When Three Trips to the Paint Store Isn't Enough

Can't believe it is almost the end of January. Our boys are back at college and I am feeling bittersweet, sad, and mostly thankful. Thankful to have time with my guys home, grateful to have 10 days off of work over the holiday break, and mostly grateful for all that God has blessed me with.

However, with all that I have been feeling a bit lost and at lose ends. Usually I have a project(s) and can't wait for January where I can start my indoor projects. Although I do have a project, but with all of our college expenses, I can't afford to do what I would like. That project is a kitchen gut job but alas, it is not to be at this time. But what better way to spruce up a tired kitchen than a fresh coat of paint.

So off I go to the paint store, a.k.a. Ace Hardware. I knew I wanted a darker grey but other than that...wasn't sure. So I got some paint chips and looked at them awhile but by the time NY Day hit I knew my window of opportunity to paint had arrived. My first choice was a color called Cobblestone Street, but nope, it wasn't the right one. It looked lavender when I put samples up!! Off to the store I got go again to choose color #2.

Loved the color but didn't like it in my kitchen. There wasn't enough contrast and it didn't flow with the grey in my living room. My problem now? The next color down on the paint chip was Black Heron. That was too dark! Although I have always wanted a black room.

So I went back yet again to Ace Hardware! By this time, the staff was getting a little leery of me. This time, I wanted a custom color and that about threw them into heart failure! Luckily I was able to work with this great guy who took the Portland Twilight gallon that I had purchased and added more black and more brown and transformed it into the. perfect. color.

However I was sworn to secrecy as they are not supposed to do that. Shhhh. I am so happy to have finally found the right color. I think I need to find a name for it! Worse? I can't even show you a paint chip.

Pictures of the kitchen transformation coming soon.

Updated Living Room, yes again!

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I thought that today, on this blustery winter Michigan day would be a great time to share my updated living room.

New grey on the walls, new curtains, new rug from Pier 1.

This room started with the desire to neutralize our house, possibly for purposes of selling in the near future, and mostly because as much as I love color, I have been recently in love with all the new greys out there. Aren't they just fabulous! But most importantly because I wanted to 'unify' all the many transitions that exist in this room to make them flow better.

View facing west. Still have to add the curtain/valance on the west window.

So a few months ago I took the plunge and painted my living room which led to several other changes. Many of which I wasn't not planning on or expecting! Does that ever happen to you?

View facing east that includes the entry way. Oh and of course a cute chocolate lab!

Our house was built in the 70s and every. single. wall. is. textured. Seriously. That said, painting rooms in our house is not for the faint of heart. You need several coats of paint, a thick paint roller, going back many, many times to check for drips and runs. It is very tedious and very frustrating. But I have to say that this time, due to convenience, I went to Ace Hardware and bought Clark and Kensington paint. I initially asked for 3 gallons as this paint job typically takes at least that much. Luckily for me, the lady only mixed two. Although at the time I was frustrated, it ended being a blessing. I was able to paint this room with one. coat. of. paint and finished the whole area only using 1-1/2 gallons total. Talk about shocked! Keep in mind I was covering a rather dark green as well.

This is the green that I was covering!
This paint is called "Submarine' from Dutch Boy.

Linking up this week to:

Pieced Pastimes 

It's Overflowing

Be Different act Normal

Silver Pennies

Stephanie Lynn

DIY Showoff 

Thoughts From Alice

What We accomplished Wednesdays

Boogieboard Cottage

Creatively Living 

Just A Girl & Her Blog 

Pink When

Mod Vintage Life 

The Dedicated House 

Between Naps On The Porch

Dwellings-Heart of Your Home 

Rain on a Tin Roof 

Lou Lou Girls 

Spring Fever

 

The race is on and spring fever has hit! You see, by this time I am trying to wrap up all my inside projects that have started over the winter. Because, you see, soon my focus will be turning outside. As soon as all this snow is gone. And the plants start showing their little heads above ground. I will be outside and my only goal for inside is to keep the house clean.



Fireplace shelves


We have tackled two big projects this winter. One was planned and one was totally not! Planned project was to install flooring in our master bedroom. My unplanned project? Repainting and refreshing our office area.

New pillows from TJ Maxx

Old curtains moved to kitchen; new curtains for office.

 
It all started with the new desk we built, see that post here. It then morphed into a desire to have a central information area near the desk. (This project has yet to be finished!) But somehow, when picking up the new flooring for our bedroom, I ended up buying paint for the office. Seriously Lowe's people the worse thing you can say to me is "that will be about 15-20 minutes to pull your flooring, you can shop around for awhile." Really? That just gets me into trouble! Before I knew it, I was buying paint. Something I hadn't even planned on!

Fireplace sitting area.

Mirror/plate wall

And somehow, that little painting project trickled into a mini kitchen update. More on that later.

Table arrangement

Shelf refresh

Linking up this week to:

 

Wake Up Wednesday at A Peek Into My Paradise

Wonderfully Creative Wednesdays at All She Cooks 

Inspire me Tuesday at A Stroll Thru Life

For the birds...

Inspired by Thrifty Decor Chick's "making something from nothing" July extravaganza, I started searching through the house and the shed and all over to see what kind of goodies I had laying around. I found a beauty in my pool house and something I had TOTALLY forgotten about buying. Bursting with excitement, I pulled it off the top shelf only to find the whole inside was plugged full of some kind of soft white, fluffy stuff. Finally dawned on me that was what happened to the stuffing from one of my lawn chair cushions that I found chewed up this past winter! Some critter was busy...and smart!

Anywhoooo, I had my husband pull it all out. Yes, I am a bit of a chicken when it comes to mice. I have had my share of rodents this Spring and Summer. I had already found a dead, dehydrated mouse when cleaning out the motor of my garage freezer. Oh, and let's not forget the bunny nest I uncovered when demulching my landscaping beds. Could hear me screaming for blocks!

Well, back to the makeover. I bought this birdhouse about 3 years ago for a couple of bucks and never knew what I wanted to do with it. I could feel the wheels start to churning as I kept looking around our property. Found a couple of old fence posts back in the shed and knew what I was going to do.

So I found some old beige paint and watered it down, after spraying a couple of coats of white from some old spray paint I had. Then I did a wash with the watered down beige paint. Found a piece of board, to mount the house to the pole. But first, I dug the hole, mixed quikcrete to mount the post down in the hole and let it stand overnight. The end result was a nice, aged birdhouse that looks like it's been there for years. Exactly what I wanted!

Hooking up this week with:

Between Naps on the Porch Metamorphosis MondayTrash to Treasure Tuesday at ReinventedNifty Thrifty Tuesdays at Coastal CharmGarden Linky Party at Centsational Girl