Curtains Curtains Curtains!

You learn very quickly how important curtains are when you move into a new house. The neighbors can't fully see in without them, but it is still nice to have some privacy. The previous home owner left all the window coverings and we kept ones that were in good shape. I am thinking about dying the roman shades so that they match with the decor a little better until I find something to replace them with. Eventually, I would LOVE to put in a stain glass window to replace the original (old) glass window. 

I call this the freshly moved in look - so bare with me. The curtains came from the Thrift Store for 5$ and they look handmade and are in great shape. I knew I had to have them and they were a perfect fit for this funny little window. I usually keep them open and they are just to add color but I just love them! I'm not usually a big fan of plaid, but this small amount should be okay.

These burgundy blinds were so difficult to take down! I had to whack them off with a hammer and needless to say I wasn't upset about damaging them. I found a sticker saying they were installed in 1995 so I figured they'd had a good long run. 

Here's another mid progress picture of painting the kitchen. Bye bye yellow accent wall! This window covering came from Value Village for a whopping 6$! It is super durable fabric and already came pre-sewn, so hanging  it up was a breeze! Also, here's our first plant, Kent. He's lived in many different rooms of the house already and I am still trying to find a place to put him for good. He was 50% off and sickly looking but so far I have semi nursed him back to health! 

The natural light that comes out of this window is phenomenal! I was hesitant to cover it up but the neighbors get a pretty good view right into our bathroom and no one likes getting dressed in the bathroom before going to change in the bedroom again, right? 

I'd like to introduce you to the Ikea curtains I have been holding onto for 2 years! They were always a tad long even in my old century home apartment with high ceilings, but this window is perfect for them! I may hang them up higher but it is nice to have some light flow in even while the curtains are closed and we have no easy way of getting them up any higher (lol). I also like how they just brush the floor of the landing and turn it into a cute little space that you pass through. Someday I expect to hear one of the kitties thud into the wall and frantically try to scale the curtains to get into the window sill. I'll be sure to let you know when that happens. 

Here's the view up our "grand" staircase. Have I mentioned that I love these curtains? That book shelf was a steal from the ReStore for 12$! This won't be its final resting place but it fits perfectly on the little ledge at the top of the stairs. Now, all that  I need is a gorgeous crystal encrusted chandelier dripping diamonds from the ceiling.

Yellow (Kitchen Floors)

This is pretty much an advertisement for the H20 Steam Mop and associated cleaning products. Initially the kitchen floors didn't look horrible in online pictures thanks to lighting but they were horrific in real life. Like, I got a quote from Kent's to replace them before we even moved in but the quote was sky high and the H20 Steam Mop is amazing! 

My mother has always come to my rescue when it comes to setting up new digs - THANK YOU! She went to town on the floor with ammonia and baking soda and absolutely solved our flooring problem for the time being. I'm not sure if the previous owners ever cleaned the floors (no offence if you see this!) or maybe the H20 Steam Mop is really just that good. After steaming it a handful of times it was as dull and matte as a dried up glue stick but the yellow tinge was gone! I found this Pledge floor finish product and applied it with my other new favourite cleaning product - the Vileda super twist microfibre mop! 

Here's a great before and after of both the flooring and the new dishwasher we had installed. 

As you can see here, NO section of the floor was this white prior to the deep clean! 

I was going to paint the office trim Colorado Blue but found found it too dark, so I used it in the kitchen instead. So many happy accidents and repurposed cans of paint! Even thought it was all on sale when I bought it, I didn't want 55$ regular priced cans of paint going to waste! It was definitely tough painting the wall above the cabinets but it needed to be done. I got tons of paint on the ceiling but the shadows hide it well so that's okay! The walls were white before but it was so dark and dingey in there and this light crisp blue really brightened it up. I'm aware I have blue on blue on blue but it somehow works and I love it. 

On a side not, I decided to  make some cheesy bacon Crescent Roll ups via Pinterest, and they turned out fabulous! 

The Master Bedroom Gets Painted

I have been struggling to pick a color for the master bedroom since we saw the house and decided to buy it. The existing color is really nice on the walls and compliments the attached closet room color (which I kept) but I know that it won't go with any of our stuff. It also feels really dark when the sun goes down, so I wanted to brighten it up and make it feel bigger. 

I could have gone a smidge darker but I will try this color out for a bit. As per usual, it was hard to capture its true color in pictures. It's called Poolside Blue by Behr.

 

  

Once I got the cutting done, the walls looked like a really nice grey color and I almost thought about keeping the original but I painted on. Oh, and I made the executive decision to paint the pole in the corner. It was the right decision - that corner was so tough to paint and the pole got splatter all over it. 

Ahhh a freshly cut room! 

With the flash on full blast, the room looks like a tooootally different color! 

I think the walls look like the office here and that's okay because I love that color! 

This is as close as I can get to the true color. I am so excited! It's right in between bright and cool and warm and jewel tone and refreshing and soothing - it's a very versatile color! I hope it will light up the room......

The little doorway that connects to the closet room is the perfect height for me but hubby has to duck. In the future we'd love to take the wall down between the closet room and reconfigure these spaces once we renovate the bathroom. Oh, and remove that random electrical panel in the middle of the wall. Is that too high to hang a piece of art? Of course it is.... 

Kitchen Cabinets

The kitchen was going to be my first heavy duty mission I planned to undertake in the new house because I had a vision and was filled with inspiration. I quickly discovered how annoying cabinets are to remove AND paint AND REATTACH, so I stopped after doing the 2 small cabinets above the microwave. 

You can see here that there's not a huge difference between colors and I wanted it to be much darker. Now I might do something totally different or hold off until we redo the whole kitchen.  

I chose the accent wall color based on the kitchen cabinets and I painted the accent wall before the cabinets, so even though I didn't go with the grey, I think the Tropical Cabana blue by Benjamin Moore still works. I got away with buying 2 small tester jars from Home Depot and managed to cover the whole wall. If I need to touch the wall up in the future I might splurge on a 'real' pint of paint.

It looked like it was in between the two shades...so I wasn't completely sold.

I wasn't sure if the color was tinted properly as it matched the lighter shade of Grey more than the middle Puritan Grey but it also depends on the light. 

I have yet to paint the cabinets back to the original Cardigan blue and I hope the paint hasn't dried or rusted up inside like another can I found in the basement. Also, who knew it was rocket science to reattach cupboard doors? Even the slightest bit of misalignment results in wonky doors! I fixed one of them, but can't jack up the other door, bringing even more attention to their mismatched color. Oh the joys of home "improvement"! On another note, the flashlight is our new "oven light" since we can't seem to fix it and can't see if food is ready or not haha. 

The Office Gets Painted

I made another quick decision after pondering for MUCH too long and decided on the office paint color. I found Jamaica Bay by Behr and it turned out better than I thought it would. I was surprised with the color because it was the lightest on the paint chip and the other colors were really dark and totally different tones and I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out.  Needless to say I am excited to work in this office! 

I finally wrangled up my hubby to help me paint! We ordered pizza and had a painting party. The closet in the office goes up super high and needed new paint so he started in there with a paint brush. This was his first time painting and needless to say he had a bunch of drips in his hair that also got on his butt when he sat on the shelf he's standing on. 

Completing the cutting is the most satisfying part of the job for me. What about you? 

I got an off white blue color to freshen up the trim and paint the closet but after hubby painted the closet, I decided that I didn't like color. It's not as dark as it looks in this picture but it definitely does not look like an off white. It looked good with the wall color on paint chips but not on the walls. Lesson learned - buy samples of trim paint! 

First coat done! The color is so light and fresh! I love the natural wood French door but I feel like I should paint it. But what color?...hmmmm. 

If you look at the door trim on the right, I tried out the blue paint and it's a LOT different than the light peach trim that was already there. I decided I will be painting the trim pure bright white to match the rest of the house. The trim throughout the house has several coats of paint but is in mostly good shape, except for the office. The baseboards used to be lime green and the walls were dark blue, and the trim is chipped to the natural wood in the window. 

Here's a closeup of the blue paint that just isn't working for me.

Second coat all done! 

Sanding

The song that best suits this post is... Darude - Sandstorm. It started off as an innocent hole patching job, then I kept finding nails in the walls, and then I took those wooden boxes off the wall which were apparently used for storing 50lb dumbbells... Four 5 inch long screws were used to anchor EACH box to the wall - a bit excessive, and took forever to take out because the screws were stripped so I had to use a screwdriver, all with a broken arm. This actually took about 30 minutes and I broke a pretty good sweat.

Then I realized the corners were all bubbly.... probably should have just left them alone but I tried smoothing them out and they do look a little better.  

And Then I went a little crazy trying to cover up some seams on the walls. They're in an even pattern so I may paint stripes on the wall to cover them up if the skim coating doesn't work. Eventually we will probably replace the walls, this was just meant to be a temporary fix for walls that had had years of nails and posters tacked onto them. 

Smoothed over 2 wide seams, floor to ceiling just to see how it looks. Looks like we need new walls and floors!

And here I am as a ghost. I accidentally left the window in this room open over the weekend so there is dust ALL over upstairs!  Grrrreat! 

After shot. I'd love to take credit for smooth walls, but my low resolution picture will get most of the credit, lol. I put a fresh coat of paint on the walls and it helped but all of the patches are SUPER visible through the paint, even a 2nd coat. This room may have lots of artwork hung up in it until we have the money to put all new walls in. Thank you SO much to whoever painted over the wallpaper. I bet the wallpaper was back in fashion by now and would have been just fine! 

Blue (Da ba dee)

Here is the Aqua Bay color I picked out. It really brightens up the room!

Cutting in on panelling was brutal. I had to go up the grooves vertically then brush it over horizontally to smooth the paint. Very labor intensive.,

That great moment when you discover you poured the perfect amount of paint to finish up your first coat!

First coat done!

Second coat finished!

This is pretty much the way I felt after I finished painting over RED PANELING with a BROKEN ARM! One Room down... many left to go!  

Bill Conti - Gonna Fly Now (Rocky Theme) 

My Painting Play List

• Hedley - Crazy for You
• Dido - Blackbird 
• John Mayer - Wildfire