Mountain House Monday: The Last-Minute Changes I Want to Make But Won’t (or Maybe I Will)

To make a fashion analogy, when we shoot my house, it’s typically dressed more to host an Oscar viewing party, but when being shot and featured in a professional interior design magazine, read by professional interior designers and brands (and seen for the FIRST time), it feels like it’s being photographed on the red carpet then presenting Best Picture of ALL TIME. The once-thrown-together outfit for friends now becomes a real “look” that I get to amp up. It’s not bad stress, it’s kinda the best stress ever. I really want it to represent my style and show what myself and the EHD team can do.

So with nine days until the shoot, there are some things that I’m like, “ooh, would it make more sense/be more impactful if it were [insert musings here].” Most of these were decisions that were made quickly near the end of the renovation and some were even placeholders that we never switched out. None of them truly drive me nuts or I would have changed them, and thank god I have SO few regrets with this house. But here are the things that I’m considering at the 11th hour…

First up, the closet door hardware.

Near the end of the renovation, we chose these knobs because they match the rest of our interior doorknobs, which I LOVE, but once they were installed, my team and I had the same reaction: They should be long and linear not round and small. I suppose it’s because of the vertical nature of the wood that just wants a long handle, versus a knob. Plus, those closet doors (from Ross Allen) are SO pretty, so I don’t want to miss an opportunity to show them off.

But they are so nice!!

A month ago, I told Julie that we should replace them, then two weeks ago (when I was super tired and feeling overwhelmed), I changed my mind with a “no, it’s good enough. It’s fine!”

Then last week, as we were doing another walkthrough, predicting the shots and angles we were going to shoot, we realized once again that if the closets were to be shot (and they will for the blog regardless) then it’s just such an easy fix. Sure, we are going to have to patch some holes, but the wood is busy enough and wood filler will blend in. We have these in two of the bedrooms.

So we are switching them out for these.

A far bigger dilemma is the dining chairs and light.

As a reminder, we originally were going to have the table oriented in the middle of the room, so we had two junction boxes installed with those beautiful matching pendants (custom from The Urban Electric Co.).

Then we realized that my dreams of having a massive banquette could come true, so we oriented the table this way to see if it would work, but at that point, the second pendant closest to the kitchen was no longer necessary.

We took the second light down and capped it. Here’s where we are now with just the one fixture over a pretty massive (top secret) table (House Beautiful, like all magazines, wants us to keep a few spaces secret so that when its shot professionally its the first time you’ll see it!):

While it’s still gorgeous, it feels small for the space now, and as Julie said, it looks like it’s missing its friend. This type of light usually is hung in multiples in order to have the impact that it should have.

The kitchen has a linear piece so I feel like a linear chandelier could also work here to fill the overhead space. Here are some we’re considering, although many are over our budget and have a crazy lead time (but fun to show you what i’m thinking):

1. Balance Chandelier | 2. Astro Mobile Light No. 2 | 3. 3 Arc Island | 4. Lodge Chandelier Three | 5. Black Sputnick Light | 6. Chiltern Double | 7. Sculptural Pendant | 8. Lucca Chandelier Iron | 9. Industrial Chandelier

Will I change it out? I don’t THINK so. I actually just found a few more on Lulu and Georgia and a couple vintage ones from MidCenturyLA that are affordable (and available in LA). But as I write this (at the mountain house, sitting at the banquette) I look up and see the fixture and it’s truly so pretty (the underside of the disk is brass, by the way) that it seems just silly to replace it just because something might be a better scale.

Additionally, the banquette is built and the cushions are being made as we speak but I kinda forgot about the three chairs that will be in front. I have some vintage wood chairs that are cute and it wasn’t until like two weeks ago that I thought maybe we should actually consider what the right chair would be. I love a mixed chair situation but is this the right house for that? When I brought it up to Brian, he said “oh, I thought those were placeholders.” HA.

So now I’m on the hunt for chairs that are “right” stylistically, but also good for kids, work with the new bench fabric design and frankly can get to us in time. Here are some I’m strongly considering (one of which we landed on):

1. George Armchair | 2. Sammie Stacking Chairs (Set of 4) | 3. Tilt Side Chair | 4. Bok Chair | 5. Tanner Dining Chair | 6. Nestor Chair

The table is so pretty that I don’t want them to be too visually heavy and block it, but at the same time, they need to be fairly wide to fill the space properly. I don’t want them to be stylistically “loud,” rather minimal (but not cold). They also need to be comfortable. It’s hard, guys.

Okay, let’s move onto the schmear on the fireplace…

I’m around 80% in love with the schmear, and to get me to 100, I’d love one more layer of plaster. Just a tiny bit more schmear. Maybe it’s that I know what was under there, but I just want the bubble rocks to be smoothed out just a bit more. Julie, Emily B. and Brian do not agree and with nine days left to go, I think I’m losing this battle. I also don’t care THAT much but I’d love for you guys to weigh in.

Should we all chant together “ONE MORE SCHMEAR, ONE MORE SCHMEAR?” Or no?

Onto some (more) lighting choices:

Let’s start in the living room:

These sconces are so good for the price ($118 from Shades of Light) and we chose them later in the renovation to pass inspections, but we all really like them.

Lately, I’ve had this thought that they could be more special, but I also know that not everything has to be a “moment.” As of now, I’m leaving them because the living room will have enough visual interest and perhaps these don’t need to scream STYLE at you. The black squared off lines are kinda perfect and the fabric shade provides the light that we want (more ambient, not directional). One thing we could do is switch out the shades for black ones…should we?

Next up are the master bedroom sconces:

There are two awesome sconces above the nightstands, so we chose these as a placeholder for the other two in the room. I’m so sorry to say we don’t remember where we got them, but these are similar and so affordable.

But we always had the intention of putting in an articulating statement reading light, we just had decision exhaustion so to pass inspections we put in these.

These are the sconces we are considering (the lantern style ones were to go by the patio door, not in this corner:

1. Perry Sconce | 2. Houe | 3. Peel | 4. Leighton Adjustable Sconce | 5. Scoop | 6. Tully Sconce | 7. Hillgate Pocket | 8. Bayberry Wall Sconce | 9. Arlo Light

I think this is important to really make that fireplace wall the moment it deserves. I’m not sure if that is the chair that will live there, but I think something with a black arm coming out will be the best choice.

This stuff is the good stress. It’s not renovation. Not permanent tile choices. I can honestly say that I love this house so much regardless, even if I didn’t change a thing, but as a designer and stylist its fun to care about the details and talk about the creative process.

Head to stories today where I’ll show you more and YOU GUYS COME BACK NEXT MONDAY FOR A BATHROOM REVEAL!!!!! We finally found out what rooms the magazine will likely not run, so we can start revealing those. YAYAYAYAYAYAYY!!!

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