I cannot believe it’s been almost a year since I’ve posted here. When I logged in this morning (which I still do to check on any questions and comments), it seemed like it had only been a few months. Nothing to speak of has changed in the house yet. It’s been an adventurous year to […]
living room
It’s here, it’s here!
Our new sofa has finally arrived. We went without one for a month and a half after selling our last one, and let me tell you…that was not fun. But it’s here, and it was worth the wait. We love the worn look the leather has even though it’s brand new. We got samples of […]
Another unplanned living room update
We’ve been wanting a new media cabinet for quite a while. The old one (read about it here) was cute, but we don’t want cute. Looking back at the photos, painting it black would have been better than painting it white, or even staining it a really, really dark brown. Either way, it still wasn’t […]
New “coffee table”
A few months ago, we sold our old brass and glass coffee table. (And the refinished bar cart too.) We went without a coffee table for a couple months because I kept waffling about what to replace it with. I really wanted a hard surface, but we always put our feet up when sitting on […]
How to strip paint with a heat gun
I am so bad a titling blog posts. Anyway… The tread stripping was finished a few weeks ago. But we had an issue with the railing. Well, two issues actually. One was that the previous ownersn had painted the railing with bright white latex paint right on top of yellow-ish oil based paint. Latex paint […]
Finally, new end tables in the living room
These were so long overdue. Of course, as soon as they were in place, I thought: that area would really look good with some swing arm wall sconces instead of the table lamps (like Leena at Onshore recently did). I still need a new coffee table and a new media cabinet/stand too. I can’t decide […]
The stairs are half naked
Our staircase has finally been stripped. After pulling up the carpet, it looked like this: I love a worn and weathered look, but this is a bit too much, no? So my plan was to sand down the treads a little bit (just enough to get the paint splatters and who-knows-what off), and just strip […]
Pretty, textured walls, if I do say so myself
I’m crazy about texture, and it’s especially important since we prefer neutral colors. When Dad was visiting, he taught me how to texture walls with cheesecloth. That’s all that’s on the wall! Just cheesecloth held up and painted in place. This photo is slightly dramatized, just so the texture will show up. Otherwise, it’s very […]
A giant, invisible dry erase board
This is the little project for the living room that I mentioned breaking. It’s a 4 foot tall dry erase board. I broke the glass as I was preparing to hang it, so I had to go purchase another 4’ framed print just for the replacement glass. Anyway…the Hubs and I really like having a […]
Building in hidden storage
We have had to get creative around our house to store things since we don’t have any closets. And our favorite kind of storage is hidden storage. Can you guess where we keep our board games? They are in the landing! The particular project I’m sharing today was actually done almost 2 years ago, it […]
The living room is livable
Our living room makeover is finally complete. (Mostly, anyway.) So far, we have: Pulled up the carpet and painted the floor Added recessed lighting Installed crown moulding Painted ceiling (Martha Stewart’s “Pebble”) Painted the windows Painted the front door to match the walls Removed the cheap trim from around the front door and replaced it […]
Painted windows
Finally completed another small project: painting the window sashes. I’ve really been loving the look of black windows lately, especially in a room as light and neutral as ours. Also, I’m in love with the windows themselves, they are one of the only architectural details the previous owners left intact (they didn’t even keep the […]
Altering curtain panels: how to hide the tab tops
About 5 years and 3 houses ago, we purchased the Lenda curtains from IKEA. I’ve always loved them because they are nice and heavy, sturdy and machine washable. And the price was perfect back then at $30 a pair. When we were planning on redecorating the living room a few months ago, I had wanted […]
The living room is lit!
One of the three projects we began when my family was here last week was painting the ceiling and adding living room lighting. I always wanted the recessed lights that we just installed, but that was one of the last projects on our list. We thought we would have to put up molding on the […]
Projects Happening
So in addition to the family visiting, we have begun not one, but 3 (so far!) more projects. Here is what the living room looked like last time you saw it. And here is what it looks like right now: The powder room didn’t get done in time for the family to arrive, but Dad […]
The living room is finally presentable
As I’m sure you could guess from my lack of posting, we have had zero progress on the powder room. Well, not quite zero. Our tiles were delivered and we picked out the lumber for the sink base at an architectural salvage shop. But we’ve been so busy with other things and, as a great […]
