PROGRESS REPORT

This past weekend Justin and I decided that it was time to tackle the dining room. This may not sound like a gigantic scary project...but it is. The dining room is where we have been hoarding all of our unopened moving boxes, artwork, and scads of mismatched furniture from our old apartment. But we dove in head first and I'm happy to report that we're off to a killer start. We managed to get MORE done than I expected. That NEVER happens.

We're done painting the walls and the ceiling. You can see the colors that we went with in the picture above. I had chosen the wall color a while ago (Minty Green by Glidden)...but I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with the ceiling. Then I saw these images for the new Farrow and Ball colors...

I love the combinations of blues and greens and blue-greens and pea greens. So I went for it. My ceiling is now Marsh Fern by Behr.

We're still busy in the dining room DIYing up a storm. More soon.

CAT BATHROOM!

As promised, here's the scoop on the downstairs bathroom...which is now a pinky-pink wonderland of vintage cat photos.

Eventually, I'd like to do a COMPLETE overhaul. The sink is really dated...and not in a cute way. The toilet is newer...but I hate the style of it. It's too big and modern looking. And the floor? Ugh. Don't get me started on the floor. It's really unattractive vinyl tiling that I think is supposed to look like red clay tiles (maybe?)...but they're not fooling anybody. Trust me.

Unfortunately, it's gonna be a LONG time before we can afford to replace most of that stuff and give the bathroom the proper makeover it deserves. But, in the meantime, I figured I would do as much as I possibly could with a little bit of paint and some things we already own.

Here are a few before photos so you can see what I was working with. (And yes, those are stenciled paw prints.)

And here is what it looks like now.

I figured if you are trying to transform a room with little more than paint you better go for a statement color. So I went SUPER pink. I know it's over the top...but I personally love a kitschy pink bathroom...and I really had nothing to lose.

I painted the sink cabinet and mirror a dark charcoal gray. Still not awesome...but MUCH better.

And then I covered the place with vintage cat photos. That made ALL the difference.

The sweet vintage frames and black and white photos totally work with the pink and charcoal color scheme. And the bathroom certainly has personality now...which is what it was really lacking before.

Sadly, the hideous floor is still there...but I put this rug down so that I don't have to see quite as much of it.

Eventually, I would love to do the floor with the tile pattern below from American Restoration Tile.

And I think the room would look fantastic with a tin ceiling (painted the same shade of dark gray as the sink) and an art deco style light fixture. Maybe something like one of these two from Schoolhouse Electric.

Luckily, those are all manageable updates which would be fairly affordable as far as those things go. But for now I'll just keep adding cat pictures as I find them...because the bathroom's shortcomings and imperfections seem way less noticeable when there are so many cute kitties to stare at!

PROGRESS

So...Justin and I have taken a break from working on the house to enjoy our first summer upstate. But after a couple months off we're ready to dive back in.

We decided to start with the guest rooms. One is going to double as Justin's writing room, and I want it to feel kinda like the study of a nineteenth-century gentleman naturalist. Think: dark wood, old maps, bird prints, leather bound books. The other is going to double as our closet and I want it to feel like an old fashioned ladies' dressing room. Think: pastels, vintage fashion illustrations, embroidered silk bedspread, deco folding screen.

Over the past few months I've managed to gather some great pieces for each room from garage sales, craigslist, and some upstate junk shops. (All at bargain prices, of course!) And we've gotten back to work painting walls, arranging furniture, and hanging art (my favorite part!). Finally! Progress!

It's been a labor of love...and there are lots of little details from each of the rooms that I want to share with you. Too many to fit in one post. So I'm going to do it over the next few posts. Until then...you get a sneak peek at the color of the dressing room. A shade of minty green, of course. I'm so predictable!

COLOR STORIES

I've been living here for one week and my ideas for each of the rooms are starting to take shape. Unfortunately, my budget doesn't allow me to do much more than look at free paint samples. But that's okay....I think it is best to really get to know each room before you start buying things anyway. So for the time being I'm just going to pore over this stack of paint chips and come up with some color palettes. 

Here's what I'm thinking so far: 

It wouldn't be MY house without a healthy dose of aqua/mint green/turquoise...so I plan on using these colors VERY liberally. 

For instance...in the dining room.  

I am thinking the lighter shade for the walls...and the darker for the french door that leads to the porch. The natural wood moldings around the windows and door in the dining room have a very warm, almost orangey cast, as do the pine floors...which I think will look LOVELY with the blue/greens. 

NOTE: That is NOT our real dining room table. It is our old kitchen table that happens to be in the dining room. Let's just pretend it's a beautiful, long, old table with some mismatched wooden chairs. Oh...and the color of those paint chips doesn't look terribly accurate on my screen....but you get the idea....right?