book shelves are finished

Yes you read it right.  After several months our book shelves are finished and installed in our house!

I couldn’t be more pleased with them!

You can read my post on when I purchased these shelves and progress we made.

I had some debates with myself over color, but in the end I went with our wall color (which I couldn’t tell you the name without looking) and painted the back a dark brown.  All of which we had!

I didn’t want to paint them a darker color because they are SO big they would have stuck out like a sore thumb.  And I didn’t want to paint them white or an off-white mainly because everything in our house is this color or a shade darker or lighter.  To be honest with you I actually got a quart of an off-white and we sprayed one side in the color and it just looked “beachy”.  It definitely was not the look I was after.

I decided to go with a dark color for the back mainly because it’s SO deep.  I’m hoping the color will trick the eye into thinking the shelves are narrower than they really are.  I don’t know if it’s really working but I like the two-tone look of them!

I thought I would show you a little of our progress…this was Saturday painting.  I guess I didn’t get a picture of Friday night priming.

Sunday morning we carried them in.  Believe me they were HEAVY and yes I helped! 

We talked about the placement of the book shelves on the wall over and over again.  This was only going to be done one time!  We cut into the backs for plug-ins and pass-through for cords.  I wanted these babies to be tight against the wall.  We even had to cut holes between them on the outer sides.  Yikes!  Unfortunately these shelves will always have to be in this configuration.  Hopefully I won’t regret that in the future!

Here’s one last picture of the desk part of it folded down.  I think I’m most in love with this part!  The computer can be shut away when not in use and guests don’t have to see it when they visit.  In the shelves with the doors and I have our computer headquarters nicely tucked away behind closed doors.  I have yet to bring a cable and phone line up for our modem and router but that’s where it’s all going to be stored.

So what’s next…styling!  My fun part! 

I’ve got some things in place but I’ll wait to show you the shelves once everything is finished. 

I’m waiting on a few things…deer antlers for one shelf and possibly some old encyclopedias for another.  Yes you read that right again!  I’m so excited that my Dear-old-Dad has agreed to give me a set of antlers!  I know it might sound a little icky.  I thought it was probably a year ago but it’s grown on me and I want to embrace the trend!

Here’s a sneak peak at one of the shelves I worked on Sunday night.

I dug out all of my senior year’s college text books from a box in the basement.  I can remember keeping them thinking I would use them for a reference as I started my professional career.  Well…I can tell you they have NEVER been opened since that last day of class!  Now they are out-of-date and I guess will just look pretty sitting on my shelves!

Thanks for stopping!

Bye for now.

Linking to these parties:  Miss Mustard Seed

my little man’s bedroom inspiration

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Friday! 

I wanted to share with you my ideas for the little man in my family.

My little man would cringe if he knew that I was calling him that.  The very last line in one of our Lego books reads, “All in a days work, Men.”  He becomes very embarrassed when he hears the word “man” or “men” and he always replaces it with “people” instead. 

I wanted to create an inspiration board similar to that of what I would like to do for the girls’ bedroom.  My ideas are all grown-up.  I want a very handsome and mature room that he can grow older in and not feel to little kiddish.  He will still have all of his trucks, trains and Legos, but I’m doing away with all that kind of decoration stuff.  No more truck finnal curtain rod and holders that are falling off the wall!  Falling off the wall we can fix, but I’m tried of the transportation décor!

So hence my “little man” title. 

It’s a grown-up space with grown-up details….

As you can see I’m calling it “Little Man’s Handsome Adventure”.  I originally had in mind something outdoorsy.  Maybe outdoorsy camping…but we’ve really never been camping.  So for now I’m stickin with just the outdoorsy.  His Dad enjoys hunting, both Grandpas hunt and I’m sure he will eventually go hunting too.

I came across this fabric and it reminded me of the night sky with stars.  Some shining brightly and some a little less bright.  (I didn’t show it on the design board – I didn’t really know how to represent it into curtains).  Oh-well!

But I still needed a jumping off fabric that several different colors could be pulled from.  Until I found this…

There are several different shades of blue that could be pulled from this one patterned fabric.  I’ve paired it with blacks, greys and browns.  Right now I am lovin the blues and blacks together.  It looks really sharp!

We have existing warm wood finished furniture pieces that will remain in the room and I’ve tried to represent their colors in the wood examples on the design board.

I drew a drawing of what I would like to do for one side of the room.  Just beware…it’s ROUGH!

My little man took one look at it and asked where is his train track was going to go.  Before I could think of a nice way of saying “it’s going downstairs” he started drawing the track where he thought it should go.  I’m OK with that!  It not in the walk way….it’s kind-of out of sight, and he’s happy. 

He could also see in the bottom left hand corner something new.  “What is that?” he asked.  I said “A chair.”  He said. “Where is my Lego table going to go?”.  In a similar polite fashion I tried to explain the positives why a boy would need a upholstered chair in his bedroom.  He was not having it!  I quickly reminded him that these were just ideas and not something that was going to happen anytime soon.  For all that he knows by the time that this design would become reality he might be well over Legos.

I hope you enjoyed taking a peek into my design thoughts for my little man’s bedroom.

Thanks for stopping!

Bye for now.

a new name and an update

A while back I changed my blog name from “Fireside Studios” to “Emily M. Gish”.  I wanted visitors to remember me with a easy recognizable name that simple is just “ME”.  There is no confusion on what my blog is named or what visitors remember, it’s simply just my name.

With a new name change I wanted my blog to have a more simpler look.  Right NOW I’m very much into neutral colors with a splash of sparkle.  I say that “now” because I could possibly have a totally different idea of what I want next year.

I did need to update the blog.  I wanted it to be easy to find me in the social media world.  I recently started a Facebook page and opened a Twitter account.  Not a whole lot of stuff is happening on my end with those pages.  But I am on Pinterest and Instagram several times a day.  So come follow me on one or on all four.  I would love it if you did!

My most important thing I updated was that I added a custom designed “Pin It” button to all of my pictures.  Move your cursor to the the top right hand portion of any picture and it will allow you to pin to your Pinterest account.  This is nothing new I know.  I just love it when sites have this!  It makes saving what you want to save that much easier.

If you were wondering where my blog design came from, it can be found here.  The designer I worked with was wonderful and answered all of my questions.  I would definitely use them again!

On to things I’m working on right now….

I took down my gallery wall.  You can see it here.  Along the same lines as my blog design, I want a more simpler look.  So right now it looks like this.

Pretty sad I know.  I haven’t taken down all the screws yet from the shelves, I MIGHT change my mind.  But I think I need a change.  We brought up this old bottom half of a book shelf that will act as a entry table.

As you can see the top is marked up from having a TV on it.  It needs more than a fresh coat of paint.  What it needs is for it to be sanded down and sprayed a new coat of paint.  Also…

It’s missing the trim molding on the left door.  I wouldn’t think it would be to hard replace.?  Hopefully it’s something that can be picked up at a hardware store, cut, and glued on.  Let’s cross our fingers on that one!

This cabinet and definitely the wall behind will need work – patching holes and totally repainting the wall…

I posted this picture on Instagram today.  Weird?  Yes!  But I’m excited that my handy husband brought this home for me!  Yes, my husband doesn’t bring me flowers he brings me spackling.  Weird again?  Yes, I know!  Not only will I patch the holes with this but also I want to make a painting…

I want to make a painting out of this 3’ x 3’ wood sheet that will hang above our sofa.  This was a project from years ago that I lost interest in and never completed.  It sat in our basement until now.  I plan on using the spackling to give it some texture.  I would like to paint an abstract of a horizon line using this paint…

I’ve never brought Martha’s paint before and I’ve never worked with metallic paint either.  I’m excited to give them both a try.

Finally, yes there is an end…

I bought this fabric from here and it came super quick this week.  I’m going to try my hand at sewing a pillow!  I’ve sown a few things but never a pillow.  Oddly enough my oldest daughter is in a home economic class right now, and they are sewing a pillow.  I guess I can always ask my 11 year old daughter if I’m “doing it right”. 

Thanks for hanging in there and reading about my rambling.

I’ve got some work ahead of myself!

Of course I’ll keep you posted on all this!

Thanks for stopping!

Bye for now.

girls’ bedroom art

I was doing some wishful thinking on art. 

I love art!  I once wanted to be known as an artist.  All I wanted to do was paint.

I still do but I want to do more.  I want to design plus paint. 

Gosh there just isn’t enough hours in the day to do it all.  And if you’re a painter you need a lot.  So I guess that’s why I’ve never made it as a painter.  I just don’t have the hours to succeed in it.

I’ll do some occasional paintings here and there but nothing full time. 

I created a design board on art pieces for the girls’ bedroom.  My collection is sophisticated with feminine details.  This collection is not too little girlish which is something I’m all about in redesigning their room.  Mind you…..nothing has taken place in the redesign of their space.  Simply just wishful thinking on my part.

1. janethillstudio / 2. ParisPlus / 3. rebeccaplotnick / 4. LeighViner / 5. HeidiCarlsenRogers / 6. janethillstudio

I want to create a gallery wall that has some photographs, some fine art giclee prints and some abstract drawings to counterbalance more of the traditional feel the room will have.

I love all of pieces together.  Each one brings a different story, a different color and just a different way at looking at something ordinary.

As far as picture frames, I envision a mix of warmer woods that will tie into the dresser/nightstand that will separate their beds.  Plus gold frames in various widths that will tie in with the accents found throughout the room.

I you missed my earlier post of the color scheme for the girls’ bedroom you can find it here.  My “jumping off” fabric is this found here.

Hope you enjoyed my wishful thinking.  It sure was fun and maybe some day it will happen!

Thanks for stopping!

Bye for now.

update progress on my book shelves

My book shelves are about half way through to completion.  My handy husband thinks you need to sand down to bare wood for them to be painted.  And I don’t know!  I sure don’t want someone's fingernail to swipe away the paint to the wood vanish underneath.  But I just saw on another blog she used “Liquid Sander” to prep the wood instead of sanding.  Urghhh!  I guess we’ll look into that on the next project seeing that all but a couple of shelves need to be sanded.

Disclaimer alert….My dear handy husband has done probably 95% of the work.  I am not claiming responsibility for any of what has been done some far.  I’ve done like a SHELF and that’s it!  I really had higher hopes for myself in sanding these and I even proclaimed that he didn’t need to worry about them I was going to do it.  Well it really didn’t happen that way.  I can not stand sanding!  It’s sooooo boring!

Here the book shelves sit in our garage.

I also wanted to show you that it’s been a whole family kind of thing to do after dinner on many nights.

Little man is seriously at work, deep in his thoughts while sanding.

Handy husband is busy at striping the wood.

And the girls are sitting close by reading and listening to music.  So I guess it’s not totally a family helping thing, but we are all out there together in the garage enjoying each other’s company.  Isn’t that what’s most important?

I haven’t picked a specific color yet, but I do know I want them to be ivory.  As far as the back of the book shelves I want it to be a black or a very dark grey or even a dark brown (which I know we have some left over from a earlier project).  I thought about wall papering it, but no.  It would cost more and I probably would get tired of it faster than just plain old paint.

As the weekend approaches we my handy husband will probably finish the sanding and I will finalize a color (that’s my job!). 

I’ll keep you posted!  Have a super weekend!

Thanks for stopping!

Bye for now.

a gold mirror (my second Craig’s list purchase)

I wanted to share with you my “second” Craig’s list purchase. 

If you missed my first you can read about it here.

I wanted to find an oval mirror preferably gold with some scrolling details to it.  It needed to be some what of a good size to hang in my daughters’ room above their dresser.

I’ve looked and looked and just couldn’t find anything in my price range online. 

As I have stated before, I’m constantly looking at Craig’s list.  And one day I find the mirror I’ve been searching for!  I contact the person through email and no answer.  Well I see it still listed several days later and email again.  Still no answer.  I probably emailed 10 times.  I thought maybe there was a glitch in their email and they didn’t get it.  I was noticing the item kept on getting renewed plus more items were being added by this person.  (I only knew this because the person was selling only mirrors and the reflection in the mirror was the same for each listing).

Then one day I noticed one of the other mirrors had just been renewed.  I quickly jumped on the computer and emailed them.  BOOM!  I got a reply!  The mirror was still available!  After     all      this      time!

A few days later I picked up the mirror.  I probably was at this person’s house for a whole total of 2 minutes.  I saw it, took out my money and I was out the door loading it into my car.

I know all of you are waiting on the edge of your seats, dying to see my mirror!

So without further ado…..

I love it!  It’s exactly what I envisioned for their room.  I wanted accents of gold and this mirror will definitely deliver.

Now for the rest of the family…..

My handy husband WAS NOT jumping for joy when I pulled up and neither were my kids, especially the ones that will be looking into this mirror everyday.

But I reminded them to wait-and-see the whole picture after the room is completed before they disregard a design element.

That being said I’m still very excited in putting their room together even though not everyone is on board.  I thought I would show you my “start” to their bedroom.  It’s going to be a VERY slow process and hopefully it will be worth the wait.

Thanks for stopping!

Bye for now.

girls’ bedroom inspiration

Today I was playing around with my newly downloaded trial version of Photoshop Elements 11.
 

It’s pretty cool! 
 

I was looking for a program that I could easily understand and work with.  I just did this design board in a short amount of time.  This program is basic but has all the features I wanted.  I put this together with proposed fabrics and rug for my girls’ bedroom.

 

In my “redesigning our house finishes over for my interior design portfolio” this is the look I want for my girls’ bedroom.  I classify it as “Vintage Glamour”.  It’s definitely going to be more of a classy and grown up room but yet it won’t look too old and stuffy.

I fell in love with the floral fabric!  It will compliment the existing pieces that will remain in their room.  That fabric is a keeper and is my jumping off point.  You can pull so many different shades of pinks, purples, grays, browns and a touch of orange, which one sister is very partial to! 
 

The upholstered headboard could easily be a DIY project instead of paying hundreds of dollars.
 

I have always liked the layout of two twin beds side-by-side with a small chest in between.  There is just something about this layout that creates an atmosphere for quiet private sisterly talks.  I guess it’s something that I wished my sister and I had.  We had our own room but I do remember asking if we could remove the wall between our bedrooms so that we could share one space. 
 

Here are a few pictures of what I am thinking about.  You can find all of these and others by following me on Pinterest.  I’m constantly looking for new inspiration.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping!
 

Bye for now.