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.

Return of the Curtains + New Pillows

Steph and I had the opportunity to go back to Atlantic for the Atlanticfest Road Race, a five mile run that cuts through our hometown. This is one of the races that I've participated in for the past four years since I started running. On a side note, I got fourth in my age group (not too bad!). 

Anyway, after visiting the family for a little bit, we made our way to the Walmart in Atlantic. While we're both adamantly opposed to going to most Walmarts, Atlantic's is always less crowded and not nearly as scurvy as some of the other ones we've been to. Our goal was to find some new curtains. The eggshell blue curtains just didn't work in our living room since I painted, and we've been needing some that more closely match the walls. We looked online, but the prices were way more than we were willing to spend, I thought it was too risky to look at curtains based off of internet photographs. Walmart seemed like a decent option.

We totally lucked out as well. There were several options to choose from, and we could spend fifteen dollars for two panels rather than ten, twenty, or, in some cases, thirty+ dollars for just one. We finally decided on a color called bennett (don't ask me what sort of name that is), and the result looks like this:

Instantly, our walls don't look as blue as they had with the eggshell curtains. I also really like that the the curtains have a semi-sheer look that lets in some light, while blocking out the interior of the house when someone looks in from the street.  We may end up going with a darker brown rather than this tan color, but we definitely like the neutrality of the look. 

The older pillows we've had for a couple of years didn't work. A combination of five different colors, including purple, the old pillows really clashed with every other accessory we owned in the room. While shopping for the curtains, we found these pillows as well.

This blue color in the pillows definitely helps tie the room together, and it matches the blueish hue we get from the walls, which oddly enough, seems to help bring out the grey in those very same walls. It's amazing how quickly accessories and curtains can help to bring a room together.

The Wild Hair

Steph went to Kansas City this weekend to work at her office for the day, so I had the entire weekend to myself. I had planned to go into a vegetative coma, but I got a wild hair to paint the living room (much to Steph's chagrin). This was somewhat of a daring move on my part. I chose the color without Steph's approval, and in hindsight, that wasn't the wisest thing Ive ever done.. So on Saturday afternoon, I went over to Lowes and picked up three gallons of "autumn fog," a color I instantly liked  as soon as I saw it. 

So the living room, in the course of 24 hours, went from this: 

to this:

It's definitely more blue than the color swatch led me to believe. That being said, after sitting in the room with Sir Pouncelot, a glass of wine, and just letting my mind go, the color has really grown on me. It matches more closely what I had in mind when we bought the curtains. But now I think some patterned curtains that have either a brushed bronze or brown look would work better in the room. I'll have some new posts up later this week to show what we did with a new TV we purchased and our decision to do away with the entertainment center.

Always a work in progress.

An Experiment on Curtains and Curtains

The office is close to being done. I just need to touch up some areas. The next big step is going to be decorating the room into something that works for Steph as her office, and helps to seperate her work space with her living space. This won't happen over night, but we're talking things over for what she wants. To start things off with decorating, however, we've had some yellow curtains that we used in our old apartment that we put up temporarily in the living room. Over the weekend we went to target and made, what is for us, a rather bold choice in new curtains: eggshell blue.

Aside from a messy living room, I do't know what to make of these. The color, at first, is kind of off putting, but I think mixing them with the right paint color and decorations could really be fun. Here is what Steph found for inspiration. Like I said, I'm still of the fence about these curtains; I'm hoping they'll grow on me, and I'll find a color scheme that will work in my mind's eye.