Redecorating Reveals

Well, it's finally time for Show and Tell!  The latest house changes are finished, so I'll show you what I've done!

First up is the new entry way light.  A little background on this light.  I have been somewhat addicted to decorating blogs lately, and on these decorating blogs I found that people have been really enamored with this light from Pottery Barn:



   On those decorating blogs you can read about how people have made their own light like this, or picked up a similar model at a thrift store.  Well, I decided that was a pretty cool light as well, and was THRILLED when I found something kind of similar at my local Habitat for Humanity Restore.  For those who don't know, the Restore is a thrift store of building/house supplies, with proceeds supporting Habitat for Humanity.  So, I found the lamp, which was originally a lovely golden color, paid $3 for it (vs. $269 for the Pottery Barn version), took it home, painted it black, and ended up with this:

I like it a lot!



Next up is the bedroom redecorating. This has gotten the most laughs out of all my recent projects, because probably within the past year (or two at the very most) I already redid my bedroom decor. So when people hear I changed it they say, "But didn't you just BARELY change it?" Yeah.  But that's the way it goes sometimes with me. :-)

The desire to change things up started one day as I was reading a decorating blog, where I read about how white bedspreads are a pain because they get dirty easily. Since I had a white quilt on my bed, I could totally understand! In fact, I understood that so well that I decided to change it...I was sick and tired of brown spots on that get-dirty-way-too-easily white quilt. So, after a bit of thinking about it, I decided that I wanted red bedding. In the end, I went with the color scheme my niece Kajsa used at her wedding: brown and red...scarlet? Maroon? I don't know what color to call it. Better just take a look and see:

Here's the bed, with my nice red bedding. I made the toile pillows, and the little white accent pillow that has a red ribbon and brown fabric rosette on it. The brown pillow and the brown bedskirt were leftovers from the last bedroom decor. Don't you love the cool curtains with the red at the top and brown at the bottom that go so well? (Bought 'em that way, what a perfect match!) I also really like the metal scrollwork at the top of the window, and the cute little lamp for my bedside table.

On top of the armoire, I changed the candles to white ones (they had previously been blue), and added a wreath of red berries around the base of the candles to tie in the color scheme.

Over on the other dresser, besides a vase of flowers in the color scheme, I framed a cute card that I had given Craig at one time that was the perfect color for the room, and mod-podged a red scrapbook paper onto the picture frame that I already had.

I LOVE the way it all turned out!

But, with this new change in the color scheme in the bedroom, I was feeling like my mint green bathroom countertop in the attached master bath just wasn't quite cutting it.  Besides, the floral wallpaper border had been up the entire 13 years we've been here, and so (OF COURSE!) I decided to change it all to match my bedroom better.  What I hoped would be a 4 days process ended up being more of a 3 week process, but I really think it was well worth it!  Take a look and see:

I ended up painting my countertops.  That's quite a surprising statement to some ("You painted your countertops?" they say), but I have a neighbor that swears it can be done and work well for quite a few years, so after consulting with her I did it! 

The vanity got painted a really nice dark brown and I added oil rubbed bronze pulls, as well as spray painted my towel racks with an oil rubbed bronze spray paint to match.  After taking down the old wallpaper border, the walls of the bath were painted as well.  I also found a nice bath mat, a toothbrush holder and soap dish, and a few other decorative elements in the color scheme and added those to the room.

What I probably like best about the room redo, was that I took down the giant builder's mirror and replaced it with two framed mirrors.  I added two planters full of red silk roses between the mirrors (with the planters, a Savers thrift store find that originally had Santa Claus painted on them, being made over with the oil rubbed bronze paint as well!)

Well, with all that redecorating and remodeling, you'd think I'd been done, right?  But, like a late night infomercial, WAIT!  There's MORE!

I also replaced the "dressing room lights" light bar in the hall bath with this fixture:

(The light fixture looks from this angle like it's not centered over the mirror, but it really is!)

And, I replaced the broken doorbell at the front door and rearranged the family room furniture (sorry, no pictures of those things.) 

I'd like to say that's all the redecorating I'm doing for awhile...but I better not make any promises I'm not sure I can keep!

Trevor!

This past week Trevor turned 16!  Amazing!  He got his driver's license, and today he was ordained a Priest in the Aaronic Priesthood.

Here are a few pictures from today: 

Grandma, Trevor, Grandpa

 Craig, Trevor, Libby

Jacob, Grandpa, Bradley, Craig, Trevor--Perfect stair steps!!!

Happy Birthday, Trevor!  You are an awesome son!  We are proud of you and your faithfulness and diligence, and we love you very much. 

And there was much rejoicing...

This week Craig went out of town for about 3 days.  And, if you know me, you know that means that I'm gonna do some decorating.  I had recently redone the decor in my bedroom, and so when Craig left my plan was to change my bathroom to match.

So, nearly the minute he drove out of the driveway, I set to work.  And let me tell you, for the most part, this has been such a frustrating project!  Instead of being finished when Craig got home, I was still in the midst of it.  I wanted to change my mirror, but was having no luck finding what I wanted.  I found a rug I liked, but not in the right size.  I bought knobs, only to dislike them when I got home.  I took down the wallpaper border that had been up, but didn't paint the walls.  I was slow on painting the cabinets, so the doors were still only primed.

And speaking of painting, this project has had some paint issues.  It seems so simple to pick paint, doesn't it?  I want THIS color (she says, pointing to the tannish color in the bath rug).  Why however, does what seems to match in the store not match at home?  If I bring the rug to the store and match the paint to it there, why does it NOT match when I get it home?  I know the light at the store is different than my light at home, but it seems to me like the light change should effect both the rug and the paint color the same way.  No such luck though.  After one coat of the paint I went "YUCK!  Wrong color!"

I was tired of going to the store, tired of returning the wrong things, and tired of the whole project in general.  What kind of crazy woman was I for thinking I could change my bathroom?  I just wanted to close the door and ignore it all until the magic bathroom fairy came and fixed it just the way I wanted it to be.

However, today I went back ONE MORE TIME to the store and pondered and stewed and fretted and worried, but in the end brought home probably 52 paint color sample cards, and two mirrors.  When I got home I placed the color sample cards around the rug (I did find the right size rug eventually, hooray!), and opened the boxes the mirrors were in, pulled them out and leaned them carefully up against the wall in the bathroom.

And then...the storm clouds of frustration parted, the sun began to shine through and there was much rejoicing!  Suddenly everything I envisioned seemed to be coming together!  The mirrors worked: they were exactly what I wanted size wise and colorwise!  There was a paint sample that appeared with the light in my house to be just the right color to match the bath mat! 

Hallelujah!  I am now renewed and ready to get going on finishing up the project.  Hooray for things FINALLY feeling like they are coming together! 

Stay tuned for pictures of the finished product...