Hang 'Em!

I recently moved into my first solo place (no more roommies) and am slowly making this old, outdated, 2 bedroom, 1 bath, wood paneled, linoleum loving rental house a home.  Every room needs a little something, but today I'm onto the living room.  The below image is pretty much what I have to work with, minus the couch, cause I don't actually own one...yet.  I don't have an actual image of the room yet, because I'm a bit embarrassed at the packing boxes and homeless items still lying around.

My present issue with this room (other than the wood paneling and no installed lighting) are the windows.  I have a large window that faces the front yard.  Adorning this window are broken, yellowed mini blinds.  Not so cute and not so private.  Because of the previously mentioned wood paneling and lack of lighting, I wanted some bright curtains to hang. 

I already spent hours looking for curtains online and in local stores.  I didn't love any of them and those I liked were too expensive.  Plus, I prefer making my own things when possible, because I like to feel more unique.  I'm a middle child - I need to be noticed!  :)

As a fabric shopping addict, I knew I could find something that would make me and my bank account happy.  And after some fabric.com browsing, I ordered a few swatches:

Premier Prints Twill Suzani in Storm Grey

Premier Prints Cottage Twill in Harmony


Premier Prints Acres Twill in Harmony/Green


Premier Prints Suzani Twill in Harmony/Green


And to really shake things up, Maasai Mara in Maasai Blue.  I blame Young House Love and their dining room curtains for this gorgeous idea. 


Things can look so different online vs real life.  So when you can help it, you're safest working from swatches.  Ideally you can go out and touch/feel/see in an actual store, but living where I do, actual stores with this type of fabric can be a 1-2 hour drive.

So today these swatches arrived and YUP...I feel differently about them in person than online. 

I was convinced that the harmony/green fabrics would come out on top, but I think I'm loving the Maasai Mara one!  We'll see how I am feeling once I get these swatches home to match to my things!  But let's story board those last curtains with my room.  Yeah Boy!

DIY Inspirations Part 1

I have this old, ugly, dark wood dresser.  I bought it second hand from a co-worker for $35.  It is scratched beyond belief, dented and banged up.  But at the time, it was affordable and a god send!  Seven years later though, I have evolved from my "college catch-all" theme and have begun purchasing/acquiring matching, adult furniture.  But I still have this old, ugly, dark wood dresser.  Looks kinda similar to this, but in much worse shape.

  

Someone told me a year or two ago that I had to strip and sand all the varnish off in order to re-paint this dresser.  So I bought the paint stripper and all the fixin's and began that horrible, tedious job.  Three weeks and two and a half drawers later I quit.  The drawers have some detail and scraping and sanding into these edges was slow and time consuming.  And I had a life to live people!

Fast forward to two months ago when I stumbled across i create's blog tutorial about painting without sanding.  She uses Zinsser oil based primer/sealer/stain killer.  And absolutely nailed her project...seriously, you have to check it out.  Sadly, I wasn't gutsy enough to go for such a fun color.  As I have mentioned previously, my attention span is short and I love changing up my decor.  My brain told me I can get can so much more use from a white dresser than a teal or green like my heart was set on.  (Those two are constantly struggling.)  Anyway, sanding out some minor scratches and then following i create's method, I ended up with this bad boy.



You can see the untouched mirror in the background.  Yuck.  (We're still debating on its future purpose).

I debated forever about what knobs to use.  I didn't want to use the original large brass pulls as they didn't match the look I was going for.  I thought a contemporary silver was too contemporary for the lines of the dresser.  I ended up getting these super fun acrylic knobs online from D Lawless Hardware.



I would have loved to get the vintage glass knobs, but my budget only ran to acrylic.  I'm super pleased with the look of them, so no complaints here!  I still need to slap on a coat of polyacrylic to the top so that I can be a bit rough on it.  I intend to use this as a TV stand and hole up blankets and movies in the drawers.  And I'll still have some room on top for my random accessories!  Woot Woot!!

My next room...

I love my spare room.  It's all navy and white with a few light green accents.  It's so precious.  So while I love my spare room, I'm already planning its next makeover.

I saw the movie "Paris After Midnight" with Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams a few months ago.  I remember their hotel room had so much white and ivory with pretty purple toile all over.  It looked all airy and relaxing.  Like this...



Okay, they don't look entirely relaxed, it's a weird scene, but trust me, the room was pretty.  I'd love to use white accents all over the place with a more lavender toile.

 
So pretty!!  Don't you just want to lie in the shade near a French lavender field, sip on a wine spritzer and nibble on cheese?  I sure do.



For as much as the French are reputed to drink, I can't believe how straight these rows are!

So easily distracted...

Anyway, to keep my lavender toile more contemporary and less Mee Maw like, I want to add another color.  And probably stripes.  I love busy prints with stripes.  It may be cliche, but since it will be in my house, I don't really care what you all think.  :)  I think a grassy green would be fun with lavender, since that is essentially what a lavender bush is...green and purple.  But all I can think is Barney.  The sky blue from the pic above would be fun to incorporate, but it screams baby nursery to me.  Pastels are all rejected for the same reason.  Red and orange make me feel too violent.  I googled striped fabric, saw grey and thought...PERFECT!!

Chevron could be good too.  But I'd need to pair them together and stare a while before I commit.  I could make some grey silk pillows.  Ooohhhhh.  Pair this all with white furniture and add a couple pops of bright silver.  Or clear glass.  Or incorporate my green in this manner.  I am sure if or when I do this, I'll change my mind 100 more times about the accents.  But that is half the fun of decorating!
 

I need more rooms and more money.

Moving...again...

Ok, I'm not actually moving until this summer.  BUT, I like to be prepared.

I've spent the last year accumulating teal, blue and green accessories, and they are here to stay!  For the next year or so anyway...I have a short attention span.  And after years of male roommates and their cliched love of dark brown furniture, I'm lightening things up.

I really want a light gray sofa and it needs to be feminine.  I'm craving some femininity.  The current front runner is American Furniture Warehouse's Camille Graphite Sofa.  Paired with two white durahide tub chairs, AFW also.  Durahide is key for white furniture for me.  As anal retentive as I am, I manage to still be messy.  The TV stand is actually a dresser from Ikea.  I'll either leave it gray or paint it white.  Decisions decisions.  I'm thinking I'll cut off the drawer face and reattach it with hinges.  Then I can hide the DVD player and cable box, but flip the face down when I need to use them.  And of course, they'll still pull out for access because it's a drawer.  I'm utterly pleased with this idea.

The rug was just a fun color and I love it!  On it will be a coffee table just like this one.  I can't wait to make this!  The green will be perfect and I love doors!  It'll match a bunch of blue and green door artwork that I have.

 

These curtains may be completely over the top...but I'm really hoping once I move and see it all together that they're not.  I keep visiting them online and want to buy them!!  But patience and prudence have won out so far.  They could be magical for my navy and white spare room...but I digress.


I can't wait to decorate for myself.  Just me.  No male roommate banning flowers, disdaining anything pink, or raising their eyebrows when I come home with a new vase or set of candlesticks.  I'm kinda feeling like that zip-lining pig commercial.  Weeee weee weeeeeeee!  Pure adrenaline!  :)

Echelon Home Bedding Love

How much do I love this duvet cover by Echelon Home?  SO MUCH!
  
This color is "Peacock" and it also comes in "Midnight"...which would be perfect for my spare room!


It's available on Amazon and for a pretty reasonable price.  Reasonable to me means under $100.  However, I have a boy currently living in my spare room, so now isn't the time to invest in white bedding!  Why don't they appreciate all these little decorative details?

Stuff!

I realize I use my blog as a forum for bitching.  I'm ok with that.  I guess I just wanted that disclaimer out there...

Onto my next rant.  I really like my coworkers.  And I really like helping people.  However, I have this one coworker that just cannot seem to think for herself.  If she's unsure about anything, she asks me about it.  I have less seniority at work than she does and I'm also younger.  You would assume that she might be able to handle things.  When it comes to her computer, she is basically a barely-functioning illiterate.  She cannot figure ANYTHING out and she's always asking me to drop what I'm doing and help her.  What kills me is she doesn't even TRY to figure it out.  Her first reaction is to ask me.  Today she isn't sure how to open a PDF in an email attachment and save it to her computer.  REALLY!?!??!?!?!  She just hollered "Do I want to save it or open it?"  I said, I don't know, what do you want to do.  She said, "I want to save it."  Great job, way to think through that on your own, pumpkin.

My boss is well aware that I spend too much of my time acting as the unofficial office IT person.  She has informed the rest of the office that I am not to assist them with any issues they encounter with our new email system or any other technical issues.  That hasn't deterred any of them.

So like I said, I like my coworkers and I like helping people.  But why can't they TRY to think through their problem first before calling me??  Do they have no pride?  She just asked me, "This form says these records have a destruction date of 1/1/2009.  Does that mean they were destroyed?"  OH MY WORD!!!!!

C is for Cat

I was running late this morning and I had a terrible headache.  The nausea from the headache made brushing my teeth a gag marathon.  Short story - bad morning. 

So on the way to work, I put on a song that made me feel peppy and slurped away at my morning coffee.  Less than halfway to work a cat dashed across the road.  I slammed on my brakes and tried to avoid him...or her.  Without reliving the horror, let's just say I wasn't able to avoid the cat and I hit him...or her. 

I didn't see it behind me and I didn't see it run off.  So now I know I have mortally injured this poor creature.  I cried the rest of the way to work and at my desk a little bit.  I told the story twice today and cried both times.  Now I'm out of tissues and my headache has come back.

There's nothing like an accident to make you feel like a horrible person.