Baby Room!!

One thing we did a few weeks ago: paint the baby room! My parents were here in April and were kind enough to basically knock this entire project out for us. At that time, we didn't know the gender, so we went with a nice taupe/gray color.. neutral... This is a-okay with me because I'm not thrilled with pink or blue or with the idea of repainting it for when we sell. So, gray it is.. Don't get too upset though, I promise to use a bunch of stimulating colors in the accessories. Well, I also want black furniture.. but aside from that.. :) Jail-cell chic?

Mom hard at work Getting there
Ta da! Check out that brand new overhead light.

Interior design trends

The hole in the ceiling over the dining room table finally got to me this week. Its been there ever since we removed the glorious 70's chandelier that came with the house, when we first painted the ceiling.. ~July? Purchasing a new one was a real challenge because picking out anything is a challenge for me, and it only gets worse if I involve August.

The trouble is that there are 10,000,000 choices available to me via the Internet. In all shapes, sizes and colors. Early on I noted that oil-rubbed bronze (read: brown) was the most prevalent and the most popular. So I got to wondering what the deal was.. And finally it occurred to me: you need oil-rubbed bronze fixtures to complete your Tuscan/French Country/Old World style, and that's what's all the rage these days. I won't lie: I like the look myself. However, it is not the style we are going for in our house. I think it would be a little at-odds with the original 70's split-level intent of the place.

Anyway in my meager understanding of interior design and popular fashion, I began to wonder something about this trend. In 20 years, will we be laughing at those ugly brown fixtures and hardware? The big chunky "hand-carved" vent hoods? The use of different materials for cabinets and countertops? I suspect so... "Ah ha ha that's so 2000's..."

Case in point: the picture to the left. I believe those oak-trimmed melamine cabinets were called "euro-style" in the 80s. And the lighting, well there are no words for that. See I can talk bad about the 80s for several reasons. One, I was born in the 80s. And two, I actually do own pickled furniture as well as pastel-colored poufy window valences.

So, what light fixture did I chose? Well, not oil-rubbed bronze. It matches nothing in our house. Not pewter/nickel/brushed chrome. Just not feelin' it either. The final selection is black. Classic right? Maybe it won't be laughed at in 10 short years... maybe it will...

Curtains done, not sure what's next

Well, the curtains are done - check that off the list! This turned out to be a rather easy project. Maybe not too cost effective, because I used 11 yards of $10/yd fabric. Some money savings strategies I used to recover some of the thriftiness of the project:

• I ripped the thermal liner out of the old curtains and reused it. It was in good condition, and another $5/yd for the new stuff...
• Home made curtain rod. These things are expensive in the 120-inch category. Ours is a piece of 3/4" conduit, spraypainted black with the high temp paint left over from the fireplace insert project.
  
• Thrift store mounting hardware and finials. Though the ReStore didn't have any long curtains rods, they did have some really short ones. Our "finials" are just a couple of shorter curtain rods stuffed in the end of the conduit.
• Christmas decorations! I can't imagine what tree they would hang on, but those mysterious items from the last post are Hobby Lobby Christmas ornaments (half off!). I was originally going to make the finials out of these, but on second thought I just decided to hang them on the ends. This way i can change them out whenever I like...

The grommets posed one last problem for the budget on this project. I needed 4 packages of 8 and they cost $10/package. That's $40+tax - over a dollar a piece for a ring of plastic! I scoured the internet for some alternative but found none... Mom suggested that I go with rings instead, because there are many much cheaper options. Unfortunately I had my heart set on the grommets by this point. Hobby Lobby was running a 40%-off-one-full-priced-item coupon last week. So yes, I went to Hobby Lobby on four different days buying one package each time - that's $24 for some grommets - still over priced in my opinion! (They did work fabulously though.. sooo easy)

Curtains in the making

Some Pics for Mom

So, most of this post is for my mother who wanted to see pictures of several different things. First, the couch that is nearly done:

Next, the free chair. It must be reupholstered to somehow coordinate with the yellow couch. And I think it might need a cushion... Not sure yet.

Or maybe I should just sell it on Craigslist and use the money towards













Next, the sort of kitchen table light that I'm looking for. You can get something similar from Lowe's for $90. But really, $90? Is it worth that?









And finally, my first knitting project that I actually completed. Yes, its just baby socks, but this time I made two of them, whereas in the past I usually make "one" of things and then get bored. Or, 6 inches of something and then quit.. etc etc...

That's all for now! Cabinet construction project just barely getting started!