Painting Like it's 1999

First thing we did when we moved into our house was to paint. Paint like it was going out of style. Paint because the paint colors were out of style. Not to knock what the previous residents did but our style was a bit different from theirs and doesn't everyone love moving into a freshly painted house? This little piglet does.

We started by painting all the ceilings in the house. No matter how good you think the ceilings look once you get that first roll of fresh white paint on you see that old color was either gray or yellow. Neither of those two colors are good for ceilings (unless you're intentionally going for those colors), or for teeth for that matter. From there we went to the walls with one of two colors: Martha Stewart's Chinchilla and Valspar's Earl Gray. It sounds like a rainy day palette but trust me it works with our bright furnishings.




Let's start with the hall bath and guest bedroom. Remember the "Before" from yesterday's post?
Allow me to refresh your memory...


On to the progress. Here is BF working on trimming out the ceiling. You can see the last bit of green wall on the right. You can also see super hot BF on the right too.


Here is Papa putting a little Chinchilla up on the wall. My folks came to Midland and worked their fingers to the bone for a full week. They were our saving graces for that week first week and then we were blessed again the next week when BF's parents came to town and helped.


And here we are today! We aren't finished by any means, there are a few things that still need to be hung and window treatments to be determined. I think that we're on the right track though.


Still need to hang the mirror...



Again, Before...
After...

Here is the Guest Bedroom breakdown:
Paint - Martha Stewart in "Chinchilla"
Bed - We bought a new mattress and moved our slightly older mattress to the guest room
Bedding - Duvet from Overstock.com from 3 years ago
Queen-Sized Pillows from Target on sale $5 each
Euro pillows on sale for $12 each from Anna's Linens
Euro Shams and quilt purchased at West Elm 4 years ago
Standard Shams from Anthropologie on sale for $7.99. For BOTH!
Dresser - Free from M.I.L
Lamp - HomeGoods $39.99
Bench - Free from M.I.L.
Mirror - HomeGoods $34.99
Night Stands - Formerly used as our bar shelves, from IKEA maybe $20?
Lamps - Gift from my M.I.L. but purchased at HomeGoods for $29.99 each
White vase - West Elm on sale $4 from 4 years ago
Hour glass - Purchased this summer from HomeGoods for $9.99

Across the hall from the guest room is the hall bathroom. Here is the former green version -


That is whole lotta green and unfortunately I'm not talking about the kind with Jefferson on the front. The best part was that we thought that the walls were reflecting onto the white cabinetry making it look greenish, turns out once the bathroom was painted we found that the cabinets, doors and trim were all painted with a green tint. The little discovery made for a project that took a little longer than expected. Papa again painted the walls. And taped the walls. And removed the toilet to make sure that he got the paint all the way to the floor behind it.


Now for the "After"



Here's the breakdown of what we did:
Wall Paint: Valspar Semi- Gloss in "Earl Grey" 1 gallon - $27
Cabinet Paint: Valspar Semi-Gloss in "Du Jour" - $27
Shower Curtain: Free from Sister-in-Law
Rug: Repurposed West Elm purchase from three years ago
Tray: Free from a friend - formerly a hanging mirror
Hand Towel Stand: Ross - $6
Towel Bar and TP holder: HomeGoods $14 and $9

Recap on the Bathroom, Before - Mean, Green but Not for Me


After!

There you have it! Two rooms that are mostly finished. How do we like the direction that we're going so far, kids?

Westward bound. Ho!

Hey kids, my apologies for the lapse in posting but I have a good excuse. We moved!

Buh-bye Dallas loft-living and hello tumble weeds and horizon for miles. That's right, BF took a new job and we hauled our cookies all the way to Midland, TX. Before you judge you must know that Midland is pretty great. The people are fantastic and disturbingly attractive. We already have friends and the sweetest neighbors that we think are going to be just as lovely as our D.C. neighborhood family.

Most exciting of all though...wait for it...still waiting? No, I lost some of you? Oh good you're still there! High-fives all around because we bought our first house. Ta-da! Suffice to say that I have more than enough blog material to last for a long while. Let's get started.

Our new casa:

The house was built in 1961 and has 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, 2 living/dining rooms and we lurv it. How about a tour?

This is the view from the front door.


Here is the view of our formal living room/library. The "libring room" if you will. That yellow hallway that you see is our entry way. If you turn left you'll find the front door and if you turn right you can either go down another hall to the bedrooms or walk straight into the family room.


Here is the view from the libing room looking into the dining area of the room. What is your vote on the navy walls? The light fixtures are definitely on the way out. They're lovely but don't quite mesh with our mid-century living/dining room style.


Next we will be moving onto the family room. The very large family room. Not even kidding, most 1960s homes have smallish family rooms but this one is 16'x26'. Can you say roller rink? This picture only shows about half the room but you get the point.


Next we'll take a quick spin of the bedrooms and bathrooms. Join me, won't you?

Bedroom 1: Lace and sage. Sounds like a Simon and Garfunkel song.


Bedroom 2:
Hall Bathroom: Hmm...green. Makes me want a kiwi.


Master Bedroom: Don't worry the "after" is much better.


Master Bathroom: 2 words - small and red.


Back to the other side of the house. This is the unique "L-shaped" kitchen.


From the kitchen you can see the laundry room. The door on the left goes to the backyard and there is a door to the right that enters the garage.


Well, that is it for the tour! I can tell you that the house no longer looks like this so stay tuned for many before, progress and after photos. It feels good to be back.

Don't be strangers!

-L