Fifty Shades of Gray

It's dirty. It's clean. It's warm. It's cool. There are so many shades of gray. Too many? Maybe not enough?

It all started with the purchase of our first home. No more renting! We finally owned our very own house. We could finally paint it and make it our own. I really stepped out and painted it...taupe. I know, I know...I took a walk on the wild side. Hang on, it gets better.  I've learned a lot over the years of painting our home. For example, removing the switch plates is a lot easier than taping each one before painting. Also, don't change the color scheme of your living room if you are eight months pregnant. Once you have your baby and your hormones go back to normal, you might not be as pleased with your irrational color choice. 

Fast forward to our second home purchase, a true fixer upper.

It was a beautiful home built in 1929 with good bones that just happened to be stuck in the 70's. It came complete with avocado appliances and gold shag (matted) carpet. I couldn't start painting fast enough. At this point in my life paint colors didn't scare me and I had fun with it. So much so that a friend came over and saw my home for the first time and said, "You're house is so...(uncomfortable long pause)...FUN!" I know she meant it in a sweet sort of way but I have to admit, it was a bit much. Lesson learned: Too much of something is not always a good thing.

On to our current home. At some point a fixer upper is only fun if you have the time and the money, both of which were draining us therefore we made a huge decision to build a home. Now paint never scared me. It's just paint after all. If you don't like your choice, just paint over it. Well, that was until the builder wanted me to pick out paint colors for the entire house by a certain time. I stared at the hundreds, maybe thousands of paint swatches that stood in front of me. One by one, I picked out colors that I thought were pretty. I brought the color chips home, taped them to the walls and was very pleased with my choices. That was until all of the walls were painted. Initially, I thought the colors were very nice but once we moved the furniture in and hung curtains, I became dissatisfied with my choices. All of those pretty colors locked me into a color scheme that I couldn't get out of without repainting my walls once again. 

There were two lessons in this. 1) When picking out a wall color you should take into consideration the big pieces you are working with.(ex: your furniture, curtains, carpet, etc) These are things you probably wouldn't replace often. Accessories such as pictures, pillows, etc...can be replaced easily over time. Lesson 2) This one is huge! Buy a sample size of the paint you are considering. There is no way you can get a good idea of what the paint will look like off of a two inch color chip. Just because the color is pretty on the chip doesn't mean it will be pretty on your walls. 

Now for the final lesson. Be true to yourself and don't get caught up in trendy stuff. I recently became hooked on the show Fixer Upper.

 If you haven't seen this show, it's definitely worth checking out. You can visit their blog at Magnoliahomes.net for episode information and a peek at their awesome home transformations. On the show, they use a lot of shades of gray in their homes. Each home was prettier than the next so I thought it would be a fabulous idea to step outside of my box and go gray. Who knew there were so many shades of gray? I'll bet I picked up just about every swatch of gray that was out there. 

I remembered my "lesson's learned" and narrowed it down to a few different shades of gray and bought the sample sizes to try out on the walls. I successfully narrowed it down to a medium tone warm gray and proceeded to paint my kitchen. Now anyone who knows me, knows that I have painted my kitchen four time before this in only twelve years. It's not because I love to paint that much but rather because I hadn't learned my lessons yet. The color was beautiful. I loved it for about two weeks then something was bugging me. It's not that the color wasn't great, it just wasn't me. When looking around at my home, I realized that all of my furniture and accessories were warm toned and even though the gray was considered a warm gray, it wasn't me. 

Okay, so my lessons are learned. I have just painted my kitchen for the sixth time. 

I chose a warm beige.

 I know that sounds boring but it goes with everything. I wanted a neutral color that I could change up my accessories with the seasons or whenever I feel like it. Now I'm pretty sure that with all of those layers of paint, I have reduced the square footage in my kitchen but that won't stop me from painting again should I grow tired of my new paint color. It's just paint after all.

Diane

Curtain Call

Hello Everyone and Happy Spring! Is it safe to say that yet? Seems like Mother Nature is a bit indecisive this year. The good thing about the weather switching up and back is that it takes the guess work out of whether or not to work inside or outside. This time of year, I love to clean out and spruce up things.

We decided to change our office into a guest room. It was a lot of fun transforming that space using things we already had. It still needs some tweaking but I'll have more on that later.

I decided to use the curtains in our master bedroom in our new guest room so that gave me a good excuse to get some new curtains for our room. I've been wanting to make our bedroom a little more serene therefore getting rid of the patterned curtains.

I recently bought some curtains for our living room so I didn't want to spend a lot of money for the bedroom curtains. While browsing through our local Home Depot paint department, I ran across some drop cloths...wait for it... ON CLEARANCE! I mean where else would you look for curtains? Okay, so you're probably not picturing curtains right now but trust me on this.

We have a double window in our bedroom and nine foot ceilings. The drop cloths come in different sizes but the size I chose was 9x12. The drop cloths are made of canvas and are a beautiful linen color. It looks darker in the photo above. The best part of it besides it's beauty is that they are super thick. No need for lining them and they provide privacy too! Win, win!

Here's an even bigger bonus...I knew I would have to do some cutting and sewing and was a little nervous about it. The sewing didn't bug me so much but I was really worried that I wouldn't cut it straight. Well to my surprise, the drop cloth was two 6 foot pieces sewn together which worked out great since I wanted beefier panels. Since I have a double window, I wanted one panel to completely cover each window when closed.I used a craft knife to cut the seam making two perfect panels.

I sewed a hem on both sides of the cut fabric to make a clean edge.

As for the length of the curtains, I just folded the fabric back and clipped them to the curtain rings.

Tada!!! Curtains complete! I love the way they look!

 Curtains this thick cost a bundle and these cost under $30 for the whole double window. Technically that would be enough curtain for two windows. Beautiful, functional and thrifty! 

Okay, here's an update to this post. I loved the way the curtains turned out so much that I also made some for the guest room!

 Have any of you made window treatments out of something other than curtains? Leave a comment below sharing your ideas. We would love to be inspired!

Thanks for stopping by,
Diane

Wrinkles Aren't A Bad Thing

Hello Everyone! Let me start out by saying how ashamed I am of myself. I made a resolution that this year will be the start of my blogging on a regular basis. Here we are in the middle of February and this is my first post. I apologize. It certainly isn't because I don't enjoy blogging because I do. Apparently this is going to be a year that starts out a little rocky but it could only mean that it will end with a bang. I say this in hope that life will slow down just a bit allowing me to stay focused on things that I enjoy. This brings me to my post topic.

You know that saying, "Life comes at you fast"? Well, it's true. The older a person gets, the faster life seems to go. When you are young, you can't wait to grow up and when you get older, you want it to slow down.

With life comes wrinkles. They kind of sneak up on you...I'm pretty sure it is when you are sleeping and your guard is down. It seems that everyone dreads finding a new wrinkle but when you think about where they come from, it's not such a bad thing. When you think of all the events in your life that caused these wrinkles...new beginnings, sad endings, the trying of your patients, overcoming challenges that made you a better, stronger person, laughing until your stomach hurts, smiling...kids...It makes it all worth it. Every wrinkle tells a story. No matter how much face cream you use, these are the stories of your life. (Try to stay with me. There's a reason for this story.)

A friend of mine and co booth owner at KnB's Marketplace had a beautiful old ironing board that he had found. He wanted me to do something to it to spruce it up. Again, I forgot to take a good before shot so I apologize for that. I tend to dive in to projects before thinking about taking a picture. The ironing board was somewhat faded looking and had an advertisement paper that was partially peeling off. Overall it was in good shape. Someone had taken pretty good care of it.

We'll pretend that this is the before shot!

I started out by sanding it a little and giving it a new coat of stain to richen the color. I used Modge Podge to adhere and seal the advertisement trying to preserve the original quality of the print. Then I found this catchy little saying..."Every Wrinkle Tells A Story." I thought that was so appropriate to put on an ironing board. I painted the saying on there, antiqued it a bit and gave the board a coat of wax. Finally, I adhered a frame around the print to give it some importance.

I love the way it turned out! I love the quote even more! It is so true. It kind of makes you look at wrinkles in a whole new light, doesn't it? I think it would look great hanging in someone's laundry room or anywhere in a home to remind you that wrinkles aren't necessarily a bad thing. They're the story of your life after all! You can find this and more treasures at The Feathered Nest at KnB's Marketplace in Fuquay Varina, NC.

Blown Away

   I am totally blown away as is just about everyone lately. The storm that has blown across our country has had unbelievable wind gusts with it.  As I was cleaning up our yard this morning, searching for the lid to our beehive, I couldn't believe that just two days ago I was outside in a tee shirt painting some wonderful new things for The Feathered Nest. (Coming soon.)

                                                            Here's a sneak peek...

   I am also blown away by the fact that January is almost over. That means just one thing. Spring is just around the corner!

    I love this time of year! I am not a fan of stormy spring weather although I do love a rainy day. It makes me want to clean up and redo something. I have been tossing around the idea of redoing our master bedroom. As Mary mentioned in our last newsletter, my nest is getting emptier. My middle son has also found his own nest. That now leaves me with two rooms to redo. I suppose I should make that a priority. Any cool ideas of what I should do with the rooms? I would love to hear what you have to say. I should mention that I still have one son living at home so maybe something he would enjoy as well.

In the meantime, try to keep your feet on the ground and enjoy the blustery day.

                                                                                                                  Diane