My New Living Room

I feel like we've been working on the living room for a really long time now.  We have been, though it's been a Go, then Stop process.  After so long, we are finally close to being done!

Stripping wallpaper is the worst thing ever.  If there is a Hell, you can be assured that will be one of chores one will be forced to do for a few hundred years.  Removing the paper itself was easy.  It's the leftover paint glue that makes everything so difficult.  The wallpaper here had a date on the back.  1978.  It was as old as I am.  Insert facepalm here.

So I stripped away the paper, and very slowly scrubbed every inch of wall.  John was very useful here, I tell you.  It's very hard for a 5'3 person to scrub the very top of her walls.  After scrubbing, and drying, paint went up.  This was a slow process.  I managed to get a small chunk of the room done back in March. And it was only last week that we did the rest.  Though, here's a guilty confession, I still need to do one more coat on one wall.

Stick to 2 shelves, or add more?

The room was instantly nicer with the paint.  It looks totally different, at least to me.  And I love the contrast that I created with the dark and light paint.  It really worked out well.  I painted the ugly wood paneling on the fire place wall with the darker brown, without smoothing out the lines.  It's a bit noticeable, but it looks so much better than that paneling.  I also added the shelves, which I just love.  Places to put things!  I'm still debating on adding another shelf.  I'd also love to add a wall sconce, plus our wall art.

I'm still deciding on painting the fireplace, and might consider getting new glass doors at some point.  I've also decided to make a fireplace cushion to fit over that stone bench there, though it's not needed at this point.  For our summer arrangement, we're putting our love seat back in the living room, and assembling our giant couch.

I love my corner shelf!

On the TV side of the room, I painted this corner shelf, and put it up.  It wasn't too hard to hang, though I wish the shelf was a bit better quality.  I wouldn't put anything too heavy on it, but it's perfect for little items that add of personality to the room.  John and I are still discussing TV stands- we are both considering eliminating the stand completely, and attaching the TV to the wall.  We think this is the best route, as it would help increase space, plus reduce the amount of fingerprints messy children fingers put on our screen.  However, wiring becomes an issue, as does mobility.

So that's what's been done so far.  I'm pretty happy about it all, and should have the rest of the painting and shelves done by the end of this week.  I'm crossing my fingers that maybe, just maybe I can get our wall decor up as well, and I'm hoping to find my cute curtain rod.  I bought a cute set of curtains, but they are hung on the wrong type of rod.  And I need plants now.  That's like the ultimate final touch, at least for me.

What to do, what to do...

The curtains I liked...Brown.

My front porch has 10 windows.  10!  They are all 32 by 38, which seems an odd size window to me.  The curtains, something left behind by the previous owners, are all white lace, some of them very ratty.  They need to be replaced.  I was trying to find curtains, something more my style, yesterday, and only found one pair I really liked, for 10.99 a pair.  Yikes!  I don't know if I really want to spend over a hundred dollars on curtains.

So I looked at some of the fabric and dye on Dharma Trading, and thought maybe I'd buy some muslin and dye it.  A lot cheaper, though a lot more work.  Problem is...I've never used a reactive dye, and the process freaked me out.  So now I'm back to square one.  I suppose I could get some fabric from JoAnn's too.  I haven't found any fabric I like yet.  I'd like something simple.

I supposed the other option is to go to somewhere like The Family Dollar and look for some blinds, or cheap curtains.  I would really like to spend less than $50, but I'm not sure that's possible.  Though now that I'm looking at the curtains I like, and thinking about going to JoAnn's, I'm thinking it could be possible to get some muslin in natural, and then find some brown fabric like the one above and make my own...still some work, so much cheaper.  I think a trip to JoAnn's is definitely in order, as well as an order from Dharma (the muslin is so cheap!)

Spring Breeeeeak!

So it's Spring Break for our little household.  And while it won't be a week full of bikini clad beach bunnies, booze, sex and drugs (oh drat...) it will be a week of fun.  Maybe.  Hopefully.  Okay, so maybe not at all.  I have not one, but two dentist appointments this week.  Painting to do.  Seeds to start indoors.  A guinea pig cage to clean.  Whatever the next project on Project: Simplify is.  A bathroom to scrub.  A house to clean.  And maybe a trip to Buffalo with both kids in tow and a hockey game to attend.  That's honestly going to depend on how we feel.  Which right now, is still pretty awful.

But I'm planning a delicious Irish inspired meal for Thursday.  And Saturday is our annual St. Patrick's day celebration, which will consist of good food (Corned beef and Cabbage, Guinness Cake), plenty of beer, whiskey and Irish cream, and of course, good friends.  That's the part I most look forward to actually.

So yeah, while a trip down South, where it's warm and sunny, might be really nice...all I can say is not this year, but that's all right.  John and I, plus the kids, will do what we always do, and that's just create our own good time and make the best out of any situation.

Who needs HGTv? (Me!)

Updating the house is a slow process, with two kids under 5, a working husband and winter.  Particularly, it's hard to do the living room, since that's the main area we all hang out in.  However, that's going to change, mainly because it's starting to all get under my skin.  Usually I just do something than show, but I figured...hey it's kind of fun to share my planning process.

Needs: New door, No wall paper.

 You can see the first changes needed here.  It's a small living room, with only two windows.  It's not very bright at all.  I'd like to add a new door, with a bigger glass section, one that allows more light into the room.  The wall between the window and door needs some sort of art work.  Our giant framed map of Middle Earth is still in need of a home on our walls.

Of course, you can also see the biggest change to make is getting rid of that wall paper, and painting the room.  Since our sofa is a dark chocolate brown, I'm going to go with a very light brown, maybe a nutmeg, with a darker trim.  Probably not very original, but most definitely very me, and nice.

Maybe some lighting, and definitely some new curtains.

This isn't the best picture, but you would just see more of that ugly wall paper, and some very old curtains and drapes.  New ones will be put in, along with some Roman shades.  To make more room, we plan on getting rid of that particular TV stand, which is old and broken, and getting something smaller, and maybe taller

I can't wait to do everything, and have this be my before picture.

You can see the ugly paneling wall in the next picture.  I don't know why I hate it so much, but I do.  It's got to go.  I'm afraid that it's going to be brick behind it though, so my plan is to spackle the ridges, and paint over paneling.  It's going to be a dark brown, because instead of keep those walls bare, we're going to add shelves, most likely in a contrasting color, for books, DVD's and games..

I'm also going to paint the fireplace, (Twilight Taupe) and add a lovely hearth rug for in front of the fireplace.  The DVD rack thing will be moved, as well as the light.  I think above the mantle also needs some art work, as well as some plants on the mantle, and by the fireplace.  Small orange trees, anyone?

Do your eyes burn looking at that wall paper?

It's hard to see in the next picture, but the very corner of the room, where the couch is against the wall, sticks out immensely.  It's actually a linen closet on the other side of the house.  I'm so tempted to knock that down...  More of the same plan here.  Remove wall paper, paint, add some wall art.  I'd also like to add some wall sconces.

Because I live here, and it makes my eyes burn.

A part of me wouldn't mind taking out the wall near the stairs, on both sides, opening the room to the Dining room.  I love our banister, but it's only on one side.  I've have to find a matching one, though I'm sure it's not too hard.  If not, some smaller corner shelves would be really nice, along with some wall vases.

So I guess in the end, the one thing that doesn't need changing is the carpet.  it has nice carpet, although it's hard to tell at times, as my living room is usually covered in kids toys...

I think the first step is going to be to slowly remove all the wall paper, scrubbing section by section until it's read for the first coat of paint.  Then we'll paint, add the bookshelves, and change the curtains.  After that, it'll be a "one piece at a time" change, maybe starting with the TV stand, and ending with the door.

Talking about this has made me totally psyched, and I'm so tempted to just tear off one panel of wall paper, just because it would feel so good.