The final painting project - The DREADED pea puke green diningroom

So, it's about 2.5 more months until Thor comes home and as you all know - I have been painting my way through our house.

We bought the place almost a year ago - it will be a year in September.  And I have been lamenting the drab color choices of the previous owners.  You have seen me turn mustard yellow into slate blue and also dark green, caca brown into warm peachy tan, and mud brown into a Frank Lloyd Wright-esque mural in a dark military blue.

And I saved the worst for last.  Puke pea green.  Walls and ceiling the color of vomit.  Our dining room is a green cave of despair.  It is so dark and awful in that room that I never ever go in there. 

And so I have armed myself with gallons of heavy hiding primer as well as gallons of 3 paint colors because multiple coats will be needed to cover up this travesty.  I picked a warm peachy beige for the ceiling and 3 of the 4 walls.  The accent wall will be a warm peach and I have picked out a gorgeous stencil to add a bit of Art Deco to the room in the darkest accent color which is a warm copper color.

And then the contemplation of my red oak diningroom table, which is gorgeous and was my first "grown-up" furniture purchase about 5 years ago, led me to ask my husband if he might want to get new chairs. 

A resounding YES met my question and he proceeded to describe in great detail how much he despised my "country-fied" dining chairs.  I don't like them much either...I got 2 from a friend when I first moved out on my own and then by the time I got the new table, I had 4 of those chairs already.  It seemed more practical to get 2 more chairs to match the ones I already had rather than spending the money to buy 6 new chairs.  So I have been scoping out new chairs and found some on Overstock.com that I like the look of.  I will have to change the fabric on the seats definitely...but that is no big deal. 

I am on the lookout for a brocade fabric that will coordinate with the stencil as well as the rug I have found - also on Overstock.com...I love that website.  Especially, their rugs.  The rug is currently out of stock - but should be back in shortly.  It's perfect and suits the color palette for the room. 

Of course, the rug I want is a regular rectangle, about 7.5x10ft.  The whole room is being designed around this painting which Thor and I got on our honeymoon. 

The painting is Lady in the Carmine Dress by Felix Mas.  We both love this picture and so went extravagant with the framing - black lacquer with copper foiling in a scroll pattern on the frame.

I have a gig coming up for the first couple weeks of July and so will not start this until I get back on the 16th.

Thor's new office - DONE!!

So I have been working on my husband's office while he's been gone.  It's been done for a couple days but was waiting on a rug to arrive to take pics to share.
But FINALLY - the rug arrived this afternoon and so here are the pics.

Thor wanted a dark green for the room but picked out a color that was a bit drab and closer to the puke pea green than I could live with so I made a slight change to a more deep grey green.  And as irony would have it - a color called Billiard Green.  Ironic because my husband is a bit of a pool shark when the mood descends.

Didn't have to buy any new furniture pieces - Thor has a beautiful cherry secretary desk and matching bookcases which look amazing with the wall color. 

The white trim in the room keeps the color from being too dark. 

Was able to repurpose an occasional chair which matched his furniture perfectly.  And just bought some accessories to accent the furniture and to bring the colors across the room.  The rug topped everything all off.   

Tales from the Fuzzdom - The BIRDIE show!

It's been a fairly uneventful few days, the world keeps turning and the sun rising and setting.  I've reached the halfway point in my husband's deployment, and instead of the days flying by like they seemed to for the first 6 months...these days are dragging and dragging...

And just when I was feeling particularily mopey and maudlin...I happened to catch my two cats participating in their favorite past-time...well, besides eating and sleeping - the BIRDIE show!! 

The Birdie show is a 24 hr show that takes place from the sunroom windows, the neighborhood wildlife comes to taunt and flirt with my eagerly awaiting fuzz people.

Munchkin just stares intently at the squirrels, birds, bugs and wee green garter snakes that pass the window by - no sound, no false starts, no tabby clucking....he leaves all that to Pig.

Pig does all those things...and adds running into the window, jumping up at the window, batting at the bugs and animals OUTSIDE the window, and running back and forth between the front door and the sunroom trying to GET the wildlife.

He's not the brightest thing - that's for sure...but he makes me laugh even when I am having a good mope.

And so life continues...will be starting another room project tomorrow and working on it through the next couple of weeks.  So look for those pictures coming up.

Home renovations - Newly completed Sunroom

I have been working on my home while my husband is deployed.  The current project was the upstairs sunroom off his office.  The plan was to make a library/reading room with cushy chairs, but somewhat more masculine space. 

Here's what I did.  There is a dark military blue on the walls, which was balanced by a white ceiling, window casings and baseboards.  The window treatments I kept from the previous owners - they are  gorgeous golden natural reeds, which I liked the texture of.  And the color was a good contrast to the blue on the walls.

The chairs proved the most difficult items to find.  Several weeks of searching found a pair of black leather club chairs with a subtle Art Deco flavor....plus on clearance...so much the better. 

Painted an old oak bookcase solid white with a gloss finish and added an old white printer stand as an end table. 

Accents were found all over:  matte black lantern, pillows, lovely outdoor rug (also on clearance, yay!), and routed signs  (family and relax) kept my favorite picture of the both of us from our honeymoon.

All in all - I am very happy with how it came out.

Running out of projects...but gaining a lot of light

So to try and pull myself out of my dull-drums I worked on painting the hallway the same color as the living room...a lovely warm peachy tan.

Still have some trim work to do - but instant improvement.  OMG...the people who owned this house before had the absolute worst taste in color.  But, thankfully, they didn't paint over the majority of the original woodwork.

Small favors....and all that.

My lovely staircasing is pictured to the left here with some Photoshop liberties taken with it to make it look like an old hand-colored photograph.

Thanks to the lovely ladies in my Etsy Homefront group for listening to my whining and moping and sending me some great words of encouragement.  I know that I am allowed to have a meltdown every once in awhile...but the stubborn redhead in me wants to scream and throw a tantrum about having a meltdown.

Ok, that makes no sense whatsoever.

Anyway...I'm still here and post-mope if you will.  My neighbors have been pounding and pounding on the exterior of their house all day and I am trying to work around it.  However, trying to be inspired about jewelry so I can compel people to buy with my descriptions...takes a serious hit what with the constant pounding.

But I will soldier on.