Ok, so I hated the color of the living room before. It was supposed to be greige but it was definitely an army green to me, so it had to go. We also rearranged the furniture, and I installed new, better blinds.

Before

After (kind of)

New things:

1. The new windows are in! There were curtains, but that’s a long story, so I’m waiting to see what I do with window treatments. There will either be white curtains or wooden valances, depending on what happens to the trim around the windows (another long story).

2. The rug is new. Back when I did the initial reveal, someone pointed out that the rug was too dark for the room, and now ever since, that’s all I’ve seen. I scooped this baby up (I love high pile rugs) at Ross for $39.99.

3. The blinds are upgraded. I’m taking the crappy ones up to our bedroom.

Ok, I did promise I’d give details on this, and I wrote this blog like a week ago but forgot to hit publish. Sorry about that.

Hubbin’s dad made the doors for us; he’s phenomenal with woodworking, and we really could never have done anything like this without him. As for the other details, I initially bought a can of Moose Mousse in Valspar, which is the color of my office. I knew I liked the color and figured it would look nice, so I bought and painted it, and I was super pleased with it. That’s when this post was made.

And then I started looking for the perfect color blue for Hubbin’s sister’s dining room. While I was only looking for navy, I came across all these colors of blue that I loved, and fell in love with them. Then I started thinking about how boring white cabinets and khaki walls sounded. And the blue sounded way better. I looked for a while, though, because paint colors have undertones that you don’t even see until you compare it with another color you think is the same. I looked for the perfect color slate blue, but hadn’t actually decided on one until I went to the blue store to get paint stuff for the makeover. I looked around, pulled up Pinterest, grabbed a paint chip, and then the paint guy said he could mix paint from another maker. I had him mix two, and got samples…one of Battleship by Valspar, and the other, Storm Cloud by Sherwin Williams.

I have been in love with these boobies since the moment they first came into my life. They are perfect. They are captivating and charming, without being overly dramatic. They’re really all you could ever want in two boobies. Wanna see them?

We have an art gallery at work, and this artist showed her work. She is MY FAVORITE. It’s charming and funny. The swirls are random thoughts, and include phrases like “We’re just a couple of blue footed boobies fooling around. There was almost only one but I thought that a pair of nice boobies was better than one all by iteself. I think most people would agree. Anyway it’s sad to dance all alone.” and stuff like that.

I fell in love in a way that I never have with any piece of art ever in my life. I was instantly hooked, but it being $300 and me being broke, I did what any girl would do; pouted hoping my boss would buy it.

The pictures. I won’t lie and tell you that they were soooo much fun to do. They weren’t. They were a TOTAL pain the in ass because they were my first actual project, which meant I had to learn several things not known to the average person (or at least not to me).

For instance, that yeah…a 1X12? Isn’t a 1X12. It’s a 0.75X11.25. But I didn’t know that. *I* ASSumed that measurements were measurements, so when I grabbed a 1X12 and told them to cut it in sections of 12″ length, I didn’t HAVE perfect squares; I had obvious rectangles. I originally got the idea from this very popular pin on Pinterest. She calls for shelving board, which I either couldn’t find or something. I finally gave up and bought this exact piece and, since it measured 11 7/8″, I had it cut to 11 7/8″. FYI: Lowe’s will cut your wood for you. And while they say that they are “supposed to charge”, I was only charged once there, out of the several times I had them cut wood. I was never charged at Home Depot, even though they are also supposed to charge. And FYI, each individual store has their own pricing; with Home Depot, the one near work charged $0.50/cut, whereas the one near home charged $0.25. Neither actually charged me, but that’s what their pricing was. I also bought black matte spray paint.

Ok, so you may have read this post (if you didn’t, go do it. I’ll wait.). So one of my biggest annoyances when I find an idea that I love is the complete lack of details. I took me weeks to pick this color blue. It was incredibly frustrating, so I vowed when I started this that there would be absolutely no detail that wasn’t shared.

 The Storage

The bathroom has NO storage, so we needed to be really creative. One of my favorite parts of the room is the towel storage above the door. The two larger shelves are melamine board from Lowe’s. And if you weren’t already aware, they’ll cut wood for you for free, which is great if you are not particularly handy. The smaller one is also a melamine board and just happened to be the exact right length (score one for the good guys). Hubbin got the brackets from Home Depot on one of the fifty trips I sent him on when I decided to stupidly redo the living room and bathroom at the same time. (In my defense, 3 trips were because we bought the wrong size blinds because he can’t measure a window even though he worked at Pella the tape measure was “wrong”). I digress…