It’s Friday, I’m in Love

Ed and I haven’t tackled a home-renovation project in a few months, and I’m feeling the itch. Our last task was pretty successful, but so many areas of our house are screaming to be updated (i.e., kitchen, both bathrooms, hallway, and living room, i.e. further, pretty much everything). We’ve been planning on doing the bathroom next but keep cringing at spending the money. Lately, I’ve been trying to find some DIY options to save us some cash. In the process, I’ve looked at way more design sites than I should and stumbled upon some fantastic finds. Here are my current design inspirations:

1. Young House Love–I’ve recently fallen in love, absolute love, with this charming site. The husband and wife team’s posts are witty and so fun to read, and their DIY design is nothing if not inspiring. Check out this pretty, under-$2000 bathroom redo (click picture):

Photo credit: Young House Love

2. Royal Design Studio–I admit it: I’ve been sucked into the wallpaper trend. I love the all-over graphic prints, the florals, and the damasks. I’m not normally this way, but lately, I’ve become a sucker for a busy wallpaper. But wallpaper is such a disaster–it peels, it goes out of date ever so quickly, and it requires lots and lots of elbow grease to remove. (Enter RDS stencils). Royal Design Studio stencils give the look of wallpaper but are painted on. To be fair, I’m sure getting the stenciled design painted is a time-consuming process, but when you get tired of it, you can just paint over it (way easier than removing wallpaper, glue, etc.). I’m currently loving this one:

Photo credit: Royal Design Studio

3. Home Decorators Collection–I just recently found this site and have had quite a time keeping myself from wasting time at work on it. HDC has stylish furniture pieces and decent prices on some items. This bathroom vanity has my eye right now:

Photo credit: Home Decorators Collection

 

4. School House Electric–I’ve long been a fan of this lighting-fixture company and have big plans for their milk-glass fixtures in my kitchen when I get to it, but I’m loving their wall sconces right now, too. Wouldn’t two of these look so good in a bathroom with a stylish mirror between?

Photo credit: School House Electric

Or maybe these?

Photo credit: School House Electric

 

5. Nature-Inspired Mirrors–I’m not sure the bathroom is the right place for one, but I’d love one of these stylish mirrors:

Photo credit: Amazon

 

Photo credit: Addicted 2 Decorating

I’m partial to the second one but think it may be more suited over the mantel.

Do these pieces all go together? Well, probably not, but I like them all. Is this a decorating blog? Well, no, it isn’t. I’ll put a plant in the bathroom and call it gardening. That’ll work, right?

How many of you are trying to remodel a bathroom? Another room in your home? What suggestions do you have for me? And, even better, what fun Web sites should I visit?

Happy Friday, y’all!

 

 

Learning How to Paint and Add Baseboards and Molding without Blowing the Marriage

My husband and I have recently remodeled a room in our home. This room was billed as the master bedroom when we bought the house, but we use it as the family room (read: where we watch movies and play the Xbox). It was a hideous shade of blue. Somewhere in the sky blue family. I think some people may consider this color appropriate for a baby boy’s room, but they are wrong. This blue was offensive. The carpet is also offensive, but that change will have to wait for more funding.

An additional problem with this room was the absence of baseboards and molding. Without these details, the room looked naked.

We decided to tackle this project over the Thanksgiving holidays, thinking, “This will only take a couple of days.” Well, we were right if your definition of “couple” is closer to six than two. We began by moving all furniture to the center of the room, lining the floor with plastic garbage bags, and removing the switch plates. Next we primed. This was by far the most difficult of the painting tasks. That stuff is thick. We let it dry overnight, and followed it with two coats of paint. Already, we knew the room would look so much better. After a day or two of drying, we taped the borders of the windows and doorframes and painted the frames. Next we painted the baseboards and molding. Then we stopped. For days. When we picked everything back up, my husband did most of the work. He cut the boards and molding with the miter saw, and we hung them in the room. Now we are pretty much done, minus a few touch-ups to the paint. The room looks fabulous. Well, we think so at least.

All in all, this was a relatively easy project, and we didn’t even have a fight. We did have an almost-fight though.

Lessons learned:

1. Paint is expensive but can really make a room look nice.

2. Adding molding and baseboards makes a room look put together.

3. Painting projects should be accompanied by gin and tonic, which make the almost-fights stop before they turn into real fights, and Modest Mouse.

Before: notice the hideous blue

After: soothing green walls; molding and baseboards