You know when you are supposed to start the week with a blog post and then your wife forgets to close the back door and so the cat escapes?
No? Hmm.
Well this is apparently an exciting event that we call “Monday” in our house. So yesterday involved less blogging and more heart-pumping cat-chasing antics than expected.
Never fear – she (the cat) returned with minimal prodding. The down side of her return – 30% of our household budget is still being used for cat food. Rather than Joss and Main and power tools. Bummer.
The up side? I like to think that she was drawn back in by not only our undying and somewhat pathetic love, but also her love of our increasingly cozy and together house.
I am sure it had nothing to do with the freezing rain.
So in honor of The Notorious CSD, I have decided to start the house tour with her new favorite room in the house. If you look closely at the pictures, you can see her white globs of fur marking her spots on the bed.
Kind of like crop circles.
So … the pink room. Remember when it looked like this?
The pink room. Or the pink dumpster.
Well, in the interest of starting with the best (everything goes downhill from here!! #managingexpectations), here is where we are with the formerly (not pink) pink guest room:
holy crap! it’s a bed! and curtains! and happiness all around!
And like a bad 90s semi-rap song (you know what I’m talking about), here is where we break it down …
Paint
Those who did not give up on the blog back in June will remember that we painted the room about 3 months ago. In all honesty, my love affair with these colors was a tumultuous one. We wanted a slate gray and a lighter gray, so we bought a couple dozen paint samples and threw them up on the walls. This is where we learned that identifying paint colors might not be our forte. We were not in love with any of them – but ended up getting impatient and choosing a dark purply-gray color and a really misty gray color.
If my love of these colors was a graph, it would resemble the Grand Canyon (or what I think the Grand Canyon looks like). Lots of love for about a 2 week period, followed by a steep downward slide into self doubt. I went through a good 2 months thinking “yeah, I don’t know about this.” It was very purply and just kind of awkward looking.
I read somewhere (probably Young House Love – because, let’s be honest, this is where all of my life and home lessons come from) that you should live with something for a bit before you decide you want to change it. So we did. We knew we wanted a gray and yellow room, and so we just started piling in the yellow.
And low and behold, the colors grew on me. It is now love. Which is not to say my fickle mind will not change again – but for now, I am on the other side of my Grand Canyon curve of love #bandnameIcallit
Duvet
This was a repeat performance of our master bedroom duvet cover adventure. Let’s just put this out there … I got cocky, did not measure as much as I should, and had to redo the whole thing. But do we like it? Absolutely. It is is bright and cheery and a little ray of sunshine in the middle of a gray room! Plus it hides the CSD crop circles really really well.
sunshine and lollipops
If you want to try it yourself, the best instructions I have seen are here. Seriously, it is a great starter sewing project. Straight lines! Imperfection easily hidden!
The pillows are a Jonathan Adler JC Penney purchase on sale … I am pretty sure I jumped up and down in geeky shreeky joy when I found them. I may have had security called on me.
Curtains
Sing with me for a moment now … ain’t no curtains like dining room curtains cause dining room curtains are FREE.
I love a good curtain … and my love only grows if it is free. We have always really liked our dining room curtains that came with the house but never really felt like they belonged in a dining room. Kind of like a cat that doesn’t belong outside in the backyard. But I digress.
Michelle (in one of those times when she is right and it makes me happy but also a little sad that I did not come up with the brilliant idea myself) suggested that a move up to the guest room might be in order for one set of chevron curtains.
The verdict?
Guilty? Innocent? Who cares – we like em.
Side note – it is funny how something very small can be the tipping point in taking a room from “good” to “love it!” After doing everything else in the room, Michelle moved this little vase and flowers to this filing cabinet masquerading as a nightstand. I walked into the room the next day and said “wow – I cannot believe the difference that makes!” Later that evening, Michelle came to me and said “you know what totally makes the room? the vase.” Go figure.
The Tray
Okay, so this is one of these silly little projects that really does not necessarily add tons to the room – but it makes you feel like you are making progress and it uses up some crap in a closet. Win-win.
Let’s get this straight. Did we need a tray in the bedroom on the dresser? Um, no. But was I bored at work one day, found something on Pinterest about turning an old frame into a tray, and say “well this is well-timed”?
Yes.
So I took some of the old curtain fabric and stapled it onto that cardboard insert in an old picture frame – and whoomp there it is.
The Stuff that Still Needs Doing …
This room is actually in really nice shape. It is basically just a little polishing around the edges. So here is where the to do list stands:
- Build gallery ledges (using a finishing nailer than I have been asking Santa for … hint hint)
- Do an antique white paint finish on the dresser
- Maybe get a little area rug to warm things up
- Find a replacement for the mismatching nightstands (that are not actually night stands)
- Replace the baby overhead light-fan with something sassier
- Buy CSD a cat bed to rid ourselves of crop circles
That is it. Not bad … and it may actually get done before we decide to turn this room into a baby nursery. Or a grow house nursery. Your guess is as good as ours about which will prevail.
Finally, I leave you with the little bit of whimsey that came with the room. I love a good animal-shaped hanger, don’t you?
ninety-nine problems 