Thursday, January 20, 2011

Don't Faint, it's Time for Paint!!

We did it! We painted! It only took us the weekend, and that was with birthday parties, church, and getting some chairs in the middle of it all. We didn't get off to an early start like we planned on. We started actually rolling and cutting around 10:30. One amazing thing about my husband is he is an excellent cutter...meaning we didn't have to tape! If paint nicked the trim we'd quickly clean it up and if we missed a spot, I went through with white paint and touched up some spots. I rolled everything but the super high spots. And I got a little out of control and have some spots on the ceiling I need to touch up..oops!

We only had to do one coat...yes you read that right, ONE COAT!! We ended up getting the good stuff, primer and paint in one...that stuff is wonderful! I will admit that we had to do a quick roll over on a few spots but hey that's a lot better than having to do two coats! That saved us SO much time! The colors look amazing. We love that the grays are just slightly different. The darker gray isn't screaming "Look at me! I'm way darker than my friend over there!" And the blue/teal color is amazing too. We decided to continue on with it into the laundry room. It was a great idea until we were running out of paint. Thankfully I had our sample can, I used that back behind the washer and dryer so you can't tell if it's different. We have some plans to organize that room and I can't wait for that day!


This isn't the best picture of the different grays but it does show you that they are close in color!


Now about the scary parts. Who knew there would be scary parts to painting! But there was. We have high ceilings. And to get to those areas, we had to put the ladder in some unsafe spots. At one point, I was under the ladder holding it and Auntie B was on the other side holding it and spotting Tim. Auntie B came over to keep the wild boys out of our way. Thanks B!! Tim was very happy we only did one coat..as was I.




We are so happy we are done, and that it isn't beige anymore! When we think about painting the other rooms, we know it's going to be like a cake walk since we did the biggest area of the house. I guess I should mention, we also painted our railings. It was all white except the top part. It was wood and we weren't fond of it. So it's all white and beautiful now! I finished my no sew curtains too! Just real quick I'll tell you what I did. I found the fabric at JoAnn's. It's perfect..it has yellow, gray, and that blue/teal color. We had to have it pretty high up on the wall since the fire place is right there, so we ended up getting about 5 yards (the whole roll). I cut them the length we wanted and then cut it down the center. The curtains didn't need to be too thick so I got lucky there. I wasn't going to hem the length of the curtain, but after seeing how bad the fraying was and my awesome cut job..I went back to JoAnn's for more hem tape. All together I think it took me less than an hour to make. We got the curtain rod and ring/clips at Target in black. They look great!!





Lastly I'll leave you with ideas and upcoming projects! As we were painting we kept throwing out different ideas and finally narrowed down how we are going to decorate these rooms. The wall to the right of the fire place ( which isn't pictured, sorry) is very bare. It only has a lonely buffet. We decided we are going to put white floating shelves all over that wall. There will probably be 5 to 7 of them and fun different things all over them. Old books, mason jars, pictures, candle sticks, my owls and maybe some more creatures to keep them company. And I found some amazing chairs on craigslist that need some paint and new fabric. They may be going to an upholster :( Hopefully in the next few weeks, we will have a lot of this done! I'm hoping to find a small cupboard for the corner in the dining room. So we can put all the colored glass we got and other little different things in there. We also decided we will be painting our kitchen cabinets white. They are this odd, off white, beige color that looks alright with the paint colors, but we think white would look A LOT better. The hardware on their now was spray painted and the more we use them the more they chip. So we're getting black hardware but we have a fun twist involved with those..you'll have to wait to see that! Also the top cabinets by the sink will have glass doors and we will put matching plates and what not in there. We are working on a cool light for above the sink..that will come very soon! And sometime soon we will be getting a new sink, faucet, counter tops, and back splash. Maybe Late spring or summer that will happen!

jo

Monday, January 10, 2011

Oh...Paint!

Well that time is slowly creeping up on us Fleenor's...Painting!! I have to say I'm pretty excited to get rid of all the beige! Every inch of this house is beige and I'm ready to bring some color into our lives! Since before the house was ours we knew we wanted to do grays and a blueish, greenish color. I'm not really sure what you'd call that color. We went to Nebraska Furniture Mart a few months ago and found an amazing couch in this mystery blue color we love. I think the color was called "sea foam green" at NFM but it doesn't look too green.



We took our cue from there. The walls will be two shades of gray. A light and then a little darker gray. Since it's such an open space we decided to change up the grays so it isn't one note all the way around. The colors will be not just in the living/dining area but the walls continue down the hall and down the stairs and that little hallway. Lots of gray! At first we were going to do a chair rail around the main area and through the upstairs hallway. The top being gray and the bottom being white, with white squares...like so.



But thankfully we had to wait to start this big project and we figured out it'd be a waste of money. After looking at the area over and over again, we noticed that you wouldn't see the squares. The walls are kind of choppy..we have 4 big windows, our back door and a fire place that take up a lot of wall and the areas that are wall, are pretty small. Also we have a few pieces of furniture that cover the areas that have a lot of wall space! That sounds really confusing, but you'll understand soon! We've had some more ideas of what to do to make that room not so gray, but their always seem to be a "but" and we are back to square one. Kind of frustrating!! One of our solutions is to paint the walls in the kitchen that wonderful blue color. I found some hand towels at Target that are ridiculously close to the couch and my wonderful husband bought me a Kitchen Aid mixer for my birthday in that color, so why not throw it on the walls! I'm pretty freaking excited!

We headed to Lowes last week to start the agonizing task of choosing colors. Grays are so sticking hard! They can be too blue, too brown, or too green and you won't know until it's on your walls mocking you because you just jumped in and painted every wall already! So after sifting through a crap load of grays, we found two light grays and two dark grays that we liked. And a blue that we loved. (it matches my mixer perfectly!) We bought them all in sample sizes, spending $2.94 for the little cans. That's a lot better than buying 2 cans in each color and praying the color is right and it end up not being right at all! We did 2 coats on each square and patiently waited for them to dry and for some sunlight. Sadly we were never home when it was sunny and it's winter here in KC, so it's vary rare to have a sunny day! But Saturday we woke up and got to see what they looked like during the day.




We picked the two grays but had second thoughts on the blue. It's bright and cheery but maybe a little too bright for our liking. I ran back up to Lowes, with a second choice I had hiding in our junk drawer and bought a sample. And thank the Lord it's perfect!!





We decided that this weekend is the weekend we paint! I think we can get it all done if we start Friday after work and work every second we can. Tim thinks I'm a nut but I guess we will see what happens! I can't wait to see how it's going to look! We aren't done decorating and what not but I'll still give you a sneak peak!

I had to add this of our boys. It's the first big snow of the season and they couldn't be more excited for it!!



jo

Monday, January 3, 2011

I'm back!!

Wow it's been awhile since I've been on here!! A lot has gone on in the past month and sadly that doesn't include anything getting done in the house!! Well I guess I should take that back because a few things have happened. Right after Thanksgiving and after family left, I got pretty sick!! I didn't leave the house for a few weeks. Then the holidays snuck up on me and we had family in town! So now we can get the ball rolling again! Tim started sanding the kitchen table and chairs. There are a few chairs who still need some sanding but we should be able to paint and recover the seats sometime this week..I hope. He did get the table done and I love it! Once we get it all done I'll put up all the pictures up. I also started our no sew curtains! Thanks to my obsession with reading blogs I found out how to do it. Not like it's hard or anything, it's just that I didn't think to do it! I'm not the best sewer in the world so I was excited to start them! I'll be using this fun trick for the rest of the house! I love buying fabric and making curtains or pillows out of them that no one else have in their house. I'm not sure if I saved any money doing it myself but I like them better!

We are in the process of getting our paint colors all narrowed down. We decided this time around to buy a few sample cans that were in the colors we are wanting and testing those first. We have some pretty high ceilings and I don't want to paint twice! At the last house we were at we bought all the paint and went to town. We had to paint the living room a few times because the beige turned out pink. And we also bought paint that people returned and threw it on some walls...we ran out before finishing and had some crazy things going on. We want to make sure that these are the colors we love and stick to it! I hope that we paint soon...I'm tired of every ounce of that house being beige!! Wish us luck!!