Living Room Drapes

Here's another one of those house things that have been floating around in my head for a while. I have been dying to have curtains in here. I finally decided that I definitely want ivory colored curtains. I figure they'll always go with the couch and they'll always work in this room, even if I change the wall color and accessories. I also decided not to stencil the walls, even though I bought the stencil and the paint to do it. It just seemed like so much work and gray walls seem so trendy right now. I'd hate to invest so much time into something that might be out of style in a couple years. I read an interesting post today on Hooked on Houses about gray walls. I've been thinking about painting my bedroom gray too, but a lighter shade. Now that I read that post I'm having second thoughts. I've always thought of my style as more classic than trendy. So... that'll have to be something that brews in my head a little longer.

Anyway, back to the curtains, I looked all over for some to buy. I just couldn't find any that were long enough, the right shade of ivory, and nice-looking with a reasonable price tag. I found some fabric at JoAnn that I liked. I waited and waited for them to be 50% off when I had and extra 20% off coupon. Finally the day came and I went to buy the fabric and they didn't have enough (pfff). Then they said I could special order it but I'd have to pay $15 shipping. What? I have to pay for something to be shipped to the store that you normally keep in stock but ran out of? I don't think so.

Ever since then I've been watching that roll of fabric to see if they've gotten more. They haven't. I know from past experience that JoAnn doesn't reorder fabric until they're completely out of it. Ugh.

So the window of opportunity has opened again. I have a 20% off your total purchase coupon and the home dec fabric will be 50% off next week. I think I just might have to give in and shell out an extra 15 bucks so I can have my curtains already.

Mudroom Thoughts

I LOVE home improvement/decorating. I always have several house projects brewing in my head. I have to let them brew because it takes me a while to decide what I want. Then it takes me even longer to decide that I'm ready to spend the money and make a permanent change to my house. This process usually takes a year or more. We'll be coming up on three years in our new house this August. All this time I've been trying to come up with ideas for our mudroom. I've been seeing mudroom makeovers all over the blogosphere and Pinterest but none of them work for me.

via bhg.com

First of all, where are they really putting their coats? I know I have an unusual obssession with outerwear, resulting in what is likely an above-average number of coats for our family, but come on. Those hooks just won't do it in our house.

Second, I like to hang my coats on a hanger. It keeps the shape of the coat better, especially if it is tailored.

Third, where are the rest of their shoes? I keep my heels in the closet in my bedroom, but the everyday wear-type stay in the mudroom. They're too dirty to go anywhere else in the house. And there are several pairs of them. For each of us.

So here's what our mudroom looks like right now:

It's only about five and a half feet from the hall door to the garage door and seven and a half feet from the left wall to the back of the closet. There used to be closet doors but we took them off because they were just getting in the way. When guests are here we shut the hallway door to hide the ugliness.

I'd love to have hooks on the left wall for the kids to hang their backpacks and a place for them to put a pair of shoes. I was about to buy these RETUR Recycling bins from IKEA, which I thought would be perfect for storing shoes, but then my local IKEA decided to stop carrying them (sigh).

This isn't even all of our coats. Feeling optimistic about warmer weather, I took some out and hung them in a wardrobe we have in the garage. The cubes are working okay for our shoe storage. We each have one, which is nice, but they are constantly falling out and we have to keep out of season shoes somewhere else, which is kind of a pain during transitional weather like we've been having.

It's hard to tell in this picture, but there are a couple feet of unused space above this shelf which I would love to start using.

I'm thinking we'll take out the wall that held the closet doors so it's all one big open space. I'd love to have a place to sit to put on/take off shoes. I need the full length of hanger space. And a place to keep the vacuum and other cleaning supplies would be great. And I want it to be pretty. Anyone want to draw me up some plans?

Painted Piano

Who doesn't love a free piano? This one was given to us by a friend. It was given to her by a friend some years before that. I have no idea how old it is. It can never be perfectly tuned. The bench top used to be cracked and upholstered in worn orange fabric. It was the perfect candidate for a makeover. I would never have done this to a newer piano. This picture was taken after I had Greg replace the top and reinforce the bench because I was afraid it would collapse every time I sat on it.

So I sanded it down, primed it, and after some deliberation, painted it ivory. My intent was to match it to the couch, but for some reason the paint in the can was much lighter than the paint chip. I would have taken it back to Lowe's but I didn't realize it until after I painted the piano. I definitely didn't want to do that again. So...the piano is lighter than the couch but it's not white. I'm pretty happy with it. I also reupholstered the bench. Maybe someday my girls' piano skills will exceed this piano and we'll need to get a new one. But for now, we're happy to be using this one.

Progress

My living room is finally starting to come together! I decided to keep the rug for now since it's fairly neutral and nice rugs are expensive. I painted the walls a warm gray color that I pulled from the rug. I bought the end table and lamps for a steal at Ross (a.k.a. my happy place) and TJ Maxx. Greg hung the picture over the sofa but that might just be temporary since I would like to have something more interesting there. I am still on the lookout for accent pillows for the couch, something cool to put on the coffee table, and drapes. I'm hoping the new Home Goods store will have some amazing finds for me. Is anyone else as excited as I am about Home Goods coming to Bel Air? Now that we have Wegmans and Home Goods is coming, all we need is a Trader Joe's and all of my shopping fantasies will be fullfilled. Well, almost all of them. If H&M came to Harford Mall I think I would die.

Anyway, I got a great deal on a damask stencil on ebay. My plan was to use the same color paint but in a high gloss but I've seen a few damask walls done differently and I'm giving myself some more time to think about it. Did anyone watch The Biggest Loser? The walls in their dining area have the damask pattern in a lighter shade than the background color. Then there was J.Lo's bedroom in the movie The Back-up Plan, which was so bad I'm embarrassed to admit that I watched it. But at least she lived in an amazing brownstone which almost made the movie worth watching. Look closely and you can kind of see the damask pattern with a goldish sheen to it. (Hello, beautiful headboard.)

So that's where I am on my living room project. If I can get the girls to clean up their piano books I'll show you my painted piano!

Color Dilemma

I mentioned in a recent post that I wanted to paint the piano. Well, I finally got it sanded and primed. I was planning on painting it white. I thought about painting it some cool accent color but decided on white because:

a) I never, ever want to have to paint it again. White would go with whatever I do with the decor in that room.

b) I've never been good with color. Even when I used to do art I felt like I wasn't good with color and preferred to work in black and white. So if I were to paint it some other color, I wouldn't know what to pick. And I'm not gutsy with color either.

c) I like white. Seriously, it's one of my favorite colors. I love that light, airy, beachy look.

Soooooooo . . . seeing the piano covered in white primer is making me have second thoughts about the white paint. I don't know why it's not working for me. Is it because the hardware is dark? Or because the wall is such a light color? Is it just becuase it's the primer coat and it will look better painted? Is it just too much white (can there be such a thing?)?

So here's what's going on in the rest of the room. (Ignore the toys. We're keeping it real here.)

I have my new ivory sofa that I love. I was thinking of getting white drapes. Again, white to keep it airy and since I would need six panels over 100 inches long (expensive!) I don't want them to be a color or pattern that I will get tired of in a few years. Then there's the greenish rug that I had in my old house. I still like it but I feel a bit restricted color-wise because of it. Do I keep it and work with it? Move it to my bedroom and make it work there? Then I would have to buy a new rug for the living room. Selling things makes me very uncomfortable so craigslist isn't an option. Accent pillows and wall color are easy and cheap to change. I've been thinking about painting the walls a medium gray flat paint and then doing an all-over stencil pattern in the same color but high gloss.

So what color should I paint the piano? What should I do with the rug? Any other suggestions for the room? My favorite designers are Candice Olson and Sarah Richardson, if you want to know what my style is. And my other favorite color besides white is blue, especially the light aqua kind.

The Coolest Tween Room Ever

Ever since we moved in this house, I've wanted to put a built-in window seat and desk in Carolyn's room. I always have to mull over an idea like this--let it float around in my head for a while (usually at least a year), decide exactly how I want to do it, and make sure I want to do it enough to spend the money on it. A few months ago we even sat down with a person at Home Depot to go over what cabinetry we'd need. I just still wasn't ready to pull the trigger yet. Then one day, I happened to be at Lowes and saw that their in-stock cabinetry was on clearance for 50% off. Score! Between our local store and another nearby Lowes, we were able to get all of the cabinets we needed. It did take a little creativity, like cutting off the drawer of a cabinet to make it desk height. We also used wall cabinets to make the bench and had to build a base for it to sit on and a frame to go behind it, since wall cabinets are 12" deep and base cabinets are 24". we even made our own filler pieces by cutting up white shelves, which was so much cheaper than buying actual filler pieces. Here's the before:

And the after:

I bought her quilt several months ago after a long, hard search. I wanted something tasteful, something that she and I would like, and I wanted it to be a style that she wouldn't outgrow in a few years. I had no idea how many tacky kid bedspreads there are out there. Will someone please tell the bedding industry that preteen girl beds don't have to be garish?

I still have a long list of projects for her room, like crown molding for the cabinets, cushion and pillows for the bench, some sort of fabric on the window, tufted headboard, and a euro sham for her bed. Maybe now that the craziness of December is over I'll be able to get some of them done.