What We Worked On - Early February 2012

As usual we have been very busy trying to get things done around the house while still tending to our everyday life responsibilities. Here's a post to catch you up on all that we've been working on these past two weeks.


Wall Lamps
Before we even found this house I knew I wanted to do wall mounted lights in the Master. When I found these Pivoting Swing-Arm Pin-up Lamp for only $33 I had to snatch them right up. There were a few others we had our eye on, but the prices for ones this size were much higher. So, I showed them to Mike, and we snatched them up right away. I was tempted to buy some matching cord covers for $8 a pop, but I'm going to try to rig something up myself before we do that. I added one onto this photo to show you what they'll look like once we add the covers on.

just in case you were wondering. yes, that is a pink plastic elephant. i got him for $2 at target. we sprayed him pink, then I covered him with the pink Martha glitter paint from Home Depot. I LOVE HIM!

Here's the shot without the cord cover, this photo also gives you an idea of our progress in the master bedroom. I am pretty happy with how it's coming along. I think I'm going to take down the capiz shells on the ceiling, it's a little too repetitive now that the lamps are hung on the walls. You can also see where I was testing out my technique for the painted wallpaper that I mentioned wanting to do before.

The Frame is Painted and Art is Hung!
this is one of those things that I really should have took a before picture of.  This print has been in my grandparents house for for.eeevvvv.er, my whole life, probably much longer than that. anyway, I really like the art, in fact it makes me happy, the picture is nice, but there are also lots of grandparent memories that go along with it. 

so, to get to the point of it. I would've loved to get it matted and framed, and made it really beautiful, but that's not at all practical on our budget. The frame was originally a poopy brown color and the inner part of it was a velvety texture. 

Before we started painting we put a few brads in the corners to reinforce the originals and reduce some of the wobbliness. Mike also filled in all the nail holes and the corner cracks with shrink free.

I first attempted to paint it with a brush, I used a deep maroonish brown, but that wasn't working very well, the wood looked very brushed and the velvety part was just soaking it up, so much so that you couldn't even see the paint. 

Mike and I both decided that it needed something to make it really pop, so we got a can of spray paint and he got to work. He started by spray priming it first and then 24 hours later he did a coat of the blue followed by another about an hour after the first. 

Chevron Stripes in the Entry
I have been drooling over these stripes for a few weeks now, and we finally got started on some stripes of our own over the weekend. In case you forgot this is our inspiration photo from apartment therapy.

This is our wall and our current progress on it. Mike painted the wall with a white semi-gloss over the weekend, after waiting a few days we marked for our chalk lines. We still need to do the vertical lines and tape off the stripes, hopefully we get a lot done over the weekend. I will be doing a step by step post once the whole project is complete. 

Flower Arrangements

some hydrangeas for the living and dining room

some roses for the master bedroom

some more roses for the kitchen
(i thought i bought a dozen, but actually got about 30)

New Curtains and Tablecloth

I found some fabulous deals in the Target clearance section. Here are some of them! We had some really nice grey cotton duck curtains with grommets on this window before, but when I saw these I knew they would be perfect! Then I found the tablecloth a few minutes later, and I was a pretty happy camper. 

I purposely framed this picture with the walls of the Living Room to show the look I was going for. I love how it ties the two rooms together. The fact that they're one of my favorite colors doesn't hurt much either. This photo also clearly displays the fact that we have a LOT more painting to do.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing our progress, and will be 

inspired to get started on one of your own dream projects!