Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Adventures in Home Improvement

We're halfway finished with the home improvement portion of the house process!  I am happy to report that the rooms are painted (all bedrooms, entry, den, dining room, and living room - though I will say we cheated and only did accent walls in some areas), the dated shower door has been removed (it was much simpler than I thought - this great tutorial made it seem easy), and am partially finished with installing new closet rods / shelving in the closets.

Items left on the docket are:
  • Lighting - very few rooms have overhead lighting and I'm not a big fan of lamps (they tend to break in our presence as errant stuffed animals go flying and clumsy people [me] make them topple).
  • Headboards - pondering DIY'ing some.  I'll probably start by making a twin size for Little E and see how it goes before I tackle our king.
  • Curtains / bedding / accent pillows - I'm most excited about sewing these up!  Trying to find "it" fabrics right now.
  • Bathroom remodel (later and will most definitely be done professionally) - all the upstairs bathrooms need new flooring / fixtures / bath tiles / countertops.  I'm in love with the look of glass tiles like this 
The striped entry turned out...um...with very "human" stripes.  That is to say, they are rather imperfect.  If you look at it from afar AND you squint, they look pretty decent.  The Frog Tape was not my friend.  Far from the clean, crisp edges I expected, I got  giant blobs of paint where it had seeped under the tape.  I can't say this is entirely the tape's fault, because 1) we're not exactly super handy and 2) our walls are textured and I'm guessing it couldn't seal properly because of this.  I tried touching up the blobs, but made it worse somehow.  I'm giving up for the moment and will come back to it.  For now, we'll just squint at it.

Imperfect stripes (sigh)

Master Bedroom w/ Paisley Drapery
I think the paisley is so pretty, but I'm not sure how best to work it in.  I was originally planning on matching the curtains to accent pillows, but I don't think I can find a match to the existing drapes.  Would you redo or work with it?

A better representation of the gray in the master bedroom

Have a great week!

6 comments:

  1. Here are a few tutorials I found across the web some time ago. I haven't actually tried it...but it TOTALLY makes sense to avoid the bleed through...even on textured walls! The biggest trick is to seal the tape, and make sure you remove the tape before the paint dries. Hope this helps

    http://www.wordslingersok.com/2013/04/how-to-paint-perfect-stripes/

    http://paintedvintage.com/how-to-paint-stripes/

    http://makelyhome.com/paint-perfect-stripes/

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  2. wow aside from the "imperfect" stripes, I love the wall.

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  3. The windows in your master are awesome! Great paint color, too! I like blue/gray colors.
    We had some trouble with frog tape, too. :/ Jon just went back with a brush later on.
    Making your own headboards would be cool! I am finally starting some pin boards with remodeling ideas. Cannot believe it took me so long to use Pinterest! It is really going to help organize all the inspiration.

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  4. Would you be able to use the paisley drapes as material for something else? Pillow covers, etc.? The windows are gorgeous and allow so much natural light in. One idea would be to use a sheer white curtain doubled with heavier grey/blue drapes for nighttime with a higher curtain rod across the arch. Excited to see what you decide to do!

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  5. Beautiful colors! I would probably just work with the curtains as-is. I'm assuming you're talking about accent pillows. You could definitely find some to complement the paisley. Just throwing in about 1/2 cent. I don't know home decor. lol

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  6. Your stripes look great. But I'll definitely take notes before I try any painting adventures of my own.

    7% Solution

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