Living Room Shelving Project

I don't have any before pictures of the shelving unit so just imagine that it was totally boring until I gave it a makeover. :)

One more down

Here is Elias's room, it's in pickle (just pickle) and decisive yellow. He wanted a color that resembled a bar of gold and he just liked the green color. He thinks he hates hippies, the light on the wall is from Ikea it's called a Skuga. I don't know if they still sell it, but it has different panels, they all look like airplane signs. He spray painted the shelf on the right(sorry, ozone), along with part of the back porch. The moon lights up, it has a remote and you can set all the different phases.

Elias isn't much of a bedmaker either, I'm sure not climbing up there to make it.

We went to an arts festival a few years ago, and the artist who created the characters for Dragon Tales was there and drew Elias's favorite character and signed it.

Pretty in pink

This is Yo-yo's bedroom, and it is BRIGHT! It's a combination of flamingo pink, radiant lilac and holiday turquoise. I painted the dresser on the left a few years ago when I had white walls.

This is on her door, she likes to say her room is for "womans only".

Here's a detail from the desk on the right, I painted it a long time ago. It used to be my desk, it was my son's for a while. He put Garbage Pail Kid stickers all over it (knucklehead!) .

all three colors

ceiling fan "socks"

My mom bought this comforter on the top because she didn't like the one I had with orange plaid. She said it was too '60s. I guess if you actually lived through the sixties, you don't enjoy the decor.

More beige removal

The Inspiration.

I used paint from SW's Jazz Age collection. I didn't like a lot of the color combinations so I just picked two I liked. Alexandrite and Silver Gray. I changed the hardware on both of these dressers. The short white one used to be my son's with a yellow and orange stain job. It also had depictions of little men at battle, so it was definitely time for a makeover.

I'm not quite sure about the shape, but it's what I envisioned for the room (it's somewhat smaller than I imagined). It's 5'x5' point to point. I used textured metallic spray paint on the shelves and outlet covers.

The small cabinet on the wall and the bookshelf are where the idea got started. Military housing usually has white walls, so I used the Art Deco book to paint more interesting furniture. When we moved, I found the 1920's paint chips and decided to coordinate.



I replaced the light cover from country kitsch to a pseudo deco looking cover.

The Before.

Moving on (for now)

I've decided to forgo work on the kitchen temporarily. I still have a few stubborn screws and I feel like getting the rest of the rooms in some kind of order. Here's the master bedroom and yes it is nearly impossible to take a picture without Yoyo. I used Green Sure paint from Sherman Williams in Moody Blue. So I guess I'm doing something to help the enviornment. We also had the carpet replaced throughout the house.

This is a painting I've been working on, it's 30"x 40" so I sort of bit off more than I could chew. It's one of my many works in progress.



These are Korean Wedding Ducks that my husband brought home from, well, Korea.

I replaced the cheap white mini blinds with jute shades. I'm realizing I'm not so good at taking pictures.

The bookshelf I found in my shed, I just painted it white. The picture on the wall is a piece of vinyl tablecloth with loteria cards printed on it. The chair and pillow were my mom's and my husband built the mahogany and black cabinet on the right. My design faux pas, the "floating rug" (flying carpet?). According to all the design shows rugs are supposed to be anchored by furniture, but it, "really ties the room together" to quote The Dude. It's from Iraq and features my new sandals that I didn't pick up.

I'm not much of a bedmaker. Here's the After.

The Before

A work in progress

This is the other half of our kitchen. We had more wallpaper removal in here, as well as faux wood laminate that went halfway up the damn wall. I tried my best to make the walls smooth enough for paint but it didn't work out. I ended up buying textured, paintable wallpaper. My favorite part about the kitchen is the glass tile on the countertops. The pictures don't do them justice, but the tiles actually look like Jolly Ranchers. They are mostly in primary and secondary colors, with traditional "tattoo" picture tiles as well. I got them at http://www.modwalls.com/ I based my design on the design that's posted on their website. I added more colors though. Hopefully by the end of the month the cabinets will be New Ebony, and the hardware will match the fake metal backsplash.

We liked the kinda sorta retro style of our stove top, so we kept it.

The backsplash behind the sink.

A little close-up of one of the picture tiles.

The plastic panel kept falling on us so we replaced the fluorescent light with recessed lighting.

The After (so far).

The before, with the our realtor Trish, and my husband Andy

A break from our regularly scheduled program...

Sometimes I have time for Illustration Friday, and sometimes I don't. I hate to leave my blog empty for long periods of time, so this is another thing I'm working on. We bought a house last summer, and I've been doing some remodeling. This is our dining room, or half of our eat-in kitchen. Getting the wallpaper down was a nightmare. My husband had to scrape it all off by hand, and then put up new drywall while I was taking care of my Mom in California. I've since bought a Wagner power steamer, which I highly recomend. We painted it together, and I did the tree on my own.

After. Complete.


After. Our Family Tree, without the photos.

This is the before with the fabulous Miss Yo-Yo