The power of a neutral wall

Happy Friday to you all! I’m so sorry for the late post, the Internet is not cooperating today so I’m lucky to even get this one out! This is my third location trying to get wifi – that’s dedication right there. ;)

So many of you have noticed lately that my style, it is a-changin. While I still love the look of a dark, dramatic room (and still have plans for one or two in the house), overall my preference has moved to lighter spaces.

I do struggle with having enough color in a room with lighter walls – I NEED my color. But I’ve had one too many instances where I couldn’t find drapery fabric/bedding/accents that work in a space because the look of the room was so dictated by the color of the (darkish) walls.

I’m realizing that there is great power in a neutral wall. I told you how I couldn’t decide on light or dark for our bedroom, but I made a decision soon after:

Yep. Light won. :) It’s a really light gray color (I can’t remember the name so I’ll have to look and update.)

I went light mostly because I didn’t want the room to become too dark (it already is with the current color). We only have one east facing window in there and I knew it would become a cave if I went any darker on the walls. And it felt like it would be a dark and depressing cave, not a cozy and comfortable cave. :)

But working on the powder room redo really opened my eyes to the decorating possibilities with lighter paint on the walls. I’ve already had plans to lighten up the family room and kitchen, and these inspiration photos kind of sealed the deal for me.

Here’s the thing – I’ve fallen in love with white kitchens over the years too. I drool over them. I love how clean and bright they are, but so color is SO easy to add in:

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I painted my kitchen island a similar blue, and I love that you could totally change up the look of the space with just a new color on the island. (And painting an island is WAY easier a whole room.)

I loved this bright kitchen with the soft yellow island by Sarah Richardson:

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That kitchen still feels so warm and comfortable to me, even with all the white.

And in a kitchen you can add a ton of color with a backsplash if you wish too:

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Of course that’s not an easy change down the road, but you could also add color with the chairs and accessories like this photo.

I found this kitchen on Houzz a few days ago and instantly fell in love:

Maybe it’s because I was still feeling the Americana love from the 4th, but I just adore the use of blue and red in there. SO welcoming.

These walls aren’t really neutral, really, but they are light. It just goes to show all the different colors you can bring in:

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I’d love a built in banquet like that by the way. Any time is fine.

You know I love a painted ceiling. With darker walls a painted ceiling will feel heavy and could make the space feel dark (I’ve done it and it does both) – but in a lighter room it’s just a beautiful, unexpected accent color:

OK, but seriously, make sure you love that ceiling color. It’s a pain in the patoot to redo. (Again, ask me how I know.)

With a lighter wall color the less expensive, easier decorative stuff (like pillows and accessories) can be changed out more often if you wish:

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Although I would totally paint the back of those built ins. ;)

Like I said, I have loved our darker bedroom for quite some time, but it’s been SO hard to decorate. The greenish/gray wall color made it difficult to even find accessories that I liked. And bedding? That took FOREVER.

This light gray/blue color is so pretty – there’s not a ton of color in this room but the dark blue pillows totally pop:

I could see a big print on the drapes too – that would be amazing in that space. (Like that room needs my advice.)

In a more neutral room you can do a darker accent wall too – or a really fun wallpaper you wouldn’t normally use on in a whole space:

And this photo (which is one of my all time favorite spaces by the way), is a great example of how a lighter space doesn’t always mean stark and bland – the accessories, art and furniture add plenty of texture and color:

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All that gorgeous, thick molding sure doesn’t hurt either. 

I still don’t think I could do white walls though, do you? Do you have them and love them? I had plenty of white walls in apartments over the years so I don’t think I’ll ever go that far in the light direction.

You’ve probably noticed I’ve gone lighter as time goes on, and I think that will just continue. What do you think? Of course color on the walls doesn’t always mean it will be dark and hard to decorate – I’m just speaking from my experience. Years ago I used a lot of very deep, saturated colors in our house and it was such a struggle to make changes in those rooms. It can be done – it just takes a lot more talent and patience than I have most days. ;)

Are you leaning light these days? Or do you still love your color on the walls and not on your shelves?

Powder room redo, complete!

Well, the time is here. After ten five three long years, the powder room is finally. done.

It is a GLORIOUS DAY people!! I’m seriously so excited to have this room complete, and I’m even more excited that I LOVE it so!

Let’s go back a little bit first, shall we? Pretty sure this room has been five colors now. I’ve never even shown you the before before, but here’s the before since I’ve been blogging: 

It was in my dramatic days. :) I had a love of all things chocolate brown.

I painted it years back but it was still a mess – holes in the walls, only one coat and the brown was popping through, and then I started the wall treatment forever ago and it sat like this for a while:

And then I got the planking done and things started to come together, but I think a lot of you thought I was losing it a little bit:

Did you see my vision? Or did you think I was losing my mind? Or creating a room that looks “a little bit like a barn” as my SWEET husband said?

Well, he finally sees what I had in my head…now. I admit it doesn’t always come together till the very end. Part of the reason this one took so long is I couldn’t decide on a final vision for it – I had a few ideas over the years but finally last year inspiration really hit, in the form of the Bub’s art:

The whole space was inspired by the beautiful colors in this art – at first I was going to paint the walls a bright red, (as you can see above), but I realized quickly that it was going to be too much.

Instead I went neutral but that’s allowed me to really have fun with color in this space:

By powder room standards this is a big one. Don’t I know it.

Painting all those wood planks made me want to poke my eyes out:

The end result was SO worth it though.

Would I do it again?

It may be too soon to ask. ;)

It’s hard to get good shots of this room with my normal lens so I used a wide angle and it made parts of the photos blurry, sorry about that. But I wanted you to be able to see it as I do (without my contacts in, obviously): 

The room also took a while because I decided last year to continue the wood floors into the room, but waited until it fit in the budget (it ended up costing $300) and the timing worked – we had to pull everything out of the room to have them done:

We went without a toilet for a couple weeks and without a sink for a couple months. A fully functioning bathroom is highly underrated. ;)

I adore the dark floors in there. They really warm up the room, especially against all that white trim. Gah. My favorite! I got that rug from Target about a year ago, maybe two? It’s been a while. I loved the colors in it, and when I realized how well the Bub’s artwork matched I knew my plan was meant to be!

It’s also hard to take pics of this room because there’s so little natural light. So bear with me on these! Here’s a good shot of all of the planking that went on in here:

Remember when I showed you the process and mentioned that I didn’t worry about the seams and lines of the wood planks matching up? Well, the board and batten trim I put over everything is the reason why:

The wood planking I used only came in eight foot lengths, so I knew I’d have to cut them down on that long wall. The b and b look was perfect for hiding all that not-so-good stuff! It’s SO not perfect people, it never is!

You can see a good shot of the wall treatment and the new trim around the doors here:

I’m SO glad I decided to rip out the trim and redo those doors!

Here’s the linen closet door with it’s craftsman trim:

It makes such a difference!! Luscious.

We used to have a pedestal sink in this bathroom:

And I loved the faucet but the sink was not my favorite. I did like it when we moved in because it was different than a regular vanity that I was used to. But eventually I missed having some storage.

So we went with the IKEA bathroom vanity instead – the only major purchase for this room (other than the floors):

The vanity and sink together came in under $300. I shopped all over the place and still found that to be the best deal for the size. I LOVE the sink – it’s so nice to have room for the soap dispenser!

I’ll blog about that whole piece more soon:

The lights are one of my favorite parts of the room – I found them at Home Depot and just thought they were so different. Kind of vintagey, I love them!:

They also match the new faucet perfectly – couldn’t have worked any better!

You can see in this old pic that we used to have one light fixture above the sink:

I always wanted to do two separate lights, I just love that look!

So that we did:

It brought the light down almost a foot and I just like the lighting better this way in here.

You can see in this area how I mixed blues and reds in the room – again pulling from the art and the rug. It’s a combo you wouldn’t think would work just talking about it, but I LOVE how fresh and pretty it is against the white! I think they work great together!

The blue is more of an aqua blue, but I also used a little true aqua in here too – in the knobs I told you about here and the vase on the vanity:

It’s really a candle holder but I think it works even better as a vase. ;)

The towel is that darker blue and the stuff near the toilet pulls in more of the red:

I meant to put those lights on a dimmer before I took pics, but it hasn’t happened yet. I’m not touching this room again for awhile! Girl needs a break.

You may recognize the boat oar from my last post. ;) It got a little redo and I stinkin’ love it:

So that area about the toilet is hard, don’t you think? I struggle with what to do there – a starburst mirror would be pretty but I already have one mirror on that wall, and do people really want a mirror there? Uh. No.

I almost hung shelves there to fill and decorate, but in the end I wanted it to be simple – I didn’t want a lot of stuff in there. The oar was a perfect fit and it totally makes me smile when I see it. :) (Although I may hang it higher since the toilet paper blocks some of it.)

I really, really adore how it all came together (and I better!!) – it’s so fresh and fun and I really couldn’t be happier. It was a TON of work, not gonna lie. Those planked walls…the installation really isn’t bad, it’s the painting. If I was smart I would have installed it all and then sprayed it before the floors were put in. But oh well…live and learn. I survived. :) 

Here’s a before and after shot – the dark brown we had for years and the light, bright and colorful version we have today:

The total cost was about $1000 for the whole room, which I didn’t think was too bad considering we have hardwoods in there and a new vanity, sink, mirror, faucet, light fixtures and new walls. Oh and that was spread out over a span of about a year, so that helped too.

That’s why I take forever to do all my spaces, don'tcha know? To spread out the costs. ;) (That kind of is true actually. That and I just take forever.)

Anyway, here’s a source list for many of the items and I’ll follow up with more detail on the sink and vanity!

Rug – Target a couple years ago
Frame – Goodwill
Oar – thrift sale
TP holder – HomeGoods last year (I painted it) I just saw some more last week!
Light fixtures – Home Depot
Vanity, sink – IKEA
Faucet – Lowe’s
Mirror – Home Depot
Wood for walls – Lowe’s (see here for how to)

Any other questions? Let me know and I’ll answer them! I did a little happy jig yesterday because this room is finished and I love how it turned out. Can you believe IT’S FINALLY DONE? Sorry for yelling but IT’S FINALLY DONE!!!

Holler.

The thrill of the thrifty hunt

Hey hey all! Hope you had a lovely weekend! I got a ton done on the powder room, just one more coat and then I get to start “fluffing” – finally! I’ll show you this week! I seriously cannot believe the room is finally in a (mostly) finished state.

This weekend a girlfriend and I went to a local barn sale and found a few goodies that I wanted to show you, and I realized I hadn’t shown you a few others I’ve gotten while thrifting over the past few months.

I love the “hunt” – I think it’s so much more fun to shop antique malls and consignment shops and second hand types of places! You never know what you’ll find and what you find is most likely something that’s unique to your home.

I got these big marquee letters a few months ago and still haven’t decided on where they’ll go:

I’m planning on putting them in two different spots, and I may try to light them! (There’s a hole in the back where I can slip in some lights.) How fun is that?

I found these beautiful coasters this weekend and couldn’t pass them up:

The bonus is we actually needed coasters. ;) So we’ll use them a lot. Aren’t they pretty?

I got this one a while back, I can’t remember where, but I love changing up the use for things. This vintage floral “frog” sits on my desk and holds pens and pencils:

Including my DIY flower pen that the Bub made me for Mother’s Day. ;)

My friend found a little succulent in a vintage container this weekend, and I was inspired by it’s cuteness! I grabbed a succulent at the nursery and stuck it in part of a vintage creamer set I found at Goodwill:

Adorable, eh? I love it!!

I found this old oar recently too, and I have an idea for a little redo:

It’s in rough shape, but I like it that way. ;)

I LOVED these old wood window screen/frame things I found this weekend:

I’m trying them out in a few places and will let you know where they end up. They’ll get a paint job eventually too. It’s so hard to find big art and these are awesome to fill a big space!

I found a cute hanging basket too – perfect for a few (of my meeellions) magazines:

I swear I looked it over so well and missed a broken part at the bottom, which doesn’t really bug me. Then I got it home and realized the whole top row was busted up. So I just cut out some of the slats that were still there to make it look like it was supposed to be like that. ;) 

So there’s a few of my favorite thrifting finds lately – do you love the hunt too? If you don’t know of any sales or shops near you, do a quick internet search -- you may be surprised at what’s nearby! Some of my favorite places are little spots that I found just by searching “antiques” on my iphone map!

I’ll be back with the bathroom reveal this week! Holla!!

Where in the world have we been map

So this is yet another tale of it-was-sitting-in-the-garage-for-three-months-before-I-did-it. There are a lot of those, if you haven’t noticed. It is how I do.

I’ve mentioned like 50 times that one of the things about our basement that I LOVE is the potential for the walls – there are a ton of them. There are not in the rest of the house (open concept, few walls without windows, I’m really not complaining, it’s a great problem to have).

But I do love having a space that has expanses of wide open walls ready to be decorated in the basement. There’s this one that you see when you get down the stairs:

Gloriously empty. And big.

Months ago on a trip to IKEA (I think I got this six months ago?), I picked up one of their huge wall maps. It wasn’t necessarily cheap, but for the size (more than six by four feet), it really wasn’t too bad.

I’ve known I wanted to put it that spot but wanted to change it up a bit. At first I was going to cut the map down into three equal sizes and then mount it somehow – just for something different.

But I knew I’d need something large to mount the maps to, and I didn’t feel like spending the extra cash on big sheets of particle board and all. So it stayed in the garage. (It also lived in the dining room/library and in the mud room for a while too – I like to change up the scenery you know.)

I also had an idea I wanted to implement on the map – I wanted to make it personal and interactive for us. My plan has always been to figure out a way to note where in the world we’ve been – a way to mark where we’ve each traveled. But I didn’t want to use pins that would ruin the map and I wanted it to be safe for little visitors. I mulled over the idea for months and on the flight home from Disney last week it hit me – I knew exactly what I was going to do!

So the other night I started putting the map together…finally. It was VERY easy:

I didn’t get the map as taut as I wanted, but it’s fine. It was easy to put together but not so easy I was willing to do it all over again. :)

I got it hung and you know my middle name is Can’t Leave Well Enough Alone, so I knew it needed a little something. I got some of the cheap, thin lattice boards at Lowe’s, stained them and then cut them down to make a huge frame around the map:

I started out by trying to glue the wood around the edge of the map, but it wasn’t secure enough so I ended up just using my nail gun and installing it that way. The metal frame is so thin and lightweight I knew the nail would go through easily.

It worked great! And I was so happy I added the dark frame – it was the perfect way to finish it off!

The final step was to take a hole punch and some random vinyl colors I had around and start punching:

As I mentioned, I wanted this to be something personal and fun for our family, so the little dots represent each of us (red – me, silver – hubs, yellow – Bub) and I started placing them on the map. I don’t know why it took me so long to think of vinyl instead of push pins, duh, but it worked!

Hubby has been to the coolest places by far:

  

Together we’ve been to some pretty amazing spots too:

 

And the kiddo isn’t doing too shabby in his U.S. travels, considering he’s only six:

That’s not even filled up yet -- I realized quickly that the dots are going to be too big. I am on the lookout for a smaller hole punch so I can keep adding to the U.S. map. :)

I love how the whole thing turned out – I stood back and realized the colors in it(blue, green and yellow with the touch of dark wood) are the exact colors I’m using throughout the basement.

Haaallooooo – perfect!

And I just love that there’s a little extra something that is significant to our family:

You don’t really see the dots until you get up close. I think it will be fun for the kiddo to show his friends where in the world he’s been. :)

If you’ve been around for awhile you know I’ve been using a lot wood tones down in the basement – I’m going for a comfy but ever so slightly industrial/funky vibe down there. I didn’t notice till I was taking pics how well the wood frame ties in with the wood planked wall on the stairs:

I meant to do that. ;)

I’m loving maps lately, obviously – I realized after it was all done that I have two hanging right next to each other down there. OH WELL. I’ll deal. Are you digging maps lately? I’ve seen them used in all kinds of new and fun ways over the past year or so. Love it!