Kitchen Progress - Paint & Photoshop

A little more progress has been made on the kitchen with a touch of paint and a dash of photoshop.

I painted most of the left and back walls in Martha Stewart's Aegean Blue. Let's not kid ourselves...it's baby blue. The kind you use in nurseries. But it's what I had on hand on a Sunday afternoon after all the stores had closed. The Martha Stewart sample paint pots went on sale for $1 (usually $5-6, I believe) at Home Depot last year and I went crazy, buying multiples of each color. I've already used 5 in the powder room (Araucana Teal) and just knew I could find a use for the others! I still have a few colors left which you might see in future projects...

I decided I can live with a baby blue wall once I added a little more elbow grease into the mix. I didn't want this color to overpower the small nook, so I left the bottom 40 inches white (same height as the kitchen countertop) in preparation for moulding. This will continue from the end of the kitchen counter to the corner of the back and right walls.

On the left side I did a little photoshopping. The black represents the magnetic chalkboard wall. The space was starting to look a little too dramatic and elegant for its small size so this "fun" wall will add a little contrast and lighten the mood. Plus, it'll be nice to have a wall sized notepad to practice my chalkboard skills, write a few pick-me-ups, and plan out our week.

FYI, the curtains are Target, the double curtain rods and blue paint are Martha Stewart. The kitchen table is Ikea. The chairs are Kitchen Stuff Plus. The chandelier is Rona. The magnetic paint and chalkboard paint (to be purchased) are by Rustoleum.

Living Room Progress - Part IV

It's been exactly 5 months since my last progress report on the living room and I'm ready to show you what we've done since. It's not much because we've been working on a few other areas of the house as well plus, life gets in the way sometimes. You know?

Here was my to-do list back after the last update:

Short Term: Art above bar, feature above sofa, planter for free
Long Term: Bigger TV, hardwood floors, built-in entertainment unit / bookcases

To recap, this is how the room looked before we moved in:

This is how it looks today:

Art above the bar and planter for the tree can be crossed off the short term list but I still haven't found a feature for above the white sofa. I had planned to try the large mirror we currently have standing in the kitchen but am too lazy to tackle the whole let's-try-hanging-a-gazillion-pounds-on-the-wall project. My other plan to paint a giant canvas has not come to fruition either. Again, that laziness. It got to me.

But...I can also now cross 1.5 items off the long term list which in my opinion trumps my one fail on the short term. You may notice that our TV has grown a bit. It's now a 42 1080P LCD up from a 32 720P LCD. And since we got an amazing deal on it, I don't feel so guilty for skipping ahead on the plans.

Same goes for the bookcases. I eventually want built-in bookcases for this wall but that can't happen until we install hardwood and that can't happen until we magically pull some cash out of....nowhere. So for the time being, I found these for a steal ($30 each!).

Just for fun and because it never gets old (at least for the person trying to show off) here's another photo of the room so far in a Before/After comparison:

I probably won't be working on this room for a while and turning my attention towards the master bedroom and sorely neglected kitchen and office room. But never fear, I do have some plans for this space once I'm back at it:

Short Term:feature above white sofa, pillows for brown sofa
Long Term: new matching sofas, built-in bookcases and perhaps fireplace?, crown moulding, hardwood floors

As you can see, I dreamed big with the long term plans because well, since it's going to really long term, I might as well dream big!

Previous living room posts: Potential Layout | Progress Report: Part I | Progress Report: Part II |