The day we signed the papers to our house we were chomping at the bit to get in and start working on the house. The only problem was that we had spent zero time planning for the moment when we were actually allowed to paint and decorate. We had absolutely no idea what colors we wanted, what rooms we were going to work on first, or even what furniture was going to go where. We got the keys and got into our house by about 2pm, and we were so lost as to where to start. It was a little overwhelming seeing so much that needed to be done and having no clue where to start. We decided we should just jump in feet first and paint the living room, but we had no idea of what color to go with and we had no paint swatches at all. Brian stayed back and cleaned a little, and I made a trip to Home Depot and Lowes to gather some paint swatches to see if I could make a decision. I decided a grey would be a nice, neutral color that I could easily work any accent colors into, and since I was going on just about no ideas, I needed a flexible color. After a trip back to the house to look at the swatches against the wall, we came to a decision in about 3 minutes. "Polar Star" by Valspar from Lowes, which we had color matched to Behr paint in an eggshell finish. I like Valspar paint and Lowes in general so much more than Home Depot, but the closest Lowes is about 25 minutes away, and Home Depot is only about 8. I kept looking at the paint swatch and thinking it said "Porn Star" instead of "Polar Star" which would have been a very interesting choice of color, if it indeed said "Porn Star." :)
After 2-3 coats of paint, we finally had the old mustardy yellow covered and a lovely, albeit not porn related, grey room:
I feel like I need to pick this picture apart a little bit. Brian and I can probably take the cake of all Cake Boss cakes when it comes to being clueless first time home buyers. We decided to start with painting the living room but we didn't have any clue on the paint color. By the time we picked out and purchased our paint and brushes and rollers and drop cloth, it was starting to get late. Insert trip to Target to buy a light. That's right, folks. The living room has no built-in ceiling lights, so without lamps, the room is pitch black after sunset. And ya can't really paint in the dark! This $6 clearance Back-to-School dorm room lamp served us well for the night, and is still being used today as my reading in bed light. Yeah. Time for an upgrade. I would also like to point out in this picture, that we have a broken ladder. Among the many things that we didn't think about before we started painting, we didn't think to get/borrow a ladder. Luckily for us, the previous owner left a broken one on the side of the house. There is no second step on this ladder, so to paint all of the trim around the crown molding, I had to carefully balance myself and step from the first to the third step. And then bend my neck in unnatural ways because I was so far up into the ceiling. Needless to say, we learned our lesson after this first jump-the-gun experience. Always have a proper ladder, light, and painting materials, and give yourself plenty of time to pick out your colors.
It's not the perfect color for the room, and it's not exactly what I was going for, but it's light and airy and it works for now. During the day it's a nice, light shade of grey, but at night it looks like it has a little bit of light blue in it, which I'm not too keen on. I would have preferred the color to be a warmer, more true grey, but we have to live with what we have for now. And really, the color is great about 95% of the time, so I guess I did pretty well considering the time I put into decision making.
Sorry for the terrible pictures. We didn't do so well at chronicling all of our makeover processes in the beginning, and we can't really go back in time. As you can see from the picture above, the room didn't have any blinds, so we enlisted the help of Papa H to install some faux wood blinds from Home Depot. (We actually lived for a few months with nothing but cheap curtains, but you could still see in at night, and Mama H put her foot down and hurried the blind purchasing process along for everybody's sake. $140 to transform the room and give us some privacy? I think it's worth it!)
Another issue we needed to address in this room was the horrible, 20+ year old tile. It's not exactly easy on the eyes, and the grout is so old it's constantly dirty looking and cracking in multiple places throughout the house. We are very VERY anxious to rip up the tile and install hardwood floors to make our house constant with its 1947 year birthdate, but, as with everything good, we need to save the funds for a total house makeover of that magnitude. With other things pushed to the forefront of our home-budget-funds, like saving for a new roof (ours is 7 years old), and having the exterior professionally re-painted (hasn't been painted since a DIY job in the 80s), we know it's going to be at least a year and a half before we can think about ripping up the existing tile. Our best cover-it-up, budget friendly solution was to lay a 9' x 10' carpet remnant in the "sitting area" of the room. We tried rugs from Ikea but couldn't find anything neutral that would fit the room exactly, so we headed down to a local tile and carpet shop and purchased a remnant and had the edges finished. I think the total bill was around $250, which isn't bad, but the other day at Home Goods I noticed that they have extremely large rugs for sale for $200 or less. C'est la vie. I will add, though, that if we ever purchase a carpet remnant again, we will pay the extra money for a nicer quality carpet, and I will finish the edges myself. During one of Addie's playful moments, she ripped a piece of the edging loose, and I used fabric glue and clothes pins to stick it back in place, and you can't tell the difference one bit. I know it would take some time and patience, but they charged us something like $0.35 an INCH to finish the edges, and after a piece came loose, I'm a bit skeptical as to the value invested.
Addie photo-bomb! While we have made tremendous progress on this room, it is nowhere near complete. We need to replace the old, squished, too big couches for something with cleaner lines and more appropriate for the space. I'm dreaming of a modern sectional and a sleek round coffee table to open up the room and give it more function.
I found this picture in a Better Homes and Gardens magazine and it is nearly exactly what I envision for this room. I can't find that exact sectional for the life of me, but the light is from CB2 (I believe), and a few other elements we already have or can work with. The legs on both the coffee table and the sectional help open the space and make it appear larger than it actually is, which we could most certainly use in this tiny little house of ours.
That's about it for this room. We have recently added a desk on the street facing wall, but still have to add wall art, and I'm still on the hunt for the perfect curtain fabric. We still have a lot to do in this room, but slow and steady wins the race, right?
:) L.o.L.
P.S.-Did you notice the fan upgrade? The polished nickel and dark wood fan is a drastic change from the shiny black and gold non-working eyesore that previously lived here.
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