my lavender bathroom - pictures!

I did it - I painted my bathroom last week. And though I said I would wait on pictures until I was finished, I love the result so much that I just couldn't help myself. It's a little weird to have done my northern-facing bathroom in sunset colors, but I do love the warmth it gives the room at night. Once afternoon rolls around, the whole room & hallway just glow. And then the lavender is really lovely in the icy morning sun - and helps bring out the green in my eyes. This color just makes me happy.

The shower curtain's packaging was made out of the same peach as the top row with ruffles of the the middle pink and lighter purple, which made picking out a paint color so easy. I was able to do it right in the middle of Home Depot - no coming home to check colors, second-guessing myself and putting off the whole project for another two years.

And see? The shade is perfect. If the curtain had another row of purple, it would be Behr's Sweet Petal.

The icy northern light IS beautiful, but it's only so-so for getting detail pictures with my point-and-shoot camera. But you get it, right?

I also painted all of the trim in Ralph Lauren Picket Fence, leftover from painting my living room. One day all of the trim and all of the doors in my house will be this shade of white. It's perfect. Crisp and clean but still with a bit of life to it. And can I just say how much I ADORE Ralph Lauren paint? It was a bit thick after sitting in my shed for two years, but still went on smoothly (after much mixing) and was so much easier to apply than drippy, thin Behr. Really wish Home Depot still carried it, but I'd drive an hour (or order online) to get some more Picket Fence.

I've never really taken pictures of my bathroom before so even though my cabinet set-up isn't new to me, it is new to you. It really makes me happy to use decorative items to hold my everyday supplies - and makes this open shelf a lot more attractive. Plus the stained glass pieces were presents, which makes them extra pretty in my eyes.

Obvs the mini galvanized bucket (found online for 99 cents!) holds my cotton swabs and then the Liberty for Target canister hold cotton balls and the votive holder captures hair elastics, barrettes and tweezers.

And what a fun coincidence that the canister matches my new walls! You know what else matches? Everything in my shower. Yup - my shampoo, conditioner, body wash, body puff, shave gel AND razor are all shades of pink and purple. I swear this was not planned - but I do wonder if I was unconsciously influenced?

I love the way my bathroom turned out. I don't even mind the wrinkles in the shower curtain - and anyway, they are slowly falling out with each shower. Overall, it is just a happy, fun and spirited room. Just what I needed.

a lavender bathroom?

If you follow me on Twitter, you'll know that I bought this shower curtain from Anthropologie on Friday. It's GORGEOUS. Bright and fun and makes me think of salsa costumes from Dancing With The Stars or So You Think You Can Dance. Love it.

And it's inspiring me to paint this room. I kept checking it out all weekend, trying for inspiration. The current white is a bit stark. Gray could be an elegant choice - and it certainly would be safe. But I'm not one for safe paint choices. And anyway, I kept coming back to lavender.

Lavender? Really, Debbie? Wouldn't it look like rainbow sherbet? Or a kid's bathroom? Possibly, but the heart wants what the heart wants. So yesterday I took the package for the curtain (made out of the same peach cotton as the top row with ruffles of the darker pink and lighter purple - so cute!) to Home Depot and bought a gallon of Behr in Sweet Petal. It's on the pink side of lavender and has just a touch of gray in it. I think it will be perfect.

Don't believe me? Check out these pictures I grabbed from Pinterest:

Think I'll want to update some of the accessories in this room once the lavender is actually on the walls so it may be a while before you see the finished product, but I'm pretty excited to get started!

The M Project: gray rooms

Gray rooms can be very pretty - almost dainty - with lots of white trim and furniture and crystal accets.  But they can also be warm and eclectic.  I have to say, I like the eclectic route a lot better.  This first picture is definitely my favorite.

Houzz.com

Decor Pad

Decor Pad

Decor Pad

 Elle Decor

Find more pictures at Decor Pad and Houzz.

The M Project

So last night, one of the women I play mah jongg with asked me for help with what color to paint her house.  She just moved in with her boyfriend and is eager to make the house their home.  They're so cute together, I just love it.

We talked about going with colors that look well on you (she's a beautiful Winter - dark hair and pale skin with just a hint of olive to it with big, welcoming features so jewel tones, like royal blue, jade green, magenta, purple would all be great), or with ones that don't but that make you ridiculously happy (for her, this could be something like orange).  We talked about why I hate accent walls and that I'm anti-wallpaper borders but pro-wallpaper.  I gave her the name of a few blogs to check out and told her to start collecting pictures of rooms she likes.

I haven't seen her house, but she said that it's a townhouse and the living room is pretty open to the rest of the house so if she were to paint all walls, she'd have to also paint the stairway and a hallway or two.  And that she's planning on moving in a year or two.  Both of which made me realize that a bold color would not be right.  But maybe something like a pretty gray?  Not too dark so she wouldn't necessarily have to repaint to get it ready to sell, but not so light that it's an afterthought.  And it would be a great neutral for jewel toned pillows and art.

So I decided to put together a bunch of images that get across what's going on in my head and am going to put them in a series of posts so they're easy to send.  And thus begins the M Project!

not gonna be a hypocrite

So I'm having issues with my powder room.

It's exactly the same as when I moved in.

Oh, sure.  That aqua towel is now watermelon-red.  I don't have a matching rug around the toilet (I find them weird and a little gross) and I got a pretty new soap dispenser that matches the white-and-chrome hardware.  But otherwise - exactly the same as in this picture from the MLS listing.

Kinda embarrassing.

Not in the your-slip-is-showing way, but still. 

My original plan was to paint it navy. Dark navy.  All four walls AND the ceiling.  These were my inspiration photos:

yes, this last one is pink, but it's a good example of color on the ceiling with white molding.  work with me, people

Kinda freaking awesome, right?

But take a look at my powder room again:

Can you imagine what a pain it would be to paint behind the washer/dryer?  And you can't see it from this picture, but the left side of the sink top butts right up to the wall yet the cabinet is about an inch away.  How the heck does one get into that tiny space?  And even if I do conquer that, I don't think this is my Forever Home, which means I would probably want to paint it a neutral color before selling.  And even if that doesn't happen for 5 years, well, I'm not exactly the Home Improvement Queen.  More the Minimal Work Goddess.

The wall over to the right (behind the door) is solid.  No weird appliances or sinks.  Just a toilet paper holder and a square heating element.  Very easy to paint and repaint.  So I had the horrible thought of an accent wall.  How easy would it be to throw some navy paint up there?  I would know it was there, even if the short-term visitor doesn't (ie, the one who doesn't have to visit the loo).  I'd get my dramatic color without the pain of painting around the fixtures.

But if you know me, you know I'm incredibly anti accent walls.  If you don't know me - hi, my name is Debbie and I'm incredibly anti accent walls.  In a few applications, they're awesome.  As a substitute headboard.  Behind the couch in my friend Beth's old apartment (done by her decorator brother).  Beth's apartment was the first time I voluntarily said that an accent wall worked.  So things like that.  But in the average house, the average application, I think it looks like you like color but are scared of having impact.  Of showing your personality in your house.  I'm incredibly anti that.  Even though I'm no longer in love with my turquoise walls and the main reason they're still there is because repainting all 6 wall portions would be a bitch, I'm still very happy that I had the guts to paint all of them.  It makes a statement and that statement is good. 

It also reflects me. I wore large, chunky jewelry before it was in style.  I wear prints on a regular basis.  As hostess to my sister's baby shower, I wore a giraffe print dress.  My laugh can be heard 3 counties away.  I am not a shrinking violet and I like for my house to reflect that.

But back to my powder room.  The wall I would accent would be hidden from initial view.  One would only see it when one is inside with the door closed.  And that makes for a pretty small accent.  I'm not about the hidden view.  I want the big, panoramic view.  So while it would be nice to take the easy way out, to do the accentless accent wall, I'm not going to do it. 

I do still want to make an impact and I still want it to be relatively easy.  And then I remembered Camilia, from High Heeled Foot in the Door, and her grasspaper clothed kitchen ceiling:

source

And one of my favorite wallpaper-inspiration pictures:

Made me realize that I could totally do that in my powder room.  It might make the ceiling look even lower than it is, but it's such a small space, who cares?  It's not like it being white makes it feel expansive.  It just feels like a small, white box.  I'd rather a small, colorful box.  And I bet my friend Shelly would be happy to help me.  And since it's such a small room, I don't have to worry about the expense.  Very do-able.

Then I'll get a rug for the floor.  Paint (silver leaf?) the mirror.  Hang my great-aunt's hand-lustered plates (they weren't that well done, but they're still pretty) and some other art.  Just cover the walls so one doesn't notice that they're still, as Dorothy Draper would say, dead-white.  I'll just make it work for me.

Sounds kinda cool, right?

too much personality

I definitely need to repaint my living room.  I was running errands with my sister this weekend and we saw some pretty ribbon that got me thinking about how I need to finish my lamp project.  Some ribbon trim on the lampshade would really perk it up and just a little more glue would help keep it upright.  But I didn't want to get ribbon until I had throw pillows that I actually like.  And that got me thinking - again - about how I have such a hard time picking colors to go with my living room and that it's because I don't like the color of my walls. 

But why?  I love turquoise.  I love this shade of turquoise.  I love that it's so bold.  In my head, this was exactly the way the color was supposed to turn out.  It goes with my paintings, it goes with my mood.  It's cozy and dark at night when I'm watching a movie.  It's lively and bright when I have a party.  But I still don't like it.  And I think I figured out why - it has too much personality.  It pulls the eye away from my art, from the antique quilt, from everything.  I keep wanting to pair it with lime green and while I think that would look great, it's not what I want.  It would make the room even more boisterous.  And then to have the high contrast of white furniture against the dark blue walls?  Just too much.

I want my walls to be background actors, not stars.  My guests, my art - those are the stars.  It's time to take the movie of my life back from its setting.

seafoam green

I painted my spare bedroom the other weekend.  I had a shade of green in my head, a little minty but softer, prettier.  Similar to the color of Aerin Lauder's dressing room, but a little greener and a little prettier since I wouldn't have the floral to balance it.  The name of this green was at the edge of my brain but I couldn't put it in words.

Well, Camila from High-Heeled Foot in the Door named it for me!  Seafoam green.  Yes!  That's it!  She just wrote a blog post about how it's now being considered the new neutral and I completely agree.

I really think your choices for accents are limitless.  Of course white - I adore this color with large doses of white, but navy, lavender, coral, black, brown, yellow, teal....  They're all gorgeous with seafoam. To avoid looking too beachy, I would add more dramatic colors and prints.  But then I think it would be so pretty and feminine but not overly sweet with loads and loads of gauzy white.

I leave for Bonnaroo tomorrow, but watch this space for updates on my seafoam spare room!

lamp project

I painted my living room lamp the other weekend.  My mom got this lamp at a yard sale when I was little - little enough that I don't remember not having this lamp in our house.  I was at her house last fall and it was just hanging out in the hallway, on its way to the basement to be stored.  So I asked if I could have it and she said sure.  It felt very 70's to me - an oatmeal colored urn-ish base with a burlap tall drum shade.  I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it - paint it white and swap the burlap shade for one in white so it would brighten up that corner even when not lit.  Originally, she didn't want me to paint it in case she wanted it back, but she eventually relented.  And I finally got around to painting it.  Three coats of glossy white spray paint later and I was done!

It even felt a little Jonathan Adler-esque due to the tone-on-tone design around the middle.

And I had bought a black and white floral drum shade from Target - part of their Liberty's line, natch.  I mean, look at how freaking pretty this is!

I put it all together (forgot to take a picture) - and - hated it.

The white of the shade turns cream when turned on and isn't designed to go with a harp while my lamp base is so it's not very sturdy.  And then the base is just too flat of a white.  It looks awkward.  And as much as I tried to talk myself into the black and white print and how I have lots of other black and white accents in the room, I knew that it just didn't go or fit my vision for this room.

So I went back to the burlap shade, thinking I would recover it in a pretty color.  But...hmmmm...now the white base doesn't seem as stark.  And I could always paint the end table in the same shade.  I've wanted to paint it for a while anyway...

Then I figured it out!  I don't need to fully recover the shade, I just need to add some ribbon trim.  Maybe Greek key in green and white?  A formal detail in a funky color, which is exactly my style.  Off to scour the earth for ribbon that blends these two pictures!

new thought for the spare room

I was watching America's Next Top Model last night and a closet? bedroom? hallway? had this gorgeous wallpaper - kind of a minty aqua with branches and flowers on it.  Reminded me of Aerin Lauder's closet, which I have coveted ever since first seeing it in Bazaar. 

I love the whole girlie-glam thing she has going on and also love the way her dress contrasts with the paper.  So I want to keep both of those ideas but modify it a bit so it better goes with the rest of my house.  Plus, I really doubt I could afford handpainted wallpaper from Gracie.  Not to mention I believe it's to-the-trade only. 

I really love Walnut Wallpaper's selection.  I think they'd also be out of my price range, but this one would be so fab.  I like the Asian-ness of the ginko and that it's more graphic than Aerin's Gracie.  Home Depot's website had some that might be promising, but nothing that I love as much as this one so I'm sticking with Walnut for this post.

Now, for furniture, I'll have my childhood bed.  It's an antique maple spindle bed, exactly like this one except twin-sized.

Side note: I find it completely crazy that I was able to google my bed just by typing in "antique maple spindle bed."  Then under images, this was in the third row.  I love the interwebs.   

Okay, back to my room.  So when you walk in, the bed will be on the far wall.  I'm contemplating papering just this wall.  I know, I know, I'm incredibly anti accent walls.  But I've never wallpapered before and I can see myself running out of patience trying to match seams and all.  This wall is just one big rectangle - no windows and only one outlet.  Should be pretty easy, right?  The other three walls I'll then paint the same color as the background.  Or maybe I'll just talk myself into papering the whole thing.  Because really, I'll cover the right wall with Expedit bookcases and it would be pretty darn cool to have the wallpaper showing through the grid.

Now, back to the bed.  For sheets, I'm picturing brown zebra print sheets.  These from K-Mart are only $18.  Love that.  And I've wanted zebra sheets for a while, just not on MY bed.

I'll keep the white cotton curtains on the windows that came with the house.  They seem homemade, but a quality job.  I like them and they'll go with the white shelves.  For blankets/duvet, maybe solid brown?  Maybe something completely different like yellow or magenta.  I'm totally backing myself into a corner here by going with the walls and the sheets first before the duvet - just like I did with my bedroom - but whatevs.  I'll plunge ahead, regret it later and then it'll all be fine in the end.

Plus, add a couple of throw pillows to all of this and I think it will be pretty darn cool in there.  A great spot for my guests as well as a funky, creative space for me.

turquoise living room!

My niece loves hanging out in my turquoise living room and so do I! It's a really welcoming shade of blue and the more I live with it, the more I love it. Please disregard the unpainted baseboards. I ran out of steam. And, of course, she gravitated towards the worst section. The rest isn't as horrible.

 

I primed the walls and put down plastic everywhere. It kept slipping on the couch, but I managed to keep it paint-free. I wasn't as lucky in my car - I have no idea how I ended up with blue paint on my car door.

My brother-in-law came over and helped with the roller parts, which was huge. He did two coats in the time it took me to cut-in two walls.

When it was all painted, I was first like - wow, that's a LOT of blue! Especially with everything still covered in plastic, it was a lot to take in.

But then I removed the plastic and put my new slipcover on my couch and that really helped things along.

Here I'm decorated for my Labor Day party - all red, white and blue. I've since swapped out all the red for blues and greens, which is also a lot prettier and more me.

updates of decorating ideas

Paint:

I cashed in my AmEx points for Home Depot gift cards and am going to splurge on Ralph Lauren paint. From what I've read, it's much better than Behr and it's a heck of a lot more convenient for me than Benjamin Moore.

Living room: Have decided to go with a more turquoise blue. Believe it is Blue Island.

Upstairs bathroom: Light Sky

Powder room: Harbor

Kitchen: Racer Pink

Woodwork: Picket Fence

Furnishings:
Bedroom: ordered a magenta coverlet from Crate and Barrel and it should arrive tomorrow. I still don't know what color to paint the walls, but I do know that I don't want to keep my current soft blue duvet. And I'm not so sure that a bold color is right for the walls. I'm leaning towards either a sunshiney cream or maybe a cameo-ish pink. Something soft and more like the morning light. And even if I don't like the coverlet, at least it will get me further down the road of figuring out what I DO like!

Living room: bought a mirror for $25 yesterday at Ross! Super excited about this. It's a bit oversized but not huge and a square-ish rectangle. Very simple black frame and a 1/2" bevel around the edge. Figure I'll put it up as is for now, but maybe will paint or silverleaf it in the future? And if I don't like it there, I'll just put it somewhere else. It's so simple and basic and cheap!

Dining room: think I've decided to go with the Martin chairs from Ikea. I'm going to head over there this weekend to try them out and, if I like them in person, to buy 4. My original plan was to buy unfinished chairs and either stain or paint them, but really - I'm never going to get around to that and in the meantime the chairs will get all beat up. I like that these are black - I think it will be a nice graphic element for the room and I really like that they stack. Because they really aren't my ideal chair, but they'll work for now. And then once I do get my ideal chair, I can stack these up in the attic and just pull them out when I need extra seating.
Fingers crossed that they're comfortable!

And I really want a new dining table. I have one from Ikea that I bought 11 years ago to use as more of a desk. It's unfinished and I need to stain or paint it, but it's fine. It seats 4 people but is a rectangle so there's room for my larger plates and serving dishes.

But what I reeeeally want is a dropleaf table. The middle section would be wide enough so I and one other person could have a simple meal with it closed, but the sides would come all the way down so it looked more like a sideboard. Then I could open up the sides and it would seat 6-8 people for a dinner party or to play a board game or whatever. I've found several on ebay that are going for between $600 - 1,000 so this is definitely something I need to save up for. And, of course, check out local shops and craigslist. But I'm excited to know it's out there!