a painter paints a wall for free... "it's on the house!"

Sorry for the terrible pun but I just couldn't help myself!

At the end of our last post we conveyed that we were painting the living room but might not like the color. Well we were right and then wrong. When I first edged in, the color looked reddish and really dark. Hoping that it was just the first layer, I went back around the room (all 29 edges!) to paint a second coat and unfortunately was still unsure when I went to sleep that night. You can see the first layer closely in the picture on the right and the second layer in the middle - much creamier but it still dried with a reddish tint. 

 

When I got up to roller the room the next morning, I was still disappointed that the color was darker than I had wanted. It was hard for me not to like the color since the whole gallon of paint cost us $5, but there is always a "feeling" I get about paint color; it either works or it doesn't at all. 

After painting all the walls with two nice smooth coats, we were beginning to like the color. After moving all the furniture back into place and doing a little rearranging (yet again) we decided that the color was comfortable and made the room feel complete instead of just looking like furniture placed in a room. 

Yes, I'm watching Alias!  

We love the way the new paint color makes the charming cove ceiling pop! The cove is such a fun touch and one of the things we initially loved about the house - we are happy to have it be a little more noticeable! 

Also, we changed some things around: we added the lamp behind the chair (Target Threshold), put a table between the wall and couch for the lamp, switched the table in the "collage corner" and moved the leather ottoman to be a side table for the over-sized chair. All we need now is a perfect tray for the ottoman and we will be in business! 

Living Room: CHECK!

Keep posted for our next projects, we've got lots of fun ones coming up!

Until next time,
Lindsey

p.s. LOOK AT ALL THAT SNOW and it just keeps coming!

making progress in the living room

The dining room has probably undergone the most changes so far in the house. First we ripped down one of its walls to combine it with the dining room and secondly it has been decorated and redecorated more than once. 

In our apartment we had space for two full size couches because of the open layout and the length of the space but in this house we simply don't. Now, part of the redecorating and rearranging included a layout in which we tried to include both couches but it was too frustrating and tight. As you can see in the layout below [generated by floorplanner], having two couches in the living room was way to smooshed. Even though the room is fairly large, the walkways and front door pose a problem when trying to fit furniture - there aren't a lot of layout options.

I just went crazy one day; so frustrated trying to move around the coffee table and between the overbearing furniture I started to move things around. I ended up with one couch in the middle of the house with no home, ha! We like to say it's all part of the "process" so we don't feel like crazy people! The lighter couch that ended up with no home, is now housed in basement. We decided to keep the maroon leather couch upstairs due to the shape, size, and color! We don't even have any real pictures of the first layout because it never felt right... we knew it wasn't going to last.

 

This is the only photo I could find with the light couch upstairs. If you can use your imagination, the front door is directly to the right of the couch in this picture, the coffee table is just below the frame of this shot, and the TV is where Rob is looking. All in all, not a good situation.

After we removed the couch, we had a lot of empty space. Not enough for another couch or even a loveseat but we knew we wanted more seating. I found a oversized chair at Tootie and Tallulah's that fit the bill! It matched our color scheme and just fit perfectly in the space - plus, it is so so comfortable (as Taylor, Oswin and Harlee are so graciously modeling for us!).

After a couple adjustments and side table switches we came out with a good layout with lots of walking space as well as floor space for our two crazy creatures. My mom was a huge help during this, helping pick out curtains that fit the room and moving everything to its perfect spot!

The walls in the living room have seen many pieces of art and different corner displays, the lighting has changed, frames have been switched, curtains have been swapped and the odds and ends have been added and removed. All in all we are very happy with this current arrangement! 

 

Standing behind the couch, with the front door to your right, this is the view of the living room. The wall above the TV still needs some love and the lighting needs to - yet again - be changed.  All in good time!

 

Standing in the dog's bed (pictured above) this is the view from living room to dining room. The collage corner to the right was originally in the boring white corner from the picture above. We like its new home much more! **please look away from the clutter on the dining room table!

 

Again, standing behind the couch, you can see the over-sized chair and the leather ottoman that we added for seating as well as the art we chose to hang in the living room! 

The thing we are liking most is the flux of everything. Nothing stays in one place and it doesn't have to. The two large pieces of art (which we had framed locally at Greene's Art Supply in Birmingham) were originally meant for the dining room. After one look at the new arrangement, Mom and I decided that the "it is well" art would fit better in the dining room while the architecture pieces fit perfectly in the living room!

We are still going to paint this room and we may or may not already be underway with that project! Results to come later, we are still deciding if we like the color!! 

Thanks for reading, until next time, 

Lindsey

picking out paint and saving some dough

We hope you all had a wonderful celebration with family or friends and you were able to take a look back at 2013 while looking forward to 2014 and a whole new year of opportunities! From Rob and I (and Oswin and Harlee) to you and yours, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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Over the summer, before we even bought the house, my aunt told me (when discussing home renovation and painting) to "never settle or get your heart set on a color until you see what the local paint stores have in stock as "mis-tints."" I'm so glad she told us about this option because it has already saved us hundreds on paint!

Listening to her advice is how we first settled on Benjamin Moore "White Water" for the dining room. I went into a local paint shop before we even moved into the house for some inspiration. I remembered to ask if they had any mistints and just like magic by asking this question I was able to get two gallons of a color that I immediately loved for $10/each. It wasn't the color I was looking for but because I hadn't spent too much time committing to a specific color, we only spent $20 where we should have probably spent $130 or more!

Now that the dining room is all painted and looking lovely, we are in full paint mode to complete the other rooms that we have goals to paint. For most of the rooms we didn't even have an idea of what color we wanted when we set those goals; we wanted to get all the furniture and art we liked in place before picking a color. It's much easier for us to work backwards and finish with paint than to paint a room and try and match everything to that scheme.

On New Years Eve, on my way home from work, I stopped at another local paint shop right as they were closing. They were nice enough to stay open for a couple extra minutes to allow me to get what I needed. My first stop was - yes, you guessed it - the mistint section. I dug through gallons of paint with help from one of their associates and found a color that would look perfect in the living room. The best part? It was only $5/gallon down from $65!!! Success, another room painted for under $10!! After looking through all the colors in the mistint area, I didn't find anything else that I liked and resolved to paying full price for a nice rich color for the ceiling in the hallway, after all I had already secured quite a bargain. I picked my color and told the associate that I only needed a quart, his partner quickly turned and said "why don't you give her one of the gallons that are on sale in the front, it will only cost $10." Again, CHA CHING! Even the paint that I was willing and expecting to pay full price for only came in at $10/gallon down from $65!!

I scored two gallons of their highest quality paints for a grand total of $15.90 and saved over $115.00!! Talk about a great price!

For a general look at our color scheme I found these swatches online. Winter White is our dining room color, Phantom Mist is for the hallway ceiling, and I would say that the mistint for the living room is somewhere between Arabian Sands and Covered Wagon.

New house paint savings so far:

Dining Room - Winter White: $130 $20
Living Room - Mistint Tan: $65 $5
Hallway Ceiling - Phantom Mist: $65 $10
Kitchen - Mermaid Green: $11 (the only paint we've paid full price for yet!)

GRAND TOTAL: $271 $46

Not only has buying high quality paint for cheap become a very fun game to us, we are so happy to save we've saved hundreds doing it!

Happy New Year once again and happy paint hunting to those of you in the market!

Until next time, Lindsey

*** Do any of you have success stories when it comes to bargain hunting for home renovation materials!? We'd love to hear from you!