Ick!

Yesterday I taped off my wall with the squares to paint the different colors. It looked real cool just with the tape. Damn, I should have taken a picture! Then last evening I started painting, and it was looking pretty good, with the main color painted all around these squares. I went to switch colors and start painting the squares, and the first color up was this sandy beige color that I had picked out. When I put it on the wall it looked a little off to me, but I kept going, knowing that it was going to dry a different color. Then I went to do the second color, and realized that I had forgot to buy it. It was a darker green than the rest of the green, so I thought I would try and blend a couple colors and see what I came up with. When I started painting, it was looking a little more grey than green. I figured it wasn't a big deal. If I didn't like the color I could always paint over it. Finally the third color. This one is like a Tiffany box blue, and when I started painting, it was making that sandy beige color look even nastier. It looked more like a dirty dusty rose than a sandy beige. Well it's dried since last night, and there is natural daylight in the room, and I friggin' hate that color! I was sure it wasn't the color I had picked, which is called Renoir Bisque. There is nothing bisque about this color at all. It definitely has a rose tone to it, and I just hate it! The color I mixed is fine. It does look more like a sandy beige, leaning more towards a sandy color. So I'm going to keep that color, but I'm going to go out shortly and get that darker green and repaint that nasty color. I hope it works out. If not, I'll have to repaint the whole wall, and there goes the hours I spent taping out this wall with a level to make sure my lines were reasonably straight, and I didn't end up with a parallelogram or something wacky like that!

Olivia

Bed talk!

I think I've found something along the lines of what I want to build for a headboard. I found some different Oak Beds and I really like the style of this one in the picture here. It looks like it's panelled, and that's along the lines of what I was thinking. I just don't think that I'll make it so deep as this one. I don't really want a ledge along the top. I want it to be closer to the wall, but that's do-able.

Of course I'm not going to make mine in oak either. I'll probably use a combination of some smooth finished pine and some MDF board for the panels. I want to paint it that dark espresso brown anyway, so it doesn't have to be made with high end lumber, but I will pay a little extra for the nicer pine for the frame of the headboard, so I don't have warped wood and splinters to contend with. I could even actually use more MDF for the frame, but I think I'm going to go with the pine.

I'm still going to try to work in my little bit of jazz too. What I want to do is insert a nice brushed nickel finished rod across the top of the headboard. Hopefully I'll be able to find something that will work. I was thinking that I'll check out some of the designer curtain rods to use for this. You know the kinds that you would put some cool finials on the ends? I haven't looked at curtain rods in a while, so I don't even know if they make them in a brushed nickel finish or even something that looks like that or not, but you see so much of this in all kinds of other accessories right now, so I'm hopeful. The new knobs I have for my dressers has this finish, so I would like to match that look and tie the headboard into my other furniture as well.

Olivia

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Paris chic

I've been checking out different headboards and beds online, just to get some ideas because I want to make my own headboard. Well I came across this site called Time 4 Sleep. They have a whole section of different French Beds, which I just love. I love that whole Paris thing. I have several different Parisian inspired decorative goodies, that I have here in my office/craft room. But I'm not doing my bedroom with a Paris theme, so a bed like these wouldn't work for me, but just look at this gilt and upholstered bed I've got here. If that doesn't scream Paris, nothing does!

What I'm planning on making is a little more streamlined and well, all around easier to build! I had thought of doing an upholstered headboard, but unless I could find a large piece of dark espresso brown leather to upholster it with, I think I'll just opt for wood and paint instead. I do have an idea to add a little bit of jazz to it, but I'll have to see if that will work first or not. Either way, I will post pictures when I'm done.


Olivia

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Got my paint chips!

Oh, this is going to be cool! I managed to find the perfect blue that goes with the green I had in mind so nicely. I grabbed a couple different sandy beige kind of looking chips, but I couldn't really tell if they are the right shade that I'm looking for. It's kind of hard to tell under the lighting at the Home Depot. Anyway I figured I'd bring them home and see what they look like under the lighting the actual room, both the electrical lighting and better still in the natural daylight tomorrow. I had initially planned on putting a coat on the ceiling tonight, but by the time I got home I didn't much feel like opening that can of worms. I'll see how I feel after work tomorrow, and maybe do that before The Biggest Loser comes on TV. We'll see though. Tuesday night is usually one of those nights that I come home dog tired and don't want to do anything.

Olivia

Back at it

Yep, it's renovation zone around the house again. Mr. Funky is of course up at the cottage, so that leaves me home by myself to don the handywoman superhero suit (aka my painting clothes) and wield the handywoman sword (okay, so it's a paintbrush) and redecorate our bedroom. I started this weekend, and last night I finished installing the laminate flooring. It looks great! Except now of course the rest of the room looks like crap, so I'm off to buy some ceiling paint and pick out the perfect colors I want to use. I'm planning on doing pop art feature wall where the bed goes. I want to do different size and colors of squares that overlap each other. I'm thinking a pale green, a pale blue, like a Tiffany's box kind of blue, and some sort of sandy beige. The rest of the walls I'm going to paint the pale green color. I'll check out the paint chips when I pick up the ceiling paint. Fun, fun, fun!

Olivia

Woohoo! I love coupon savings!

As you know I'm in redecorating mode right now while Hubby is up at the cottage catching fish! And as you also know, what started out as a little painting project has mushroomed into a much bigger project in my kitchen. The local building supply stores are grinning when they see me walk through the doors right now! Well I've decided that I need a new light fixture in my kitchen now too. The old one is just icky and I don't like it anymore. I need a brushed nickel one instead!

And when this job is done, I've also decided that I'm going to put some laminate flooring in my living room. I have it currently in my dining room and hall, and I love it, but what I want to do is take that up and put that laminate in my bedroom, then buy new flooring for my living/dining/hall, which all adjoin to each other. I can't get the same type as I already have, so I figure I'll have to buy new and do the whole sha-bang over again. It's pretty easy to install though, so that part doesn't worry me. It's just the whole cost factor is all. However, I was just browsing over at Coupon Chief to see if I could find any coupons to get some redecorating goodies, and I clicked through to see what the Home Depot deals were currently. Yippee! They have a deal on laminate flooring right now! I was so excited to find that! So now I'm also going to check out the clearance items and value center to see if I can find a light fixture for my kitchen that I like and save some bucks there too! Don't you just love Coupon Chief?

Olivia

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Light up your life!

If you're thinking about doing a bathroom renovation project soon, don't forget the importance of bathroom lighting. Bathroom lights are probably the last thing people think of when doing a renovation in the smallest room in your house. When we re-did our bathroom about ten years ago or so, we stripped it right down and started over -- all except for the lighting, which is something that really irritates me now. I wish we had thought of some nice vanity lighting, or even a pair of nice wall sconces, but instead we still have that ugly single stem globe light that is original to our 30+ year old home. It would have been no trouble then to change the wiring to the wall instead of the ceiling, since we were down to the studs, but it's a much bigger job now that would also require patching where the fixture is currently. Oh well, live and learn I guess, and wait until we renovate again in ten or so years!


Olivia

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