Naomi – Author at Plaster & Disaster

I love my parent’s house. Nostalgia, memories, yadda yadda… but what is really cool about it (and actually relevant to you) is that it is beautifully decorated using environmental and safe materials! Any of you who have tried to do this know just how hard it can be. It’s tough not to compromise your style or budget while staying in these constraints!

A few years back, my mother devoted a lot of time and thought to a renovating and redecorating following green principles, and it turned out stunning. Some months ago I shared a tour of her pretty green living room, which you should totally check out if you like upholstery that doesn’t kill you and window treatments that don’t kill you. Today, I’m thrilled to share a look at the dining room, which is packed with great tips!

I love this space. The whole room is essentially a huge bay window flooded with light. But it wasn’t always this way!

Believe it or not, this room used to stop partway through where the table sits now. You can sort of see where it was by the line where the flooring pattern changes. It wasn’t tiny, but it certainly was a tight fit when guests were over (which, let’s be honest, is pretty much the only time you use a dining room). Building it out with a bay window not only provided extra space, but takes advantage of the great view, looking out over a field and then into a forest.

The original oak flooring is reclaimed from old shipping pallets (20 years ago… BEFORE reclaiming shipping pallets was cool). The floor for the renovation was matched with reclaimed wood by a local company, Long Leaf Lumber. It was all refinished using Vermont Natural Coatings, which replaces toxic ingredients found in traditional finishes with whey protein, a byproduct of cheese making. How cool is that? Because the two types of flooring was refinished together, the match is pretty much perfect.

The wainscoting is also reclaimed, and is from a 1880’s carriage house that was in Palmer, MA. Painted bright white, the details and character still comes through, while feeling fresh and clean.

There are some great pieces in this space. I love the china cabinet, which has been in my parent’s home for as long as I can remember. It is home to family heirlooms and even a few of my early craft projects which won’t be shown on the blog thankyouverymuch.

My mom is a huge fan of oak, and this buffet shows off the grain and variation of the wood perfectly. These days it stores the company quality plates, napkins, and silverware, but growing up it was crammed with old photo books so that is always what I expect to find in there!

She is great at finding deals on little pieces at thrift stores – especially side tables – so it is a good thing that she has a ton of plants to put on them!

And, like every room in the house, there just has to be a perch designated for the dogs to spy on the activities of the various woodland creatures who frequent the yard. In this case, it is a little stool found at a local consignment store. I like how the variety of “leg types” between the tables and stool prevent this area this area from looking too repetitive and leggy.

(And don’t worry about the woodland creatures. They never actually get caught.)

She also found a great use for an old sewing cabinet: storing dog food and treats! I always see these and want to get them because they look so cool, but it’s hard to figure out what do to with them. This is the perfect use for all those little compartments and drawers.

There are still so many cool details in this space to share!

So as not to mess up the look of the bay windows and wainscoting with ugly radiators, she found adorable little efficient heaters that matched the look. They blend right in and sit tightly to the wall so they don’t take up much space!

Another cool trick she pulled was to paint the ceiling by the bay a warmer white than in the rest of the space. When it’s dark out, lighting near the ceiling helps the room still feel warm and sunny. In person the effect is subtle, but it definitely changes the mood.

And I didn’t even get to tell you about:

The dining room chandelier, which was made in Vermont with recycled steel and advanced low pollution production by Hubbarton Forge, and is fitted with LED bulbs, of course.
The window treatments, sustainably and fairly produced and made by Earthshade.
The leaded glass windows, found by scouring places like Noreast Architectural Salvage and Old House Parts.
The wood for the new construction, which was Forest Stewardship Council certified, and bought from Anderson & McQuaid Co., a local company.

Thanks for checking out this environmentally friendly space! I hope some of the tips will be helpful in making your own decorating efforts greener and safer for you and your family. Do you have any tips to share?

(Sharing at Tip Me Tuesday, DIY Like a Boss, Link Party Palooza, and Two Uses Tuesday)

Our big thank you to those who took the 2016 Plaster & Disaster Reader Survey as part of our blog anniversary celebration last week! I’m not going to do a full run-down of the results because, in the interest of transparency and not-finding-a-new-survey-tool, the results can be seen by just clicking through the original survey (provided you’ve already taken it and the WWW can tell that you are the same person).

However, I do want to share just a few of the things that we learned from it. For example, we found out that the typical Plaster & Disaster reader is a 25-45 year old who loves DIY, blogs, and the color blue, tolerates rose gold as a replacement for copper, has no idea who we are, and is either good at math or doesn’t care about math at all.

The Typical Plaster & Disaster Reader from 2016

Modeled by Stephanie, a VIP reader whose brilliance led to the name of this blog.

We learned a few ~~insightful and non-intuitive facts~~ things we probably already knew:

Most of our readers like blogs and DIY… or at least DIY blogs.
Only 3% of our readers’ favorite colors are Marsala, Rose Quartz, or Serenity… and we are deeply suspicious that the handful of you who made one of those selections were being snarky (which we totally support).
You all didn’t seem too enthused by any of the options we offered for 2016 trends, but grudgingly agreed that rose gold would be the least painful of the bunch. (The best write-in answer we got was “republican nominee-themed window treatments”… please identify yourself in the comments for the grand prize of… one of us responding to your comment. We also made you this picture.)

Replublican Nominee Themed Window Treatments - Plaster & Disaster

Sorry, but until the people vote we’re going not going to narrow this down for you… despite our tremendous prescience.

The biggest bummer for us in the survey was that only 15% of you can tell which of us is writing each post each time, and the largest group of you can’t tell at all. We will try to do a better job to differentiate our voices or identify ourselves in our posts! We want you to know who we are. (This is Naomi, BTW.)

We also asked you to guess which of our partners reads the blog. By a slim majority… you were right!! It is Brad who reads the blog – Hi, Brad! Sam is either playing the long game by reading and pretending he doesn’t, or doesn’t care very much what goes on in his own house.

And you all either blew off my math question, got it right, or complained in the “other” field and asked for the answer. The trick is that it isn’t a math question at all! Just flip over the image:

$Math Question Answer - Plaster & Disaster$

Perspective. Now you have it.

As for what you want from us, by far the most popular request for 2016 is more multi-post room makeover projects with big reveals. Fortunately for you, that is just what we had in mind! Sage has already shared the start of her HUGE room project for 2016 – her kitchen makeover! And a big goal of mine is to take some of the rooms I’ve been working on for the last two years and finally finish them up. First up, is my bedroom:

My Bedroom Makeover Plan Loose Set of Ideas That May Or May Not Pan Out

My bedroom definitely needs to be finished. Here is what it looks like now:

Okay, I’ll be honest, that isn’t what it REALLY looks like. That is what it looks like if I’m trying to blogger-manipulate the best photo I possibly can have. That blue blanket isn’t usually in there, I usually don’t have extraordinary flowers on my bedside table, and the rug is moved waaaay over to be in the shot. In reality, it is way too small in the room and is just hanging out at the foot of the bed until I find a suitable replacement.

Here is what it really looks like:

It’s not terrible, and it’s come a long way from when we bought the place.

We’ve put in new windows (including the beautiful bay), new wall material and trim, and painted.

But there is still a lot to improve. We still have the same dinky light fixture in there that we want to replace. The bedside tables don’t match and are too small. We have to lean way over to reach them from the bed, and we waste space that could be good storage. We never finished painting our windows, we need window treatments (hello, neighbors!), Brad doesn’t have a bedside lamp, and we hardly have any art.

While we like our bedding a lot, it is getting pretty worn out. We need to get a bed, or at least have an attractive way to cover the box spring and basic bedframe that we already have. And, as I mentioned, we need a rug that actually fits.

I also still haven’t gotten around to covering the gaping holes that are our duct work, in which we occasionally drop things.

That’s a lot! But I do have some good stuff to build on. Here is what we love about the space:

The light. We love the windows, and want it to continue being open and bright, even as we gain privacy with window treatments.
The colors. I picked Iced Slate by Benjamin Moore very early in decorating this house. It’s unlike the colors I have in the rest of my house (it’s a mellow sort-of-in-between color). It also looks great with the bright yellow doors (Yellowstone by Benjamin Moore) – the contrast looks pretty extreme in the image above, but in reality it is more tame.
The vanity. That is Brad’s piece, an antique that he bought in Albuquerque before we were dating. I love the shape and detail, and it fits perfectly in that spot.
The plants. They’re staying.

I also know the overall look I’m going for:

Soft colors bedroom inspiration - Plaster & Disaster

Sources: 1 // 2 // 3 // 4

Not a single one of these images on their own are exactly right, but the overall impression from all four give a pretty good idea of what I’m thinking. I’m loving that the look is colorful, but not the highly saturated, hit-you-over-the-head-with-it-color that I use throughout most of my house. I like that there are some dark, high-contrast pieces and spots of natural wood. I like the gray, white, and light blue color pallet with a few hits of soft warmth.

My wall color is a good starting point for this, and the doors are a great hit of color, but I’d like to bring in some other complementary tones through a new rug, art, and maybe even a decorative pillow or two (but don’t tell Brad…)

Wait, he’s the one who reads the blog. Shoot.

There is a lot to decide and buy before I get this room where I want it. I’ll be in the market for a new rug, bed, and bedding. Bedside tables, a bench for the foot of the bed, and art might need to be bought or DIYed, or some combination of the two.

I was originally thinking of doing coordinating artwork on either side of the bed. But Brad actually suggested shelves, and I love the idea of the additional storage and chance to have some books in there. I think if I make the bedside tables symmetrical, then having shelves on one side might be a nice point of contrast. Thoughts?

So what do you think of this direction? Any suggestions on furniture or color scheme? Tutorials I should look at?

Either way, I see a lot of fun projects coming! 2016 looks like it might be okay, after all.

(Sharing at Two Uses Tuesday and Tip Me Tuesday)