Tuesday, November 23, 2010

My rug purchase

I love the colors of this rug, and I really need to get it cleaned at some point. However, I would really like to get an idea of the history of the rug. Anybody, somebody -help me out. Is this rug anything special?

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Master bedroom paint colors

The master bedroom is a little it in shambles. I am ready for an update. I have been debating paint colors for a really long time, and decided to go with a version of teal.

Glidden Totally Teal- A little less intense. But reads a lot lighter blue than Teal.

Martha Stewart HOSTA.  


I still have to figure out what the perfect Teal is. Masculine, strong but delicious all at once. What is your favorite teal color?

Friday, November 19, 2010

Master Bathroom

For the most part, we have completed the master bathroom. We still need to install one light fixture, do some painting and hang some artwork.


There was a lot of drama trying to gut and re-configure the bathroom. Our initial problem was that while my husband was gutting the bathroom he discovered that there was concrete underneath the old ceramic tile. There was A LOT of digging involved. We also re-configured our large master bedroom to give more room for a shower and a laundry section in the new bathroom.

    
Shower with Carrara marble and multi-shower head that I found at a builder's sale.

















Large Rainfall Showerhead and a little 'nook' for shampoos, soaps etc. Would eventually like to replace the shower curtain with a glass door.        






Tub - Vintage tub coated in black and legs restored.




Another view of the tub


Sink. Purchased a dresser and had it retrofitted to fit a sink on top.

Tons of storage



Mirror. Old mirror that was meant to be 'temporary' while I found 'the one', but is working out OK as 'the one'.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Lighting

I was reading through some blogs today and saw this question on lighting. I don't have an exact answer to the question, but wanted to share my lighting philosophy.

My  cheap, money-conscious side has always been blown away by how expensive light fixtures and lamps can get. As a result of that, there are a few things I always pick up at thrift stores/building supply stores when I see them- specifically- lamps, lamp-shades that are in good shape and more modern and unique light fixtures. As a result- here is some of our collection. (The other batch is in the basement and waiting on when we actually work on the specific rooms)



Spray painted in Red. Was brass with 'green shades'. Will likely paper the shades once I get the right fabric/paper.

  Spray painted brass fixture to white.


Lamp from thrift store. Shade from different thrift store. Fabric from Tonic living. 




From LeGeudewill.

Was resistant to this one. It had a hideous orange film. Hubby removed film and cleaned it up.

From Shadesoflight.com. Was on sale.






Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Did I show you my powder room yet?

Grey tile from the builder's auction. Eggplant color walls. A salvage light fixture from Le GeaudWill for $10. A $5 mirror that I picked up at the 43 mile yard sale. And the original toilet and sink from the old bathroom that used to be in the middle of the dining room. Still waiting to hang some art work.

Monday, November 15, 2010

The dressing room

I am incredibly fortunate that we have a small room in the house that we have agreed to change to a dressing room for me. It makes me very happy.

We started off with a plan to convert this room to a place that would accommodate my gazillion dresses (yes, I only wear dresses, even during the winter time), my yoga pants (because that is what I work out in), and my shoes (because I love shoes)- as well as a 'dressing table' to do make up, and space for a laundry basket.

The room had yucky carpet to start with and peeling plaster walls. Mission one was to remove the carpet.


After removing the carpet, I painted the 'little closet' turqoise. This is my 'shoe section'.






We painted the rest of the dressing room a soft pink from Martha Stewart paints. The color is cal;ed 'Ballet Slipper Pink'.


My hubby had 'salvaged' (more like picked up from the alley garbage) someone's left over hardwood floors. We debated whether to install these of to install some Cork flooring that I purchased at the ReStore for a whooping $10 total. We also decided against the yucky laminate that we had salvaged from our kitchen renovation earlier this summer. There was not enough of the hardwood unfortunately- and so Cork it is. Here is the finished floor.



After this was done, I got all my stuff in. A big 'commercial rack' to hang my clothes until I have some money saved for an Elfa system from the container store- plus, I am waiting for it to go on sale. Old IKEA cabinets I own  for folding space for my yoga pants and purses. An IKEA Trofast storage piece for the unmentionables, scarves, gloves etc. An old crate and barrel bookcase/desk for a 'dressing table' that I can use for make up etc. An old container store 'rolly' for t-shirts, night clothes and etcs. And this is the 'final-for-now' look.




All that is left to do is to change the light fixture and hang some art-work.  And I do have some fun art work planned for the room.  It feels nice having my clothes out of boxes.

Pillows galore

I was on a sewing kick recently and decided to make some pillows for my living room. I ordered some fabric from tonicliving.com. Most of the fabric was reasonably priced at about $8.95 a yard.

With the help of youtube and a few google searches, I figured out how to make a few different pillows.
This one had turqoise piping. I bought the button during my trip to NYC.






This one has ruffles. Similar buttons.


My favorite one. I bought an old man sweater at the goodwill. Cut it and sewed a pillow. And I love the buttons.





And here is Cooper enjoying the pillows.