As I mentioned the other day, I have been hanging artwork from my travels along the wall that goes up the stairs in my house. I thought I’d share some shots of that!
Map of Roma
Christmas card from Prague
One of three prints from San Francisco
Two of three prints from San Francisco
Three of three prints from San Francisco
A print from Paris
Finally! I managed to get some shots of the closet today. I didn’t exactly take a before and after picture, but because I only painted one closet, you can get the idea of what it looks like:
Better, right?
It’s amazing too, that the white doors make the room brighter because they reflect the light when it’s on at night. It’s great.
The thing that’s a bit strange is that the trim on the right hand closet seems to lean to the right towards the bottom (of the middle piece). It’s not that it looks that way in the picture so much as it looks that way in person, and there’s a gap at the bottom of the door.
I need to rehang the doors a bit better, but after moving the rollers on the one door, it occurred to me that it was more a two person job.
For some other shots…
Here you can see that I painted the inside of the closet a nice light grey. I think it offers a nice contrast to the white, and makes the inside of the closet seem so clean and crisp.
I should point out that you don’t want to be fooled by how clean this closet is. I left the doors on the left closet closed for a reason – that’s where all of my clothes are. This closet is kept mostly empty so that there’s room for a man’s clothes (at some point – all about making room, right?).
I’ve got a nice basket to hold the pillows that are on my bed when it’s made (admittedly, that’s rare these days).
And here’s a closeup of the design I stenciled on the door. I used a smaller one than in the guest room because I didn’t want to be too matchy-matchy. Plus, I don’t want the room to feel too feminine, so I thought the small touch would be nicer. You can see here that it bled a little behind the stencil, but I think I made it work.
And here’s the other side of the closet. Originally, I was storing this print in here – it had been above my bed, but I found a painting of a couple walking in the rain in Paris that I just fell in love with. So off to the closet it was with this one. I didn’t want to just chuck everything back in the closet, but this actually worked rather nicely atop the small set of drawers in there, so I went with it. And yes, I know there are approximately four pants hangers in here and nothing else, but I’m hoping to go through my closet and change that!
Another of my projects ended up being this piece of wall in between the two closets – the screw anchor I’d used here to secure the hook to the wall had fallen out, and was creating a general mess (the hook kept falling out of the wall, and it just looked bad). So I patched it up with a little bit of drywall spackle, and painted over the whole thing with the original color to match it (I even had the forethought to paint the edge of the trim on the other closet so that I won’t have to repeat the process when I paint that one).
I rehung the hook in a different spot and voila – I like this hat here for two reasons – the first is that it obviously keeps the hat in good shape (I love this hat, though I’ve yet to wear it out actually) and the second is that the original feel of the room that I was going for was a British colonial one, with the dark walls, dark wood and white shutter-type doors, along with my bamboo shades. So this hat really lends itself to that theme nicely.
You can also see here the off-white color of the original trim, and how dark the original closet doors look in comparison to the painted ones. I can’t wait to finish the rest of the trim in the room and the doors!
Okay, so I’m neglecting my usual Pinterest Friday post in favor of a post on my hutch…which is finally finished!
This afternoon, the piece I actually needed FINALLY arrived, and I was determined to get the hutch finished and set up tonight (darn it!). I even managed to lift the surprisingly heavy top piece on to the bottom by myself, though I’m sure my back won’t thank me tomorrow. So without further ado, here it is!
Worth the wait!
I am very excited that it’s finally here, and all put together. There’s still one little issue – the drawer on the left (which needs me to switch the direction of the handle) also has two left sides, instead of a right and a left. So it doesn’t sit entirely properly in the piece, but I pretty much don’t care.
I took some care with what I put in the glass cabinets above, since I can see into them:
My new ceramic baked brie dish gets a prominent spot – it was a gift from my parents for Christmas, and I need to get some brie stat so I can use it! I also put my fall soup bowls on the bottom. In the other cabinet, which I didn’t photograph, I put some of the more decorative plates and bowls that I have, along with my two original espresso cups. Methinks I should get an espresso maker or Keuring, because I have lots of espresso cups and only a stovetop espresso maker (which in my hands is not an effective coffee tool!).
In the center, I decided not to put up the shelf, and instead put a ceramic buddha head that I picked up today at Michaels. I knew it would look beautiful in there, and I’m a big fan of Asian touches in decorating.
Michaels has some of the best stuff for homes – it’s a well-kept secret, I think!
The best part about this was the conversation I had with the cashier…she said “I think this is a buddha head, I guess, but I’m not sure.” I said “Yes, it is a buddha.” She said “Oh, I didn’t know. I’m not buddhist.”
Um, me neither.
If I was a buddhist, I don’t think I’d be buying a buddha head at Michaels. Just sayin’.
Anyway, I think it looks lovely and ties the kitchen in a bit more with the dining room.
Along the main shelf, I put the dog treats (having them across the room wasn’t working for me), a basket for the potatoes and bread that had been on the counter in the kitchen, and my mug tree.
I also stuck a tiny painting I got last year from Etsy there.
I’m hoping that this helps make my use of the kitchen much easier. I’ve still got to take some time to work through each of the cabinets and get them to be as efficient as I need them to be, and make sure that I’m not keeping around things I’m not using. But on the surface, the kitchen looks great, and I picked up the grey paint I needed tonight to paint the kitchen! (Although, I think I’ll be doing the bathroom first!)
And I also got the photo of Ollie that I needed to finish off my trio of pup photos in the dining room:
I love using photos as art.
So it seems that I’ll have a busy weekend ahead of me, with some painting and puttering around…and hopefully some organizing! Time to get back to the big de-clutter!
What are your handy homeowner plans this weekend?
I’ve been dealing with some very frustrating migraines and exhaustion lately, and I’m tired of them, because they keep me from having the motivation I need to do things around the house! I’m hoping that a new prescription for glasses and contacts, and working on changing my sleeping routine will find me in good shape by the beginning of next week.
But in the meantime, I wanted to share a couple of small things I’ve done in the house this week. I realized last week that a lot of the photos that I have in the house are out of date – I had photos of my older niece, back when she was still in a stroller!, but not of my younger niece. And I have photos of Barney, but not of Oliver. I’ve got to pick up the black and white I did of Ollie tomorrow, but I did pick out some great shots of my nieces and swap out the photos I had hanging in the living room:
Cute kiddos, huh?
I did put up a photo of my pups, using a frame that my sister got me for Christmas, and I framed Ollie’s pedigree for the wall (I’d done that for Barney – it’s kind of like the equivalent of his university degree, I think):
They are bad to the bone...
My diploma is relegated to my office, but the pups' pedigrees are proudly displayed in the living room!
I also picked up some frames last week to display my niece’s paintings that had been a Christmas gift for me – they look much better in the frames than on the fridge!
Future art student!
And, as I mentioned the other day, I got a carpet for the kitchen. It’s still taking some getting used to, though it’s definitely cut down on the obvious dirt and warmed up the kitchen. Plus, the dogs LOVE it. It’s just made it abundantly clear that my kitchen needs a new coat of paint…I’m thinking grey!
The boys are thinking "Hmm...do we like this or not?"
The brown walls just no longer suit the room!
So that’s the status of the house tonight! I’ve got plans to take a little trip to Lowes for some paint this weekend, hopefully for the kitchen and the downstairs bath (yes, yes, I still need to finish the hallway), and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the piece I need for the hutch FINALLY comes tomorrow, so I can get that finished, show you the final product and actually start using it for some things! One can only hope…
As promised, I said I was going to talk about a piece of furniture that would really help my life. It arrived in pieces on Thursday afternoon, and I put the first part together tonight. I knew that it was going to take a while because I’d read the Target reviews, but I wasn’t prepared for how frustrated I’d get.
What am I talking about? It’s a kitchen buffet/sideboard, which I’m putting in place of my baker’s rack. The baker’s rack has been great, but I needed something with more storage – I have a lot of storage in my kitchen (although it could really use a pantry), but I’m tired of having to stack everything to get it to fit – it’s just not that convenient.
So I’m hoping that the buffet will allow me to expand and organize the kitchen well. And boy, do I need to do that – downstairs in my house is starting to look like a tornado has gone through it! And my OCD self is getting a bit, okay a LOT, anxious when I see what I need to do. But I’m working on it one area at a time!
So here’s part one of the buffet:
Uh, pretty nice for a piece of Target furniture, don’t ya think? I chose the black because I thought it would match the black in the paint of the cabinets well (and I’m using a black and white liner in the cabinets and drawers), and the warmer wood on top (as opposed to stainless steel or a lighter wood, or all black – which they offer), to unify the space with the warmer wood in the dining room.
I’m also pretty happy that my huge container of dog food still fits nicely to the right of the buffet.
Tomorrow, it’s on to part two. I hear I may need help with lifting the top of the buffet, but we’ll see how things go!
My mom says she’s created a monster with my sister and I, because we both have addictions to painting. When I moved in, I painted everything in the house (except the trim) and read somewhere that you’re supposed to paint every two years (who has TIME for that??). Even though I’m not planning to do anything of the sort, I did want to paint the hallway for two reasons – one, I wasn’t loving the color of it after I’d painting the closet and bedroom doors, and it looked so dingy next to the bright white and two, I have a basset hound who drools. Ordinarily, the drool is caught by furniture in the way, which I can easily wipe off. But in the hallway, it ends up on the walls, and no amount of scrubbing makes them look perfectly clean. So it was time to paint!
I chose a color from a magazine that I thought was yellow. It turns out it wasn’t. It’s more like a very light tan, which was a bit depressing, as I realized that brown in the hallway makes it feel darker (there’s no natural light directly in the hallway). But my mom convinced me that it does the job of brightening things up, and looks lovely and fresh.
I got through one can of paint before I realized I’d need a second, and lost my head of steam by the time I picked up the second can. So this is all the progress I’ve made so far – I must try to finish this after my trip, or someone will see it before long!
Before
Before
After (still wet) - hard to tell that there's a difference at all, unless you see the two colors next to each other.
It does look yellow here!
In the last picture, you can see the difference between the two colors, and I admit that it does seem to brighten up the hallway – changing the CFL bulb in the one light fixture that I did paint up there to a regular “reveal” bulb from GE also made a HUGE difference.
So I’ve got to dig deep for my painting motivation and finish this up soon!
I just love that saying, so I had to use it as the title to this post which is about…you guessed it, my front door!
You may not know this about me, but I hate the paint color on my front door and shutters. I know I live in a beachy area, but that doesn’t mean everything has to be pale and well, ugly!
Here’s the front of my house (I apologize for the hazy view, it was really humid when I took this and my camera was unhappy):
It’s hard to tell here, but the shutters and doors are a very light blue. I mean, are we baby boys? My next door neighbor had painted them before the previous owner moved out – he was painting his and since our houses have to look uniform, and she didn’t want to have to do the painting herself (he offered to do it), she just let him go ahead with the light blue.
Ugh.
So the next time he mentions that it will need painting, I’m putting my plan into action for convincing the neighbors that it needs to be a different color. I did a few mockups in PhotoShop to see what might be some good colors. What do you think?
Dark Gray – it looks black, but I like a dark grey.
The colors appear lighter on the two front doors than they do on the shutters, but the shutters are closer to the colors I actually like. Which one is your favorite?
I’ve mentioned before that I’m embarrassed by my clutter. I don’t have a lot of it, but sometimes, things just build up and it gets out of control.
My guest room closet was a good example – I am so glad I really cleaned out that closet and then it was ready for painting and loveliness.
One of the other things that was really bugging me was the linen closet in the hallway. It had started to become a catchall for things I was giving to goodwill, painting supplies, all kinds of travel toiletries and more. It was out of control.
The "Before"
I had picked up paint for this closet, as well as the closets in my bedroom and office, and since I tweaked my back carrying the guest room’s closet doors downstairs a few weeks ago, I thought it best to settle for a low key project. This was low-key considering all the heavier stuff I’ve done lately, but it definitely didn’t help my back!
My first job was obviously to empty the closet out and sort through everything.
The way that these closets were all made, the shelves just pop right out. That really makes a huge difference when you’re talking about a tiny closet!
Once I’d gotten the shelves out, I realized how yucky this closet was – I’d put contact paper on each of the shelves when I moved in because they were just gross! So I was really glad to paint over them! I also saw another spot where the builders cut corners – I see them all the time – they had neglected to finish painting the inside of the closet, and part of it was just primed. Not a problem, just one more thing overlooked – it makes you wonder about the hidden things that were “overlooked” that might be a bigger fix!
I painted two coats of the grey in the closet, which was a bit darker than I’d expected. That’s okay, it was just a surprise:
All done!
In the meantime, I’d set up some drop cloths in the bathroom so that I could paint the shelves out of the way.
As they dried, I put clear contact paper over the top of each shelf – I wanted to have a very smooth surface for the items in the closet to slide off of – particularly any towels or extra sheet sets. Then, I put them back into the closet one by one.
First the top shelf
I’d managed to clear out some space in the downstairs bathroom the night before, so I put the majority of the paper towels down there (that’s where I use them after all). So I was able to fit a few paper towel rolls, tissues and toilet paper on the top shelf – I’m a BJ’s shopper, so I need space for bulk items!
I got another two shelves in – on the second shelf, I put plastic boxes with extra toiletries, and my travel items, and on the third shelf, a basket with hair projects and my extra toilet cleaner (hey, it has to go somewhere!).
The last two shelves actually went together on the fourth set of bars – I could have put one of them on the bottom set of bars, but I like that this gives me one larger shelf. On the third shelf, I added a bamboo container of q-tips and an air fresheners and on the bottom shelf I put towels and sheets, along with a basket of extra soap and body lotion. The only thing that went into the bottom of the closet is the bamboo shelf I have for the bathtub. Big difference, huh?
Of course, in between coats, I was lying on the ground to stretch my back out, and I noticed that the door to the attic REALLY needed painting. Since I had the trim paint out already….
I know, I know, I should have just left it, but I’m a glutton for punishment. I got it done, and it looks great:
Hard to tell because the hallway is ALWAYS dark and it was nighttime, but take my word for it, it looks good!
I do need to do something about this though:
Just think of all the skin cells on this baby...shudder
Fortunately, I know that you can clean that without having to replace it. I just have to find the tip online and I’ll be doing that!
Also while I was lying on the floor, I noticed how gross this looks:
I won’t even show you what it looks like when it’s open and on and you can see all the dust in there that I’ve been promising myself I’d clean since I moved here…three years ago. Ahem.
My dad mentioned to me a few weeks ago though that he would help me take it down at some point so that I could spray paint it. I have that lovely metal spray paint already, but it makes more sense to do it in white to blend with the ceiling. So that’s what I’ll do.
And then there's this.
I think this is the only smoke alarm to be originally installed with the house since the smoke alarm downstairs and the carbon monoxide detector upstairs are both white and upgraded looking. This just looks gross. So I’ll be looking to do what I did with my doorbell and just replace the cover.
It’s so true, every time I finish one job, I find four more to put on the list. But I think I’d be bored if I ever finished with this place! Or I’d just move!
I really, really wanted to be able to do a special mouseover trick to show you the before and after, but unfortunately, wordpress doesn’t allow javascript – it’s a long complicated story that involves a lot of internet searching, which I won’t bore you with!
So instead, you get the old, boring before and after.
Before:
After:
Much better, don’t you think?
Here’s a broader look:
So pretty! And if you look carefully, you can see Barney and me in the reflection!
