Progress is being made

We have paint on walls!!!! Whoo hoo playroom in progress!

Things like this aren't helping. It's masking tape left from when the previous homeowner abandoned the house mid-painting. And either they used super glue brand or two years in an un-air conditioned house has caused a chemical reaction creating the strongest tape ever. It took me 15 minutes to pick off that small ball. 

Playroom Plans

See this pile of ugliness? It’s being transformed into a playroom. A playroom with DOORS that I can SHUT. So hopefully when people pop-in I can just shut the playroom doors instead of apologizing for the fact that my living room looks like Santa’s bag exploded (His bag of TOYS. Pervert.)

The girls bedroom is going to be pink Pink PINK so I’m going multi-colour in the playroom. My inspiration is their existing toys/furniture.  We are painting the walls white on top and bamboo leaf by Behr on the bottom (G has informed me that the green is ugly and the white took too many coats). Here’s my inspiration board using items we already own.

Furniture and rug from Ikea. Play kitchen from kidkraft . Illustrations by Katie Moon. Paint by Behr.

Now I need some crap accessories to tie it all together. I have been collecting yard sale frames to paint bright pink. Some are going to frame the fabu Katie Moon prints. And some are going to be converted into fabric covered bulletin boards like this one from Bloggin with Bobbi

Curtains? I'm like this bargain beauties from Walmart.

Ikea has some cute curtains too. They also have some fun fabrics. Maybe its time to dust off my sewing machine and make some curtains!



If I go the DIY route there are a bajillion great fabrics I could use. Look at these fun ones I found on etsy.

 

Family Fabrics



Fancy Pants

Fancy Pants

So many choices!



Trends Part 1

While exploring the blogosphere for inspiration I found that there are quite a few trends out there that I was not aware of. Are they overdone? Maybe. But I’m not a designer and I don’t give a rats bum if they are overdone, a lot of them are pretty! I see so many things that I want to do in my own home. And isn’t that what the whole blog community about? Copying Being inspired by other people?  

Chevron Pattern. Based on the Chevron logo. I kinda love it.

 Honey Pie Designs

Dwelling by Devore

 

Ikat. Which literally means to bind. A super old way of making fabric. It has the ugly-but-somehow-pretty appeal for me.

 LA Design Concepts

 Material Recovery

Typography. Putting letters and numbers everywhere.

Apartment Therapy

HGTV 

Colour

After living in beige/taupe/tan/cream apartments for ten years I imagined that when we brought a house I would paint it in a rainbow of colours. Apple greens, deep purples, crisp blues. But the house we bought has an open floor plan downstairs.

Or we could just leave it half painted and with gorgeous wallpaper

2000sqft of apple green? Barf. I'll do colour in the bedrooms/bathrooms. Plus after collecting tons of inspiration pics online I realized that what I really loved for the main living areas was grey. Grey is the new beige.

The three shades I picked are silver screen (for most of the walls)

Pewter Mug (for the kitchen)

Milestone which is more blueish/purpleish grey (for accent walls)

And here they are on the wall. Yeah its dark and there is a sun spot so not a true representation. But it looks fabu right?

Garage

Step one in the BEST GARAGE EVER

G is not the “decorate however you want honey” kind of guy. And that’s okay. But I have definite ideas on what I want this house to look like  so we struck a deal. He gets a man room and the garage. I get to decorate everything else (as long as he doesn’t hate it). This means the surfboard will no longer be hanging in our bedroom. It also means that I am not allowed to store anything in the garage. Nothing. Nada. Zero. Zip.  It also means our garage will have a décor.  We’re fancy like that.

Part of his big garage plans is an epoxy floor. Epoxy looks great and lasts a long time if the concrete is VERY clean before you apply it. After hours of research online this is was Gustavo did before painting the floors. Swept, use blower to blow out fine dust. Power washed.  Scrubbed with Dawn. Power washed. Let dry, blow out any dust that came in. Scrub spots with chemical cleaner. Power wash. Dry Blow out dust, scrub spots with stronger cleaner. Power wash. Dry. Powerwash. Etch, dry and then finally PAINT! Here is the result.

Looks great right? Its grey with blue/black/white chips sprinkled over it. After this layer cures he will add an glossy clear coat. Then he is going to paint the walls/cabinets, add more lighting, and add wall storage.

Loquito blow drying the garage floor.

XOXO
Sarah

Kitchen Pulls

Cullman & Kravis

I’m dreaming of cabinet hardware. We haven’t even finished peeling wallpaper so it’s not spending time yet but I like to fantasize. That's how kinky I am. Drawer pulls?  Light fixtures? New flooring? Oh baby.

I’m leaning towards cups on the drawers and knobs on the cabinets.

 

I’m also a fan of the european pulls. Especially the really long ones that go across the entire drawer front

.

Check out these crystal ball knobs. Our house is 75% estrogen do you think I could get away with these and pink walls? V did say she want to put glitter on the walls in the new house…

 

Pictures all via http://www.myknobs.com

Currently my kitchen has invisible hardware. The idea is that without pulls you would have to use your greasy fingers to pry open the cabinets/drawers leaving marks on the stark white cabinets. It’s what the designers call “patina”. Also I noticed there is a loner-cupboard. See him there by the fridge nook. No partner to balance him out. NO SYMMETRY. AGH WHERE IS THE SYMMETRY?

Excuse the mid demo mess

Wall stress

 

The walls in Texas have acne scars, um I mean texture. There are two popular styles: orange peel and knockdown.

Orange Peel

  

Knockdown

  Pictures courtesy of http://www.aandrservicesinc.com/texture-styles.html

Its not an in your face texture like venetian plaster but it’s not the smooth flat walls you find in the north. Apparently its cheaper because the people installing the drywall don’t need to be as skilled. Just slap it up and spray texture all over it! The house has orange peel texture on all the walls except the ones that were wallpapered. This creates a conundrum. Do we texture the new un-wallpapered walls or do we leave them smooth? 

Here's the facts

If we go smooth the joining walls won’t match in the kitchen/family room. Smoothing the other walls in NOT an option. They are eleventy billion feet tall.

Smooth walls are most likely going to be accent walls and will be painted a different colour than the textured walls anyway

I'm not sure which is easier to DIY, smooth or texture? Smooth will need a skim coat because as-is you can see the joints. Texture will involve some kind of machine and lots of taping/covering stuff.

Texture is so…TEXAS. We might as well buy some giant ornate furniture and hang up curtains with tassels the size of my arm.

So what's your opinion???