"Sorry - I'm trying to clean up - you could help!"
Can't wait to get the trim done and the room back together!
More pictures of the finished product soon!
So yesterday we painted the dining room and living room, today we put on a second coat, and the rooms look pretty good. Matt is going to do the trim in the dining room and put it back together today. The living room needs a third coat (note - use primer, even if your room is pale blue - white will not cover it easily), so we'll have to finish it all tomorrow or Tuesday. Here are a few pictures I took to track our progress so far: Starting to paint - much different than the sea-foam green, but I like it! After one coat - it covered pretty well, actually, but still a bit of lightness through the dark paint Living room after one coat - you can see that the walls didn't cover very well compared to the ceiling I love the view from the living room into the dark dining room! After coat # 2 - it looks a bit darker from this angle, and it's still wet, but it's going to look good! After coat # 2 - he's laughing because he keeps ending up in my pictures "Sorry - I'm trying to clean up - you could help!" View from the dining room into the living room
Can't wait to get the trim done and the room back together! More pictures of the finished product soon!
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So this is what we started this morning: Newburyport Blue for the dining room! Oh scary dark colour - but I love it! Way better than sea foam green walls. We are actually done the first coat now. Pictures soon, I promise. My camera battery is charging. Plus I like the suspense - it's killing you, admit it! Typical me painting...so this is what I would have looked like if I streaked my hair with blue in high school... I still think my highlights look great! Now prepping the living room for Cloud White. Starting with the ceiling, then onto the walls. Doing all the windows, frames, and baseboard trim for both rooms later this week. Can't wait for it to be done, and even more for when we finally get the sideboard done (waiting for an Ikea kitchen sale). So although we want to do some outdoor projects (make some bench seating and a table for our backyard), we are focusing on the inside until the mitre saw is fixed. Today we did our usual weekend Home Depot trip along with Benjamin Moore to get paint. We are painting the dining room Newburyport Blue (HC-155), which is a nice navy blue, and our adjoining living room the classic Cloud White. We are going to start painting next weekend as Matt has a day off on Friday. What we did do today was put up the pendant light in the dining room, which wasn't as daunting as a project as I thought, because the individual capiz shells were actually all hooked together for each piece. Between the two of us attaching them to the light, it only took about 10 minutes. The problem, as usual, was the actual hooking up of the light to the junction box. This one has one, unlike our bedroom light, but it didn't fit perfectly and hung a bit from the ceiling, so we headed to Home Depot. We got a piece we thought would work...but it didn't, so currently he is back there trying something else. We also got a longer garden hose, a spray nozzle, a watering can, and a little hand-held broom and dustpan that I needed for both inside and out. Hopefully it will work, but until then, here are some pictures of the progress! Original light that came with the house - ugh. All gone! 53 capiz shell lengths to attach Matt attaching some shells I forced him to take some pictures to PROVE that I actually do a lot of this house stuff too! Yes, I am wearing a halter top and sweatpants...I got half-dressed this morning Very pretty, and much more light than the last one Success...sort of... See the problem? Hopefully we can get it fixed today! Here are some dining rooms and living rooms for inspiration: Love the light chairs and dark table Great window treatments and sideboard I like the open hutch Very elegant Scary picture, but I like the colours Peter Fallico loves Cloud White too! Gotta have the navy accents to tie in the two rooms- love the vase and pillows
A few people have been asking me where I find inspiration and ideas for rooms, and about the process of it all. First off - I look at a TON of magazines both online and in hard copy. I have a subscription to Style at Home, but my mother-in-law also gets Canadian House and Home that I always read when she brings them up to the cottage. There are a ton of great style blogs that I love as well that I am going to compile. I do admit that I am tempted to switch to Blogger, that has better Blogroll and following options compared to Weebly, but I have paid for my Pro account until September, so I'll decide then. Until then, I'll try to make a list on the side of sites I like! There is about 55 that I go through once or twice a week! When I see images of rooms I like, I save them to my computer in separate folders for each room of the house, plus folders for certain pieces of furniture and decor. I sometimes go through store websites too, looking for pieces. Here are some inspiration pictures I found when I was looking for gray and yellow decor ideas: My original inspiration room, via Casa Greer I like the fun curtains that and textured pillows a lot! I love the white tufting that is so in right now, plus I'll always love the starburst mirrors and art I want some yellow frames too! A bit warmer grey Love the headboard and linens Very clean and simple Even works for teens! Love the pillow and headboard, although it's a bit too "country" for my "French Country" bedroom. Matt, however, is dying for this type of headboard - he'd pull it right out from the side of a barn if he could! All above images except the first found via DecorPad The process takes a while as well. I thought we could finish the basement in a weekend - it took a weekend to paint, another to set up bookcases, another to build the built-ins, and then you really only have enough daylight hours on weekends if you need to sand or saw, because it needs to be done outside in decent weather. Our bedroom was quicker - prep Friday, paint Saturday & Sunday, bring it all back Monday, but it's still not done in terms of things to purchase. We also did the wardrobe a few weeks into the new place, but it took us 3 months to get around to anything else. Again, it's all time and money, and we can't do anything until we have both. It's a process! First you take everything out of one room and put it into another (we are lucky we have a semi-empty room right now beside us) Then you have to take off all the electrical covers, lighting, and tape Then you have to drape things like your giant immovable wardrobe Then we did the ceiling. That white mark was out of spite after a told Matt to stay in the lines. Then once you get to the walls you have to cut in and edge Again, after one coat it will usually need another, and ladders are needed for short people (Yes Matt is in all these pictures, but only because I am taking them and waiting for him to cut in before I paint too) Confined spaces like the closet usually result in paint in various places...like your hair... Or your clothes...these jeans have primer and "Sweet Sandy" from the stage, "Moonshine" from our basement, plus "Cloud White" and "Asphalt" from the bedroom. Ahhhh memories... Once it looks like this, you still have to do all the trim and doors and frames! Then move stuff back in, and remove the tape the next day Then it will look like this...
Although we still had to bolt the mirror to the wall the next day (which we did), and add hooks behind the door (which Matt tried to do before puncturing our stupid plaster walls and had to fill it in and get better plaster plugs before attempting it again today). Again - it's all a long (but very fun) process! I really need to stop being around my students so much...anyone get that reference? So anyway, the bedroom is painted, it has been put back together, and a few decor items have been purchased, along with new sheets! Yesterday I went out to Whitby after work to the big home big box store area, and I went to the following stores: Home Sense, Bouclair Home, Home Outfitters, JYSK, Michael's, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Covers and Pier One. Mind you that these are all in the SAME PLAZA! I also had the option of Home Depot, and Sears Home, but I was exhausted. I was looking for bedroom decor in gray, yellow, or white, or all three. This included an area rug, curtains, pillows, and room accents. I was also looking for white night tables, a small silver vase, new pillows, and new small lamps. Here are the results of my trip: 1. Home Sense = AWESOME but I didn't find anything I wanted. I will be back to poke around again soon! 2. Bouclair Home - never been there, but cute stuff! All colour coordinated so things are easy to find! I got a yellow faux-leather ottoman/storage container for the bedroom corner - very cute, and a silver gunmetal textured pillow. 3. Home Outfitters - bought new pillows - Sealy - don't love them because they are synthetic, but I didn't want to spend $70 on down pillows since I already have a set, but I wanted something soft...we'll see how it goes with them. 4. JYSK - never heard of it - sort of like "No Frills" for home stuff. I wasn't that impressed. 5. Michael's - needed tiny paintbrushes for touch-ups. Thought of getting more florals but that store is so damn expensive and I get lost in all the millions of aisles. Plus the people in there are WEIRD. I hated the place last year when wedding planning so I avoid entering whenever possible. 6. Bed, Bath & Beyond - it's pretty much Linen's & Things, with a different name. They had a great selection of curtains, but I didn't find ones I loved. 7. Covers - again, never heard of it - they sell curtains and bedding. Didn't love it. 8. Pier One - love Pier One - it is so quirky! Found a lemon yellow fuzzy pillow and got it immediately. So went all around those stores to get only a few things, but I didn't want to get anything I really couldn't see in the room. We are NOT made of money! Still looking for most things, since I only really got decor items, but those things I want Matt around for anyway to help with decisions. Baby steps. Want to hit up Pottery Barn, Crate & Barrel (we have gift cards for both) plus West Elm soon! So, without further delay, here is our painted and semi-finished bedroom: Love my standing mirror Going to add a few picture frames on the window wall closest to the mirror See the Ikea night tables and lights that will be replaced The floor looks so bare now that the fuzzy area rug is in the basement! Definitely also need some art above the bed, and a shelf on the closet wall Close up of the new decor and sheets The wrinkle easily I suppose, but I can't bother to iron my sheets - I just don't care enough! Little sunny ottoman in the corner And surprisingly cozy and warm at night
This weekend our project was the master bedroom. Matt prepped it on Friday, we painting the ceiling and the first coat on the walls and closet Saturday, and second coat on the walls and closet, plus all the doors and trim on Sunday. We worked pretty hard but it went a lot faster than the basement with all its slanty walls and small spaces. Today I also went to The Bay and got some gray sheets to go with our white duvet, and to Ikea to get a huge standing mirror and some little yellow accents for the room. Before - powder blue walls from the previous owners with bright white trim After - Benjamin Moore's Asphalt on the walls with Cloud White trim I didn't take a "before" picture of the closet, but it was pretty dingy and gross, with dark wood paneling - this is after one coat and primer on the wood After a second coat - nice and crisp and clean! The Ikea flowers I got On second thought, I will put them in a silver vase since my night table (I have yet to get) will be white... Still have to get curtains, an area rug, 2 night tables, 2 new lamps, and some yellow decor pieces! More pictures later when the tape is off, the mirror is up, and the room is semi put back together! ...in kindergarten when you learned to colour in the lines - completely missed the week. The good news is that the ceiling, the closet, and the first coat in the walls in our bedroom is done. Matt did all the wall edges after I proved not to be able to NOT get paint on the walls when doing the ceiling (Benjamin Moore's "Cloud White"). I did, however, manage to get a lot in my hair. You can see a bit of the paint behind me (Benjamin Moore's "Asphalt"), but more tomorrow when the second coat, and all the trim around the windows, doors, and floors is done!
So it is far from done, but we're making progress. Walls, ceilings, doors, and a bit of the carpet (oops) are painted! We used Benjamin Moore's Moonshine - it is nice and soft and makes the basement feel much brighter yet cozy. Tomorrow we are getting a desk and some bookshelves. Aiming to have it done by May - the next few weeks are filled with the play (COME SEE ALADDIN!!!) and finishing the last module of my course. Before - Matt's start to building shelves Progress - Shelves built, filing cabinet done, now for doors Progress - Primed, now painted but my camera died so I don't have a picture Still have to paint the background - a pale blue colour Before - Office Area Progress - 2 coats of Moonshine Desk will go near piano, but facing outward Brown TV stand needs to be painted and get a TV Before - Hallway Progress - need to move bistro table outside, and get rid of Mitre saw Going to add shelving under the stairs too Progress - need bookshelves for this entire wall White shaggy carpet from our bedroom added to the floor Get all this stuff put away! Progress - bare wall where low cabinets will be for storage, with lots of space on top for decor and for some art above The piano looks so lonely right now! Ikea Desk - pretty finishings for my office Ikea Billy Bookcases - will have a height extension on the top
3 cases in a row for the whole wall |
KathleenAdventures in married life, cooking, teaching science and new home renovations in the city! LinksArchives
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