Apartment Therapy's January Cure :: 2014

Last year I participated in Apartment Therapy's January Cure.  It's a month-long project where you focus on improving and tidying up your home spaces.  Lots of purging, rearranging and donating unused items found in the home.  As a rule, I'm super motivated to get the holiday stuff out of my home…like the day after Xmas.  That's just how we did it growing up and by the time the day after Xmas hits, well, I'm more than ready.

Living Room Accent Wall Project - BEFORE

This year I inventoried my home, as they suggested, and ended up with a three page list that didn't even include my son's bedroom (which looks like a mini-version of Joseph Cornell's studio with childhood detritus topping all surfaces).

My goal project for this year's January Cure was to remove all art from our home walls, patch, paint and re-hang only the art pieces that truly meant something to us (and not just another framed piece of art that goes or matches the room that it's in).

In tackling this goal project, we found out we ran out of our living room paint and that it had been discontinued.  So, the job of finding a new color was next on the list.  We settled on Valspar's Milk Chocolate 2007-9B and my husband taped off the wall and applied two coats in one evening.

Living Room Accent Wall Project - AFTER
January Cure To-Do List 2014
My vintage chair with new upholstery!

When we put the room back together and finally hung a few pieces of meaningful art, it felt really good in that space.

I also had a vintage chair reupholstered in some leftover fabric that my employer had from one of the hotel lobby design jobs we worked on a few years ago.  A Sunbrella Sunflower pattern in Chocolate Kiss that feels perfect in our little space.

Kitchen (aka - Command Central)

I did a lot of work on the kitchen last year for the January Cure and so I wasn't as gung-ho this year.  I did ask my husband to sand and oil our butcher block countertops and it makes the space feel so clean and fresh.  He also oiled my wood cutting boards and wooden utensils.  He is a good, good man.

Art Wall in Living Room

Here's the other art wall in the living room nearest the bar.

Top left - Grady's self-proclaimed "best painting I've ever done" entitled Forest, 2013.

Middle left - Distorted photo by Larry Grace entitled Magical Kingdom, 2009.

Lower left - Distorted photo by friend-neighbor-photographer, Scott Van Cleemput entitled Rust-ic, 2013.

Upper right - Portrait of Steve, 2012 by resident artist Grady Salas Hecht.

Lower right - Portrait of Grady, age nine months, 2004.  This photo used to make me sad, but now it makes me smile.  This was taken after his first taste of cereal.  The boy did not like it…at all.

Our accent wall would showcase some of our most favorite pieces of art.

On the coffee table - Grady's first finger painting Untitled, 17 months, 2004.

Top:  Tree drawing on recycled grocery bag by Hannah Day, Untitled, 2013.

Middle left:  Undress by the oh-so talented, local artist (and friend!), Clare Elsaesser.

Bottom left:  Family photo by photographer, Noella Vigeant.

Bottom right:  Portrait of Grady, 2011 by Kai Samuels-Davis.

I didn't do anything in Grady's room this time around, as that would require a month-long assignment on its own.  I did walk in the other day and catch this scene going on at the end of his bed.  A messy stack of Calvin &  Hobbes books, his tattered and worn baby blanket and the stuffed bear my mom sent him years ago.  It made me smile.

The last corner of my living room is still in need of some artwork fine-tuning, but for now this is how it looks.  I'm hunting for a mid-century modern desk and have plans to reconfigure some of our art on the left wall.

It's a work in progress.

Kind of like me.