Category Archives: paint

a much more exciting entryway

For those of you who are still a little confused about the layout of our place, we actually live on the second floor of an old 1930s house. Therefore, when you come through the front door (on the ground level) you go up a private flight of stairs and then we have a landing up on the second floor and then another “front door” that opens to our living room. This landing has a cute little arched window and very high ceilings, and is pretty perfect for a little table, probably a mirror, and some hooks/storage for shoes, leashes, puppy raincoats, you get the idea.

So after we moved in it just looked like this..

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Standing on the lower landing of the stairs looking up.

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Standing inside the living room looking out toward the upper landing.

Do you recognize that roman shade (hint: it used to not be so wrinkled.. oops!) I put a black table in there that I scored at Canton back in college that I used to use as a desk. It was originally white with a matching white ladder back chair (which I also painted black). So up until this week, things had been looking like this. Boring.

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I really wanted to add some color to this otherwise very blah space. So after painting my ~~$18.50~~ $17.50 mirror navy blue, I wanted the table to pop and settled on Rustoleum’s safety red. You know I love a good oil paint as evident here and here and here and I wanted a high gloss finish for this table that would catch the afternoon sun, and sort of balance out the satin finish on the mirror.

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So I sanded everything with some 140 grit sandpaper and wiped everything down with a rag before painting.

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I applied 2 coats of paint to the legs and 3 coats to the top for that super glassy finish. I wet sanded in between each coat using 220 grit and then wiped it down with a microfiber cloth. Wet sanding is crucial to get rid of all of your brushstrokes and inconsistencies.

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This was after one coat.

After letting it cure and off-gas for 24 hours (oil is super stinky people) It was time to hang the mirror and put everything in place. But first one more before..

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I scored these striped hooks at Anthropologie with my 15% off birthday discount (woo!) Mmmmm look at that gorgeous texture (barf.)

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And the rug, ceramic dog, and umbrella holder were HomeGoods finds from a while back. Can you believe that rug was only $12?? PS: that bigger umbrella was a honeymoon purchase when we were caught in the rain on our first day in Rome. (Super awkward to fly with by the way!)

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I just love how cheery it is. I feel like it greets us every time we come home, and for new visitors it’s like a preview of what’s to come when they go through that door. I wish I could paint the banisters black I think they would look a lot sharper that way, but that’s a lot more work than I care to put into a rental.

all prices are negotiable (famous last words)

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We live a couple blocks away from a street lined with several thrift/antique shops. I try to scope them out once a month or so because honestly they don’t turnover their inventory that fast, and all the new things are set outside on the street so I can just oogle it all as I drive home everyday (while almost rear-ending the person in front of me almost daily). When my mom was in town a couple months ago we saw the perfect mirror for our entryway, and it was only $18.50! I was a little worried that it was too narrow for the space, but I loved the height of it. So I did my whole “if it’s there the next time I come back, then it’s meant to be!” trick. Which is a dangerous trick. Don’t do this unless you have a good feeling it will still be there do to it’s condition/hiding place/price. Or you will cry a lot.

My parents were in town this past weekend for Derek’s thesis presentation, so on Saturday we all went thrifting and my mom and I went in hopes to buy that mirror. The sleezy guy that works there told us (again) that “all prices are negotiable” which I always think.. yay! haggling! In the past when I’d see a big piece (like a dresser or pair of chairs or something) that was marked $300 he’d take it down to $175 if I “get it right now” (which.. when else would I get it?), so I had high hopes for my (already super cheap) mirror. We headed back to it’s spot and there it was just being a mirror and stuff. It was still priced at $18.50 so after he dug it out of it’s super buried corner, he said “I’ll give you a good deal on this!” here it comes.. will he say $15? or maybe even $12?? A girl can dream. “17.50!!” What. Whatever, I bought it anyway because I really liked it and I had already planned on spending that extra dollar (plus it was meant to be). This guy.

So here she is in all of her glory.. All $17.50 of her.

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And because the frame was a cheapy faux wood plastic, I didn’t feel guilty about painting it (not that I would have anyway). Even though the frame was just plastic, the mirror was as heavy as sin, so I didn’t really want to take it apart to paint it. Instead I just covered the mirror part with paper and taped it off.

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I wanted it to be sort of a moody color because I had brighter plans for the table below it. So I ended up going with this navy-ish color by Valspar in a satin finish to compliment my super glossy table. I primed the frame first with my trusty plastic primer and then sprayed on two coats of the navy. Luckily it dried a lot darker than the lid.. I was a little nervous at first that it wouldn’t be “navy” enough.

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Afterward I removed all of the paper and tape and scraped off any excess paint from the mirror with a razor blade.

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I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out, and I can’t wait to get it hung on the wall. It was sort of funny though when I was catching up on blogs on Sunday and came across this guy. What are the odds?

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What can I say? Navy skinny mirrors with ornamentation on top are the new black. You can quote me on that.

some ideas are brewing in the kitchen

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As I’ve mentioned before, our kitchen is 1. very white (with blue carpet??) and 2. pretty awkwardly setup (our fridge isn’t in the same room??). Here is a refresher in case you’re too busy thinking about this week’s episode of The Bachelor (OMG AshLee might become Sean’s newest stalker. Amiright?) anyway.. KITCHEN!

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See how bland it is? We’re about halfway through ripping the carpet up. It’s a pretty gross process because under the carpet is a whole lot of sand (??) I have to mop up. The tile under the carpet is in very good condition but it’s also an off white color so now the kitchen is super stark. I really want to just paint the main cabinets (sink area) a nice glossy black, swap out the hardware for something a little more functional, and add a better backsplash (maybe some subway tile?). And notice how the upper cabinets don’t have any hardware? It’s very annoying. I’m thinking we’ll just remove those doors all together and leave the shelves open. Here are some kitchens I’ve been inspired by lately:

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I’m usually a fan of light and bright kitchen cabinets, but with everything else in the room being so blah, and with having an ample amount of natural light pouring in, I think this is just the perfect space to try this out. My mom will be in town next weekend so I’ve wrangled her in to helping me with this project while Derek is on his backpacking trip. While the boys are at play, the girls will wreck havoc and repaint an entire kitchen. I’m pretty sure that’s a way more accurate saying.

a nice and moody bathroom

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This weekend we finally tackled the oh so hideous bathroom. You would think that we’d paint this room first since it’s by far the smallest, but it had so many repairs and cracks to fill before we could even get started that it was kind of a buzz kill. Here is a refresher of how it looked when we moved in. Cool shower curtain right? ;)

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We immediately took down the “window treatment”, shower curtain, the towel bar above the toilet, and the completely rusted out shelves next to the sink. Just removing these few items already made a world of difference.

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We haven’t hung up a decorative shower curtain yet because we knew we were going to be painting, so we’ve just been using a liner for the time being. Now that all of the main pieces had been removed it was time to do a lot of mending to the walls. And scrubbing. Lots and lots of scrubbing. Who was this previous tenant? Dexter?

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And now for the pump fake. We aren’t ready to show you full before and afters because we still need to hang the shower curtain, new towel rings that are arriving today, and I need to make a roman shade for the window whose fabric is on the way (yay!) So instead I will tease you. But how amazing do these walls look?

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Yum. It is so much moodier and comfortable in there now. I just love the contrast of the white tile wainscot with the darker color above. We settled on Benjamin Moore’s Iron Mountain (which we color matched to Valspar’s no-VOC) and used a semi-gloss finish because bathrooms get pretty steamy and this way we can easily wipe down the walls to prevent mold from growing. I really thought I had snapped a photo of the new paint color with the oh-so-fab green fixtures but alas I had not, so that will have to wait for tomorrow! I know dark walls aren’t for everyone, but this has been such a transformation from our stark white prison cell we were using before. Also, did you notice that Derek’s outfit matches? It was meant to be.

a bold move in the living room

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This past weekend we finished painting the bathroom (yay!!) and while waiting for each coat to dry I decided to tackle our built-ins in the living room. If you can’t remember, they looked like this when we moved in:

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I just loved how each door was trimmed out, and I instantly knew that they needed a pop of color to really stand out. The trim just looked rather blah and blended into the doors when really it needed stand out and be like “hey look at me I’m fancy!” So I taped off each piece and painted on a few thin layers of the color we used in the bathroom, Benjamin Moore’s Iron Mountain.

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I didn’t have enough patience to tape off the curved part on each door, so I freehanded that portion which ended up being a lot easier than I thought it would be.

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After three coats they were looking pretty sharp! I peeled the tape up while the paint was still wet so that I wouldn’t risk peeling up any of my fresh paint.

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As you can see in the photo above, the hardware was a little missing. The original hardware was these really cool crystal knobs but the movers broke two of them so things were looking a little mix-and-match.

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We knew we’d never find hardware to match the two remaining knobs, so I picked up these really simple glass globe knobs at Target for $14 for a set of 4. I just love how they instantly made the built-ins look so clean and modern.

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I just love how a 10 minute project can totally transform a piece. Every time I walk into the living room I’m surprised with how great they turned out. Derek was a little skeptical about painting the trim, but even he admits that it looks a lot better. I’m still debating on whether or not to paint the backs of the bookshelves the same color, use a pattern, or just leave it alone. What do you guys think? And I know I’ve promised you a lesson on bookshelf styling so that will happen later this week, promise! I can’t wait to show you guys our bathroom progress (okay that sounded weird..) you won’t believe the transformation! I still get excited every time I go in there :)