Completed Laundry/Dining Room "Tour"

We moved in this house around August 2010. Finally, 3 years later, we got around to tearing down the walls in the laundry room to add insulation. Wow, what a mess! Not sure when this room was added on or worked on after but the walls were very random. I believe this room was a porch at one point and then enclosed. The ceiling is slanted which wasn't easy for a novice to work with, but to make it worse, the floor is uneven and the door frame is kinda cock-eyed.

But, we finally did it, well mostly. The door still needs some tweaking, but that will be saved for another day, the wind doesn't blow in the room and I'm happy about just that. There were boards and pieces of boards nailed into the 2x4s.

There was also plenty of nests inside the walls where parts were not sealed.

The weights, ropes and pulleys were dusty but in good shape.

But blah blah blah, we finished! I love the stripes behind the washer/dryer, don't you?

My laundry basket used to be my now wall color so it had to be painted too, looks great yellow, right?

No real decor in here when I took pics, but here is the dining room side

The dog door is on the east side of the house now, MUCH better.

I even created and hung a new light fixture.

So that completes the tour of my Laundry/Dining Room, next up is the Guest Room and the Wizard will have a new home!

Oh! I almost forgot, and people always ask,  my "blue" for my room is by Valspar (the only paint I use) and it's called Aqua Dance.

The Lampshade

Last Christmas I made (re-did) some lamps for my daughter that started out as a horrid yellow color. I painted the base a brown color and added some brown trim along the top and bottom of the lampshade. Then she got a new couch which was red and some new coffee tables that were black and glass. Yep, time to redo the lamps.

I quickly painted the bases a black with little flecks of gold in it. I then removed the trim on the shades, uh oh, the glue left an ugly color on the shades. *sigh* Well I read about someone painting their shades once so I decided to paint the shades first and then add some new trim. I picked out an ivory color and went to town. I finished up a second coat and left them out to dry.

Uh Oh again, it rained, no, it poured that night and I forgot all about them. They now had some lovely water stains on them and were basically ruined. I was all about ready to throw them out when I decided to keep them to play around with. My intention was to remove the shade and keep the wire and play with some ribbon or something, until one morning I was digging around the craft room and saw the Mod Podge. !!!

I then dug out an old dictionary I used for making Christmas tags with and started ripping out pages. I then put them on the shade and liked it! I thought it was still missing something though.

Danglies! My first attempt at attaching them was with Gorilla Glue, take it from me DON'T DO THAT! The second shade was much better with my handy dandy glue gun. I really liked them at this point but they still seemed short of being finished.

The only black ribbon I had in the house was currently tied around some candle sticks and since I was anxious to have some, I stole it! I then had to iron the wrinkles out before using though.

Yes! I love them, what do you think? Ok technically they still belong to my daughter and I'm still waiting on her to look at them to see if she wants them or not. If she doesn't though, I'll get her new ones and use these myself! :)

Details

Did you catch that brass and white ceiling fan up there? I have a very strong dislike for brass and eventually one way or another it all leaves my house. This brass is no exception.

 This is the new ceiling fan in the living room.  It's not the same one, but one we purchased at a garage sale for $3, with a brand new paint job. The globes are some I found lying around the house when we moved in. So much better than the tulips.Problem is, I can reach the switch without stretching (I'm 5'3). (Oh, and please excuse work attire and hair)

 And it's close to his head. Guess that pole was a little too long?

So we (he) had to steal the one out of the bedroom so we could use the short pole and then had to convert the one in the bedroom to a hugger.

And TaDa! Here it is in motion (well, stop motion once I clicked). The original fan in here also got a new paint job though and it will eventually find it's way into the guest room.

Speaking of the guest room, I can almost see the top of the bed again.

I can almost see the top of the table too. My house was covered in things from the project and things from the living room.

The kids used to be in black frames. These now are some I had lying around. I haven't decided if I like this or not yet. I also haven't decided if I like one color over the other. And I'm not sure if I used white if it would be too much white. The lampshade is also temporary.

I am happy with the way this corner turned out though. And yes, I'm aware I have spring and fall flowers on display, LOL. This weekend we will hopefully install the crown molding and trim around the fireplace to complete the room. I will probably never finish the details, I'm crazy like that.

Building a New Light Fixture

I don't seem to like light fixtures I find in stores. They just don't do it for me (well, sometimes, but not usually) So we've taken to making our own like this one in the bathroom.

Or the covers in the laundry room and kitchen.

I have SO hated the light fixture in the kitchen ever since we moved in. It was ugly and didn't provide any light in the kitchen.

I've looked and looked for something to replace it with and couldn't find anything. Until one day we were wandering around in the thrift store and found this pot rack.

We didn't buy it right away. We actually left and went to ReStore to look around. I found one of those lights that's glass with brass trim and lights hanging under it, you know, like the ones that hang over pool tables? Well, I hated the brass (of course) but had a vision when I saw the lights under them.  So I used my gift certificate that I won and bought it and the next day went back to the thrift store and picked up this pot rack for $35. The next stop was to Home Depot for some paint, spray paint! I was so excited about getting it started I didn't get a shot of the brass chandelier in tact, but kinda close. Just picture the light kit under the dome.

You can see that I already have the working parts covered with foil (so easy to apply and REMOVE) so I can get to painting!

The paint was such a close match on the pot rack it was hard to tell what was painted and what wasn't! I wish I could tell you the color but I just don't remember right now. But I can tell you it's gorgeous in the kitchen!

         
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