The Doors - Part 1 - and hopefully more parts to come

Our upstairs hallway has 6 doors.

Each needs both sides painted. Cracks filled in. Sanding. 2 doors need to be replaced with the original doors I found in the garage. They must all match. They must all have matching door knobs. I'm obsessed!

Two days after we bought the house, we were up there scraping the wallpaper away. But I needed to go over every square inch with sandpaper. I needed to fill in more cracks. We took a 8pm ride to Lowe's last Wednesday just so I could get more caulk to fill in the gaps around the molding that night. I took a day off work last Friday just to get the hallway done!

Until last week the upstairs hallway looked like this (multiply this view by 6, because of the 6 doors):

before

As I was painting each door I could see the stark difference between the new, white paint and the old, yellowy color.

After days and days of prep, I even managed to paint the ceiling and walls. Yes!

Now that it's done, it's so much better...

after

Notice if you look on the left side, the stairwell isn't done yet. Still more scraping, filling, caulking and painting there. Don't worry about us - we have plenty more to do!

The view of the hallway from bed is even better. So calming! You can even see a sneak peak of the bedroom wall color below:

after

Still need to replace the 2 doors and refinish the upstairs floor - little by little!

Bathroom - Part 5 - New view

Just looked at my last bathroom update - 2 months ago!

We're getting back into it. Got to finish the bathroom already! We're starting to become complacent with the plastic-covered plywood floor and blue toilet. Not cool!

Yesterday we had the window replaced...

Of course this window needed new molding, and of course since I'm a stickler, it needed to match the molding in the rest of the house. And the window itself had to be wood instead of vinyl. And it was a custom size since it was a weird shape window. And we needed the frosted glass option for privacy. So it cost a zillion and a half dollars in the end. But I think it was worth it...

We still need to prime and paint - it could have come primed but it was $79 extra - I'll do it myself thank you very much!

And I've also scheduled the tile guy to do the floor next week. I can't wait! When it's done we'll have the new toilet put in. It won't look like a construction zone any more! I can barely contain my excitement!

Living room Wall

Is livingroom one or two words? Oh, must be two words because spell check just corrected me...

Living Room.

Anyway, this is what it looked like when we first moved in:

before

We spent a bunch of time painting it recently! It looks so much brighter in here now:

after

We also replaced the mayonnaise-colored wall with the cooler grey-toned Balboa Mist from Benjamin Moore (Aura matte). The white trim really stands out nicely I think. We have the same exact colors in the adjacent dining room and the whole shebang is just so much better than before!

The fireplace was fairly simple to paint, but took a little more time. We simply put a coat of masonry-friendly white primer on the wall, then bought regular old Benjamin Moore in a semi gloss finish in the same Balboa Mist color. We didn't use the Aura paint because its a little more touchy to work with, unnecessary, and more expensive then the regular Ben paint.

I'm still debating whether or not to paint the bookcases. They look OK for now, but I think they may look better painted. I'm having the same doubts about the wooden staircase on the opposite wall. We also hope to replace the sconces someday. And add furniture. And throw something awesome in the bookcases. And tile the floor in front of the fireplace. I'm not sure I'm ready for a living room inspiration board so this list will have to do for now!

It's Electric

Spent a little time this past weekend replacing all the switch-plate covers in the downstairs rooms... Doesn't sound very exciting, but they are oh so much better than their ecru-and-metal predecessors!
I'm sticking with basic white throughout the house. The covers cost a few dollars each at Lowes, and each room has about 3-5 sockets, so I'm buying them as I finish painting each room.

Woke up yesterday...

To this beautiful mess...






I could not ask for a better birthday gift than a nice big snow day!

Dining room

I've been thinking about the dining room... so many ideas running through my head - so many things to find! So little time and money. But someday.

In the meantime I can dream... I put together an inspiration board of all my favorite ideas:
Clockwise from bottom left
- Let's start with the table: I don't like the idea of a "dining room set" - the traditional matchy-matchy table, chairs, and hutch just doesn't do it for me! I'm dreaming of a light tone wooden table. Something rustic, but not too crazy. I'm still on the search for an affordable version of this farm table from Oly Studio or a Parsons style table in the same greyed wood tone.
- Can't decide between a ubiquitous white slipper chair or something a little more avant-garde, like the metal and leather combo also from Oly Studio.
- This Circa Lighting chandelier has all the right curves. Plus the smoky half-transparent glass - ooh lala!
- Something dramatic for the windows - a long drape with over-sized print like the green and cream medallion print from Ballard Design, or a teardrop shape print from Madeline Weinrib.
- I have a nearly identical "credenza" (as Grandma always said!). It has a crazy quatrefoil cut-out design on the front doors, and it has a more dining-room-appropriate cabinet door front instead of drawers. It will need to be refinished/painted to blend in with this lighter color scheme. Right now it's a "70's dark wood" and is being used to hold up our living room tv. Hopefully this will change soon!
- I think a large hammered metal tray on the aforementioned credenza will be the perfect place to set up a little bar.
- Instead of worrying about keeping fresh flowers, a white ceramic planter with some funky succulents will do.
- To add a little sparkle, I'm including these lovely crystal candlesticks from Tiffany and my Crate and Barrel flatware (two awesome gifts from my bridal shower!)

In the meantime, we've finished painting the walls. Inquiring minds want to know - It's Balboa Mist from Benjamin Moore in Matte Aura.

Living room dreaming

Since last weekend I've been in attack mode regarding the living room.

So far we've primed the fireplace...
and primed the windows...
Then we painted all the trim and one wall. Of course no pictures... yet.

Then tragedy struck - we ran out of wall paint and the paint store has limited weekday hours. Alert! Alert!

So yeah, we've been on a temporary painting hiatus for the last day or so.