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!