Painting Party

First, gallery wall updates! We had another painting party with friends where we grilled a lot of delicious food, drank a lot of delicious beer, and made a lot of delicious beautiful art. Our gallery wall is expanding! Another few painting parties and I think we could have this wall filled entirely from top to bottom, which is really the goal for the entire house I would say! I love this wall so much.

Nick painted a few new ones for the wall. The circles are interesting but the octosquid is my favorite!

I only contributed one to this wall this time: a tiny little one.

Also I don't know if I ever showed off my very first Pinterest-inspired project: Texas!

P.S. Look! Grouted tiles!!! Baseboards are on the schedule for this spring!

Where I contributed more is in the guest room. I painted a couple of cute cacti with brightly colored edges and a colorful abstract. For a room made up of leftover bedding from college, a crocheted throw from grandma, and a borrowed bed I think it's starting to look not terrible!

Finally, we bought a few original paintings on canvas from a man at a fair when we went to Portland last November. I finally found some frames that would work for them and hung them in the bathroom. This is also a preview of what's happening in the guest bath right now! I only bought a paint sample in case I hated it so I didn't get to finish the room, but I was way too excited to hang some ART to wait for a whole room to be painted. Besides, how the heck do you paint behind a toilet??

Paint colors:
Hallway: Sherwin Williams Extra White
Guest Room: Sherwin Williams Nifty Turquoise
Bathroom: Sherwin Williams Tricorn Black

2014 Home Goals, Part 1

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 bedrooms and bathrooms.

Master Bedroom:
Completed:

• Remove ugly crown molding that was only on a single small wall and in the closet (??)
• Remove mirrored closet doors
• Paint it purple
• Paint the insides of the closets green
• Arrange the bookshelf so it's pretty
• Get a new shoe shelf
• Get storage boxes for in the closet for prettier organization
• Put up a curtain rod & green curtains in the closet
• Get a new gray light quilt that doesn't clash with purple walls or black dog hair
• Install a switch for the outside flood light

2014 To-Do:

• Get curtains for the French doors -- We have some temporarily, but they were ones we had already and they don't fit in here
• Adjust bifold closet doors so they close properly -- Halfway there
• Add new crown molding
• Get bedside tables
• Replace closet light with small chandelier -- I have my eye on this one but I found a tutorial that suggests I can make something similar!
• Replace old blinds with matchstick blinds

Etc.:

• Paint the door white
• Replace or paint the ceiling fan
• Replace the old closet window with a double-pane one

Master Bathroom:
Completed:

• Paint it green (same green as closets)
• Paint the ceiling white
• Paint the cabinets white
• Paint the mirror frame white
• Add oil-rubbed bronze knobs to the cabinets
• Paint brass nonsense oil-rubbed bronze -- Towel bars, etc. are done
• Tear down the weird textured glass partitions -- One is down, but the other remains until we decide if we're going to replace it

2014 To-Do:

• Decide if we should paint the brass faucets or shower stall oil-rubbed bronze or just wait until a remodel
• Decide what to do with the other weird textured glass partition
• Add more ceramic shelves to the shower corner

Etc.:

• Replace brass light with something pretty
• Replace the glass brick window with a frosted window, larger if possible?
• Replace tub & shower with different (smaller) tub & (larger) shower -- This glass shower is amazing

Guest Room:
Completed:

• Paint it turquoise
• Put up matchstick blinds to replace the too-short ones
• Hang the curtain rod & bird curtains we already have

2014 To-Do:

• Get a queen bed & bedding -- Angela was in here before so it's totally empty now!
• Add crown molding

Etc.:

• Paint the door white
• Replace the old window with a double-pane one

Office:
Completed:

• Remove crummy old closet doors
• Put up matchstick blinds to replace the too-short ones
• Put mirrored doors from master closet in here

2014 To-Do:

• Paint it green... or magenta... or yellow-green...
• Hang a curtain rod we already have
• Get curtains after a paint color is chosen
• Turn it into one shared office (for now)
• Frame the Austin map that's currently just pinned to the wall
• Frame the piece of textured glass from the master bathroom to use as a marker board

Etc.:

• Paint the door white
• Maybe build a cool built-in headboard with side table like this?
• Replace the old window with a double-pane one

Guest Bathroom:
Completed:

• Paint the blue cabinets white
• Paint the blue trim white
• Paint the blue medicine cabinet white
• Remove the crusty old doors from the cabinet
• Add a toilet paper holder
• Add a curtain in place of doors

2014 To-Do:

• Paint the walls (leaning toward minty green)
• Add a nice wood cabinet above the toilet

Etc.:

• Add a white mirror frame
• Paint the door white
• Replace the tile floors with "wood tile"
• Complete remodel eventually?

Upstairs Guest Room:
Completed:

• Move the two twin beds upstairs to make a king
• Hang the curtain rod we already have
• Maybe use the light-blocking curtains we already have?

Etc.:

• Paint it (no idea what color yet, something bright; maybe add a stencil!)
• Install some kind of low-profile overhead lights or wall sconces
• Replace the not-to-code stairs with a pull-down staircase, circular staircase, or something similarly space-saving & less terrifying

From Grandma's House

Three months after falling off the blog train I'm back with a post I actually wrote in June but never posted! 

My parents were up in Ohio about a month three months ago clearing out tons of stuff from her basement, closets, cupboards, etc. No storage area was left untouched! When my mom came to visit me last weekend, she brought several of these things with her, and now we have all of these lovely reminders of my grandma around the house, which makes me really happy.

My grandma collected these chickens in every color!

This plant stand was in a box in her basement. It was clearly assembled at some point but I don't know if I ever saw it. Somehow every last little piece except a single screw end cap was still in the box.

We don't know who crocheted this afghan, but I love it! (We actually have moved this bed upstairs and now have a borrowed full-size in here.)

I'm somewhat concerned that this may be the beginning of a map collection. We already have an Austin city map hanging in the guest room and a world map that has yet to be hung up anywhere so if Nick isn't careful I might just sand down the walls and wallpaper them with maps when he isn't looking!

The globe is old enough that it still has Egypt shown as UAR and has a bunch of other interesting differences from how the world looks now.

I promise I won't disappear for another three months this time. Summer is ending and we've already taken our annual overseas trip, so we are gone for fewer weekends and there's finally time to work on house things again. Plus, I've started painting the kitchen!

Finishing Projects (Finally)

Just a few things we've actually finished (and not just started) lately...

First up, the front bedroom blinds. These blinds were too short for the windows by about 6 inches and have been that way since we moved in. I bought Roman shades to replace them, but they sat around for at least a month before I finally got up the motivation to install them. The ones in Angela's room even have curtains! (It was only a couple days of curtain-less windows in there because at least we had the curtains and rod already.) The guest room still needs to be painted so we haven't bought curtains for it yet, but as soon as we do we already have the rod so that will be next on the list!

Before: This one had a broken blind too. Sad...

After: Lovely!

Second, after nearly six months of procrastination and having blue tape on the wall, we finally finished our magnet wall! Angela got us off to a good start in the beginning with two coats, but then the combination of messiness from the oil-based formula and stinky-ness from the paint turned it into a project that wasn't as desirable. Six to eight coats later (I lost count), the magnets stick! We're using this for our word magnets.

Before: Beige & bland

After: Fun!