Stairwell and Upstairs Hall: Painted

 

The upstairs hall and stairwell that leads from the living room to the upstairs hallway were painted silver gray as well to tie the two levels together. The hallway is the same color (silver gray) as the living room downstairs and the stairwell is painted a shade lighter. 

The updated colors feel really fresh and airy. The stairwell finally being painted the light gray in September tied everything together (it required the big ladder so we put it off). 

Living Room: Painted!

I painted the living room (and dining room and upstairs hall) almost 6 months ago and never had the time to photograph it. Spring was too busy, the kids were home making messes all summer... finally I had a chance when everyone was back to school this fall. 

The living room is a soft silver gray (literally the name) that matches the silver in the wall paper perfectly. In the morning it's gray. In the afternoon it looks a little blue. In the evening it has a lavender tint. Most importantly a lot lighter that the warm dark gray we had in here before. It's just what I needed -  it feels fresh and clean and a welcome change. 

I painted the living room back in the spring because I had a milestone birthday last May. I have been coping with this big change with a lot of celebrating, some new opportunities, and by repainting the downstairs. New decade, new paint colors, a fresh living space.

I got this painting project done during an insanely busy spring by painting a little bit each day. This room is mostly windows and doorways, so the bulk of the work is brushwork anyways so I never bothered with a roller. Just two coats with an angled brush, a little bit each day until it was done. 

This method meant that we never had that "big reveal" moment at the end of a long day of painting where you go "WOW IT LOOKS SO GOOD!"... but this practical process worked really well for me. It was so much easier to fit a round of painting in while listening in on a conference call or while the kids were getting ready for bed than it was to schedule in a half day just to paint. Yes it was slow progress, but it was PROGRESS, and in a time where I was constantly busy with work, busy outside, busy taking the boys to a million sport things (it was baseball season!)... sometimes bit by bit is the only way to do it. 

Next up in my fresh paint photo tour is the dining room, which was painted woodland white (aka the lightest sage green). I also hit up the stairwell and the upstairs hall in shades of silver gray. Everything feels lighter and brighter with the change. 

Late Summer

There was a chill in the air the other morning and for a few hours it felt like fall. The light is changing, the days are getting noticeably shorter. The crickets hum in a background chorus outside. Summer is starting to wane, a happy moment for fall lovers everywhere and a sad sigh for the summer lovers like me. I could spend the rest of my life in sunshine and warmth by the pool or ocean and be a very happy camper. I don't love the massive heat waves, but those dry days with blue skies, a breeze, in the low 80's are the best. I'm going to enjoy all that I can while it lasts. 

We went on our annual family trip to Cape Cod... and came down with COVID. Womp. Womp. We had two wonderful days before waking up feverish, all four of us went down within hours of each other. We isolated and spent a lot of time enjoying the rental house and views of the sea, and went to the beach later in the day when it was empty and spent a lot of time resting. There are worse places to recuperate (though I would have much preferred to enjoy the vacation, and not have spread it to extended family). 

We brought home a few pretty rocks from the rock beach for the garden... this might be my entire dining room table. Luckily we went before we were struck down by the plague. 

At home I'm trying to balance getting a few things done with all the summer maintenance and summer fun. We finally finished painting the stairwell that connects the living room to the upstairs hall. Both of those rooms are the new soft silver gray, but the stairwell was still a warm toned edgecomb gray. It's a really tough area to paint because the walls go all the way up to the attic and we have high ceilings to begin with. These particular walls require the big ladder and no fear of death. Mike survived but apparently took risks I don't want to hear about because they give me chills (I have a terrible fear of heights and lousy balance). 

I decided my first back-to-school project will be photographing all the indoor house updates when I have the space to myself again. I have wanted to do it all summer but I've finally accepted that short camp days are not conducive to working full time, child rearing, knocking off daily chores and getting the house to a uncluttered state where I can take a picture without cringing. Plus... there's plenty to do outside. 

I chopped the oriental bittersweet vine that was growing up the porch post. I loved the look of it, but it was out of control. It pulled down the gutter spout, grew into the porch roof gutters and was making it's way to the main roof of the house. Nope, nope, NOPE. Perhaps I never should have let it grow, because its root system is actually too big to easily remove at this point (it's too close to the shrubs and goes under the porch, yikes). But I can attempt to control its growth going forward, keep it from taking over the porch again. I let it do what it wanted before, because it was green and pretty and I love vertical growth, but this time I will manage height and branches aggressively. Hopefully it can be pretty and not destroy the house. If that's too much work, then I guess we'll try to pull it up. Hopefully it's not as aggressive as wisteria?

We're in a drought here. It has barely rained in over a month and it's been weeks without even a thunderstorm. The grass is a crisp brown and crunches when we walk. The trees are going into that early-fall distress and changing colors. Unwatered perennials and shrubs are shriveling, some even dying (not mine!). I almost lost a few ferns and astilbe, not realizing that even the often-wet way back of the yard in the shade was completely dried out. The first couple times I watered, it didn't even penetrate because everything was so hard-packed. Until it rains enough, the sprinklers are now on rotation, hitting different sections of the yard each day so I don't lose anything. Rain is perpetually on the horizon, drying up and pushing out further and further on the calendar. Fingers crossed we have a rainy day sometime soon... maybe next week?

Late summer life is busy. Work, the house, the yard. No more camp. Trying to get in those trips to the pool. Setting up that last string of play dates with their friends before school starts. Sports practices are starting up soon. Attempting to get one more beach trip in. Ordering school supplies. Knowing there are just a few more short breaths of freedom and chaos. Soon we'll trade the pandemonium and heat for crisp breezes and full orderly schedules of school and sports in a steady march. 

It's glorious and fleeting, this beauty of late summer. 

Couch Pillows

I ordered these pillows on Amazon back in January to go with our new couch. Mike and the boys all wanted a say in what I chose... I picked out the options but they had veto power. Sadly my Nordic floral folk pattern and the hipster patterned unicorn designs were vetoed. But we did all agree on these, so in the end it's probably for the best.

These are an indoor/outdoor burlap material that we have on another set of pillows and it seems to hold up well to the kids and dogs. And after the abuse my most recent pillows have gotten - I wanted something durable and cheap that also looked cute.

The set was very inexpensive (4 pillows for $18 at the time I ordered them) so I didn't think the metallic detail was really metallic ink... but in person, the effect was a little cheesy. If it had been a flat copper brown it would have been fine, but the fake metallic details were a cheesy gradient of peach to brown. It looks decent in photos but in person it was less than ideal.

So my solution was a $2 tube of metallic copper fabric craft paint. I washed the covers, slid a piece of cardboard inside and traced the fake metallic lines with real metallic paint.

In person the difference is awesome. In photographs its much harder to see... the metallic copper paint just looks brown in my pictures... but in real life it's PERFECT. Just the right amount of sparkle and sheen. No more cheesy peach gradient. On the left is the original stripe and on the right is the metallic paint mid-job.

I painted all 3 pillows that had the metallic detailing. Now it looks much better.  And I love the designs so this was a great way to fix a minor detail I didn't like ($2 + 1 hour of time). And now they are exactly what I wanted.

 You can see a little bit of the metallic detailing in the arrow below - it sparkles just enough.

And the style coordinates well with the existing pillow we've had forever in a similar geometric pattern. And I like the juxtaposition of modern pillows next to the busy traditional wallpaper and the busy traditional style rug. Our house has always been an eclectic mix of old and new, modern and traditional.

I realized after taking the pictures that one of the pillows in is in the wash with chocolate ice cream stains... but that's the beauty of 4 cases, we just rotate them! And the paint is holding up well so far to washing the past two months (which is fairly frequent since my kids are often sticky and Morgan loves to lay on pillows).

New Year, New Couch

We have a new couch.

It's IKEA, the VIMLE modular sectional. Totally customizable. Washable heavy duty covers. Navy blue to help hide black dog fur and kid dirt smudges. Storage ottoman attached to the side for blankets and pillows. Super comfortable, the cushions are very thick with just the right amount of firmness. Great for naps.

Enough seating for our whole family + Morgan.

The size is juuuust right for our living room and one of the smallest sectionals we could find. Every inch counts in our space. The ottoman attached to the end gives us an extra seat without feeling closed off - you can walk into the house through the front door without walking right into a couch arm. It helps with the flow while making the sectional as large as possible.

We love it. We all fight over the corner seat. It's awesome.

The only issue is that we've never had such a big couch in our awkwardly laid out living room. When every inch counts we ran into a few issues. The TV stand (which was destroyed by our kids already) was too deep and stuck out too much, narrowing the walkway between the L part of the couch and the TV into the kitchen. The storage ottoman we used as a coffee table was too long and too narrow (and it was chewed on the corners and legs by the puppy). And it was too dark on that side of the room.

So we replaced the TV stand with this inexpensive one from IKEA (and it was on sale for IKEA family members + a holiday weekend sale coupon!) and swapped out the drawer storage for some cloth baskets. Our old one was 24" deep and this one is 14" - the difference in the space feels massive for 10 inches. This one lines up with the wall/doorway so the space suddenly feels so much more open. And honestly it looks really good in person and is very sturdy!

The baskets are Pudda from IKEA. They hide all the kids video games, controllers and all that jazz. These baskets are SO soft and thick, they feel very luxurious and almost too nice! They hold their shape well and I love the button detailing. I wanted fabric baskets because I knew this would be a "high traffic" area and regular woven baskets would scratch the shelving - making it look worn too fast. This way the kids can be themselves without scratch marks.

Behind the couch in the console table are sets of baskets that hold homework supplies, paper, coloring supplies and coloring books. The kids still have their little table and chair set - I've been moving it around since we got the new couch, I'm still trying to find the right spot for it. This couch sits further back than the old ones and every inch counts in this space!

We replaced the storage ottoman with the old coffee table that has been stored in the basement since Oliver was a baby. It's the perfect size - just long enough and wide enough to fill the space. However... I'm nervous because I love this coffee table (it's Crate and Barrel) and I am scared the kids will destroy it. They are old enough now that the corners of the table are less of a threat than they used to be... but it's not soft. And it's real wood - it needs coasters, not sticky melted popsicles and spilled milk. Right now we are using the tray as a little bit of protection, but I think if it's going to stay here, I'm going to have to get plexiglass cut for the top of it as a layer of added protection. And get a couple more fabric baskets (vs. woven) to keep the bottom shelf in better shape. It will probably still get beaten to a pulp... but I'd rather use what we have than buy something new, especially when it's the ideal size for the space.

I still need to get new pillows. I have my eye on an inexpensive set from Amazon that I think will look great in here, I just need to pull the trigger and order them.

Lastly - lighting. We're working on it. Once we added the sectional, we realized how dark the TV side of the room was (once half the seating was no longer next to a lamp and under the ceiling light). I got a very slim LED floor lamp from IKEA that will work virtually anywhere - it's flexible and cool to the touch. Right now we have it next to the couch as a reading light. And we have a small gray table lamp next to the armchair. But I'm still moving things around - it's still too dark. Maybe the reading light should go next to the chair, or even the TV. And then do two slim sconces behind the couch. Or maybe something else entirely. I also really want Mike to finish the stairwell pendant lighting we've been meaning to do for years because I think that will also make a big difference in here. But one thing at a time.

This room is really shaping up. It feels so good to have this space so close to where we want it. Especially the part with seating for the whole family. This has always been SUCH a hard room to work with - all the doorways, walkways, two radiators, the stairs... short of drastic changes that require major construction, I don't think we're going to get any better than this.

Living Room Bookcases Part 2 + New Rug!

It's silly how long it's taken me to share pictures of our updated living room - we've had this finished for over 6 months...

Mike finished the "built in" bookcase in the living room by installing the final section across the sun room doors (see part 1 here). We purchased one of the narrow Billy bookcases from IKEA that was the perfect width for the top of the door frame to the ceiling molding.Installed on its side, it had to be cut down to fit the space between the tall bookcases. Mike measured from the center out so that the middle stability shelf was centered over the doors. Cutting it down was easily done, assembling the bookcase was fairly straightforward as well - Mike just had to drill new holes and everything came together easily.

To get the shelf flush with the door frame and bookshelves, Mike added a backboard of spare wood (drilled into the studs in the wall). From there he attached the assembled shortened bookcase with heavy duty brackets used for decking. It's REALLY sturdy - we could probably use the bookcase as a pull-up bar now (but we won't test it).

Originally we were going to put molding across the front, but when we did a test piece, it didn't look right. It actually looks better without. We didn't add molding around the sides of the bookcases either because our walls aren't straight and the molding highlighted how wonky they are.

My favorite things in this house are the things that look like they've always been there, and this is one of those things. I can't imagine going back to how it was before with shorter dark bookcases without lighting - this is so much better. The height really accentuates are tall ceilings.

Also, we can't forget our new(ish) rug! We finally put down the new rug about a month before Morgan joined our family. The intense pattern camouflages a lot, which is key with two young kids and a puppy. Plus the price (amazon prime day deal from last summer) can't be beat. This rug is 8 x 10 instead of the 5x7 rug we used to have in here (that Georgia ruined and we threw away when she was having all her problems). The size is a much better fit for this room. And it's so soft and thick and comfortable to sit on. The boys love relaxing on it or playing on it. The pattern hides everything. And the colors work surprisingly well in the room.

You can also see how we're living with our old couch from when we first moved in (it lived in our sun room/playroom for a long time until we got rid of our newer but almost-ruined Crate & Barrel couch last summer). We will probably keep this one here for another year or so, until Morgan is out of her puppy phase and the boys are that much older. Right now this poor couch is taking a beating in chocolate milk spills, muddy paws, and chewed corners. It's a very comfortable couch for sitting and it's actually a GREAT couch for napping (seriously it's probably the best napping couch of my whole life)... but this couch also drives me crazy. The cushions NEVER stay put. They are always sliding forward at an uncomfortable angle, even with the cover on it. And it's a pain to constantly put back together 10 times a day when back cushions have to be pulled up while the bottom ones pushed in, the covers re-tucked, everything re-shifted and I feel like I'm doing acrobatics. I LIKE that the cushion covers are removable for washing, but I wish they didn't slide around so easily. We also need more seating in here - I still have my eye on a modular IKEA sectional with removable covers as our next couch (even if the purchase date keeps moving into the future).