3000 Paint Colours!

How is it possible to look  at  3000 to 

a gazillion

paint chips and still not find the exact

colour?

I thought I would show you a picture  that I snapped 

this morning after getting up 

(scuze the messy bed)

of the new Sico turquoise  test paint colour. 

I still wanted to see what my first choice "geyser"

by Martha Stewart looks like but the chip is 

darker than this colour by Sico and I didn't want to 

go any darker as this is an east 

facing room with one small window.

I told my honey that I didn't need flowers or  mushy cards, 

(yup he always gets me two)

 as renovating our bedroom was the very best and the most romantic gift ever! 

 So today while doing

our routine groceries we popped

into HD to get a $5.00 test can of geyser and 

I got the nice lady at the paint counter

to do only 75 %  of it.

As you can see  by the new large swatch 

on the left it is still darker.

I am liking the tones of geyser better with our 

ticking striped bedding. I'm not going for

an exact match of the wall colour to the bedding

but I do like geyser's

more blue than green tones.

It' just feels more nautical to me.

So I will go for it and get it mixed to 65% 

to be just perfect (I hope).

 I only used about 1/4 of the little test can for that large

area which I painted with a brush.

Heck  I could do the entire wall for just $10.00 and two test

cans if I got brave enough to do the entire wall with a brush.

If not then another quart will do for twice that.

Now the bed, the dilemma, the veneer is clearly damaged 

but it is an over 100 year old 

antique of beautiful burled solid walnut on the footboard 

and burled walnut veneer on the headboard. 

The new wall colour is making it look just a little hipper to me, 

a sort of plantation feel. So no need to get hasty, 

I'll  get everything else done first and see how 

it looks. If we don't paint  it then a little wood fill stick will 

take care of the crack in the veneer for an imperfect

but budget wise fix.

What I love is that my honey is up for whatever

I decide.

I couldn't resist pulling these nice white framed shell prints from 

the bathroom to see what they might look like with the new wall colour.

I could do two on each side of the bed or all four above the bed.

We will plug away next weekend and maybe squeeze some 

night time painting in after work this week. 

I thought I would pop in a few pics of the dining room post xmas.

We will one day get doors for the lower parts of the bookcases. 

I don't have much to put on them right now nor the funds 

to buy anything so I just grabbed a 

few things kicking around so they don't look too bare.

I am still going to try and convince my mom

to whip me up a couple of canvas's for either side

of the fireplace with some nice 

beachy colour in them as she is so talented
and I would kill

for a Dash and Albert rug striped rug,

heck any striped rug for that matter. 

Maybe if I find some inexpensive nice smaller ones,

I could have them sewed together for 

a unique kind of patchwork effect.

I saw some at Home Sense once 

but the colours were not right.

As things improve like a slow uphill climb for me with how I feel, 

three steps forward and 2 steps backward,

  I  profoundly notice  how much more relaxed 

and just a little more happy about my design decisions 

for our home I've become. 

I was always afraid of making a mistake as it would 

take to much precious energy that I did not have,

 to fix it.

It really is a nice place to be and I 

am so excited to think how I may feel a year from now.

The morning sunlight on this particular day 

was so beautiful.  

Do you feel like spring is near?

I'm sure a hoping and a praying.

Have a great week.

hugs

Sandra

Bedroom progress

Today got off to a later start as I got a little sidetracked by the thought
and then the action of baking some  gluten free blueberry muffins
 for the first time that turned out so good even Todd, the gluten free skeptic
said they were delicious. I also 

whipped up a dairy free egg oven baked omelet that 

also turned out pretty darn yummy. 

So Todd got to work on our headboard, you see we never got a humidifier
for this old house until this winter and so our antique bed paid a price.

 The veneer and the wood behind it cracked so bad
 that he had to score the rest of the veneer to take the top part off. 

Then he took a jig and drilled holes into the top piece that was previously only held in

place by one board and the veneer on the front.

The holes allowed him to drill screws into the board 

below securing the two pieces together.

The back 

and putting it back together. The veneer also had some bubbled areas

that were not repairable and so this bed has got a date with

some paint.  It's going to be quite a change once we're done.

This room has the original plaster ceiling and walls except for 

the one outside wall that Todd removed the plaster years 

ago and insulated it.

Today he skim coated some rough spots that had not been done previously.

I'm hoping that I will get one coat of paint on all the walls today and
a second tomorrow. The lighting does not show the depth or true blue
of the new wall colour and it is actually a test pilot of
a similar colour to my Martha Stewart  Geyser. You see I get a discount
at work and they couldn't get the formula for Geyser so I picked something
close mixed into a quart and will go and another quart of  Geyser mixed up
at the big orange store if I like the effect.

I never got around the first time we did this room

to finishing it properly, I just ran out of energy and so

I'm happy to do all the caulking needed before repainting

all the trim too.

Look at this original wall sconce. It turns on with

a little key latch on the side and is just inside the door so
you don't have to fumble in the dark.  All the bedrooms have one.

In the past when we were very brave
 we had originally stripped mostly all of the casings of the old lead paint

 and then painted over with latex but this time any remaining lead

paint as seen here as the creamier paint colour in the closet will just get primed

and painted over. It is much safer for us. Removing lead paint is a hazard and dangerous if 

not done right.

Just look at how large and beautiful the original mouldings

in our upstairs are. They are from 1878 and don't match the 1915 Arts 

and Crafts trim in other parts of the house but it tells

this homes tale of a major renovation done before power tools and  I love them.

It was previously partly stripped and 

never saw paint but will get finished off this time.

Todd did the crown moulding years ago the first time we made over

this room.

Well this will definitely be more than a one weekend job so 

I better get to it some more.

Master Bedroom Overhaul

I am so excited because this weekend we are going to 

start to make some cheap and cheerful changes to our bedroom. 

We are going to repaint 

the walls, the bed and the dressers,

 tackle the closet door which was stripped of it's old paint

and never put back on

and hang a pair of Ikea Alvine Kottar curtains I already have

 as well as a 

black out blind so we

can finally sleep without the dang neighbours front

door lights shining in our bedroom all night long.

As I love tourquoise and my better half
doesn't like the idea of an all white bedroom,
I  am going to this colour scheme.
A deep turquoise by Martha Stewart called

"Geyser",

 a soft grey called

"Designer Grey"

 by CIL

and a creamy yellow based warm white by Sico called

"Nairobi Clouds".

I already have an untinted gallon of paint sitting downstairs that

I can get tinted at work 

so that is a great saver

and I have purchased a quart each for the other 

two colours.

 
  We're keeping the Ikea blue and white ticking stripe bedding 

which I love for it's casual feel and  I have my eye 

on  3 different new lamps.

One is a cylinder shaped clear glass lamp with a parchment drum shade
I spied at Walmart about 6 months ago that 

looks similar to this for a lot less 

but so far the two stores I checked don't have it.
It feels so airy and pretty.

I really like how this lamp might 

give me a nice modern contrast to

our very traditional bed.

Or maybe a swing arm lamp in chrome

 to inspire me to retire earlier and do

some reading, or maybe some studying.

or a white gourd lamp, which I have always

loved the organic shape of them.

I have a few bites on some items I'm selling

on Kijiji which will give me the funds for 

new lamps and some other decorative

accessories.

Eventually this great heavy iron chandelier will get it's own

overhaul and will get hung as well but that will be a little 

work in progress as it is very very

rusty underneath all that chippy paint and 

she needs a rewiring too.

Here's a little slumber tidbit.
Did you know that when a little tiny 

light the size of a pin head was shone on the backs of the knees of 

sleeping participants in a sleep study that it disrupted their

R.E.M. sleep. R.E.M. sleep is the sleep that 

allows you to produce the ever so important melatonin and it is also when

your body repairs and regenerates so if you
want the best sleep ever don't forget to black it out
including the alarm clock, turn it the other way.

Woohoo! I am so psyched for colour
and what a nice Valentine's day present to
us both.  Hey what can I say, I'm a low maintenance
kinda gal! No diamonds or flowers required, just paint
and elbow grease is all it takes
to win my heart.

Have a wonderful wonderful weekend.

hugs
Sandra

Super Side Stair Storage and In Case You Didn't Know

Hi again!

Thought I would share with you some more storage Todd has been building. You see our

old home is short on built-ins and to have her keep up with

the Jones's we have been adding where we can.  

So we are blessed with 5 doorways in our 12 1/2 x 18 foot

kitchen and the one on the far right

leads to the basement.

The old doors are beautiful but since we were 

not opening any walls up we chose to remove

them including the basement door (safely stored

in the attic in case anyone ever wanted to put them back)

which gave us an opportunity to use the back wall

to hang a chalk board and have a  space for a small

table and as well for cook

books

or at one time was a great

place for  

this sweet girls water and food dish

to be out of the way of the main

areas of the kitchen, she always had

a thing for getting under furniture.

The left side.

 and  the right side.

There will be shaker doors covering 

all the openings except where

you see the beadboard. I'm 

a pretty good shot and can hit

the recycle bin from the top

of the stairs, actually I made a very calculated

decision as to just how high that cabinet would be

above based on a trial couple of throws!

I love the barn style lighting that will go

where the pig tail light is now. I stained a

piece of pine for the base top and gave

it many coats of poly.

You know building a new house is so much  

easier than working around an old homes

oddities. We didn't want to lose any height 

going down the stairs for taking taller 

items down. Just look at that nasty underside of the 

upstairs landing

and so Todd performed framing and drywall magic!

Just look at those angles, I just love it.

Finishing touches, paint  and doors are needed so will have to 

share  again when it's all done but so far I'm loving it.

and now 

for a very important message

to all the lovely ladies (and some gents)

who have the pleasure (or displeasure) of

doing there own house cleaning

LOW and BEHOLD!

THE LIFT OFF TOILET SEAT 

WITH

SLOW CLOSE!

Just turn these little guys to the left

and lift the seat to the left and then 

the right and they pop off the 

plastic plugs

  

and now you have every woman's dream,

an easy to clean toilet and toilet seat!

So if you don't have

one run right out and get one

(or maybe spare him the agony of what

to get you for Valentine's day ? ha ha with 

some flowers of course)

and  trust me you won't regret it. 

Oh ya, I like the plastic

model over the wood moulded white one 

any day but hey to each her own.

Have a cozy weekend!