{cherry blossoms}
The minute Christmas is over I start dreaming of Spring, which was the inspiration for my most recent internet-prowl:
I love how simple and uncomplicated the embroidery is. What do you think?
Image courtesy of Crate and Barrel.
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{how to: paint a dresser}
I’ve had this dresser all of my life. Before it lived in my bedroom, it lived in my mother’s as a teen. Now? Now it’s in my boys’ room, a little worse for the wear. Actually it was embarrassing, but I couldn’t decide what to do with it. So I went out and bought a stripper. The realized that with my luck the wood underneath would not be stain-grade, high quality stuff and all that work of scraping would have been for naught. So I sat and thought about it. For 3 years.
Fast forward to last month. I had a sudden flash of inspiration: green! A lovely, vibrant (but not nauseating) green would be the perfect foil to the dresser’s French-inspired design. And I think I was right. Here’s the Before and After evidence:
So there ’tis! The entire project cost me about $20, too! I had the primer on hand, so that was free. All I needed was the paint for the dresser, and the spray paint for those handles. Speaking of “those handles”, I can’t even begin to tell you how much I disliked them in the beginning. They were so ornate, so cheesy. I trolled the aisles of Home Depot and Lowe’s looking for suitable replacements, but in the end I realized that they would look fabulous under a coat of matte black.
And yes. I forgot to remove the clothes for the primer step. Bad Mama! No fear, though: I removed them for the official three coats of green.
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Or “How I Learned to Use a Circular Saw by Myself and Not Get Maimed”
The first one is shorter, isn’t it?
The budget: $90
The goal: To install new baseboards and door casing (without being seriously harmed by the power tool involved)
The results:
How to?
Easy, peasy once you get into it.
Things You’ll Need:
1. Putty knife
2. Hammer
3. Circular saw
4. Baseboards and door casing
5. Grit, determination, and your cell phone incase things go horribly, terribly wrong with Item #3
Step One: Score top of baseboards (where it meets the wall) to avoid ripping away any wall paint
Step Two: Hammer putty knife into score mark (gently now—you don’t want to screw up your walls!)
Step Three: Begin prying away crusty old baseboards and casing.
Step Four: Repeat Step Three as necessary until
Step Five: Clean up your mess!
Step Six: Measure, measure (measure, measure) cut baseboards and casing at appropriate (usually 45*) angles.
Step Seven: Install!
Step Eight: Curse and moan a little bit, since your back will start hurting about now.
Step Nine: Stand back and admire your hard work (and grit. and determination). Admire all 10 fingers.
Next Project Up to Bat? The curtains! Stay tuned!
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{pretty things}
Image courtesy of Martha Stewart.
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{pretty things}
I bought this. Because I had to.
Find your inner flapper at FeatherBrain on Etsy.
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the little things
They really add up, don’t they? I just got done shoving placing the furniture back into place, put the lamps back on the night stands and stood back to admire my results.
Screw that. It looks awful. Why? Because we have something similar to this shade gracing our brushed nickel modern table lamps:
Doesn’t look good–at all–when paired with the cool of blue gray. I knew that already going into this, but when you see it all together it looks like hammered dog sh…you get the idea.
So I’m thinking this
will look good. See–this isn’t one of those blogs where I’m all on top of things and have 3 million pictures titled “Before” and “After”. Here my children rule my life and all daylight hours, so it’s dark and I’m not about to take a picture. Just trust me. It’ll look good. Modern aesthetic meets 1940’s glam. Dig it? For less than $20 each, me too!
Images courtesy of Target
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part deux
So I bit the bullet, shoved (daintily, so as to not screw up the hardwood floors) our furniture around and painted 3 of the 4 walls. If you’re curious, the color I painted the walls is ‘Silver Birch’ by Glidden. Go check it out! Wall #4, which is behind the bed, will be painted a lovely blue-gray. As a matter of fact, the boys and I are headed there as soon as my underwear is out of the dryer. Is that too much information? More than likely, but my New Year’s Resolution this year is to make complete strangers feel horribly uncomfortable.
At any rate, I wasn’t really looking forward to finding a picture for above the bed. Just seemed a little too expected, ya know? So I skulked around Etsy and came up with this:
Adam says that it looks like something one would find in Burt Reynold’s budoir, but I’m ignoring him.
So I’m off in search of the perfect blue-gray. Wish me luck.
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next up to bat…
Our bedroom! I’m stalling, horribly, for a few reasons:
1. The room is small and
2. Our furniture is heavy and
3. Adam is at Tech School (Air Force) and can’t help as a result.
But I think I’m gonna hunker down, bit the bullet, start taping off, and getting to work. Wish me luck. If I don’t come up for air it’s because a giant armoire has fallen on top of me and I don’t have my phone. Send reinforcements.
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i suck!
A little slow, aren’t I? No fear–my hat sales have slowed down (thanks be) since I raised my prices, so I’m finally at a manageable point with them. At the worst I was having to sit and knit at least 6 hats A DAY. With two small children I was having to stay up until 3 a.m. most nights just to meet minimums. Not cool, man. Not cool.
Since September I’ve managed to paint the bathroom. I still have work to do–specifically paint the window casing white (it’s currently a pukey orangey yellow) and purchase baseboards (currently in place is the cheapest thing the previous owners could possibly find). I removed the doors to the small linen closet in an effort to give the space a more open feeling (it worked), and painted the interior a lovely, moody gray. The walls are a super blue gray–it reminds me of a foggy day by the shore.
In family news, my oldest (he’s 5) landed himself in the hospital with pneumonia. :o( He’s been home for a week and is back in school! I managed to fracture a rib from coughing (of all things) after being sick for a month and a half. The doctors thought it was just a muscle strain, but after I insisted on an x-ray, it turns out the lady with the searing pain on her right side was right. Imagine that.
Once my rib starts feeling a little bit better I have to get outside to rake leaves, since it’s starting to look like the Addams Family abode out there right now!
So let’s talk about a stalled project: My husband decided that instead of paying an upholsterer to recover our couches, he’d do it himself. Turns out he realized (too late) that there’s a REASON these people get paid. So I have two mismatched couches in my living room and a loveseat completely stripped and in pieces in my garage. My vote is that $1200 for re-upholstery isn’t that steep of a price, considering what a PITA it appears to be to do it yourself. Some things just aren’t worth the aggravation! Hopefully we’ll get them redone early next year.
Tomorrow I’m headed out to buy paint (and perhaps some door trim!) for the hallway. I really want to start work on the boys’ room, but I just can’t seem to decide on a paint color.
Decisions, decisions…
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