Halloween is coming

Welcome to our home - mini pumpkins in the front entry.  Taken with my Bb

Do the seasons evoke memories and feelings for you? 

When I was small, autumn meant the start of school.  October was the ramp up to my birthday, and then a few days later, Beggars Night and Halloween.  Halloween has always been tangled up with my birthday, so that they seem to be one in the same.  Cooler weather, carving pumpkins, pressing leaves, candy and Halloween costumes were all part of one big celebratory period.  In my mind, it was a magical time, full of promise, mystery and surprises.

When I was a little older, we moved south to Florida, and autumn was very different - gone were the colored leaves, cooler temperatures and the significant change of the seasons.  Halloween and my birthday were no less tangled, but the atmospheric indicators were no longer so strong.  I spent most of my life in Florida, and we developed our own traditions of what Halloween should be, and how it should feel.  Mostly it was very warm and the faux autumn leaves that stores attempted to foster on us, felt strangely hollow and inauthentic.

Since 2001, I've been in DC, and the old autumn feelings of my childhood stir, the cool weather, changing leaves, and the magic that Halloween can bring, has come full circle. 

What does this time of year signify for you?

Adult Milkshake

We had this yummy drink when we were in New Orleans for Halloween in 2009. The name sounds disgusting - Frozen Bourbon Milk Punch - but oh boy was it amazing! This is the Bourbon House restaurant's signature drink.

Enjoy!

4C Milk
1C Bourbon
¼C Vanilla Extract
¼C Simple Syrup
1pt Vanilla Ice Cream
Dash ea Nutmeg

Combine all ingredients & blend for 8 seconds.
Garnish with nutmeg.

Yield: 1.5 Quarts

Our Favorite Cocktail

I've been a bit absent lately, due to recuperating from knee surgery and new responsibilities at work. Since my blog is about more than just decorating our home, its about living life. In that spirit, I share with our our favorite drink,the Dark n- Stormy. Someone recently commented that its more than our favorite, its become the house drink.

The traditional Dark n' Stormy is the official cocktail of Bermuda, made from Gosling's Black Seal Rum. Its a blend of muddled limes, ginger beer and dark, almost molasses black rum. Sounds yummy, right? I first heard of it from my buddy Bob Morris, who was on tour promoting his book Bermuda Schwartz and his tour sponsor was none other than Gosling's Rum.

Last summer while dining at Cityzen, I discovered they made a slightly different version of the classic Dark n' Stormy. The ginger beer version will do in a pinch, but Cityzen's version is heavenly. The difference? Cityzen makes ginger infused simple syrup and instead of the ginger beer, giving the drink a fuller, rich and spicier taste. Since February, we've been experimenting with making the Cityzen version. Many times we came close to perfection, but not quite there. Hoping to recreate the concoction from last summer, I wrote to the restaurant and groveled for their recipe. I don't know if I was especially good at grovelling that day, or they're really nice. (I'm leaning towards they're really nice!) Turns out I need not have groveled, they were more than happy to share, as well as give me some important pointers on the making of the ginger syrup. And now their recipe is available for you to enjoy!

• 2oz Goslings Black Seal Rum
• 1oz Fresh Ginger Simple Syrup – (equal parts sugar, water & ginger root. Bring to boil, let sit 2hrs, strain)
• Juice of ½ a lime
• Splash Club Soda

Image Source

A Tale of Two Doors - Part One

This summer there were two projects we tackled and both projects involved doors.

The first project was a restoration of the front porch storm door.  There were cracked panes of glass, the bottom was coming apart, the house numbers were mismatched and the paint was cracked and peeling.   Additionally, the front porch light has had no cover (for almost 4 years) and the doorbell was just a hole in the exterior trim that carpenter bees were increasingly drawn to explore.  What a fabulous welcome to our house, right?

Our house - from designGumbo's Bb

Here's the house before the storm door work, new light fixture, door bell, pressure washing and planted containers.  It doesn't look too bad, but that's because its not a close up shot and the lawn has been done.  I truly believe a well manicured yard hides a multitude of flaws.  

The project occurred over two weekends and involved fixing all the wrongs to the storm door, buying a replacement light cover (we look much less ghetto now) and re-wiring the doorbell that Tim accidentally broke during our first few months in the house.

Bee's wanted to move in the hole!

Additionally,we added a great plastic applique from Piccadilly Peddlers on Etsy for the house numbers so folks would actually be able to read our address from the road.

Oleander topiary

Our home is a Cape Cod,  and symmetry is one of the hallmark features of this style.  To enhance that, I planted several containers with white oleander topiaries under planted with 'Lemonade' Lantana and 'Marghertia' sweet potato vine.  Being from Florida, I was so excited to see the Oleander topiary and Lantana at my local garden center, I saw a chance to use Florida flora give the front porch a tradional look.  A second container on each side of the door contains large ferns from Home Depot.

After a thorough cleaning with a pressure washer, the front porch was ready to be assembled.

The finished product...for now.

After looking at the front porch I'm thinking I might need some nice black accents to really make the entry pop.  So I'm on the lookout for black containers to tie in the black shutters on the front of the house.  What do you think?  What else could we do?  Paint the front door and trim black?

The Ikea Pillows

Source: designGumbo's Blackberry

My $8 Ikea pillow covers were the perfect color match for our living room.  I already have have a number of feather and down pillow inserts, so it was nice to only pay for the pillow cover.  More later why our living colors are challenging.   I'll apologize now for the crappy photos from my Blackberry. 

 Here's what they look like in place on the vintage bamboo sofa:

Source:  designGumbo Blackberry

The rougher texture adds visual interest against the smoothness of the sofa fabric and the lushness of the berry velvet throw pillow.

Source: designGumbo Blackberry

 I like that they're silk, but they have more texture than the usual smooth texture that dupioni silk imparts. Now, our biggest challenge will be keeping our two Grrr Girls off of them.

High end find at Ikea

Source: designGumbo

Recently, the interior design blogisphere seems to have rediscovered Ikea and found a lot to love. We live within 10, 45 or 60 minutes of three Ikeas, and stop in the closest one a half dozen times a year.  Their regular updating of merchandise assures that there is always something new to discover. There's one particular area of Ikea I visit regularly, and within it you'll find a world of affordable accessories, textiles, lighting, rugs, mirrors, picture frames and a regular and a good selection of house plants. Yesterday, I went to pick up a pair of silk pillow covers I saw a month ago. They were $8 each, which is dirt cheap for pillow covers, silk or otherwise.

Source: designGumbo

On my way to pay for my frugal purchases, I passed through the rugs department and in front of me was a display that made me rub my eyes, to make sure I wasn't hallucinating. Hanging right in front of me were large swaths of beautifully colored cowhide. For. $249!!!!

In our store they have the traditional Holstein cow black and white, two chestnut brown versions - one a medley of brown shades, the other a chestnut dappled with white spots. The last one was a solid black hide that was sumptuous in its glossiness. That would look amazing draped across a Hollywood Regency style bed. You can see some examples on the Ikea website but they cannot be ordered online, in store purchase only.

Source: Ikea

Source: Ikea

OMG! Could THAT actually be a kitchen?

After much ado about a lot, my kitchen almost existed and was almost no longer a figment of my imagination. I say almost because the dishwasher, range hood, sink and disposal would arrive and get installed in a few days. The finished product looks better than I could have ever imagined!

In a mere 4 weeks since closing on the house, we:

• Gutted the kitchen down to studs and sub floor
• Tore down the wall between the kitchen and dining room, effectively creating an eat in kitchen
• Installed doggy door for our Beagle so she can come and go as she pleases
• Dry walled ceiling we messed up when tearing down old wall, and leveling areas that once had a wall between them.
• Installed new floor in an attempt to match 80 year old wood floor in kitchen
• Ripped out three rooms worth of 1936 paneling from the master suite
• Re insulated the master suite
• Installed almost all the drywall in the master suite
• Took over a week to move 2 households into 2 storage units
• Sanded, stained, varnished kitchen floor, in addition developed allergic bumps to either floor stain or varnish
• Bought kitchen appliances
• Installed 75% of the kitchen cabinets

Yet to do:

• Finish mudding drywall seams in master suite
• Build storage cubbies to hold all our stuff
• Carpet master suite
• Refinish balance of first floor hardwood floors
• Move all of our stuff from storage units into house
• Install some sort of closet system in dressing room
• Install return and registers for kitchen and upstairs
• Paint - EVERY ROOM
• Have driveway poured
• IMPORTANT NOTE: By the time you get to this finished product, (photographed almost a year after purchase) we'd painted the kitchen walls three different times:
  • first a blue gray (a la Pottery Barn)
  • Palm Green (a la the den color)
  • The inside of an avocado (ceiling and walls) - final color

And on the second day

  With a flourish of a hammer and the relentless yammering of a sawzall, the first wall met its death on the second day of our ownership. The loss of the wall opened the space between the itsy-bitsy, teeny-weenie kitchen (83" x 80") and the rather minuscule dining room (90" x 156") to create a slightly larger L-shaped eat-in kitchen. Other kitchen items sacrificed to the renovation gods were the 1936 metal sink cabinet, the painted in place wall cabinets, the 18" dormitory stove and 6+ layers of old flooring removed down to the wood plank sub-floor. The only things left standing were the refrigerator (which was only a few years old) and the beautiful oak floors in what was once known as the dining room.

We'd already ordered our counter tops and cabinets, all that was left to order were the appliances. Ongoing work would consist of putting up drywall, installing overhead lighting and new electric outlets, as well as deciding whether to do hardwood floors in the balance of the kitchen or something else. Oy, the decisions that needed to be made - it was enough to make a girl's head swim.

Looking back, this was the start of a month-long "get a new kitchen" project - it was a lot of work but well worth it. Until the kitchen was completed we used a microwave in the living room to cook food (when we didn't order take out) and the utility sink in the basement for dish washing (when food required actual dishes.)

My House - the AS-IS Purchase

Doesn't look like much, huh? I know, its small (less than 1500 square feet) and it looks like it needs a lot of work, and four years later it still needs a lot of work. But its oh so much better than when we first purchased on August 1, 2006.

The history of our home:

• Originally built in 1936, it was the first home on our street
• The first floor was the primary living space
• Built with two bedrooms, one bath
• An unfinished attic
• A 7' x 7' kitchen
• A small dining room
• A quarter basement
• White oak hardwood floors throughout the first floor
• No driveway
• A small fireplace in the living room

When we purchased it, the house had been used as by the second owners' son while attending the University of Maryland and three of his buddies. Their upgrades included:

• Added two bedrooms and a full bath to the unfinished attic
• Linoleum floor and particle board vanities in both bathrooms
• Sheets of plastic wall tile in the upstairs bathroom
• Central A/C
• New windows
• Steel beams in the basement to remedy a clay foundation that had shifted over the last 70 or 80 years of its life.
• Entry level washer and dryer in basement
• Clay, gravel and grass driveway
• Chain link fence in the backyard
• Unfinished lapboard knotty pine paneling on all walls in the attic

On move in day, our kitchen featured:

• Green metal farm house style sink with matching base cabinet
• 18 inch wide stove
• 5 foot tall refrigerator/freezer
• 7th layer of linoleum flooring

This will give you an idea of where we started.

First Post

Here it is – today is my first blog post. designGumbo is my attempt to write and interact with the world that has fascinated me since I was just a little girl. My significant other would tell you, by his definition, I have no hobbies, but he is wrong - my hobby is decorating our home. It started innocently enough when I received my first Barbie Dream Home at age 6 or 7. While other little girls were pondering how to dress Barbie, I was trying to find the perfect bedspread for Barbie's master bedroom using my mother’s good washcloths. When I was old enough to choose the colors for my room, I began a love affair with color and painting walls. The walls of my childhood bedroom have been lavender, celadon green, chocolate brown and bright turquoise. My room had the distinction of the only room in our house that had never been painted white.

In my teens and early twenties, my interest in interior decorating was spurred on by the gorgeous interiors featured in shelter magazines. Like many, I clipped and saved pages of beautifully designed rooms, ideas and objects that would someday (I hoped) manifest themselves in my own home. As a renter, I tried out many looks and styles until 2006, when I bought my first home.

Your blogs have inspired, energized and helped me in renovating the handyman special we purchased. Each day I eagerly await your new posts. My hope for designGumbo is to have a richer conversation with you. I’m not a professional designer/decorator, or even writer, but I have almost four years of stories about renovating our home to share, along with some other flotsam and jetsam that seems relevant to decorating/shelter/living blogs. There is still so much work to be done on our house, which means I still need your help and advice. This blog is intended to show how much you have contributed and influenced my home. Ultimately,my home is my test lab, and I hope you’ll join me in my experiments.

In the beginning

I've been planning this blog for months now, trying to figure out how to fit in the world of interior design blogging and then struggling with the design of the blog. The first part of my struggle, the “where do I fit in?”question, wasn’t quite so vexing as the second part, the design of the blog.

Answering “Where do I fit in?” came to me pretty easily. Like most folks, I’m not just one thing, I’m a bunch of things, so I looked to find a name to describe what this blog would be about. It’s mostly about renovating and decorating the 1936 Cape Cod we purchased in 2006, but knowing me as well as I do, I think there’s other life stuff that I’ll most likely share. And then, I love a good gumbo. So that’s how the name Design Gumbo for the blog came into existence.

The design part, well, that was a whole ‘nuther story. My day job is as a web projects manager, and I’ve been designing websites since 1994. This isn’t the first blog I’ve had, and it isn’t even the first blog I’ve designed.It is the first blog where I had to play by someone else’s design rules (Blogger) and that’s been tricky. There’s a good reason why the cobbler’s children have no shoes, and it’s not because the cobbler is too busy or too tired to make the children their shoes. The cobbler, when it comes to his/ her own children, is just too damn picky. Yes, that’s right, picky, as in pain in the butt, gotta be pixel perfect, a perfectionist. The catalyst for getting started, came from my favorite blogger of all time, Valorie Hart, aka the Visual Vamp. She asked why I’m not blogging about our house. It was that query that made me decide to just go for it. That and the fact that I’ve been laid up all week with a torn ACL from rock hopping last weekend, but that’s another story.

So, this is it, my first blog post. Ta da! It only exists because of other bloggers like you, who shared your wisdom, knowledge, sources and sometimes the comic relief. I’ll say thanks now for the ongoing support, wisdom and great ideas.

Carollynn