like a vacation in my own house...

I'm fully aware that almost nobody really cares about someone else's decorating and/or renovation projects. Almost nobody. This is for those four people who do care...and just for me because I worked hard (with help from Adam's mom!!) to make this room 'OURS' and start to really feel like I'm creating a HOME in this new house. There are TONS of projects to be done around here (fun things like a major kitchen remodel in several years and not-so-fun things like a new backyard fence, work on the driveway, and LOADS of painting...), but I started with a living room re-paint and decorate. Here are pictures from when we first viewed the house- so it's not our stuff in it here...


We moved in a month ago and the color on the walls was FINE. It was this nice soft green (and I love green on walls!), but once our stuff was in...it was so blah...boring...monotone...

Side note: We're not big TV people. But we LOVE abc's "Modern Family"...so, so, so, so funny! For months, I'd told Adam "I LOVE the color on the walls in Phil's house"...with the black and white accents and the super crisp blue color." That color is a stretch for me, but it's just a few cans of paint, right? I even off-handedly mentioned it to the ladies in my bible study at church. Several of them laughed and said, "oohh, that IS a great color." The next week I got an email from one of them, saying "get this!...there's an article in People magazine this week and it mentioned the wall color from that show. " Woo-hoo. That's all I needed to motivate me. Thanks for the email, Haley!

Adam's mom was here two weeks ago (yep, so far behind on blogs that I haven't even put up those pics yet...sorry, Muriel!) and we busted our butts to get holes fixed up, furniture moved, TOTALLY painted -2 coats even though the Benjamin Moore person said, "should only need 1 coat..." when does paint EVER just need one coat?! Really....

We still have to hang a few things and I need to finish my curtain project, but IIIIIIIII LLOOOOOOOOOOVVVVVVEEEEEEEEE IIIIIIIIITTTTTT!!!!! The room is so calming and soothing. We have a strict "no kid stuff" rule for the room (b/c, THANKFULLY, we have a playroom that is floor to ceiling "kid") and it's sooooo lovely to come in here during naps or in the evening and feel like a totally normal person, not a crazy, frazzled mommy. It's heaven.
It looks a little 'smurf blue' in these pictures, but it's not that at all! It's a very cape-cod-ish blue that has serious grey undertones, especially in the evenings.
The curtain project was inspired by a blog I LOVE to follow and if you're a crafty, decorative, frugal type AT ALL, you need to check out "thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com". She's amzing. Anyway, the previous owner had left brand new white tab top curtains in the house, but they were 8 inches too short. No way was I going to buy new curtains when I had something that worked (relatively...) fine! So, although it took 3 trips to Joann fabrics, I found gorgeous material and a strip of grosgrain ribbon and 'customized' the curtains. I only have 2 of 4 done, but they're killer. =) I also despised the ceiling fan. It was this heinous 'faux marble' look of hunter green and white...gag. So, I bought some appliance paint in a matte black and just painted all the metal parts. It took about 20 minutes (2x) during naptimes and it's a whole 'new' light/fan! Yay for cheap fixes/recycling/elbow grease projects...=)
overall, I love the new room...it's exactly what I was hoping for! Now we just need to work on every.other.room.in.the.house. baby steps...