A very productive week with redecorating the house

I worked really hard in all my free time last week and made a great deal of progress with the redecorating project.  There remains a lot to do but I'm at a good place for a little break now.  Want to see what I accomplished?

I spent much of my week sewing (or buying fabric for) throw pillows which all lead up to the "scary" job of covering two cushions for the wine barrel chairs Tad bought me some months ago. Scary because I'm not that much of a seamstress and the cushions involved circles AND zippers. I wasn't sure of my color scheme when I went fabric shopping.  My requirements were that it had to coordinate with the shade of gray used on the walls and it had to have at least a pop of color. When I found the 5 coordinating fabrics with the turquoise color I knew that I would go with them.  A while back I had painted our small bathroom a turquoise color and had used some of the extra paint on other projects, so it's obviously a color I like. The little dresser along the black wall in the entry/dining area was painted with a toned-down shade of that turquoise a few years ago.

Here's a picture of all (but one) of the throw pillows piled on one couch, staged especially for Levi because he wondered where people would sit if I kept making pillows. 😁 I made one of the yellow pillows and bought the other.  I picked up the solid turquoise pillow at a garage sale this summer and the cream-colored pillow is something I did quite a few years ago.

Before doing any sewing I had to take my machine to the shop and have a few adjustments made and buy a couple accessories.  I was relieved that it was all able to be done as I waited so that I could get right to my sewing.  The last time I tried sewing I had a disaster because the tension was all messed up and I had no clue how to fix it.  I guess I needed a new bobbin cartridge and I had been using bobbins that were the wrong shape for my machine.  Who knew?  I thought they were all the same! 

All that pillow sewing was helping me gather confidence for making the cushion covers. By the time I made them I had plenty of practice with zippers and I had found a couple tutorials on the internet on doing round cushions with boxed edges.  I was able to combine a couple techniques to come up with my covers.  Thankfully I took time to think it through and each one turned out on the first try!  I amazed myself and thought of how proud Mom would be of my work.  

And there's still room for people on the couches!  I really like my tulip painting on this wall because it can be seen from more of the house than when it was on the wall above the other couch. I need to decide what else will go on the wall but I'm trying to not rush into it.  The reason the picture isn't centered over the couch is that there is just one screw sunk into the wall and it is centered over the fireplace which I've placed the couch in front of.  I'll either decorate to the left of the picture to balance it or I will get a new hanger and move it over because leaving it the way it is will bother me. 

When I first started the redecorating I ordered a stencil for my bedroom.  I had not noticed that it was being shipped from Istanbul, Turkey so was a little surprised when it didn't show up within a week.  Eventually, I saw that it got stuck in Germany for a few days.  It finally arrived Friday afternoon and I got the wall done in about an hour and 45 minutes on Saturday morning.  I love how it turned out! Tad loved it too.   

I originally thought I might do the closet doors with the stencil but decided to do the wall so that if I get tired of it someday it will be the easier thing to cover up.  I'm kinda lazy that way.  That cool dresser belonged to my grandparents.  It was passed to me by my parents at some point.  A few years ago I sanded off the varnish (or whatever it was), stained the body of the dresser, painted and distressed the top, and then changed out the handles. It was in Cole's room for a few years and then I decided I wanted something different in my room so I took it last year.  I'm not gonna lie, the top of it is not usually this clean.  But after seeing how nice it looks in the picture I just might make it a goal to keep it cleaned off!  There is a little nightstand on Tad's side of the bed that needs to be painted to match the new decor.  Soon... 

Looking from the front door to the back of the house. You can see a snippet of the hallway wall.

Another project done last week was to paint the dresser on the left side of the above photo. The French White (light pink, which you can see if you look at the post from last week) just didn't go with the new color scheme and I had lots of paint left from that bathroom done years ago.  I purchased a sample pot of dark gray and mixed up 6 jars of chalk paint to get the job done.  I've been wanting to do the ombre look on this dresser for a while now.  What better time!  This is where we store cloth napkins (used daily), placemats (not so often), tablecloths (rarely) cards and dice (a winter staple), and a few odds & ends.

Looking from the living room toward the front door.

I must say that I just love how it's all turning out!  It feels very calm to me and for some reason seems to make the spaces feel larger.  Granted, I have gotten rid of some clutter (or at least moved it to the garage to be gone through.) 

For the first day in a few weeks, I don't have a decorating plan for today.  I think I'll take a day off and contemplate what needs to be done next.  Perhaps I'll inspect the walls for areas that need touching up. I know that I have a lot of trim to get painted but that's my least favorite so I think I will take a breather before I dive into it.  Eventually, most of the trim will be coming down to be replaced by more modern trim when we replace the doors throughout the house, but until then there are a couple areas that have the WRONG color and that's going to bug me. 

Maybe I will eventually post some before photos to have a record of what a dramatic difference this has made.  I just need to go "digging" through old photos to find each area.  

Cheers!   

Transforming the interior of the house

For the past week, I have been repainting the interior of our home. Totally changing the color scheme!  Making it cleaner (calmer), cohesive, and more modern. Once I finish the walls I will still have some trim to do because some rooms have the wrong color trim, though the eventual plan is to replace all the interior doors and trim. When we removed the carpet several years ago we were left with huge gaps between the bottoms of the doors and the beautiful hardwood floors. It's time to remedy that AND the current doors have so many coats of paint on them that I just can't stand the thought of painting them again because it just doesn't hold up well! I’ve learned though that I just need to move forward rather than wait until we have the doors done or I might never get around to changing the color! 

So far I've painted our bedroom, the hallway, living room, dining room, and kitchen. It's coming together. Sunday we removed the fireplace mantle (we haven’t used the fireplace more than 6 times in 29 years), I prefer the couch to be on that wall but it seemed weird with a mantle right above the couch. I like the absence of the mantle! I’ll have to come up with a new decorating style for Christmas though.  Need to decorate the wall and paint the rest of the bookshelves to be able to call the room done but I really wanted to get the furniture back in place 

Lest you get the (wrong) impression that I have it all together I'm sharing this photo of the other side of the same room. I've got a LOT of stuff to put away! 

I wanted to add a little element of fun to the hallway wall and I love how it turned out.  One thing always leads to another!  The doorbell (original from 1955) was brass and stood out like a sore thumb so I had to paint it to go with the new color scheme.  

I'm also really happy with the entry/dining room wall.  It's painted with chalkboard paint so that I can write messages on it but I'm a little hesitant to do that because I love the crisp black and once you chalk on a wall it loses that.  It has another few days to cure so we'll see...  Shown below with the front door open.  

Oh boy, that tan color HAS to go!  Once I got going I just couldn't wait to get the kitchen coordinated with the rest of the house.  I never really liked the tan color but it (sort of) worked with the floor and the other colors in the house. The truth is that about 8 years ago I chose what I thought was a fun sort of bright color for the kitchen.  The swatches looked good.  I painted the kitchen in the late evening and it didn't look too bad but it was a little more intense than I thought it would be.  The morning light made it look like a neon cantaloupe and I had that paint covered up within the next couple of days!  I just used the same color as one of the boys' bedrooms.  So glad to get it changed up this week. 

The boys' bedrooms, family room, and main bathroom will be done as I can. We need a new ceiling in the bathroom so it will likely be the last room. That will give me time to think about if I want to make other changes to the bathroom while we’re at it.   

Once I got started I haven't wanted to stop!  I love the transformation and I know myself too well.  I know that sometimes when I lose the momentum I don't end up finishing things.  THIS time will be different.  I WILL finish this project.  Last night I picked out some beautiful fabrics to cover the cushions on the wine barrel chairs (if you scroll back up you will see them in the messy picture, currently they are just wrapped with red table cloths to protect the foam cushions) and make pillows for the couches.  Need to pull out my sewing machine and get it to the shop for a tune-up because it quit working the last time I tried to sew something.  

I have never really thought that I enjoyed painting.  It's tedious work and there's so much room for making mistakes. What if I mess it up?  What if I spill and ruin something?  What if I don't like it when I'm finished? What if I don't get it perfect?  This time has been different! WHAT IF I really love the new look?  What if I mess something up and choose to redo it?  What if I decided that the imperfections give it a little more character.  What if I realize that this is an OLD house and is already full of imperfections and once I'm done with this job I won't really notice them anymore and it's likely that those who enter my house won't really notice them either.  What if I realize that perfect is an illusion?  So, I can actually say that I've really enjoyed all the work I've put in over this past week and I look forward to continuing on with it.  I've enjoyed the stillness of the house as I have worked while everyone is away.  I've had time to think, time to just be, time to listen to music.  

I've been so blessed that Tad has been on board with everything I've done so far even though each day is a surprise to him because I haven't shared any of the ideas with him before executing them.  One day he came home and our bedroom was 3/4 of the way painted in a color of my choosing.  One day he came home and the hallway was decorated.  Another day he came home to a black wall.  It's so different from anything we've ever had before and yet he has been so supportive and he even loves that black wall.  I'm glad he trusts me enough to let me just go with it.  

Today will be a light day of painting because it’s Cole’s 26th birthday and I have things I need to do and I've got to pack a lot into this day so we can celebrate with him tonight.