master bedroom inspiration

yes, of course i'm brainstorming. there is always a project in the works--even if it just ideas. i re-rearranged our master bedroom back to its first layout (it makes much more sense the way i had it in the beginning). i liked my bedroom for a hot minute when we first bought everything. i was really feelin' a lavender-white-silver bedroom. it seemed so spa like. but i am really regretting it. also-how did jeremy go along with such a girly room? poor guy. 

anyway, i'm ready to man it up. (with soft colors for femininity, of course). so, i've been pinning ideas for a new master bedroom look and came up with my favorites to try and see what the similarities were between them.

[links can be found on my pinterest board]

 i see blue walls, brown accents, and an upholstered headboard in our future 

(and maybe some pops of orange).

here are some fairly affordable fabric headboards that i'm fond of:

[headboards from target online]

MASTER PLAN:

rip up carpet

paint walls (blue? chocolate? beige?)

paint trim

replace headboard 

new curtains

new (or rehab an old) dresser 

framed art for over bed

side tables (matching?)

maybe add a rug?

__________________________

this sounds expensive

kitchen update in the works

i've always got something in works. house painting is still my numero uno, but pinterest has got me dreaming of a clean, white kitchen. 

[image via here]

and to convice myself that black appliances will, in fact, look good with white cabinets:

[image via here]

so here is my list in no particular order:

• pry ugly tile off all walls (backsplash on both sides, and wall to garage)
• prep walls behind counter for new tile
• tile backsplash (white subway tile)
• prep wall to garage for paint
• paint accent wall ^ (blue?)
• take off all cabinet doors & remove hinges/pulls
• fill in all holes from old hinges/pulls/new cabinets and fill 
• prime cabinets and doors
• paint cabinets and doors (uppers white, lowers grey)
• flip cabinet doors for more streamlined look
• change cabinet pulls above dishwasher to open toward each other _-||-_
• remove wood from cabinets above dishwasher 
• replace wood with 2 glass panels
• add electrical outlet to sink side of kitchen cabinet uppers
• add lights above cabinets
• replace counter 
• remove scallop from over sink area

it's fall, ya'll

fall decorating around the laws house. (top left-flowers from j for our 1 year anniversary)

happy fall!

slow backyard progress

last time i checked, my backyard looked something like this. eek!

 but when i went to check on it a few minutes later..

those scraggly weeds turned into trees! we couldn't even see out the [only] living room window. 

so i bought a handsaw for about nine bucks and put some good old-fashioned elbow grease into it. 

in about 45 minutes (spread out across two afternoons--yowza, it was a workout!) 

i could see the house!!!

 and out the window!!

what a difference!! although, seeing the house means we can see how badly the house needs painting. uh-oh. but, that's okay. painting the exterior is next on our list!!!! i'm so excited! 

sidenote: when i painted those swatches next to our new yellow front door, i picked the dark grey and then threw away the swatch. so we've settled (again) on a grey. this time--a similar color called Dark Granite by Behr

cheap sentimental art

my parents are moving into an apartment as part of their relocation to tulsa, and so mom is taking some of her decor that she so nicely let me use for the past few years. so, to replace some wall hangings, i decided to create my own cheap-o art. i already had a few (5!) blank canvases lying around so i decided to craft something simple and sentimental. 

first i printed out numbers that meant something to jeremy and me. (our wedding was october 6th). 

i cut out the numbers and traced them onto the canvases using a ruler for centering--although i eyeballed them for horizontal center. 

then i painted them with some acylic paint i had on hand. i only keep primary colors + white and black to make my own colors. for this project i went with blue and black to go with my dark blue entryway wall. 

blank:

mom's box wreaths:

ta-da: 

i actually am really diggin' them. they mimic  the white in the beadboard & brighten up the wall.

carpet nix: part deux

we decided to keep going on out carpet elimination

 extravaganza and continued on into the office. 

the beautiful before. (don't let her fool you, there must be some camera trick happening in this picture--the carpet needed yanking out bad).

 a little elbow grease and a gallon of paint later: 

a beautiful, clean office floor. 

carpet nix

avert your eyes.

we still aren't sure why we didn't get rid of the carpet altogether when we moved in. we did get them cleaned which took stains like these out. but they reappeared. the carpet was almost black. i just kept the lights off in the hallway, and there isn't any natural light in there, so it wasn't noticeable. plus i put a runner over the carpet. sheesh. 

my parents were spending some time at our house, and one bored afternoon we decided to take on a project. the first thing out of my mouth was RIP OUT THE CARPET!!  i've been wanting to do it for a couple of years now, but never really knew what i'd do with it once it was torn out. enter: dad-with-truck. so we got on it. 

 imagine my surprise when we pulled up the carpet and found tile (continuous from the main living area) underneath!! it actually took us a minute to realize what we were looking at, and then my mom and i gasped. 

 i have never been so happy to see tile i thought i hated!

here's mom working on pulling up tacks. 

before & after

tile, glorious tile!

a finished console table

remember when i shared this ^ picture from instagram in this post about a future console table project that was in the works? well, 4 months later, the project is COMPLETE!

i stained the wood and my dad helped me build a very looong (111 inches, to be exact) behind-the-couch console table à la YHL.

i am obsessed, to say the least. let's end with an instagram picture, too:

 

taking off a sliding shower door

brace yourself. when young house love said it, i didn't think it was that bad. but when i took my master bathroom shower door off..whoa. 

every time we'd open the bathroom door, it would slam into the shower door, and standing in the shower felt a bit claustrophobic. i'd already tried to disguise the nasty thing with a shower curtain, remember? this time, i decided to take it a step further by removing the (glass?) doors by myself.  

 i took off the doors, removed four screws and some caulk with an exacto-knife and that was it...

WRONG!

.

.

.

.

gag! underneath the insert was this mess, & it took some major cleaning and scraping. it looked like a living creature. i'm glad i removed the doors because there was some definite mold growth goin' on under there. 

after = less cramped and less cheap looking

update: goodwill was happy to take the doors off my hands!

weird blank wall: entry/living room

so, after painting the living room (and weird slanted wall into the entryway) grey, i nixed a brown flour-de-lis in lieu hanging on the wall for something younger and more in-line with our new color scheme. 

i happened upon this blue city sketch at homegoods and snatched it up! 

before & after

   

using space in a small kitchen

i got this idea from another blogger, and put my own spin on it thanks to ikea's vurm wine rack. you don't really think of the sides of your cabinets as prime real estate for decorating. 

the blah befores:

and the va-va-voom afters:

it's just a nice funky touch that keeps the space feeling like us. 

project dilemma

i am adding way more than i am crossing off when it comes to the big list of the things i want to do to the house. 

for instance, i thought it would be nice to get a truck into our backyard for future projects (for hauling away, pulling out shrubs, carrying big loads of material) so a double gate would be nice on once side of the house. 

for mowing and watering the lawn, we've found that a gate on both sides of the house would be great. we chose where we wanted the existing gate, but i wish we would have put it on the other side for easier access. 

i'm having project withdrawals, so i am trying to think up a plan for when my parents get home. i've landed on either painting the exterior of the house or fixing our long, dark hallway. 

it is still up in the air. it's hot out, so an indoor project sounds more appealing. but what better time to paint than when it's [finally] not cold and rainy?

but of all the carpet in my house, the hallway's is the absolute worst. we had it cleaned when we moved in (we still don't know why we didn't get it replaced!) but over time, walking on it has brought the stains back out. it's gross. we don't walk on the carpet without slippers or socks. ugh. 

so the remedy for the hall would be laminate wood flooring :) and some bright, white board and batten to brighten it up. two new, bigger, brighter light fixtures are in the works as well. 

just typing about the hallway made me realize which project sounds more fun.

image via here

now if only my hallway could get that much light!

future nurse!

i got into nursing school and i am beyond excited!! 

i start on May 30, 2013.

i have a blog dedicated to school, and am going to continue documenting my nursing school journey there. you can follow by clicking here.  

i worked so hard getting good grades in all of my prerequisites, and i cannot believe i actually got in.

weird blank wall: master bedroom

i decided to create an homage to our wedding in our master bedroom. every night i would lay in bed and stare at this expansive empty wall. i always knew exactly what i wanted to put there. 

but first: i had to get married, and second: i had to go to ikea

(which just happened recently-ish when i went to california with the nannyfam!)

so i smuggled four 11x14 frames home in a suitcase and they didn't break or scratch or crack!

so, i put the frames up first. 

and i'll be honest, they sat like that for a few days while i kept putting off going to walmart to print photos. (the first wedding prints after five months of being married, jeez!)

and voilà!

the only place that can be completely about us 

(i didn't want to put family pics in the bedroom). 

i love it!

keep in touch

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front door: paint update

remember how i was complaining about how ugly my front door is in this post? 

eek! well, i painted it valspar's summer gold in semi-gloss. and i'm lovin' it (or what i know it will look like surrounded by a sexy grey).

 right now, it's eh. plus, it has seriously taken over five coats and still could use more!! i powerwashed, sanded, washed, used a paint with built in primer, done multiple coats on multiple days but for some reason certain areas just won't take the paint! 

we also added some planters on each side (from my sister's old house) and i love 'em!

TO DO:

paint exterior grey

update trim 

paint bench (add pillow)

carriage detail on garage

lights flanking garage door

make a garbage can shed

update peephole and handle/lock

for now: repaint shutters black

future: build cedar shutters

add cedar shake shingles (or cedar garage pergola)

update house numbers

remove another bush

solar lights

chandelier change-up

i am getting to be pretty satisfied with my living room/dining room area. (a place that has always felt..not very us).

for instance, the chandelier over the kitchen table. when we moved in, it was brass! we slapped a coat of black spray paint on it to make it go from this (take note of that delicious wallpaper border that was throughout the entire house).

 to this

 much better. but recently, i've been wanting a change (who'd have guessed?)

so i tried taking off those little lampshades. it really brightened up the room, 

but i put the shades right back on. 

i always see chandelier shades in ballard design, so i whipped out my magazine and 

spotted these little beauties

and then realized replacing my shades would cost me over 100 beans!!

needless to say, i'm in search of a new light fixture. 

WHAT WE'VE DONE TO MAKE THE DINING AREA MORE US:

paint chandelier

great grandma's 100+ year old table

4 white parsons chairs

floating shelves

new curtains

living room update: new couch

it's crazy how much of a difference a new couch can make. we went from a tiny brown couch to a huge, grey sectional recently, and it has been a-mazing. 

let's recap.

this photo was only taken for craigslist

ugh. alright, that's enough. onto bigger, better things:

enter karl. our mammoth of a sofa. 

sorry for the lighting and angle, there's no way to photograph the whole thing nicely. 

but, man-oh-man, right? he's everything i've ever wanted in a couch. 

deep. enough to spoon. 

big. enough to lay on with jeremy and still, somehow, not touch. (and j's over 6' tall)

i have been on the couch with all 3 dogs at once and no one was touching the other! 

grey. 

kinda swanky.

my living room photographs horribly, because the walls don't look much different. but they went from light taupe to a moody grey. and my mom sewed those ikat pillows for me from leftover curtain material!

(and disregard the lamp behind the couch..i'm searching for a replacement. 

it's nice, but it's never been our style).