Powder Room, Master Bath and DIY $9 Art

We really lucked out that the house was pretty much move-in ready when we bought it. 

Give or take a coat of paint or a new carpet, we really didn't have to do anything to the house. 

Take the powder room for example. Here is what it looked like before moving in:

The husband of the couple who lived in the house before us did tile work for a living. 

And he did a gorgeous job in the bathrooms and kitchen.

I really love the grey, black and white combo so after moving in I barely even touched the powder room. 

Here is what is currently looks like:

As you can see, not too much has changed. 

I did replace the mirror with a black framed piece from Marshalls for about $30-40. 

If you look above the toilet, you will see my cheap DIY $9 art.

I actually stumbled upon the pictures while playing around with clip art. I can't even remember what I was looking for, but a majority of these were listed under "vintage ad" or "playbill." The frames were an easy find at the local dollar store. So with the addition of cardstock and printer ink (both of which I already had), this art was an easy $9 and 1 hour project. 

Speaking of bathrooms, I just finished painting the walls in our master bath. 

I know that I said nothing needed to be done when we moved in the house, but there were a few things I just couldn't leave alone.

Please take a look at the master bath (before moving in):

I didn't take a picture of the second half of the bathroom with the toilet and shower, but you get the idea. 

Not pretty.

This was the first room I tackled painting and took care of immediately after moving in.

When I began the master bath, I didn't really have a plan for the rest of the bedroom and just wanted to get rid of the orange/brown/gray/I don't know what else sponge painted walls. So I started with a light blue color, that ended up looking more purple. 

Much better, right? (Note: I also painted the cabinets)

Since the room turned out more purple than blue, I repainted a few months later and got the light denim-blue I originally wanted. (I don't have a picture of that.)

Well, two years later and the master bedroom put together I have decided that the blue walls no longer match. The master bedroom has dark black-brown furniture, neutral walls and bedding with a splash of teal accents. The teal and denim don't look so good together.

Tonight I just finished the last coats of glossy WHITE on my master bath. I'm not exactly sure what made me choose white. I think partly because the room is so small I wanted it to look spacious. I also get ready in this bathroom and the white walls make it much brighter and makeup application-friendly. I plan to use some bright art and accent pieces to keep it from looking too washed out. I'm currently waiting for it to dry before replacing the towel racks, switch covers, etc so I have no photos, yet.  

I'll reveal the new bathroom tomorrow!

Wedding - A Closer Look

I explained in a previous post where we had gotten our cake topper,

but I want to take a moment to rave about two more favorite pieces to the wedding:

My invitations and "Mrs DeMaio" hanger.

The hanger was another Esty find. 

I visited Esty a lot during wedding planning. There was so much more I wanted to buy and incorporate but didn't want to have too much going on so I narrowed it down to a few.

 

LilaFrances made the wedding hanger. She offers a number of options ("bride", names, etc) but they are slightly restricted by the number of characters. For example, a heart is considered two characters. I still have my hanger and it hangs on a wall in our our master bedroom next one of our wedding photos and a framed copy of our invitations.  

And now the invitations.

Sigh.

I LOVED my invitations.

I ordered our invitations from The Aerialist Press and worked directly with Alexandra who was an absolute dream. She answered my first email within hours and was always quick with each correspondence. I had complete confidence in her company and couldn't be happier with the results. I spent weeks and weeks researching invitations. I really wanted to have letterpress but every place I found them they were incredibly expensive and I couldn't justify spending that kind of money. I eventually gave myself an ultimatum that I had to decide on invites by end of day when I stumbled across the Aerialist Press website. I can't even remember how I found it, but I couldn't believe she had gorgeous and affordable letterpress invitations. 

I remember having to take two trips to the post office to get them. I showed up too early the first day and they were not ready to be picked up. So bright and early Saturday morning I went to the post office (7am?) and waited in line for it to open. I even teared up as I looked them over because things were finally feeling real.

They were just wrapped perfectly into two boxes with a little note from Alexandra.

I still love them and hope I have some other event in the future to make invitations for!

Oh, and here are a few snapshots I took while making my favors/table numbers. 

As I mentioned in a previous post, I used these to designate food choice as well.

Yes, there were a lot. And they took quite some time to make. 

Under age guests were given a jar of white and green candies. 

Except my flower girl was given a jar of only blue M&Ms. Her favorite. 

Our Wedding in Pictures 5.15.10

A peek at just a few of our favorite wedding photos.

Tour de Living Room

While the hubby is still in snoozetown I decided to snap a few photos and give a mini tour of our living room. I'm finally pretty content with the room and may actually leave it alone for a few months (ha, ha).


Here is the room before we even moved in.
I snapped these photos during inspection so I could begin planning asap.

Those vertical blinds still make me shudder.

And as a refresher, here is the room when the walls were red:

And now:

The couch is from Boscovs and I bought it right before moving in. 

Originally $1000.00 but with a 20% off coupon, got it for $800.00

The side and coffee tables are both Ikea.

(you will quickly learn that most of the house is furnished by Ikea)

Here is a closer look at the pillows and throw I bought about three weeks ago.

I think they are the perfect pop of color that I needed after painting over the red.

They are also Lyla-approved if you can see the little blonde hairs all over the black one.

The mirrors above the couch were a Marshalls find.

We originally wanted one long mirror and preferably in a dark wood. We didn't have much lucking finding one that wasn't damaged. When we came across these two babies we  knew they'd look perfect against the red wall. I'm actually really happy with how they look with the new color. (Wall color is Glidden's "Cafe Latte") 

Those curtains are from Ikea, too. However their easy iron-on hem doesn't work so well. 

The hem fell within a few days so I need to sew the hem. TV stand - also Ikea. 

(Hi Lyla!)

This chair and bookcase are to the left of the TV unit. 

The walls ends to the left of the chair as it opens up into our kitchen. 

(We'll tour that room another time.)

The chair was J's (JC Penney I think) and he brought it when we started living together.

The bookcase is Ikea "Markor" collection which we found out has been discontinued!

If you take a closer peek at the bookcase you will see two little wedding pieces.

I've saved a few of my favorite wedding items and scattered them about as little memories. The first are mini champagne bottles that we used as both favors and table markers. Green ribbon indicated chicken and black was beef. I designed the labels myself.

This little knit bride and groom set was an engagement gift made by my cousin.

J is a huge Sox fan (hence the hat) and my wedding colors were originally green and cranberry. I eventually switched to green, black and white. This adorable couple sat on our sweetheart table at our reception.

This side table and chair are to the right of our couch. The chair is actually one of the few pieces left over from the kitchen set my parents had when we grew up. My oldest brother took the rest of the set for one of his apartments. The side table is Ikea and originally was used as a nightstand but I moved it downstairs a few months ago and I think it perfectly fits it's new spot. :)

If you take a peek on the bottle shelf of the side table you will see another wedding memoir. 

This was our cake topper and one of my favorite pieces from the wedding.

I ordered from Cynthia at Red Light Studio.

You can custom make your own based on color, veil style, etc.

Did you notice I also changed the window treatments?

These faux wood blinds were nabbed at Target for an easy $30 or so. 

And of course the wedding photos. One of the biggest reasons for the new color.

That's about it! You've officially had your first mini peek into our home. 

I hope you enjoyed it. :)

Home Sweet Home

I'm anxiously awaiting the hubby's call that he is done work and heading home. I just got back from NY where I had been since Wednesday for work. I haven't seen him since he dropped me off at work Wednesday morning so we are overdue for some QT together. We are hitting up our favorite local spot for dinner. Ole is a tapas restaurant about a mile from our neighborhood. We love it and used to go on a regular basis. Things have been so hectic lately that I don't even remember the last time we went. They have amazing tapas and yummy sangria. Added bonus: the tapas are half priced and the sangria pitchers are only $20 tonight from 9pm until close.  I remember J and I were raving about Ole in front of my grandparents one day and the next time we saw them they told us they went because we said it was so good! They were disappointed at the portions. I don't think my grandparents understand the concept of tapas. :)

I promised pictures of our updated living room and I am not going to disappoint. These pictures aren't the best. I'm still trying to get the hang of this camera. That and it was raining when I took the pictures. But you get the idea. 

I'm very pleased with the results. :)

(Note: Please ignore our ugly carpet. It's berber and a stain trap and it's been here since we moved in. I'm dying to rip it out and replace the carpet with a dark, sexy hardwood. A girl can dream...)

J has off tomorrow (not common on weekends) so we have big plans to take the pup to the bark park! It's supposed to be a beautiful 60 degree day (in November!) and a few hours running around with the other dogs will put this puppy to sleep for the rest of the day. We have no other plans besides that so far and I am A-OK with that. Just a day off together after not seeing each other for three days is good enough for me. 

Meet our pupperoni Lyla:

She is the two year old, German Shepherd mix, spoiled rotten love of our lives. 

She's forcing me to give her a rub down as I type. 

I may also try to work a little more on my latest project. Check out this fab bench I snagged from my neighbor's trash pile. (Ok, and by "I snagged" I mean I made J grab while I waited in the car. At 11:00 at night. After a night out for drinks on a random weekday night.)

I have already sanded it down and put the first coat of white paint on it. I'm very excited and pleased with how it's turning out. I just need to finish it. I'm also debating breaking out my sewing machine and making a pillow/seat cushion out of some left over material from Ikea curtains I purchased and hemmed a while back.  I'm not exactly sure where to put it but J has already claimed it as his "guitar bench." I supposed I can give that to him since he did the dirty work and grabbed the stool.