What Ana Does

I've always thought this house deserves a lot of green. And dark blue. It's that center hall colonial vibe I love so much. So when it came time to paint the guest room, I wanted to use one of those colors. And after painting the back hallway blue, green just seemed to be the right direction.  The guest room gets a ton of light, since it faces east. So it can handle a moody color. I picked Peale Green from Benjamin Moore and got it from the TrueValue near the house -- it's the closest hardware store. The walls were painted in a blue/grey flat paint with lots of nicks and a few spots where the old paint was showing -- not in great shape. I knew an eggshell finish would pick up some sunlight and give the room a little shine. (I will never understand using flat on these walls. SO weird.)  Here's one of the walls before:   And after the coat of Peale Green later ...  Of all the lovely colors in this house, this might be a favorite! It's a great true-green with a lit...

 Just a few more updates from the back hallway. And here's where we currently stand.  (Will I be buying a third dark gray basket for the top shelf? Yes, yes I will.)  So last weekend I painted the pinky/terracotta floor tile a matte black. Other than not being able to step on it for a few days, it was one of the easiest DIYs and cheap -- about $70. Looks just like the black tile in the kitchen. Unless you stare at it, it's a total dup.  I always forget what a huge difference flooring can make.  Then I decided to paint the interior of the closet/drop zone to match the rest of the walls in this hallway. And I love how it turned out. That oversaturated blue on the beadboard ... it's so good.  I also finished that lower shelf and found bulbs for the ceiling fixture that is SUPER BRIGHT.  Here's a quick walk through the progress of this much-used space ...  I wish I could have taken down that wall, but Dave was not interested in a demo project. Maybe s...

This winter I'm all about updating our Powder Room -- the bathroom off the kitchen our guests use. It's ugly. Just plain ugly. I painted it last year and switched out the horrible light fixtures, just to improve it a little, but now I'm ready to tackle it. Before - The Powder Room when we moved in With a small budget, I was planning to work with the vanity and either paint or tile-over the floor. I think the floor is the main issue. Replace the faucet and tile the wall. Maybe some kind of window treatment. Oh, and replace the towel bar with hooks. I really don't like towel bars. They never look organized -- always messy.  But Dave offered $3k from the house budget ... and I was off to the races! I'll hire a handyman to replace the floor and install a NEW vanity. Yay! And I'll tile the wall and paint the remaining walls.  Now, I have to make a decision on the vanity. They're expensive and will direct the rest of the finish choices. Here's the three choice...

While touring museums in Copenhagen, I also had a lot of fun taking photos of collections and patterns, zooming in and cropping them just right. Here's what I captured ...   Card Catalog at the Library Signets at the National Museum Noses at the Glyptoteket Roman Coins at the Glyptoteket Royal Medals at the Rosenborg Castle Rings at the National Museum