In anticipation of guests

OK, truth be told, we don't have any guests. Actually, we're pretty much past guests. But, that's not stopping us from putting together a pretty room that someone would love to stay in.

A while back, Brad and I upgraded to a king size bed and moved the old queen into the spare room. With it [obviously] went the oversized bed frame. It was too big for the spare room. And the twin nightstands were still in use in our room and the dresser never actually made the move to our new house - living out its unused days at the MIL's house. So, we sold it all on craigslist! And quickly I might add. In less than 24 hours we had a couple committed to our old set of Ashley furniture. (granted, 'old' really means six years, but whatever.) So now we are moving forward with plans of some kind of 'French country inspired modern stuff.' (I checked, that is the formal title of this category.)

So, here are a few teaser photos of what we are working with.

This will become the headboard.

Yes, it's a door. A door that we scored for $5. Yep, FIVE DOLLARS. Of course, who knows how much it will cost to get all that paint off. And, there is glass. While looking up headboard door photos, I noticed there weren't any with glass. We were going to be pioneers! (Or maybe it's because it's totally not practical to rest your head on glass. Whatever, we've already established this room is just for looking, not using. Carry on.)

A new paint job.

Which, we already finished. So I can mention you know that really cool tip about using a glaze after you put up the tape to help keep the paint from seeping?

Yeah, it really doesn't work.

Moving on.

While looking for a cute jar to hold shells, Brad found this and declared we MUST have it.

So, we bought it. And I have to say, it's growing on me. And as someone pointed out, I AM a writer, so you know, it makes sense for me to have an antique typewriter.

And, despite only trying to spend a few dollars at the flea market, we saw this mirror.

And of course we bought it too. But, it's really a very cool mirror and will end up painted a very fab color. That's right, 'fab.' Because gold is not. And you can't get a good idea of scale of this mirror, but it's  almost three feet tall. The thing it's lying on? The pool table.  (because we get sooooo much use out of that!)

I will have a finished product to show in the next few weeks. I know you'll be on the edge of your seat waiting!

A work in progress

We've slowly been adding to the walls. It's been the last phase of the house we've been working on. And amazingly, once I got into it, I have to say, it's been a lot of fun!  Usually I'm all about the 'big projects,' really getting in there and making BIG changes. But what we've been doing has been little.
The old mirror from the dining room got moved in the hall.

I hung a smaller mirror from Target (a super find by the way! slightly damaged, only $7!).

And these tables, that I promise one day I will get around to blogging about. (hint, we built the tops and the bases were part of a dining room table!) And, of course, there's our entertainment center.

And the lamps, that Brad painted a while back and I also never got around to blogging about. Mostly because the shades are still hideous. 

Changes that have taken the living room from this: (photo taken last year, a month after we moved in)

To this:

And I really like the changes. It feels more balanced and just, happy. (and yes, those are both TERRIBLE photos, I know)

I put together this grouping and Brad was all, "Is that your thing now, 'groupings?'"

(shelf top left: Bombay $20, bought 4 years ago. Picture frame on shelf: Dillards $8, bought 5 years ago. Mirror top right: flea market find, $3. Picture lower left: Kirklands, $12 bought several years ago. Larger oval frame: Flea market find, $4. Key: Flea market find, $2. Other 3 small frames: Flea market, 30 cents each - not kidding.)

And I said, "Well, maybe. I don't know. Shut up." Because, um, yeah, it's definitely my thing now. We have several large spaces that are too big to be filled with one large item, or, the large items are just too expensive.  So groupings help cover a large area, plus, there's something fun about pulling it all together and making things match.
I love hunting down pieces. Like this picture.

We found it at a flea market and it was on $4. The frame is a light tin. I picked it up, then put it back down. Then turned around and grabbed it. Brad said, ''I don't like that."
And I said, "Tough."
I thought about replacing the photo, but when I took it apart, there is a small copyright on it that says 1898. Whether it's really that old or just a reproduction, I don't care. I really love it. I put the picture back in and am keeping it just the way I found it.
I found another oval frame, a bit larger and almost bought it, but decided Brad might have problems with me bringing home more pictures of strangers.

Dining Room finished

First, I just want to welcome everyone who found their way over here from Mabel's House.  Liz was super sweet to link to me yesterday.  And thanks everyone for the encouraging comments! It means the world to me.
I decided that it was time I stopped using my iPhone as a camera.  So as we worked on the dining room, I pulled out the new camera and took photos.  I was so proud of myself.  Until yesterday when I could not locate the cord.  Hmmm.  I searched and searched.  So all my fun 'in progress' photos are locked on a camera!  That's what I get.  I quickly snapped a few photos this morning on the trusty iPhone and I was off to work.

First, we put chair rail up at the height of our chairs.  Most chair rail is about 30-35 inches.  We put ours 38 inches, (because that's how tall our chairs are) and because the 10 foot ceilings require a higher molding.

We were careful to miter all the edges perfectly.  Even capping off where the column wraps into the living room.

We then measure the wall and decided that we wanted the squares to be perfect squares.  They are 26 inches (tall and wide).  I did some math to make sure that the space between each square would be even, as well as the space on the outside edge.  Then, that little outlet got in the way.  So, the space from box to wall is 10 inches, while the spaces between boxes are 7 inches.

It's barely noticeable, and it ended up making the math on the second wall work perfectly.  This wall had four boxes, the shorter wall has three.

Then, as I talked about yesterday, we finished the top half of the room with a really pretty blue color by Behr called "Harmonious," it's one of their new color and primer in one paints.  And it worked really well.  Brad was super sweet and had it painted by the time I got home one day.

Before 

After

I really enjoyed the project, and total it wasn't expensive.  The molding cost just over $90.  The mirrors were $100.  And the paint was $30.  (And the drapes? They're actually canvas drop clothes from Lowes, $10 each!  A little tip I picked up from The Lettered Cottage a while back!)

Inspired by Liz

Some of you probably read Liz's blog, and if you do, you know how much she loves her spray paint.  Until recently, I was never really a fan.  We typically paint by hand.  I don't know why I though so low of spray paint.  But, I'm here to say I am a convert.  This stuff is great.  And depending on where you shop, you can find loads of colors!  I of course kept it neutral, but I'm itching to try out a really cool color.  (Maybe on the lamps my husband had to have)

So, we've been talking about redoing the dining room.  Adding chair rail and some sort of boxed wall thing (I'm sure it's called wainscoting, but to me, that's bead board, this is different.)  And I wanted to inject a punch of color into our beige room.  I love the neutral, but I really wanted a brighter color, just not the whole great room.

The mirror we had up is big, I mean four feet across and three feet tall.  But, it still looks tiny of the giant wall.  We liked the idea of having a mirror (or mirrors) there, but to get one big enough to fill the space was going to be expensive.  So, after seeing this photo on Liz's post (she saw it here on Apartment Therapy), I knew what I wanted.

I loved the random sizes and colors of the plates.  But, really, I knew it wouldn't fit in my house. But it did inspire me.  I decided I could accomplish a similar look (but with mirrors) and instead of focusing on the different colors, I would paint them all the same and have the shapes and sizes be what was different.

And thus began the great mirror hunt.  We scoured three different flea markets and managed to find 25 acceptable mirrors.  Which I found fairly surprising.  And most of them were $5 or less.  With the most expensive topping $16 (the star burst one).  Some where wood, some metal and miscellaneous other materials.  All told, the mirrors cost just under $100 plus four cans of spray paint.

We were able to take some of the mirrors out, while others required lots of tape to cover them. We let them dry for several days.

Finally, we hung them in a random pattern.  I love how different each one is.  (There are two mirrors missing.  They need new, um, mirrors!) a small 5x7 goes up in the far upper left and a 4x4 goes in the far lower right.

Tomorrow, I will show you the finished dining room, including the wainscoting!