2010 Reflection, 2011 Plans

We have done an unbelievable amount of work to our House of Turquoise since we moved in Valentine's Day Weekend 2010:

• Replaced downstairs carpet with dog-and eye-friendly Pergo, tiled the laundry room and hall bathroom
• Completed a light remodel of the half bathroom and total gut-job remodel of the guest bathroom (looks like I still need to do an official “after” post)
• Painted the entire downstairs, even the two-story high living room
• Torn out the 60 arborvitae bushes, overgrown rhododendron, and two trees from the front yard and planted grass (neighbors LOVED this)
• Replaced nearly all the light fixtures
• Took down and replaced all the fugly curtains left with the house
• Built a wall of custom shelving, painted, and installed an attic ladder in the garage (looks like another needed official “after” post)
• Refinished a thrift store pedestal table to replace the behemoth kitchen table set left with the house
• Have a somewhat put-together craft room/office

I am very proud that we not only did a considerable amount of this ourselves, but that we paid for it all in cash. The remaining items will likely be over the next couple of years as we now are more settled in and have our eyes on other financial goals (new car, a long-overdue vacation). Plus, we’re a little burnt out on doing “house projects” every.single.weekend.

However, there are still several bigger things left

• Buy a couch and accent chairs for the family room
• Replace upstairs carpet with a neutral tan carpet
• Paint master bedroom and bathroom (still only about half decided on what colors)
• Paint husband’s game room/office
• Tackle the backyard by planting grass and pressure washing and painting the existing deck (short term fix), eventually replacing deck, tear out bushes and plant grass in side yard
• Re-stain front door
• Replace kitchen countertops, and eventually replace the refrigerator and stove with stainless steel models
• Tile kitchen floor (eventually)
• Replace white blinds throughout house with matchstick bamboo roller shades
• Replace roof (least interesting one of the bunch, and of course the most expensive. Boo.)

I’m happy that many of these remaining items either will be professionally done (carpet, countertop, roof) or aren’t DIY at all (couch, appliances). It’s funny to look back on the almost year we’ve lived here and see that we totally picked the DIY-intensive projects to do first. Clearly, we were eager first-time home buyers.

For 2011, the house priorities are:

• Winter- buying a couch(chairs can wait)
• Spring/Sumer- working on the backyard and side yard; paint  master bedroom, bathroom, husband’s office; re-stain front door
• Next fall/winter- replacing the carpet or kitchen countertops

Focusing less on house projects, I think, will be refreshing as I will have the time to work on small projects that just seem to stay on my someday wish list, which includes several sewing projects, scrapbooking/cataloging photographs, and other paper crafts.

Happy New Years!

Seven Layered Desk

Over the holidays I finally found the time to paint my desk I purchased in what turned out to be the *wrong* color. The “walnut” stain really was orange-y, self-tanner walnut- why, oh why, didn’t I read the review? I had been trying to steer clear of the white desk “everyone” is doing, but immediately cursed myself when I saw it in person…. in my house.

Before….

Shopping for our home has really shown me just how much stores DO NOT carry in-house, but solely online- tons of furniture, bedding, curtains, you know, all the kinds of stuff you want to touch and see in person before forking over some big ones. Okay, vent over.

After taking apart the desk, I went over all the pieces with primer. Then a zillion times with milky white color in semi-gloss. Spent two days in painting clothes, coming back every 30 minutes for another layer here, a touch up there. Just about took my sanity.

I bought a custom vinyl decal from Empressive Designs (along with the one I used in the laundry room).

After……

Down below, I added some color by spray-painting some baskets and hot gluing ribbon around white storage containers. Glass storage jars are a mix of vintage and Ikea.

Overcoming Designer’s Block

Over the summer I got a good push of motivation to work on my craft room / office: I painted the walls a celery color, I bought a funk teal lamp, a large trestle work desk, some cork boards, and hung some curtains. Then I just got stuck. I became unsure of my choices, of my color scheme, and we had other huge projects we began tackling in later summer.

I had some beginning ideas of a funky, but mature; feminine, but not girly room. But I just couldn’t find the exact inspiration I needed  to push me to confidently finish. I swear there is only like 5 craft room / feminine offices floating around in the blogosphere.

A walk through the Lowe’s paint department last night, I finally saw the confirmation I needed. A part of their Audubon Collection is the Grandeur assortment….. exactly what I was thinking, but hadn’t seen put together.

Cool blues, celery greens, deep turquoises. Elegant, but casual. Feminine, but mature. Bold, but clean.

Here’s what I’m wanting to do:

I was trying to be original and not get a white craft desk, but my gamble busted when Target’s Madison Trestle Desk in Antique Walnut turned out to be a Self-Tanner Overkill Orange Walnut. I guess I’m having that white desk after all.

Here is the white version in action in this awesome space by froggymonkey, via RateMySpace.com or Flikr.com

 

The plan is to paint it a soft, milky white and personalize it with a giant monogram decal, a la Living With Lindsay:

Perhaps using one of Empressive Designs’ decals

 

Or Vinyl Graffiti’s

Then I want to fill my IKEA RIBBA picture frame shelves with all sorts of fun things encased in teal, silver, and walnut frames:

Some embroidery art, a la White Nest

Some button art, a la Letter Perfect Designs

 

Some modern quill art, a la Yulia Brodskaya

And somewhere I want to find room for a ceramic elephant, hopefully vintage, but mass produced would do. Just cuz.

I’m digging these Audubon prints from AllPosters.com:

A smaller framed White Crowned Finch

A large framed Louisiana Heron

 

Eventually, replace the builder light with something a little fancier, like this one from Overstock.com

We Have (Some More) Pergo!

Ack! It’s taken two solid weeks to eradicate our house of the construction dust that seemed to blanket everything for the previous month. Yesterday, I got my formal rooms after-picture worthy, and today finally our real living space- the kitchen / family room is reveal worthy.

I don’t think I’ve taken updated photos of these rooms in quite some time, and we did quite a bit over the summer, most of the DIY stuff. So I’ll give ya’ the quick tour. There’s (of course) a list still to be done :)

So here’s our (current-state) kitchen and family room:

Love, love, love our eat-in kitchen set. What started out as a steal of a deal, turned into a DIY fail: in itty bitty text at the bottom of my receipt for the cross-backed chairs that I bought in May was a backorder notice for two months out. Needless to say, the very day the chairs came in in July, I custom-matched a quart of paint and went to town on that table. In all for the four chairs, table, and paint supplies, the set came in around $400.

I like to call this one “Where’s Otis?”:

I’d call this one “Where’s Ginger?” but she just really doesn’t play as well:

Plans left for the kitchen: new countertops (something light, like beach sand-y colored), new light pendant, giant diagonally-laid tile flooring (top of next summer’s list), and in the far-off future stainless fridge and stove (ugh, why must backless stoves be crazy expensive??).

On to the family room.

We love, love, love the paint color we chose after some paint sample speed dating (I have quite the collection of little tubs of green-grays and blue-grays): Dusty Miller by Glidden. Matches the unique, but kinda cool blue-y brick fireplace and calms the warm wood cabinets and floors. All the drapes, valences, and rods are from Target.

 

Only thing (major) left to do: buy a new couch and accent chair. We’re thinking dark brown leather. Once we do that (hopefully this winter), both this room and our front formal room will be complete as this couch will move there. That will be a glorious day.

Some crazy before photo that always lift my spirits when I keep whining thinking “we still have so much to do!”:

  

Sometimes I’m even shocked how much I was able to see past those curtains and teal, teal, teal carpet….

A Home for George

A couple of months ago, I inherited the most amazing gift. A huge oil portrait of my great-great-great grandfather, George. He was the ultimate game changer.

Here’s George the first day I huge him in our formal living room:

We had done nothing with that room yet. And you can clearly see how white the walls still were.

Finally, I have been able to add little by little, working in the quite antiqued, quite ornate gold, gold, gold frame into my brushed nickel, light and airy, cool tones, beach-y feel home.

I guess like so many things in life, you know it works when it looks effortless. I have spent hours going back and forth about what to do in this room, which colors, which pillows, which accessories would make George feel welcomed and loved in our so-not gold and ornate home. I took a few photos today of my progress, and in looking at them on the computer my first thought was how pretty straightforward they looked. It’s a learning process, maybe I’ll keep it for awhile, maybe I’ll change it up in a month. For now, I like the layout and I think I’m doing a pretty good job with George.

A large potted palm, a few pillows, one small vase, one picture, one table lamp made of glass (so I didn’t have to make the awful decision between ORB, gold, or brushed nickel). Leaving it at that.

…Though some picture frame molding in crisp white would look divine…. in time, in time.

The wall color is Navajo Sand (Glidden). It’s a very subtle, sandy light tan/beige. With the living room being two stories tall and so open to the dining room, stairwell, and hall way, we decided to do just one color- a color we didn’t want to be changing anytime soon. It is pretty light, but exactly what we wanted.

 
The bay windows have navy thermal drapes and a oil-rubbed bronze tone curtain rod- brushed nickel just would not have worked. That was a hard choice to make in light of George’s gold, gold, gold frame. Although this is and likely will be the only ORB fixture in the house, I think it was a good choice. I am the most matchy-matchy person- at least the style is the exact same :) Drapes from JC Penneys, rod from Target.

That teal carpet is heinous. Yes, yes I know. It’s departing sometime this month we hope! We will be replacing it with some pet-friendly Pergo. Once we do that, we’ll be moving the matching sofa (told ya) in here at it will be complete.

The entry table is on the other side of the room by the front hallway. Another layout I’ve been constantly tweaking. I know, totally silly, but all of this is fresh for me. Trying to make my house a home and feel warm, but avoid overdoing all the cliché candles, vases, bowls, picture frames, doo-dads that cause clutter and chaos.

A basket for library books, extra pillows awaiting their sofa, bowl for keys, bamboo houseplant still going strong after fours years, one picture, and two matchy but still “in-the-background” vases.  Okay, so I didn’t do so well on avoiding said vase or picture frame, but I did limited myself: )

As you can see, all our “wood” is a middle tone, honey oak which photographs so orange-y (yuck). Not my favorite, but I am really not interested in painting all our trim and “woods” white, no matter how “in” it is right now or how perfect it would look with the cool tones we’re picking throughout the house. This poor girl has a zillion more projects higher up on the list, so I won’t even let myself daydream about white baseboards and banisters.

All in all, our current state of living room is far better than what we started with:

 

The previous owner left us a naked lady fountain-light combo. Filled the nook by the front door pretty well. Henious to look at though. Thankfully, our realtor loved it. No joke. She took it off our hands the day we moved in. We think a Christmas tree just might find itself their this winter.

  

The giant blank wall where George hangs out now. Those walls go up light 20 feet. Thank God for gifted 4-foot tall artwork.

A Pedestal Table to Call My Own

I love, love, love pedestal kitchen tables. Big hot pink puffy heart them. Our new house has a formal dining room right next to the casual eat-in kitchen, meaning all the more that I wanted a pedestal table to differentiate from the regular four-legged rectangle table next door.

Immediately upon moving in, I was on the hunt for one to make my next DIY project. A few reasons why I knew I wanted to DIY it:

1. They're such a classic shape that they've been around for ages... translation- the perfect one would appear at a thrift store, estate sale, or Craigslist, I just had to wait for it

2. Solid wood especially with *curves* could get spendy quick and I wanted a good one that would last, like a kitchen table needs to

3. Lastly, refinishing wood furniture is about the easiest home project there is

So let's take a moment to oooohhh and awww at some glamorous pedestal tables.

Photos courtesy of Country Living.

The funny thing is that our house's previous owner did leave us a kitchen table and seating. It served us quite well for the first few days before we had any other furniture. Our first meal (Chinese take-out) was eaten here. We even asked for it- our realtor talked it up like we really liked it. Who wouldn't?


Especially since they not only came with cushions, but also...


All the extra storage a girl could want.... okay, okay not really. The real reason is because I figure this bad boy has got to be worth something on Craigslist, right? A little something to put towards my dream pedestal table and criss-cross chairs.

So finally, here's the pedestal I can call my own. I found this beauty at a local thrift store for (get this) $35. I know, right? A few character scratches even. Love it. Woke up early Memorial Day to run some errands (okay, okay go shopping for house stuff) and a quick swing through the thirft store (yes, shamelessly, I have a mental shopping list for DIY projects at all times and also know that holidays = 30% funiture). I had the sold ticket in my hand in seconds, thinking everyone else would want to fight me for it. A quick trip back to get the sleepy hubby and the SUV and she came home.


My inspiration is textbook Pottery Barn. I know, I know. Pottery Barn is so cliche, but darn it, it's so freaking classic and home-y.

So here is their Harvest table and Aaron chairs for a whooping grand total of $2,350. Um, right. But I had to have those chairs.


So I found them exactly as hoped at JC Penneys for around $60 each. JC Penneys does great PB *inspired* furniture. I ordered them in antiqued white, but they also come in antiqued black and walnut. While I love dark wood stain, I forced myself to go different for the kitchen.

When the chairs come in, I will color match and paint the table, so for now I am sanding and priming to my heart's content.