Feeling Blue

A year later and I haven't made any progress on liking the master bedroom. I used to be on a yellow and grey kick, but while I was working to finish the fireplace room and my DIY Pottery Barn knockoff mirror, I had a new revelation. Dark blue walls in the master bedroom.

I put together this inspiration board with the thought that the room should be both pretty and functional (i.e. sleep-inducing!). Blue walls in the bedroom = relaxing! I had to work around a few constraints for my board. Specifically, I might be vampire. When I sleep, it has to be d.a.r.k. dark. So, the walls needed to be some kind of dark light-absorbing color and the white Ikea curtains I lined with blackout material should remain. Also, I'm not changing out the carpet. It's the same beige carpet that graces our floors on the entire second floor of our house (all of the bedrooms). And last, we own a bunch of matchy-matchy dark wood pieces similar to the nightstand you see below, including headboard, pair of nightstands, dresser, and chest of drawers. For the sake of not spending an arm and a leg, those stay safe - for now! I have an idea to "slipcover" my headboard to change it up a bit.

For paint color, I'd choose something like Benjamin Moore Hale Navy, Vermont Slate, or Bella Blue.

All in all, I was going for a put-together, natural, and collected look. My favorite parts of this inspiration board are the swiss army blankets, bench (which I intend to DIY), and rope (incorporated through a lamp or some kind of accessory). It just gives me that warm and cozy feeling -- this is the type of bedroom I want to wake up in!

New Bathroom!

Hallelujah! I've finally finished the FIRST room in the house! It is DONE!

Check out the upstairs bathroom before and afters.

BEFORE:
Beige walls, old Ikea shower curtain from college, not much else.

Here's another view:

I was obviously testing paint when I had the thought to take a before picture, so you're lucky!

I chose this color paint for the bathroom, a clean slate-blue-grey color... there's a lot more blue it in than this swatch lets on.

I couldn't decide if I wanted to keep it clean and "normal" looking, or add some fun color to it.
For Option A, "Normal," I would've chosen all white accessories, white flowers, white frames, white towels, etc.
For Option B - Fun, it was a tough choice between yellow and magenta/pink. From reading this earlier post, you obviously know that I am in love with yellows and greys together, but the magenta pop seemed like the natural thing to do.

But everybody appreciates a little personality, right?

Afters (sorry for the low light, there are no skylights or windows!):

Here's a close-up of the artwork, my favorite part. All it took was an image of a bird and branches, which I cut out on magenta cardstock. The grey zigzags were just created in Photoshop and printed out on white cardstock. I used one of my many many many brand spankin' new Ikea frames!

As a sidenote, I have an addiction that needs to be dealt with-- it's birds. I flippin' love birds. I can't help it.

Someday in the near future I'm going to become the bird lady, 'cause I've already started a collection. Don't believe me? This is only the beginning of a veeeery slippery slope:

It all began with this guy, a patio accessory from Lowe's a couple summers ago.

This chick's not alone, either. He has a red buddy named "Roundy."

...My two round birds were so silly, I even have a birdhouse mantle decoration to go with them. [cah-ray-zee!]

Then I graduated to the hard stuff, the glass bird paperweight from Pier 1. It was tempting not to buy the glass octopus they had too, but that would've just launched me into more seascape madness.

And obviously, the latest paper addition, bathroom birdies.

So those are my bird buddies. I'm expecting it'll only get worse from here - but admitting it is the first step to recovery...?!?!

ps- My friend Mandy just shared this website with me: www.putabirdonit.com. Put a bird on it, and call it art. Hilarious but true!

Psst --  3/5/2013 -- Bathroom update! If you liked the bird art, check out the latest bathroom artwork update. I shared it as a free printable! 

Color Envy

I started painting the green bedroom walls grey a few weeks ago and decided to abort mission after I realized how much I hate painting, especially a room that size. They're staying green! It was fun to imagine them as a dark grey while it lasted... someday I'll get the guts to paint the whole room. Someday (not today)! Yeah, I still have something up my sleeve, so it's not a lost cause. Think green and bright whites. More on this later.

As we sat awake at 1am with power flickering in and out during last week's tornado watch, I decided that the bathrooms deserve an overhaul. No more beige walls! So, this afternoon I went on an epic journey to find  things to make over both bathrooms, which were inspired by these two rooms below. After drooling over both of these for months, it's finally time to do something about it!

Exhibit A (via DecorPad):
I. Am. In. Love. With. This. Room.
The pink and pear-green accessories add a fun element to this entryway without being obnoxiously pink (I really don't like rooms looking super girly... I'm not the only one who lives in this house!) And the paper boxes! Who doesn't love storage?

And Exhibit B (via House Tweaking)
Yep, still digging the grey-yellow look. I have to have a grey room! ...In the upstairs full guest bathroom.

Progress!

I have been doing PLENTY with the house. With my typical OCD, projects-half-finished attitude towards nearly everything house-related, I have a lot on the burner (including half-finished posts!).

Meanwhile, things are blooming in Bloomington!

Outside, things are looking ok (besides our house getting shot up by a bunch of paintball gun-toting kids), so I've been making some inside changes. Like paint!

If you're ever in the market for low/zero-VOC paint, I've done a hefty amount of research in the past few weeks. In a nutshell, VOCs are volatile organic compounds that are ultimately carcinogens, i.e., toxic, cancer-causing agents. Prolonged exposure to any of these can be dangerous, even in paint form. I read that it takes a rating in the hundreds of ppm to register as toxic or hazardous to your health. By now, I've used this stuff myself; the noticeable bonus feature of low/zero-VOC paint is that it doesn't smell as long or as strong. I really didn't notice any paint smell in the evening when I'd painted the room during the day and left a window open for ventilation. Price-wise, a quart of the Valspar low-VOC was $13. At Lowe's, I found:

• Olympic has zero VOC. Zero parts per million.
• Valspar, sold at Lowe's, has what's called low VOC. Their paint tested at 4 ppm.

But enough of the IH lesson! On to fun stuff...
Here's a hint/shade of what's going on upstairs. The swatch doesn't do it much justice, since I'd describe it as a slate/blue color. This one just comes off as grey, but you get the idea. [I'm slightly embarrassed that I was that person, standing in front of two identical-looking paint samples and laboring over which to choose.]

For my downstairs mystery room, "soft rabbit brown." The name just kills me.

At least one of these rooms should be finished with photos by tomorrow!