decorating Archives - Page 13 of 13

IKEA

July 21, 2011 By Shannah Leave a Comment

Do you read other blogs? It’s ok if you do (I won’t tell them you’re cheating by reading here too!). I ask because, if you do, what I am about the share with you, you’ve probably already seen about a hundred times. Feel free to skip along (just promise to come back and visit again soon, k?). If you don’t, then this will be “news” to you and hopefully you will enjoy it.

The IKEA catalog is out. It is 376 pages of fun! Or at least 376 pages that will make Swedish decor enthusiasts and thrifty shoppers alike giddy with excitement.

Want to meet a non-Swedish decor enthusiast or thrifty shopper? You’ve met him before…it’s Mathlete! Yep, he even suggested the other day that we buy a new chest of drawers for our bedroom versus re-staining the one we were getting for FREE from a family member. I almost had to take a moment to wonder how we are married! I quickly remembered that what he lacks in thriftiness he makes up for in a lot of other ways (thanks for doing the dishes last night sweetie!).

Let’s get back to IKEA though shall we? We have a few things in our house from IKEA including our much abused loved kitchen table. Sadly, the store is rather far away and ALWAYS crowded so we don’t go as often as I’d like. We did spend quite a bit of time there when planning our wedding eons ago though…nothing like hauling out 200 champage glasses and close to 500 votive candle holders for your upcoming wedding and then sweating the entire trip home hoping they don’t break. IKEA is great for a lot of things…packing fragile things like glasses well is not a strong suit.

I just spent some time thumbing (pointer fingering?) through the new catalog to see what they had. Of course, they had some oldie but goodie items like Expedit and Billy.

[IKEA]

One of my favorite things about catalogs though is that they bring your attention to things you might have noticed before like the Hemnes glass door cabinet which would be perfect for storing china or other pretties you might want to display.

[IKEA]

Then, there is the Godmorgon/Vitviken sink cabinet which would be a great solution for folks (like me) looking to tear out their pedastool sink and replace it with something a little more functional. Where do people put their extra toilet paper with a pedastool sink?

[IKEA]

Anyhoo…click on over when you have some time. You might rediscover something you forgot they had or find something new! I know I now have the Ursula throw and Tranetorp table on my list of things to buy. You’ll have to go catalog hunting to see those two items though because they don’t have pics up online yet!

All images are property of IKEA.

What a nice chest

July 18, 2011 By Shannah Leave a Comment

As I teased here, I’ve been working on painting. I’m not allowed to paint walls (yet!) because I haven’t demonstrated the painting prowess my perfectionist mathlete is searching for so I am starting small…with a chest of drawers.

I bought this baby on craigslist for $50. It’s solid wood and was once a changing table. The top actually folds down and out to magically transform into a changing table (definitely not sturdy enough my chunky monk but maybe a smaller kiddo). My first thing (after removing its drawers obviously) was to remove that folding shelf. I’m not using it a changing table and didn’t really feel I would use the folding shelf at all. Out came the screwdriver (and mathlete):

Once we removed all the screws, the shelf just popped right off the top and it was time to fill in the little holes left by the screws.

Meet Mr. Putty…hole filler extradonaire

You just press this stuff down into the holes and then scrape off the extra. I also wiped around the holes with a shop rag because I didn’t feel like the scraper got enough of the extra filler off of the non-hole parts.

With the holes all filled, it was time to start priming. I removed all of the hardware from the drawers and primed those first with my Kilz No-Voc primer. For the drawers, I did two coats with a regular sized foam brush (20 for $1 this week at Michaels!).

I had originally planned to sand everything but, when I was painting sample colors on it, I discovered that it didn’t really need sanding at all. It didn’t have a shiny finish or much of a sealant on it to start with. The primer went on very easily and smoothly. Once the drawers were done, I pulled out my foam roller and took it to the chest.

Those pictures are one coat of primer. It was getting late and my bed was definitely calling so I stopped my painting project there. It is about to get hot outside again though and I will want my garage back for my car so I expect to finish this whole painting thing up fast!

Adventures in Color – Part 1

July 16, 2011 By Shannah 1 Comment

My photographer has been on vacation (if you can call working 12 hour days + weekends at his “real” job a vacation!) so you will have to forgive me for the quality of the recent and forthcoming pictures you’ve seen here. I’ve got the link to the momtography class but I just haven’t ~~pulled the trigger~~ pressed the mouse button quite yet.

I set out on a mission to capture the paint colors in our house. It won’t mean much without the context of the entire room, I know, but I’m working up to that. It will require my entire family to move out of the house for a week, the maids to come and my house to magically transform itself for me to be able to take pictures of it without you being witness to its disarray and just general lack of designer focus. Hmm…maybe a home tour wouldn’t be such a bad addition here? It would be a constant photo reminder that I need to get my butt in gear!

Well, until my gluteus gets inspired, I hope you will settle for some pictures of my walls. What is it they say about watching paint dry…hope this isn’t that bad!

When I set out to pick paint colors for this house, I was really excited about the light we get. I felt that meant I could really take advantage and use some richer/deeper colors in there. Some days, I am so happy I did that and others…well, let’s just say that I am saving my pennies for the painters just in case that whim turns into a real “I hate this color” problem. I’m not scared to paint regular rooms but two of our spaces are two story and I’m not the most stable person on the planet (go ahead…make the joke). I will go ahead and note that all the paint is color matched to Behr Premium which has the primer built in. Oh, and if a color isn’t provided it because I have no idea what the real color was and my can just has a formula.

You’ve already seen the playroom but this is probably the best on camera depiction of the true wall color. It’s Christopher Robin’s Swing by Disney.

See, pictures of random walls and doors. Fun, right?

Our hallways (upstairs and down) are this great tan that looks sagey green sometimes depending on the light.

The living room was near impossible for me to capture for some reason. It’s Behr’s Dusty Olive.

The powder room is the same as it was in our townhouse because I loved the color so much that I had to use it somewhere in the house! It is Glidden Slate Green (but it looks very blue in real life)

Want a perfect depiction of how bad my camera skills are? Check out my dining room:

That room is most definitely not bright red. It is Behr’s Red Pepper which looks more like this:

The kitchen connects (via a little doorway) to the dining room. It’s a victim of my husband’s love of tan and is Martha Stewart Natural Twine.

From there, you can see the room that keeps me up at night: our family room. It is the room we went the darkest on because it has a lot of natural light and white trim. Most days, I love the choice. Some days, I wish it were a little lighter.

So, there is our entire lower level! I’ll try to schedule my photographer for the upstairs photos. Until then, I’ll give you a sneak peak of what H has been keeping busy with while mom is ~~bathing in primer~~ priming the guest room chest of drawers.

Light up my…breakfast table

July 8, 2011 By Shannah Leave a Comment

Sorry for the cheesy title there but I just can’t help but thinking of the “you light up my life” song when I start to write about my lighting debate. You can blame it on hours of pouring over lighting source websites and catalogs (poor me, right?!).
As you can tell from the title, we are looking to replace the light fixture over our breakfast table and coordinating pendant lights that reside over the island. You can see the all of them in this (not so great) picture:

You can see that they aren’t bad but I am not in love with them either. The pendant actually need to be raised because they are too low and bang into your head when you are trying to cook. The globes are really dirty with the frost peeling away too. Yuck. I figure if I am going to shop for new pendants that I might as well go ahead and find a new fixture for over the breakfast table too.
We’re replacing the breakfast table for something a little larger and have chosen this one for its great price. After all, we still have another kid to go through and, if the damage to our current table from Hailey’s younger days is any indication, that poor table is in for a beating!

On to the light contenders…
1) I’m a big fan of the simplicity of this one. It even has pendants that pretty much look like mini replicas of the big light available.

Home Depot

2) This one is similar but with a square shade instead of a round one.

Home Depot

3) I love the idea of the exposed bulbs in both of these fixtures.

West Elm

4) I also really like the shape of this one. I can see it over the island and paired with a bell shaped larger fixture for over the table.

Shades of Light

5) Then, there is my all time favorite which I just can’t get my pocket book to agree to.

Acadian Lighting

What do you think? Like any of those? I’m still on the fence about which to choose but hope to make a selection soon. My poor forehead can only take so much more abuse from my pendants over the island!

Frame Painting…the hard way

July 5, 2011 By Shannah Leave a Comment

I mentioned here that I had finally gotten around to purchasing a frame for the bunny picture I purchased over a year ago for our playroom. The painting project took a little longer than planned because I ran into a few obstacles along the way.
I had this great natural wood frame I scored for $7.50 that I planned to put white paint on:

I started with a coat of Kilz primer to make sure the paint went on really well. I chose the no-VOC version from Home Depot and was pretty happy with how it went on.

My plan was to pull the glass out of the frame to make it really easy to paint the frame itself. That’s when I met my first obstacle…I couldn’t get the glass out of the frame without potential damage to it. So, our came the painter’s tape. I tape around the edges and put on my first coat of primer.

As you can see, I needed a second coat of the primer. After the second coat of primer, I put on the white semi-gloss paint I had for the frame. It’s nothing fancy but does the trick. After I put the paint on (2 coats), I pulled the painters tape off and saw my second obstacle…the paint had bled a little under the tape.
The solution: I grabbed a razor blade and scraped off the extra paint from the glass. Then, we were ready for hanging (well, ready for hanging once the kids aren’t sleeping so we can actually bang on the walls!)

Here Comes Peter Cottontail

July 5, 2011 By Shannah Leave a Comment

We have a bunny picture. It’s Peter Cottontail and was scored, with double matting, at a yard sale for $.50. Last spring (as in 2010)! I planned our playroom around this picture by adding the Pottery Barn Kids Peter Cottontail valances to the windows and painting the room a great shade of green to match. In all the planning, I never actually bought a frame for it. So, this picture has lived everywhere in the playroom except where it belongs: on the wall!

I mentioned here that awhile back we had purchased a bunch of canvases and were planning to paint them. That all changed and I had to return the collection of canvases. Mathlete probably wouldn’t be too happy about me just storing 6 11×14, 4 8×10 and 4 9×12 white canvases with no foreseeable plan to use them.

So, off Baby E and I went to A.C. Moore

Now, I’ve been to A.C. Moore or its brother, Michaels, dozens of times in the recent past. Every single time, I forget about the bunny picture frame until I get all the way back home. Not this trip! Ta-dah…a frame for the bunny picture:

I scored it for $7.50 because they were running a sale plus offering 15% your entire purchase. (Oh, I did pick up 2 larger canvases but I actually have plans for those!) I’m not a fan of the natural wood color for where it is going so I’ll throw some paint on it (soon-ish) and Mr. Rabbit will take his rightful place on the playroom wall.

Ever go to the store several times to get something only to forget it every time? Do you leave pictures just lying around leaning on walls until you get around to framing them?

Cha Ching!

June 22, 2011 By Shannah Leave a Comment

Do you like to shop? Boy, do I! I’ve slowed down considerably on my shopping (especially since the arrival of Baby E…two kids ain’t cheap!) but still love the thrill of finding something I love and buying it. I’ve turned my buying more towards stuff for the house recently. Although, don’t get me wrong, I still love shopping for clothes/shoes/bags but I find the time I have to shop for clothes is minimal and, when I have the time, I end up at Gymboree or BabyGap. I’ve got some well dressed munchkins

Back to the shopping…I’ve been eyeing some artwork from Crate and Barrel for awhile. The liquidity prints (I-V) just called out to me as the perfect thing for the wall in our foyer. I couldn’t stomach the price though.

Upon the urging of “Junior” (a.k.a. “my sister”), I decided that I would try some DIY artwork for that space to mimic the design of the C&B prints. I’m no artist so I knew I wouldn’t even come close to actually copying the prints. I just wanted the same general vibe. She was awesome and actually went to the store and bought the canvases and I picked up the paint. We had grand plans!

We loaded the shopping bags filled with canvases and paint in the car and drove them 5+ hours to the beach with us. Grand plans, I tell you! Every single piece remained in the bag for the entire trip. We didn’t even manage to get them out to figure out a configuration for the multiple canvases.

So, they took another 5+ hour drive in their shopping bags back to my house where they sat…and sat. The other day, Junior asked me had I decided on how I wanted them to hang on the wall and I realized I still hadn’t touched them. I had been so focused on this space for awhile and yet, with supplies in hand, I wasn’t doing anything about it.

Spurred into motion, I pulled out the canvases and laid them all out on the floor in front of the table they would hang above. I settled on a configuration and put the extras back in the bag to be returned to the store.

I ran to the computer to write an email to Junior (couldn’t find my phone!) to let her know I had made progress. Upon opening my email, ~~angels sang~~ I got distracted. There was an email from C&B that screamed “Sale” in its title. I opened it up and saw that my beloved Liquidity prints were marked down to a much more reasonable price. I’ve been holding onto a 10% off coupon to C&B too which meant I could drive the price down even further. Jackpot!

I quickly called the store and checked to see if they had them in stock or if I should order online (and pay shipping, blech!). They did have them in stock so I stopped on the way the home to pick them up and solve my foyer dilemma (for this week at least).

Fingers crossed it doesn’t take as long to hang them as it has to buy them/paint them.

I mentioned in part of our beach recap that Junior and I went to a few thrift stores while we were on vacation. I never got around to post pictures of our finds though!

The first place we went was full of clothes and shoes! It wasn’t until we got all the way to very back of their small store that we saw stacks and stacks of fabric pieces. The pieces were just large enough to make a pillow or other small item out of. We picked up a few and went on our merry way.

Next up, we hit a much bigger store on the way back to the beach house. It was full to the brim with furniture, house wares and other items. I saw a few furniture items I would have considered if we would have had space to get them home in the car. Instead, I settled for some smaller items:

And here are some recent non-thrift store (but major sale!) purchases:

Any good shopping finds recently? I keep getting tons of sale notices in my email which is making it so difficult not to go out shopping!

Moving on up…

June 17, 2011 By Shannah Leave a Comment

6.17.11

Recently, I’ve been posting a lot about all the stuff going on in our life. Not much of it has really been house related though. I promise I’ve been busy with house related stuff and today, I have a surprise. Its this:

Now, calm down, I didn’t go out house hunting and buy a new house without sharing any of the hunting details. This isn’t my house but it is a house I am pretty darn excited about…so excited that it gets its own blog post (I’m so excited…and I just can’t hide it). This house belongs to these folks (you may have seen them around here a time or two):

It is great for them because they get a new (much larger home) for their family (and stuff) but the best part is that it is right around the corner from us (3.5 minutes walking to be exact…yep, we clocked it!). If you could see me (and/or Mathlete) right now, you’d be witnessing a bunch of squee mixed with a whole lot this is totally the best day ever!

What does this mean for you (I know…that is what you really care about! ;)) It means twice the house fun! I’ve actually been neglecting a bunch of my own house projects to help with the projects they are planning for their new house (and loving every minute of it too!). Because she ~~doesn’t want to hear me complain all the time~~ loves me so much, she has agreed to let me share all the dirty details of her house decorating along with my own. I might even squeeze a guest post or two out of her.

Paint has been dominating the decorating conversation so far. In fact, the first thing they did after closing was paint a bunch of swatches on the walls around the house so they could say yay/nay to the colors they’ve been eyeing over the past few weeks.

Painting will begin in earnest on Saturday and the “professionals” came to tackle the hard stuff (i.e. two-story rooms and ceilings) on Monday.

More to come!

Rescue Me!

June 13, 2011 By Shannah Leave a Comment

I know you are all waiting anxiously for details about our ~~vacation~~ family trip and I promise to get them to you. I just have about a million pictures to sort through before I can give you all of the details…you don’t want to look at a million pictures of us right? Didn’t think so.

After ~~days~~ hours of unpacking, I needed a break. I went to pick up our mail from our wonderful neighbors and discovered my package from Chic Shelf Paper had come while we were away. Cue excitement! I practically ran out of their house to get home and start my little project. At least, I planned it to be a small project. If you remember that saying about best laid plans, you can already see where this is going…of course, the title probably gave it away a bit too.

Recently, I purchased this awesome white lacquer tray from West Elm with plans to paint the inside of it.

The more I thought about painting it, the more I disliked the idea. The tray resides in the front hallway on our entryway table. Given that it is the entrance to our house, the whole theme up there changes quite a bit (think holiday motifs, etc.) so picking a paint color seemed very daunting. Enter the idea to just line it with awesome shelf paper which is easily changed whenever I want!

Enter: Chic Shelf Paper. I looked through their online catalog and ordered a few samples before settling on Gypsy Garden.

For this initial lining, I chose to have them pre-cut it for me so I could just place it in the tray. Now, I am sure you are expecting a pretty picture of my finished project but I will already warn you that the finished picture is pretty far away because I mis-measured (GASP!). I’ll give you a minute to catch your breath before I continue. Better?

I pulled my wonderful paper out of the package only to find I hadn’t taken into account the difference in size between the entire tray and the inside where the paper would be sitting. No problem…I have a paper cutter! Well, the paper was too big for my paper cutter so I decided to cut it by hand. In any normal situation, Mathlete Hubby would have already stepped in with ~~a sanity check~~ some assistance. This wasn’t a normal situation though because a) I was working in the front hallway and b) it was the weekend of the 24 hours of Le Mans (i.e. a weekend I don’t really have a husband). So, out came my scissors and my “steady” hand. What came next was a disaster and a cry for help!

Those of you that know me have often heard me complain a little about hubby’s racing hobby. My hobbies (cooking, shopping, etc.) benefit the entire household while racing typically only benefits him. That all changed last night…racing rescued me. (There…I said it in print…forever cached by Google!) In non-professional racing (I hate the word amateur because those guys do really know what they are doing!), the racers get sponsors just like in other sports. These sponsors, of course, want some recognition for their contribution and that comes in the way of the drivers putting stickers on the cars. Now, before you go picturing the car from Taladega Nights with even the windows covered in stickers, please know that it is pretty tame compared to some of the bigger motor sports.

Now, racing (and hubby) couldn’t 100% save my paper because I had already cut it too small to cover the entire bottom of my tray. However, we were able to square off the edges and then center it so it looked like I meant for it to be smaller than the bottom of my tray (we’ll keep our secret, right?).

First up was squaring off the paper to disguise my ~~hack job~~ less than perfect cutting. I had already peeled the shelf paper from its backing so we had to grab some handy freezer paper (wax paper or parchment paper would work too!) to stick the paper onto while we cut.

From there, we used a square and an exacto knife to make sure we had the edges perfect.

Once we had the edges right, it was time to put it back in the tray. The paper was smaller than the tray so I needed to be able to position it perfectly and then have it adhere to the tray. My Hubby’s secret weapon: a spray bottle.

We sprayed the back of the paper to get it just a little damp. This would allow us to put the paper down and move it into place before the adhesive set.

Once we had the paper in place, we used a very technical tool to go over the paper and push all of the excess water out to the edge so that we could soak it up…a Barnes & Noble kids club card.

With the water soaked up by paper towels (another very special tool of the trade), we put the tray in its proper place in the foyer to dry for 24 hours. It didn’t turn exactly like I planned but it looks pretty good in my book!

Oh, and I learned something from racing too!

Don’t want to leave this bed

May 18, 2011 By Shannah 1 Comment

5.18.11

To get ready for the resulting shopping fest that will result from my furniture purge, I’ve been surfing the interwebs looking for inspiration for my master bedroom. I already mentioned that we will most likely be going with a low, platform style bed just to keep it clear of blocking the two windows it will reside between. I do prefer some kind of headboard on a bed though which led me to this:

My searching also produced some really wonderful bedroom decorating ~~porn~~ pictures that I can use for inspiration as I get further along in this project. Enjoy!

The combination of the low platform bed and shorter headboard here is great! Exactly what I aiming for as far as size/structure of the bed:

Love the poster bed in this. It won’t work in my setting but it is beautiful! This is perfectly proportioned between the windows.

Also considering putting a bench or something at the end of the bed.

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