What Ana Does

Leah's room was the only one in the house I haven't painted since moving in. She liked the light grey color and didn't want me to bother with it. I hated the pale color and flat finish, plus all the pock marks from moving furniture, but I let it go.  Now that she's away at college, I have (nearly) free-rein on her room, and I have IDEAS!  First up, YES, paint!  I picked Smoky Azurite from SW . It's dark blue but with lots of grey undertones and gives the room a cozy yet active vibes. I immediately loved it. And it coordinates with the quilt and the grey in the curtains. Excellent.  The flat finish of the old paint soaked up the new paint so well that I had to do a second coat in most places -- even though I used the Emerald line of paint from SW, which usually only needs one coat. But that's how it goes with flat; it's an excellent primer.  Here's the desk wall in the old grey. If you could see all the holes and dirt, you'd understand why I was so ex...

 Surprise! We're renovating our bathroom!  At the beginning of August, we noticed a wet seam in the ceiling of the kitchen. We assumed it had something to do with the kitchen renovation last year, so we called our contractor to come out and take a peek. Lo and behold our toilet in the primary bathroom, just above, was slowly leaking.  Gross. To sum up, we got the mold remediation guys involved, submitted a claim with our insurance company and hired our buddy General Contractor Bruce ... and now we're renovating the bathroom.  Look, in the back of my mind, while I'm falling asleep at night or while strolling through Pinterest, I have thought about what I'd do when the time came to redo that bathroom. When we moved in, it has been "updated" with grey & white matte tile and marble hex tile. But the bathtub takes up 80% of the bathroom and the tile was never sealed, so it grows dirt/mold like no tomorrow. And it's painted an offending beige and you know h...

It was time to paint our bedroom. The flat gray was just too dull and the hue didn't work with our furniture. It's like matching grey pants with brown shoes -- fashion faux pas.  And, sure, I considered replacing all our furniture, it's a decade old and showing a little wear and tear. But quickly realized that it's just cheaper to paint out the gray. Though, I'm committed to switching out our upholstered headboard later this year.  Not to mention, there is a few places where we patched up the wall that needed to be painted over, and we don't have this gray paint from the former owners.  So, I went through all my color chips. Decided on blue. Picked a hue and ... no surprise ... it's about the same as the front room and the back hallway. Clearly, I have a favorite. Here's a few swatches I went through to decide on the blue. Some where too dark, too purple or too much gray in them.  I decided to leave the bottom part white, though I did look at a bunch of ...

It's the "front room" or the "living room" or the "morning room" or my "office" -- whatever we end up calling it, it's the room just opposite the dining room and nearest to the front door. It's the room I take my coffee to in the morning and stare out the window while I sip (it faces east). And where I sit all day while I'm working. It's an important, multifunctional room.  So, it was the obvious choice for the next makeover. Here's what it looked like when we bought the house. Clearly, it was used as a "formal" space. The room only guests got to enter -- which let's all agree is an outdated construct, ok? Then we moved in and it looked like this ..   Curtains came down and our well-used sofas came in. Quickly turned into a multi-use room. But that red accent wall and tan had to be updated. I put up many paint chips on the wall with the guidelines that: it had to coordinate with the dining room and foyer, it ...

Here's the After picture of our master bedroom now that the walls are a dark and moody blue. Maybe the best part is I was at work while the painters were here, so I walked in and found -- as if by magic -- the room no longer minty green but a bold blue. That's pretty awesome. They also painted the trim an eye-popping white, which I just love against this blue. And the angle is a dark beige-y, tan color that I hope goes with the headboard. I spent the evening cleaning and re-hanging the drapes, and moving the furniture back into position. It will be a while before I dare hang anything in here. I'm too in love with the walls to put too many holes in them right now. So, just in case I'm looking for this information later: The walls are "Everard Blue" by Benjamin Moore . And the tray is "Curly Willow" by Behr . Now, does that furniture look too dark against the walls or is it just me? And wouldn't a lighter wood or white look fabulous agains...

... and I'm not doing it. I really really really was going to paint my master bedroom. I picked out the colors and started moving things out of the room. But, ugh, it's a BIG room and that tray part of the ceiling is high. So the question became, how much do I have to pay to NOT paint this room? What's my time and muscle aches really worth? So the answer was a lot more then I expected but they could come this week, so I took the bid. It's the same team that painted our family room and foyer and they were awesome. No worries about mistakes or blots on the ceiling that were a certainty if I painted. The team usually painted houses in the summer, so they saved my room for a rainy day. Master Bedroom - Shady, BEFORE Picture After picture coming soon! Related links: More Master Bedroom posts 

Today's project was to add shoes storage to our laundry room. I don't know about you, but this family of four has a ton of shoes. A ton. So, I cleaned out the space by the door, scrubbed the (ugly) tile .... BEFORE: Space Not Well Used And installed an inexpensive chrome shelf. And because the wall was in such poor shape, I slapped a coat of sea blue paint that I rejected for Leah's room years ago. And even cut and added some of the floor tile from the old house -- to finish off the corner. AFTER: Shelf, Shoes and Re-usable Grocery Bags This is just the beginning of the plethora of shoes that will be going on this shelf. And I've got to install a hook or two, but this is how it looked tonight.  Brief Aside: I accidentally cracked the light switch plate while removing it. Oops! Add that to my Home Depot list. 

This weekend we got started on the entryway. Finally. We were having some people over and wanted to clean it up and start construction before the party. So Dave hit the Home Depot Saturday morning with my schematic and in 45 minutes, we had wood and nails. Before : Picking Up the Entry Rug and Cleaning Out the Furniture While he was away, I marked all the studs and picked up the current carpet tiles, which were supposed to be temporary when we put them down three years ago. The rails went up very easily and quickly, but with very loud hammering; we had to stop at bedtime. The vertical rails will be next (likely over Memorial Day weekend) and then painting them all a glossy white. After : Navy Carpet Tiles and the Start of the Boards on the Left The rug in the entryway is dark navy flor tiles, which will match the outside of the entry door (when it gets warm enough to paint outside). And this rug is longer than the last one, going past the piano. The rich color really...

The other BIG painting project was the transition wall in the kitchen and family. Originally, I thought I'd go white with all the rest of the walls in the kitchen (someday), but all winter I had imagined painting it the bold navy I have on the TV wall. And what am I if not BOLD! ;) BEFORE: Beige. Yuck.  So, we opened that navy can of paint and added two coats of navy to this wall. It wasn't a huge time commitment and with the temps around 70, we could open the doors and let the breeze in to speed the drying time. AFTER: WOW! Bold and Beautiful When we were done, we couldn't stop staring at it from the sofa. Wow! The crisp freshly-painted white doors and trim pop on the pretty navy walls. It's just gorgeous! As we were putting supplies away, Dave says: "Done. Will you leave me alone now?!" Not likely, my friend. The beige siege continues!

My Speckled Hand Dave painted the first coat last night while I was putting the kids to bed. I was thankful to have someone else trek up the ladder to tape and paint those high corners. Family Room: Blue in Progress A second coat was needed, so I did that this morning. I am not a fan of the ladder. But as long as I don't look down or up, it was a cinch. And it's just a straight wall -- no toilets or strange corners to paint around -- so it look less than 30 minutes to get the second coat on. I'll give it a few minutes to dry before I decide if a third coat is necessary. I doubt it. Can't WAIT to rip that tape down! Then it will just be the wait for the cabinets to arrive. Hooray!  Related links: More Family Room posts

Wall: Before Ever since I started to think about decorating this house -- way back in October -- I knew I wanted to do a dramatic accent wall in the family room. The room is huge with two-story ceilings. There are six windows on one wall and four more flanking the fireplace -- so this room could definitely handle a dark, rich color. A few design magazine, sites and HGTV shows later, navy blue stuck in my head. Like one design show I watch advocates, look to the clothes you wear often to help decide color -- which for me and Dave is denim. And we both have soft navy sweatshirts that are common weekend wear. Navy it was -- decided in December. So, each night since we moved in while watching TV I'd stare at the beige wall, that is slightly inset, and imagine it was navy blue. And I'd itch and wish to paint it. Now, with the new media cabinet arriving on Friday, it's finally time! Once we moved out the furniture pieces we no longer will need, we reoriented everything ...

A Look into the Desk Nook Three days of work, with lots of planning, and we're all done! Leah requested BLUE and by golly she got it! It's blue! It's white! It's slightly green, too! All the art is up and toys are moved back in... though I'm doubting it will ever be this clean again. More stuff will wander in here, I'm sure. Leah slept in there last night and loved it. And, to be honest, I'm ridiculously proud of this room. It's dreamy! Sure, there are a few things left to do: A) There's a chalkboard by the door that needs a painted boarder and picture rail above. B) And I'm going to hang some twine with mini-clothespins to display her art. C) And there may be curtains in the future, though I haven't identified what or where -- but black-out curtains might trick her into sleeping in. But, for now, this is pretty much done. *Pat on back.* Next up, their bathroom is going bright green. Perhaps a "fresh cut green"...