Operation Home

So, the other day I realized that I’ve been a bad blogger. We’ve lived in the house for almost 2 months and I haven’t shown you many of the rooms as they currently stand. Now, I’ll tell ya… We have a TON of work to do still. But, really in the time we’ve lived here we’ve done a lot. New windows were installed in the bedrooms last week, new insulation and radiant barrier before that, new flooring in much of the house prior to move-in, etc. So, now that some of the Need-To-Do things are checked off, we’re finally reaching that sweet-spot where we can start focusing on style and decor. I’m going to break up the tour into a few posts to keep it from being too overwhelming. This time around I’m going to show you the kitchen/breakfast nook, the foyer and the secondary bedrooms that you haven’t seen yet.

So, here’s where we started with the kitchen…

And here’s we’re at now….

All we’ve really done here is accessorize. Obviously, this room needs plenty of work down the line. The appliances are old, mis-matched, and builder-grade. Our black fridge sticks out like a sore thumb. Plus, the stove works only part of the time. We literally have to jam the burners in and smack ’em around to get them to heat up. These will be replaced eventually, but we’re trying to make them last as long as possible to allow us to really consider what we want to replace them with. Oh yeah, then there’s the rest of the full-reno. 😉

On the other side of the room, we have our breakfast nook, which started here…

And now is here…

The large red painting was created by my mother in law, Mac. You’ll see several of her pieces throughout the tour. The table is off center to allow better flow of traffic (although looking at this pic, I can definitely move it a bit closer to center. Noted.). The lighting fixture is off center in the opposite direction, which drives me batty. Plus, it’s way too close to the french doors to allow a table to sit directly under it, so we plan to relocate the lighting fixture over the table (I’m lobbying for a chandelier. Joey remains unconvinced.). Speaking of the table, I really think the space is screaming for a round pedestal table to allow for better flow. I’m keeping an eye out for potential candidates.

Over in this little area by the French door….

We have a charming Ride print that Joey purchased a long time ago. I framed it with a $4 poster frame from Target. Below that we have my chicken-wire Ikea hacked cabinet with the painted baskets that I adorned for our previous mudroom. The baskets hold sunscreen, bug spray, and other outdoor must-haves so we can just grab-and-go when swimming.

A little view from beyond the breakfast nook (You can catch a glimpse of the dining room… I’ll have another post for that)….

And don’t even get me started on that fluorescent light. It will be so very gone. One day.

Moving onto the foyer, we started with this…

Which now looks like this…

I’m not convinced that that art will stay which is why I haven’t hung it yet. I’m still marinating on that.

The other direction…

I’ve simply added a vase with sticks and another awesome painting by Mac (that hallway leads to the kitchen)…

Here’s the view of the painting from further down the hallway… \

I’m still at a loss for what to do with the wall that’s directly across from the front door (this pic is from before we moved in)…

It’ll come to me eventually, I’m sure.

The next two rooms I have done absolutely NOTHING to decor-wise. They both currently boast the same scuffed-up, flesh-colored paint that’s just BEGGING for a change and ZERO style. But, in the interest of keepin’ it real, I’m showing you guys anyways. I figure, every room has to start somewhere. Both spaces have had carpets replaced and new windows installed. So, they’ve got that going for them. Which is nice.

The first bedroom looked like this…

And currently looks like this (brace yourself)…

Pretty bad, right? This is the room where the pipe burst. You can see the sheetrock work that was done behind the bed. This room holds a haphazard bed, my beloved desk chair and every wall art piece that I own that has yet to find a home (they’re all unceremoniously leaning against the wall next to the door). It’s kind of a glorified storage room/office right now. I have a bunch of work to do here. Like, a lot. I’m still deciding how I wanna proceed in this space.

The other bedroom started off here…

And now looks like this….

Again, blank slate. A flesh-toned blank slate that mocks me every time I walk past. This room is going to be painted a similar tone as the rest of the house. A nice, light grey. Since we plan to make this a secondary entertainment space I thought it’d be nice to extend that common-area color into this room as well. Then, curtains, art, TV will be hung, etc. Again, I’ve got my work cut out for me here. Lots to do.

Ill show y’all the hall bath and mudroom soon. And once I repaint the master bath AGAIN (finally), I’ll update you on that as well. Oh yeah, and the dining space has had some changes… and Lucas’s room. OMG. You guys. I’m so behind. I’ll get you up to speed soon. 🙂

You guys. This is totally happening right now…

After a week or so of freezing our petoochies off to the tune of freezing weather, our paper-thin windows are getting replaced!!! I read somewhere (where was that??!) the description of 1970s windows as follows “If you lean your head close enough to the window pane you can feel your hair blowing in the breeze”. Very true. True statement right there folks. So, we are more than thrilled to be crossing this task off of our to-do list. Anyways, while that’s getting done, I thought I’d tell you about our new DIY artwork.

Remember when I painted our master bedroom? I mentioned that I wanted to change up the feeling of the room with different modern/quirky art?? Well, I found one that suits us to a T. Ya see, I was just minding my own business, checking out Pinterest, when I came across this pin….

Now, I’m not much of a wordy decor person (Wait. Rephrase… I’m wordy. I just don’t often gravitate towards word ART. Boom! Nailed it.), but this quote resonated with me. I’m 75% Italian. My grandparents on my dad’s side immigrated from Italy when my Aunt was a baby, so I grew up listening to them speak Italian and hearing stories about the small village where they hailed from. When I graduated from high school, my Aunt Sera took me to Italy and it was everything (plus more) that I hoped it would be. It was stunningly beautiful, as were the people. Not.Kidding. Seriously, we were amazed that there were no ugly Italians to be found. The less attractive folks all seemed to be tourists. Heehee! Anyhoo, the beauty of the country was rivaled only by the incredible food. Good gravy. I would move there for the food alone. I still dream about the potato and vegetable soup I had in Venice. Twice. And don’t even get me started on the gelato. I ate it at LEAST daily throughout our trip. So, when I came across this pin, I just knew that it was right. And the simple, modern style was fantastic!

I followed the pin to the source which lead to this blog post on Brittany Makes. Brittany actually created the art in Photoshop and had it printed at Kinkos in her preferred size (29.5″x 39.25″ per the largest Ikea Ribba frame). And much to my delight, she offered it up to her readers as a FREE printable!! Since her post was published, Kinkos in our area had transformed to the Fed Ex print/copy shop and for a higher quality print, they quoted me around $90. Not in the budget. AND they didn’t offer the exact size I needed anyways (I’d followed her lead and purchased the same Ikea Ribba frame). After doing a bit of research, I found that I could have the good folks at Staples produce an engineering print for around $8 in 36 x 48″ size, which I could then cut down to fit my frame. (If you do this, be sure that the box that states “Fit print to Frame” is unchecked, otherwise the art will be too large to cut down).

Once I got my frame home, I simply laid the frame’s plexi-glass over my print, traced around it and cut it down with scissors.

Now, here’s the deal with engineering prints… The paper is super thin, so you must back it with solid white paper so that you cant see through it. Unfortunately, the paper that came with the frame had printing on it…

So, I just scotch taped computer paper to both the cardboard frame backing and the opening in the matting….

I secured the frame and hung my new art on the wall only to realize that the flimsiness of the paper caused it to wrinkle beneath the plexi with the pull of gravity….

So, I removed it. I thought about adhering the print to the frame’s backing with spray adhesive, but I was afraid that the adhesive would stain the thin, white paper. In the end, I ended up taping the print to the matting with more Scotch tape to prevent any further drooping. This helped a lot, but just keep in mind… this is why such a large print is $8. I’m okay with imperfection due to that. But if it really bothers you, you may wanna spring for a higher quality print. In any case, my new Italy art is hung and she’s a beaut (albeit somewhat hard to photograph due to it’s reflectiveness)…

It adds a pop of modern sleekness to the bedroom which compliments the lines of my mid-century ottoman and painted wicker chair. This is exactly in line with the direction I want our bedroom to go. Personal but modern. And also, ignore the conflicting brown tones. I’ll get there. Eventually… 🙂