Motivated by Company

It's amazing what the pressure of incoming company can motivate you to finish around your house.  This past weekend I had not one, but two visitors!  They were actually part of a number of visitors that came in town to celebrate one of our friends at a baby shower.  I've slowly been working on getting my guest room reorganized and painted but unfortunately that is still not done.  You'll have to stay tuned.  But I did get some minor electrical work done!

The ceiling fan light fixtures in my guest room and office were the same and they both got upgraded.  Here is what they looked like before.

With eight foot ceilings and a small square footage, there was no reason to have these lighting cans pointing in various directions.  They cast odd shadows around the room and really didn't do their job very well.  I swapped them both out with a single bulb simple dome light.

Obviously this is my office, but it's the exact same as the guest room.  This light works so much better although I'm still trying to find the perfect bulbs for each room.  I'm really having issues around the house coordinating the CFL bulbs...warm white v. bright white v. daylight.  Different rooms look better with different colors and it's been a bit of trial and error with whatever I've had on hand.

Because I was having two guests at the house, I converted the office into a guest bedroom for the weekend thanks to my new air mattress.

I bought it off Amazon for $45.  It's awesome!  It takes about 2 minutes to inflate itself after you plug it in.  Just set it and forget it!  I wasn't really paying attention when pulling out linens or it may have matched a little better.  That's a combo of a couple different bedding sets.

I love that it inflates to the size of a normal queen bed and I don't have to ask guests to sleep a mere 6 inches off the ground.  It was a great buy.  It also folds back into a bag for easy storage.  I also got the blackout shades installed in the guest room similar to the ones in my office.  More on that later.  After I finished those little tweaks to the rooms, I set out some fresh flowers and enjoyed a fabulous weekend with my friends.

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.

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!

Fall To Do

I've finally put together a game plan for Football Season Fall.

Nothing too crazy, I'm just basically continuing my painting room by room.  Once it cools off a little more I'm going to get some color back in the front yard with some more mums.  I really like how the red and yellow looked last fall.  I plan on doing even more this year.

I'll also plant some more squash and other winter vegetables in my garden out back.  I have several empty squares that need filling.  Aside from that, I'll be focused on the inside of the house.  Back to battling the beige. 

I don't really have any photos of the front hall but you can see it here on the right side of the entry.  It's beige so I will probably just paint it Sterling, the same light grey in the other hallway and the living room.  My office has requested some attention and that I stop just treating it like a dumping ground for unused objects.

I will continue to search for my ideal console table for the front entry.  I have a feeling this search will be long.

I'd also like to paint the guest room.  I'm completely stumped as to what color would work best in here.  I'll probably have to consult my Ambassador of Paint, aka Mom.

And finally, I will once again try to save up to get rid of these floor tiles currently masquerading as my countertop.

I've got a lot of projects coming up, mostly involving a paintbrush.  Let's hope I can even knock out some ceilings while I'm at it.  Hook 'Em!

Stewart's Superpowers

This blog is quickly becoming more about the new dog than new decor.  This is not by choice but as it stands, Stewart is pretty much on a mission to undo what I've been working on during the last year.  Only kidding, sorta.  I was all ready to report how good Stewart was doing in his crate since coming home from the hospital on Saturday.  We had a couple of really good days.  He didn't protest his new position as Dog-In-The-Box and he was even taking his medicines (steroids and pain killers).  Then yesterday, I came home from work and he was there to greet me at the door.

He had escaped from his kennel.  He didn't figure out how to open the door.  No, instead he just bent metal and disassembled his house.  This is your dog on steroids.

Poor guy has some stomach related side effects that created a giant sense of urgency to get out of the crate.  It's hard to be to upset with him but it definitely was not fun cleaning up multiple accidents in various rooms, including several on my dining room rug.  All I could do was move it out back and hose it down.

Luckily you can't see much from this distance and this was after I'd hosed her down.  Thanks to my love of painting, I always have a spare tarp laying around.  It came in handy when I carried the rug back in the house.

I'm hoping the rug makes a semi-full recovery.  Can I tell you how heavy an 8 x 10 WET rug is?  In between cleaning bouts, I made it to the vet to pick up new presciptions for Stewart.  He's now also taking an anti-diarrheal and Valium.  Poor guy.  At this rate he'll be in rehab by September.  I reassembled his crate and put every zip tie in the house that I could find on its joints.

He seems to be okay.  The valium is making him appear drunk when he walks, tripping over his feet and running into walls.  He has some cuts and sores on his muzzle from his escape and his front nails are desperate for a manicure.

I'm telling you, his cute face is the only thing keeping me from completely losing it.  Well, that and the fact that he checks in to the Pet Hotel in 36 hours. 

Martha Makeover

The end table from my condo living room has been quite neglected the past year.  It has been living in my garage for the past several months and before that, it was living in the back yard.  It's been rained on, baked in the sun and then covered in garage cobwebs.  I didn't really have any use for it but I thought if I gave it a makeover, I might come up with one.

I primed it with leftover Kilz to cover the staining technique and also kill any nasty mold or whatnot the table may have picked up while it lived in my yard.  I picked out a silver metallic paint from the Martha Stewart line at Home Depot.  This little container was about $6.

I basically finished the table during 2 nights of Prime Time TV.  I love evening living room projects.

I walked around the house looking for a home for it and settled on the guest room for now.  The guest room had one nice nightstand and then one puny plant stand on the other side. 

My lamp is still a little undersized but the proportion of the end table works much better than the plant stand.

It makes the bed a little more balanced.  It fades into the corner with my beige walls and gold curtains but some day I'll get around to changing all that.  I'd also like to eventually find a headboard.  But for now, this ended up being a great $6 solution to the nightstand problem!  Thanks, Martha!

Musical Furniture

The dining room side of my front room is looking good but it is putting to shame the random area on the other side of the room.  This is the area to the left of the front door, now home to a coat rack, and the area directly in front of you when you come through the door.  Here are some older pictures. 

I don't take a lot of picture of the areas since they are just holding random furniture right now.  The tragic white cabinet will eventually move out to the garage for additional storage and the large TV cabinet is actually available for a new home, if I can find it one.  I decided having these pieces in my space was blocking my ability to make any progress so last weekend I moved things around a bit.

The armoire was moved into the guest room for the time being.  This is not a permanent move.  It is too bulky for the room but it'll do for now.

I cleared out my coat area so I could try to visualize what I want to do here.  I think it may end up like a tiny sitting area because it may be where I store my extra dining chairs (if and when I get some).

The tragic white cabinet is now acting like a place holder in my entry area.  I've got my Dallas aerial hanging approximately as it will be when I'm all done.

As I've mentioned before, what I want for this area is a bright, funky console table.  I'm having problems finding what I need because it has to be no wider than 39 inches.  Most are 40" and up.  Here's some stuff along the lines I'm thinking.

I'm willing to paint whatever piece I find but I just know that I want something semi-ornate like these tables from the UK.  I may go pink or yellow or purple, maybe orange.  I just have to find a table first.  Feel free to donate any Baroque 39" tables you have laying around the house.