Some Baaaad Scallops
Since you see the front of our house all the time in the blog header, you may be surprised to learn that it’s due for a major overhaul. Sure it looks sweet from afar (especially when all those azaleas are in bloom) but the sad truth is that up close it’s definitely less than picture perfect. The old slate path is jagged and chipped. The country looking scalloped header above the porch is totally not our style. And the screen door is old and rotten. We tried to save it for a little while by painting it a cheerful yellow, but sadly it had still seen better days.
So yesterday I said “smell ya later” to the ‘ol screen door and exposed the much better looking wooden door behind it (which I painted a crisp black along with the shutters). Such an improvement. Although we’re considering repainting it a sophisticated lipstick red in the near future. But in the meantime, I couldn’t wait one more minute to attack that terrible scalloped header.
And attack it I did. It was far from easy (in fact it was an 11 step, 6 hour process that had me crying, bleeding, and crying more) but I waved the victory flag after a looooong day of pulling, peeling, hammering and muttering obscenities. Here’s what the ground looked like when I finished (told you we need a new walkway):
And here’s what the porch looks like sans scallops.
Of course all the work paid off- we think it’s so much cleaner and it definitely looks more like a 50′s ranch and less like an 80′s country lodge. And it looks about a million times better from the inside of the house, too. We’ll take ya waaaay back to a pic of the living room right after we bought the house almost two years ago. See the ugly scalloped porch out the window? At least the busted curtains, weird lamp, and baaaad cube divider near the door detracted attention from the icky scallop view.
But now that we’ve completely renovated the living room (removed the cube divider, put in a new window, added crown molding, and painted like crazy) the perpetual view of the sun streaming in through the scallops annoyed us even more.
It’s so much sleeker without those arches conflicting with the rectangular window, right? Burger certainly enjoys the new view.
Oh and we hung some airy white curtains high above the window which really make the room feel taller. Now all we need are some natural matchstick blinds to hang right below the rod in order to cheat the window and make seem like it goes all the way up to the rod.
So hopefully you’ve enjoyed the screen and scallop removal. Stay tuned for some pics of the soon-to-be red front door, and a complete path overhaul along with some new landscaping ideas. Curb appeal’s the name of the game, and we’ll keep you posted every step of the way.
If This Were Your Bookcase…
…what color would you paint it?
We adopted this snore of a bookshelf in Manhattan about three years ago and it’s one of about ten pieces that made the move to Richmond with us in a minivan. We’ve always treated it like an “until we get something better” piece because there’s nothing terribly special about it, but somehow it has lasted this long, so we figure it’s about time we make it work.
We’re going to give it the ol’ Young House Love paint job (the wood is a little too red for our house anyways). And seeing a pretty painted green bed on google gave us the confidence to try something other than white… but we need your help picking the new color (and truly feeling confident about it).
Our top three color contenders (shown on the left side of the pic above) are:
1. A grayish-purple reminiscent of the print above the bookcase.
2. A muted blue inspired by our bedroom and kitchen.
3. A dusty green to complement the sometimes purple undertones in the tan wall color.
Or do we quit messing around and go with what we know: white.
Do you see why we need you? We’re practically paralyzed with indecision. We don’t want to go too bright since the rest of our living room is pretty neutral:
So cast your vote for one of the colors above or feel free to throw some other options into the mix. Thanks in advance for the help and, of course, we’ll post the after pic as soon as we get ‘er done.
An Inside Job
Lately I’ve been noticing glass front cabinets with a twist. The twist is that the backs of the cabinets have a little somethin’ extra. Sometimes they’re wallpapered. Sometimes they’re beadboard. Sometimes they’re upholstered. And sometimes they’re painted. So after living with our very own glass front cabinet for a little while, we decided to join the club.
In about two hours I painted the back of our corner cabinet the same beachy blue-gray color that’s on the walls. I left the shelves white and just painted the back wall to keep the contrast high and make the white plates and dishes pop against the new moody backdrop. Can I just say that it was so worth the effort? Subtle and sweet. Check it out:
