ok...so here is my first foray into painting furniture (well...except for the plywood book shelf I painted, but that doesn't count...haha)

this will be used as a printer stand...it was in pretty bad shape and I wish I had remembered to take a picture before i painted it...



this is the top...i still have to edging to do, but, all in all, i'm pleased with how it turned out....




this is the wall color of the office...



this is the office beforehand...table in the corner....i'm also thinking of painting that desk the same color scheme...



this is the top of the desk...trim color for the main color...brown for the edge





Stupid last post on a page

9/19/2012 10:12:03 AM

Looks good so far!

9/19/2012 10:25:34 AM

the brown in one of the wall colors in another office...i just had it put into an enamel so i could paint furniture with it...

i'm going to prime the desk tomorrow and paint it friday so it'll have the weekend to dry...

i found some pictures of my office from a few years ago...i can not wait until this is all finished and I can post the comparison pictures...

9/19/2012 10:42:39 AM

okay so the bank accepted my offer on a condo on friday. waiting on the official offer BUT of course i'm totally OCD and already have picked out my paint colors:

Kitchen: (there are a lot of white cabinets so i wanted a strong color )


Minus the madonna photo

Bathroom:



then i'm pondering doing a soft white in my bedroom on three of the walls, then using this flower as an inspiration for the accent wall in my bedroom:



for the living room, i'm going to be doing gray walls. the base color is going to be a matte version of the selected shade of gray and then the stripes are going to be a gloss of the same color.

thoughts on a good accent color? i was thinking yellow.

10/8/2012 9:11:08 AM

yellow would be nice - my favorite color of the moment is a strong peacock blue.

10/8/2012 9:13:53 AM

^^I think that not sticking to one single accent color in some rooms is nice as well. You can pick a group of 3 or 4 colors that have a similar feel and use a little bit of them throughout. It really helps a room feel pulled together and not too over-thought, which is often a great characteristic of a living room you want to feel inviting.

I also don't mean that having a very distinct accent color or 2 colors in rooms is bad because we have that as well, we also just have a couple rooms where we have an array of colors that complement each other well.

"Similar feel" can mean lots of colors circling around the same shades like all the orange, red, pink shades in this picture


or the various blue, green, yellows that transition well because it seems like they are mixes of each other in this picture:


Or it can mean having accent colors that are all different but share a certain tone(vibrant, or bold, or cool, or warm). We have gone with vibrant colors in our living room since we have grey walls, grey furniture, and a greige rug. We have bright red, sun yellow, peacock blue, greenish blue (more green than in a peacock), orange, etc. all sprinkled around in bits and pieces. We don't really have one accent color, but it still has a distinct mood such that I can easily pick out an accessory or fabric that "fits" with our living room without focusing on a single color.


Also, I love yellow as an accent color with grey, but yellow can be an overbearing wall color and is one of the toughest to pick from a card or sample imo. So, if you use it as an accent color, I definitely recommend using it with accessories over an accent wall or something. Depends on the house (layout, lighting, size, etc.) though.

[Edited on October 9, 2012 at 11:15 AM. Reason : ]

10/9/2012 11:10:28 AM

Think we finally decided what to do in our kitchen since we will probably be doing some updating of that in the spring. Like anything else in our house, we are trying to work with what we have and not totally gut things.

The cabinets are not the exact cabinets I would pick if we were doing a full reno but they are actually decent and the color (medium brown) is decent as well. On that front, all we are going to do is change the hardware out which we took care of several months ago. The appliances are all stainless steel which works well with our house. The floor is a horribly ugly green vinyl but that is changing to hardwood tomorrow and Friday. So, that mainly leaves the counters, backsplash, fixture, and sink...

The big issue for us is counter space. I can't justify doing a total layout change, but we also haven't been happy with the way it is laid our currently mainly due to counterspace issues. I had done a sketch when we got some budgetary quotations and that is the first picture shown below. It basically shows our current layout. The second picture is an idea that the wife and I have bounced around recently: when we do the counters, we will cut down the bar-portion to match the counter height and install the new counters in that peninsula area as all one height (counter-height). We'll essentially have the same total square footage but I really think the functional counterspace would increase a LOT with just this simple change which wouldn't be a big undertaking at the same time we did the counters.




The nice thing about it is that the bar stools we have right now are adjustable between counter or bar height so we wouldn't have to get new ones if we did this

Thoughts?

10/10/2012 3:08:34 PM

^^^that orange rocks. also, side note (and i know you aren't planning to do this...or if you are, that's fine this is just my thing)...i hate written word wall decals. hate.

^oooh i like the third photo. we have those maple floors in our living room. right now it's a green that the previous owner painted which i do not like, but i've been wanting to do white--so now i'm imagining our living room looked like that but adding a few kid toys here and there. so pretty. and i even, and this is a first, like the fireplace painted white in that photo.

we have a bar facing in to our kitchen area like that, and when we don't have company it becomes just another place to sit stuff (really trying to get better about that). but when we have company, it's the prime spot guests sit at and it's great for entertaining. i like the bar height since it creates a divide from the entertaining space and the work space. we had one height counter in my house growing up, and during entertaining it could feel crowded and invading to sit on the bar side when there's activity going on in the kitchen be it prep or whatever. so that's all i would consider. if you entertain a lot, perhaps the bar space separate height is the way to go. if not so much and you really need the extra space i say go for the same height.

10/10/2012 3:25:56 PM

^ yeah I LOVE that living room. The whole house is pretty cool (I found it on a blog called DigsDigs).

And I definitely agree about the separation; that would be the big thing we lose. We do entertain some, but I'm not sure we do it enough to warrant that being a ruling factor but I will have to think about it some more. We aren't directly downtown here so a few of our friends who are more downtown tend to do the entertaining more. Ours DEFINITELY is just another place to sit stuff right now haha. Unless someone is over it doesn't get used for anything other than that. We would certainly have to keep that counter cleaner too since anything would be visible

Right now I'm leaning toward the idea that we would have more usable counterspace for the 95% of the time we are using the kitchen without guests and it would still look nice when people are over. It certainly warrants further thought though. Luckily we have until the spring to decide

[Edited on October 10, 2012 at 3:46 PM. Reason : ]

10/10/2012 3:34:45 PM

The furniture company I have talked about before that we worked with (Younger Furniture) was just featured on a blog I read occasionally. They were highlighting some pieces from their new retro line. Some of it is not really my style but there are a couple really cool pieces in there.

http://retrorenovation.com/2012/09/26/mid-century-modern-furniture-upholstery-younger-furniture-avenue-62/

Also, to follow up on the kitchen discussion ^, I think we would definitely also need pendant lights over the back side of the counter/bar area if we had it all at counter height. We want our living room and kitchen to be super open, but I think the pendants would be a subtle separation that would help define the kitchen area still.

[Edited on October 17, 2012 at 9:54 AM. Reason : ]

10/17/2012 9:25:01 AM

Quote :

"i hate written word wall decals. hate."

haha i haven't decided on that yet - honestly, my main priority is paint then carpets then i can move in and decide what i want to do.

the kitchen, i've now decided, will be a Tennessee theme cause i'm a dork and i <3 my school

10/17/2012 9:45:23 AM

Without reading the whole thread two websites I recommend are:

http://ana-white.com build your own pottery barn or other knock off furniture

http://letschipit.com/ by sherwin williams.... if you see a picture online and you love the paint colors you can download the chip it bookmarklet and grab the paint colors from the picture. Actually chip it works on ANY picture if you like the colors of the objects you see. It also lists coordinating colors for trim or whatnot

[Edited on October 17, 2012 at 5:25 PM. Reason : .]

10/17/2012 5:22:11 PM

Not 100% ours yet so I don't want to get too excited, but I put "dibs" on a piece set up an appt tomorrow morning to see it in person and if it all checks out I'm going to buy it. A small shop near us that buys (and often refinishes) and sells furniture just got this mid-century piece in that needed to be refinished. They painted it instead of staining it. Normally, I prefer the natural stained wood of pieces from this era, but for the room that we have in mind - our bedroom - the color they chose could work REALLY well.



We already have some medium wood pieces and the walls and trim are grey and white so we definitely have been looking for pieces to add some color and blue was a color we were trying to bring in because of the duvet I've shown before:



So, although I probably would have liked this piece standalone if it was refinished and stained to match the era, in our room I think this could be the statement piece with its paint job.

[Edited on October 21, 2012 at 12:49 PM. Reason : ]

10/21/2012 12:42:59 PM

my mom and I went furniture shopping and I decided on this bedroom set



kinda excited to have a grown-up looking bedroom. I could never decide on furniture so I never bought any. Finally will have a fully furnished place lol

[Edited on October 21, 2012 at 2:30 PM. Reason : e]

10/21/2012 2:20:39 PM

What color should I paint my hallway?

10/24/2012 8:46:46 PM

^^ congrats. I'm not a fan of buying sets but that's more because I like to pick out each individual piece, so to each their own. I don't have much room to talk anyway, we have put off doing our room until very recently (almost 3 years after moving in). We now have 3 dressers and a mattress on top of the box spring, directly on the floor I have it generally planned out, but waiting to buy individual pieces has taken awhile since I have been trying to find a few vintage pieces.

^how is it laid out/connected to other rooms? Unless it is some really grand hallway that deserves its own attention, I don't like having a hallway that is its own color independent of the rest of the house or adjacent rooms. Depending on the layout, it tends to make the house feel a little disjointed. Do you have a standard neutral color in the house?

For example, we have a custom grey color we made as the neutral in our house. The downstairs foyer/hallway, main living room, and kitchen which are all open to each other are painted in this neutral. It carries up the stairwell into the upstairs hallway. Off of that hallway, we have some of the rooms painted in the neutral grey (guest bathroom, master bedroom, laundry room) and then a couple rooms painted in a separate hue or color (guest bedroom, exercise room, bonus room). If we had the hallway a different color, everything would feel disjointed and disconnected. This way the neutral flows up the stairs, into the hallway, and into a few of the main rooms. Kind of ties the upstairs - and really the whole house- together.

[Edited on October 25, 2012 at 9:51 AM. Reason : ]

10/25/2012 9:38:12 AM

Quote :

"Unless it is some really grand hallway, I don't like having a hallway that is its own color independent of the rest of the house or adjacent rooms. Do you have a standard neutral color in the house?"

I feel the same way. We're painting our hallway a light grey color that is the same that we painted the front door area and the living room. Helps everything feel connected without being overwhelming. Plus there's no windows in the hallway so painting it anything darker than what we have would make it feel like a cave

10/25/2012 9:44:14 AM

Well I'm not getting the full set because I don't like a whole room of matching pieces. I will get separate nightstands and whatnot too.

I liked the bed and the dresser/mirror. The other pieces are going in my parents storage for when I get a bigger place. I'd hate to want that furniture later in life and not be able to get it (if that makes sense)

10/25/2012 9:46:18 AM

^ Ah ok. That totally makes sense then

^^ sounds like exactly what we have done and it looks a lot better than we originally had it. I'm very happy with how it turned out.

10/25/2012 9:50:32 AM

The entrance area and the hallways are connected. I don't have a standard color scheme. Right now everything is the depressing light beige generic apartment color. When I re-model the kitchen it will put the dining area, kitchen and living room as basically one area. Haven't decided on a color yet for those walls. The flooring is the generic light beige generic apartment color. Eventually I'm ripping up all the carpet and putting down hardwood flooring(haven't decided color yet but will probably go dark stain for the floor). The only rooms I've painted so far are my master bedroom and master bath and I'm not really interested in making the hallways part of that color scheme.


I'm just tired of living in my house that looks like an apartment.


I also need new living room furniture.

[Edited on October 25, 2012 at 8:21 PM. Reason : GN]

10/25/2012 8:19:14 PM

I definitely know what you mean. I hate that generic beige color; it really does perpetually feel like an apartment.

I think it would be good for you to pick a nice neutral color for the house that isn't beige. I like whites but they can be hard to pull off unless your're really comfortable with designing your space and have the right space/architecture for it. Some blues can work very well but like whites you kind of have to know how to use them.

Greys look great, go with nearly any color scheme, and are very popular right now. If you were uncomfortable with grey, you can look at having a secondary hue be a little more prominent in a mix with grey (green or blue for example). Without looking at the layout of your house, I would generically say that you should consider doing your entrance and your hallways be the same color and most likely also make them the same color as the living room, dining room, and kitchen area that will be open to each other.

We just ripped up carpet, vinyl, and some existing hardwood that I thought was ugly and installed the same hardwood throughout basically our entire first floor and it really made a huge difference so you won't regret it . We spent forever picking the wood. I'm planning to take much better pictures of the whole first floor at some point with a nice camera, but I took a few pictures with my phone while we were moving furniture back in:





No idea what style of furniture you are into but there are lots of cool furniture companies out there.

[Edited on October 25, 2012 at 10:05 PM. Reason : ]

10/25/2012 10:03:55 PM

Saw these chairs on a vintage site I follow and I really love them. I've always liked these chairs and wanted to get at least one recovered in a more modern fabric and this fabric they used to re-do this set is almost EXACTLY the kind of fabric I had in mind.



Of course the pair is going for $4000

I recently found an of-the-era knock-off of quality construction for $400 but I know that after buying new fabric and reupholstering it would probably push the chair close to $1000. Which, in reality is a good price for that chair but I still wasn't planning on any other major house purchases until we re-do the kitchen this spring so I think I'm going to have to pass. We can afford it but I try and stick to our budgets pretty strictly since I have expensive taste.

Also, looking for vintage furniture is frustrating. Most people don't know anything about the furniture they are selling so you just have to click through tonsss of craigslist ads with headlines like "lounge chair", browse local consignment shop inventories, and go visit lots of local thrift stores and hope for blind luck. And, usually the people who DO know what they have or what they are selling want a lot because they know it is valuable or desired

Every once in awhile you get lucky and I really enjoy that, but sometimes the juice isn't worth the squeeze hunting this stuff down. I think a big problem is that the area I am in, modern furniture in the 50s, 60s, and 70s just never really caught-on so there isn't lots of second-hand stuff to even become available. My friends in other parts of the country have TONS of stuff at their local stores to pick through.

[Edited on November 6, 2012 at 2:54 PM. Reason : ]

11/6/2012 2:44:24 PM

finally redid our hall bath



^love those chairs and the hardwood floor. very nice.

[Edited on November 12, 2012 at 9:36 AM. Reason : ]

11/12/2012 9:35:29 AM

looks great LK

11/12/2012 9:38:19 AM

Need advice. Got granite counter tops installed and am generally happy, except when they were installing them they broke one of the backsplashes. Rather than cutting another, they glued it back together and installed it hoping we wouldn't care. The SO is fine with it, but I'm thinking I should bitch and get it replaced because if we ever sell the house it will be noticed and bring down the value of the counters we just installed. Thoughts? Can post pictures if needed. My main concern is that it'll be used against us when we try to sell the house.

11/12/2012 9:49:52 AM

if someone else is doing the job, and they broke it during install, i'd want them to fix it. no question.

if we were DIY, i *might* let it slide if it's in an inconspicuous spot.

11/12/2012 9:52:31 AM

^^I'd never pay for the install if they cracked or chipped something and just tried to glue it. Mistakes are their loss. If you're paying good money for these finishes and a contractor install, you shouldn't settle for anything other than perfection on the install.

Is this a separate tile backsplash? Or did you just continue the granite up the wall?


Also, I can't see elkaybie's pictures at work. I'll have to check them out on my phone later

[Edited on November 12, 2012 at 9:55 AM. Reason : ]

11/12/2012 9:53:07 AM

dang i wanna shit at lkb's

I'm Krallum and I approved this message.

11/12/2012 9:53:30 AM

^^^ This.

[Edited on November 12, 2012 at 9:54 AM. Reason : a]

11/12/2012 9:53:49 AM

whatever you want to shit there too. don't lie

I'm Krallum and I approved this message.

11/12/2012 9:55:03 AM

This is true

11/12/2012 9:55:43 AM

LOL

11/12/2012 9:57:00 AM

We continued the granite up the wall. We paid for the install and it supposedly has a 7 year warranty, but we'll see what happens when I contact them about getting it fixed. They also said we'd get 2 granite cutting boards but those never showed up.

Unfortunately the SO was there during the install because I had to work, so I couldn't rip them a new asshole then. He thought they'd cut a new one, but when I was cleaning it I realized they had not. I'm sort of pissed at him for letting this slide, but he's generally been less than stellar with the whole renovation process. (if I'd installed it he'd have been pissed with the crack, but anyone else's mistake is fine...)

11/12/2012 9:58:54 AM

you can be nice and still get what you want. not everyone is out to get you lewoods

I'm Krallum and I approved this message.

11/12/2012 10:00:50 AM

Here's the crack.

11/12/2012 10:12:55 AM

I don't get what the big deal is. You have a warranty right?

I'm Krallum and I approved this message.

11/12/2012 10:15:05 AM

Warranty is only as good as the company behind it. Once I have a resolution (good or bad) I'll post the company's name so everyone can know if they are worth dealing with. I wish we'd just gone with cheap counters, but the boy really wanted granite.

11/12/2012 10:17:15 AM

call that shit they used to have on local ABC news.

I'm Krallum and I approved this message.

11/12/2012 10:19:40 AM

5 On Your Side!

11/12/2012 10:33:19 AM

Hopefully they'll solve that pretty easily without a problem. That's sloppy and not acceptable. Did you already pay them in full?

11/12/2012 10:36:51 AM

Yes, the boy wrote them a check after they installed it so that's why I'm afraid they won't respond. We'll see what happens. I haven't left them any reviews yet, and if they don't fix it I have no problems leaving bad ones.

They also got the radius on one of the corners wrong (they were all supposed to be the same, and one is not), but I can live with that even though I think it looks bad.

11/12/2012 11:10:12 AM

CalledToArms what stain/color is your flooring and where did you get it? that is the EXACT color i am looking to do our house in

11/12/2012 1:08:06 PM

I don't give that information out for free! We spent months digging through showrooms, online stores, and trying out samples before we decided and you expect me to just give that away?


Our floors are pre-finished and the brand is LM. The collection was Alpine Birch and our boards are 6" with the stain they call "Mustang." The finish is matte so it's not super shiny like some floors and so far it seems very durable. Our dog is small (~16 lbs) but she is crazy and has lots of energy and I've only seen 2 minor scratches so far, both of which I think are from us moving furniture back.

They don't have this specific collection showing yet on the manufacturer's website because the series is brand new but we got it through the people that installed our floors who got it through one of their online suppliers.

11/12/2012 1:42:57 PM

awesome thanks

i have been looking at lumber liquidators at similar colors and style.

11/12/2012 1:52:48 PM

np

You might be able to order a cheap/free sample of the floor we used if you wanted to compare it to anything else you were looking at to compare stain.

11/12/2012 1:56:41 PM

anyone got experience with buying/installing padded headboards?







this one is supposed to be genuine leather. it comes in brown too, but my duvet is largely brown and hard to match. I've got some lighter chocolate brown sheets on the bed with it now.




I want to do a wall of drapery behind the bed so I can put it on a wall with an off-centered window (that bothers me in the morning anyway).

anyone know of a great drapery site?

11/12/2012 2:17:34 PM

^We don't have a lot of drapery in our house but we have made some and picked some up from Ikea. If you're doing a wall of drapery, you might want to go with something very simple: like a solid color instead of a pattern. Possibly a solid color on a fabric with a nice texture though like a linen, an interesting weave, or a "pattern" made by the difference between reflective and more matte portions. Of course this depends on how big the wall is. If it's big enough it might warrant a pattern, but a subtle one.

Both Ikea and making them yourself are decent options for the solid colored approach but something simple like that can also be found at lots of places like Target as well.


We did a little shopping this weekend while up in Charlotte with our families. We stopped in at West Elm since we had never been to a physical store of theirs (shopped online only) and they were having a tiered 10-25% off sale. One of the items I had been looking at was their "mid-century nightstand." It has a great design and looks very authentically mid-century and not just inspired by the era (which I like as well though).



We got extremely lucky though. It sells for $250 normally, but I asked if they had any returns they would be willing to sell to us. The lady checked and they had ONE return with a tiny dent on the backside of one of the legs. They offered us 20% off. And, since the 20% was a scratch-and-dent discount and not a sale price, they also let the 15% black-friday discount apply to this piece as well so we got it for $170

We also picked up 2 of their 2' slabs of reclaimed pine to use for open kitchen shelving:



I didn't buy their brackets though because they were like $20 per pair. Instead we went to Home Depot and picked up pairs for $1 each and spray-painted them white . I also like the ones better that I got at HD. They are just straight L's without the angle-support. They also said they supported up to 100lbs as a pair whereas the West Elm ones were much less than that.

I put one of the shelves up last night: hit a stud 3 times on one side with 3 screws into 70lb drywall anchors on the other. Needless to say it feels very sturdy and I don't anticipate it sagging or failing


[Edited on November 26, 2012 at 9:15 AM. Reason : ]

11/26/2012 8:52:15 AM

Ugh, haven't heard back from countertop place since November 12th so I just sent them another email. I told them I'd want to do the fix after Thanksgiving, but I don't want them thinking they can blow me off.

11/26/2012 10:28:36 AM

Hopefully it all works out for you^ We will be redoing our kitchen counters, backsplash, and lighting this next year hopefully depending on a few things. More on that in a second though.

Wanted to post a quick picture of the open shelves we put up that I talked about in my previous post. I think they turned out really well. Definitely gives some life and character to that little breakfast nook that my wife and I eat at quite often.



Now, the kitchen is off to the right of that picture, just past the doorway into the guest bedroom and bathroom area. I had talked about this earlier and gotten some input on the counter-height vs bar-height dilemma (still not 100% sure but leaning toward the bar-height). Our cabinets are a color similar to the bistro table in the above picture. Kind of a medium brown color. Because of our cabinet color and the floor color, we are going to go with very light counters. Since we have white trim and have used stark white as accent pieces through the house (like chairs and shelf brackets in the above picture) we decided to go with something that is primarily white. As much as I like white marbles, I am not a huge fan in the kitchen because of maintenance issues. There are a few white granite options but the veining is really hit or miss and I am not sure I want to spend all that time looking for slabs. So, for a few reasons (maintenance free, made in US, etc.) we have decided to go with Quartz.

There are several quartz products that have a similar feel to marble and have really impressed me in person (these pictures aren't really representative of our style, I just picked them for marble-like quartz products):




As you can see, the most popular thing to do with these counters is to run the counter up the wall to the cabinets as the backsplash or to go with a white subway tile. I am ok with either of these ideas, but they are a little too "safe" for me I think. For example, I LOVE Heath Ceramics and some of their patterns(I think the yellow would look awesome since we don't have a ton of backsplash) but they are expensive-$25-$50/ft² easy:




One thing I am thinking we could do, to keep the geometric lines that I love so much in some of the Heath lines is to go with hexagon tiles. They are very readily available and fairly cheap (lots in the $5-$15 range for porcelain). I think penny tile (~1") might be a little too busy, but I dig this 2" pattern a lot:



I will have to see if a geometric pattern like that clashes too much with the type of counter we like though...

We're thinking something like these for the pendants:




Alright, that's enough picture-spamming for now since hardly anyone will care. But this gave me a good place to gather my thoughts

[Edited on December 3, 2012 at 1:15 PM. Reason : ]

12/3/2012 1:07:41 PM

oh hai kitchen paint

12/11/2012 2:19:22 PM