great chair makeover-part 2

A few weeks back I posted {here} about this chair.

A quick recap for those of you who didn't read that post.  I bought the chair at our city-wide rummage sale for $1.50. 

Good deal, huh?

 

I reupholstered it using some Michale Miller laminated damask print cotton that I just so happened to have on hand.  I chose to use the laminated cotton because I have little messy hands in my home and it'll be easy to wipe clean.  I also used some left over spray paint from a previous project so this whole makeover really only cost me only $1.50.

So much nicer!  You'd never know this baby cost me $1.50!

Nevermind the partially painted wood baseboards.  We're in the process of replacing them!

my name is lacy...

and I had blue carpet.  Ahh, there it's been said.  Cats out of the bag.  Wait, did you notice how I said I HAD blue carpet.  Yep, that's right.  It's a thing of the past as of today!!!  My super fabulous husband who reads my blog agreed to replace the blue carpet this spring and so as soon as spring hit I made a point to start carpet shopping.

Here is the before picture of the room with the previous owner:

and now here is that same room less than a year later with new carpet:

and the before entry wall:

and now that wall looks like this:

Of course there are still some things we want to do like paint the trim and put up new window shades/treatment but we are so close to being done and I LOVE our living room.  I will not miss that blue carpet.

weekend project

We bought our home last June and have been repainting, redecorating, and remodeling since. It's a good sized house and not one room was a color that we loved so it's been a lot of work.

One of the bathrooms (the one our guests use) has been really getting to me. It's one of those rooms that we decided to wait to redo because so much had to be redone. There is wallpaper on top of wallpaper, pink bathroom tiles, fluorescent lighting, and some plumbing and electrical fixes we want to make. So we just avoided doing anything to this bathroom until we wanted to do it all.

Well, I finally cracked last week. I couldn't take it anymore and I went out and bought some paint. It's an easy fix until we finally get around to redoing the whole bathroom.

Here is the before from when the previous owners lived here.

The lighting was awful with the dark walls and bright window so here is a close-up of the sponge painted walls, wallpaper border, and pink tile (not to mention the plumbing fixture we want to replace).
I am not gonna talk down about someone else's style but it's just not my style and I bet the previous owner was doing her best to work with the pink tiles. Oh, and so you know, the pink tiles are the next to go (says my husband).

So here is the room after I removed the wallpaper, primed it, and painted. Oh, and my favorite Pottery Barn shower curtain helped out a bit as well.

Like my stocking on the wall? I can finally decorate this room for the holidays (as long as it's a shade of pink, lol). What? You want another close up?

Well, there you have it. This quick fix cost me under $20 (bought the paint on sale) but the peace I get when in this bathroom is PRICELESS!

repurposed door

We have this annoying old storm door that opens the wrong way as you enter our home from the garage. I often hear my husband mumble to himself how he is going to rip this obnoxious door off it's hinges and burn it. This usually happens when it smacks him while he walks through it or it closes when it's supposed to stay open. Hey, it's an old door.

While trying to figure out what we will do for a headboard in our room one day the light bulb turned on and I knew right away that we could use that old door. We have a white romantic shabby thing (but not too shabby) going on in our room and this door would work. I have seen it done before above a couch over at the nesting place.


I approached my husband with the idea and within an hour that door was off it's hinges. He was more than happy to remove it. We got some L brackets and then next day we hung that baby up.

I absolutely love the way it looks. I plan on putting something up on the wall above it soon. I am thinking about using vinyl wall words. (I might even add some to the glass on the door.)


I am thinking in the dark green cause we have a lot of green shades in our room.

Wouldn't it look good above the bed?

Oh, and because I am sure you are dying to know what this room looked like before we moved in...

Our bed is now up against the wall with the mirror. And please know that I am not knocking the previous owner's decor. Everyone has different taste, right?

At this point our room is a blank canvas but it's definitely coming along and I often find myself just wanting to curl up in bed with a book.

the never ending dining room project

I think the title just about covers it. As you know, we have been working our butts off trying to make our new house a home that fits our style and needs. We haven't really finished any rooms completely yet but I kinda expected that there would still be small things to add as I go. Our recent transformation was on our dining area. Here is what it looked like before. The purple paint, wood trim, and grape wallpaper border just doesn't stand out in this first picture cause it was a dreary day when these were taken but this second one gives you a better idea. You can click on the photos to see them bigger. The house had a woodsy country feel to it for sure.

And yes, the blinds are a sea foam green color. Where the previous owners got them is beyond me.

Here is another picture taken right after we moved in with their paint and our furniture.
Here is what it looked like this morning, Please excuse the box and hammer.

It's clearly still in the process but I am soooo happy with the direction it's moving in. We hung up some art that my husband painted when he was just a kid. Cool, huh?


And we still need something for that big open wall. My husband is leaning towards artwork and I am leaning towards a floating shelf with some doo dads. We'll probably meet in the middle.

Our other dilemma is what color of shades/ blinds to buy to replace the sea foam green ones. We are trying to decide between white wooden blinds and a bamboo roman shade. The problem is that we can't find the right size of the roman shade that will fit both the dining and the kitchen window (not pictured).

The kitchen is also coming along but will probably be something we finish next year. Kitchens are just so expensive to redo and so time consuming. Time is something I am short on with the baby coming. However, we did get this baby to start the replacement process of our appliances.

Never mind the half painted wall. This is an older picture taken before all the finger prints could stick to my new stainless stove.

Well, that is about all I got for now. I wish I had redecorating fairies working around the clock to get it all done but it's just my husband and I and the bigger I get the less help I am these days. Plus I need to focus on getting things ready for the baby.

featuring yours truly

Chris, over at Just a Girl did me the honor of featuring my blog on her feature friday post today. She featured my son's monster room I posted before and after photos of a couple posts ago. Here it is again if you don't want to scroll down.

If you haven't checked out Just a Girl I suggest you do it asap. She has some fantastic ideas that you will want to try yourself. One of my favorites was the house number in vinyl on the outside of her door. As soon as I paint my front doors I am doing the same thing.

The set was bought from Target and can also be bought online here. I found some accessories for the set like book holders, nightlight, and bean bag in store. I have had a few comments asking what colors I used for my son's room and so I will g ahead and post it here. We went to Lowe's (if you recently moved, use your 10% off coupon you got from the post office) and got all of our colors there. Some colors were color matched but most of them were from their Olympic line. My son's room colors are from the Olympic line but they ran out of the quart sized paints the day we needed them so they color matched all the stripes to make them as close as possible. So these colors aren't the exact colors I was gonna use but the closest Lowe's could get (and I am pretty picky).

top stripe (teal): Just Jazz A57-4
2nd stripe (orange): Field Poppy A24-6
3rd stripe (lime): Lime Green B68-4
bottom stripe (navy): Celestial Blue C54-6

The light blue/ teal color on all the other walls was in stock and so we didn't have to color match it. That color is: Galactica B57-2. The white was the same color we have used for our trim throughout the house and it's also an Olympic color and it's: Delicate White D40-1.

Tips and tricks:

1. I used a satin paint finish cause it's not matte and you can clean it (a must in a kid's room) and it's not too shiny either
2. I painted the darkest color on the bottom to avoid letting the navy darken the room.
3. I painted the stripes on a wall other than the first one you when you walk in to avoid making the room look smaller. I think the stripes actually make the room look longer.
4. I just went with a lighter version of the top stripe for the rest of the walls. I am sure a light green or orange would work as well if you go light enough.
5. I used 1.5 blue painters tape for the stripes and did have to do some touching up but it wasn't too bad cause I really pushed the tape down. If you have textured walls you will probably need to do more touch ups.

living room...in the process

As I mentioned in this post, I found the perfect color for our living room while surfing HGTV's Rate My Space. It's by Behr and it's called Dried Thyme. Here is my color inspiration room.

And here is what we had to work with (picture from previous owners). Please don't laugh. I will let you know that we have used our fair share of Kilz paint in this house.

The carpet was the only thing that we decided will stay until next year. Even if it is blue it's in good condition and we have a small child and another on the way. And so here is what our living room looks like now.

The color really takes on it's own shade depending on the sunlight that comes in from our 10 ft window. Sometimes it seems a little too minty for me but most of the time I love it.


I need to finish up the window treatment (I cut off the the unfinished part in this photo...sneaky of me), and add some warmth with accessories, pillows, pictures, etc. So as you can see I am still working on this room but I think it's come a long way so far.

before and after

We have finally gotten to the end of the unpacking in one room and it's my 5 year old son's room. He has more toys than a toy store (no joke) and it took a lot of planning, throwing away, and organizing to get it all to fit but we did it. (the closet is housing about half of the toys)

We also had quite a bit of painting to do. My son wanted this monster's theme and so we painted to match it and I am quite pleased so far. The funny thing is that most of his old room decor and keepsakes all matched it perfectly. I must have a thing for these colors. Oh, and we got the comforter set at Target.

Here is a before picture of his room when the previous owners lived in this house. It's a little dark for me.

And here is what it looked like 10 minutes ago (and I hope it looks like this in the next 10 minutes).

My husband might not admit it but he wasn't sure about the stripes but I just knew it would be great and it is. It matches the bottom side of the comforter. Never mind all the junk on the dresser (now I made you look at his dresser).

I still need to add a shelf, put up wall lights, buy a bed skirt (thinking navy blue), and add the window treatment. I am making a cornice for his windows and need to figure out what color fabric I should go with. I was originally thinking navy blue or red but I am just not too sure now. If I had left over sheeting from his bed I would use it but I don't. Any suggestions?

For now I am happy to have so much done and ready to move on to the next room.