Painting Out the Anger

Well, when your team loses the World Series you have a lot of pent up anger.  Or at least that's my theory because I got TONS of stuff done around the house this weekend after Friday's disappointing game.  I woke up Saturday morning, brushed off my Rangers tears and picked up my paint brush.  In just a couple of hours I was done!

Turns out Behr's Anonymous was the perfect shade of gray that I was looking for.  It's dark enough to be a little dramatic yet it doesn't suck all the light out of the room.  Let's look at one more picture:

I got a lot more done to this room over the weekend and tackled some major yardwork.  I'll be filling you in throughout the week.  I'm glad my trick-or-treaters won't have to be scared of my construction zone.  It's all cleaned up and my candy bowl is ready to go!

Happy Halloween!

Grey Gourds

Last night was not only Game 6 of the World Series but it was also the girls' annual pumpkin carving/taco soup eating night.  This time last year we were watching the Rangers first ever World Series appearance as we carved and I created this masterpiece.

This year I decided to paint pumpkins that could last through Thanksgiving.  I recruited Anna and Haley to spice up these fellas...

...and in no time at all they were matching my new grey walls.

Once again, excuse the iPhone photos.  I've got to quit leaving my camera at work.  To go along with my little pumpkins, I started a big pumpkin with chevrons.  Despite the 11 inning game, there was not enough time to finish it up.  Guess that'll be another project for this weekend.

Game 7 is tonight.  I plan to put the pumpkins aside and focus all my energy on winning the World Series.

Major Progress

That's what happens when Game 6 of the World Series gets postposted for rain.  I spent 2 hours painting last night and was able to get half of the dining room finished.  At this rate I'll be able to finish by Halloween.  I was a little concerned about scaring Trick-or-Treaters with my construction zone.

Ignore the furniture.  The piece on the left is eventually destined for the garage and the wine rack will be getting a makeover soon.  The color came out great and I'm getting full coverage with just one coat.  It looks like I'll be able to do the whole room with one $22 gallon of paint.  Not too shabby.

Anonymous, Now with More Megapixels

I've made the wise choice to start with all the edging first this go round.  In the living room I left it until the end...right about the time you are completely burnt out.  That's not the best time to have to do detail work.  So this time I'm knocking that out first.  Here are some pretty boring photos of my work thus far.  Hey, at least they aren't as grainy and blurry as yesterday's pictures.

This go round I'm also skipping the blue tape.  I found a brush that does an awesome job cutting in. 

Photo from Amazon.com

It has a flexible rubber handle and angled brushes that don't shed.  I used it for all my white trim and I'm using one now for the gray edging.  I'm so impressed that I'm actually going to clean the two I have and keep them once I'm done.  Usually I just throw my paint brushes away after each project.  Yay Wooster!

And the Winner Is....

ANONYMOUS!

The darkest color, second from the top won the competition.  I got feed back from a bunch of people, including about 8 that came through my house this weekend and were forced to offer decorating advice.  Thanks everyone! 

I swung by Home Depot last night and picked up my Behr Anonymous in a flat finish.  I am starting with all the edging in the room so here is a little taste of what's to come.  I apologize about the photo quality but they were taken at night with my cell phone.  My digital camera decided to pull an all nighter at the office last night.



Anonymous slowly overtakes all the losers

 

Makes a Better Door Than a Window

Previous Owner left behind all of the window treatments in my new house.  PO also left behind one "doorway treatment".

These lovely drapes framed the hallway and played up a sunny view of....the guest bathroom.  I'm pretty sure I took the drapes down soon after taking this picture.  For the last few months, I've just had an empty rod sitting up there waiting to be removed.

This weekend I not only finished up painting all the trim in the front room, but I also removed all evidence of the doorway treatment. 

Now if I could just come to a decision on my paint color...

Shades of Gray

My trim painting in the dining room is now about 75% done so I figured it was time to slap up some of my gray options.  This gives me a few days to mull them over and check them out in different lights.  I have it narrowed down to 5 choices. 

I'm hoping to have my decision made by Sunday.  I'm going back and forth between two colors right now.  Here they are in chip form in the order they are painted on the wall.

Go Go Gadget, Dining Table

Here is my dining room table looking the same as it has for the last several years I've had it.

I always knew it had extra leafs (leaves?  potterybarn.com says leaves, I'll go with that) but I had never really pursued getting those from my parents due to lack of space in my old condo.  This past weekend I brought all three leaves back and decided to take them for a spin.

Holy moly!!!!  It went from 64" to 100" right before my eyes.  Now this is actually a little more table than I need on a day to day basis, but it will be great for entertaining.  I think I'll stick to 2 full-time leaves for every day life.  I'm hoping to get the table stained darker than the floors eventually.  Something along the lines of this color:

Haverst Pedestal table from Pottery Barn

I will probably worry about acquiring 4-6 more chairs before staining.  Once I get my new chairs (which I hopefully find used and cheap!) I'll be able to recover the 4 old chairs.  They are currently a muted mustard yellow, but were once cream.

It seems like every little project just leads me to another.  Luckily I'm enjoying it all! 

Hall Complete!

I finished all the trim work in the hall and went ahead and painted the walls using my leftover living room/master bedroom paint.  Not a major project but a necessary one in order to move on the the dining room.  Here's a reminder of how it started off:

Pretty boring with molding that was darker than the walls...and not in a good way.  Now it is the same color as the back of the house.

Here is a before and after that shows the difference a little clearer. 

It is much more cheerful now.  Well, as cheerful as a hallway can possibly be.  I am about 50% done with painting the trim in my dining room.  As soon as that project is over, it'll be back to the grey drawing board.

I'm kinda dreading that.  Wish me luck. 

Hotel Thea: Closed for Renovations

Just 3 months ago I was welcoming guests with open arms. 

It's not that I've become anti-social.  Really, I'm just looking out for you.  See, I up and got rid of my bed.

Well, I didn't actually get rid of it.  With the help of my trusty moving sidekick, AKA Dad, the daybed was relocated to a lovely ranch-style home in North Dallas, AKA my parent's house.  Fear not future guests!  Hotel Thea should be open again for business within the next week or so.  Until then, all I can offer is a blanket pallet on the floor and a sheet fort.

DIY Curtains

I searched pretty high and low to find curtains for my kitchen.  Unfortunately I just could not find what I was looking for.  I needed to lose the drab rusty curtains for something lighter and a little more fun.

No problemo.  This was nothing that couldn't be solved with my good ol' sewing machine and some elbow grease.  I found some great fabric and fun trim at Fabric.com and ordered it. 

A little crazy but trust me with this.  I ordered 5 yards of the yellow and white fabric and used the old curtains as my pattern.  Pattern sounds fancy when acutally it was just the guide on the size of 2 rectangles.

Adding the trim on was a little trickier but nothing I couldn't handle.  You just had to make sure the little balls didn't get sucked up into the foot of the machine.

Hanging them was a breeze.  I just clipped them on to the hardware that was already on the rod.  Note: my rod is a little crooked because the screw slid out of the drywall.  I will be fixing that soon.

It really brightened up that end of the kitchen.  And I love how the pattern matches my Jar O' Lemons on the table.  The trim just adds a little whimsy to it all.  It was a fun project, very easy and cheaper than store bought curtains!

More Trim Work

It is really amazing what a difference freshening up my trim work makes.  The clean white brightens up the space before I've even touched the walls.  I still can't get over just how cream/beige my molding is.  In this picture you can see that it's pretty much darker than the walls.

This little hall is the heart of my house.  Not because it holds my laundry room and I love washing clothes that much, but because it's at the center of every other room.  You can see the living room beyond in the picture above.  To the left is the Kitchen and to the right is the aforementioned Laundry Room.  I was standing in the dining room/entryway when I took this picture.  Since it figures into my floorplan so centrally, I decided I need to paint this area before moving past it to my dining room.  I started the trim a couple of nights ago and the change is already drastic.  It's amazing how much work you can get done while watching tense ALCS games. 

Now this was taken from the opposite side but you can tell the difference in trim color. I plan to finish all of the trim in the hall and then tackle the dining room trim while I'm on a roll.  Those are my hot weekend plans. 



Dining Room Dilemmas

Well, ever since the Red Couch got evicted I've been mulling over my dining room.  Last I wrote, I was content with the colors and was going to try and work around them.  That didn't last very long.  It was just too much brown and beige and anything I came up with was going to look completely different than the rest of the house.  So now I am back to square one.

I have an insane amount of outlets

I think I am going to end up having to paint this room to ensure that it flows with the rest of the house.  I am considering using the same color as the living room or perhaps a shade darker.  Here you can see the mock-up I did on Sherwin-Williams' Color Visualizer.

It looks a little blue but you get the idea.  This will mean another ceiling to paint....  Perhaps this time I will hire a pro.  We shall see.  The drapes will also have to go. 

I planned on getting a rug to go under my dining table.  I figured a 5' x 8' would be plenty but decided to tape it off before ordering anything.


I should really water that plant back there...

The smaller corner represents a 5' X 8' rug.  Now this would be fine and dandy except for the fact that my dining room table has 3 additional leafs, at least one of which will soon be in it full time.  The outer perimeter shows an 8' x 10' rug.  It seems to be the correct sizing for the expanded table but it also seems to swallow the entire room.  What is a girl to do?  Do I forgo the rug all together?  I've hunted for 6' x 9' rugs but the selection is not nearly as good.  And now you see my dilemma.

So for now I think I'll move forward with painting the room.  And then I may start the refinishing process on the table and chairs.  I'm hoping to get them a deep, dark brown (darker than the floors).  I also need to find additional chairs that will work with the expanded table, as I only have four now.  My mom says I'm to blame my dad for that issue.  I've decided not to complain since they became mine for the low, low price of free.  Thanks, Mom and Dad! 

So until I solve my dilemmas...don't expect any invitations over for dinner.