#57: The Home Design Choices That Drive Us Crazy: a

Decorating is incredibly subjective, and everyone has design choices they ENJOY and other things that make them feel… I do not know… twitchy? Sad? Hangry? So we are sharing what we are neurotic about avoiding in our own home: like a certain way of arranging furniture and a specific color combo. We are also detailing a range of places to find original art (in an awesomely broad range of prices) and we share a personal update about our beloved chihuahua. Plus, we are revealing our new secret weapon for typos, and – wait for it – the exciting conclusion to the “what computer bag will John get?” saga. WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE! Oh, and you get to experience the beauty of Drunk House Enjoy.

You can download this episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, and TuneIn Radio – or listen to it below! Then use this page to check out any links, notes, or photos we referenced. Note: If you are reading in a feed reader, you might have to click through to the post to see the player.

What is New

Above is the photo of the painting we snagged from Homearama (that is the showhouse event like the one we did back in 2014). It is from a painter named Rita Driscoll at Yellow Door Art RVA.
And here they are. At $4 a pop, Sherry’s fairly giddy about these art finds:

Last but not least, here is Sherry’s swift framing of the pages she tore out of July’s issue of Real Plain.

We also talked about ways to find or make art truly more affordably (when you are in that wall-filling stage, not the refining stage) back in Episode #17.
That episode also included this mood board of some inexpensive wall-fillers we found: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6

And we also rounded-up more art we are especially enamored with in this post about a portrait we commissioned from a talented neighbor of ours: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12

Here is a pic of Burger (pre-surgery – and not so sure about the doggy ice cream he was offered) where you can see his eye mass that had to be took out. Once he’s more on the up-and-up, we will try to get a shot of him more recovered.

Updates

Here is the bag I got, thanks to tons and tons of recommendations from you folks: eBag’s Professional Slim Laptop Bag in Heathered Grey (with an orange interior – in honor of the ol’ Jansport backpack). I will try to remember to get a photo of myself modeling it for you folks when we hit the road with it for our next business trip.

This was the other company that was suggested over and over again: Timbuk2, which also had plenty of tempting options.
And since I feel like I have been ragging on my ol’ Jansport, I should point out that they’ve got some sleeker looking laptop-friendly options now too.

What is Not

Here is the full Be on HGTV page where you can see casting calls for various shows – and shame on us for not realizing Enjoy Yurts is already airing on Hands-on. We clearly have some catching up to do.

Plus, if you wanna pine after a Modpool like us, here is a swift video about them from Woman’s Day:

Design Neuroses

Our showhouse living room (pictured above) is simply one small example of Sherry’s intense yearning to keep books and frames lined up with the edge of the surface that they are on, as opposed to angled). The irony is the heavily angled photo – ha!
And below is a shot we took last week of the breakfast nook in our beach house (simply picture a pendant coming down right in the middle of that doorway.

And here is a shot that goes along with our talk about how if the fridge & dishwasher were here it would mean they’d be visible from the front door. So glad we went with this configuration instead.

And here is our go-to LED light bulb that gives off a strong soft white light that is the least offensive to my special eyes.

We are Digging

For those who enjoyed our past “book club” suggestion of The Kind Worth Killing, Sherry highly recommends any of Liane Moriarty’s books that she has been reading for years (like Big Little Lies, which they later made into that HBO series). Her go-tos are in fact What Alice Forgot and The Husband’s Secret, and she’s got Truly Madly Guilty and The Last Anniversary on her to-read-next list.
And here is where you can check out Grammarly for your computer. You can either download the free extension/plugin or simply copy and paste your text into their website to have it double-checked.

Also, if you are looking for something we have dug in a past episode, but do not remember which show notes to click into, here is a master list of everything we have been digging from all of our past episodes.

And lastly, a big thank you to Thomas Avenue Ceramics for sponsoring this episode. Head over to ThomasAvenueCeramics.com/YHL to shop striking tile that is delivered right to your door, and to see Sherry 10 go-tos from their collections (some are pictured below). Also, do not forget to use YHL20 to score 20% off your first order.