Monthly Archives: March 2012

first visit & color balance

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This past weekend, we had the pleasure of hosting the Daugherty clan in our Dallas home.  The first to venture down and see what Texas was all about.  We had a wonderful time, once Paul and I got over the initial shock of being “on” all the time. Paul even said, “kids are a WHOLE different level, I was tired after Adventure Landing!” But, we had an absolute blast and the things that come out of their mouths are so funny, such as Drake stating the sheets on his blow up bed were Fancy, wondering if the crabs would eat them at the aquarium, and the realization half way through a meal, “I have NO drink!”  They were great, and I wanted to adopt them all. What a great weekend. These kids are a ball full of energy and we didn’t want to disappoint.  So we hit up a couple local attraction: the park, which is right down our street, a couple times, Adventure Landing, Fort Worth Rodeo, and The Dallas Aquarium.

It was a great weekend and honestly, if I could guarantee a baby like Anna, I would have four.

Plus, it was nice to have a general contractor in our presence to nonchalantly ask questions… can we actually do that?  and how much would that cost? and what would you do? and can you just come down and do it?!?  Okay, I was thinking that last question.  I’m so happy they came down and here are the highlights of the weekend.

*Weekend Photos by Lisa Daugherty – because who forgets her camera? This girl. :( 

Otis also won a souvenir prize thanks to Anna.  Otis got many face licks in to Anna’s surprise this weekend; she was watching him all weekend but never got mad, just gave a look of what was that?!

He’s been playing/sleeping with it ever since. Sorry Anna.

Prior to the Daughtery’s making their presence in the Big D, I knew I had to clean up the main bath for their arrival!  I fell in love with the gray-with-green-undertones BM Stingray 1529 in our kitchen and decided to use what was left in the main bathroom.  It works perfectly with yellow tile and bronze/gold accessories. I also demoed the gold shower door! That was such an eye sore, so I replaced it with a simple curtain from West Elm.  I still need to add framed items in here but it’s such an improvement, I wanted to share.

Before

After (Progress Pic) – Sorry for the dark mirror photo…

When first purchasing a home, I got all excited about paint color, the kitchen could be this and the bathroom that, but then I realized the zen quality of cohesiveness… and stopped wanting to paint our house like a preschool classroom, so I started picking colors that complement each other.  Though I know people that have the same color throughout their house, and it works for them, I couldn’t do the same. I couldn’t think of that one color to blanket the whole house; I couldn’t handle just one color.  Instead, I found a happy-medium.  Here’s my color palette thus far;

  • Guest Rooms #1 and #2 – BM pashmina AF-100
  • Kitchen and Main Bath – BM stringray 1529
  • Hallways and Strip in 1/2 bath – BM swiss coffee OC-45
  • 1/2 bath other strip – BM halo OC-46 (though I could of used Early Morning Mist or Stringray)
  • Entryway – BM stone harbor 2111-50
  • Living and Dining Room – BM bennington gray HC-182
  • Master Bedroom – BM palladian blue HC- 144
  • Master Bath – BM boothbay gray HC – 165
  • Family Room – BM early morning mist 1528
  • Laundry & Guest Room #4/Office Bookshelves –BM dragonfly AF-510 or rockport gray HC-105 (TBA)

I tried my best to use the same colors throughout the house.  I think it’s working really well! I only have the laundry room, 4th bedroom and some bookshelves left!

cup o’ joe

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For a couple of months now, I’ve been jonesin’ for this amazing little appliance.  I experienced this old friend of mine in a cute restaurant called Rise! Instead of saving my Christmas gift certificate for something more substantial, I went down to Crate&Barrel and got the original French press; it was beautiful, and I was SO excited to use it for our lazy Saturday morning ritual! (It’s usually sitting around watching American Pickers and drinking coffee. Seriously my favorite part of the weekend.) 

First, start by scooping coffee grinds into the French press! This is based on coffee preference. Strong is another man’s weak. I prefer 3 scoops.

Heat water to almost boiling. Yep, tea pot AND French press is out. And now we’re fancy!

Look at him waiting patiently!

Pour in water and watch the frothy goodness appear.

Stir with a wooden spoon.

Let sit for 4 minutes.

Replace lid and press down very very slowly. This will push all the coffee grinds to the bottom of the press.

Serve.

And Enjoy! It’s really fun! You should all try!

spring wreath

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Since moving into a home, I’ve found a new love for decorating my entryway with a seasonal wreath… my red wreath was used from Christmas through Valentine’s Day. But now I was on the hunt for a fun spring wreath.  I did my usual looking though Target’s great selection but couldn’t see spending $30.00 – $50.00 dollars on a new wreath.  Luckily my boss has been out for spring break making it easy to browse the internet for ideas.  I found this on a crafting website via Restore Style and thought it was such a fun cheap idea!

Supplies:

– Spanish Moss – I bought 2 bags from the Dollar Tree

– Glue gun & glue sticks (Dollar Tree also has 20 sticks/$1.00, score!)

– Alphabet letter of your choice – I got mine at Hobby Lobby, but saw them in a “paper box-y look” at JoAnn’s too, but the “S” wasn’t that cute; that’s why I go the wood one.

– Adhesive Spray

– Ribbon (I had this at my house)

– Disposable rubber gloves

– Stapler

All-in-all I spent around $10.00 for all my supplies!

Start by applying the moss onto the letter. Lots and lots of glue was scarified for this project.  I put moss on top and then moved to the outer edges.

Continue all around the whole top side of the letter… until it’s lush and full.

Take your creation outside and spray it with adhesive spray.  After spraying the wreath, with gloved hands, mold your moss.  I just said “mold your moss”; why is that so funny to me? Ha. Anyway, this will help any wispy fly-a-ways stay where you want.  It’s like hairspray for your project.

Then, cut your ribbon and apply to the back to the desired height.  I glued mine to the back, waited for it to dry, then stapled it for extra support.

Step back and enjoy your creation!  I think this would be such a fun housewarming, wedding, bridal shower gift, or party decoration!! The possibilities are endless!

small space, big impact

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If you’re going to try something bold or bright or unique, sometimes it’s easier to try it in small spaces. That way if it doesn’t look great, it’s only a small loss in time and effort compared to what can feel like years off your life when updating a huge room. Trust me, I know. Plus, shapes and designs can help make the room appear bigger. Bonus!

I’m still trying to convince Paul that a wallpapered wall in the guest room and/or dining room would make for an amazing wall, but he’s not convinced… okay, and I’m a little scared myself.

Examples from Pinterest:

I took my own advice for my half bath and added some wide strips! A renovation blog called young house love had done stripes in their old house and since then, I’ve wanted to try, what seemed like a simple technique. Here is their tutorial for their bathroom strips.

Here is our half bath before my updates. It’s a really small bathroom, so it was rather difficult to get good photos of the space.

I started by painting the entire room one color. I started with the lighter strip color just because we had more of that paint left over from painting the hallways. Darker colors are actually easier to paint over than white walls or lighter colors. If you have the same amount of paint, start with the darker paint color, it’s easier to cover. I painted the whole bathroom with Benjamin Moore Swiss Coffee OC-45 in eggshell.

I then waited a couple of hours for the paint to dry.  During the down time, I did some intense math and thinking… how many strips do I want?  How wide?  Which color do I want to start and end with?

Answers: I decided on 6 dark strips, 7.9 inches, and dark on the bottom and top, the dark paint against the white baseboards and soon-to-be-white crown molding will make for a more dramatic effect.

I’m not going to lie, measuring out 7.9 inches was difficult, realizing the wall and floor were not exactly straight, was extremely irritating!  All I want is 6 stupid stripes on the wall! Ahhh!  At this point, I wanted to throw my pencil and hit the wall with the level… so I walked away.

I took a shower. A very long, hot, shower.

I told myself: I’m not stupid, life isn’t going to end, all of my efforts will not look like DIY amateur work. I went back to the project with a new attitude.

I marked a line every 7.9 inches down one side of the bathroom starting at the baseboards and then used  a level to mark along the wall and applied blue painters tape accordingly! I won the battle! It actually wasn’t that bad, once I realize the world wasn’t against me.

This may have been emphasized by my choice of listening material.  I like to listen to books on audible.com when I paint, and this time I was listening to the The Girl Who Played with Fire.  I tend to become the character I’m reading/listening to, so when realizing my measurements weren’t coming out right, I wanted to take my boxing skills to the wall and assumed the government was after me. Yep, this is me. (I recommend the whole series; dark, but fun and suspenseful.)

Next, I applied two coats of Benjamin Moore Halo OC-46 in semi-gloss. I was really nervous with the high sheen of the semi-gloss vs. eggshell, so I sampled it on an extra piece of drywall in our garage . It was a fun combination.

The thing is, I ordered the paint on my lunch hour, over-the-phone, and picked it up that evening. I thought I had asked for satin or eggshell over the phone?!? But ended up with an already mixed semi-gloss… so it will have to work! No returns on mixed paint.

Once you are 100% done with the second coat of stripes, make sure to take off the painters tape before it completely dries; this is something a lot of people forget to do.  If you wait until the paint it completely dry you may chip your straight-line-work, making for more frustration than satisfaction. Also, make sure you press your painter’s tape down hard, especially on the edges that will touch the paint; it will be less likely to bleed.

I waited 24 hours and washed all the walls for any residual pencil marks, then touched up any other imperfections in my paint job.

Now, it’s time to put in the new gear!  I went to Lowe’s and got a new medicine cabinet door (but the mirror was smaller, and I decided against it), toilet paper holder, towel rack and knobs.  The white framed picture has a piece of the vintage wallpaper in the kitchen; yes, I kept a piece!

I hope you all explore a bold design option in your spaces.

third time’s a charm, right!

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So, I feel like I’m Picasso in the many periods of his painting and sculpture career. Except my work is within one canvas, and my periods have taken months not years to produce. Ha.  I’m comparing myself to Picasso? Sorry.

With the new installation of the wood flooring, the chocolate-brown kitchen made the room really dark, so I decided to change the kitchen color… again. We went from navy wallpaper (and 4 layers underneath) to bird-egg blue to chocolate brown and now a grayish with green/yellow undertones. Benjamin Moore calls it Stingray 1529, in eggshell… I’m not painting this kitchen again! Because it’s perfect!

Below is the progression of the kitchen.

The Original ~ Again, I wish I took more pictures of the original, but oh well!

Blue Period

Brown Period – with Laminate floors

Brown Period – Wood Floors

The Present

Just envision some white subway tiles, grayish granite counter tops, farmers sink, new appliances and can lighting… I can see it! I get really excited imagining what it could look like… something like this:

or this.

Our BIG, fun reveal is our new entry into the kitchen!! We had dated columns between the kitchen and family room which I struggled with. I wanted to keep the character and old charm of the house but some things had to go, and this was one of them. I wanted a more open feeling in the kitchen and a little more space for four chairs and table in our kitchen nook, so we decided to do it!  We also took down the wainscoting and took care of the weird mold (surprise!) growing behind the window. Yay!

I’m thinking of this kitchen set from west elm for our kitchen!! I would also like to frame out the window and put in crown molding throughout the kitchen! I think it would look fabulous!

Poof it’s gone…

We’re really excited about the progress, and I’m sure you can see we’re doing something to the family room?!? I’m so excited!!  Stay tuned!

it’s like a yellow brick road

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I’ve never thought I would love baseboards more than I do now, HIGH baseboards, as much as I do, NOW. I’ve been walking around the house these days, just following the trail of baseboards from room-to-room… they just keep going, and it’s awesome.

First, it was finding the right fit for the space. 3″? 4″? 5″? then wood or mdf?

Turns out we should not have worried our pretty little heads over baseboards. One call to our fine brother-in-law, and he knew exactly what we needed! At a great price, too. Score! He is a builder in Missouri so we had them shipped down via uship.com; its like priceline.com for shipping. They showed up one Wednesday morning at 4:30 am, and the van was also carrying a lawnmower going to Tulsa, and a yellow labrador heading to Phoenix. I tried to take their Phoenix cargo with no success. I digress.

We got the beautiful baseboards in the house and ooh’d and aah’d over how amazing they are going to look installed. Over the weekend, we painted two coats of Benjamin Moore semi-gloss paint to an already primed wood baseboard. I color matched them to a baseboard sample we had at the house.

They were ready for the party!!

Then, we went to work. Actually, we went to our actual work, while two meticulous installers measured, cut, and nailed those white shiny boards into place! It was so fun thinking of what was happening at home while I was working. Coming home to such a wonderful prize was even better!!

Here are a couple photos of the our new baseboards!

Entry

Before

Wood floors

Baseboards – This photo was taken at night, hence the color variation. Also, note a new chandelier in the entryway!! 

Living Room

Before

Wood Floors

Baseboards

We put new baseboards throughout the house but I only could reveal these two rooms as the others are undergoing more fun renovations! The only exception for baseboards are three bedrooms and two bathrooms. We have dreams of some day installing new carpet in the bedrooms and doing a total renovation to the bathrooms. A girl can dream!

i’ve been busy… i promise.

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I’ve been working on a collection of things that have been keeping me away from blog world… I miss it and promise there will be a couple of posts soon.

hint… two coats Benjamin Moore semi-gloss colored-matched to my liking!  Bam!