Does this January feel particularly long to anyone? Week three is over halfway to the finish line. Still, with an attic, I mean, "outbox" that is filling up at an alarming rate and several home projects in the works I'm starting to feel a little intimidated at the idea of getting things more or less wrapped up in the next week. On a more positive note: we finally got our closet system installed! It's made a massive difference in functionality and looks even better than I expected. It also displaced a few items, so I currently have an extra dresser and mirror parked around the house while we figure out what to do with them. That plus the paint samples, I've been swatching, and the wallpaper primer that just went up in the hallway, and the house feels in a state of flux. It's equal parts energizing and overwhelming.

Day 11

Reset the Living Room. The idea here is to remove a few items to create more of a blank canvas then revisit later. Our actual living room is already about as bare as they come, so I looked to the built-ins in the FDR instead. While I'm still pretty happy with the way they're styled overall, they've become a bit of a catch-all for any tchotchkes, books, or magazines that come through the door. Oh, magazines. How did I not notice that the lower shelves were overflowing with them? I culled a few items from the shelves and removed the aforementioned stacks. With that small but not insignificant tweak, they instantly felt balanced again.

Day 12

Bathroom Cleanup + Cleanout. Our bathroom, as I may have mentioned, is a very authentic Victorian commode. As such, it has no place for such modern conveniences as cabinets or shelves or showers for that matter. Honestly, though, we still have next to no storage in our bathroom. We swapped out the mirror for a medicine cabinet, so there would be a place to store toothbrushes at the least, but aside from that, there is very little. Pedestal sinks, while true to the period, aren't the most functional for a shared bath. On the bright side, no clutter! I tidied the medicine cabinet, gave the fixtures a wipedown, and quickly cleaned the floor. While I still want a place other than in the actual sink to rest my makeup bag, maybe the Victorians were onto something after all.

Day 13

Get your sofa into shape. Guys, I feel like I'm cheating here. We have a very petite leather sofa in our living room. I love the patina on it, and there are no detachable cushions. Really, the only thing I had to do was give it a quick wipe and vacuum out the crevices. Done and done.

Day 14

Work on your project. The project I selected was painting the bathroom, an item that has long been languishing on the bottom of my to-do list out of pure indecision. I thought that I had finally settled on my color palette. Still, when I swatched my selection on the wall, it felt lackluster. The bathroom is windowless, so whatever I use needs to look good without any natural light. With this in mind, I went back to my previously abandoned idea, to use a rosy shade to warm things up and create a more flattering effect. I headed to the paint store and swatched so many shades of pink on the wall. Again, days of indecision, but after observing the colors throughout the day and night, I think we have a winner. Our bathroom has chair rail molding, so we'll be painting the woodwork a deep navy while the upper part of the wall will be pale pink with a hint of grey. I'm hoping it subtlely warms the space and plays well with the brass fixtures.

Day 15

Clean the bedroom + flowers. Our closet was installed on this day, so the entire weekend was devoted to organizing and putting it back together then cleaning up the bedroom. I love how things turned out, and it's making me want to pay a bit more attention to the one space in the house that's just for us. Putting up some propper curtains and replacing the existing light fixture, which, while pretty, comes to a dangerous-looking point that I am convinced could impale me in the case of an earthquake. For the flowers, I took the previous week's arrangement and pared it back to the hardier blooms that had survived the week ( a mix of carnations, waxflower, and eucalyptus) then transferred them to a small bud vase and placed them in my freshly cleaned bedroom.

If you’re just tuning in I’m following along with Apartment Therapy’s January Cure this month and blogging the process. You can find week one here and week two here.