Choosing Guest Bedroom Colors

 

I told you last week that I’d share the color scheme for my ongoing guest bedroom project with you. Despite a short delay due to a broken water heater, here it is: turquoise, yellow, and gray, with white accents. The bedroom is not done yet, but I have most major elements in place.

I’m still not going to spill what colors or fabrics go where, but the colors were inspired by a trip to JoAnn fabrics and the discovery of this (slightly crazy) wavy patterned fabric in the home decor section. The yellow matches the duvet set (which isn’t changing) perfectly, and I really wanted to introduce a third color into the scheme, and the turquoise works really well.

I’ll let you in on a secret though–the turquoise ‘eucalyptus leaf’ paint chip is not the color of the walls!

Any other guesses on what I have done and what I have left to do?

-Liz

 

Laundry Days

Mondays are traditional laundry days and I have a pile of laundry to tackle. We have been gone for 10 days while we drove to Toronto, Canada to a fabulous wedding then camped our way home along the shores of the Great Lakes. Now it is Monday and I am faced with putting away the camping gear and washing everything.  Ugh.

The weather is clear, dry and perfect for hanging the laundry on the line outside. I have all but given up drying my clothes in the dryer. I hang almost everything either outside when the skies are blue or inside my garage or in my basement.

Here is a laundry tip for keeping towels fresh and clean:

When my towels become sour smelling within a few days of being laundered here is what I do;

Mix 1 cup of ammonia with 1 gallon of hot water and soak the stinky towel overnight.  Wash as usual. The mildew spores should be killed.

Dry the towels in the sun for a wonderful fresh smell.

Touch up dry towels for 5 minutes in the dryer to soften them.

Never use softener sheets on towels. They will lose their absorbency.

Damp towels left on the floor will mildew!

Happy Laundry Monday!  -peg

Water Heater Blues

Last week we had a bit of an emergency at the house.

Our water heater broke and we couldn’t take any showers. Ahh!

It turned out that there was water sitting in the pilot light compartment, and therefore the pilot light was out. And it wouldn’t re-light since things were so soggy.

Since the access to the pilot light was small, Brentan and I came up with some brilliant (and creative) ways to get the water out: a spray bottle nozzle and a lemon juice bottle used as a siphon.  You can see the lemon juice container in the photo below.

Soggy bottom of the heater

After draining all the water (creatively) and letting the pilot light dry out, we looked for the source of the leak. It turns out the water heater wasn’t leaking (thank goodness, no need for a whole new machine!), but one of the valves above the water heater was leaking.

Brentan fiddling with the pilot light

So why would it just start leaking like that?
Well, the hypothesis is that when we had the uverse guy come and install cable (right above the water heater on the outside of the house) he hit the valve and that made it leak. For two weeks the  slow leak flooded the pilot light area and eventually extinguished the light.

With three trips to Home Depot, and 5-6 hours of work, 24 hours later the light was finally re-lit and water was heating.

And there is pending litigation with AT&T. (j/k, but hopefully they’ll reimburse us for the supplies to fix it)

It threw me off my blog schedule, so I didn’t get a post up about the guest room,  but that is still coming!

Ever had to deal with a broken appliance? I learned all about how water heaters work last week.

-Liz

Housekeeping

I haven’t posted about any of my home projects for a while, and I’ve been doing just a few odds and ends. Plus the house is a mess. It’s hard to motivate when you first have to clean. And hard to clean when you’re out of town on the weekends, since Brentan and I have been traveling to Mendocino and Pittsburgh the last few weeks.

Progress on the guest bedroom ‘white box challenge’ is coming, but my brother has been staying in it on and off all summer since he’s been doing an internship in San Francisco. So just when I start making some progress he stops by and dumps some stuff inside! (It’s ok, I love him!)

In the guestroom I’ve painted and made window treatments and hung art and made some pillows. I still need to find some furniture (perhaps make some furniture??). And I really hope I have some cool tutorials to show you how I did anything but I probably need to take some photos for that though! I’m planning on sharing my color scheme with you this week, so be on the lookout!

In other news, I did some housekeeping for the blog, too. I made myself some business cards, just so I can promote the blog, and to have for the Pinterest meetup that I’m going to tomorrow. (Are you going? Let me know in the comments or shoot me an email!) I also made a cute little monogram logo for the blog, that you can see above. I’m working on my Photoshop skills, and I think it’s classy!

Hope you’re making progress on all your projects!

-Liz

 

Mood Board Monday: Mark Rothko

Rothko at the DeYoung via Mr Ush on Flickr

I spent the afternoon at the DeYoung Museum at their traveling Picasso exhibit which was fun. I am a big Picasso fan! I also took a few minutes to look around the permanent collections and saw this beautiful Mark Rothko piece. The colors are great, and I thought that I could make a mood board inspired by this Rothko.

Here goes:

The space is an open loft that needs to be used for work during the day, dinner at night, and living in on the weekend. Very versatile, yet glamorous and fun. (and colorful!) I didn’t hold back with a realistic budget– I just used what was pretty! My favorite piece may be the gorgeous round bookshelf, which would define a space, and the Celestial Coasters (which I may actually buy for my living room anyway).

-Liz

Sources:

Chroma Candlestick from Antrhopologie

Celestial Coasters from Anthropologie

Dinerware from Palais XIII

Rhys Chair from Anthropologie

Handmade Contemporary Majesta Rug from Overstock

Metal Truss Work Table from West Elm for a work space during the day and dinner at night

Henry Sectional from West Elm inDandelion

French Column Glass Swing-Arm Lamp by Restoration Hardware

Kansai Bookcase from Anthropologie

Things I Dig

I got the new Crate and Barrel catalog in the mail the other day, and here are a few images I’m digging.

The Oslo Sideboard: retro, yet modern and looks so good against the dark walls. Nice styling too, but they are C&B after all.

The Scholar Bed: it would look so good in a vintagy, steam punky guest bedroom with wide wooden floor boards, wouldn’t it?

What are you digging?
-Liz

Mendocino Village

Last week was my third anniversary, and Brentan took me on a surprise trip for a little cottage getaway to Mendocino.

We visited very briefly on our road trip to Oregon in Spring 2010, and I knew that I wanted to go back to explore the tiny little town by the sea. It really reminded me of Nantucket, with the small shops and fog and cool summer weather.

We had drinks and dinner at the MacCullum house to celebrate, and it was delicious local food and wine!

I took a few pictures of the little town, full of old architecture and colorful blooms (to negate the fog, I’m guessing!).

Faux Bois Floor … or How I painted a fake wood floor

I just returned home from a relaxing 10 day retreat to my tiny cabin in the northwoods. It is my favorite place in the whole world. The cabin is  minuscule, just 20 x 20 feet.  It is an old bunk house that has been rescued from a fishing camp deep in the wilderness near the US and Canadian border and the  Boundary Waters Canoe Area or BWCA for short. It has  no running water, just an out house.  I have been slowly fixing it between kayak and canoe trips. Painting the plywood floor was my project this time. Picking blueberries was my other project!

I painted the plywood a pretty grayed blue. I liked it but I wanted to camouflage the plywood AND I wanted to put a pattern on the floor that would hide dirt. I decided to use a wood grain tool that I bought at my local hardware store.  I painted the top layer a very light gray over the blue. I think it inserts a sort of Scandinavian feel to my little getaway.

Here is what I did:

1. Scrubbed the heck out of the old floor. Let it dry.

2. Taped around the edges where I did not want to paint.

3. Painted the floor blue. I cut out the edges with a brush then used a roller. Let it dry.

4. Painted the floor a second coat. Let it dry.

5. Painted a stripe of gray paint over the blue and immediately used the graining tool to make the pattern. Rock the grain tool a bit to make the knots.

6. Worked in sections until the floor was finished. Let dry.

7. Painted on water based (made for floors) polyurethane. I covered it 4 times to get a durable finish.

I used latex paint, the kind for walls. I have been on a kick to get rid of old cans of paint in my basement so this color is the result of dumping three different blues together. I figure that the 4 coats of polyurethane will make the floor scrub-able.  You could use porch paint that is made specifically for floors. I would still poly it though. I think this process could be successful on concrete floors or even old linoleum. I would love to see other projects!

Here is the finished floor! It is suppose to be a temporary fix until we put in a real wood floor but I’m not sure. I never thought I would love it so much.

Here is the whole room again. I will post about making those chair slip covers sometime. I should also make a tutorial on the braided rug. It is made from old jeans.

The exterior of the cabin. It is a work in progress.

The reason I love to go north.

I did go blueberry picking!

Until next time – Peg

Linking to: Amaze Me Monday, Creative Bloggers Party and Hop, Tatertots and Jello, Sunday Showcase Party, DIY Home Sweet Home