The Paint

So I guess my comeback wasn't really one at all. Ohwell. As for the bedroom, it's (nearly) complete.

I made the mistake of waiting until the day before J came home to start. I had the *perfect* color sample from the paint store. I found the *perfect* bedding at Homegoods for such a bargain. I cleaned out the bedroom and even managed to clear out the ginormous furniture, and finally started painting around midnight.

At two in the morning, I was in tears. The color was SO not the same color as the small sample I had tested on the wall. What was supposed to be an organic brown dried into a stone grey. And the bedding? Metallic blue.

I gave up around 4, with half the room painted and half of my sanity left. I managed to arrange the furniture how I wanted -- making the room look bigger -- and passed out on the couch.

I didn't alert J to the fact that I'd been up to something when I picked him up at the airport. He didn't notice the dried paint in my hair while we ate lunch. When we got to the house, he didn't notice the cans of paint sitting in the dining room. I let him walk into the bedroom first.

"Wow, you rearranged the furniture! That looks great, babe," he said, throwing his bulky suitcase in the corner. I sat on the bed, waiting patiently. A few minutes later, "Oh WOW, and you painted!"

Gee. I would think stone grey would be easy to notice. But at least he helped me finish the next day -- and I had 2 gallons left over. Surprisingly, he loves the color. Me? Eh, it'll do for now.

I'm Back ... With a Bedroom Makeover

"If bad decorating was a hanging offense, there'd be bodies hanging from every tree." ~ Sylvester Stallone

Well, it only took a few months, but I finally figured out how to clean up my blog. And now it's too clean. Talk about "dullsville"! *Sigh* Ohwell. Guess I can mess with it later.

J's out of town for the week, so I thought this would be the perfect time to start blogging again. Too much free time is not a good thing -- I think I ate just about everything I could get my hands on last night. Easy to do when you're sucked into hours of HGTV.

We're in the process of trying to pick out paint colors for the house -- which has been such a headache. It seemed easier in our old house, maybe because it was smaller. Or maybe because I knew what colors I wanted and just went for it. This house is just being difficult, and the asylum white walls are driving me insane. Every. Single. Wall. Is. White.

So we initially began trying to pick a neutral to paint everything. But after multiple trips to the paint store and back -- and after getting scolded for turning our dining room wall into a polka-dot fest -- I've temporarily given up.

But I had what I thought was a great idea. While J's away, I could do our bedroom as a surprise. It is definitely in need of some TLC ... and a match. Between our old furniture, the smelly dogs and the cat I can't keep off anything, that room is about on the same level as our garage.

At some point in the near future we want to get new furniture. But for now, paint, new bedding, curtains and a vacuum would do wonders. We soo need to reclaim that space and make it a relaxing retreat that we look forward to at the end of a long day.

And I thought I could handle it. Why is this bedroom soo much harder? I figured if I found awesome bedding, then I could easily match paint. But, of course, now that I'm actually looking for it, I can't seem to find any bedding that just melts my heart. I love fluffy white down bedding, but with a black cat and a husband who eats in the bed, I'm guessing darker is the way to go.

I've looked at Target, Kohls, Hemispheres, Linens & Things ... I may head to the mall tomorrow to peek in Restoration Hardware. Other suggestions on where to go? I was hoping to not spend a fortune, but at this point I don't really care. Only two days left to pull this off!

Simply Under Construction

I think there's something to be said for simplicity. In life, in love, in blogs. Which is why over the next few days my blog will be going through some changes as I try to strip it back down to the bare bones. Which I thought would be a simple task when I started, yet for some reason my current template doesn't want to leave me. So please, excuse the mess! I shall be back to blogging here soon ... good for me, probably not so great for you :-).

Searching for Inspiration

"I didn't get into design to be an artist. To me, an artist creates things to evoke emotion. Being a designer goes a step further than that, not only trying to evoke emotion but trying to make a reaction." -- Mike Davidson

I recently moved into a new house and have finally got most of the boxes unpacked and put away. Now it's time to tackle the white walls, which are starting to feel a little sterile, a little blah.

But I need help. So I turned to my dear friend Google for some inspiration and found a few "treasures" along the way, including this rad outdoor living room in Miami:

And then I found this chair ... I think it speaks for itself ...

I can imagine having my family over, with everyone playing musical chairs to avoid sitting in this pink, Playboy-like disaster. Moving right along ...

I instantly fell in love with this beautiful, Old World entryway with iron spindle staircase:

And I love checkered flooring ... so chic ... so castle-like ...

The color on the wall is similar to a color I used at our old house ... and hubby made me promise to never use it again. I didn't think it was that girlie. I thought men liked blue?

I'm still searching for the right burst of inspiration to come along -- I admit I have commitment issues when it comes to paint colors ... and furniture selections ... and just about everything else. But maybe, just maybe, this time around will be different.