Nursery Update #2: Paint!

Well, the hubby and I finally decided on a paint color for unnamed Baby Elliott's nursery! We wanted something light, airy, and neutral and I think we hit a home run. It took a while, and many paint samples, to finally decide on a color though.

This was my first time to use Sherwin Williams paint, which is amazing. We used their Zero- VOC paint so it wouldn't hurt the bambino, but we still used fans and opened windows, just to be safe. We decided on Roycroft Mist Gray (the top sample in each picture) and the coverage was top-notch. Most Zero-VOC paints don't cover quite as well, as least the Olympic brand doesn't, so we were both really surprised to see this much coverage with just one coat plus touch-ups. Of course, this made the hubby very happy since he would rather have the flu than paint. ;)

To get the room ready we just pushed the large furniture, i.e. the daybed and dresser to the center of the room and covered them with old sheets. Other items like the rocking chairs were moved to the guest room. Also, before Matthew got home, I had taken everything off the walls and spackled the holes so we'd be ready to get started. We used our routine of him rolling and me cutting in and we're very please with how it turned out!

Before:

 

After:

That big space is waiting on her Jenny Lind crib, which is sadly on backorder until June 11.

I can't wait to figure out what we're going to hang above the daybed!

We definitely want to hang some bamboo shades on both doors and possibly the windows.

I'm thinking floor-to-ceiling curtain panels on each closet. Possibly a linen fabric??

And now, of course I have to show you these cute little shoes we got her to wear next summer! :)

And her first pair of Toms.

Finally, here is the story on the rocking chair. Several weeks ago, we drove through our neighborhood and saw this chair at a yard sale. It looked pretty dingy, dirty, and gross but I loved the legs and the backing on it. Here it is when we first got it home:

 

So, first on the agenda was to throw away that nasty piece of foam and clean this like a mad woman! After I had used what seemed like an entire container of Clorox wipes, I sanded it a little and sprayed on one coat of primer and 2 coats of Valspar glossy white.

And here is how it's looking today:

Still on the to-do list for this chair is to cut a new piece of wood for the seat, buy a new foam cushion, and pick out some fabric that will coordinate with the rest of the room.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that I ordered that bedding! I was very nervous about ordering it because it could not be returned but I absolutely love it! It is simply amazing. :)

I'm in love with this reversible quilt!

 So now, we're just waiting on the crib to be shipped and we'll be off to a pretty good start on baby girl's nursery! :)

Happy Friday! Hope everyone enjoys the holiday weekend! I'm ready to spend it in Brilliant, full of high school graduation, Coal Fest, and time with the family! :)

Dining Room Makeover

Hello all! Several weeks ago I decided that I was ready for a new look in the dining room. Remember, this is how it looked when we moved in, stripes and all (sorry for the lack of a better picture):

Then I decided to paint a darker color so all of the white trim would really pop, which it did.

 

 

However, I quickly grew tired of the dark color. It made it hard to incorporate other accent colors and was just sooo dark. I had been wanting to lighten up the space for a while, but I couldn't motivate myself because I knew it would require a lot of work and a lot of primer and paint! Finally, a few weeks ago, I mustered up the energy and motivation to finally tackle this project since we do spend a good deal of time in here. I'm one of those that likes to eat dinner at the table every night, well every night that I'm not working until 9. I also know that we will eat in here every night once the little one arrives so now was the perfect time to get it looking the way I want it. 

Enter a spontaneous trip to Lowe's. When deciding on a paint color, I usually purchase several paint samples, go home to test them on the walls, not like any of them, go back to Lowe's for more paint samples... you get the idea. :) Well this time I guess I was feeling spontaneous because I just bought a gallon of the color I went in for, along with a gallon of primer. For this painting project, I used the Olympic Zero VOC paint since it doesn't have all of the harsh, smelly chemicals like regular paint (better for Baby Elliott). What I learned is that, while environmentally-friendly, the coverage just doesn't compare, which means more work for me. :( Here is the color I decided on, Quill by Olympic:

I discovered this color on another blog, Restored Style, and just really liked how fresh and crisp it made the room look. This is her dining room after she painted it using Quill:

So anyway, one Friday afternoon I got the room prepped and began the priming. It took 2 coats of primer to cover that dark navy. Luckily, it's a pretty small room so I was able to stretch the one gallon of primer. I didn't actually tell Matthew I was going to paint this day so he was a little surprised/ shocked/ disappointed when he got home because he knew that it meant he would eventually be helping me paint on a Friday night, even though he despises painting. But we took a little break after I finished my second coat of primer and went to dinner. We didn't rush home because I knew it had been a long week at work for him and he needed to relax a little. For some reason, painting a room is relaxing to me. I really enjoy it! But I realize that's not everyone's view, especially the hubby's. 

Once we got home, we got started and we have a pretty good system that works for us. He rolls the walls while I cut-in around the trim, ceiling and corners. It took two coats of paint (after 2 coats of primer) and we were finished by midnight. Yay!  Here is is after one coat  (not a great picture since it taken with iPhone):

Our overhead light casts a lot of shadows along the wall but you get the idea. Now, I'll just skip to the final pictures of how it looks today. We purchased a lovely cabinet from Nadeau in Homewood to store some china, silver, etc... and a map to hang over the buffet. I love the map and it's size, found here at School House Electric. I haven't found a frame for it yet so I hung it with jumbo binder clips stuck on the wall with 3m tape (I kinda like the way it looks hanging with these). I decided not to use the art that was in here before because the colors are really bold and my goal here is to lighten/brighten. I also moved some curtains in here from another room and removed the blinds from the door to the screened porch. I absolutely love 96" curtains (these are from World Market) because I can hang them really high, which makes the room feel bigger, and there is still enough fabric to pool on the floor. Here are the after pics, taken with my new camera :)

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a closer look at the cabinet we got from Nadeau:

Matthew actually picked this one out and I must say he has pretty good taste. :) I'm really liking how light and airy the room feels now and I think it complements our dark wood furniture much better. What do you think?

Nursery Update #1

Back in this post here, I thought I had figured out how I would want the nursery to look if we were having a girl. Well, if you know me, you know my mind has changed several times since finding out! The mind-change mainly started because of cost - that fabulous fabric would cost almost $100 just to make 2 panels to use for the two closets and that Anthropologie rug... well $400 seemed a little steep for something that she would eventually/ probably, draw on, spit up on, poop on, etc... Gotta be realistic, right?! :)

Oh, and we were going to try to use an old dresser for the changing table that belongs to Matthew's dad. But once we got it home, we decided that it wasn't big enough and would require much more work than we originally thought. So the lack of a dresser is what spurred me into action to get started on this baby girl's nursery!

After getting bummed about not having the essential piece of furniture we needed, aka the dresser, I headed out to Jarman Antiques in Northport. I walked around for a while and really only found this one close to the right size. However, I did not want red so I knew I would have to paint it, and I didn't want to spend $300 for something I would have to invest more time and money into. Plus, while the height was right, it was a little on the small side.

But as I was leaving, the girl working asked if I was looking for anything in particular and I told her I was. She pointed me to this little beauty by the cash register that I missed on my initial walk-through. Once I saw it, I knew this was that piece of furniture we would build our nursery around. :)

So I text the hubby a picture of it and asked his opinion. He seemed to like it, although most of the time, he just says "if that's what you want..." He's good to me like that ;) Anywho, we decided on it right then and there so the nice people loaded it for me and I was on my way. Oh, btw, we paid $300 for it, which was more that we wanted to spend, especially since we thought we were going to use the freebie from Matt's dad. But I figure this is a piece she will be able to use for years; and/or it could always find it's place in another room in our house. (You know I like versatility!)

Please ignore the random paint samples on the wall. I did finally pick a color though! :)

 So once we got it in the room, it helped create some sort of vision for the nursery. I decided that I wanted to paint the walls a light grey and use lots of white accents to make it feel crisp and airy. That will also flow with the house and won't scream "nursery." We already have the white daybed and the crib will be white so this won't be too hard to accomplish.

While doing some online shopping at Pottery Barn several days ago, I ran across a sale they were having on their natural fiber rugs. Well, I'm not sure if you would count what I was doing as online shopping - I basically find things I really like, add them to my shopping cart, but never go back to purchase them. Does anyone else do that, or is it just me? ;)

But, like I said, they were having a pretty good sale on some rugs and I decided on this round 6' jute rug. I felt like a round rug would complement all of the straight lines in the room and I am loving how it looks. It also adds a nice texture to the room. It was on sale for $129 and I had a coupon for free shipping - much better than this smaller, more expensive one from Anthropologie and the jute rug will work in any room in this house and future house(s).

These aren't the best quality photos because I just snapped them on my iPhone while I was home for lunch one day. :)

Waylon checking out the new rug, which I've already found him breaking in nicely ;)

The big empty space between the 2 rocking chairs will be the crib, once it comes in. Also, be on the lookout for a post on those 2 rockers and the fact that I only paid $14 for both of them!

Just fyi, we ordered the white Jenny Lind crib which is actually just like the crib in this picture of the bedding I'm seriously considering:

The crib has great reviews and I love the antique feel of it with the white spindles. The bedding is by Rikshaw design and the set, which includes the quilt, crib skirt, and bumper, is actually discontinued. I found it on sale here at Polka Dot Peacock, but since it's discontinued and on sale, it's a final sale item which cannot be returned. It's still a little pricey but I haven't been able to find anything else I really like (I'm not a huge fan of pink and that makes it very difficult to find little girl bedding).

So once the crib is delivered the room will really start to feel like a nursery! :)

Hope everyone's weekend was lovely and Happy Monday!

Curb Appeal - Take 2

This fabulous weather we've been having recently has motivated me to do some work outside and finally update our curb appeal. I updated some last year that I mentioned here, but it was time to freshen things up again. The first item on the list to upgrade was our mailbox. I don't have a picture of the previous one (I was so ready to get it out of the ground that I forgot to snap a pic) but trust me, we desperately needed a new one. The old one was tiny, thin black metal (post and box) and the door on the box would never stay closed. It would drive me crazy when I saw it hanging open.

So needless to say, I dragged Matthew to Lowe's one Saturday morning to pick out a new one. Sidenote: this is his least favorite place to go with me, especially on the weekend (probably because he knows it means he'll end up doing some of the work). Anywho, we purchased a new post, a large metal box, and of course some pretty flowers to plant around it. After 30 minutes or so, the hubby had it installed and ready for me to plant the flowers. It looks so much better!

While I was on this "curb appeal" kick, I also decided to repaint the front stoop. I painted it last year (you can see that here) but it had kinda lost it's luster and it was chipping in a few places. This time, I used the same porch and floor paint by Behr, but I mixed in a weather protector/ glossy sealant. I can already tell it's going to hold up better and it's much more shiny. :) I also picked up a new welcome mat, 2 planters and some red daisies. I chose daisies because they only need part sun and our porch only receives afternoon sun. They're doing great so far!

We've also had someone at the house this week painting all of our white trim (which is a lot!) and it's already looking so much better! It's desperately needed this for a while and I'm glad we finally got around to it.

That's all for now! Hope everyone has a Happy Thursday! Just remember, the weekend is almost here! :)