Is it okay to be in love with a chair? Well, don't tell the husband but I am (he may already know). This classic metal french cafe chair from Tolix makes me swoon.... Maybe because I see them all over Paris while I visit, and they remind me of long evenings sitting eating amazing food and drinking great wine with my friends. This amazing chair is still manufactured in France in Tolix's Burgundy atelier. It was designed in 1934 by Xavier Pauchard and is a beautiful accent today. We can get them here in the states from a few places... Pottery barn catalog carries them seasonally, Sundance catalog has them all the time and you can find a small variety of styles and colors at DWR and Napastyle home. If you are going to be in France soon, you can visit Museum Rolin in Autun, for their Exposition mobilier industriel which will display Tolix pieces June through September 2009.
I have multiples of the A and the A56 chair in my home and love them! They are durable, comfortable, and beautiful, three of my top criteria!
Below is another room in the same house, and how fun are the drapes?
Here I am taking off the screws that keep the front of the cabinets in place:
Here's where we got the first Friday night after we moved in: (Oh yes, and that's definitely a dumped over bag of dog food on top of the fridge and my dog going crazy after all the food that spilled on the floor- that's when we knew it was quitting time!!! )
One of my best friends, Lindsey, and my cousin, Jen, came over on Sunday to help out (thank you!!!) and Lindsey and I painted the remaining lower cabinets while Jen watched the little guy. (I really gouged the lower cabinets with the belt sander because the I only had really heavy sandpaper and was too impatient/ lazy to go to the store to get a finer grade for the belt sander. Oh well! you can't really see it now-- I hope!) Below is Lindsey digging in to the painting:
And finally, here's how the kitchen looks now:
Still lots left undone but I'm much happier with where we're at:
Here's my favorite white bowl my mom gave me. It was brand new a few years ago & has seriously aged with wear & tear !!!! love it. 
Here's a detail of the hammered finish:
Here's the breakfast area as it is now:
I picked up the vintage saarinen-style table on Ebay and love it!! I was really picky about the shape of the pedestal because I found that some of the immitations don't have pretty lines & others do. I really loved the lines on this piece & since there's no way we could afford a real one, we went for this one.
Here's our little parrot who sits on the window sill. Christian loves him:
So, I ended up changing my mind about the wallpaper when the Studio Printworks Pineapple paper arrived:
And here's why I've come to this conculsion. I LOVE both and will consider using the other somewhere else in the house BUT I'm in the mood for color. Bright color. And the Cowtan & Tout paper has color already, but very subdued color and it won't be as easy to inject fresh colors into all the time with accessories. Being in this all-white house you'd think I'd be in Heaven, but I've already moved onto the stage where I want to add color. And I guess since it's so bright & warm out I'm looking for bright!! I think the black & white will be a better backdrop for bright color. So, I'm going to paint over the greige on the cabinets and I'll be going for a fun color. It will take about an hour and I figure it's a cheap & easy color fix. I'm considering a kicky green, inspired by our parrot or maybe even a turquoise or aqua ... whatever we go with, I'll be aging so it doesn't look too new. Below is a pic of my fun little magnetic spice rack that I made from a cookie sheet: (yet to be hung!! :)
I saw the idea in Real Simple way back in college & have taken this baby with me to 3 homes since! We've also been really busy outside and a friend of mine is a landscape designer & she and her husband have been amazing!!! Below is a pic of him in the yard with my husband taking down a tree!!! He's been coming over and helping so much!! 
The next order of business was the living room. At this point the white was driving me mad!!! But now that I think of it, it was more than the white, it was the overall sterillity of the place: 
My mother-in-law and I made white linen drapes & my husband hung them with Christian's help:
They softened the room incredibly!!! (I have no idea why this is underlined but oh well- computers are the worst and hopefully it'll go away!!)
We're using all of our old furniture because the basement is a complete construction zone. (My father-in-law came to visit and worked so hard down there & I can't wait to show pics!!!) Eventually, a lot of these pieces will be going downstairs and we'll be bringing in newer things (like the reupholstered craigslist sofa!!) but for now, this is what we're working with. We went out to Lucketts this weekend to find a mantle and here's what we found:
It's raw oak from an 1800s house in Pennsylvania. Currently we have it nailed into the wall and when things calm down a bit I've got big plans for making this baby look a bit more realistic. That's my grandparents' old camel sadel in front of it for warming your hands in front if the fire ;) ;) Below is a close-up of my old man oil painting I scored at a thrift shop: (I really love him)
My favorite thing about the house is all the light & windows. I still haven't hung much & have plans for the main wall...
Here's an area of the dining room where I just sort of stuck a bunch of things on a whim because I was mad for some color. I used my desk and a huge oil painting and some botanical prints:
