A Fresh Coat

Is it fair to say a paint color changed my life? Am I being a bit dramatic? Maybe. Seriously though, I have found a new love in a certain shade of gray (no pun intended towards the book - I've never read it).

 

For some time now I've felt that something wasn't quite right in how our first floor was finished. I've swapped out pillows, added new wall art, switched rugs in and out, painted everything I can think of gold (kidding... sort of), and yet it still seemed so unfinished. It didn't feel like things flowed. I've slowly been adding gray tones (or colors that match gray tones) to the decor - a gray and white rug, gray curtains, navy, pink and gold accents - and it all just didn't seem to look right in the room. I finally narrowed it down to the wall color. Not long after we moved in, we gave the living room, hallway and kitchen a once over with Glidden's 'Cafe Latte' paint. The kitchen was previously a darker tan and I thought keeping the same color family but lightening up the shade would look nice. It worked in the beginning when our decor was all dark browns and wood with red and orange accents, but as I started to add lighter decor, the tan started to look dated and worn out.

 

Painting the downstairs is a beast of a job. It's all open space from the long hallway, into the living room, which is connected to an open kitchen. You want to paint one room, you have to paint all three. Now I'm going to admit something I'm not proud of. I actually considered hiring someone to paint this for me. Is that a DIYer sin?? Back before we had Lucy I could tackle a paint job like this over a three day weekend no sweat. These days it's not so easy. I lucked out that I have two great coworkers who eagerly volunteered to help. I can't thank those gals enough!

 

On Friday I scooted Lucy and Jordan out of the house for a daddy-daughter day and the three of us got to work.

 

The color I chose was Benjamin Moore's 'Stonington Gray' - aka my new favorite paint color. I am in L-O-V-E.

 

 

We also did a fresh coat of glossy white on the trim which made a huge difference. Trim is one of my least favorite paint jobs to do, but because of the traffic in our hallways and living room, we were long overdue. The gray wall looks so, so good with our wood floors. I can't stop staring. Jordan asked me the other day what I was staring at becuase I couldn't stop checking out our walls.

 

Here is a before shot of the living room with the old paint color.

 

 

And a recent shot with the new pretty gray.

 

 

Looking at the photos I have to agree that it might not seem that different, so here's a comparison of colors up close.

 

 

I also took this opportunity to shuffle some of our wall art around. I still love the framed Anthro napkins above the couch, but I did take down the gallery wall in favor of a new spot for the stained wood art I made Jordan for our first anniversary.

 

 

A view of the loooooong hallway that leads to our front door. I'm realizing now that it's probably been some time since you've all seen any recent photos of our downstairs living room/kitchen area.

 

A before of the TV area,

 

 

And an after.

 

 

The shelves will be going back up, but we will probably put two instead of three. Jordan and I agreed that we were a little nervous with how sturdy they were now that we have a toddler running around them and thought it would be best to completely remount them and add some brackets underneath for extra support. The shelves will be going up later this week.

 

 

I moved the wall o' frames above the leather chair and swapped up some of the frames and prints. The subway sign hasn't been rehung, yet. We haven't really decided where to put that, but I'm thinking of putting it in a new place. Perhaps above Lucy's toy box next to the couch. As I started hanging frames and art in new places I felt like things are finally where they are supposed to be. The pictures don't do justice to how different the room feels now.

 

 

A quick snap shot of the kitchen. The gray paint brings out the blue in the tiles so much more and seems to flow better than before. I'm still not 100% sold on the dark blue tiles (I love me some white kitchens), but I don't see us changing them while we're in this house, so I'm making the best of what we have. I did tell Jordan that I think this paint color bought us a few more years in this house.

 

 

Doesn't the wall color even look pretty with my new kilim rug? (Hi Lyla.)

 

 

I. Love. This. Color.

 

New Kilim Rug

After drooling over Dana's new rug on HouseTweaking, I realized that I shared with you all my love for Kilim and told you that I was waiting on a rug I had ordered, but never took any photos after it arrived. It can be hard to find a decent Kilim rug that doesn't cost in the $1,500-$3,000 range. I was so excited when I saw that Pottery Barn was selling them for a decent price. Even more excited when I realized I had a gift card leftover from Christmas. 

As soon as I purchased the rug I knew I wanted it to be used in our entryway at the front door as a bright, cheerful welcome to our guests.

The style I purchased was the Kalista Kilim. I seriously love it and get a little excited each time I see it when I was through the door. I couldn't be happier with my Kilim purchase.

If you love this rug as much as I do, go check out Pottery Barn because it's on SALE! The sizes are somewhat limited, but they have so many other Kilim rugs available that you can choose from, too. I actually had to stop myself from purchasing another one last week. 

Did you spot the feather art above our vintage key holder? That was a recent Etsy purchase from Fiddleheads for Fiona. I stumbled across this Etsy shop while bored hard at work one day and instantly fell in love with this feather print. Rebecca offers so many other great designs - antlers, foxes and birds galore. 

(The key holder was a thrift find from where else? Goodeals.) 

Each one is made on a piece of birch wood using vintage book pages and various pretty printed paper. I was quite impressed when I received mine and saw how gorgeous it was up close. Bonus that it matches the rug almost perfectly.

Oh and in case you were wondering about the rug. Lucy tested, Lucy approved.

UPDATE:

The DelVintage Turquoise Vintage Ring Giveaway ended on Friday.

The winner is Jhoanna M! 

Amanda will be reaching out to you to send your vintage ring.

Thanks to everyone who entered!

New Hallway Art

I've teased a few times on Instagram about this painting I had been working on. I started it a while ago but kept putting the painting on hold due to my tendency to tackle way too many projects at once. A few weeks ago I finally finished it and last night I finally got around to hanging it up.

This space between our guest bath and laundry room had been needing some love ever since I repainted the upstairs hallway (read about that here and here) back in February of 2011. Yes, that long! My original plan was to recreate the gallery wall that was already there using photos of our parents and grandparents on their wedding days, but scrapped that idea (I now plan to use those photos in the guest room). Once I started on this painting I instantly knew I wanted to hang it on this wall.

I was inspired by the geometric patterns and the arrow designs I had been seeing lately. There was no real plan in the beginning and the painting sort of just evolved on it's own as I was working on it. I know it looks a little busy, but I think it works considering the size of the canvas. I plan to recreate more pieces using different color combinations, different sized canvases, and different geometric patterns. Probably a little more toned down than I did for this one.


Either way I love this one and I'm pretty darn proud of it.

A shot from the master bedroom looking towards Lucy's nursery (look forward to some mini changes in this room, too). The painting really makes our upstairs hallway look much more finished. Even though many guests don't go upstairs (unless they are staying over), it's satisfying to me to be able to come up the steps and see this painting on the wall.

I chose a copper paint to paint the edges and 'frame' the painting. I'm not going to lie, this painting was a lot of work and took a lot of time to do. In all honestly, I really enjoy detailed (and somewhat time consuming) projects. I really love watching projects evolve with each piece completed, even if it takes several weeks to do. Call me crazy but if I see a long, drawn out, tedious project I'm likely to take it on. (See the subway sign and nursery pom pom projects if you don't believe me).

Here's a shot looking from another work in progress: the guest room.

Art makes me happy.

Keys Please

Another trip to Goodeals means to a few more gems for our house! I snagged three new things on my last trip and already put one of them to use.

I love the detail and shape of this frame. Got it for $3.50.

Debating if I want to use it to frame some photos, create a DIY art piece, or make a mini chalkboard. This will most likely go in the guest room. I've got plans for a wall of gold frames in there.

Although I have yet to figure out what to do with it, I loved this vintage window when I saw it and had to buy.
I am sucker for the distressed, chipped paint and knicks in the wood.
Can't wait to find a permanent home for it - possibly in the guest room as well.
Picked this up for $11.20

Lastly, I had eyed this keychain hook a few weeks ago and when I saw it was still there, marked down from $7 to $4.90 I had to buy.

I initially wanted to put the key hook in our guest room so that when guests stayed, they had somewhere to put their keys. (We actually do get a fair number of guests staying over throughout the year.) But Jordan suggested replacing our current key hook in the hallway.

Here is the key hook we've had.

It hold my keys, Jordan's keys, the mailbox key, Lucy's keys :), and Lyla's leash.
Nothing wrong with it, but it's becoming a bit of an eyesore getting junked up.

So I took off the old hook and was left with this mess:

Luckily I always have spare paint leftover whenever we paint a room so I grabbed that with my trusty spackle and got to work.

I'm no professional spackle-applier.

I don't even use the tools, I use just my fingers.

But, hey it gets the job done.

A quick spackle, coat of paint and couple of nails later, my hook is up.

If you look closely I did need to hang it with three nails so the weight of one set of keys on one side wouldn't cause the hook to tilt and spill. I used small nails so they are barely noticeable.

I love how the detail on the key is actually the same design as the detail on the mirror in the foyer on the opposite wall.

The old silver keychain hook will actually go inside the coat closet so we can still hang Lyla's leash somewhere with easy access to the front door.

My next step is to find a new gold knob for the coat closet.

I'd also like to give the closet a fresh coat of paint (it's still bright blue from the old owners) and some much needed organization. 

I'm also debating if I want to hang some sort of framed photo or DIY art piece above the key hook.

Here are a few of the knobs I've been eyeing up at Anthropologie.

For both this door and the closet doors in the guest room.