PotD: Under Construction

Picture it: a room with a dark blue (some might call it "admiral blue") accent wall, the matching tray ceiling glowing with thousands of twinkling stars (or however many glow-in-the-dark stars come in the package...), a white ceiling fan cooling the air...

That's actually as far as the vision goes right now.  We've tentatively picked out the color that the rest of the room will be, and are debating ideas for new furniture.  (I *know* we need an awesome white headboard against that wall, Scott's pretty sure we don't want white because it'll look like a farmhouse, and I'm pretty sure I don't even want to put our existing bed back in there.)

What's on the wall now is just tinted primer, but I love it so much I worry that the actual color won't be as good.  Scott's convinced it's the same exact color, in which case why are we not just buying primer? Either way, "real" painting is tomorrow's project, and I. Can. Not. Wait!

This project hasn't been easy so far - the carpet is fo' shizzle on the to-do list, since it's got some blue spots that'll probably never come out even with the use of the Kilo Memorial Steam Cleaner; Scott can barely lift his arms (apparently paint-rolling the ceiling uses muscles that he doesn't usually use); and I, as the designated cutter-inner, took so many trips up and down the ladder that my thighs are still burning.  Oh - and if you attack a spot of blue paint on the white wall voraciously enough with a wet rag, it WILL come off, along with the white paint, leaving a spot of bare drywall behind.

For now, I'm enjoying our "vacation" in the office.  It's cramped - I'm typing this at the computer desk while sitting at the foot of the bed - but it's sort of fun to wake up and not see the same old things.  And perhaps sleeping in here will inspire our next paint decision...

Shades of Beige

Exciting color palette, no? In real life, up close, these are all very different shades of beiges and yellows, painstakingly selected one at a time by holding them up to my tile sample. In the photo, they're more like different shades of boring! I'm ok with boring though, because I've come to the conclusion that paint shouldn't be the decoration in the home. It should be the foundation.

Even if you wear blue eyeshadow, you wouldn't color your whole face that way.

We had always considered yellow for both the living room and the kitchen, bot never at the same time. And it will make things easier to choose one shade for the whole downstairs. Yellow/beige will also look good with hardwood floors, should we ever decide to go that route. And once we pick a paint, we can figure out what to do with the empty walls.

Next step: finally deciding to use the tile above (or not) and actually ordering it. Once we have it in hand, we'll decide on the paint color. And then after we've painted? Our next door neighbors bought scrap marble at Lowe's for windowsills and it's beautiful. We're totally stealing that!

And then once the weather cools down, we're finally going to paint (or more likely just white prime) the garage. The bare drywall out there is really starting to annoy me.

Sample Sale

I ordered some sample sheets of glass mosaic tile - potentials for an accent for our kitchen back splash. Here's a photo of what we're going for (a Facebook photo of a high school friend's recently remodeled kitchen), followed by some of the tiles we're considering:



Disclaimer: when I say "we" are considering these options, I really mean Scott hasn't vehemently objected to my ideas. As it turns out, red isn't an easy color tile to find. This means we're really going to have to find and commit to the tile and then find a paint color to coordinate.

Anyway, I'm quite excited to get our samples. I'm absolutely in love with the ovals (picture them sideways, in a row maybe 4 ovals high), but tile is one of those things you can't go too crazy with. It's forever-ish.

I'll update when the samples come in!

Rookwood Red

I found out that Sherwin Williams has a fun little app on its website that allows you to upload a picture of a room and experiment with different paint colors. After 1/2 hour and every shade of the rainbow, Scott and I are still fond of the first color I clicked on.

The area under the microwave is left intentionally white, for an eventual white tile backsplash (yeah, boring, but not with a crazy-dark color on the walls).

So what do you think? I like it because it matches my stand mixer! (nope, you can't see the stand mixer past the other stuff on the counter. you'll have to take my word for it)

Blown

Well, I missed the posting for yesterday. I was downstairs watching TV, and then I looked at the clock and it was 12:13 am. I never officially signed up on the NaBloPoMo site due to some technical difficulties early on, so there was never any chance I was going to win any prizes.

I've got another 3-day weekend right now. It's the weekend-o-painting, come Hell or high water. Nothing's gonna stop us now. We're livin' on a prayer. Purple or bust! Nope, that last one wasn't a song title or a cliche.

We're also going to see GodSpell tonight, so maybe I'll have something interesting to talk about tomorrow. I guess time will tell...

(just one) Mission Accomplished

I did our 2009 tax return today. Of course, I couldn't file because the IRS now requires paper documentation to prove that we bought a house. Because apparently last year they didn't require any proof and - surprise, surprise! - people claimed houses they didn't own! So now I just need to print, attach copious amounts of paper, and send via certified mail.

My 'honey do' list today was much longer than just that, but I fizzled out early. I didn't re-texture the patches on the bathroom wall, or tape & tarp the bathroom in preparation for next weekend's painting extravaganza, or grocery shop... Today was pretty much an epic failure.

But boy, did I need the rest!

So now I embark on another four-day work week, followed by the aforementioned taping & tarping (now scheduled for Thursday while Scott is at work), priming on Friday, and painting on Saturday. Then all that's left is the mounting (heh) of the mirror, the new towel ring, and the artwork above the toilet.

Actually...

Here's a list of actual things that Scott and I did today:

1. Trip to Lowe's to buy paint, primer, and a new towel holder for powder room.

2. Removal of old towel bar, using sharp blade and new pry bar.

(also bought pry bar and mallet at Lowe's during #1)

3. Discovery of two perfectly rectangular holes behind old towel bar.

4. Discovery that builders installed vanity light without a junction box and that installation of new vanity light without a junction box is impossible.

5. Googled "install vanity light no junction box," and got great instructions from diynetwork.com on how to install a junction box.

5a. Curse like a sailor, throw brief tantrum.

6. Trip to Lowe's to buy wall patches, spackle, and aerosol can of "orange peel" wall texture to fix holes where old towel bar was. Also bought new junction box. The girl in the drywall section was quite helpful. The guy in the electrical section was dumb as a box of rocks. And he looked like the boss from Office Space. Luckily, there was a nice middle-aged customer who came to my rescue. Twice. I say "my" rescue because, as a man, Scott can't ask for help. So he disappears ("hey - we NEEDED a drywall saw!") while I ask for help. It's ok. At least then I get to hear the instructions first-hand and don't need to second guess later.

7. Scott patches holes in one wall while I cut a big circular hole in another wall.

8. Realize plumbing is close to the wall and that junction box is too deep and therefore won't fit.

8a. Curse like a (&$%(# sailor. Lament that we're stuck with ugly Broadway-style lighting forever.

9. Scott uses drywall saw to cut the back off of the plastic junction box while I watch two hours worth of DVRed TV shows. Yep...two hours. The man is dedicated!

10. Anchor junction box into drywall, install light fixture, and test out lighting.

11. Go to garage and do some test-runs of orange peel texturing on cardboard (and on the garage wall). Damn, it's cold out!

12. Eat dinner of chicken tenders and fish planks at 9 pm while mocking the Olympic opening ceremony.

13. Blog about day that was supposed to be fun but, like most home improvement projects, turned out to be frustrating.

I took lots of pictures today, but I'm saving them for a full before & after. Tomorrow while Scott is at work I'm definitely going to texture over the wall patches and tape off the baseboards and ceiling. I might prime, but it's likely I'll wait for next Friday and Saturday to prime & paint when Scott is there to help. Not that there's room for two of us in there at a time...

Illuminating

So... remember this fixture that I had fallen in love with for the powder room? It's been replaced. I actually tried to buy the original this morning, but the website I had originally found it on (not the one linked here) wouldn't let me buy it. I took that as a sign that maybe the one we found at Home Depot for half the cost was the one destined to live in our bathroom.

I have 3-day weekends for the next two weeks, and am determined to at least do a dry-run of the new light install and the mirror install this week so that I can paint next week.

Sure, it's just the powder room. But I'm so excited to get it started I can hardly stand it!

Another Post About the Future of My Powder Room

Please try to contain your enthusiasm until the end of the post!



Back during NaBloPoMo (November edition), I shared a photo of some paint chips and some other design choices we were considering for the downstairs bathroom. What I didn't mention was that we were skewing the bathroom theme a little towards Japanese. Really, it's not supposed to be like a Zen garden or anything (not that that wouldn't be cool...) - just simple and elegant, and really dark purple. Basically, the only addition to the room (after the light fixture, which has cool pagoda lines) was going to be a single white orchid (fake, obviously) in a simple container on the back of the toilet.



Did you catch the "was?"


Yeah...this is why Scott and I shouldn't go to World Market:


I guess it's not that far from the original design idea. Instead of a single orchid, now it's a single cherry blossom branch. With a very yellow background. I loved it. And Scott says he loves it, though I'm never really sure whether or not he's placating me. The print itself was cheap. I imagine framing it will not be. Have you seen the shape of this thing?!?

And though you can't tell from the pictures above and below (because of the fact that my camera does not like CF light bulbs), that print is going to look un-be-freaking-lieveable on the dark purple wall. (also, no, it's not going to live on the sink - that's just where the paint chips are stuck)

I think it's almost time to buy the light fixture and the paint and get cracking on project #1!

The View from Bathroom #2

Since I shared the view from the master toilet yesterday, I thought I'd share another toilet point-of-view today. I call this particular view, "Meditation in Purple."


Yes, we were at Lowe's today. How did you guess? We are contemplating this color family for the powder room, along with this lighting fixture. Below is an enlarged, white-balanced, and brightened picture of the paint colors. Anyone have a favorite? (I still think the photo is darker than the real colors)

And while we're on the subject of colors, check out today's home-tastic purchase: throw pillows!

They are actually matching reversible pillows. The orange is iridescent, and turns red and yellow depending on the light and the angle. If World Market had more than two in stock, we definitely would have bought more. Sadly, what you see is what we were able to get. The house needed a color outside of the beige family, and the pillows are definitely a (small) step in the right direction!