WOW! I think this has been the longest stretch without a post since I started this blog back in April.
Our Labor Day weekend was exactly that! We worked on home improvement projects from morning to night. Well, okay, we talked about working on home improvements projects from Saturday morning until late Saturday afternoon; but once we hit the road for Home Depot, we didn't stop until Monday night.
This is the first interior project we’ve tackled since moving into this house nearly 3 years ago. The house has a wonderful floor plan, but came with just about every other detail that I despise: wall-to-wall carpet, wallpaper, polished brass fixtures, and flat white wall paint – a designer’s house of horrors.
WOW! I think this has been the longest stretch without a post since I started this blog back in April.
Our Labor Day weekend was exactly that! We worked on home improvement projects from morning to night. Well, okay, we talked about working on home improvements projects from Saturday morning until late Saturday afternoon; but once we hit the road for Home Depot, we didn't stop until Monday night.
This is the first interior project we’ve tackled since moving into this house nearly 3 years ago. The house has a wonderful floor plan, but came with just about every other detail that I despise: wall-to-wall carpet, wallpaper, polished brass fixtures, and flat white wall paint – a designer’s house of horrors.
Chuck suggested we buy new light fixtures for the room; an entry light and a new chandelier for the dining area. He found a pretty wrought-iron-looking fixture and held the box up to his face, smiling like he was rehearsing for a Ronco infomercial, “What do you think, Cindy? How about this for your birthday present?” I was OK with it; yes, Chuck is lucky to have a girl like me. However, he’ll be in deep doo-doo if I unwrap a set of screwdrivers on Christmas morning.
We painted the front living/dining rooms and all the hallways. Well, we're not talking Hearst Castle here, it was only two hallways and a "great" room. But we did paint the trim, too.
Picking wall color is usually the hardest part for me. There are just too many choices. That’s why the boys’ rooms still look like baby nurseries. Chris and Alex are now old enough to complain about the stenciled stars and zoo animal borders so we promised that their rooms are next.
Chuck left the color choice up to me, so I picked “Bonjour Beige” for the walls and “Prickly Pear” for an accent wall. After the paint was up, and we had a chance to soak in the new color, Chuck ran to Home Depot for some brown glaze and we applied a faux finish to the Prickly Pear, making the room look more regal and less like a Tijuana gift shop.
Moving the furniture was the hardest part. Well, for Chuck, that is. I just kind of braced my knees and grunted for morale support. The china cabinet and computer armoire were really heavy. I emptied the china and crystal onto some makeshift box-top pallets so that I could carry them into another room where they’d be safe. The only problem was that after I got everything stacked and situated in the spare room, Chuck asked me for something that was at the back of the room and as I was gingerly winding my way through the menagerie of breakables, Chuck could no longer bear the constant chinking, clanging and ringing sounds of crystal-hitting-crystal and he finally yelled, “Abort! Abort!” As I made my way back he was yapping something about a Far Side cartoon and “Petunia practicing ballet in a china shop.” That was the closest we came to fist-a-cuffs all weekend.
Once the boys’ rooms are painted, which should be a fairly straight forward project, we’re going to try Venetian Plaster in the kitchen. I’m also going to paint the cabinets and I’d love to get some granite tile for the counter tops – we’ll see. For now I’m basking in the glow of “Bonjour Beige.”