Bringing Color to the Bathroom

I have a confession to make: I’ve been suffering from painter’s remorse. While the entire house has been entirely repainted, I played it safe with my choice of colors. Case-and-point: the master bathroom.

Originally I chose the lighter options from the same palette as Chocolate Froth, the color of our master bedroom. Because of the way the walls connected, I thought it would be nice to use different shades to create a gradient effect. Well, what ended up happening is you couldn’t tell the difference.

Now living with those choices for several months, I’ve been able to think about other possibilities. One of which was a dark turquoise.

I wanted a color that would make the gold fixtures in the shower appear less dated. Replacing the gold fixtures would require upgrading the shower altogether and seeing as that’s out of our budget, I went with the cheaper option of working with what I have.

We also replaced the toilet, so it was the perfect opportunity to get a fresh coat of paint up without too much maneuvering.

In addition to the toilet/shower area, I updated the vanity wall with an accent color and new cabinets.

I chose a yellow that would compliment the turquoise but also be one that I could match up to a gray vanity cabinet to at a later date. I also wanted to choose a color that transitioned well when looking at the bedroom from the bathroom. I haven’t decided yet but perhaps when we replace the closet doors (bye bye gold) I might extend the yellow to that side of the bathroom/closet area. Until then it’s a nice, bright accent color.

Little Things Around the House

Happy Monday! I returned from a business trip in Yosemite last week, and I just got my laptop back after sending it in for a hard drive upgrade (SSD, FTW!).

I’ve done a few things around the house since my ombre dresser project. To start, I’ve continued work in the guest room with a new lamp.

Since all of our bedrooms have no ceiling lights, and it’s way too expensive to get the set-up installed, I have to get creative with lamps. I knew from the beginning I wanted a tripod floor lamp, mainly because I didn’t see a single-pole lamp being stable enough on carpet. After doing a lot of looking around, West Elm had the perfect lamp for a reasonable price compared to the average look-alike out there. And boy does it give off a good amount of light!

It’s a good thing I found a nice, bright lamp because I also got new light-blocking curtains for the guest room. Since the room faces the street and gets the most light in the morning, light-blocking curtains were definitely needed.

I picked these up from Target, and I think they look much better than the former white ones (which had a hole in them).

For my office, I got a new trashcan that I no longer have to hide when taking photos of the room.

The entryway got a new rug just in time for Spring/Summer…

I took two IKEA LACK tables and combined them into one side table…

And last, but not least, we got a brand new mattress for the master bedroom.

Our old mattress was the cheapest queen we could find from IKEA, and while it served its purpose over the years, recently it was doing more harm than good to our backs. Now we have a super comfy mattress, and we’ve been sleeping much better ever since!

An Ombre Nightstand for the Guest Room

Two weekends ago I began work on painting the guest bedroom nightstand. I gradually worked on it each night throughout last week, and by Sunday morning it was back in the guest room.

As I mentioned previously, the nightstand was left by the previous homeowners in the garage. Rather than toss it out or donate it, I hung onto to it with the intention of painting it.

I started the process by removing all the hardware and sanding the surfaces for painting with a fine grain sanding block.

After sanding I wiped down the surfaces with some basic surface cleaner. Next I began the painting. First, I painted the frame with Behr’s Premium Plus Ultra Interior Eggshell Enamel in Ultra Pure White. I did one coat per day so it really had a chance to stick and did three coats total.

For the drawers, I got sample size pots of the following Behr colors: Subtle Touch, Gentle Rain, Porpoise, Creek Bend, and Amazon Stone. I did three coats on each drawer using a foam paint brush.

Budget Breakdown

Although I had a $100 in Home Depot giftcards to spend on the project, here’s the cost of materials.

Nightstand (left behind by previous owners): $0
Foam paint brushes from Home Depot: $5.52 ($0.69 each)
3″ Flat Paint brush (already had): $0
Paint from Home Depot: $29.54
Sanding block from Home Depot: $7.47
Nightstand makeover total: $42.53

Bedroom Space

A few days ago I was chatting with a friend about our new home and how we’re still getting used to having a lot of space. Case and point: our bedroom.

Our bedroom was the first room we painted, so it didn’t get too much attention afterward other than my luxury shopping bag wall. It’s a bit empty.

Layout has also been an issue. When we first saw the house we just figured we set it up similar to how we had it at our rental.

We later discovered we couldn’t do this for a couple reasons, the big one being that we couldn’t face the dresser because of the location of the floor vent.

I spent some time this weekend looking at other bedrooms for ideas, cranked out some sketches, and brainstormed with Joshua. After discussing all the possibilities, here’s what we came up with.

We simply moved one of the chairs into the corner where Tucker’s bed used to be and moved the bed and nightstands closer towards the window. Who knew that moving one chair could make such a difference?

I picked up a few accessories from HomeGoods, and I moved my painting above the sofa in the living to the bedroom. I’ll probably do a bit more accessorizing on the dresser, but for now I’m pretty happy with how it’s looking.

In addition to rearranging the master bedroom, I began painting the nightstand in the guest bathroom. After seeing John & Sherry’s gradient dresser on Young House Love, I thought it would be a fantastic idea for my nightstand.

The nightstand was originally left behind in the garage by the previous homeowners. I knew it had potential, so I hung onto it with the intention of dressing it up with some paint and accessories. I’m hoping to have it done in the next few days.

Mid-Century Modern Nerd

I’ve been busy getting my office room organized and decorated so I could snap some photos of it. I’ve also managed to get the other side of the room (the one I’ve been avoiding taking pictures of since I painted it) tidied up as well.

The desk is an authentic a mid-century modern Danish desk I inherited from my grandpa. I donated my old computer chair as it was too wide for my new desk causing me to always hit my knees against the edge of the desk. I waited for the Herman Miller sale last November and got a white Eames Molded Plastic Chair. Not only does it fit perfectly under my desk, but it’s super comfy for my back. I also got a nice sheepskin cover from HomeGoods to drape over it during the winter.

The three Star Wars posters are from ReStyleshop by handz on Etsy. I absolutely love them! I traded in my yellow chevron curtains for the Montecito Panels from ZGallerie.

The other side of my office has my lightbox, which is made from a 30 gallon clear plastic container, some white paper, and two lamps from Target. Next to it my Star Wars figurines are on display in an IKEA BERTBY case. The white IKEA EXPEDIT shelving unit adds extra storage for my books, decor, supplies and scrapbooks.

New Living Room Setup

Our new sofa arrived on Wednesday, and in addition to that we got a new coffee table.

Since we moved, we’ve been using two fairly beat-up IKEA LACK tables. We decided once our new sofa showed up we’d get a new coffee table. We had our eyes on the STRIND Coffee Table in white, and when we went to get it on Saturday the floor model was in the As-Is section for a little over $20 off the original price. It was meant to be!

I also painted the trim in the entryway so I could put up those cute little mirrors I snagged at Target last weekend.

I got a nice hook rack from Target as well that Joshua will put up this evening. Hooray for progress!

InstaFriday

I got some new curtains for my office from ZGallerie last night! I loved the chevron ones from Etsy, but the fact they just weren’t wide enough really bothered me. I also got 90% of the trim painted in the office.
Joshua installed our new cooktop on Wednesday. It took about 17 minutes to boil a 4 quart versus 45 minutes on our old gas cooktop. I am VERY happy!
On Monday Izzie and Tucker spent 3 hours watching a squirrel tear into a bag of bird food on the back deck. Too funny!
My zinc letters from Anthropologie arrived on Valentine’s Day. I ordered “J & C” for my relationship timeline wall.

The Garage Reveal

Back in November, I blogged about how Joshua was in the process of removing the ghetto linoleum in our garage. It was the first step in our ultimate goal of getting the garage finished.

Well, it turned out that job wasn’t so easy because of the kind of adhesive that was used. It was something Joshua couldn’t do alone, so he had our contractor come by and give him a quote for helping him finish the garage, which included getting the linoleum adhesive up.

Three months later, with the linoleum being the last item on the garage checklist, I am excited to reveal our finished garage.

Our Garage – Before

Those kitchen cabinets were passed on to my in-laws, and everything else either was donated or went to the dump. We started with a clean slate.

Our Garage – After

The entire garage was insulated, sheet rocked, and painted. Now we have a third attic and tons of storage. I have easy access to all my holiday items, plus spots for extra storage of household items. All of this and we can fit two cars in!

In a few weeks, Joshua’s 1985 Mercedes station wagon, the one we drove around in back we we were dating, will be coming home from a fresh paint job and have a spot in the garage right next to my Beetle.

Getting Things Done

February has been a busy month for us so far in the Robinson household! I think doing the January Cure all last month motivated us to get even more items checked off our project list and then some.

When we were on the hunt for a new cooktop a couple weekends ago, somehow we ended up looking at new sofas. We had considered replacing our current set-up for awhile, but we hadn’t given much thought as to what we wanted instead. As we looked at several furniture stores, we realized we wanted an L-shape sectional with a chaise in dark grey.

After quite a bit of looking we eventually found exactly what we were looking for at Affordable Furniture & Blinds, a local furniture place that I didn’t consider checking out if it weren’t for my mom suggesting otherwise.

We’re getting a mirrored version of what you see above; our chaise will be on the left. The bottom left is the dark grey the sectional will be, and the turquoise pattern is for the small pillows that come with, which I think will go nicely with my new grey and yellow pillows. The sectional is suppose to take 4-6 weeks, so hopefully we will have it by the end of March.

As I mentioned earlier, we were initially looking at cooktops; one of my project items was to replace my gas cooktop with an electric one.

Apparently there’s a big debate about gas vs. electric, but honestly I’ve always been a happy cooker with whatever just works works. Our gas cooktop takes 45 minutes to an hour to boil a 4 quart pot of water. That’s just unacceptable. Needless to say I haven’t had pasta in awhile.

We had someone from the propane company come out to take a look at it, and Joshua even ordered the proper propane conversion part. Despite their efforts, the gas cooktop was simply the wrong appliance for the set-up.

We found a nice one by Frigidaire via Pacific Sales for a really great price, and they had interest free financing for 12 months. It’s suppose to be here in the next week or so!

I’m looking forward to having pasta again. After all, I am Italian. ;D

A few other projects we’ve tackled are getting my office, the guest bedroom, and the master bedroom are finally hard-wired for internet; the location of our heating ducts were causing so much interference that I got little to no internet in my office. Now I have clear signal all thanks to my hubby and brother in-law!

Last month, my goal project was to organize my office closet. While I didn’t get it finished, I did make good progress on it. We’ve also managed to finish our garage! Reveal pics will be coming soon.

Other than that, I’d say February is off to a productive start! And on that note, Happy Valentine’s Day!

Wrapping Up the Cure

Well here we are, end of January and Apartment Therapy’s January Cure. A whole month flew by, and here is what I’ve accomplished around the house out of my list of projects.

Add weather stripping to front door
Replaced front door hinges
Replaced living room throw pillows
Replace living room ceiling fan with more modern one
Organized guest bathroom vanity drawers
Organized guest bathroom vanity cabinets
Add more art/prints walls – I finished my luxury shopping bag wall
Replace gas cooktop with electric one – we found one we liked and are in the process of ordering it
Add shelving to garage – I’m really excited to show you guys the garage reveal soon

While I didn’t get my goal project completed, I do have direction on it, so I plan to work on it throughout February when I have the time. The internet getting hard wired in the back of the house didn’t happen either, but it too will happen in the next month or so.

I’m glad I participated in the Cure because while there were a few things I didn’t get done this month at least I have a list of projects to work towards completing. Definitely makes working on the house seem less overwhelming.

Bringing Color to the Bathroom

Little Things Around the House