SUBURBAN * POP

Oh man, I love this tiny little nook in our house so much. Fun abounds at every turn. If you are unfamiliar with residential dressing rooms, I can offer no help. It’s just what the previous owners of our home called this small room between our the main bedroom and bathroom that houses a closet and a large linen closet-like cabinet. I like the needlessly elaborate name so I’m keeping “dressing room” alive. A more rational person would A. just call it something normal and B. use this square footage to build a bigger bathroom and a more efficient walk in closet. I, however, am not ready to give up any quirks so I continue to give it all my love and redecoration…

You may remember that this room used to have hand drawn bamboo all over, which was awesome, but I was ready for a change and things never quite came together in here anyways. Enter the most perfect wallpaper in the world (that was such a nightmare to hang). This space is now making sense and I am over the moon in love with the walls. They radiate happiness, bringing a smile every time I walk through.Also helping this space along is the new (to me) dresser of my dreams. I’ve only been waiting like 20 years for it. No exaggeration. I’m not currently actively looking for furniture, but I’m not not looking either wink wink. My wandering eyes happened to see a crap load of good stuff on Craigslist recently, this elusive Heywood Wakefield Kohinoor dresser included. “Happened” may not be the right word for when you get a Craigslist alert, but whatever. I went with the intention of buying just the dresser and I ended up with the whole matching bedroom set, that has now moved into my daughter’s room, replacing the previous set in there. Also purchased was an AMAZING Paul McCobb coffee table that I’ve decided to sell because it is way too special and pretty to take the beating that our family dishes out to coffee tables. The Kohinoor set isn’t in the best of condition, but it’s comparable to the old Niagara Heywood Wakefield set we had that I was perfectly happy with (and is now for sale too!) so it’s an upgrade for me. Eventually we’ll get around to refinishing it all. All the furniture swapping and subsequent storage-unit-as-my-home situation has been a little much, but sometimes you gotta take opportunities when they present themselves. I’m just hoping someone buys all my furnitures soon…The oversized rattan mirror is from CB2 (called Mick, looks like it’s sold out?). I bought it for our guest bathroom, where it was PERFECT. But it’s PERFECT here too and since I’m working on this room right now, it gets it. I love that it doesn’t detract from all the other statementy pieces in here, but is a little wacky itself too.

After living in this house for a few years I’ve found that I always pull some random stool in here, despite the lack of space, because it’s very convenient to have a seat/place to throw clothes. I finally made the decision to buy a small stool specifically for this space. It was between white rattan and tulip and, as of lately, I can’t say no to tulip. I waited months to find a reasonably priced vintage one on ebay but caved and purchased a total crappy ripoff while I wait it out longer. The “upholstery” job is as horrible as I expected, but I still love the pop of white and orange so much! I’ll recover it myself one of these days (though MY OH MY does it look cute at our kitchen desk and husband said two in one house is absolutely two too many).I still haven’t figured out the wall hook situation in here. I’m leaning again towards the lucite CB2 pulls I had up before, but I bought this Hang It All ripoff on Prime Day to try in here too. It’s cute, but I think too bulky and busy for such a small area that already has a lot going on? Or possibly I’m paralyzed on this decision because I’m terrified to nail into the wallpaper…

TO-DOs:

• Remove old wallpaper
• Paint walls and ceiling
• Paint cabinets/closet/trim
• Replace light
• Paint bamboo walls
• Wallpaper
• Install wood floors (or tile to match bathroom?)
• Wall hooks
• Paint interiors of cabinets/closet lazy bum!

SOURCES

wallpaper – Norwall | dresser – vintage Heywood Wakefield | tulip stool – Amazon

mirror – CB2 | other mirror – Amazon | table lamp – Target | sputnik light – vintage

Thanks for reading! xoxo