I started framing some of the photos we have, and sometimes it amazes me how purple our walls are though. I love it.
Archive for the ‘Decorating’ Category
Glorious Living Room
February 26th, 2010
Now that I’m getting close to graduating, the next goal is for me to find a job, and while it’s very exciting it’s frustrating as well. It helps to keep me motivated when I think of the projects we can tackle once I do have a job. One of the things that we’re both excited about is entertaining, and the living room is a huge focal point of that. I would like to have movie nights, and I love the play Pictionary. Currently, we have a three seat sofa that is just not enough seating for guests. It was also a quick purchase for college, and it’s definitely time to upgrade. I love chaises, and I wanted a sofa that included that. I also wanted a sofa that had a built in sofa sleeper for guests, because while we will have a guest bedroom I never want to not have enough places to sleep for anyone visiting or staying over.
I found this sofa here at La-Z-Boy. I really wanted a white sofa for the living room to help lighten it up, since we painted the room such a dark color. However, Steve and I both agreed that while it would look beautiful, it would not remain white with Elway’s dark black hair or if kids were over. We compromised on a gray couch, and using a the Ikea rug and adding white pillows and blankets would help to lighten it.
We also purchased new white paint to paint all of the molding and doors in the living room to really freshen it up. With the high ceilings and older house, we decided to go ahead and add crown molding to this room as well. I am really super excited to begin working on the room. I’m also a huge fan of displaying photos, so once I get those printed, matted, and hung up, it will add even more white space and help to brighten the room.
The other way to lighten up the room will be the curtains. I’m still unsure of where to go on the fabric for this room, and I feel that I will probably go through several sets of fabric before I find exactly what I’m looking for. I’ve used the Cecilia fabric before here, so it would be nice to have that tie into a different room.
Here’s what the room looks like now:
So hopefully in the next few months we can begin making this room exactly what we want.
Painting is a pain in the butt. Nuff said.
December 15th, 2009I think the last time I painted was at my parents’ house when I was in high school, and I’m not going to lie. I’m pretty sure my mom painted most of it. Plus, I had only one window, a closet door, and the entrance door. So my painting “job” was pretty simple that time. When we decided to paint the downstairs of the house during my winter break I was all for it, and I still am – just not as excited. My hands are blistered, and I’m pretty sure my right shoulder wants to kill me. It is finished though, and I am so happy.
Here is what the room looked like before. It had a lot of brown, and it was very closed in. While Elway is not a hyperactive dog, he is really HUGE, so not having that much space between furniture did become a problem. So we cleared everything out (minus the couch) to make room to paint and to start from scratch furniture wise.
Then we started taping things off and putting paper down to protect the floors.
I must say. Taping was probably the worst part for me. We kept the plastic that wrapped our new mattress just for this project. Because I wanted a deep purple, I asked some resources and decided to use Benjamin Moore paints. Initially I chose “summer plum”, but after we bought the paint and took it home. I realized that was not what I wanted without even painting anything. I took it back and luckily they were able to darken it, and I can’t say enough good things about Star City Paint. I had them darken it as close to “grape juice” as possible, but really our color is a custom color. It’s pretty darn close to grape juice though.
Here are the walls with just the primer:
Then here is the final product:
(Painting was really tiring for Elway)
I love Christmas.
December 3rd, 2009Christmas is probably my favorite holiday. Actually, I enjoy all of the holidays that you decorate for including Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. There’s something about the spirit of them that I enjoy immensely. To kick off this holiday season, I started with the tree. I bought this 6 foot, white tree last year, and I love how it looks with the blue and silver. What I don’t love is how it looks borderline Charlie Brown Christmas tree because I don’t know how to properly “fluff” it. Luckily, my great aunt live just a hop, skip, and a jump away, and she recognized a tree in distress. So she’ll be by once I call her to help me. For now though, here is the tree in all its glory. Unfortunately, I seem to be missing an entire box of decorations, so for now things are a little bare.
A very happy holiday season to you and yours!
