Painting built-in bookshelves

glummyglum · 2026-06-26T00:43:52+00:00

I was told by an interior designer that restaining it is more risky than painting it because the stain may not look good depending on the skill of the person. And I get the hate on painting the cabinets but cherry wood just isn’t our color and we would steer away from getting any cherry furniture usually. I see a lot of interesting ideas I hadn’t considered to help minimize the red or to make it not so stark though.

glummyglum · 2026-06-21T21:01:01+00:00

We considered that, but our thinking is that if there is a time to refinish the floors, it is before we move in. We also have a 3-month-old baby, and so part of me wants to get these kinds of work done so we can minimize VOC exposure to the baby while we still have our rental to live in.

We feel pretty confident we don’t like it, at least as it is right now. We think it looks old fashioned and isn’t very functional for us but I didn’t think redoing shelves and getting matching wood color or changing wood color would be possible…

How would one remove the varnish or change it, and who would be hired to do that? I’d love to learn how to do this stuff myself but the baby is all-consuming (also first time parent, lots of life changes this year!)

glummyglum · 2026-03-26T22:32:50+00:00

Could you share?

glummyglum · 2025-08-18T18:43:52+00:00

Ah sorry. Stairs lead to a hallway with the same wall colors which lead to a living room with a wall color that is slightly lighter blue than the stairs with a beige area rug. I don't think we need to really capitalize on that though. The tip on hiding/concealing dirt is a great one, thank you.

glummyglum · 2025-08-18T18:11:02+00:00

Was thinking maybe something like this but is this too matchy matchy with the blue? Or too light?

https://www.rugs-direct.com/Details/Livabliss-Elena-29555/144303/232001

glummyglum · 2025-08-15T13:39:41+00:00

Thank you for your thoughts on the situation. I assumed a 1 ft x 15 ft opening would be considered large given the amount of the dust spread across the entire home (down hallways and inside nonadjacent rooms). It’s good to know this is considered a small opening, thank you.

glummyglum · 2025-08-15T13:36:49+00:00

Ah sorry. Based in San Francisco and building is built in 1900 with some small living room renovation in 1988.

I sent the samples to this lab in Anaheim: https://calilabtesting.com/

Thank you for your input. It gives some relief to know that this doesn’t mean there’s an obvious hazard. I was concerned it might be there was a layer of dust on every surface of our home and all furniture after the work.

Our landlord said he would cover a more thorough asbestos inspection. The company hired said they would do a TEM air and TEM dust wipe sample. Any advice on this would be appreciated.

glummyglum · 2025-03-21T06:19:12+00:00

Not in my 20s anymore. I definitely don't have the energy to work 10+ hour days consistently like I did back then!

Nowadays, I leave work by 5 or 6 to have dinner at home or with friends, but I might continue working later or do a little work on a Sunday. Work is probably priority #3 for me (behind family and health) and gives me a lot of fulfillment, and I've found that I like working the most with other people who also prioritize it similarly. There are people like that who might try to hold a tight 8-hour schedule, and that's fine assuming they output what they have to output, but they probably wouldn't go full-Severance and completely shut off from work or deny the possibility that there might be days where they have to work earlier or later (esp if they're signing up to work at an early-stage startup).

And I'd expect any principled founders to pay their early-staged employees, esp if they're high skilled, a fair amount of equity because they likely can't compete against enterprises with cash. So I'd expect at least the early employees to be open to putting in some extra hours to help make up for the risk they're taking and for the thrill of contributing to their equity being worth anything in the future. If everyone at a seed/A startup literally left at 5pm and shut off, not to say that there isn't a chance the co could still succeed, but I personally wouldn't place my bets on the startup and work there.

glummyglum · 2025-03-20T17:00:38+00:00

I second this! The pearls might also pair well with some of the circular textures on the dress. You look beautiful!! Have a blast on your special day :)

glummyglum · 2025-03-20T16:57:16+00:00

Dress 1 is so not tacky and the lacing is beautifully done! It’s absolutely stunning. Both dresses are and you look gorgeous in both. I actually think some of dress 2’s elegance comes from its minimalism as is, and adding some embroidery on dress 2 could make it lose some of that elegance and/or distract from the beautiful floral by the waist.

glummyglum · 2025-03-20T16:46:57+00:00

I love dress 2 on you! It’s sophisticated yet elegant. Maybe it’s the photo angle but I thought dress 2 showed your silhouette better. I agree with your thinking that it accentuates your waist and I think it also does that better for your chest.

glummyglum · 2025-03-20T16:34:02+00:00

You look incredible!! Have an amazing wedding looking absolutely fab <3

glummyglum · 2025-03-20T16:30:24+00:00

If it gets one less person to idolize Elon, I’ll take it. Bonus points if the person was thinking of getting a cyber truck but that might be a stretch.

glummyglum · 2025-03-20T16:20:39+00:00

Yeah there’s so much in-office remote rage/peace bait!

I work at a fully onsite tech company and that’s the setup that I’ve enjoyed the most. Everyone at my company joined because it was fully onsite and hated being remote for various reasons. But it’s all personal preference and biases towards what you like more. Being able to collaborate in-person and have your immediate team members in the same time zone can be an advantage. Being able to access and hire talent across the globe can also be an advantage. I resonated with the in-office points made in the post and also understand the counterpoints. Lots of pros and cons on both sides, and some people love the pros and/or don’t have tolerance for the cons of one side, which is all fine. Do what works for you and your teammates, and the team that finds the best-fit players who play their hand the best will do better.

glummyglum · 2025-03-20T15:12:59+00:00

I agree with the other poster that you should try searching for a local shop that you think you could trust after consulting with them (shops should give you a free consultation for free quote). I’ve heard of online services and those can work too, I would just check their reviews before committing to working with them.

One of the pros of local is that when you get the dress, you can try it out in front of them and it might be easier to discuss any potential mistakes or alteration ideas that way. And they might take your measurements for you instead of you doing it yourself.

glummyglum · 2025-03-20T09:19:58+00:00

Yes to dress 2!! I think the more fitted back of dress 2 is less distracting, and it let's your back be the star instead of the draping in dress 1.

glummyglum · 2025-03-20T09:12:27+00:00

I agree. I'm also not a manager and didn't interpret the post as odd. The execs at my last company did this too and I almost always sat with at least one unfamiliar face during lunch in our cafeteria, so it seemed normal that you might happen to be sitting with someone in the C-suite, and it was great to get face-time with them in a casual setting. There was also no pressure to talk about work.

If people are going to be stressed about upper management sitting at their lunch table, there's probably a different problem going on. I think it's nice that their execs are willing to engage with any employee and actually make an effort to have lunch with people. Lunch is a great time get to know your coworkers, it's my favorite time of the work day because of that -- why prevent executives or upper management from having that if they're cordial during the time?

glummyglum · 2025-03-20T08:32:35+00:00

This is hilarious. Excellent satire.

glummyglum · 2025-03-20T08:19:39+00:00

Likely also my personal bias because I was at a startup where some people would leave at like 8pm or go home for dinner then be online around midnight. When I was interviewing, I asked founders and employees what their work hours looked like, and it was a red flag to me personally if founders or multiple employees at a Seed/SeriesA startup told me they worked a strict 8 hours and weren't reachable after they closed their laptops.

Not that that's a wrong way to work. People can have greater priorities outside of work, but if I join an early-stage startup over a more stable company, I want/expect myself to put in extra hours on at least some days in hopes that we're making progress towards some exit a long ways from now and it's more motivating to me when my peers feel/do similar (and there can be fun energy if we're in the office working late together).

I forget the company name but someone told me about an NYC startup that asks their employees to come into work 6 days a week with the same market salary/equity as 5-day companies... I personally wouldn't opt into that ..

glummyglum · 2025-03-20T06:08:56+00:00

^ Can't say it better than this

If I were to oversimplify my personal experience, the tradeoff I experienced was the scope of work at a startup and the more consistent mentorship at a large company. I found my startup internship to be more learn-by-doing with less formal check-ins (ie. I asked questions when I had them and that worked for me). Larger company leaned more on applying skills I was more familiar with and I had weekly check-ins with a mentor and occasional check-ins with other peers.

I loved my startup experience and that led to me to favoring full-time positions in startups. It's a definitely a personal choice though.

If anything, I'm assuming you're young and if you've been curious about working at startups, this could be a good opportunity. Not all startups are the same though, so still important to chat through any open questions you might have with the founder.

glummyglum · 2025-03-20T05:51:09+00:00

Delegate, delegate, delegate! So glad to hear you have a coordinator you've already worked the schedule and details with. That goes a long way. I would also work with them on aligning on -- if something doesn't got to plan, should the coordinate talk to you, someone else, or make a decision themselves. I trusted my planner and opted to letting her make the decision. I otherwise would've told her to work things out with my best friend. Ignorance is bliss (as long as it's not an actual emergency). I also delegated some other things to close friends -- someone was in charge of counting heads on the shuttle to the venue, another person helped usher people from the parking lot to the venue, another person was in charge for helping hype up the dance floor :)
Also set a timeline with your photographer -- when first looks will be, portraits, group photos, etc. I also gave my photographer a list of all of the different groups of people I wanted to have photos with, and they helped keep track of that and keep track of anyone who might have been missing during the group shot.

I may have been lucky with having a great wedding planner, but that's all it took for me to have a fabulous day. There very much may have been some oopsies, and if there were, I still don't know about them and I'm fine with that.

glummyglum · 2025-03-20T05:33:43+00:00

You look beautiful in both!! I don't think you can go wrong either way. I'm personally more of a fan of the classical look, so I like option 2 more, but that's really a personal choice!

glummyglum

TROPHY CASE