ORC Week 3: Furniture for a Room with Many Faces
An update from Week 3 of the One Room Challenge as well as the arrival of The Nice List 2019!
I now have a 14 foot long desk. Yep. It spans the entire length of my Workroom with places for writing, projects, sewing, gift wrapping, and all kinds of projects. That’s just one of the pieces of furniture I’m discussing this week in my One Room Challenge update! My Workroom has to be a multifunctional room, and as such, it needs furniture that is flexible and functional. I am hoping my crazy-long desk and all of the other choices I am sharing this week fit the bill. Check them out!
Two New Tutorials
I also have two tutorials this week. One will show you how you, too, could have a 14’ long desk. Or perhaps something a little more… reasonable.
The other is a newly acquired skill for me this week: replacing trim on a Mid Century steel desk. Very fun — and very sticky!
The Nice List has Arrived!
It seems impossible, but those aren’t even the biggest bits of news this week! The Nice List arrived, and it is gorgeous!! Thanks to Jone Hallmark for her gorgeous illustrations and to Holly Kennedy for her design work. I am so excited to start shipping these out — and getting them into stores — this week! If you ordered one, it will be headed your way soon. If you haven’t ordered yet, there are still copies available in the store. Grab one before it is too late!
Have a great day!
Ciao!
Angela
ORC Week 2: I Have this Thing with Green
An update on Week 2 of the Fall 2019 One Room Challenge: the Workroom Makeover
Green has been my favorite color for almost as long as I can remember. As a little girl I briefly flirted with pink, but green took over early. Green — the color of Ireland, my eyes, the grass in my grandmother’s back yard, my favorite sweatshirt in college. So I suppose it is natural that my Workroom is green. But it isn’t just the paint on the walls. I am working to make this makeover a green one in every way I can. And the Week 2 One Room Challenge update includes a list of the easy ways I’m working to make this room green in the eco-friendly sense, too.
Not only that, but I have TWO tutorials this week both of which will help you make your Billy bookcases (or other stock bookshelves) look cleaner, more like custom shelves, and just absolutely amazing!
Oh, and did I mention the wallpaper? Yeah, click the link and see all the fun this week…
That’s not the only news this week! Orders of The Nice List will begin shipping early next week! If you haven’t ordered yet, or want to order another copy, you can still place an order, but supplies are limited, so don’t dally!
The wind is howling here, and the temperature is plummeting. It was 77 at about 5 pm. But look what’s coming overnight…
I hope you all are having a great week!
Ciao!
Angela
New: The Library!
Introducing the Mid Modern Mama Library of downloads and printables!
Is there a better place to hang out than a library? I’m hard-pressed to think of one! So I’m excited to announce my own personal library of resources available to anyone! So many of the projects I post here have downloads of one kind or another — patterns, graphics, Cricut files. So I put them all in one place: the Library! Here you’ll find all of the file downloads for every project on Mid Modern Mama. And the list of files is growing all the time. So pop by and take a look! I am ready to decorate for Fall, and the files for the Autumn bunting are in the Library now. Very easy to find, and it is an easy project to make, too!
Speaking of projects, we are having a busy weekend around here getting ready for the One Room Challenge this weekend! Next week I’ll be able to tell you which room I am taking on, but let me tell you: it promises to be a BIG transformation. It’s one of those rooms that we tend to neglect in our homes, but by the end of it all, it will be so much more functional and beautiful, too. I am really excited!
And email subscribers will get a sneak-peek at the plans before anyone else, and will get to see the room’s progress before anyone else, too. So if you haven’t already, sign up!
Finally, on Instagram this week I’ve been sharing some of the Greener Living changes we have made in our house — an effort to reduce our carbon footprint. Because I know not everyone is on Instagram, I’ve collected all of those posts together to share here, too. Enjoy!
Have a wonderful weekend!
Ciao!
Angela
Greener Living Tips
a few easy ways to reduce your family’s impact on the Earth
New DIY Tutorials!
I have several new DIY tutorials up. Check them out!
I have a few new tutorials and a summary page for all of the One Room Challenge tutorials, too. I hope you will check them all out! Seriously — this cute little container for my dryer balls took about 15 minutes, and was super easy! And making duvet covers from sheets: a breeze!
And on this page you will find links to all 14 DIY project tutorials from our Guest Room Refresh — everything from the Ikea bed frame hack to lining a cupboard with wrapping paper and so much more. Enjoy!
Guest Room Refresh: One Room Challenge Week One
Come along as we refresh our guest room repurposing furniture including two twin beds, choosing everything from a fresh, new wall color to bedding, luggage racks, wall art, window treatments, and amenities in this makeover on a budget. Lots of DIY ideas with vintage-inspired decor.
It’s here! The 2019 One Room Challenge! We are redoing our guest room — a refresh with vintage inspiration and modern sensibilities. Check out week one with the furniture we will be reusing, an inspiration board, and the two items which inspired it all: a vintage map and my favorite bakery.
Lots to do! Aloha!
A
#The100DayProject and #OneRoomChallenge
This month I am launching two big projects: The 100 Day Project and the One Room Challenge. I’m excited to share both with you!
Aloha! It is Wednesday — so much going on! I am fairly certain I have lost my mind. You see, I’m already participating in the One Room Challenge which starts tomorrow. Eek! I’m really excited to show you our Guest Room Refresh as it unfolds — more on that tomorrow.
But then I was reading about another community event on Instagram — #The100DayProject — and I decided I just HAD to do that, too. They are totally different exercises, but both use the same creative muscles.
Michelangelo Buonarroti, the sculptor, painter, poet, and architect, wrote about the flow of creative energy he experienced as “furor divinus” — the divine fire. As creative people we must tend that fire, adding kindling, branches, logs, stoking it and making sure that fire has enough oxygen to keep burning. My fire has been smoldering a bit of late as I have been buried in the business and technical sides of my endeavors. So I am excited that yesterday was the start of The 100 Day Project — a worldwide focus on sparking creativity in any medium. I am jumping in with both feet, committing to my art journal every day for the next 100 days. My project will be an intersection between words and images beginning with today’s piece — a collage using paper, watercolor, and acrylic paints.
I find communal challenges like this great to getting my creative spark aflame. And working in a different medium — visual art rather than words — stretches me and forces me to think differently. Are you doing #the100DayProject ? If so, tag me! I would love to follow along. I learn so much from everyone — new techniques and different ways of looking at the world.
So here we go!
Day 1: Suddenly all my Ancestors are Behind Me | Collage, Mixed Media
Day 2: Creative Muscles | Watercolor, Mixed Media
I’ll have more about the One Room Challenge tomorrow, but here’s a sneak peek. We found this amazing map of Hawaii in the attic of our 1948 Suburban Sweetheart when we were renovating it. This gorgeous map is the inspiration for our Guest Room Refresh. I did a little research about it. It was created by a Hungarian immigrant, trained in Italy, who fell in love with Hawaii and spent much of his life living and teaching in Honolulu. His name was Joseph Feher, and I’ve written a bit about him. Read and enjoy!
Who is the artist?
I did a little research into our inspiration piece, and the story of Joseph Feher, the artist, is fascinating. Enjoy!
New Things are Coming! And Instagram!
I have a love-hate relationship with Instagram. It is fun to meet new people and to learn new things, but I open it up, and immediately an hour of my life slips away! Yikes! However, I have been working hard on several projects which are coming, and I’d love to connect with you on Instagram!
What is coming up?
#oneroomchallenge
I’m working on the #oneroomchallenge on Instagram! I love this idea — focus on ONE ROOM in your house and get it DONE. We are hard at work on our guest room. Honestly, this was low-hanging fruit. Making it beautiful doesn’t require construction or craziness. It just means some paint, some organizing, and making the room pretty — with a little flair. I’m excited to show you the final product! I’ll be unveiling the room bit-by-bit beginning April 4 as part of #oneroomchallenge. And I will have some great budget-friendly ideas that you can use in your own homes!
So, I hope you’ll follow me on Instagram. I have two handles: @midmodernmama is all things lifestyle especially home decor — and that’s the account where I’ll be doing the #oneroomchallenge. And then I have the other part of my split personality: @piningforrome which is all travel all the time. If you need beauty and travel inspiration, look no further.
Follow me!
Follow me!
Which brings me to my second project…
Pining for Rome Relaunch
So, I actually started my very first website 11 YEARS AGO this month! Yikes! And it is still there with lots of good content. But it is looking rather tired, so I have been working for weeks and weeks and weeks to update every page, refresh every photo, and organize all of the information. And I am rebranding everything. So soon Pining for Rome will be a fabulous place for all things travel! I’m super-excited, and I can’t wait to bring you the new-and-improved Pining for Rome!
Not on Instagram?
Follow me on Facebook!
I post everything in both places, so you won’t miss a thing!
Soon there will be gardening to be done, more renovation projects, and dinners out on the patio again. For now: snow in the forecast for next week. But the yard is greening every day!
Happy Spring!
XOXO
A
Renovating: It's What We Do
As we begin our renovation of the Atomic Ranch, we take a look back at the two homes we renovated in the past: a 1980s Cabin in the City and the 1948 Subdivision Sweetheart.
We are not new to renovating houses. This is our third project house. We always buy unusual homes that need a lot of work. But there’s something — some intangible quality about a house which inspires and captures us. We also have the imagination to look beyond the immediate disaster and to see the potential.
As we begin to remake our Atomic Ranch, updating it and making it more functional, I thought it would be fun to look back on the other two homes we have renovated: the 1980s Cabin in the City and our 1948 Subdivision Sweetheart.
Our 1980s Cabin in the City evolved over 8 years of work, and we did most of that work ourselves. That house was a laboratory — paint colors came and went, the bathroom had several iterations until we found the right combination. We learned a lot as we went, and we loved that snug little home. The 1948 Subdivision Sweetheart, on the other hand, needed too much work to live through — and we had a two year-old at the time. So, we took on a whole house renovation all at once.
I hope you enjoy this peek into our homes from the past. There are many ideas from these two homes which we will use again in one way or another. We fall deeply in love with our homes, and both of these renovations were labors of love.
Enjoy!
XOXO
Angela
