Slipcover Fiasco

I am so disappointed I had to buy a Twix. Not once, but twice I have purchased a 3 seat sectional slipcover only to have is show up — eagerly anticipated mind you — to be a sofa cover. I wanted to scream bloody murder and wring someone’s neck when I skeptically opened the same size package and wouldn’t you know? The same thing!

The first time the packaging was all funny and misshapen so I thought perhaps it was a mistake. I returned it and ordered another. I am at a loss now with what to do with this sectional. I may just attempt recovering it myself. I don’t know. I’m too annoyed to think much more on it today.

The walls look great but I was waiting for the slipcover to take pictures. I’ll post when I find “a solution to this paltry geometric dilemma.”

Living room Art

I have finished some projects for the living room - a twin hanging on cotton gingham I have entitled “Evening’s Arrival”.
I also have six of a nine patch completed. I have to purchase the remaining 3 plaques to finish the grouping. They are acrylic on wood. As soon as the walls are painted they will go up.
*edit* I’m keeping it to a six patch. I like it better…

It is incredibly satisfying to be painting again.

Color My World… or, Just My Living Room

John and I settled on the colors for our living room over the weekend and purchased the supplies. (I feel so important when I’m “purchasing supplies”.) Here are the colors we’ve chosen!
I am very excited about it. The trim, as of yet, we are not going to paint. The wood in this room was refinished in a lighter golden oak that I think will work out nicely with the Maple walls.
The sectional was indeed a challenge. It is so large and such a putrid print (imo - not my choice) but it is comfy and functional for us. I searched the web over and finally found a sectional cover in a soft suede cloth. I’ve ordered this in chocolate brown and am anxiously awaiting the delivery. I am also purchasing a recliner cover in either chocolate or sage. I have yet to decide.

The carpet in our living room is still down and quickly accumulating coffee stains. It is killing me since I cannot shampoo it with our partial power. I cannot wait to get it replaced with a free rug at the first of the year. It will be our final addition.

I am also working on some artwork for the room. Many of the decorations I currently have are more of a Victorian style and I’m wanting to migrate those upstairs. I priced art - especially my favorite Don Li-Leger - and about choked. So needless to say, I’m doing my own in a similar style. I know I could purchase prints and have Hubs frame them for me, but he just slightly nods when I ask him, so I’m not sure if that’s acceptance or reluctance in kindness talking. I won’t make him voice it.

In other news I have crocheted this dandy hand towel for the powder room. It’s 100% unbleached cotton and feels wonderful! It was a successful experiment in cotton yarn - in the past I have found cotton yarn separates more easily than acrylic, however I am really pulling away from the acrylic varieties unless they are a specialty type design.
This is a loop starburst pattern with shell edging and crocheted ball buttons.

A Victorian Powder Room

At last it’s finished!
The only things I need yet to do is find (or create) some art for the wall on left. I have some paintings up now, but they are folk art and not at all in harmony with the rest of the room. I also need some beige hand towels, a rug and the shades for the light fixtures. I’m tossing around the idea of making these all myself.

Interestingly enough, this is the second time I planned originally for a fabric shade on a window and then changed my mind later. These fans I created one afternoon last week out of the old mini-blind that had been up at the window, fabric, paste, and a couple of those wooden wheels from the mini-rods. I love the way they look with the “frosted” window!
I also added some “frost” to the rim of the mirror though I couldn’t very well get a picture of it. It’s an old medicine cabinet and the backing was wearing off the mirror in places. Now that’s all covered up!

This is an old shelf/towel rack that I bought at a thrift store three or four years ago. I painted it white, added some wallpaper contrast and one of these adorable Victorian shoe stickers I received years ago in a sticker exchange. I love it! It’s great for function and to display some little trinkets - like the shell roses Hubs bought me.

Here is the back of the door with some painted whimsy at the bottom, some more wallpaper contrast to balance out the beige and white window and more stickers for the Victorian feel. I wanted something with a real historic, period feel to it and I think this is my favorite part of the room.

Someone gave me this old wooden box awhile back and I have used it to store old letters and stationary. I thought it’d be great to dress up for storing toilet paper and other little things one might need but doesn’t want to display openly. I also have a variegated green basket under the sink for additional hand and face cloths.

I tinkered with the notion of a sink skirt, but the space is too tight for it. I could just see someone brushing up against in and it snapping off. Plus I just think it’d make the space too “busy”.

I couldn’t be happier with the way everything turned out. I will never again fret or hesitate if a visitor needs to use the “powder room”!

My New Kitchen

Here are photos of the “completed” kitchen. I will still be adding decor and whatnot as time goes by, but the major stuff its finished.

Undeniable Progress & Salty Ale

I am worn out, but so excited to be working on the Powder Room. It’s so much fun. I think because it’s such a small room and I can close it off while I’m working. The kitchen was more hectic with people coming and going. But this is sweet!

Here’s the headway on the room. I started last night working into the wee hours, then most of today. The hard part (painting) is finished. All that’s left is finishing the accessories and putting it together. This a snapshot of the window fabric and the paper I plan to use on the door.

Also I found a fab project for a window solution. I have been searching high and low for something like this and finally found it. I wanted to frost the window but didn’t want to go to the expense and mess of getting an etching kit, especially since we’re renting. The window above the stool is difficult to get too and I didn’t want to stand there for hours on end. I had read about frosting sprays but there’s nothing like that around here and I couldn’t get to the city. So… I used beer and Epsom salts.

One cup of stale beer and all the salts I could fit in the bowl to make a thick goopy mess. I pressed it to window in a sponging fashion with a rag. (A sponge would’ve been optimal, but I don’t have any.)
It’s to dry 24 hours to a crystalline hardness, allowing light through with no visibility. They even say you can paint this after it dries which is an interesting notion though not practical for my needs. You can lay it on as thick or as light as you want. I sponged heavier on the bottom portion of the window and lighter on the top panes. It’s said to last a good while, is removable with window cleaner and aside from smelling like a tavern, there’s no chemical smell. It’s a nice little project! I will follow up with a picture once it sets and the room is complete.

Planning the powder room

With only a few days remaining before the kitchen is finished - and company coming this weekend - I thought it necessary to begin planning the downstairs powder room. It’s interesting, I thought these tiny hygiene cubicles were a nuisance to all but myself, however it seems they are all the rage. Homeowners are stuffing toilets and sinks into tiny stair recesses, closets, and nooks the world over to have a piece of this minuscule convenience pie. The only hitch is decorating a space that small.

I determined in the beginning that the color rule: pale colors for small spaces would be the only option. I couldn’t be happier to be wrong! Dark colors of course can be used on small spaces without claustrophobic effects, particularly if there’s a source of natural light or good artificial lighting in the room. As you can see, I am honored with a window. Granted, the position of this window creeps me out slightly with it being right above the toi-toi, but it’s a plus nonetheless. And when I lighten up the treatment, it will be a fab focal point.

To dissect the current state of affairs: the wall color is cheap Pamida brand redi-mixed sea foam green that makes me wanna yack every time I go in there. To top that off, the trim is beige. (No clue what those people were thinking.) The border is tacky with that little remainder thrown above the toilet, so it is now gone. What’s funny is that when I was removing it, I found another border beneath it. Needless to say I removed that one also to find that the room had previously been white and before that hot pink. In both cases the walls had been painted after the border was placed. I am still baffled.
Paint has been thrown everywhere, all over the stainless steel paper holder, built in soap dish, sink and toilet though I can get this off easily with a copper scrubber and some ammonia water.
I really don’t care for all this built in stainless steel, but that’s a big job for another person to tackle. I will choose to live with it.
The mini-blind has been up to that window for at least a decade and I have thrown up some old curtains from our old house that are way too drab and dark. The flooring is in good shape.

Here’s the plan: The wall color is Pittsburgh Paints Ultra brand latex in “camouflage”. I love it because of it’s variant between brown and green. A nice warm color that looks great with both the black and the white. The fabric I bought for the window treatment — a shade — is a beige and white paisley that will set it all off beautifully while still letting in the natural light.

I can’t wait to get going with it!

Hardwood Floor, Baby

I am sick of shampooing horrible animal stained carpet. (I’m convinced it’s animals stains and that just makes me nauseas.) So Hubs and I did some exploring yesterday and found there is beautiful hardwood underneath this carpeting just like upstairs! So today we began the process of ripping it up. So far we have the dining room finished. There were a lot of paint and ceiling spackle drops on the floor (I shake my head in disgust) so we had to do some scrubbing. I used ammonia with water and a copper scrubber. Perhaps not the best solution, but it worked well. It removed the spots pretty easily, however along with what little varnish there was left. So, we are going to re-varnish them once we get the living room pulled up and cleaned. I’ve recently become somewhat of an expert at that.

The flooring is in good shape. It will be so much nicer this way! One thing we were always concerned about is having friends over with the putrid carpeting. It was an embarrassment. No more! Eventually we will get some room sized remnants bound and lay them down in the rooms. This flooring is just too nice to cover though!

Project: Mini Curtain Rods

A few weeks ago, we moved upstairs to the master bedroom. Our oldest daughter had taken it previously because we thought it’d be easier for us on the main floor. But she was getting tired of not having furniture to fill the space, and John and I were tiring of too little space. So we made the switch and we couldn’t be happier. The master bedroom has an incredible double window and two window nooks: one perfect for John’s desk and the second perfect for my crochet/reading area.
It’s a beautiful room really. The only thing that bugged me was the window was slightly more narrow than our bed, making it look a bit off kilter. So, I had the idea — which I think I’d seen or read about somewhere before — to hang curtains on either side of the window simply for aesthetic purposes to balance the width of the window to the bed. I had seen in a magazine foot long rods that were used for that purpose, but could I find them anywhere? Not around here and not for any price I was willing to pay.
<<< So, I went to the craft at section handy dandy Wal-mart and found twelve inch wooden dowels in assorted diameters and a bag of wooden “car wheels”. They had round balls too, but I preferred the shape of the wheels, even though I didn’t realize that’s what they were supposed to be until I got home. It worked out well.
John was kind enough to risk possible nerve damage by drilling micro holes into each end of the two largest dowels, 1 inch diameter. It was quite scary. (He had just got home from work, so he is quite dirty.) I cast a glance only long enough to snap the picture, after he had scared me to death by screaming in mock agony. >>>
<<< This is what the ends looked like after we attached the wheels to the dowel. We used 2 inch screws. I hung the curtains on the rod before he attached the second wheel, that way he could do it with the drill and I wouldn’t have to hand crank.
We hung the mini rods with screw hooks. We had to bend the circle of the hook out to accept the dowel, but other than that it worked great. The finished product. I am very pleased!

I think they will stand out even better after we get the walls painted, but that will have to wait.

Recycling. . .it’s a good thing

So I mentioned something previously about that cabinet that broke when we removed it and how I was planning to use it somehow for a splatter guard behind the stove. I also pondered whether or not to match it to the previously painted back splash or do something a bit different. Well, pondering and planning is over, for I have completed my task! This is a side panel from the cabinet — about a quarter inch piece of wood measuring 30 inches wide — the perfect width of the stove. We didn’t have to trim it down one iota.
I painted it freehand with wall paint and I am quite pleased with the way it turned out. I put two coats of poly to protect it and make it washable.

The shelves were ones I have moved with me for years, painting and repainting them with each whim. We removed the supports from one, placed it across the top, inverted a second shelf and pieced to two together.

In the first photo you can also see the exhaust fan cover that I spray painted with the desert bisque spray paint and an outlet cover in the black. Without much planning, this entire section of the kitchen has come together beautifully.