No, it's not an entertainment center--I still don't watch TV. It's a mid-century wooton desk that closes up into a plain old cabinet. It even locks, so I can keep out all the nosey parkers. Call it the desk equivalent of a Murphy bed. Now you see it, now you don't.

I found it in Pennsylvania at this former Chinese restaurant/junk shop in Simpson, Pennsylvania where Isaac has his studio. More on that another day. Does anyone know exactly what kind of desk this is? I know it's not really a Wooton desk...

More images of the dust and the desk after the jump...

Does your head hurt? It should. Or at least I wouldn't blame you if it did. Mine certainly does. You're looking at just one small section of the Janovic store in Chelsea. Who knew there were so many colors in the world?

Last night I went and finally bought paint for the bedroom. I had one final anxiety attack about it, and then I just bit the bullet and chose one shade lighter than Jamaican Aqua. I don't even know what it's called. And frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.

I wasn't the only one in a tizzy over there. I met two really nice ladies who were also quietly freaking out about colors. Everytime I go in there, it's full of women freaking out about colors. More on that and more photos after the jump...

I snuck home last night to take some in process shots of Josephine painting. She wasn't there, but I found lots of repair work underway, and had another chance to panic about the color scheme. I still don't know what to do. I solicited the advice of two neighbors who both like the bright turquoise blue, but I still think I'll think it's too much.

Some before and now pictures after the jump...

Real quick--look at this tree mural Holly from decor8 found on her adventure in Amsterdam. It's from a children's store called Keet in Huis, which I missed when I was there in the spring. It's my color green; it's a tree; it's...me?

What do you think? Would I feel like Max in Where the Whild Things Are if I put this in my living room?

I'm stalling a bit--I went to my apartment last night to take some in process painting shot, but two things happened. First, Josephine was still working when I got there and I was really shy and embarrassed; I felt like such an idiot in my little work skirt and heels. I talked to her about the best kind of bass guitar to buy, and completely forgot to take many pictures of the painting. And then, I left my camera at the house. So no photos of that.

But, my little self-indulgent James Baldwin post from yesterday did catch a fish. Mike from Iowa City is renovating a 1928 house and writing about it on his blog, Foxcroft.

My favorite thing--he's put a time capsule with the original blueprints of the house, a DVD of photos of the house and a letter in a door frame. It reminds me of my friends Lisa and Richard who found 19th-century horse race betting books inside the walls of their Victorian house in London. Anyone done something like that?

In his brilliant novel, "Another Country" James Baldwin writes: "Love is expensive. One must put furniture around it, or it goes."

Back in the day when I taught English literature at the University of Iowa, I loved to read that sentence aloud to my students and ask them what they thought it meant. Mostly because I'm not sure what it means myself.

Lately I've been thinking that Baldwin means that you have to create a space where you can rest. Love is an empty room until you furnish it and make it a home.

Anyone else?

Okay, is this color saying, Tiffany Blue or Domino Magazine? Am I going to wake up and feel like a gem or fall asleep feeling like that guy that tattooed an ad on his forhead?

Thanks to guessica for noticing! I think...

No, they're not wet. They're just covered in two brand new layers of polyurethane. That's right. The floors are done! I went over this morning to wait for Josephine the painter, and this is what I saw...

Let me gloat a minute, then I'll show you the Jamaican Aqua on the wall...

One day left until Josephine starts painting. And still no firm plans about a color for the bedroom. But...last night I went to the Janovic store in Chelsea that's thankfully open late (until 8 pm) and bought a quart of Benjamin Moore paint called Jamaican Aqua--see above.

According to colorcharts.org, that paint is just about the same color as Sea Port (see (forgive the pun) below) from the Millenium Collection, which turns out to be in the same color strip as Noblesse, the color I'm using in the small hallway outside the bedroom and Lithesome Blue, the color I was considering the other day.

So completely by instinct, I chose paints from different companies that are complimentary.

Weird, huh? I'm going to test the Jamaican Aqua tomorrow morning and post a photo. Is it pretty?

Isaac and I took a crack at repairing my family lamps. Before we can rewire them, we need to replace the shades. We were feeling very industrious (well, I was, Isaac always is), so we decided to make shades ourselves.

Step 1: Remove old shades and leftover glue from shade rings. We decided to try good old dishsoap and water. Here you see the rings soaking, like Madge, in it.

Step 2: Use the abrasive side of a sponge to scrub off the gunky fifty-year-old glue.

Step 3: Buy some flame/heat resistant paper and be lucky enough that it's exactly the right size so you can roll it into a cylinder. (I got this textured stuff at Paper Presentation in Manhattan, but I've seen some plain Nomex paper at Kate's Paperie too).

Step 4: Secure rolled up paper with Elmer's glue. We used a heavy shelf mount to weigh down the shade and hold it in place for a few hours.

Step 5: Lose interest for the time being and cart half-finished lamps around town while you wait for your floors to be done...

Any questions?

I'm kind of in love with this pendant lamp. It's called Sixlite by Damdesign. I found it on this amazing French website called The Collection, which features all kinds of talented young designers from Europe, and ships overseas.

The thing is, ever since Isaac and I have been working on my mid-century lamps, I feel like I could make lamps/lights myself. Everywhere I turn I see possibilities.

So what about the Sixlite? You like-y?

Once again, Maxwell over at Apartment Therapy has riled everyone up by saying that successful people have less stuff. Of course, I'm not sure I know what he means by success? But the call for less stuff is really seductive to me, especially given the state of my closets.

I realize I'm not being fair to myself. This photo was taken just after I'd piled everything I own into my closets so I could redo the floors.

But clearing out the house was really hard on me. I threw a bunch of sentimental things away. Like my father's pajamas that I've carried around since he died 15 years ago. And mixed tapes from old lovers. I cried a lot. It was as if throwing these things away dislodged some grief in me. If you think about it, I'm a little like this closet--you open me up and everything comes tumbling out onto the ground...

I haven't been slacking. I swear. This weekend I'll get some pictures of the floor--my neighbor Melissa says it's really dusty over there, but the floors have been sanded.

In the meantime, I have five days to pick colors for the bedroom and hallway. The chips above are what's in the living room now--Dill Pickle green from Benjamin Moore--and the teal blue color I am painting the small hallway between living room and bedroom. It's called Noblesse  7114M from the Millennium Color Collection.

Originally I was going to paint the bedroom a bright orange color because I have a turquoise bed skirt and I wanted to go for the Howard Johnson's look, but I think that's  bit much. What about something more sea-greenish for the bedroom and just plain white for the dark hallway?

What do you think of something like Lithesome Blue? It's also from the Millennium Color Collection.

Okay, I know I'm supposed to be picking paint colors for the bedroom and hallway, like, um, yesterday (painter starts next week). But I love this Big Chill refrigerator. We did a Daily Dot about it a while ago, but I'd forgotten about it until I found Blink Decor, which is an online guide to decorating and renovating websites.

If I do a retro kitchen, I think I may have to have this refrigerator.

I haven't blogged today. Here's my excuse. The movers were supposed to come this morning to cart my furntiure down to the basement. They never showed up. That's what I get for hiring a couple of comic book publisher wannabes off of Craigslist. Craigslist is great, mind you. These boys are not.

So at 10:00 am, I roped my neighbors Melissa and Michael into helping me move.

It was a pretty quick job--we shoved everything into the kitchen. But the super yelled at me because I hadn't cleared it with the management office. Eventually they said I could store stuff in the basement under the condition that the building is not liable for loss or theft, blah, blah, blah. Watch my stuff disappear...

See anything different? Please say yes... I've been busy. Everything I didn't throw away in a maniacal fit is packed up and shoved very carefully in my closets. Except for the stuff in bags on the kitchen floor. I gave up on the idea of pulling up the linoleum and having the kitchen floors done this week.

So there you have it. Things aren't going to be pretty for a few days. But then I really, really, really get to decorate. And you get to help. Aren't you so excited?

I'm going to watch "Blow Up" now as a reward for all my hard work. I'll talk to you tomorrow.

Ugh, I'm throwing everything away. All my books. All my knick knacks, all my vintage purses, all my collages, old love letters. Everything. I already have seven boxes of books and I haven't even emptied one bookcase. Moving is daunting. After this, I'm never doing it again. Ever.

Know what I mean?

Insert the sound of a cat call whistle here. Have you ever seen a sexier sofa? If you have, post it on the domino FLICKR group. I'll pull together the best of the bunch and post them up here and we can have, like, a beauty pageant.

Thaddeus said it best when describing his kitchen, my floors are pretty from afar, but far from pretty. About a year ago, I had a lot of water damage to the apartment because there was a fire two floors upand the water sat for five hours before anyone told me about it. Needless to say, the floors got a little water-logged.

I could have dealt with that. Then the plasterers and painters came in to repair the walls and they destroyed everything. They got plaster all over the place, and scratched the heck out of the floors when they moved furniture around to do their work. See...

I've been hemming and hawing about having the redone for a year now. So it sort of serves me right to be told today on the phone that the Carlton from Designer Floors is coming over at 9 am on Wednesday morning to start the floors.

That gives me five days to move out of the apartment. Crap.

If you're not busy this weekend, come on by and help me move.

I grew up during the '80s in just about the preppiest place in the Midwest. I had my preppy moments--wide whale cords, LL Bean mocassins, and kelley green Dickies all found their way into my closet and my heart. Then I blossomed into the big old contrarian I am today, and I skewed in the other direction. I had the asymmetrical haircut (see rare glimpse of teenage Catherine below), wore black, and listened to Ministry, all the while stuck in a kelly green room that my sister decorated years before.

So...imagine my surprise when I discovered my unconscious mind playing tricks on me, making me paint my living room green, buy needlepoint, even consider a wall of needlepoint samplers. Twenty-five years later and I find myself wearing ribbons in my hair (scroll down), penny loafers on my feet, and (don't panic) white Dickies. What's happening to me?

I had a dream the other night in which I made a joke in my abysmal French that, "All women become their mothers." (Toutes les femmes deviennent leurs meres.) Do we? Or do we all become our former selves?

Do I need to turn one of my preppy outfits into a room?

So, you can comment again. But I won't hold my breath...

Uh, here I am whining about how I'm not getting comments and kind-hearted Jeanne from houseprogress.net wrote to tell me that we're in the middle of an update, so you can't comment!

Forgive me, don't forget me...

See, here I am, facing the wall for a time out.

Just when I thought my week of birthday tyranny was over, this gorgeous orange tree drawing by comic book artist Chuck BB arrived in the mail from my friend Ivy (aka The Germinatrix). I can't wait to hang it.

Thanks, Ivette!

Hmm, I must be boring lately. Not many comments. Except for my embarrassing here's my messy closet post. What is it about that post that elicited comments? Does it present a concrete problem? Does it give you a chance to offer concrete (and as it turns out, great) advice by pointing me to products and systems that might solve that problem? Or...is it that you got a little blogger blood, seeing me so vulnerable? Come on, admit it...

Like the rest of the world, I'm mad for mid-century minimalism, even if collecting it the way I do is a classic case of horror vacui. Take this vase that I found at Housing Works Thrift Shop in Manhattan. I think I paid $7 for it, but admittedly I'm an unreliable narrator when it comes to prices I paid for vintage finds.

Don't you think pussy willows would look pretty in it?

Though it's apparently blasphemy to use a flash, here's my new living room mirror artificiallly lit. Notice the foot. See, it's plain. The mirror, not the foot.

And here it is in natural light. I haven't hung it yet, and I had such fun making self-portraits with it on the floor this morning that I'm worried it'll be a while. Oh, but I'm safe on that account--no point in hanging when I have to move out in a few weeks to have the floors and painting done. More about paint tomorrow. The sunshine is calling my name.

And one for good measure...

Well, I found it before, but I just figured out where you can find it. This lamp. This sinuous beauty. Roche Bobois. Born mid-1970s. Female (I just decided). Paris. Married young to a baby grand. Stayed faithful until several years ago when she headed from one auntie's Paris apartment to one uncle's Paris apartment. Then was kidnapped and flown first class Air India to New York City, where she currently makes merry in a Harlem apartment without views of the Park. And that's her School House Rock history.

I hear they're making reproductions. Inquire if you might.

I bought this Geo mirror last fall from storehouse.com. It sat in the front hall leaning against the wall for about two months, until I got Isaac to hang it for me in the living room centered over the couch. Then I painted and moved the furniture around, so I have to rehang it. As you can imagine, it's been sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall for a good four months now. You may have even seen it lurking in the background of some of my photos.

Here's my dilemma. I'm not sure I like the mirror anymore, or that it goes with my stuff. Feel free to weigh in on that.

I could just trash it and buy another one--domino did a story about mirrors recently and there were some really beautiful ones there. Or, I could spray paint this one a different color. Or hang it in the hallway.

In any event, I need a mirror in my living room--it's dark--and I want one. Plus mirrors can be used in such interesting ways to open up a room or show off art from different angles.

I was poking around Designer's LIbrary this morning and found a few suggestions for using mirrors--the first of which is from domino. I love the three little circles especially. Wouldn't a bunch of various shaped mirros look cute in my house? Maybe mixed in with the trees? Or opposite them?