Whiter and Brighter

It was time.

I did love the color, but it was dark, it’s winter, things needed to be brighter, we have 4 kids that kick off boots, throw down back packs, a dog that slobbers, hands that use the wall instead of the railing…you get the idea.

We painted the entry way.

Here is a photo I found of the before color:

Two more…not great, I took these at night when the kids were sleeping, this is the only safe time to paint at our house without *help*, but you get the idea.

Nice right??!! I do love this color, it took a few tries to get this right, it may even be a custom blend.

But here is what it looks like now:

It is so much brighter and cleaner feeling, I love the cool darker colors, but to be honest this space just needs a light bright color to make this space feel more inviting. We do not have a mudroom or separate entrance, that will be a must have in our next house, so this is where everyone enters our house, the door next to the mirror is the door to the garage, so we really use this landing space ALL. THE. TIME.

Vertical Wall Stripes

Posted by Patchwork Reality

We have been working on the revamp of Raiven’s room, my goal is to give her a room that fits now and will work for her until she leaves for college…..*sigh*. I always have ideas in my head and the reality of the real space is usually different than what was in my head.

Raiven has this bedding set by Isaac Mizrahi for Target

I bought it about 4 years ago and she still loves it, so this is the color pallet for most of the room; bright pink, white, yellow, and maybe some red.

First we have to cover these dark blue/gray walls that we my choice for the walls when it was an office but it is too dark for a room on the lowest floor even with daylight windows.

It took 3! yes 3 coats of our almost white color paint, we even bought the paint with the primer in it. Light versus dark, it is a hard battle, but like all good stories we won. I also enlisted the help of some of my favorite employees:

Jon than taped all the lines for our vertical stripes, he has the patient for this…me not so much.

Here was the vision: light silver metallic stripes that were not heavy maybe even just caught a glimmer in the sun. Reality: the paint dried super fast and was much darker than we thought. Instantly I called the stripes to a halt and had a glass of wine (after the kids were in bed) and thought about the stripes. It was not what I had pictured but we actually decided we really liked them. What we did was paint them on only one wall instead of the whole room, which was the original thought with the more understated stripes we had planned. Here is where we are:

In my best Violetn Femmes voice: ” Let me go onnnn like I glitter in the sun Let me go ooooonnnnn”

You can see some of the variations incolor in the stripes from our intial painting that I halted. This paint has to go on fast and even, it dries almost instantly, I really like the way it looks now. I think it looks more like real metal with some color variation.

Working list far Raiven’s room:

Picture collage above her bead
Repaint the vanity? Not sure if I want to tackle that or leave it wood.
Find a chair for her vanity
some sort of bookshelf or shelving system for books and nick nacks.
Her closet needs to be reworked, it is just builder grade 2 shelves with hanging, the space could be utilized so much better

Repainting/redecorating a room a month?

Posted by Patchwork Reality

We have been in our house for over 5 years, we built this house, I may have said this before, it is a huge process in life and with it comes pride…and lessons, some you learn in the process others you learn while living with all the decisions you made while building.

I specifically asked our builder when we got to the painting stage to PLEASE, puh-lease not paint our walls in a flat paint, this is builder code and I understand it hides any imperfections in the drywall, but seriously we were not going to return the house?!?! Anyway what did they paint the walls in? Flat paint. WE have 4 kids, 2 at the time, and a dog that weighs as much as I do. Are you getting a visual on how my walls might look, now imagine trying to wash those flat paint wall. NOT awesome!

Needless to say we are in the market for having an entire house repaint in a semi gloss or at least a sheen that handprints, splatters, slobber (dog…I think), food, milk,….you get the idea can be washed off and not leave a greasy looking mark behind.

So, I am hoping that we can accomplish one room per month, and since my mind is in creative-room-revamp-Pinterest overdrive I thought I might share some of the befores and afters, and also what the reality of said schedule may become with this crazy house:)

We decided to start with Raiven’s room, it was at one point a home office, and I had painted it a blue/gray color that I liked but, it is rather dark and not working so well for an almost 8 year old girl.

This was taken at night, but you can see the wall is dark, I am thinking about a nice light white color and having one wall with some metallic vertical stripes. I also want to get more photos up on her wall. She has an Isaac Mizrahi peony bed set with bright pinks so I am going to fit more pink into her room and pull come other colors out of the flowers to add color with the walls being more white

Candle holder repurpose…candy jars

Posted by Patchwork Reality

I combined two pinterest inspirations into this latest project. Please note I am not a perfectionist, there will more than likely be no magazine shoot for my projects, I just get excited when I see other people’s great ideas and have to do it myself, DIM, or at least give it my best shot.

Here are the two inspires…color and idea…in that order:

The wonderful yellow frame photoraph above I saw on pintrest and belongs to Kara May photography

The apothecary jars in that amazing green color I also found on pinterest and are the handiwork of Kayleen from This old Chair.

Yellow candle holders painted in a vibrant yellow and repurposed as candy holders, I held off on using a vessel with a top because in this house that would just not work, little hands need to be able to just reach in, I would probably find the lids under the couch.

I am so happy with the color and how they look, I am going to leave them out until after Thanksgiving and restock with fall candies.

I was so happy when I found all the pieces that I needed to make these all at SAvers, I spent a total of $16 dollars and some change on these, not including candy.

I laid these out, cleaned the stickers off them and laid a tarp underneath the metal stand, and painted them on a vitually wind free day.