Beige No More Part I

4/21/10

*Sorry--another long post!

My house is beige. Outside and inside, the walls, the tile, the carpet, all BEIGEBEIGEBEIGE. Sooo boring. Whoever built this house must have wanted to play it safe. So my goal ever since we moved has been to get some color into this place. Finally--I have something to show. We painted the kids rooms** a while ago but the finishing touches weren't done until now. (Actually, I still want to put in ceiling fans and crown molding, but Mark says that'll have to wait.)

**I didn't want to act like my kids don't have a ton of stuff and hide it for the pictures. This is really how their rooms look. Except that the colors are hard to get accurate because of lighting issues.

Madelyn's room before

...and after!

Bed was primed and then spray painted with Rust-Oleum's Painter's Touch Ultra Cover 2X in Gloss Ivory. Blue wall is satin Behr in Ice Folly (510E-1). We got all our paint at Home Depot.

Night stand was spray painted with Rust-Oleum’s Painter’s Touch Ultra Cover 2x in Gloss Berry Pink. I need to give a plug for this particular kind of spray paint. It really does give you "2x" the coverage so the paint ends up ON the furniture instead of wafting away in the wind. And... Behr is the way to go for interior paint--it's the top rated brand by Consumer Reports and we never bother getting anything else. Trust me-- you don't want to have to do five coats with el cheapo paint!

Table before... (which I found at Bed, Bath and Beyond on clearance for $15-20 or so three years ago. Madelyn has given it quite the beating.)

...and after! Table and chairs needed a THICK coat of primer and many, many coats of Krylon Gloss White spray paint. Pink wall is satin Behr in Southern Beauty (140C-1) and white wall is satin Behr in Silk Pillow (PWN-15). The decals I found at Robert's when everything in the store was 50% off, so I got this set of two for $20 when they were normally $40.

This was a $50 collage frame I picked up at my Hobby Lobby in ABQ for $5 on clearance (Woo!) and have been hauling it around ever since. I finally put some pics in there from my Easter photo shoot and put it in Madelyn's room. It's kind of scratched up, but I don't think she'll notice. Luke is always so excited to see pictures of himself and his sister.

I got her polka dot curtains at Wal-Mart for $20. I originally also had a dark pink chiffon curtain in the middle, but when the light shone through the window, it bathed the whole room in an eerie, reddish light. So I decided it looked better without it.

Now for Luke's room:

Before...

...and after!

All we did to his room was paint with satin Behr in Frozen Pond (UL220-15) and put up some white curtains, but it looks pretty nice, no? Mark and I both like the color because the gray-blue reminds me of Luke's eyes and Mark says it reminds him of a stormy Atlantic from his surfing days. We still have a half gallon left that we could do something with...

A big THANK YOU to my friend Brooke and her fabulous decorating blog All Things Thrifty. She's the one who clued me in on how to spray paint furniture (which I did mostly to hold me over until my New Furniture Dreams come true). She is seriously so talented. She posts new projects, tutorials and ideas almost every day. Check it out!

We have a lot more big projects coming up.

We got our laminate flooring today! Hopefully Mark will be able to knock out the tile and get this installed this weekend. Then we have the backyard landscaping project:

Madelyn woke up this morning and said, "Oh, good! Mud to play in!" (...which she went slopping around in, got stuck, and fell over.) Our goal is some grass, some gravel, a shed, and maybe a bigger patio. Mark already built this nifty gate all by himself:

What a beaut, huh? (There's a weird sun flare on the picture.) He's going to build one for his parents, too. He sure is a handy guy to have around.

I also have plans to spruce up the master bedroom and bathroom and our entryway. And does anyone have ideas on which walls I could paint in my great room? There's no separation between the entryway, the living room, the dining area, and the kitchen. I am perplexed. I want a few walls to have a different color, but I don't know which ones. Please help!