Home Upgrades

To Paint or Not to Paint?

Published April 24, 2013 | By Shanna

Today I received my delivery from Urban Outfitters: my new curtain to go by the front door.

Now that it has arrived, I am stumped on what to do with the front door — it just looks so plain. Do I leave it white or do I paint it?

If I do paint it, what color do I use?

I think if I paint it aqua, it will be too much blue.

The big rug nearby has a hint of burnt orange in it, but I think that would look weird in the middle of all of the blue.

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Posted in Home Upgrades | 10 Comments

Something Old, Something New

Published March 11, 2013 | By Shanna

I hope you all had a good weekend! I spent the majority of mine painting … surprise, surprise.

Two of the pieces I have been working on have required eight million coats of paint for some reason, but they are both almost finished thank goodness! I also did some major cleaning around the house.

The thing about having people pick up furniture pieces at your home, is that is forces you to keep a tidy house. Or at least clean the rooms the person can see from the front door.

That was the case last week, a super sweet lady was picking up her piece, and her adorable toddler made his way into our kitchen. Nooooooo! Nooootttt the kiiiitttchen!!! I almost stroked out. There was last night’s dishes in the sink, paint cans and supplies all over the counter, and crafting crap everywhere.

I about died.

She must have thought we were total pigs, and that day … she would have been right.

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Posted in Before and After, Home Upgrades | 6 Comments

Epic Fail

Published February 18, 2013 | By Shanna

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a good weekend! We actually had unseasonably warm weather here yesterday.

The good news from this weekend: Topher painted my dining room for me (part of my Valentine’s Day gift)! The bad news is the color was awful wah wah waaaaaa.

I wanted the room an aqua color. I picked out what I thought was the perfect shade. The first coat looked promising but after the second coat dried the room took on a neon psychedelic aqua appearance. So insanely bright that when you turned off the lights, it still glowed as bright as if the lights were still on.

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Posted in Home Upgrades | 17 Comments

DIY Valance Window Treatments

Published December 3, 2012 | By Shanna

A few weeks ago, you saw my new kitchen curtains. The two windows right beside suddenly looked a lot more naked, and I didn’t like it. I love the view from our kitchen table, but I didn’t like it so stark.

I decided I wanted some valances that matched the curtains, and Topher ~~finally agreed after weeks of pleading~~ volunteered to do it.

This is Topher’s recount of the project:

Overall, building a couple of valances to hang over our naked windows wasn’t too difficult. If you want to try it at home, for the absolute minimum, all you’ll need is wood, a saw, and some paint. For my project, I used a sheet of plywood, a scrap piece of plywood, my jigsaw, my table saw, the 4′ level (for a straight edge), and a 5′ section of PEX piping.

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Posted in Home Upgrades | 5 Comments

Aqua Painted Puppies

Published November 27, 2012 | By Shanna

I hope everyone had a great weekend! We spent ours painting my unnamed daughter’s bedroom. Before it was jaguar themed, since that’s her high school’s mascot. She wanted a jade green color on three walls and the remaining wall painted in chalkboard paint. We got the three green walls finished but the chalkboard wall will have to wait until next weekend. Here is the before: Continue reading →

Posted in Home Upgrades | 3 Comments