Category: Painting

Some New Updates to the House

7/8/2012

We've made several updates to the house since the last time I posted any pics, so I finally got off my behind and took some.

This is a new table I picked up at HomeGoods. Our vet sent us this plant when Sasha passed away and we had it sitting on a nasty folding TV table for a while. So when I saw this green telephone table, I snatched it up without even sending a cell phone pic to Kevin (which is my usual tactic to make sure he likes it before I buy it.) The color goes great with the light green walls in our sitting room. On the bottom shelf is our Scentsy warmer (which is not turned on in this pic).

The sconces on the wall were a Christmas present, they are battery operated and have a timer so they will come on at the same time every day and go off after 5 hours. They flicker like a "candle", but they're not fooling anybody ;-)

Above the plant on the wall is a beautiful quilted tapestry that my mom made of Sasha enjoying her time on the other side of the Rainbow Bridge. She always loved hiking and being outdoors... here it looks like she is keeping a close eye on that moose!

Moving on to the "Raven Room", otherwise known as the den depending on who you ask. The room is very long with a reading nook at one end. When we first moved in, I painted the main section of the room a medium blue color with a dark blue wall behind the sofa. The reading nook was left unpainted, so it was just white.

BEFORE

In the old house, the dark blue looked great with the raven painting, but it just wasn't sitting right with me in the new house for several reasons. First of all, the people who painted the room white got paint all over the brown trim. So when I painted the walls dark, the little bits of white that were on the dark trim just slapped you in the face. (Well, maybe I'm the only one that noticed, but it really bothered me!) Secondly, the wall in the other house was a true rectangle, and this wall is not, it has "wings" over each door at either end. So, the look was not as concise as it had been in the other house. And thirdly, this house doesn't get as much natural light, so the dark blue just didn't look as good as it did in the old house.

So... after a year and half of it grating on my nerves, I finally painted over it. And I painted the reading nook, too, so the whole room is now the medium blue color.

AFTER

View from one end of the room to the other...

The little wall that kind of separates the reading nook from the rest of the room...

Two shelves of cookbooks and one shelf of travel guides... can you tell what my favorite hobbies are?

A few of my favorite things...

Our wedding cake topper and the cookbook Kevin bought me in Venice.

Kevin's groom's cake topper and Flyers garter...

One of Kevin's teapots and an art print we got at a crafts fair in Hawaii.

The Mountain Man sculpture that was given to me when I left Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station (by local artist Michael Garmin). Does anyone else think this looks like my Uncle Mike?

A totally awesome picture of a baby hawk that my friend Stacey took in her back yard...

So, that's it for now! Not sure what the next project is going to be... maybe painting the upstairs hallway... it's in dire need. Until later!

P.S. Kevin also installed a new light in the laundry room, which is not really picture-worthy, but at least we don't have to use a table lamp now. Which is good because I almost electrocuted myself by knocking the lamp into the utility sink while the faucet was on.

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Painting a ceiling...

4/23/2011

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Do me a favor, people. Next time I say I want to paint a ceiling, just stop me, mmkay? thanks.

Actually, I think someone did warn me that it was a pain in the patootie (was that you, Mom?) But I had to do it anyway. And I had to choose the largest room in the house. But it does look a lot better now in ivory instead of the gray-white that it was before. And now I share my top 3 ceiling painting tips:

1. Use ceiling paint. It's specially formulated to not splatter as much as regular paint. Having already painted half the ceiling in regular paint, I can attest to the fact that the second time around, I had less paint on my face and in my hair.

2. Don't bother trying to use the "long arm" paint roller extension. I found it hard to control. Get yourself some saw horses and a strong piece of wood and make a scaffold, and use a regular roller. And see #3.

3. Use a small paint roller. Paint rollers are heavy, and holding one above your head for the better part of a day is painful. A small paint roller may take more time, but it was MUCH much easier.

Now that I know these things, I might actually be convinced to paint another ceiling someday. But I think that's a long way off.

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Picked colors for the dining room!

1/9/2011

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Today was a very successful day over at the house. I painted samples of the colors we chose for the dining room and they look great! So, it's official: Jersey Cream on the ceiling and Humble Gold on the walls. It really brightens up the room, and looks great with the wood trim and the painting we are going to have in there. The painting looks a little different in real life than it does in this picture, the background is not so orange.

I also primed the inside of the kitchen closet (that was painted hunter green, royal blue, and olive green... I'm convinced the previous owners were color blind.)

Kevin put together the kitchen island we got from Meijer.com. It's a natural wood color, but I bought it with the intent to stain it to match the cabinets or paint it a color that coordinates with the walls. I guess I'll try staining first, and if that doesn't work I'll paint it. But that's a project for later.

It's pretty good quality for being so cheap... it does have a hairline crack in the top, but I can fill it in with wood filler. I love the paper towel holder on the side. The other side has small shelf for spices and a towel bar. The top extends over the back further than the front so that you can sit there with bar stools if you want to. We plan to keep it against the wall most of the time, but it has wheels on it so it can be moved if need be. I will be changing out the hardware at some point, too.

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Latex Paint Remover

1/1/2011

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Today I tackled the paint spatters on the wood trim in the kitchen. I got this latex paint remover at Home Depot... the guy there said that it wouldn't damage the wood.

All you do is spray it on, let it sit for 60 seconds, and then use a toothbrush to loosen it up. Use a hard bristle brush, I was using a soft and it was working, but not as well as I hoped. Then you wipe it off with a dry cloth, and then again with a wet cloth. It did take off a bit of the stain... probably not enough for anyone to notice unless you were looking for it, but it did look slightly lighter than the areas I did not use it on.

Getting up close and personal to the trim, I discovered that the kitchen used to be royal blue before it was white (egad).

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That 70's House

Our new (to us) house was built in 1973... and while the dark wood trim and hickory ceiling beams are part of what drew us to the house, it still needs to be brought into this decade. This blog will document our attempts to update the house, while still maintaining its old-school charm.

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