Not Just One

My husband decided that our home needed another computer. He was tired of sharing with the kids so he bought them an inexpensive used one. I thought it was a great idea until I had to figure out where to put "our" computer. We already have a room in the house designated as "the computer room" where computer usage is easily monitored. The room also contains all of the game systems so it gets quite a bit of use, especially on the weekends. It was decided that the other computer would find a home in the master bedroom---not the ideal place, but again, a place where it's usage can be monitored. However, I didn't want the computer, sitting on a big ol' desk, to be the main focus of the room.
I showed you this petite vintage dressing table that I started working on a few months ago. It was a thrift store find. Unfortunately I deleted the "before" photo of it looking quite sad covered in pastel green and pink sponge paint. I stripped all the paint, gave it a good sanding, and painted it a creamy white. I replaced the hardware with these pretties. And now it sits quite proudly beneath the vintage tin shelves in the corner of the room.

The Cover Up

Did you see the window
in my downstairs bathroom?Yes. I know. It's hideously ugly.

One reason---it's the cheap aluminum clad, original to the house.
The second---it's a ground-level window that gets hit continually with sprinkler water.
For the past several years I've used shutters to cover it. They were a pretty solution to an ugly problem. But because we have neighbor children who find it amusing to peer into our ground-level windows, the shutters were always closed making the room very dark.

I've come up with a better cover up.
It involves MDF, PVC, and burlap.
Are you curious? I'll give you the how to's tomorrow.

Lemons or Lemonade

A few months ago our sons reported that "something strange" was happening to the wall behind their toilet. I sent hubby downstairs to investigate. He discovered what can only be described as "blisters" on the walls, and being the manly man that he is, he popped one and found that it was full of water. Blistered, sagging walls meant only one thing, we had a leaky pipe somewhere above or behind that wall. Fortunately we found the leak without having to tear out the entire bathroom. The leak was repaired and we treated the ceiling and walls with a mold blaster and then we waited and waited and waited. Would the repair hold? Would we find another leak? How were we going to repair the ceiling to match the existing texture? Would we have to tear the walls off down to the studs? Would we let our misfortune drag us down to the depths of depression or would we rise to the challenge and meet it with a truckload of creativity?We choose the latter.

We covered the hole in the ceiling with inexpensive tongue and groove paneling.The original plan was to cover the damaged walls with strips of plywood, but when we found subflooring for two dollars a sheet we went with plan B.Sure it resembles a sauna right now, but wait until you see it with a few coats of paint.

A Rocky Before

I came across a photo of what our fireplace looked like when we moved into our home. How's this for a "before" photo.Yes, we had our own rock climbing wall. Our boys loved climbing those rocks! However, they weren't too fond of having to pull the rocks off the wall and haul them into our yard when I decided to remodel the fireplace. But thanks to my hubby and sons hard work, we have an "after" to be proud of.Joy @ JOYSOFHOME

A Sneak Peek

Here's a sneak peek

at what's been keeping us busy.And this is how those
two dollar a sheet pieces are being used.

Corbel Love

I have already declared my love of corbels, so you won't be surprised to know that when I saw these cuties on the bottom shelf at the thrift store I had to restrain myself from running full speed to swoop them up.
Once home, I searched until I found the perfect place for them. Don't they look right at home nestled up in the corners of the ingress between our family room and kitchen?Joy

Pardon Me

I'm taking an extra day off to catch up. I hope you'll pardon me for posting an "oldy but goody" from a year ago.

What is it about learning something new?

It's both terrifying and exhilarating!

A few years ago I decided to take a stained glass class. I'd wanted to do it for about twenty years and the timing was finally right. We had tackled the job of remodeling our kitchen on our own, and I wanted one cabinet door to have a stained glass insert. The class was challenging but fun! Someday, when the time is right again, I plan to take another class.
The entire class had to make a small sun catcher as our first project. Much to the teacher's dismay I chose this door insert to be my second project. Luckily, it turned out beautiful, (thanks to a little help from the teacher).
Every time I walk into my kitchen and see my stained glass it makes me happy. It reminds me that

it's important to

continue to learn,

and that you really can teach an old dog new tricks!

What new thing have you learned lately?

Ad Inspiration

Almost every time I post a photo of my fireplace, I get comments about how much you like it. Did you know that it's not the original fireplace? I looked through a gazillion photos and can't seem to find a good "before" picture, but I can give you a good idea of the original fireplace.
This is a photo of what the front of our home looked like before I redesigned it. See that wall of rock? Now, imagine that exact same rock wall as a fireplace. What you may not be able to see is that some rocks jut out so far that my boys would literally rock climb the fireplace (as well as the front of the house). There was no mantle, and because of the strange rock formations we couldn't hang a picture. I managed to hang a huge wreath off one of the protruding rocks, but it wasn't centered in the middle. It also had an over-sized, rock covered hearth that stuck out an additional two-plus feet into the room. Just getting rid of it gave us a lot more usable space.
We tore that monstrosity down all by ourselves. Our three youngest sons did a lot of the work. It was our practice run for tearing down the rock on the front of the house. It was a HUGE, dusty job! We re-purposed all of the rock into a dry stream bed in our back yard. We hired a friend to put up sheet rock and then my husband and I built the mantle. We used this picture, that I had torn out of a magazine, as our inspiration. Do you do that? I can't throw a magazine away until I've gone through it and torn out anything and everything that interests me. Right now I have three stacks waiting to be sorted through and torn apart. Magazines are a wonderful idea source for making improvements in your home.

It's a Process

Back in December, I began the makeover of my daughter's old room into a guest room. Funny thing, she and her hubby are our only overnight guests, so in many ways, it's still her room. I forgot to take a "before" picture of the room until after the furniture had been moved. I did take a picture of the previous wall color. Yes. It was purple. It was my daughter's favorite color years ago. Yes. I am responsible for the decorative paint technique. Hey, at least it helped to camouflage all of the flaws on the walls from a lousy plaster finish (thanks to the previous owners).We built that peg shelf specifically for our daughter. As you can see it's up close to the ceiling and runs the length of two walls. It used to be lined with photos of a her and her dates at high school dances. The pegs below were used to hang and preserve the bouquets of flowers she received from many boys. She's an incredible young woman! Beautiful, spiritual, intelligent, positive, giving, and happy are only a few words to describe her. For several years now, when asked how she is, her reply is always, "I'm happy! Thank you." I am blessed to be her mother!
It was so fun to surprise her and her cute hubby with a nice room when they came to visit at Christmas. The room wasn't 100% finished but it was nice enough with it's freshly painted walls. It's still not finished. Usually, for me, giving a room a make over is a process. I think about it for a while. Then I try to gather a few things as I shop thrift stores. I start the job by painting the walls, and then the process begins to slow, as I try to figure out exactly how I want the finished room to look. This is where I drive my family crazy! In fact, one of my sons has a term for our home. He calls it "the house of unfinished dreams." I'm thinking of making the saying into a plaque to hang above the front door. But before I start that, maybe I'll try to finish a few other projects. One of my projects is to paint that green headboard a creamy white. Another is to do a technique on those flawed walls, then there's a table that needs a new top. Ahhhh! so many projects, so little time! Yep, it's a process to finish the house of unfinished dreams.

Opps! There It Is!

People pay me to help them decide on just the right color for their homes, so would it surprise you to know that I'm not one of those people who obsess over which is the perfect color to paint a room or piece of furniture. In fact, the only thing I do obsess over, when it comes to paint, are the "opps" paints. It drives my husband nuts that I cannot walk into a store that sells paint without checking out those discounted little beauties of mistints. Most stores sell a gallon of mistinted paint for five dollars. I've paid as little as one dollar and as much as ten dollars a gallon, depending on the brand. I almost always buy satin finishes because I like the warm shine of satin on the walls of my home. Occasionally I'll buy a semi-gloss because the finish gives furniture a nice shine and is easy to clean. I limit my color choices to neutrals, unless I have something specific in mind.
The wall in my dining room was a mistinted venetian plaster. I layered an opps glaze on top to give it warmth.My kitchen cabinets were also painted with oops paint. I wanted a cream color and I knew that applying a poly on top would change the color a bit, so I choose not to be so particular about the exact color of cream.The kitchen wall color wasn't a mistint, but it was discounted because the paint store had a contractor decide he didn't want all of the paint that he'd originally ordered. Don't be afraid to ask the paint store employees about extra paint that they may have from cancelled orders. Sometimes these are the same colors that are being used in model homes.My family room walls are painted with two gallons of red oops paint that I mixed together. The paint on the entertainment center is also a mistint.The door coffee table is a happy oops---one of those colors that I would not have chosen unless it was super cheap, but I'm thrilled with the finished product.Remember when you learned to mix paint colors in grade school? You can do that with oops paints too! Just last month, I painted our guest room. I mixed two different colors of mistints until I got just the shade I was looking for. It's a gorgeous gray with a hint of green. I love the color so much, I wish I would have painted my master bedroom walls this color.The nice thing about oops paint is that you can paint a room for under ten dollars and if you don't like it, you haven't spent much more than you would on a fast food meal. I do reccomend that you have a color range in mind before you choose a mistint, and be open to all possibilities. For instance, you may love the color of your oops painted walls, but feel that your accessories now look out of place. Before you repaint the walls, consider changing the color of the accessories in your room (AHH! The wonders of a little spray paint). That change might be all you need to love your newly painted walls. And with freshly painted accessories, you'll feel like you had an entire room make-over for under twenty dollars.

Intervention Interruption

We interrupt this intervention for an important announcement.

You are all cordially invited to attend a
Spray Outside the Black Box Party
to be held on Monday August 25th.

I'm going to try my hand at that Mr. Linky thing, (wish me luck) so get your projects ready! Just post your pictures on your blogs and then get ready to link to the rest of us addicts. And for those of you that have just begun your addiction to black spray paint, we'll allow you to show off your very best black painted project, because you know that we all have a secret stash of black spray paint just waiting to be used when this week is over---some of you may actually be using it right now. Caught ya!
Let's all give Cherry a big thank you for coming up with such a great party theme, "Thanks Cherry!"

Now, I hope you won't be disappointed that I'm not going to show you a spray paint project today. I thought it was time to relax a bit so I'm inviting you into my living room.

Not to long ago you stood here in my foyer.

This is my living room. It's long and narrow, measuring 22 feet by 14 feet.
Most rooms that size would be easy to decorate but this one is a bit tricky because three of the four walls have large openings or windows.
The foyer wall has a 7 foot opening (half the wall).The dining wall has an almost 12 foot opening
(more than half the wall). And the outside wall has 13 feet of huge windows,
plus a few more smaller windows.

This is my summer furniture arrangement. It's a bit unusual, but I like it.
My oldest son said that it's arranged like
we live on a sit-com set,
with the audience sitting outside the windows.
Don't you love family critics?

But this is why I have those big windows
as a design focal point. Look at the view.

This is the view up the street. Yes, those are mountains.

I don't even want window treatments.
I love the custom mouldings that my husband and I did.There's a rope light tucked up inside.
It gives off such a soft light.

I call this my fairy window.
I had to talk my contractor into putting it in.
I love the way the light bounces around in this room.It's my favorite room in the house.

Oh, and a special thank you to Debbie at
Ribbonwood Cottage for giving me this award:

Have a Seat in My Foyer

Look at my Pottery Barn chair. I snatched it up at a thrift store for three bucks a few months back. I had no clue where I'd put it, but who could pass up that price! When I got it home I noticed that one back leg had been broken, but it's been repaired well and is nice and solid.
Last week after I moved my table into the foyer, the chair that was there looked out of place. So I washed the cover of my PB chair, and sanded and painted the legs black. Now it has a prominent place in my home.While we're in my foyer, let me show you around. This area measures 8 feet by 11 feet. It's a great size, but there are doors and openings on every single wall, which makes it a bit of a challenge to decorate.This is the backside of my front door. When we moved here, there was a door and a separate long window. We replaced it with this door and side lights, which was a nightmare job for our poor carpenter. My hubby and I put up all the decorative molding. I really wanted to make a statement on this wall. We put lighting in the crown molding. It makes for a cozy light during the day, as well as at night.This little piece was on my doorstep one day. My neighbor was helping her daughter de-clutter and she thought I might like this. I do!
My hubby and I were given permission to remove this mail slot and elevator button from a very old hotel just before they demolished it years ago. Little kids always ask if my closet is an elevator. Wouldn't that be nice.
Well, that's it for today. But I'm thinking that my new chair needs a little something sitting right next to it, so I'm off to work on tomorrow's post.
Make it a good day!