room & board in boston

So I guess it's true!  If you live in Back Bay, you may have been wondering what's going to fill the spaces formerly occupied by the Other Side Cafe, Island Hopper, that mattress store(?), etc.  I had heard rumors of it being Room & Board, but that they had pulled out of the deal.  Looks like it's back on for 2013.

full story from boston.com here

While I'll miss having some of those local dining spots nearby, especially Other Side, this could be fun from an inspiration and home improvement perspective! (West Elm is a bit of a walk right now.. possibly bad news for my wallet haha)

I wonder how they will do though.  And I kinda wish it were Target instead.  I'll remain hopeful for the space formerly occupied by Best Buy / Virgin.

a bathroom facelift {part 1}

A while back (ok, a long while back) I alluded to some planned "renovations" to our hallway bathroom.  I've been waiting until I had something exciting to share.  I've decided that moment is now.  

I know you're so excited to know what paint color we picked, but you get so much more!  Patching holes in walls!  Painting the walls!  Installing a sconce!  Putting in new plumbing!  Designing & installing a custom vanity top!  Finding storage baskets!

The vision was to have a clean, contemporary look that's a little masculine (mostly Adam uses this bathroom) and a bit of a contrast from the rest of the apartment.  I had been feeling inspired by some photos of dark, high-contrast bathrooms and decided to go that route. 

I'll walk through the whole process to date, but let's start with the end.  Very proudly, I present our progress as of last week:

And here's a before photo:

Yep, that's the same bathroom - and we're not even done!  From zoomed out it's hard to see all the beautiful new details, but we'll get there along the way.