Target Continues to Get Me

A few weeks ago I was walking through Target and let out an audible gasp.  I found that they were now carrying paint and removable wallpaper. This picture is sideways but you get the idea.

 

 

 

I had no idea where I needed wallpaper in my house, but I knew I needed it.  I bought one roll of the turquoise Moroccan print and a small paint sampler.  The roll was 20" wide and 16.5' long so I was pretty limited in what I could do with one roll.  I literally walked around my house holding it up to things until I got to my guest room and stopped.

 

 It looked awesome with the bedspread.  I didn't have enough to do a whole wall so I started brainstorming.  I considered doing just the bottom half on the wall and have it act as a sort of headboard.  Then I remembered the scrap of wood in my garage from when I converted the metal trash bin holder into a table.

 It was perfect!  I wanted to paint the edges and went ahead and gave the whole thing a coat of paint thinking that would help the paper stick.  It was so easy to stick on and create an insta-headboard.

 I've been having fun with my scraps too.  I lined the drawers in the guest room.

 I backed the shelves in my closet.  It made me want to wallpaper the whole closet.



 

I also have a test piece hanging in the kitchen.  If I found a cute pattern, it'd be an easy way to cover up my backsplash until the Magic Genie of Home Renovation delivers my Kitchen Remodel Fund*. 

This paper really has so many possibilities.  It's $30 a roll so it would add up quick for a large project but it doesn't take much to make a big impact in a room.  I really have no frame of reference as far as what regular wallpaper costs but considering this stuff is already stick and can be removed without causing damage to surfaces, I really can't see myself going that route.

*No such Genie exists.  Sigh.

Finished Bathroom

I spent Friday night putting the guest bathroom back together and I'm really happy with the changes so far!  It really is a big change from what it looked like when I moved in as far as being lighter and a little less generic.  It only cost about $50 since I had all the paint already on hand.

Before

After

Now it really is time for me to stop procrastinating and get back to planning my new master closet remodel.

Guest Bathroom Almost Finished!

I have continued working on my painting in the guest bathroom and now all I have left is to finish up the trim.

Hard to tell too much but you can see the walls getting lighter.  I love the look with the grey ceiling instead of white.  I just need to knock out the trim and 2 doors and the room should be back together.

At least it better be back together.  I have company coming over this weekend!

Back to Painting

I had every intention to start working on my closet remodel model this weekend.  Somehow I instead decided to start painting my guest bathroom.  The guest room and the guest bathroom are the only beige rooms left to conquer.

Nothing too drastic here.  The walls and ceiling will be Sterling, the light grey in the rest of the house.  And I guess that means I'll eventually need to paint all the trim white, but I'm trying not to think about that.  I'm also going to replace the boring white (ish) shade on the window with fabric that give a little more pop of excitement.  I'll probably make a faux roman shade and possibly frost the window.

I have about half the room painted now and should have it finished by the end of the week.  In the meantime I'll also be trying to get the closet project started as well.

Front Hall Finished

I finished up all my trim work on Friday and by Saturday it was time to begin painting the Sterling Grey so that my front hall could match the rest of the house.

It was a hard area to paint since there in no light in the hall.  I had to rely on natural light coming in through windows and the other rooms' lightbulbs.  This was particularly hard on Sunday when the sun kep ducking behind clouds but I finally for it all finished.

Not a huge difference but the color brightened up the area that was once drab beige.

Before

The hall now blends in when you see it from the dining room and entry area.

before

after

 I still need to finish the nasty ceiling.  That's going to require taking the vent out and spray painting it, painting the attic door and then finishing up the normal ceiling.  With 20 mph winds this weekend, I just wasn't up for spray painting.  I also need to replace the nasty string that hangs down from my attic.  I'm sure I'll get around to it.

Painting Resumes

Last night I convinced myself to pick the paint brush back up after a brief hiatus.  I blame all the Fall TV premiere season for this lazyness.  I finally reopened the white paint and started working on the doors in my office.

Not a huge improvement but I will have another coat to do.  While I was at it I decided to give my hallway outside the office some attention.  It's not a huge area but it has 4 doorways so it is labor intensive.  And since you can see this area from my front dining room, I'd really like to get it freshened up.  Here are the before shots:

Ideally this area will eventually look like the other hallway off the dining room that heads to the livingroom.

It is going to take some time, but at least I got the first coat of white on all the trim.  Just cleaning up the trim makes the area less blah.

These are the biggest updates but they are enough to motivate me to keep on painting.  Eventually the bathroom and guest room off this hall will be painted as well.  At that point I will have repainted EVERY piece of trim in my house.  Whew.  I'm about a year and a half in.  I predict all painting will be done by the 2 year anniversary, May 31, 2013.  Please note this prediction excludes ceilings.  Who knows when I'll get around to all that mess.

The Toes Know

I'm going to start off by preapologizing for the picture of my feet that I'm about to post.  It has to be done.  Remember back when I realized that my nail color matched the color I was paint my kitchen?

And before this I happened to have grey nails while painting the living room grey?  Crazy stuff, right?  Well last night I glanced down and realized my toes have been the color of my office for the last couple of weeks. 

How freaky is that?  None of these nail polish coordinations were planned.  My blue polish was sent to me in my September Birchbox package.  It's Color Club's Intsa-this.

I guess that means my blue office was meant to be.  My blue toes as well.  Oh, and I highly recommend Color Club polishes.  This is my 4th or so bottle.  These toes survived 4 days in New Orleans...in the rain...wearing flip-flops.  And not one touch-up since.  Impressive.  And again, I apologize for the picture of my feet. 

Presto Chango

It's amazing what a few coats of paint can do.  Here is my lovely desk that I've had about 10 years.  Target still sells this same desk so it must be pretty popular as far as cheap, assembly-required furniture goes.

After sanding and cleaning it off, I took it out back to spray paint on some primer and a couple of layers of white spray paint.

I ended up bringing it inside for one last hand brushed coat of paint and then let it dry over night.  I was a little worried about how this was going to turn out but at this point in the game it is a little silly to start doubting my furniture painting abilities.  It is apparently my gift.

I look forward to doing some furniture arrangement this weekend and possibly getting stuff up on the walls!  It's a little blue and white overkill right now and could use a little more color.  I will contemplate my next move as I munch down on corn dogs tomorrow at the fair.  See ya next week!

More Office Accessories

A few more pieces have been redone to accessorize my transforming office.  I found a few knick-knacks around the house to turn orange and then painted two more Birchboxes to go with my first two.

I also painted the mirror that originally was supposed to connect to the back of my free dresser turned sideboard in the dining room.

Nothing has been moved in to the office yet.  I need to paint my desk first and foremost and then once it's in place I can start thinking about where things will go.  Making progress!

The Office Walls are Done!

Sunday night I finished the entire first coat and then last night I finally finished the second coat and a few touchups.


One Coat



Second Coat

The second coat does not look smooth in the picture above but that is just light coming in from the windows and the ceiling fan.  I had to do much of the second coat with the lights off in the room so that the shadows didn't throw me off.

 

Now that the walls are done, I just need to paint my doors and my desk and filing cabinet.  Back to the white paint!  I'm excited to get some of the accessories I painted in the room so that everything can start coming together.  Here's an idea of the orange accents.

Hopefully in the next month this room will be done for the most part.  Aside from the decorating, there is still a bunch of cleaning and organizing to be done.  You should see the closets!  Not pretty.  Baby steps.