Door Knobs

Our projects have really slowed up this fall. I have some plans for what I want to do with the dining room. It's just going to take some time and money. So in our attempts to save money for the bigger projects, we've been working on small, cheap projects, one of which are our door knobs. 

Our door knobs were this ugly yellow gold color full of marks made by what we can only assume was a dog who loved chewing on anything. They were scratched up in places and just plain boring.

With six dollars and a trip to Lowes, we purchased a can of brushed bronze spray paint.

And voila, we have door knobs that perfectly match the color theme we have going with most of our furniture. 

Giving the Bedroom Some Love

It's been a slow-going process, but the bedroom is taking shape. We've painted the walls, bought some actual furniture, and hung some curtains. While it's still a ways away from being complete, it definitely is better than it was, and it feels comfy (and that's what counts). 

We took an experimental approach to the paint by going with two primary colors in addition to the trim. While strolling through Lowes's paint department, I happened on a brochure that was combining two colors in one room. The green and brown example instantly struck a chord with me, and so that's what we ran with.

We're still deciding on what to do with the headboard. It's good quality, but the light oak color clashes with the darker wood we selected for our end tables. We're thinking about either going with an upholstered or rod-iron headboard. Since we added the curtains, I think we're leaning toward a rod-iron look which could blend nicely with the night stands.

We purchased the night stands from World Market. We searched high and low for a set of two, going all over Des Moines to almost every major furniture store in the area. The ones we liked at the various stores were either way out of our price-range or were über cheap looking. The ones at World Market were in our price range and they looked great.

We bought a set of dressers from World Market as well. Once again, they were on the cheaper side but felt like they were well made and built with good quality materials. They also came from the same set as the night stands. They definitely dress the room up, and they're ten times better than the temporary Pamida dresser we've been using for the last eight years. The dressers make me feel like an adult, oddly enough.

So this is our work in progress. We need to make a decision on our headboard, and I want to figure out what to do about the carpet and other wall decorations. It's coming along.

An Experiment without Frames

Many of the design blogs I follow have some clever, artistic ways of displaying art, photography, and miscellany. I've found some really good ideas, but both Steph and I aren't always that daring when it comes to displaying our art. So I've decided to use our bedroom as a place for experimenting with alternative ways of designing our living space. If it's an epic fail, no big deal; we can always change it. Moreover, it's the bedroom, so guests hardly ever come in there anyway.

Here's our first foray into experimenting with our living space, which really isn't that experimental at all (baby steps).

This gives an idea of what I'm going for. I love using the binder clips to display art, and the wall finally doesn't look like a Spartan cell. We've been really busy with the bedroom, and I'll be sure to put up some pictures that show the new, experimental color we decided on for the walls and our new dresser and end tables, among other ideas for where we think we should go. 

And We're Back...

So after a month hiatus, I'm finally back to posting things on our house. We've done some small projects, but I've fallen behind on talking about them here. My fall goal is to continue posting things both big and small.

Over the week, Steph and I bought some really cheap picture frames from Hobby Lobby, which I thought would look perfect in the corner of our living room. It's a slow-going process, but the living room is really coming together, from the surprise wall color I chose to the third-time's-a-charm curtain selection.

Here's the before and after for the corner of the room. The lone clock no longer feels like it is on a sea of wall.

Before:

After:

Steph and I were both amazed at how adding five picture frames totally cozied up the corner. The next step is finding a way to add a new end table and getting rid of the four cubes that are just there. 

Seaport Paint

Steph and I have been busy with a number of small projects this week, everything from the office that will forever be in a constant state of fixing to attempting to reupholster a couple of chairs we found on the side of the street (Yes, I know. We've become those people). I'll be sure to document our attempts at the chair.  On Wednesday, I had the afternoon off, and I was given the go-ahead to buy some more paint. This time for the bathroom and our bedroom. We're thinking of trying something experimental with the bedroom, and we'll need to complete some tests before we're ready to actually paint the room. The bathroom, on the other hand, was ready to go. Just an FYI, here's what it looked like when we bought the house.

I've actually been really happy with the quality and shape of the bathroom. The shower, sink, and toilet (after I installed a new valve for the flusher) all work really well, and there is plenty of storage in the cabinet underneath the sink. The color just was really bland and didn't help to make the room stand out on its own.

We get some really good light in the room, and even though it's a smaller room we wanted to go with a darker color to make it have its own personality from the hallway, We also thought the beige-ish tile and white trim would complement a darker color nicely. After some time spent in the paint section of Lowes, we ended up purchasing a Valspar, Allen Roth color called Seaport. Here's what the room looks like now. 

There is a slight greenish hue, which works perfectly with our towels, and blue hue work well with the white trim. We also for the first time in our married lives have put up "art" in our bathroom: San Francisco ocean waves and Paris. 

One Glass of Wine, a Pouncing Cat, and Some Picture Frames

After following a really great idea from this blog, I put up our picture frames in the hallway. Overall, I'm really pleased with layout of the frames (it looks much more balanced than it did before). Instead of me reinventing the wheel and explaining how I did everything, I'll leave it to Roost to explain how I set up our frames. 

Hostas Hostas Everywhere

I'm slowly chipping away at the stuff that needs to be done outside. I removed the dog kennel poles last weekend and my basil garden has taken off, but I haven't spent that much time with the yard. I hate wasting water on the lawn, so our grass is patchy and brown; I don't really care about having a well-manicured, green grass. To avoid my apathy toward grass in general, my goal is to have as many plants tastefully filling the yard as possible. Of course, this will take some time and effort, but I much rather have perennials that are easy to maintain, while helping to increase our house's curb appeal.

That being said, I've started working on the terrace in the backyard. I plan to move my way forward to the dog kennel, with a sidewalk (maybe) by the end of the fall. As you can see, the back terrace has some real potential; I'm just having trouble envisioning what I really want back there.

The area is well-shaded, so plants requiring a lot of sun are out. My mom recommended using hostas. According to her, they're shade loving and almost impossible to kill (two bonuses). She also gave me two of her hosta plats as a house warming gift. On top of that, our flower bed along the front of the house has some hostas that were extraordinarily out of control, for not having anything done to them. I was quite happy because they're expensive little plants. After digging out three from the frontyard and planting my mom's, here's what the second terrace looks like now with the hostas.

There are still more weeds and over growth than intentional planting. I still have a long way to go, but it's a start. The previous owners had left three bags of radiant black mulch as well. It works pretty well, and I will probably go to a gardening store to buy some more bags, giving the second level a much more even look. 

Because the plants were sitting in a bucket of water for over week, they're looking pretty rough, but I expect them to do all right for the rest of the summer. In the mean time, I have a coworker who has offered some of her hostas, so I plan to have the entire second terrace filled with the plants. The next step will be tearing out all of the weeds and dead bushes on the main terrace. It should prove a challenge, I'm sure.