The Living Room

So it seems I never really took a Before living room picture, probably because it was never really clean enough or whatever and honestly I didn't think we'd be getting around to decorating it for awhile. It was a room I just couldn't envision and had no idea how to arrange. However, we came one big step closer to the makeover when we got to replace this

with this

Now we were free from the big pain in the neck major project of refinishing and REUPHOLSTERING our original couch that we got for free with the house. I've learned that if something needs to be reupholstered in our house, it's going to sit in some dark corner forgotten for years. Remember this chair? That stayed half finished for 2 1/2 years, and that was nowhere near the enormity of a sofa. And before we could even get started on the sofa project we had many decisions to make. Would we paint or stain the frame? What fabric? 1, 2, or 3 cushions? Keep or ditch the tufting? I don't know about you, but for some reason it takes us forever to make decisions. Our new presentable couch sat in our practically untouched living room for several more months. Then suddenly one day I woke up and said, "I'm going to paint the living room." So I did. I didn't even procrastinate a minute more to take decent Before pictures.

Our original walls were a streaky yellowish beige. I think the previous homeowners hurridly slapped some neutral paint over the bright mint they had before. The walls also had several spackling patches from an attempt to fill in nail holes.

 

First I had to degloss, sand, and prime the trim, a process I loathe. Maybe it's because we had so much glossy wood trim throughout the house, but I'm over it.

 

 

Next I had to prep the walls for painting. This included 1. taking the outlet covers off (revealing remnants of the original mint paint (and yes, the outlets themselves received their own coat of hurridly slapped on paint)

2. filling in more nail holes and wall cracks,

and 3. edging.

Finally I got to do the fun part of rolling on the paint!

All in all, it took me about 2 days and almost the entire 5th Harry Potter audiobook Order of the Phoenix to complete the room. But it looks soooooo much fresher!

 

Next came the process of arranging the room. I tackled this with great help from my sister. We tried a few different arrangments. I liked this arrangment, but it felt like it was closed off from the front door plus there really wasn't a good place for the television.

This arrangement had more potential (it's hard to imagine though with this cluttered picture!).

But it still looked empty in the space around the window. So we dragged in the white Target bookcases from the office...

But these looked too dinky. I loved the look of these from The Home Project. It's amazing how much bigger the built-in bookcases made the room look!

Beautiful as these were, I wanted something easier. Who knows how many years it would have taken to build our own bookcases! I searched some more blogs and saw these from The Brick House

How cute and industrial are those? Then I saw these, also from The Brick House

These were exactly what I needed-simple, quick, and inexpensive. So we ran out to Lowes to the closet section and lumber section and got everything we needed. Here they are natural and unstained.

And here they are finished

And here they are with stuff on them 

The nice thing is we can rearrange them on a whim, great for indecisive people. So after hanging some art (more on that later) and tweaking the arrangement the living room is finished almost finished!

 

 

There is even a surprise behind the tapestry...

...the ugly television!

So we still have some final details to address, but it has come a long way!

Room by room: an endless list of projects (part 1)

I saw a wonderful idea on Young House Love (I love their blog and am eagerly awaiting their book!) where they went through each room of their house and made a list of things they had done and what they had left to do. I thought this would be a great idea because when I'm out shopping or thrifting I would know what I still needed for the house. Here is the first installment of the main living spaces.

The Entryway

What we've done:

• Stripped the wallpaper and painted (Sherwin Williams Tidewater and Sherwin Williams Pure White for the trim)
• Added artwork
• Refinished the light fixture
  

What we have left to do:

• Perhaps add a rug?
• Fix the sticky door (it's so embarrassing at the chaos that ensues when anybody knocks-the dog goes crazy barking and jumping so we're trying to hold her back while simultaneously frantically tugging at the door that sticks ever since we painted it)

The Living Room

What we've done:

• Painted the trim and the walls (we used SW Pure White for the trim and SW Mindful Grey for the walls)
• Hung artwork
• Built bookshelves
• Changed out the vent covers
• Exchanged our couch (a wonderful hand-me-down from my in-laws! so nice not to have to refinish and reupholster our vintage sofa)
• Reupholstered our two side chairs (one was featured here)

What we have left to do:

• Pull up the carpet when we're ready to refinish the floors
• Paint the coffee table or find a different coffee table
• Paint the media cabinet
• Tweak the pillows-maybe change some out-they're not quite right yet 
• Add an overhead light and switch

The Dining Room

  
What we've done:

• Stripped wallpaper
• Painted (we used SW buttercream)
• Added picture frame molding
• Reupholstered the dining chairs
• Added a sliding door where the window used to be
• Added curtains and a rug
  

What we have left to do:

• Add artwork (seems to be a running theme throughout all our rooms)
• Add a leaf to the dining table
• Refinish the dining chairs (stain or paint?)
• Refinish the dining table
• Paint the chandelier
• Refinish the floors eventually
• Paint the sliding door frame

The Kitchen

What we've done:

• Practically nothing! 

What we have left to do:

• Everything...more specifically though:
• Demo everything
• Install hardwood floors
• Install cabinets from IKEA (waiting for their next 20% off sale)
• Install new appliances
• Add a backsplash
• Paint the ceiling, walls and trim
• Install quartz countertops
• Add new hardware
• Find a new light fixture

Den/Family Room

What we've done:

• Painted the paneling and trim
• Changed out the light fixtures

What we have left to do:

• Change out the floor to hardwood
• Figure out the fireplace situation- we need to change out the mantel or maybe just add molding and paint it and still debating about whether or not to paint the fireplace
• Paint the built-ins and maybe add a modern paper to the back of the cabinets
• Get rid of the furniture and add a table and chairs to extend the kitchen into an eat-in kitchen
• Add artwork to the very blank walls

From this list we don't have that much to actually buy (with the HUGE exception of the kitchen!), but we do have a fair amount that we need to refinish...sigh...it seems to take us forever to refinish things. Stay tuned for the rest of the house to include the bedrooms and bathrooms. What sort of projects do you need to get to in order to complete a room?

The Virginia Zoo

So I try to keep this blog mostly about house projects, but every once in awhile animals have a way of nosing their adorable faces in. This past Saturday my family attended Zoo Grooves at the Virginia Zoo in Norfolk. Zoo Grooves is a summer concert series held at the zoo. This last one featured a bluegrass band Town Mountain. I couldn't help but feature just a few of those aforementioned adorable faces we met. Here is a smattering of pictures of some of the animals...

Schnitz, the male Orangutan cuddling under his blanket. No wonder my mom needs her "Schnitz fix" weekly!

Pepper, the female Orangutan lounging and pondering the curiosities of life

Hitam, a female Siamang

New mama Hitam with her baby born only a few days before

This is the best picture we got of the Sun Bear, he wouldn't look up! He somehow reminded me of Millie, my dog though. Perhaps it was his shiny black coat and constant nose to the ground.

You're a long time in coming: thrift store chair

So a few years ago (yes, that's years) I found this little $5 beauty while thrifting...

Ok, so perhaps not a little beauty yet. But when you think of chairs like this...

...there is so much potential! This is an example from my favorite show The Dick van Dyke Show. The chair has a very similar design in the curve of the back. I think it's a barrel/tub chair?

After stripping, sanding, staining, sealing, and reupholstering, the chair was transformed. Never mind the process spanned about 2 1/2 years. After awhile it becomes easier and easier to ignore the half upholstered chair in the corner of the room. But anyway, here it is today...

  Are there projects you have procrastinated on?

Kitchen plans

Lately I've been dreaming how to redo the kitchen. Right now ours needs lots of updating. (Sorry about the pictures-I forgot my camera at my parents' house and had to use my Ipod.)

While our kitchen does meet all of our needs, it is very awkward. For example...

...the dishwasher opens up into the den (I wonder who thought of that?)

  ...there are odd little gaps in between some of the cabinets

...and narrow little pathways.

Needless to say, we've been wanting to do a renovation to expand the space and improve its function. There are two options. We can keep much of the current layout and just smooth out the awkward areas, or do a complete demo and start from scratch. While pondering what to do, I started playing around with Ikea's kitchen planner tool-very cool!
The first plan has the fewest changes.

Imagine the back wall to be the same as it is now (hard to see, but the empty place on the right by the doorway is where the oven would go, the empty spot on the left is for the microwave, and below that is the cook top). Notice the peninsula is gone, the dishwasher moves into the kitchen (yay!), and we get double our pantry space (behind the fridge).  These cabinets would reach the ceiling.

With this option, the only new cabinets would be the base cabinet in front of the dishwasher, the two upper wall cabinets above that base cabinet and the dw (or we could also use open shelves for a much simpler but cleaner look), and a pantry cabinet to match the one we already have. We would hope to build our own cabinets to match our existing ones (are we shooting for the stars???). I found some instructions on making your own cove raised panel kitchen cabinet doors online which look exactly like our current doors. So with this plan we need to:

• Build a few cabinets as mentioned above
• Put down oak hardwood floors to match the rest of the house (which we'd also extend into the den)
• Install new countertops such as this
• Put up a new backsplash (maybe a classic white subway?)
• Paint the walls
• Install a new light
• Buy a new refrigerator/freezer and dishwasher

I came up with another 2 plans that involve complete demos. Here is the first.

This one triples our pantry space and mitigates the fridge's awkward placement. This plan requires all new cabinets as well as appliances. We need to replace our fridge and dishwasher anyway, but this plan uses a range versus an oven and cooktop. That allows us a little more counterspace by the stove. Here are the other views.

And finally, if the fridge doesn't fit by the dishwasher, then this is the second option.

This plan also requires a complete renovation. It is more of a combination of the first two, but this option has the most counterspace (still not a lot though). Here is the back view.

This plan doubles our current pantry space like the first plan.

The Ikea tool also creates a shopping list and total cost of what you need to buy there! The costs weren't as bad as I thought for all new cabinets, counter, and appliances (the second plan was $4,736.70 and the third was $4,674.68-of course this does NOT take into account the floors, lighting, paint, tile, etc. It does however include cabinets, countertops, hardware, sink, and appliances).

So what do you think? Any preferences or ideas?