For Me, This is Considered a Shopping Spree

When we moved into this house, I didn’t want to feel like everything had to be bought and arranged and perfectly matching from the get-go. Instead, I wanted to take my time building it up, putting my personal touches on it gradually, and slowly-but-surely turning it into a house that feels like us.

So the fact that over the past few weeks, I’ve found myself carrying home some big purchases almost seemed to fly in the face of that slow-but-steady pacing. What it really came down to, though, was some pretty good timing when I managed to find things that fit my style for a good price.

Want to see?

First up was buying our new kitchen table, which I mentioned that my husband bought me for my birthday. While our house has a formal dining room, I really wanted to have an eat-in kitchen so that I didn’t have to carry piping-hot dishes through the kitchen and around the corner at every meal. Fortunately, there’s plenty of room in this kitchen, so that’s where we’ve been eating. (As for the formal dining room, we have plans to turn it into a library!)

The table we’ve been using ever since we got married was one my parents happened to have that was compact and could come apart—perfect for us as apartment dwellers. But now as homeowners—and we plan on staying put in this house for awhile—we wanted more from our table.

So I started making a wishlist: First was that I loved having a round table; it seems to fit that nook so well. But I wanted one that came with a leaf so that when we have company over, we aren’t squished around the table, and open up the possibility that we can invite more than two people over at a time! I also wanted a white table. My first choice would be dark wood, but since our cabinets are blond and almost brand-new, I don’t think those will get changed anytime soon. So a white, painted table was my next choice.

After doing a lot of research (and discovering that round tables with leaves aren't super common!), I found this table at Pier1, which was on sale. So on my birthday celebration day, we went and ordered it and then, a week later, trotted over to the store to pick up my big-girl gift.





You can't see it in those photos, but when we got home, we discovered that there were a handful of little scratch and scuff marks on the brand-new table. (Hence the tablecloth that we use almost exclusively.) Cue the sad music. Fortunately, though, the store was super understanding and ended up giving me a 25% discount off the sale price to make up for the damage.

I talked it over with my husband and decided to take that extra money and put it toward buying a new bedspread, which I’ve been wanting for a long time now. (You can get a sneak peek of the hand-me-down floral quilted coverlet we'd been using here.) I knew Kohls was having a sale (when aren’t they having a sale, though?) and I’d received a coupon in the mail for $10 off anything $10 or more. No time like the present to see what kind of deals I could scout out, right?

Well, I came across this bed-in-a-bag set that seemed a perfect fit for our bedroom décor:



(I’d actually even bookmarked a project on Pinterest to make curtains just like these!)

I’m not usually a bed-in-a-bag person (can we say super-duper matchy-matchy?) but the price was right for the comforter alone, so everything else in the sack (pillows, shams, bedskirt) were welcomed extras!





The entire set is a soft gray, which goes well with our gray walls. I’m thinking that I’d like to make some colorful, patterned curtains to add some color into the room and tie everything together. But—you know me—there’s time for that!

And did you notice anything else in those photos? Well, as it turns out, while I was browsing the home section, I decided to hit up the clearance section. Imagine my surprise when I found this gorgeous starburst mirror, originally $159.99, marked down to $31.99! Add on my $10 discount, and it was like a steal. I had been trying to figure out what kind of art I wanted to put over our bed and when I saw this mirror, I knew it’d be the perfect solution.



For me, this is a shopping spree. I hardly ever do much shopping outside of the grocery store, so to nab three kinda big purchases in just a week’s time? Well, let’s just say that’s rare around here! But it all felt right and it’s so much fun to see this house come together, grow up, take shape little by little.

(By the way, does anyone have any tricks for getting scuff marks off of painted surfaces? I’ve tried cleaning those spots on the table to no avail, but figured I’d throw it out there because you guys always seem to have some great suggestions up your sleeves!)

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{ shopping bag photo source }

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From Brassy to Flashy: Transforming A Pair of Lamps for Our Bedroom

My husband and I are both big read-before-bedtime folks, with a stack of books on both sets of nightstands. But hoisting lamps onto the nightstands to aid that nightly routine has proved more bulky than I liked, with much of the nightstand taken up with the lamp base instead of books. To free up some space, I'd long wanted to mount some wall lamps to either side of our bed.

One day, as I was strolling a thrift store, I came across a brass, plug-in, spring-arm lamp, which reminds me of the kind you see in hotels. I knew those kinds of lamps often show up at secondhand stores, so I grabbed that one up (after testing it to make sure it worked, of course!) and trusted that I'd be able to find a second one to make a pair.

A couple of months later, I had my pair. But gold is not my decorating color of choice, so I turned to one of my tried-and-true decorating accomplices: a can of spraypaint. For this project, I used Krylon's Premium Original Chrome, which they sent me to try out for this project. I taped up the lamps' cords and light switch, stuffed the light socket and other open areas with tissues to protect them all from the paint.



Then it was time to get painting.

I know there are lots of metallic paints out there and I've tried my fair share, which often end up being disappointing imitations of silver, more gray or glittery than bright and shiny. But the chrome from Krylon was the exception; with the first coat it was a bright silver that I was going after for this project:





The paint when on smoothly, but I did find that it took it a long time to cure or else it would easily show smudges and fingerprints, ruining the finish. While the can itself recommends just a few hours to dry, I looked online and found other folks had to give their projects weeks. (Given that, I'd recommend only using it on projects that won't have to withstand much direct touching. Fortunately, we don't do much re-adjusting of the lamp arms and only have to turn the knob, so it works fine for us.)

Even with the lamps themselves painted, there was also the pesky issue of the cords. I liked that they plugged in because then we didn't have to worry about drilling into walls and hiring an electrician and all that. But those garish yellow cords did nothing for our decor. So, I decided to cover them up.

I did some research about whether you could safely paint the cords themselves and came up with conflicting information. So I decided to play it safe and wrapped them with some black electrician's tape and then painted that with the same color of paint that we used on the walls, a gray color from Mythic Paint. (You can read more about painting our bedroom walls and the exact color we used here.)

The nice thing about this safer-than-sorry solution, is that if I ever want to go back to the original color (doubtful, but you never know), all I have to do is peel the tape away and so goes the paint, no harm done!



At that point, it was time to mount them on the walls and put on some lamp shades. As it turns out, my parents had some small sconce shades in their basement, which they let me have when I was in town over Christmas. Can you believe how perfectly they match our wall color?! Oh, serendipity:



I still have yet to figure out what kind of art I want to put over our bed, but, as usual, I'm taking my time to find (or make!) the piece that's just right for this spot, which now sits squarely between these fully functional and perfectly matching lamps that are a piece of work in and of themselves. Don't you think?:







And a shot with the lights turned on:



Find out more about Krylon’s huge variety of spray paints—there’s one for nearly all your craft and DIY needs—by visiting their website. You can also like them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter. 

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We Finished Painting the Bedroom!

Ahh. Can you hear that? It’s the sound of finally being able to sleep in my own bedroom!

After I shared about how we’d taken the time to prime the bedroom (more about that here) and then subsequently did—oh, you know—nothing in there for almost a month (and continued sleeping in the guest bedroom), the time had come to finish the task at hand. Sharing that update was enough to motivate me to finally do that.

And last weekend, I'm proud to report that I did.

While my husband was at work, I pulled on some old clothes, turned on some podcasts and went to work, rolling on the paint, filling in the corners and touching up the edges. I spent one whole evening painting on the first coat and then my husband helped me on his off day to put on the second.

We settled on a shade of gray for the room for one, simple reason: That was the color my husband suggested. And since he doesn’t normally have too strong of opinions when it comes to decorating, I saw no reason to protest.

We ended up selecting a soft, not-too-dark gray courtesy of Mythic Paint, a company known for creating quality, non-toxic paints. I’ve mentioned before that my husband is sensitive to paints and chemicals, so since we’d be spending a hefty amount of our time breathing in this room—eight hours a night—we wanted to use an option that was as friendly to our lungs as it was to our eyes.

Mythic Paint has created a reputation of creating paints that are safe for kids, pets and the Earth with zero VOCs, zero toxins, and zero carcinogens. Plus, they offer more than 1,200 paint colors to choose from, so there’s apt to be a shade for every project and personality!





After comparing dozens of paint chips, we finally settled on “Grey Rain.” (Check out all the gray hues we had to choose from!) Once it was on our walls, we couldn’t have been happier with our choice.

Here’s a reminder of what the room looked like before we painted it:




(Don’t you love how “before” pictures always end up being a mess like that?!)

Well, here’s a look at it once we painted it and moved our furniture into place:




Gone are the heavy, tan walls. In their place is a room that culls calm. Almost as soon as the paint was dry, my husband remarked how peaceful the paint made the room feel. It takes what could be a cold, sterile color and—with almost the lightest touch of lavender to it—gives the pale gray a softer edge, perfect for the soothing aesthetic we were going for.

Plus, we picked an eggshell finish for the paint, which is a pretty forgiving sheen that covers up a lot of the wall’s imperfections but still contains a slight luster that gives the room something of a glam feel. (It’s also supposed to hold up really well to cleaning and scrubbing, which makes it a good choice to consider for kid’s rooms or high-traffic areas.)

We still have yet to hang any artwork (I’m contemplating crafting up some new ideas!), but we’re one step closer to making this house feel more and more like home. (You can review all the updates about our new house here.)

Find out more about Mythic Paint’s high-quality, non-toxic paints, which include interior and exterior paints as well as primers, by visiting their website. You can also like them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter.

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