Living room plans

I’ve neglected the back living room for a while now. I tore down the fug wallpaper when we first moved in and repainted. I’ve also fixed the floors in that room and painted some of the trim. I did try out some black paint on the walls and I’ve patched up other parts of the walls. Notice I didn’t say I painted though. So we’ve been living with splotches of black and white on the walls and today I decided to fix it. It looks so much better.

So now other parts of this room are on my list and we’ll be doing it in the next month or two. I have… ambition. Maybe it’s a little too high. IDK, but I’m willing to find out. I will be fixing the rest of the bad plaster spots, removing the book cases on the back wall, removing the built up fireplace surround that was improperly done, removing the closet you see in this photo, replacing the trim, painting the ceiling and ceiling trim, removing the fan, sanding the floors and adding more poly, recovering my couches, adding doors and more.

It’s a long list but each project is doable. I think. I’m scared about the closet, but I think I can do it!

Edited: August 24th, 2010

1950s custom couch

I went shopping the other day and picked up a chandelier. I also snagged a super cute 1950s retro mad men ish couch. I made sure Cody and Jordan both liked it and that they were willing to bring it home for me. The salvation Army in Warrensburg, MO is literally just down the street and we don’t have a truck so bringing it home meant hoofing it.

I’m a lucky girl because both guys agreed to carry it home.

They stopped for breaks every now and then because it was heavy.

Eventually it came to rest in my yard and eventually moved in to the house too.

We thought it was funny there and may bring the couch outside for the UCM homecoming parade (which goes right past my house). I’ll take some better photos of it later, but it’s a custom piece made in Detroit in I believe the 1950s. It could be 1960s. It’s in good condition though and was… $42! For a couch! that’s not craptastic!
it’s going to look amazing in our back living room once Udom moves out and I gut the room. I’m painting the ceiling and trim white, removing bookcases and a closet, putting up better bookcases, removing a death trap fireplace, and painting the room black. It’ll be bitching. Can’t wait to actually do it!

Edited: August 14th, 2010

Verdigris Chandelier

The front living room needed another light and I’ve been on the lookout for another chandelier. I went to the Salvation Army with Jordan today to show him a couch and there then complained that there were no chandeliers. I took Cody to the Salvation Army a couple hours later to ask if he liked the couch and there was a chandelier there! YAY!

It was fake bronze stuff, but it looked neat. I knew i’d have to rewire it because it had no wires hanging out of the top. It’s okay though because I wanted to make it a plug in lamp anyway. I think the white chain will need a cover, but I can live with that.

I couldn’t age it because it wasn’t real bronze or brass, so I turned to spray paint. This is the same color I used on my candelabra and on my little table only this time I did light coatings of it and didn’t cover the whole thing. The light coating of green paint on brass/bronze fixtures made it look old and verdigrised. I then used a sample of wallpaper to cover the little “candle” tubes and put in round light bulbs. We like it.

I love the way it turned out though! It was part of my thrift store shopping today (yes, I did get that couch… and 2 newsboy hats for my youngest). Cody and Jordan are actually lugging the couch home tomorrow since it’s just down the street and easier than asking someone to borrow their car. I heart those guys

So, cost breakdown:

$5.25 for chandelier (normally $7.50 but 30% off today)

$2.25 wiring kit (normally $20ish but clearanced)

$0 spray paint (left over from another project)

$13.50 light bulbs

So the total without light bulbs is $7.50 or  $21 if you include the bulbs. Either way, it’s a smoking deal on a light fixture.

Edited: August 13th, 2010

Cooling off the house

I love how many windows my house has (over 40 if you’re interested) but I loathe how hot my house is because of the windows. I love the natural light though and how a room looks when it has no curtains (the better to show off my windows!). I’ve had enough though. Today I hung up a tapestry Cody and I purchased at Target several years ago. It’s been in many rooms and this probably won’t be the last room it sees, but I like it for now. It’s just barely big enough to cover the window and the light showing through it makes it look kind of dreaming. I totally need to iron that thing though.

I’m still loving the color of my candelabra and my refinished wood table is looking pretty despite the wear marks on it or maybe because of them? Idk. I like this room though, it’s making me smile

Edited: August 6th, 2010

Countertops, book lamps, and pipe shelves

Cody and Udom are at a friend’s going away party but I didn’t go because I didn’t want to leave Jordan home alone. He’s recovering from wisdom teeth removal… it was a lovely time and I’ll write more on that in another post.

So since I’m home, I may as well do a couple projects right? First project was a tile removal job. One of our kitchen countertops had this weird tile scene on it that (once again) was badly done. Several of the tiles popped off the other day and we noticed that the thin set came off with them showing us painted wood underneath.

Thank you previous owner for doing a shabby job. It makes removing it so much easier…

So we removed the tiles in less than 5 min. I scraped off the remnants of thin set while Cody loaded the dishwasher. I stripped, sanded and stained the counter top today. It looks like this now.

Excuse the poor camera photo quality photo but I can’t find my normal camera.

Next up on the list was making a lamp. Cody called it “a little light reading” because he’s a dork. It’s made of two books and lamp parts.

I set it on top of another stack of books and no one could tell. I heart it!

And moving on, I also started staining my pipe shelves in the kitchen today. It’s not done yet, but they’re looking better. They now match the floors and the counter top.

yes, that’s another camera phone picture and it is exactly how my kitchen is right now.

It was a productive day though. I loved it. Looking forward to move stuff tomorrow. What have you been doing?

Edited: July 31st, 2010

Sage Gray Bookish Table

I bought several things at the Salvation Army the other day and this table was one of them. Good bones, but the finish was way scratched up. I liked the brass tipped feet, glass covered top, right height, and $15 price tag. It came home with the candelabra, tray, and brass plant holder the other day. You’ve seen the candelabra already, Let me show you my table.

BEFORE:

It doesn’t look so bad in that photo, but trust me when I say it was bad! So I decided to fix it up a bit. First i spray painted it purple. Then I decided I didn’t like the purple so I painted it the same color as my candelabra. I heart it. I put blue fabric under the glass and decided I didn’t like it so I put random book pages instead.

To do the bookpages, I just put them all around the table top, put the glass on top and used a razor to cut the excess page sections off. It looked like this

Later, I’ll add the pile of stubs and programs Cody and I have around the house. For now, it looks like this.

I put it in the front living room. It sits by my reading spot on my 1960s couch. I put the copper tray I bought on top so my drinks can go there. It also has room for extra books, my robot specimen I picked up at ConQuest, and a candle holder. I heart it. Perfect height! And frankly, I made it look freaking amazing. It’s one of those spots in my house that makes me smile every time I see it and NOT just because I freak the guys out when they come home and I’m sitting there. hahahaha

Looking at this photo makes me realize I need to take the rolled up screens out of the corner and find a new home for them. They’re visually cluttering up the joint

Edited: July 29th, 2010

Spray painting a candle holder

I went to the Salvation Army the other day to buy a small table I had my eye one. I found this candle stick and snatched it up. It reminded me of the one on Rachel’s blog and I loved what she did with her’s. Mind did not disappoint me!

I debated online with my good friend Susan (the one that moved to England) about what color to paint it and how to paint it. I finally decided on yellow (for now). I think I might want it white but I’m not sure. This color thing is so hard sometimes! I don’t want my house to be plain but I don’t want it to be difficult to move things around either.

I absolutely do not want one of those houses where the rooms are lovely shades of neutrals with a small (very small) punch of color here and there. I also don’t want that house were it looks like a circus. I’ll take circus over plain any day though.

I keep glancing at this candle holder though and I like it. I think I’ll keep it yellow for a while. I’ll also be redoing my pink lamp this color.

Okay, so I tried. Pretty hard too actually. I wanted to like the yellow, and I did, but not in my house. It was too… something. IDK what, but it was too something. So I sprayed part of it blue and didn’t like that color either. I tried purple and didn’t like that one. I decided I had no colors in the house that I liked so I went shopping. Cody had said the color of some pillows, our bedroom curtains, and the shower curtain would look good if I could find it. My youngest helped me looked and we didn’t find a color so we settled on something else. Once more glance down the aisle and something caught my eye! It was the color!

YAY! I bought it and brought it home and it pretty much matches perfectly! YAY! It’s this sagey gray color and I heart it. THIS one makes me happy!

I can’t get a photo of it that is true to color though. This looks whiter than the color actually is. It’s more of a postage stamp gray green color. It looks like the color of this room

I heart it now. The little table I bought today is also getting a coat of paint and then I’m putting fabric under the glass top. I think it’ll look great!

Edited: July 28th, 2010

Recovering a chair

I have some chairs I bought at the Salvation Army a while back. They were a whole $1 each and while the lines were good, the colors were fugly. Like so:

The wood color was meh. It didn’t really go well with the house and it was a little too 1970s for my taste. No fear though, it was nothing a can of spray paint couldn’t fix. I went with oil rubbed bronze but I think next time I’d do a hammered metal like the chandelier in the dining room. I may redo them even since I like the hammered metal better.

I needed to recover my chairs though and wasn’t finding the right fabric. Then I read on a guy’s blog about how he recovered a bed using Army Surplus blankets. How cool is that? Pretty cool, and cheap. So I headed back to the Salvation Army and bought a $3 blanket. It’s really soft gray woolish something or other and was perfect. I brought it home, cut it up, and this is the result:

I like it. I have to do the other chair today, but that’ll be easy. Apparently Anni (my westie) likes this chair too. It’s covered in blanket though so that’s to be expected. Really easy to do and not too terribly expensive either. I had dreams of painting these chairs a BRIGHT sunny yellow or perhaps a robin’s egg blue, but I don’t think the guys would like it.

Edited: July 28th, 2010

Pretty in Pink

It’s the little things that make me happy and I’m not quite sure this lamp make over it doing it. I painted it pink to match the pink felt I put in a frame and I’m not quite sure I like it. Maybe I just don’t like it because I’m so used to the copious amounts of blue in my house? I’m trying to  change it but I think it’ll take time for me to get used to it.

The Lamp started out pale teal and now it is PINK!

I like the pop of color it gives that area and it does match my flower picture. I think it can stay for now. It does match my new message board rather well no?

The message board is made out of pink felt and foam core backing in a vintage (ie CHEAP) huge wood frame that has been in the basement a while. I can now use it to thumb tack up various things of inspiration and reminding. It gives a spot of color to my other wise very blue room.

Edited: July 26th, 2010

My boys are home

The boys are home from their grandparent’s Arizona homes. They hung out with several Papas, one Oma, and loads of other extended family. They swam up a storm, argued over who got what microbe from think geek, saw the grand canyon caverns, made a whole living room in to a fort and so much more. It was apparently quite the amazing time for them and I’m glad they could do something fun this summer.

They had an uneventful flight home. I picked them up at the gate and was pleasantly surprised when two different people came up to me at different times to ask if I was their mom. They both seemed surprised the purple haired chick was the mom but they both also told me how wonderfully behaved the boys were on the flight and that it was so nice to find well behaved young children. It made me happy. I love when people compliment me on the boys’ behavior, makes me feel like Cody and I are doing well ya know?
Today is too warm for a picnic at the park so we’re chilling with the pups and reading books.

This is currently my favorite spot and it’ll be better (and cooler) once i put up shades or curtains. We bought shades but they’re the wrong size for the window (ty Cody) so they stay up until you pull on t hem to make them longer. It’s annoying. I’ll figure it out later though and fix it. Until then, I’m going to have a really cold bottle of Mexican Coke with the boys and read our various books

Edited: July 22nd, 2010