Office Redo

I think out of all of the rooms in my house, the office has been updated the most times.  It was the very first room that I painted, and I was never truly happy with the color.  I remember pouring it in the paint tray and thinking "I really hope that looks better when it's dry." 

And it did look a little bit better.  For a time.  But the longer I lived with it, and the more I got to figure out what colors I liked and my personal style, I realized that it wasn't working.  So I started trying to figure out what would work.

I've been wanting to do a dark colored ceiling for a while now, and I figured this would be the perfect time to do it.  Matt got to choose the bright orange of his band room, so I should be able to do a dark ceiling for my office.  But what color?

I bought samples of purple, green, and gray.  But in the end I decided on a gorgeous blue/green color. 

 

The color I ended up with on the walls is Rock Candy by Sherwin Williams.  The ceiling color is Martha Stewart's Plumage, which I had color matched to Sherwin Williams.

 

 

I installed a new semi-recessed light fixture on the ceiling.  I also added a new mirrored desk lamp, which I got at Target. 

 

I made the desk from several Ikea pieces.  I used 2x2 Expedit shelves for the sides, and a Linnmon table top.  I'm really happy with this, because I was looking for a large working space and a lot of storage, and this has everything I wanted.  My dad gave me the drawer inserts for Christmas, so I installed them for even more storage options.  The purple baskets are great for holding craft supplies, or will be good for school books when I start grad school this March. 

 

I still need to put in trim and closet doors.  I'll also probably change the window treatments, but for the moment I'm just enjoying the calming blue ceiling and massive workspace I now have. 

And really, the biggest test of a room is whether the dogs are comfortable, so I think we're good with that!



Painting the Shutters

Sometimes little changes can make all the difference in a house.  One little project that I've been meaning to do but kept putting off was painting the shutters.  I don't really know what the pervious owners were thinking when they painted our house.  The house exterior was the exact same yellow that the interior was, and the shutters were a light blue, which offered no contrast.  Well I finally got around to painting them, and I ended up choosing a dark gray. 

First, I'll give you a reminder of what the house looked like earlier this year:

 

 

I chose to paint the shutters "Evening Hush" by Behr.  Here's what the house looks like now:

A little bit different, right?  I'm so happy with how it turned out.  I love that you can actually tell we have shutters now, and I like that the front door still stands out. 

Look at how far we've come in 2.5 years:

We still need to paint the gutters and soffits, because for some reason they are painted blue as well, but for now I think the difference in the shutters makes a huge difference.  I also want to get a new storm door with more glass and a screen, so we can open it when it's nice out (like it has been lately!).

Band Room Update

One of our main considerations in house hunting was that there was a music room.  Matt has a lot of music gear (and I have a little) and we needed a place to store it and practice.  Like everything else downstairs, we kept putting things there and forgetting about them.  Soon it looked like this:

Why yes, that is my wedding dress!  And a bunch of boxes, and old doors, and other clutter.  So we cleaned it out and ripped out the trim and floors.

Better, right?  Matt and I wanted to go with a fun, bright wall color to energize the room.  We chose Maple Leaf by Behr.  Here's how it looked after I painted it.

 

Today I added trim.  I still need to fill the holes and touch up some places, but I think it's looking pretty good.  

  

I think the paint looks a little bright in these photos, and it looks darker in person.  Once the carpets get installed (hopefully in the next couple of weeks) it will be finished!  I can't wait!

Let there be color!

We finally have color in the house!  We finally got to the point of painting the house, and paint we did.  I spent the whole weekend painting, with a lot of help of course!   We got through the main spaces that we'll need to move furniture into, which is exactly how far I wanted to get!  Here are the photos, but I don't think my camera does some of the colors justice.

The bathroom is blue!

 The guest room is green!

 The office is brown!

 The living room is gray!  Also, that light fixture is new.  My dad was able to hook it up today, and I think it looks great!

 The stairs and hallway are gray!

And if you know me, you know I had to paint something purple.  Here's the dining room!

I can't wait until we're able to take up the drop cloths and see the floors with the new paint.  The house has completely transformed in the past few weeks.  Now all it needs are mouldings and we'll be ready to go!