I haven't done much furniture painting in the past, other than the headboard I made and spray painting some outdoor chairs. But I figured it couldn't be that hard, I'd just start with a coat of primer to make sure I get a good base for my paint.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
A Rookie (Painting) Mistake
I mentioned last week that I was doing a bit of furniture painting. Specifically, painting three bookshelves and an apothecary side table for the guest room.
I haven't done much furniture painting in the past, other than the headboard I made and spray painting some outdoor chairs. But I figured it couldn't be that hard, I'd just start with a coat of primer to make sure I get a good base for my paint.
See any problems?
I haven't done much furniture painting in the past, other than the headboard I made and spray painting some outdoor chairs. But I figured it couldn't be that hard, I'd just start with a coat of primer to make sure I get a good base for my paint.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Society6 Pillow Love
Man, have we been busy this week! We spent all last weekend working on our fireplace facade, and have been working on it every night this week until 10 or 11 at night. I should have lots to share after this next weekend!
And while time has been short to work on other things, I have managed to do quite a bit of online shopping, to start accessorizing some of our more neglected rooms. And one of the things I'm most excited about was delivered yesterday!
I don't know if you're familiar with Socitey6, but they are a great source for art prints, and even allow you to upload your own artwork to sell. I discovered them about a year ago when searching for art for the living room in our old house. So a few weeks ago I was happy to see on Pinterest that they'd started offering throw pillows.
And after browsing hundreds of pages of pillows, I bookmarked a TON of options. I'm not even kidding, their selection is amazing (and no, this isn't a sponsored post, I'm just really excited about all the options!). There were so many pillows I liked for our new family room couch, and narrowing it down wasn't easy. I even ended up playing around with Photoshop to look at the different options I was considering, and how they will go with our new 8' x 10' rug that I ordered (sadly, backordered until 2/1) and the coffee table we're planning to build.
And now they're here, bright and happy and making our new couch look a whole lot more cheerful!
And while time has been short to work on other things, I have managed to do quite a bit of online shopping, to start accessorizing some of our more neglected rooms. And one of the things I'm most excited about was delivered yesterday!
I don't know if you're familiar with Socitey6, but they are a great source for art prints, and even allow you to upload your own artwork to sell. I discovered them about a year ago when searching for art for the living room in our old house. So a few weeks ago I was happy to see on Pinterest that they'd started offering throw pillows.
And after browsing hundreds of pages of pillows, I bookmarked a TON of options. I'm not even kidding, their selection is amazing (and no, this isn't a sponsored post, I'm just really excited about all the options!). There were so many pillows I liked for our new family room couch, and narrowing it down wasn't easy. I even ended up playing around with Photoshop to look at the different options I was considering, and how they will go with our new 8' x 10' rug that I ordered (sadly, backordered until 2/1) and the coffee table we're planning to build.
And now they're here, bright and happy and making our new couch look a whole lot more cheerful!
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Building a Fireplace Facade: The Design
As I mentioned earlier this week, the next couple of weekends we are going to be working on building a facade to cover our dated brick fireplace in our living room.
But before I get into the actual building steps, I wanted to share our vision and design!
This is actually something I've been wanting to do since before we even saw the house. Yes, you read that right. When looking at our house's listing photos, a good 6 months before we even started our house hunt, the two things that stood out to me were the fact that the open kitchen-breakfast nook-family room could easily be updated by removing some kitchen cabinets and a room dividing railing, and by updating the huge fireplace.
The first two steps toward updating this area of our house were done before we moved in. But until now we've still been living with the red brick, over 10 1/2 feet wide, floor to ceiling fireplace as-is.
From the beginning we've always planned on mounting our TV above the fireplace. To simulate that, we've had the TV up on a cabinet in front of the fireplace since we moved in, although this made the fireplace unusable.
But before I get into the actual building steps, I wanted to share our vision and design!
This is actually something I've been wanting to do since before we even saw the house. Yes, you read that right. When looking at our house's listing photos, a good 6 months before we even started our house hunt, the two things that stood out to me were the fact that the open kitchen-breakfast nook-family room could easily be updated by removing some kitchen cabinets and a room dividing railing, and by updating the huge fireplace.
The first two steps toward updating this area of our house were done before we moved in. But until now we've still been living with the red brick, over 10 1/2 feet wide, floor to ceiling fireplace as-is.
From the beginning we've always planned on mounting our TV above the fireplace. To simulate that, we've had the TV up on a cabinet in front of the fireplace since we moved in, although this made the fireplace unusable.
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
The Next 6 Weeks
So, the holidays are over and decorations are put away, I'm mostly over the flu, and we're going to be having our first house guests in our new house at the end of February. What does this all mean?
To do list time!
We have got a whole heck of a lot that we want to get done in the next six weeks, especially after slacking off a bit on the home renovations the last few months of 2012. And because we had to go down the rabbit's hole with our never ending downstairs bathroom renovation, we're a lot further behind than we wanted to be in other areas of our house. So here's what we're hoping to tackle in the very near future, by room.
Guest bedroom:
To do list time!
We have got a whole heck of a lot that we want to get done in the next six weeks, especially after slacking off a bit on the home renovations the last few months of 2012. And because we had to go down the rabbit's hole with our never ending downstairs bathroom renovation, we're a lot further behind than we wanted to be in other areas of our house. So here's what we're hoping to tackle in the very near future, by room.
Guest bedroom:
- move unpacked boxes lining the wall to storage
- finish priming and painting closet and room doors white
- fix headboard and mount it to the wall (the headboard I made in the above picture is just propped against the wall, and the weight of it has made some of my wood puttied joints crack. I'm going to need to do some repair work on it and mount it properly so it doesn't happen again)
- hang curtains
order supplies, make wall art and hang it- paint three bookshelves and bedside apothecary table white
- assemble floor lamp
get chair covers, arrange furniture- wash bedding, make bed
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
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