Guest Bedroom Re-do: Part I

I'm baaaa-aaaack!

I don't know about you, but April has flown by! I returned from a business trip to Dallas a couple of weeks ago, and after taking a few days to recuperate, went straight to work on my next project here at home!

The guest bedroom has been on my to-do list for quite some time now, but kept getting bumped further and further down for higher priorities. So far, the only thing I've done to the room is replace the bedsheet that was covering the window with some real curtains. (Please, hold your applause.) A few months ago, I found a pair of suede blackout curtains at Tuesday Morning for $50, which I thought was fairly reasonable. Looking back, though, I probably should have had a more cohesive plan in place for the room before I went out and got curtains. Thankfully, they're just a solid, steely gray color, so I still have plenty of design options.

Due to a couple of recent events (including the acquisition of some free furniture), the guest bedroom project has all of a sudden been put on fast-forward. We also have family coming into town this weekend for a wedding, some of whom will be staying with us. That put me on a tight deadline to get everything done by tomorrow, but I've finally come to the realization that it's just not going to happen. I'm a little bummed, but I want to make sure that I'm happy with the final result and don't make any rash decisions.

With that said, here's the "before" pictures, taken last week. As you can see, we've pretty much used the bedroom as a place to store all our mis-matched college furniture and random crap decor. I would describe the walls as an aqua color, which isn't all that bad except I was getting tired of it.

My master plan for a sophisticated, modern guest room includes:
1) painting the walls gray,
2) adding white furniture,
3) finding a new bedding set, and
4) incorporating accents with bright pops of color (yellow, orange, blue?)

Since I'm not the type who can wait until the room's finally "finished" to post about it, I'll show it in bits and pieces. First on the agenda was painting the walls. Keep in mind that this was our first painting experience in the house. We got a sample of Behr paint called Cool Sky, which looked gray-ish, but ended up being too light. So I figured I'd just pick a darker shade (without trying a sample) and we'd be good to go. That was rookie mistake #1. Once we started painting the walls Denim Light--which also looked gray on the sample card--it appeared to be more blue than anything (I should have known by the name...duh). But we kept going, thinking that maybe it would dry darker and magically look like the color I wanted. Not so. Two gallons and $60 later, we had powder blue walls. D'oh!

I was pretty frustrated (with myself, more than anything), but I really didn't want to paint it again, so I had resigned myself to the fact that I would just change my plan and go with a "beachy" theme instead. But Luke knew I wasn't happy, so he convinced me that we should re-paint it. So, back to Lowe's we went. This time, we got three samples of gray shades and ended up choosing Valspar's Metropolis (bottom swatch).

At first I was a little worried that it would end up TOO dark once it was on all the walls, but I wanted something that would contrast nicely with white furniture, so I took the risk. And I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out, although when the natural light shines on it, it still has somewhat of a blue tint. Who knew that finding a good gray would be so hard!! (Okay, so Sara at Russet Street Reno knew! Why didn't I just re-read this post about her dressing room before I painted?!)

Anyway, here's a sneak peek of the new color:

 

In case you're interested, we also decided to try the Shur-Line 2000878 Paint Premium Edger, since it was under $10 and could potentially save us the hassle of taping everything. It took a little practice and occasionally left little blobs that we had to re-touch later. So to be on the safe side, we decided to just use it next to the ceiling and still tape all of the trimwork. But overall, not a bad investment for a few bucks.

Don't tell anyone, but I also left the closet the powder blue color, because I didn't feel like taking the time to repaint it. The door's closed most of the time, and when the light is off it looks like almost the same color as the room anyway. Oh, and just for fun, here's what our living room looked like for most of this week, while we had everything moved out of the guest room.

GAH. I finally got around to moving most of it tonight.

Next up is the furniture makeover, which I'm almost finished with, so stay tuned for Part II!

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I've got sunshiiine... on a cloudy day

Please forgive my terrible singing.

It's taken me awhile to get around to this, but thanks to Kristi @ Life at the Chateau Whitman and Nellie @ McCarthy Designs for bestowing the Sunshine Award upon me! It definitely brightened my day, as the name would suggest. :)  Oh, and my sister over at The Yellow Front Door also gave me the award, but she probably feels obligated to. ;) Anyway, I have to admit I don't feel very deserving of an award, considering how little time I've been able to spend blogging lately (more on that below.) But regardless, thanks to these lovely ladies for thinking of me, and you should go check out their awesome blogs!

I'm supposed to pass this along to 12 other blogs that I enjoy reading. Not easy to pick just 12, but here goes (in no particular order, mind you):
1. House Notes

2. two poms and a house

3. The Brick Cottage

4. Hiphousegirl's Blog

5. Welcome to my humble ablog

6. Marleah

7. The Sweet Maple Life

8. McKinney Living

9. House of Hepworths

10. Chic Little House

11. Starter Home to Dream Home

12. The Flipping Couple

Back to the whole neglecting my blog thing.... Work has been super-busy lately, and it's only going to get worse over the next couple weeks. Then I'll be out out of town for a week (also for work). Therefore I'm going to be taking a break from blogland for a little while. *sniff*  I am really looking forward to May. The weather will be warmer, life will be a little less hectic, and we can finally get some more projects done around the house! Like what, you ask? Well, here's a little teaser...

- Painting our front door
- Adding some personality to our boring bathroom
- Working on our landscaping
- Laying a brick sidewalk
- Maybe even getting started on our unfinished basement?? 

Also, I'll post some pictures of the trees and shrubs that we planted last fall -- they're finally starting to turn green and grow buds, and I'm VERY excited about it! So until next time.... happy April and happy blogging! And to quote the Glass Tiger song: "Dooon't forget me when I'm gone..."

Master Bedroom Semi-Makeover

This isn't a true "before and after," because that would imply our master bedroom is done, and it most certainly is not. So it's more like a "before and during."

For about six months after we moved in, this is what our bedroom looked like:

Hideous, I know.

This is the only "before" picture I have, but it's cringe-worthy enough on its own. The mish-mash of sad college furnishings didn't exactly scream "master bedroom." So when we were doing some harmless window-shopping at Oak Express and found out about a 5-year/no interest deal, we jumped on it. It was kind of a spur-of-the-moment decision (apparently our favorite kind), but we ended up buying a whole new bedroom set -- dresser, chest of drawers, two nightstands, and a headboard. It was the first time either of us had ever had a real bedroom set, so as silly as it sounds, we finally felt like "grown-ups!"

We also upgraded to a new comforter set (from Target) that coordinates much better with the aqua paint color, which I don't plan on painting anytime soon. (But I'm already getting tired of the bed... now I think there's too much brown.) Oh, and in case you were wondering what we did with that awesome animal print quilt, it got moved to the guest bedroom (which desperately needs a makeover as well, but that's taking a back seat to some other priorities). So now I present to you our matured master bedroom!

The silver frames and mirror were a wedding gift that we didn't even get out of the box until well over two years later! I actually didn't think I'd like them, but they worked out pretty nicely in here. I put photos from our wedding and honeymoon in the frames.

The sexy new lamp definitely helped improve the ambience!

I also have two wall sconces I purchased 6 months ago that are still sitting on the floor. Someday, I'm going to put them up over the headboard or on the wall next to the bed. My only excuse for not doing it by now is that I can't decide if there's a better spot in the house for them.

Ok, so the room still leaves a lot to be desired -- mainly some real window treatments. I've been debating whether or not to try making my own, a la Sara's No-Sew Curtains or perhaps the Drop Cloth Curtains over at The Brick Cottage... But the way things are going right now, it would be awhile before I got around to that!

Also, there's a lot of potential with the ceiling. I'm not sure what type of ceiling this is... it's not coffered, but I did some Googling and the closest I can come up with is a tray ceiling? All I know is, it helps make our small room feel much bigger.

(Old picture, pre-move in)

Anyway, I'm thinking I could either paint the "inner" part a different shade, or even utilize the space to put up one of those wall decal quotes. Although the ceiling fan is actually pretty decent-looking, I wouldn't mind switching it out for a fabulous chandelier light fixture (like my sister did), but it would probably get way too hot in here then. Boo.

My biggest annoyance with the room now is that there's not a lot of flexibility as far as re-arranging, which I like to do. The placement of the windows and the big furniture is kind of limiting. But with a little creativity, I know I can still make some major improvements in here!

Real vs. Fake

I admit it. 

I'm a faker when it comes to flowers in the house. (What did you think I meant?)  But in my defense, I do try to buy the ones that look as realistic as possible -- usually from Hobby Lobby.

I have some in little vases...

The above two "bud vases" are empty reed diffusers!

This little arrangement was on sale at Pier1 for $3.50!

Another use for votive holders

And some in bigger vases... 

Yes, I realize the glass beads scream "FAKE!"

In fact, I rarely ever buy fresh blooms for the house, although it would be lovely to have a real bouquet and that wonderful floral fragrance on a daily basis. But in general, I don't splurge on the real deal unless it's for a special occasion. Yet another reason to get some more flowers planted outside our house...

So where do you stand on on the great floral debate? Are you a faker too, or do you "just say no" to faux? Let's hear it!

The Dyson: It sucks.

When my sister told me she bought a Dyson several years ago, I remember asking her, "You spent HOW much?!" Being the cheapskate I am, I could never see myself spending hundreds of dollars on a stinkin' vacuum cleaner. I mean, is it really worth it?

Well, that was before we bought a house. And acquired a cat who loves to leave a little bit of herself behind everywhere she goes. Up until a few months ago, this is what we were cleaning our house with: 

Sure, it worked fine for the 800 sq. ft. apartment (with mostly concrete floors) that we used to live in, but this little Eureka was not made to handle a whole house. Even after vacuuming with it, the carpet still felt matted down and grungy.

So when Black Friday rolled around last year, I found out that Best Buy was going to be offering the Dyson Absolute Animal DC17 for a mere $350 (about $200 less than regular price). As much as it pained me, I knew we needed the upgrade desperately. After all, a $350 vacuum that lasts for years and years (or forever??) is cheaper than buying a new vacuum every few years.

After a few months of using this baby, I can safely say the Dyson sucks...in a good way! We could tell a big difference in the feel of our carpet the first time we used it. It was much fluffier and you could actually SEE that the floors had been vacuumed. Obviously, we only had a very inferior vacuum to compare it with, but I'm fairly certain this thing could suck the stripes off a zebra. In fact, I think it's still sucking up new carpet fuzz, which means it's either a very powerful vacuum, or we just have cheap carpet (probably a little of both). I also use it on our hardwood floors.

Mr. Eureka doesn't stand a chance.

The Dyson came with the Zorb carpet powder (which I haven't tried yet), and other attachments including a mini turbine head, which is great for cleaning up pet hair (I'm talking to you, Phoebe). I usually don't mind cleaning in general, but vacuuming is definitely much more enjoyable now! The only frustration I have with it is that the wand is so long, it can get a little awkward using it. (Unless there's a way to shorten it that I haven't figured out yet.) On the other hand, the long wand can come in handy in some situations.

Are there any household items or appliances you've discovered that are worth the high price (painful as it may be)?

Signs of Life

This past week has been especially draining at work (hence my absence from blogging), so I was extra glad when the sun came out on Friday and the temperature skyrocketed into the 50s this weekend... maybe even 60. Balmy! It's amazing how the weather can lift your spirits. I've definitely got me a case of spring fever. 

We worked out in our lawn a bit this weekend, moving some limestone rocks around for our landscaping (more on that some other time). I also watered all the bushes and shrubs we planted last fall, and imagine my excitement when I saw this: 

I have no green thumb by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm pretty sure these are little buds on our burning bush?! After several months of paranoia that none of our plants would come back in the spring, this was a big relief.

Then, I was even more thrilled when I saw these:

Last Easter, my mom gave me a pot of tulips and a few months later I planted the bulbs next to the sidewalk in front of our house. I had read that potted tulips don't always grow once they're transplanted outside, but I figured I'd give it a shot since I didn't have much to lose. I had almost forgotten about them, but now we have ten little tulip plants that have started to sprout! They're only about an inch tall right now, but I haven't ever really grown anything from a bulb before, so I'm pretty proud.  :) Any tips for growing tulips, or are they pretty low-maintenance? I'm thinking I may have to transplant them somewhere else because their current location gets a lot of shade.

I have a few more projects in the works that I hope to post about soon, if I can ever get motivated when I get home from work! Maybe now that winter finally appears to be on its way out, I'll be a little more productive!

Do two people really need this much food?

I always thought our pantry was a pretty decent size -- a definite upgrade from the non-existent pantry we had when we lived in our apartment. Well, as it turns out, the more space you have, the more you buy to fill it up!

Awhile back, I bought some little wire racks at World Market in an attempt to better utilize the height of the shelves, and that helped for awhile. But every time we stock up on sale items -- like I did on my most recent grocery shopping trip -- it gets a little more out of control in here. It doesn't help that we also have to dedicate one of the shelves to small appliances, since we don't have enough cabinet space in the kitchen.

 

If you were ever curious as to what we eat, now you know.

Things are just stacked and piled on top of each other wherever they fit, and it takes some digging to find what we want. Plus, stuff gets buried and we forget about it until we discover it much later. It's very depressing when you're really craving some popcorn, only to find out the box you have is a year past its expiration date. I ain't messin' with that.

So I finally got sick of staring at these cluttered shelves every time I opened the pantry door, and took a visit to Home Depot to see what storage solutions I could find. Luckily, they just happened to have two of these 3-tiered wire racks left, at about $11 each, a price I could definitely stomach.

I snatched them both up, of course. They may not be the most glamorous, but this project was all about function, not style. The racks came with anchors, screws, and plastic clips for mounting, but those anchors weren't going to work for our hollow pantry door. So we took a trip to Lowe's, where we had previously seen anchors made specifically for hollow-core doors. Genius! 

The anchors worked pretty well, except some of them tore up the door a little bit. Oh well, it was covered up with the mounting clip anyway.

 

After about 45 minutes, the racks were installed!

 

Of course I wasted no time sorting through our shelves and deciding how to best fill those gleaming white racks. I didn't want anything too heavy on them, so this is what I ended up with:

And here are our newly organized pantry shelves:

Maybe you can't tell much of a difference, but I know I can!

For under $25, we were able to add much more functional space to our pantry. Now that we can find things easier, maybe we'll also waste less money on expired food that we end up tossing.

Do you have any pantry problems?