The Dining Room: A Quick Peak

I week ago, I posted about my Dining Room, and the clean slate I was started with.  I’m happy to say that Saturday I did have some moments while painting when I was really enjoying myself.  I loved the color blue I had chosen and that just left me feeling happy.  Of course after two long days which ended in very late nights, and paint that wanted to stick to tape rather than the wall, I was pretty much done in Sunday night when I feel into bed after 2am.

I really wanted to move the furniture in today and spend the weekend filling the curio and china cabinets.  Unfortunately because I haven’t been able to check everything off my list, I’m not ready for that yet.  I think after the late nights last weekend, followed by a sore back and working during the day, I misplaced my motivation.

A quick peak at a before:

This is what a girl does late at night when she is running out of primer but hopes to get the top color at least started before going to bed.  Unfortunately, I had the slowest drying paint last weekend, and I went to bed with the walls looking like this.

And this is where I am now.  My Balmy & Leisure Blue on the wall, separated by my pretty chair railing, which will get its final coat of paint tonight.

Before this time next week I hope to have pictures that actually have furniture in them.  But since my before pictures didn’t and because I am proud of what I have done to this point I am linking up over at A Bowl Full of Lemons to share my progess so far.

The Dining Room: Work in Progress

My main focus this weekend was painting the Dining Room.  Only problem was that while I was focused on that room, I totally let my daily items I had been working on slide.  I’m not going to let it get to me though, since I know I’ll get back on track.

Not to mention that this weekend I did:

1. Worked once again on priming the paneling.  Was running out of primer so I did the top two thirds of the room. (Friday)

2. Went to the paint store to buy more primer, went to the lumber store to pick out chair railing, and went to get my brother’s breakfast (Saturday)

3. Started from the beginning on priming the wall my brother had to replace the paneling on. (Saturday.)  I also primed the bottom half of the room.

4. Cut in and painted the two coats of my top color. (Saturday)

5. Marked and taped off where the chair railing would be going.  Taped off the baseboard. (Sunday)

6. Painted two coats of white on the chair railing molding. (Sunday)

7. Painted two coats of primer and a coat of white on the trim for the door way. (Sunday)

8. Painted two coat of white on the crown molding.  (Sunday)

9. Cut in and painted the two coats of my bottom color. (Sunday)

10. Spent at least 45 minutes cussing while trying to remove the tape from the baseboards.  Ended up having to go around with a knife before I could pull the tape and still had to make a dozen repairs. (Sunday night at about 12:30 am)

11. I also washed my sheets and blankets and was putting them back on the bed at 2am so I could fall into bed and get some sleep.

The paint dried at a snail’s pace this weekend, and I think that was part of the issue with the baseboard tape, since the tape I put down for the crown molding worked perfect.  Oh and the top section of the bottom coat that I taped off, that would be hidden under the chair railing?  It came off perfectly.  Go figure!

For some reason in my head I keep thinking that I only have a few things to do and the room will be done.  When I start laying it all out though, those few things seem to really add up.

1. Paint the trim and baseboards.

2. Put a quick coat of paint on the chair railing after my brother installs it for me.  Hoping he caulks it too.

3. Decide which color I am painting the ledge between the kitchen and dining room.

4. Pull up the cardboard and tape from the floor.

5. Sweep the floor.

6. Beg the guys to move the furniture into the room for me.

7. Decide how many leafs I want to put in the table and where I will store them if I don’t.

8. Put the dishes in the china cabinet and decide what will go in the curio.

9. Hang the mirror.

10. Wait for Momma to sew the curtains and valance.  Then recover the chair cushions.

11. Figure out what decorations will be going in the room.  Guess it is time to start looking for ideas there.

I’ll be totally happy if I can get 1-9 of those done by this time next week.  Nine and ten will come in time, and I’m okay with that.

I also need to make my menu plan, decide if I am going to the grocery store this week, catch up on dishes plus other daily/weekly items, and wash clothes.

Right now the list seems never ending...

The Dining Room: A Blank Slate

 I’m really enjoying the whole painting the different rooms in my house thing.  Okay, well to be honest I hate everything between deciding you want to paint up too the pulling off the last bit of tape.  Maybe hate is a strong word, we will go with strongly dislike.  But to me all the steps involved with painting are just necessary evils of wanting a change.  Seeing how I can’t afford to hire someone else to do it, I just have to suck it up, and do it.

I will say that I hate caulking with a passion!  I’m sure it is mostly because I don’t really know what I am doing and I get it all over my hands and that stuff just doesn’t wash off easily.  If it wasn’t for that, I might actually, sort of be able to, get into one of those relaxed, enjoyable states of mind while paining.

I do however enjoy the end result, and I know that because I did it myself I can take some pride in that, as long as you don’t look too closely.

I like the time right before you start the project.  You know when the room is cleaned out and it is just a blank slate waiting for you to put your mark on it?  You get to just stand back with ideas and plans going through your head.  This is what I got to stand back and look at last week…

When I decided that I would be painting the room I headed to the fabric store to get some ideas of what I would want for curtains in the room.  I knew I also wanted to recover the dining room chairs so I decided making my own curtains would be easier than buying ready made them trying to match that to fabric for the chairs.  Well let me clarify, I don’t sew, but my momma does and she got volunteered to make curtains.

While there were a few fabrics that caught my eye while looking one stood out at me and I kept thinking about it all the way home, and the next day.  I knew then that it was the one I wanted.  I lucked out because when I went back to buy it I found it was 50% off, which was a great thing, because I wouldn’t have been able to afford it other wise.

With the fabric in hand I had to do the fun thing of picking out colors.  Maybe it’s the too many colors to pick from or that I’m afraid I’ll pick the wrong color, but this is one of the hardest things for me.  I’m working on reminding myself as long as I am happy, who cares, and trying to avoid everything being super matchy matchy.

Meet my colors:

Balmy & Leisure Blue

(I had intended to open the cans and take a picture, but I kept forgetting, so this above will have to work for now.)

The only thing I know for sure that is going in this room is a mirror I pulled out of the middle bedroom.  It was one of those clearance buys.  Something I bought really cheap and thought I’d have a place for it one day.  We shall see if that day has come. 

I want an elegant room, especially with the furniture, so I’ll be on the hunt to see what I can find that fits with that.

Stayed tuned!  In the near future I will have more pictures of this project to share.

Hello Color!

I’m in a good mood today and felt like writing.  I don’t really have anything on my ‘to do’ list tonight, except for some personal plans, and I’m currently keeping those, well personal.  So I thought this would be a good time to back track and share a little more about my January.

I have dubbed the year 2011 as the *Year of Me*.  This is my year to make the changes in my life that are much needed. 

Some of my personal goals for the year are:

To finish losing weight, and keep it off

Decluttering and organizing my house (and life)

Set up daily/weekly routines so that I can keep my house clean and organized

Spend less and save more

Forty seven days into the year and I already feel better than I have in a long time.  While I haven’t really focused in on the weight loss aspects yet, I have been working on others.  I feel like this year, will be a good year for me.  I’m going to do what I can to make it that way.

It is amazing how life changes and things sometimes move very fast.  On the 6^th of January I was told that I needed to have at least a part of my house ready to put down new floors.  When were they going to start on the floors?  The 10^th!  Nothing like a deadline to get you jump started huh?  But I know from past experiences that I do work better with a deadline, as I tend to get more done right then and there.  Since the first of January my attention has been focused on my house, which it needed to be, so that is a bonus.

During the floor removal I decided to paint the two bedrooms.  I’ve been ready for a change in my bedroom, so I decided to go all out by replacing the bedding and curtains and paint while I was at it.  After some thought I decided to go bold, and bold I went.  The paint color I choose for my bedroom was Really Red.  And yes, it really is red.  I love it, though those around me just kind of shake their head or talk about it’s glowing properties.

The room is far from done since I still need to paint the furniture and put it all back together.  I’m excited about it, especially when I start thinking about decorating ideas.  I want to attempt some art work for one wall, and I do mean attempt so I’m not an artist.  And I already bought a vase and flowers to go in the corner.

It is one of my works in progress.  Another work in progress would be the other bedroom.  For my extra bedroom I decided on Fun Yellow.  I’m happy with this color choice as well, and am accenting it with blues.  The furniture has been moved back into the room, which is more than I can say about my bedroom.  I do have plans to pull the bench back out and paint it a blue to match the curtains I bought, plus I need to hang some decorations as well as find some other ones. 

The previous theme in the room was a sea/beach/water theme and I went a little over board with it.  I found a bunch of different cute things I bought over a period of time then realized it was probably too much and didn’t exactly match together.  Since it was all already bought I used them anyway.  When I started cleaning the room out I had no problem getting rid of some things, but other things, like the shells, I had I wanted to keep and find another use for.  I’m working on editing my ideas and staying more simplistic.  Instead of having 10 small random bowls of shells I decided I would condense it down.  This is what I came up with.

I’m working on some ideas for both bedrooms to utilize things I have in other rooms that do not match those rooms any more.  As I said in the post about the craft chest, I’m not a big think outside the box kind of person.  It actually feels a little funny to me to paint something that is perfectly fine as is.  But I am going to work past those feeling and just do it, because I’d rather paint and reuse items I like, but don’t necessarily fit into the new rooms.  I know in the end I will probably love it more, and it saves me money from having to go out and buy all new decorations.

It is amazing to think back on the last 6 weeks to see how much I have accomplished in that short span of time.  I still have many projects, both big and small on my every growing ‘to do’ list, but it feels good to know that I have checked several things off already.

I am a firm believer that it isn’t only the before and after that matters, but the journey it takes to get you there.  I am very much looking forward to my journey this year, and am excited to see what it has in store for me.