bedroom. Spare room. Living room. Kitchen. Dining Room.

In my unprofessional opinion, Sherwin Williams has the best color palettes of any paint brand. (Plus the Color Visualizer on their website is pretty cool.) We typically use Behr paint because it’s a bit cheaper but great quality. But 40%? That’s a good deal on some good paint.

In case anyone is wondering, it took us less than 30 minutes to decide on the 3 colors for those 5 rooms because we already knew what we wanted. White for the bedroom. Light gray for the spare room. White with a yellow-green accent wall for the living room – kitchen – dining room. After having NO white walls in the house for more than 4 years, we’re ready to go back to the basics.

 

3 Comments | Art, Art: interior design, Art: kids room, Art: master bedroom redo | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Chalkboard Door: Before & After

04/12/2011

Our house originally had lovely wood doors but when it was renovated (before we purchased it) everything was painted a fresh, clean white. At one point Jason thought he’d like to strip all the doors back to their original wood. These closet doors we were able to just flip around. After Jason started stripping the back of this door, in our spare bedroom, we quickly realized it was going to be more work than it was worth. Since this room belongs to our future kids, I thought it would be a fun solution to repaint the door with Rustoleum chalkboard paint. (Inspiration came from these closet doors.)

I suppose this not a true after because I haven’t actually tried the chalkboard yet. It’s supposed to cure for a couple days before chalk is applied to the whole surface. So really, it just looks like I painted the door black. But I had to blog about something, right?

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UPDATE:

After 5 days, the surface is supposed to be cured by rubbing a piece of chalk all over the surface of the door. Bye-bye crisp black door. This required an entire stick of chalk and made a huge dust mess!

The instructions say not to use water on the door yet and I don’t have an eraser so I wiped the whole surface with a dry rag. And tested it out. And then wiped it again.

When a full week has passed, it’s ok to use a damp cloth on the door. It didn’t return to the original black. I think it’s because of the rough texture of the paint. Also, I probably should have rinsed the rag and rewashed it several times but, eh.

I wrote my new favorite verse and manta of foster parenting on the back of the door. Writing on the door produced quite a bit of chalk dust on the door. I’m not happy about that. Maybe it’s the quality of the chalk? Or just the nature of the rough chalkboard? In general, though, I like this project and I don’t have any regrets.

6 Comments | Art, Art: before & after, Art: interior design, Art: kids room, Art: modern design | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

CBB 3.0 – Update (Framed, Roofed & Closed)

03/29/2011

Our friends’ home building project is moving right along. (I’m way behind on updates, sorry!) Since the last time I updated, the walls have been framed, the metal roof added, and the exterior walls have been closed up:

Nice high, sloped ceilings. 9′ in the front half of the house, up to 12′ here in the back of the house.

I love how the house looks from the back. That beautiful deck looks out over Shelby Park where we can sit to watch the tides roll in next time we have a flood. Just kidding. But we will definitely be spending a lot of time under that sloped roof. I heard a rumor that Leila and J might even be installing an outdoor TV and surround sound stereo system out there…

The front of the house looks… well…  I think it’ll look great once the stairs and landscaping are added.

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Click CBB 3.0 under the “FILE UNDER” menu on the right to see all the updates on this house.

1 Comment | Art, Art: CBB 3.0, Art: interior design, Art: modern design, Family, Family: Extended Family and Friends | Tagged: | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

CBB 3.0 – Update

02/17/2011

From here on out, I’m going to refer to our friend’s house (the one needed painted, then was destroyed by a flood, then knocked down, and now has started to be rebuilt) as CBB 3.0. Why? Because that’s their nickname for their house. They have called their home Camp B_name-of-their-street_ Bottoms since they bought it. The original was version 1.0, completely renovated it into version 2.0 and now they’re building version 3.0. (Search for CBB for anything about this house, CBB 3.0 for the rebuild.)

Jeremy and Leila gave me the OK to share their progress with you. Their new home will be modern with some mid-century influence to fit it with the other 1950’s-1970’s houses in the neighborhood. The biggest challenge has been fitting a design into FEMA’s strict regulations. This had a major influence on the overall design of the house because the foundation had to be raised 4 feet from where it was before but the space below that foundation can not be living space. The solution was to make a garage and storage space under the house … kind of like an above ground basement. Here are some pictures of the recent progress:

The foundation is 2/3 concrete block and 1/3 wood frame.

The large opening is for the garage door at the back of the house.

Flat roof graded toward the front of the house:

The build is moving so quickly, I can’t keep up with pictures. (Hopefully J is OK with me stealing pics off his facebook for now…it’s still dark in evening when I get home from work.) The roof should be complete by the end of this week. Target completion date: 1 year anniversary of the flood, May 1st.

2 Comments | Art, Art: CBB 3.0, Art: interior design, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design, Family, Family: Extended Family and Friends | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Master Bedroom Redecorate: Before

02/09/2011

This month we’re celebrating 4 years in our 1955 brick ranch. When we moved in we quickly painted and decorated our living room, kitchen, guest bathroom and master bedroom. Each room has undergone a few changes through the years but generally have stayed the same. I’m ready for a change. Specifically, I’m tired of the brown and blue in our bedroom.

I’m dreaming of the white, airy, clean hotel rooms that I saw behind Jason on Skype while he was in Sweden last summer. We don’t have a white wall anywhere in our house. OK, not totally true—we do have 2 small walls in the unfinished laundry room that are still builder’s beige. But generally, every room in our home is painted. And now I’m craving white. Fresh, minimalist, feather-light white.

5 Comments | Art, Art: interior design, Art: master bedroom redo, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Retro Renovation Love

02/03/2011

I got a ping-back notice that my Hall Closet Turned Home Office (AKA Cloffice) was mentioned on Retro Renovation today. RR is the flagship of mid-century home blogs. I’m flattered! I had no idea that my little blog was on their radar. If you’re a new visitor here after seeing our recent renovation project on Retro Renovation, WELCOME!

5 Comments | Art, Art: before & after, Art: interior design, Art: mid-century design | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Home Office Part 5: The Cloffice (or Offet)

01/12/2011

What do you get when you cross a closet and an office? A cloffice? An offet? The latter is cute but we’ve been calling it a cloffice ever since a friend made the suggestion. I’m happy to report that this home renovation project is FINISHED. DONE. COMPLETE. We’re undecided about adding bi-fold doors at some point. I kind of like it open but covering it up might be nice too.

Since my last post about the hall-coat-closet-turned-home-office here is what has been done: Jason re-hung my upper monitor (straight and centered this time; I’m a mess without him…), installed an electric outlet, removed the door and widened the doorway, finished my desktop, reframed the doorway and painted the trim, baseboards, hall wall and shelves. Oh, and he also painted a stripe on the floor for me. It was necessary because part of the wood flooring was missing when we removed the wall. But I like that it’s kind of funky and helps to define the space. I touched the cloffice wall paint, cleaned up the top shelf with new matching storage boxes and hung some Command hooks for my bulletin board and computer satchel.

I’m kicking myself for not taking a before picture. POO. Anyway… here are the first four parts of this series in case you missed them:

Home Office Part 1: Small Homes Require/Inspire Creativity

Home Office Part 2: Closet Offices & Inspiration

Home Office Part 3: The Coat Closet

Home Office Part 4: Decorating & Customizing

10 Comments | Art, Art: Closet Office, Art: graphic design, Art: interior design, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Wishing You a Shiny Brite Christmas, Again

12/14/2010

OK, last time I’m going to mention this, I promise. Wishing You a Shiny Brite Christmas poster and postcards are available for sale in my Etsy shop, Light Hand. (Sorry, the poster sold out already! Let me know if you want one and I can order more from the printer if there is enough interest.)

What can I say, I love my Shiny Brite ornaments!

2 Comments | Art, Art: graphic design, Art: interior design, Art: mid-century design, Art: modern design | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt

Pinecone Garland

11/24/2010

I saw some pretty fall decorations on Design*Sponge last week: first these Emily Thompson Wreaths:

Then these Bird for Bread fall garlands:

And I was inspired to gather a few of the many, many pinecones that fall from our giant pine tree every fall to make my own fall garland.

I purchased some bright blue spray paint for another project (more on that later) and I had some white spray paint on hand. I could have made this a DIY post but it was really so simple.

I laid the pinecones out on newspaper and spray painted them: 6 of each color. Spray one side, wait an hour, turn them over, spray the other side. Then I used some thin wire (string would have worked) and twisted it loosely around each end of each pinecone to make a chain.

I had some command hooks (the ones intended for Christmas lights) already up on the ceiling so it was a snap to hang my garland. We’re having Thanksgiving dinner at our house this year so I thought it would be fun to do a tiny bit of fall decorating.

Our big pine tree is not only pretty but useful, too. It provides shade for the front yard. We use the pine needles for mulch. We’ve used the pine cones for decor and kindling. But, I’ve never used the pine branches for anything. Maybe this year I’ll try making a fresh pine wreath.

Anyone ever done that? Do you have any suggestions?

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Posted by mahlbrandt

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