Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Days of DIY and advice needed!

My last few days have been FILLED with DIY projects. I have oodles of little things I want to get done, I have my spring ambition, so I've been taking advantage of that. I have pix of completed projects to share and also need some advice, so go get a cuppa something (I have blackberry tea with lemon cookies and they are soooooooo good together!) and come on back!




Back? Alrighty, here we go:

TJ's crayon roll with Cars on it. He loves "Light Keen" and isn't bashful about telling me that he should watch it....a million times a day. We found Cars crayons at the liquidator store in Bonduel while we were back home, so he has those in his crayon roll.

This is the front hall closet as you enter my house. It was a nasty, old yellow, had a hanging bar but was too narrow to actually use a hanger so Tim remodeled it to this and I finally got around to painting it. I used the Marzipan paint we used in Rugby's fishing room because I have a ton of it left. Yay me! We keep the ladder ball game and some extra little coolers in there and the boys are pretty good about putting their shoes on the shelves. I put a liner on the shelves so you can't see how stained and icky they will, no doubt, get over time.

This afternoon I finished making cutains for the "movie room". I could not find cutains I liked that a) I could afford or b) had the color I wanted. So, I toured the fabric area of Walmart and low and behold there was some fabric I liked, it was 2.50 a yard so I thought SWEET! I'll make curtains.....then the girl cut 3 yards for me and rang it up at 2.00/yd...SCORE! I have a little bit leftover, but not much. Each panel is the same width as the window so they fill it out pretty well. I didn't want to shorten the curtains (mostly because I can't cut straight) so I left them as long as the fabric was....and it turned out pretty good. I read a house decorating blog and they said the curtain doesn't have to hang from the top of the window, you can raise the curtain rod and have the curtains hang below the window and it'll look alright so I tried it...and they were right!! I love the extra 3 1/2" that I moved the rod up. It really does make that room feel bigger (and it needs all the help it can get!!). The walls are Black Raspberry and Silver Sword, so the fabric is a charcaol color. I LOVE IT!!


Now on the the advice portion: We want to re-paint the kitchen. (Please don't look at my mess!) Three walls will need paint, the other is white tile behind the backsplash. I'm leaning toward a beachy blue-green but want something light and bright and more on the cool side vs. the warm side. Any suggestions?? Here's my kitchen:



The other "problem" I have is that we should probably remove the pictures from the mantle for when we have showings. I don't know what to do to decorate that space to make it pretty on the cheap....thoughts? Tim wants to paint one wall as an accent wall, but I'm not sure I like that with the fireplace being there, that's kind of the accent wall....again we'd need something cool to keep the space bright. Any thoughts? These next two pictures are all one room, taken end from end.

Ok, so there you have it. I would appreciate any thoughts you have (Christine, I bet you have ideas??!!!) Thanks everyone!!

5 comments:

  1. camo is the IN thing

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  2. I am NOT good at color or decorating...but what do you think of (1) painting just the dining area or (2) painting the entire living/dining area a very like tan color (ask Tim about the color we paint everything over here...it is neutral, but better than white).

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  3. Barn Red comes to mind. te he

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  4. I think I would leave the pictures on the mantel but take off anything else just pictures. The wreath should be a contrasting color if you have one. Pussywillows will be out soon maybe you could pick some of them to decorate with.

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  5. For showings, take down anything personal. Prospective buyers want to picture themselves there and it is harder with your family staring at them:) How about leaving the wreath (or finding one that "pops" off the wall)and a group of candles on one end of the mantle and a lamp on the other, or just the candles (grouped together, varying heights). For paint, I'd stick with neutrals. Good luck!

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