Air Plants

I've been wanting to put plants in the entryway since I first painted in here. For Christmas this year, Nick's mom gave me this candle holder, and I thought it would be the perfect home for some cute plants eventually! We did light the candles a few times, but usually we forgot to replace the burnt-out tealights until we wanted to light them again, and it just ended up not getting used as much as I wanted to. I thought about tiny succulents, but I didn't want to try to cram them into too small of a space and not give them any room to grow. I came across an article with links to these air plants on Amazon, and I haven't seen any in my local nurseries, so it seemed like a good way to get some cool plants for cheap. (I also found the same seller on Etsy and they have a good selection there too!)

Air plants are really cool! If you haven't heard about them, they require no soil, just water and sun, so you can put them anywhere that gets good light. I filled our glass votive holders with pebbles and just have my air plants sitting on top of them. I mist them once or twice a week and soak them for half an hour every few weeks and them seem to be very happy!

They were shipped in individually labeled paper bags and were all in great condition. At least one of these is supposed to turn red when it's about to bloom, so I'm excited for that to happen! I love new plants, especially new kinds of plants.

2014 Home Goals, Part 2

I have had a running list for some time now but I thought it would be nice to add it to the blog along with some links to a few things that we've already done! I think I will make it a tradition to update this list at the beginning of each year. The Etc. sections just include all the things I would like to do at some point but that likely won't happen this year. This post includes the common areas, which basically just means the living room & kitchen.

Living Room:
Completed:

• Tear up old floors & baseboards
• Lay new "wood tile" floors -- 2/3 there! Only grouting is left... and it's on the to-do for 2014!
• Remove the badly installed crown molding
• Remove the crummy old MAROON full-wall curtains
• Tear down weird mirror framing
• Tear down sheet-rock in front of the fireplace
• Paint it gray
• Get a fancy rug
• Drop new cables so the TV antenna & internet router are in the attic
• Get some kind of overlay for the mirror to make it less in-your-face
• Hang some art
• Replace double single light switches with a single double one
• Do something with the mantel?
• Get a new wide and low TV stand to replace the cheap-o stand bought from Target four years ago -- I ended up getting a Besta combination sort of like this from IKEA, but white with brown doors
• Spray insulation in all of the crevices uncovered by the crown molding removal

2014 To-Do:

• GROUT!
• Paint the beige beam dark brown so it will look more like wood again
• Add new white baseboards
• Add new properly installed crown molding
• Replace the curtains with something white and maybe semi-sheer
• Add a beadboard or paneled ceiling
• Add decorative molding around mirror
• Get a new loveseat or chairs or chaise for more seating (if I can ever decide what I want)
• Replace gross old light switches with new clean ones

Etc.:

• Replace the brass fireplace cover
• Paint corner shelves white -- Angela did sand it, so it's ready for painting, but then I covered it with things and it would take lots of effort to remove those things, and, well, I'm too lazy for this right now
• Clean up fireplace stone (cover it?)
• Add more plants!! -- This will probably never really end until we have a whole forest in here, pretty much just like this

Kitchen/Dining: (Updated list from here)

Completed:

• Remove the badly installed crown molding
• Paint it blue
• Install an outlet in the microwave cabinet where there was previously just a microwave hard-wired to the wall??
• Replace the hole in the wall with a microwave
• Hang some plants

2014 To-Do:

• Replace the crown molding in the dining room
• Replace the brass 90s light with a more modern chandelier -- Something is in the works for this! We got a light from a friend who didn't want it and I'm going to paint it and see if I can get some prettier bulbs than the generic chandelier ones for it to see what I can do with it
• Find hanging pot storage? I'm still hoping this can happen somewhere

Etc.:

• Replace the kitchen-to-garage door with one that is fire-safe (and pretty)
• Replace the old over-the-sink window with a greenhouse window; I didn't even know this was a thing until I saw one in Nick's parents' house and I love it!
• Paint lower cabinets gray & upper cabinets white
• Install a built-in storage bench in the bay window
• Add matching blinds to the dining window? This is still undecided

Hallways:

Completed:

• Remove the old baseboards & 1970s white tile
• Paint a base coat of satin white
• Paint the side of the built-in cabinet with magnet paint for magnetic poetry
• Paint the built-in cabinet white
• Replace the old non-programmable thermostat with a Nest
• Hang some paintings, photos, or art
• Remove the dusty old doorbell cover
• Lay new "wood tile" floors
• Paint a birch tree stencil throughout the narrower halls -- one wall down, three to go!

2014 To-Do:

• Replace old crummy plastic handles on the built-in cabinet with pretty glass knobs
• Sand and paint the built-in cabinet doors white
• Finish the tree stencil
• Add new baseboards
• Add crown molding

Etc.: 

• Paint the hall-facing sides of all doors black pretty much just like this

Entryway:
Completed:

• Paint it yellow
• Paint the brown trim white
• Replace the doorbell
• Replace the grimy old lantern

2014 To-Do:

• Replace the doorknob with a keypad lock
• Add wall planters & plants

Etc.:

• Replace the glass bricks with something from this century

Yellow!

The entryway to our house was brown, beige, and sooo boring. At first I thought, "I know what will make an impact! RED!" Technically I was right, but it was probably the most obnoxious use of red I've ever seen and clashed terribly with the lovely wood tone of the door. About an hour in, I couldn't take it any more and ran over to Sherwin Williams to pick something else. Scroll down to see the final result that we LOVE!

Before. Isn't this trim the most awful shade of brown you've ever seen? Sad, sad, sad.

Even one coat of white over that poo brown is a great improvement. And I will never get tired of painting over beige and off-white with clean, real white.

Getting better...

Yellow!

It looks so good with the door.

This is quite close to how bright it is in the middle of the day. So happy!

Nick even surprised me and replaced the doorbell! It looks like it's from this century now.

What I want to do next in here is get some colorful little wall planters and some pretty "drippy" plants that will hang over the front and sides. Like a plant-filled art installation. Here's an all-white version (via West Elm) of what I'm imagining. It will be awesome.

Paint colors:
Yellow is Sherwin Williams HGTV Home in Lemon Twist (Satin)
White is Sherwin Williams HGTV Home in Extra White (Semi-Gloss)

Grills & Lanterns

Now that we're back from skiing (and snowboarding!) we are slowly but surely getting back into the swing of things. Unlike the title proclaims, there is really only one of each thing, but Grill & Lantern sounds like a weird camping magazine. More is coming soon on the crazy changes that have been happening outside!

1. We got the grill put together finally (!) and Nick has been a grilling machine ever since. We've gone through an entire propane tank in the couple of weeks since we've been back. Right now it's just hanging out on the deck right outside of the kitchen French doors, and once it gets closer to summer we'll definitely be looking into a patio set for this area as well, an awning for above it (for rainy-day grilling), and some lounge chairs for the lower deck that surrounds the pool.

2. We replaced the spider-lamp in the mud room with a shiny new motion-activated lantern!  Right now we just have a regular CFL, but we'll probably get a prettier one for in here soon. Now that we've changed the lamp, there's this ugly blob of blue from the last paint job, so I'll be much more motivated to paint in here! Approximately 5,000,000,000 spiders exploded from out of the lamp when Nick took it down I think. The color I've picked (that Nick isn't totally sold on yet) is Sherwin Williams Heartthrob. The trim will be bright white, and I think it will be a great first impression of the house! The door will be much prettier without that dull brown framing it!

We also have some plans to replace the glass bricks (what is it with the glass bricks???) with some more modern decorative screens or something similar. We also have stolen an idea from another house that has HUGE house numbers etched sideways filling the entire glass door, which we both love. Hopefully that will finally help people find our house more easily. Currently we have the number painted on the curb in faded UT burnt-orange (UGH) and a nice longhorn to go with it, which we really need to get covered ASAP. Luckily (maybe) there was a pipe that burst in the street that they had to dig up the pavement to fix, and they just happened to also destroy the part of the curb on the right side that had the same problem. Yay unplanned demolition! Too bad they couldn't have just destroyed both sides while they were here. Smashed curbs look way better than curbs with burnt orange paint all over them.