Under a Blue Moon

Oops.  I didn't mean to wander off like that.  My dad got sick and it was scary and time consuming. He's almost better so things (like my very precise and dedicated blog schedule….) should get back to normal around here.

What passes for normal anyway.  When we left off I had just painted our bedroom.  Since then we have FINALLY started our main bath remodel.  Whoot!  Once it is complete I'll do a before and after post.  Right now it is just a mess of naked cement board and scary looking electrical happenings.  

One kind of fun thing we uncovered is this little snippet of wallpaper that must be from the 40's or 50's.  

We'll just leave it covered by the new beadboard and baseboards for the next homeowner to discover (like 50 years from now).  

The only other project I've done is a small one.  I bought an Ikea step stool and before I assembled it I painted it pale green.  I have a thing for that color green.  I keep picking out paint for various projects and no matter the brand or color name they are all the same pale green.  This particular one is Behr Frosted Jade.  I just bought a sample pot and then waxed the stool with clear paste was once it was assembled. 

These will not be very dramatic before and after pictures because my camera and the lighting kind of suck.  Nonetheless, I wanted to show the work I did in our master bedroom this weekend.  

I find that with painting it's best if I just have at it as soon as I wake up.  I'm too groggy to talk myself out of it.  So that's what I did on Saturday.  I got out of bed and started shoving all the furniture into the center of the room.

This poor room.  Its legacy is that one horrible painter after another has lived here and slopped paint on the walls and woodwork.  I'm including myself in the ranks.  I could see the entire color history of the room on the tops of the window and door casings.  At one point the walls were a peachy pink and the trim a mint green.  I'm guessing that was during the 80's.  

Here is a before as we found it.  Excuse the poor quality of the pictures – the lighting in this room is very dim.  But the picture on left gives you a good idea of the color (a very weird grey/mauve/lavender shade) and the one on the right the deplorable window coverings we've lived with for the past three and a half months.

The paint I used is Valspar flat wall paint in Cream in my Coffee at 1/2 tint.  This is a trick I use when I really like the color but the lighting in the room is poor.  I ask them to just put in half the normal amount of tint.  The sitting room is Cream in my Coffee at full tint.  

After I finished primering and painting (no painter's tape this time!!  I cut in by hand using a Purdy XL Cub brush) we put up new blinds and curtains.  

Here's the story on the curtains.  I found some sheers that I though would work well.  Heritage Lace in Floret.  There is extra detail at the bottom which, along with being pretty, makes them a little less see-through.  The window looks out onto a sidewalk that gets a fair amount of foot traffic so I wanted to find something that would give a little bit of privacy and still let in as much light as possible.  From the outside you really can't see in the window unless you are right up to it.  

So I found the curtains I liked but the panel sizes were too long.  Not a problem – I figured I would just cut off the top and sew a new rod pocket.  Then I found that Heritage Lace also makes shower curtains in the same pattern.  For a lot cheaper than curtain panels.  I figured since I was cutting off the top anyway I might as well go the cheaper route.  I bought four shower curtains.  I cut one in half vertically for the two smaller side windows.  The main part of the window has two shower curtains and the window behind our bed has one.  

All in all – a very productive day.  Next on the list is to paint my office.