Archive for February, 2011
Holy Buckets
We finished painting the guest room. And boy is it bold. Seriously, it’s like no room we’ve ever painted before. And we luuurve it. With a capital urv. This is probably the most accurate pic (well I guess it’s as accurate as your monitor) of the dark teal that we went with:
The color was of course inspired by none other than Sue the Napkin. It’s kind of similar to Dragonfly (the color that we painted the backs of the built-ins in the future dining room) but when we held up a ton of swatches in the guest room we preferred this color (Dragonfly was darker and greener).
It’s called Plumage by Martha Stewart, but of course we got it color matched to Olympic Premium paint since it’s No-VOC (even the colorants they add are now VOC free). We went with an eggshell finish (so it’s a bit more wipeable and durable than flat but not too shiny since it’s such a deep tone, which can show lots of flaws and imperfections when it’s glossy). Lowe’s actually had a bit of trouble getting a good match, so if your paint pro can’t get it close enough – our lady finally got it within .03% accuracy – Olympic’s Azalea Leaf is an extremely similar alternative. Of course you can also just go with Martha’s Plumage and not color match it to any other base to avoid matching worries completely.
But back to the whole room painting process. Let’s just say that as soon as we started rolling it on there were some oh em gee moments. And a fair amount of melodramatic nail biting.
But after we got to the second coat, the coverage was great and it was looking deep and rich and bold and fun. See how much more coverage coat two gave us below (the wall on the right has two coats while the wall on the left just has one). Pardon the semi-odd coloring in this shot and the one above, they were taken at night so the rest are more accurate thanks to daylight.
After we completed that second coat we were sold. Seriously. We got all hyper and slap happy. There’s just something about pairing in your face color with crisp white trim that makes you giddy. And amazingly enough, we got ‘er done with just one gallon of paint (with some to spare actually) since it only called for two coats – probably thanks to the tinted primer we used beforehand.
The first thing we did this morning was run into the guest room to admire it in the daylight. How can a $22 paint job make such a difference? It’s amazing. We were about to snap some after pics for you guys when the doorbell rang. It was our new guest bed arriving 30 minutes early. So it ended up in the pics since we didn’t have a moment to take any without it (more details on our mattress buying adventures later). Anyway, here’s the view of the room from the adjoined guest bathroom:
And here’s a shot of it from the hall:
The off centered windows are definitely going to make the floor plan interesting, but we’ll share how we land on our final layout when we, uh, land on a final layout. We’re just going to play around with things until we figure out what we like best.
Oh and you’ll notice that we painted over some of the wall warts (as they so lovingly call them) like the vents and an old Bell Atlantic phone jack to the left of the white outlet plate above. They were already painted over by the previous owners so we repainted them to match the new wall color. We did keep all of the unpainted outlets unpainted though.
Speaking of painting over things, after a surprising number of requests I finally remembered to make a cutting in video, so you can enjoy the riveting play by play below and see how I use my favorite brush to get a nice clean line next to baseboards and trim (watch it below on YouTube or here on Vimeo):
As for down the road projects, we’d love to add crown molding and possibly paint the ceiling a lighter tone than the wall (or at least freshen it up with crisper white paint along with the trim). But that’s definitely not something we have time for with my mom & stepdad rolling into town this Thursday.
So there you have our dark teal guest room. Now we just have to hang the headboard, dress the bed, get a shower curtain and bath mat, change out the toilet seat (it’s old and rusty), hang curtains (if we have time), and figure out the side table & lamp sitch (might not get to that either). Should be an interesting few days…
Guest Room Extra Credit
As scheduled, our local Habitat for Humanity ReStore picked up our donation items yesterday. That, combined with us moving tons of frames and accessories into the future playroom (for now), meant the guest bedroom went from this:
To this:
Not exactly ready for the inlaws (who are arriving on Thursday – yikes) but at least it’s no longer a junkyard.
The reason that photo was taken after dark was because once Clara went to bed last night we decided to earn ourselves some brownie points and paint the room. Yup, we’re total suck ups who love extra credit. We figured it’d be easier to paint while it’s empty (the new bed is coming early next week- details on that soon) and with Clara asleep we figured we’d seize the day night.
So by morning the room was looking a bit more like this:
The color is sort of a stoney pale blue, that has hints of purple in some lights. We figured it was neutral enough to not offend any guests and if we ever had a baby boy down the road we’d already have the nursery walls ready. Gorgeous, right?
Okay, we’re totally joking. That’s not paint, it’s just tinted primer. Did we get you? Sorry, we just couldn’t resist the momentary fake out.
But as you’ve probably figured out already is that tinted primer = dark paint. We’ve been itching to try a dramatic dark color somewhere in the house so we figured we’d just go for it in this room. Why not be a bit adventurous for a guest, right? We figure a dark enveloping room would be nice to sleep in (some of our favorite hotel rooms have been deeply saturated), and thanks to having two walls with windows (plus another window in the adjoined bathroom) the room actually gets a fair amount of light.
Let’s just say the color is very dark and very outside of our comfort zone, but we’re geeky excited about it for some reason. Probably because it makes us want to wet our pants. Just a little. For now we’ll leave our choice a mystery (oooh, secrets) until we get the room painted this weekend and have pictures to share. Descriptions of colors can be tricky, so we’d rather just show it to you anyway.
Oh and this is actually our first time using tinted primer. With such a deep color on the agenda, we knew it would probably help with coverage and the richness of the color that we end up with, so we went for it. We chose Olympic Premium Primer because it’s 100% VOC free (and just $12 for a gallon). It was pretty easy to use – not nasty like the oil-based stuff, and not very smelly at all. But it was a little thin, so we had to be extra careful to avoid drips or wipe them up when they occurred (which might actually be the case with all water-based primers since we’re comparing it to our run-ins with the oil-based stuff from back in the day). Fingers crossed that it does the trick. You know, so we don’t find ourselves needing ten coats of paint to get the deep rich tone that we’re going for. We only got one gallon of paint so we’re hoping that’s all we need…
The Dog House
Some of you have asked how Burger’s getting along in the new house. Short answer: great. Short answer with a fancy Mary-Poppins-ish twist: just splendidly.
It only took him a day or two to figure out where his food bowl now lives and which door to wait at when he needs to go out. Other than that, he seems to be having fun discovering (and re-discovering) his favorite spots to hang. Here are some shots from the last two months to document his love for the new casa.
This one was taken pretty much right after we moved in. He quickly identified this sun-warmed corner of the rug in the living room and loved to park his keister there every morning.
It was part of his very own GTL routine – growl, tan, lick myself. Yes, we watch Jersey Shore since it’s my wife’s home state.
Though that routine has been interrupted by the introduction of Karl the sectional (since he blocks the sunspot), Burger has discovered a few new sun-drenched locations lately- including the windowsill itself. He’s such a cat sometimes. Here he is snuggled up in Clara’s hospital blanket (we brought it home for him to get used to her scent and now it’s his official “blankie”).
Sometimes he’ll move his relaxing into one of our laps, which really is a win-win for everyone on a cold morning.
And occasionally he even helps supervise Clara during playtime. Although he tends to sleep on the job. Unless of course a noise is heard outside. Then all howl breaks loose. See what I did there? I replaced h-e-double-hockey-sticks with the word howl. Booyah.
But when he’s not campaigning for the laziest chihuahua in the world title, he does his fair share of “quality control” – which basically means he helps us test out new purchases. Like our duvet:
And our new sectional pillows (even before the sectional was here, we tossed them on the sleeper sofa in the office and Burger took them for a test ride):
He also manages to squeeze in some playtime too, usually with his favorite toy: Divalectible. It was a gift (for Clara, actually) that Burger took an enthusiastic liking to. Don’t judge us for the name of this tiny stuffed chihuahua with a pink feather boa on it (Divalectible is actually its given “Beanie Baby name” and somehow it stuck). But feel free to judge Sherry for the weird noise that she makes during this video. I call it her “excited dolphin call.” She does it to get the dog to come a runnin’. Just not usually in public. Or on youtube.
Of course, it should come as no surprise that Burger continues to spend most of his days under the covers. So even though there’s a whole new house for him to explore, we’ve definitely got the same ol’ Burger on our hands.
So that’s what our oldest kiddo has been up to when he’s not “supervising” as we paint or demo something around the house. Life’s good when you’re an eight pound chihuahua.
Psst- If all goes well we might just have another post today or tomorrow for ya. Let’s just say that we’ve finally started gaining guest bedroom momentum (with just 6 days until the inlaws arrive – yikes) so we’re most likely working away as you read this. And Burger’s probably supervising.
12 Things (23 If You’re An Optimist)
And let’s just say I’m an eternal, unapologetic, and annoyingly chipper optimist. Anyway, we’re back to share the homely group of odd items that we picked up with our $100 shopping budget on our little end-of-winter beach vacay in Rehoboth. Since we were staying at John’s parents’ beach house for free (I have the best inlaws ever), we figured that a hundred dollars to put towards light fixtures and wall decor and other new house items sounded about right to two cheapskates like us who were happy to have saved at least three times that amount by avoiding hotel fees and driving to the beach in the winter instead. Hah. They’re not exactly a group of lookers yet, but we have plans to paint, frame, hang, retrofit, and generally revive a bunch of them. Here’s the spread:
1. You already saw me gleefully clutching our $5 thrift store mirror here. Love it. Plans for that guy involve a major splash of color. Not sure which one, or where he’ll live. Yet…
2 & 3. You also already met our crazy orange horse head book end friends (scored for $2.50 each). I’m thinking of spraying them white or maybe even a bold color like navy or yellow. They might live up on the built ins with the bulk of my other ceramic animal buddies.
4. This light fixture was hanging in an antique shop’s booth all plugged in and glowing. And I was instantly drawn to it like a moth to a flame. It was just $19 and John was outside in the car with the sleeping bean so I was taking a chance by getting it without dragging him and sleeping Clara inside so he could see it for himself. Thankfully he loved it. Of course we’re planning to paint the brass cap and chain. And we’re thinking about hanging it in the little sink alcove in our bedroom. Not sure though.
5. You can read more about the bee significance in our relationship here, but I fell in love with this $5 iron bee hook from the moment I saw it. I have visions of painting it glossy yellow and hanging it in the mudroom/laundry room for Burger’s leash.
6. I’m 99% sure that I’ll paint this $7 wall mountable iron horse white and hang him in our bright blue hall bathroom with a white hand towel in his mouth ring (more deets on that room’s plan here).
7 & 8. These two wood plaques were $3 a pop and John and I both thought they might look good hanging above our bed with our ram friend in the center. Not sure if we’ll paint them or leave ‘em au naturale.
9. This tiny (he’s around 5″ wide) wall-mountable gold duck (goose?) was just three bucks. So we both agreed that he had to come home and meet his older brother. Not sure if we’ll hang them together. Probably not. Maybe we’ll hang this little one among all the frames in the hallway.
10. We already shared this $10 green luggage rack for the guest room this morning, and mentioned that we may or may not paint it (but definitely plan to switch out the straps – one is missing anyway). Should be interesting…
11. You’ve also seen this $18 paper lantern this morning, so you know we’re planning to hang it in the playroom with a $5 light kit from Ikea. Love those hearts.
12 (or 12-23 if you count each print as a thing). Perhaps our favorite find, we have plans to disassemble this $20 vintage map calendar and frame and hang them all en masse somewhere. Maybe in the guest room. Maybe in the playroom. Or maybe even in the much-mentioned frame-filled hallway that we’re planning.
So that’s what we got for $98. Thanks to shopping in Delaware (where there’s no sales tax) that was actually the total amount spent. And because I’m a dork, I like to calculate the average cost per item, which comes in right around $8 (when you count the calendar as one thing) and $4.26 (when each print is counted separately). Not bad average prices for things like two light fixtures, a luggage rack, a mirror, two bookends, and 6 pieces of wall decor (or 17 if you count all the vintage maps in the calendar). Woot! More details and pics when we frame/hang/paint/install each thing. But now it’s back to the guest room. There are things to clean and paint swatches to consider…
Psst- We announced this weeks giveaway winners. Click here to see if one of them is you.
Beach Bums
Remember we mentioned on Monday that we were taking it easy and enjoying some family time? Well we were actually at the beach! We snuck away to John’s parents’ beach house in Rehoboth, Delaware for a nice long weekend of R&R (while the guest bedroom took care of itself- just kidding it was just as messy when we returned, darn). We had lots of fun going on long walks, eating seafood, getting our thrift on, and bringing Clara down to the beach on a particularly warm day (it was 65+ degrees on Monday!). So we thought we’d share some of our adventures with you guys. First, we hit up our favorite secondhand shop in Bethany, Beach Plum Antiques (also seen in this post of yore).
A few things that caught my eye were these $10 woven lamps (I think I would have spray painted them bright canary yellow or emerald green to take them from beachy and rustic to bright and ca-razy).
I also loved this huge woven ottoman.
Oh and this cute $20 bench reminded us of our $7 thrift store bench makeover a while back.
This side table was just $5. I would have grabbed it and tossed a fiver at the owner had there been another one to match for our bedroom (or even one that looked mildly similar). But alas. There was just one.
Here’s what I did grab after tossing a fiver at the owner. Yup, this geometric eight sided mirror was just five beans. Mine. I was so enamored I didn’t even remember to haggle him down to $4. Hah. Can’t wait to paint it something glossy and fun (lime? plum? I guess time will tell).
We also did a bit of non-thrift shopping along the boardwalk in Rehoboth.
At first glance this extra large calendar full of vintage map prints still seemed pricey at $20, but after flipping through it and adoring every page, we realized it was just $1.60 per print. And we can’t wait to frame them all and display them en masse. Seriously, there was a happy dance associated with this find. And it went on for hours.
We I also skipped to the cash register with one of these adorable $18 paper lantern pendants for the playroom. We knew I probably could have picked up a white paper lantern for around $5 and attempted to DIY my own painted hearts, but we reasoned that eighteen bones wasn’t too bad for such a smile inducing lantern that would probably surpass anything crafty that I could attempt. Especially since Ikea sells light kits for $5, so we’ll end up with an entirely new playroom light fixture for just $24 total.
Then it was back to the thrift stores & antique shops that abound. We stopped at this cute place called Millsboro Basaar Antiques…
… where I found these two crazy ceramic horse book ends for $2.50 a pop. No doubt the price break was thanks to their zany orange and black glaze, but I’m thinking I might just spray paint these babies for a whole new look. Maybe white. Maybe something bolder like navy or yellow.
This frog butler was just insane so I had to snap a pic. It reminded us of that funny Modern Family episode where Jay gets the life-sized dog butler and Gloria hates it.
This $15 guy was kinda fun, but I passed. Let’s just say John wasn’t as enamored as I was.
Oh and this $22 stuffed bear head was wall-mountable. So funny! We briefly considered it for the playroom but decided it was better left behind for someone with a woodland themed nursery (like Clara’s boyfriend Will- although word on the street is that his nursery might have a new inspiration when he moves).
Oh and this little $12 luggage rack was kinda perfect for the guest room makeover. So I snatched it up (and haggled them down to ten bones). We’re definitely planning to replace the ribbon that stretches across it, and the jury’s still out about the color, but it’s fun for now.
We slipped through Goodwill, just for kicks, but didn’t leave with anything. We did see some cute things stuff though, like this $2 bowl, which would be sweet for storing jewelry (I picture stacks of bracelets) on a dresser.
The funny thing about this $1 find is that it’s the exact same glass container that we bought a while back and used to create our T-giving “Thanks” jar.
Here’s another $2 bowl that could look charming holding anything from keys to jewelry or even all those extra buttons you get with shirts and coats. You save them out of fear like I do, don’t you? What if you need them someday? I never seem to, but you never know…
And here we are having some good old fashioned beach fun. First there’s beanarina and daddy looking pretty darn happy.
Next we have Clara showing off her two adorable front teeth. What an accomplishment! So proud.
Oh and here she is playing in the sand. Trepidatiously. But still sort of playing none the less.
Good times! I’ll be back later with a breakdown of everything we actually bought home with us (we gave ourselves an $100 thrifting & shopping budget and we came home with 12 items – well, 23 if you count our calendar as 12 prints, since we’ll be framing ‘em individually). Wahoo. More on that in a few hours…
