Oh Snap...I mean stripe.

Alright. So, you've seen what happens when I get a wild hair after being pregnant (Stripe Post). 
I painted the white stripes over the olive walls because I wasn't really digging the green anymore. But I really did not want to repaint everything that was green. The walls NEVER end in this house, so the core of the house was green... the foyer (2 stories), the formal living room, the downstairs hallway, the dining room arches and up the stairs and hallway. So, I was trying to avoid what I already knew was inevitable repainting EVERYTHING. 


The stripes are awesome (though Mister Freckle Face did comment that it look "Dr Seussical" - thank you very much his comments have been closed). But - I didn't get over not liking the green. You know when you start to not like a color in your home...and it becomes like this THING that you just have to take care of. Now. Or else. So, I put up about 28 swatches - because I was going to be S.U.R.E. this time. I stuck to gray's - beige gray. Brown gray. Gray gray. Green gray. And then they all started to blend together. It's a hard color to choose, but I kept coming back to Grant Beige (BM) - it looked totally gray in some light. Creamy greige in other light. And it was so fresh. 


I was going to link some beautimous pictures of grant beige from around blog land, but it made my computer freeze up for the last 30 minutes so you can go look if you want. 


So, before stripes...I have somewhere. Can't find it. This whole "no before pictures before blogging" thing is going to make me nuts. 
Green/white stripes:

And now: Grant Beige and French Linen. It's dark and cloudy today (tut tut, looks like rain) so the light isn't so great. Bear with me...(ha ha. Get it. I make myself laugh). 

The hallway upstairs is long. It goes to the left where there is a closet, a playroom and the kids bathroom. To the right is the laundry room and the bonus room. That is an old sewing cabinet I bought at Goodwill for $12 and painted. There isn't a sewing machine in it, apparently it's the boys stuff secret hidey place. 

This is from the other end of the hallway. The wall on the left goes downstairs - and I didn't stripe it, because let's face it, who wants to teeter on a ladder to paint the wall, and then again to do the stripes. Plus it felt like it would be TOO much. Apparently, there is such a thing. 
On the right is the doors to the bonus room (aka man cave) and to the right of that, a bedroom. Then the gallery wall. It's always changing. My goal is to fill it up. That wall continues to a nook that overlooks to entry and that wall just keeps on a goin'. So the nook didn't get stripes either.

The stripes continue to the right, where there is another bedroom door, behind the camera is another door and the stripes stop to the left, because that goes back downstairs. Someday, I'd like to put something different on the floor. 
So, those are the new and improved stripes. 

After I started the repaint job, I saved the stripes for last, since I hadn't finished them in their original color so long before. I knew it would make me a little nuts. But overall, stripes are easy. I just used a giant long level, frog tape, pencil and ruler (because they are spaced 12"). I made adjustments between 11-12 inches where needed because of things like light switches and thermostats. 

I drew all of my lines on the wall, and then made sure they were still level. I'm sure a laser level would be great, but I just couldn't get it right. Once I drew them on, I tape them and then put the original wall color on the tape to seal them. After that dried (doesn't take long because you are just sealing the tape) I put the new paint on and immediately pulled the tape off, otherwise you could have issues pulling off the paint. It wasn't hard, just a little time consuming. But so rewarding...

Copy cat, dirty rat

Have any of you seen these draftsman stools ALL over the home magazines and internet? 

Via Houzz

contemporary living room design by san francisco interior designer Artistic Designs for Living, Tineke Triggs

Vintage Toledo stool's and their copy cat cousins have taken over my mind. No. Seriously. I had been wishing. and hoping. and dreaming. and wishing. But good gravy, they are EXPENSIVE...with super caps. At least to me. I really wanted them, but I was going to get a bargain. It just took a little while (and, ahem,  3 pairs of temporary place holder stools). GAME ONNNNNN (remember that movie?).

Via Houzz

eclectic kitchen design by san francisco interior designer Artistic Designs for Living, Tineke Triggs

I looked back to my old Cottage Living magazines (oh how I miss thee) and found them there too - and some of those are from 2004...so I know this isn't a trend. I love the industrial look, mixed with old and new.  And I couldn't think of how these could look bad in my kitchen...so the hunt began....

via Restoration Hardware $315

Yeahhhhh. That's not going to happen. But dang it if I wasn't going to find an identical match because these made my heart sing.

Wisteria - currently on sale for $95!

Cost Plus World Market - currently on sale for $99

And then...it happened. I found them. I had a brilliant idea to check Overstock - because it seems like they have been following a lot of trends (wait...didn't I say this wasn't a trend?) lately and have great prices. Cue violin music here. Because they kept selling out. Oh, and they were a little pricey. They were about $120 when I found them (each). Currently they are on sale for about $116. While doing Xmas shopping, smart google taunted me by showing pictures of them in the sidebars. I clicked the picture to see if they were available and they were!!! Cue southern choirs singing...I immediately ordered them. Did I mention that furniture was 20% off ANNNNND I had a coupon. So I paid $80 per stool, no shipping (holiday promotion) and they arrived all put together in 2 days. Wanna see??? Huh, wanna? Oh, alright. 

 They look just like them, right?

Apartment Therapy

 I may not have the perfect evening lighting and fireplace in  my kitchen. But I think they look just as good. And they are cozy, and as an extra bonus, the boys can have swivel races with the tops. Uh huh. That's what I'm talking about. Multi purpose furniture. 

I'm linking up to my favorite blogs!

Mirror Mirror on the wall...

It may or may not be true that I have a giant, fat, Santa sized crush on sunburst mirrors. I recently saw one for a medium sized penny at one of my local places (which I cannot give away, for fear that those around me will go snatch it up before I get a chance to...bwaaa haaa haaa). I'm thinking that maybe...a fun craft for the next "mom's night in" would be DIY sunburst mirrors. Here are some drool worthy inspiration pictures...

via Mecox Gardens Blog

Oh...now I need that  shiny chest of drawers...(ignore the little voice that says fingerprints and jam hands would be smeared all over that 2 seconds after it crossed the threshold...shhhhhh)

via DecorPad

Do you see it hiding on the wall - this seems totally do-able. I like pretty much everything, except the Egypt sized couch. I'm pretty sure everyone crawling on my furniture would drive me batty. 

via DecorPad

 I think the one I'm hiding in a local store is very similar to this one. No. I will not tell you where. 

http://www.ballarddesigns.com/oversized-sunburst-mirror/mirrors/decorative-mirrors/198107

 Yes please. I'd like 3 to go.

Kate at Centsational Girl

  So, I'm thinking the bandwagon isn't quite full. What do you think? Is the trend on the way out? or here to stay?

Christmas Mantle

Christmas is just around the corner - so I thought I would share my mantle and a few DIY accessories that I added. This is apparently where all the ideas from blogland landed in their finished state (or not so finished...if you know me, you get me, copeesh?)

 This is the first time I've really been able to decorate the mantle. It's always had the tv on it (btw, why do builders do that??? STOP it already. Or give other options.) Mister Freckle Face always got annoyed when the greenery and stockings would impede the remote's ability to send secret messages to the cable box. I don't know why. So I finally moved it. When he was at work. That's how I roll. (Note to self - time to break out the real camera...)

Onto my ramblings... In case one of my four readers is interested in the deet's:  the old glass window is actually half of a door from our old house in Michigan. The door did about as much good actually attached to the house. It's a piece of Michigan that I will never part with. The lanterns are PB knock-offs. I heart them. They are from Shopko. Who knew? I hadn't been there in a meeelion years, but happened in there for Christmas lights and found these beauts, marked at 60% off. Making them $23 for the biggie and $13 for the smallie. The wreath is a coffee filter wreath - she's showing off in this picture.

Apparently the right side is dollar tree corner. The glass hurricanes are a blog land knock-off, which are actually Williams and Sonoma knock-off's I think. I just used a candle stick and a vase from dollar tree and glued them together, with one of those prayer candles inside (plain, no fancy picture).  I used some bead garland to dress them up.

Mr Nutcracker was my mom's and he asked to leave storage and come home with me. I couldn't say no. And now, he has friends.

Oh, and again, from blogland (seriously, this is how I relax) - the pennant or banner or bunting, whatever they are called, is just leftover khaki fabric with itsy red pin stripes was roughly cut into triangles and hot glued to twine. I used big foam letter stamps from Michaels to stamp "Merry Christmas". Instead of stamping paint, I stamped glue on each piece, then sprinkled glitter on them.

There is still glitter stuck to my kitchen island. Se la vi. 

Red Cross Pillows

http://seaboldvintagemarket.bigcartel.com/product/red-cross-pillow-20-x-20

I tried. I did. I decided no more red. I did a good job too. Then I decided that red is a neutral (can you think of a color it doesn't go with???) and Christmas came...and it started to sneak back in. And then I saw these... Drooooool. And for a measly $125 a pillow. Run over and pick yourself up 3 or 4. Since I can't convince Mr Freckle Face to buy 2 pillows for $250, I had to make them myself. And mine needed to look old, worn and faded. Because let's face it,  they will look like that in not so much time anyway, so may as well give them an extra kick.

Stripety Stripe Stripe Stripe

After having the last little and barely being able to move for many months, I decided my first post-baby project would be to paint stripes. The upstairs hallway was the winner because it's long and a little dark in spots, and I didn't want to lock the stripes in a room and not be able to enjoy them only, say, when I went in the bathroom. So, five minutes after deciding, the tools were out and we were stripping  stripe-ing. 

Sort of. There is some prep work that needs to be done, which is why I hadn't tackled it before. But other than having to commit a few naptimes and evenings to it, it wasn't bad, and gave the hallway so much attitude, I'd do it again in a minute...

First Post

Let's just get this post out of the way - I plan on posting all of my adventures in renovating a builder basic house here. I stalk other design blogs with zeal and hope that someday, maybe someone will get some good ideas from me too...Let's get going!