Harmony's Nook

I have always been drawn to big clunky metal pieces of furniture. No one ever gets it.

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“Why  do you like these things?” That’s what my mother always asks me. I don’t know the reason! I like my Industrial Chic furniture like I like my men: Strong, timeless, and a little rough around the edges.

Ummmm….anyway, back to furniture.

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Or doors! Look at those amazing doors! I like industrial pieces because it adds something that is unexpected. It’s the easiest way to break up a room that looks too cookie cutter. I also LOVE stainless steel. It’s strong and powerful and like a MAN. Oops…sorry.

Furniture…we’re talking about furniture.

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Now THIS is the promised land. I love this vintage supply cart to a ridiculous degree and if I had $950 that I could be rash and wild with, I would purchase it this very instant. This is the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen. Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go have a glass of wine….

…and maybe a cold shower.

Forever Yours,

Harmony

EDIT: My roommate took one look at this post and said, and I quote, “You know usually I think you have flawless taste, but that is the most hideous thing I’ve ever seen.” Sigh. It’s alright. I know no one gets it. That’s alright I’m proud of my clunky metal fetish. To understand my aesthetic you have to understand my quirks too. SO THERE ERIC!!!!

Sometimes we own furniture that we don’t just think of as a…ummm…a table for example. We don’t just think of said table as a functional piece. We think of it as the table we fell in love at, or the table where we served that unforgettable Thanksgiving at, the one we laughed at, cried at, completed jigsaw puzzles with a sibling at, etc. The item stops being a piece of furniture and becomes a testament to our youth, our success, our life.

I certainly don’t feel this way about every piece of furniture I’ve ever owned, I’m not COMPLETELY crazy, but there are a couple of special pieces that do tug at my heart strings. I parted with a vanity that meant a lot to me about a year and a half ago. This year I decided to sell my vintage stainless steel medical cabinet. I have been waxing poetic about this gorgeous piece of furniture since the moment I set eyes on it.

When I was in the Navy I was responsible for doing a lot of inventory. One day I was inventorying a warehouse that was full of items that were going to be sent to auction. That’s when I laid my eyes on my gorgeous cabinet and it’s sister, a stainless steel hutch. I HAD TO HAVE THEM! After a month of negotiating, greasing some wheels, and calling in some favors…they were mine for free! It was arranged that they would be “thrown out” and I would “just happen to drive by” with a pick up truck and two beefy Navy men and collect them. The plan went effortlessly and I had my first items of adult furniture. I didn’t own a bed yet, or a couch, but I had two vintage stainless steel medical cabinets by golly!

Everyone thought I was crazy and continued to think so when I wouldn’t part with them when I went overseas ( I put them in storage instead), I wouldn’t part with them when I moved across the country, I wouldn’t part with them when offered huge amounts of cash for them. My mother especially has thought that I’ve been nuts and is rejoicing that as of two days ago I sold one of the cabinets on Ebay.

I was very sad at first. I have such amazing memories and associations with this piece of furniture. I was young when I got it. I had it when I fell in love for the first time. I had it in 1999. We won’t speak of 1999. What a horrible year. I imagined using this piece at my “grown up” home. I also dreamed of re-purposing it to use as kitchen cabinets or an installation in the wall.

These are the hardest things to give away, the things you treasure. But I think it’s also the most rewarding. There is of course the monetary profit I made, but besides that, giving it up is very freeing. It made me feel light. It makes the stainless steel hutch that I still have more special. I get to pass it on to someone else who will hopefully love it as much as I do. I won’t have TOO MUCH furniture in my new place. And if the day comes where I absolutely have to have it back and I can afford it, I’ll buy another one.

The lesson is:Don’t be afraid to get rid of things even if you treasure them! They are just THINGS after all. Memories last forever and will with or without the stuff you associate them with!

So like I told you HERE and then HERE…once again our move date has been moved. It is now August 15th. The good news is that the inspection has passed, they started dry-walling yesterday, and they’re giving us half of the month of August free because of all the hassle. I feel like all I’ve done is complain and talk about this apartment lately, so instead….you can hear it from my roommate Eric. Eric take it away:

So we finally have a set move date! At first we were supposed to move June 1st (and lost that apartment to another couple), then this apartment (which is being built) was supposed to be finished and ready by July 1st. Well, our leasing agent contacted us and told us that we couldn’t move in until August 1st – which was extremely frustrating because we had already started the packing process! When we went in mid-July to see the apartment, all the plumbing and electrical wires were installed, but they had to wait for their final inspection before they could close up the walls, and that hadn’t happened yet. SIGH. So, he called us the other day and let us know that they passed their final inspection (yay!) and they have started the drywalling. SO, our new move date is August 15th, absolutely, for-sure. Huzzah!! The apartment is so beautiful (we saw other, completed units when we signed onto it) and is going to allow me to emulate my dream bedroom! We have exposed brick, European-style cabinets, a dishwasher, laundry in-unit, 2 bathrooms, 2 bedroom, and an office. I can finally have my own office!

Anyway, here’s the colors we picked (will be with exposed-brick accent walls):

(Office, Living Room, My Bedroom, Harmony’s Bedroom)

I’m also going to do a Marilyn Monroe themed bathroom, with my Vanity Fair collector’s edition framed!

This is the kind of feel I want my new living room to have. Light, Airy, Comfortable, Welcoming, Interesting, Beautiful, and Peaceful.

This is the kind of room that makes any unpleasant task that much easier. This is the the kind of room that you actually enjoy cleaning. This is the kind of room that makes heartache easier, sicknesses seem less dire. It might even make uncomfortable situations less uncomfortable.

It might make calling your leasing agent and getting some real answers a little less annoying. (Now this is COMPLETELY hypothetical)

Actually, I don’t know if this room would do it.

Ahhhhhh that’s better. I could call anyone from here. Annoying leasing agents, inspectors, contractors. BRING IT ON!

If you are completely confused as to what this post is about, first join the club, then read about it HERE.

*Both photos are from a profile of a gorgeous home on the blog Desire to Inspire. Check it out!

Well we went for a walk-through of the apartment yesterday. The purpose was to sign the lease, drop of the paint for the contractors, measure for furniture, and honestly to see how far the progress had come on the construction.

We walked in and there are no walls yet. Sigh. The electrical wiring is done, the plumbing is done, the wood floors are laid, the bracing for the walls are up, but that is it. Supposedly they are still waiting for the inspectors before they’re allowed to drywall. Has anyone else gone through this with a new construction? This is the same excuse they gave us for pushing our move date from July 1st to August 1st. Now I know inspectors, and contractors to some extent, kind of do whatever the heck they want, but an entire MONTH has passed with little progress. Can they really just come whenever they want? It sounds so bizarre to me.

I’m trying not to think the worst…that they’ve run out of money or something, but it really seems like they are using every stalling technique they can think of. Also he had the lease there for us to sign, but it WASN’T signed by the owner! So what good does that do us? He said that he’d get it signed and then give it to us. Why didn’t he have it signed when we showed up? Is this common practice? I’m trying really hard not to think anything shady is going on. Hopefully it’s just incompetence and poor planning and not anything worse.

Honestly, I’m just excited for the day that I don’t have to deal with this leasing agent any longer. The good news is that the bones of the apartment are gorgeous. I see the hook-ups for everything that was promised such as washer/dryer…etc. There is plenty of light which was a concern for me since it’s technically a garden unit. Also, all the furniture I had planned on keeping fits! So if we can just get this mythical inspector beast to approve the damn apartment we’ll be in the clear. I’m tempted to have them give ME the inspector’s phone number. I would make sure it was inspected…you KNOW I would. I’d give him/her a little of the “New York shuffle.” That’s what my dad calls it when him or I get involved in problem solving and get EXACTLY what we want where others have failed. We’re both a little hot-headed. Anyway, my  roommate told the agent that we’re moving in August 1st, walls or no walls. So please cross your fingers for me that I’ll have walls!

Thanks much,

Harmony

We sign our lease tomorrow! I’m so excited to exit this apartment and to enter a new space and quite frankly a new chapter in my life. I’ve been a starving artist for so long, and while I’m not going to be rich by any means, things seem to be working themselves out. I’m re-reading Apartment Therapy and Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan says that when you square away your living space the rest of your life starts to fall into place. I’m a firm believer of this. I think the way you live and how you maintain your surroundings is a good indicator of where you are and how you’re feeling in your life. Especially with me….I’m a Libra after all. We have to be surrounded by beautiful things or we start to get panicky.  My surroundings affect me so much, and I’m so excited to be in a new place with a new positive energy.

One of the habits I’m trying to leave behind is my tendency to hoard things. It runs in my family, and while I am one of the milder cases, I definitely have trouble giving up things. My fear that I “might need it later” leads me to hold on to things that I absolutely do not need.

I’m dreaming of a place that is full of light, clean, and cozy. I can’t wait to start cooking again. We’ve been living off easily made dishes, since I packed most of my kitchen months ago back when I thought my move date would be June 1st.

This is close to the color that I will be using for the common areas. I’m deciding between Benjamin Moore’s Quiet Moments and Benjamin Moore’s Birds Egg. We have to buy all the paint and give it to the contractors next week and they’re going to paint for us. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It’s getting very exciting!

***All photos are from Sunset Magazine…my new obsession!

When THIS LIFE gets too much for me, I always have interior design. My mother, to this day, says I missed my calling. She’s very proud of me and loves seeing me onstage, but she still thinks this. And maybe I did.

When I was growing up from a very young age, I was obsessed with interior design. I used to spend hours decorating my barbie house and then I’d stop playing. While all the other kids bought comic books, I would have my dad buy me  a book of floor plans at the supermarket checkout and look at them and dream for hours, days even. I made the most elaborate lego mansions complete with canopy beds and toilets in the bathrooms. My favorite game to play with my brother before I’d go to bed at night was “design a hotel.” We’d pick a locale, a name, and we’d design all the rooms. My brother just played along because I was his big sister, but I LOVED it. I got really lost in the fantasy of it. I still remember THE DOLPHIN. It was a hotel I “designed” that sat on the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea complete with an underwater tubed escalator that brought you up to the beach. It brings back such happy memories to think about that.

I remember telling my mother that I wanted to be a dentist when I grew up. When she asked why, I told her it was so I could afford the kind of house that I wanted. That was the ONLY reason. My favorite movies were also design-inspired. I was OBSESSED with the tree house in SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON, and only liked to watch the parts of the movie where they’re IN the treehouse. Pirates, riding ostriches, and all that was nothing to me compared to that amazing structure. I LOVED the Californian villa in PARENT TRAP. That house was amazing. You get the idea, I was a child completely obsessed with design and it looked like that was where my life would lead me.

All of that changed on that fateful day when I turned 14 and my grandmother took me to see Les Miserables on Broadway. To quote another huge musical…”I saw the lights and I was on my way.” And since that day, with a few detours, theater has been my life. I don’t regret it necessarily, I just wonder sometimes if I went the right way. If in another dimension there is a high-powered architect or designer named Harmony? Maybe she even has kids and actually knows some straight men. BAH! But I digress. I guess in the end that this is how it should be. Design is my solace. It brings me pure joy. It isn’t my job. It can’t break my heart. It can’t disappoint me. It’s there to comfort me when I need it and it is a cause for happiness in my life. And really anything that makes us happy in life should be celebrated.

All photos are from Desire to Inpire which is a gorgeous blog. You should check it out.

I feel like all I’ve been doing on here lately is complaining. So today no complaining. Today is about dreams. I used to dream about being on Broadway or in movies. It’s what I thought about all the time. If I daydreamed, that is what it was about. I don’t really daydream about that  anymore. THIS is what my daydreams consist of now….

I’m obsessed with our Pacific Northwest.

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I want to live on a ranch or a vineyard. I’m sure this is mostly due to readingPIONEER WOMAN everyday.

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I want to live in a houseboat in Seattle. Okay this is COMPLETELY due to watching Sleepless in Seattle and also me being OBSESSED with the house boats that I saw in Amsterdam this summer.

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Or maybe a darling cottage on a lake in Oregon.

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I’ve sunk so low in this obsession, and I’m ashamed to admit this, I subscribed to Sunset Magazine.

I’m ashamed to admit this because of the magazine’s tagline.

Sunset: How To Live In The West

It’s ridiculous I know. I live in Chicago, but this is my current guilty pleasure. Dreaming of the West. Please forgive me.

Just look at this goodness:

This is the stuff that dreams are made of.

So we have this cat….

I know I’ve never talked about the cat in detail, just in passing. His name is Manji. He’s not REALLY a cat. He’s more like a snow leopard….or a LION.

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This is him with his lion cut. Okay everyone, get it out of your system. Awwwwww! SOOOOOO CUTE! I would like to point out that he does NOT look like this now. He looks more like this:

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He is a long-haired cat, need I say more?

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Eric LOVES this cat. It’s his baby. Do you see the evil look in Manji’s eyes? You are not imagining this.

Among Manji’s favorite activities are:

Sitting in the sun.

Spreading his food to all the corners of the apartment.

Laying on Eric’s belly.

Leaving me presents in places OTHER than his litterbox.

Randomly trying to climb the wall.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND puking on my rugs!!!! Yay! Cat puke! Yay! I love it!

Anyway, I have grown slightly more fond of this creature than in the past, but one thing that still makes me crazy is him puking on my rugs. Now, we have wood floors. The rugs only cover 10% of the apartment, if that. Does he puke on the other 90% of our floors? No. He seeks out my rugs. every. single. time.

Eric, has promised to replace some of them, which of course I will not hold him to UNTIL the move is done and everything paid for. BUT for when it IS finished, here are some suggestions for him. You paying attention Eric?

This is an indoor/outdoor recycled rug. It’s made of plastic bottles. It’s completely stain-free. They have many styles and sizes and they are completely DURABLE. And they’re PRETTY! You can find them HERE

Thank you for indulging me. I’m sure I’m not the only one with this problem. Am I? Oh please lord let me not suffer alone!!! Okay. I’m done being dramatic now. I hope this helps others too.

P.S. This post is meant to be tongue-in-cheek and is not in any way an attack on my cat or my roomate, who I love very much…

Okay Harmony. Shhhhhhhhhhhhh. Just look at the pretty pictures.

See isn’t that nice? Nothing to worry about.

Just relaxing lovely interiors.

Peaceful. Light. Lovely. Problems? What problems?

Oh is that not working? How about a lovely cabin in the woods?

No? Okay. An ocean view?

NOPE. NONE OF THIS IS WORKING. MY MOVE DATE HAS BEEN MOVED BACK ANOTHER FREAKING MONTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!