Master Bedroom

Carried Away

Published on October 30, 2013October 29, 2013 by Our Humble Abode10 Comments

Often, I get carried away. Start cleaning the kitchen and then go organize the rest of the house. Wipe up the bathroom floors and end up cleaning it from top to bottom. So it’s no surprise I got carried away when I met Ben. Head over heels. That phrase doesn’t make sense. Aren’t we almost always head over heels? Anyway, I knew when I met him I needed to know more. It’s only fitting George Strait’s Carried Away was our first wedding dance. And now we have those words on our wall. I used Bombshell Pro to create these black and white designs.

I thought I’d paint the design on old canvases. Then I took the easy way out. Engineer prints to the rescue. Again! By formatting two 16 by 20 inch designs on one 2 foot by 3 foot page, I paid only $4.50 for the two.

Back in May I bought two acrylic frames for three bucks each and finally put them to good use. The old astrological sign cut outs were too small, so we’ve got new bedside art.

I’d love to hang the art lower, so new, shorter lamps are in order. Just have to find the perfect ones.

Simple, sweet, and sentimental. Ben chose his favorite line.

And I chose mine, which happened to follow his.

Do you have song lyric art in your house? Favorite sentimental art you’d like to share?

Blue Sage

Published on September 4, 2013September 4, 2013 by Our Humble Abode10 Comments

For longer than I liked, the walls of our room have been royal (borderline neon) blue. Very patchy and poorly painted to boot.

We thought we’d have time to replace all the house windows last summer, but that didn’t happen. This isn’t the year either. Knowing next year would be the earliest, I couldn’t stand looking at these walls any longer. While V was in school, Ev and I picked up two gallons of Restoration Hardware’s Blue Sage, color matched to Glidden Duo. I started painting right away. Seriously, I was on a mission to eradicate the bold blue. And her we are two coats later.

Ahh, that’s better. Though the color is more green than I expected. Or maybe that’s just in comparison to the blue before.

At any rate, I can handle this color. At least until we replace the windows.

Because then we’re probably going to pull off all the drywall to replace it. Heavy orange peel texture and two painted over wallpaper walls and terrible patches and too few outlets and different sized windows seems like that’s the best way to go.

Until then, our room is dark and soothing.

Maybe when we deal with the rest of this room I’ll choose a slightly more blue-green color.

What do you think of it?

Much better than this, no?

Oh paint, how I love thee. Such healing powers you’ve got. What have you painted recently?

On the Plus Side

Published on August 23, 2013August 23, 2013 by Our Humble Abode11 Comments

I’ve hoarded a few art pieces to hang in our bedroom. Nothing new, just things I liked that didn’t fit anywhere else in the house. But the group seemed incomplete. So I made another nail and string dude. Because I wanted gold, I spray painted some nails. And a chunk of scrap MDF black.

Using an old envelope with marks as my template, I made a plus sign. To keep the painted nails, well, painted, I covered my hammer with a scrap of leather.

Then went crazy with gold embroidery floss, covering the center, then wrapping around the outside twice.

A mismatched, mixed bag of favorites is now a gallery wall in our bedroom.

Very, very slowly our room is starting to feel lived in. Sheesh, only a year and a half later. And we’re covering up the awful orange peel texture and spotty cobalt blue walls.

Oh I can’t wait to scrape the popcorn off the ceiling, replace the old windows, and finally repaint this room.

What do you think of the new art? Have a happy Friday and weekend, everyone!

The Gross Kind of Popcorn

Published on June 5, 2013June 5, 2013 by Our Humble Abode22 Comments

Gross popcorn certainly does not come from the movie theater. Or in the cheddar cheese and caramel mixed bag at Costco. Oh no, those are delicious. The gross popcorn plagues hundreds of thousands of homes across America. An epidemic especially in homes built between 1970 and 2000. We’ve got it, maybe you do too? In an effort to rid ourselves of the dreaded popcorn, I moved the boys’ bedroom furniture into the guest room. Leaving me with an empty room ready for popcorn removal.

Of course I had to move the guest furniture out before that.

Because I was alone in the moving process, I dragged the mattress and box spring across the hall to our room.

Three rooms affected by the dreaded popcorn. Yes, all that to say goodbye to this:

Yesterday I did something I’d never done before. After wrapping the room in Dexter-ish plastic, I scraped popcorn off a ceiling.

Guess what? It wasn’t hard or bad. In fact, it was satisfying. Watching the ugly peel off, leaving behind a near paint-ready ceiling. Which gives me a boost of confidence to get our larger room done, too. For those with a popcorn ceiling problem, I’m working on a removal tutorial right now. Something to look forward to next week.

So tell me, do you hate popcorn ceilings? What’s the worst wall finish?

Light Switches

Published on May 22, 2013May 22, 2013 by Our Humble Abode10 Comments

Completely out of Montana norms, it rained all weekend. Rain outside meant little time for work outdoors. Instead, we had a lunch date, relaxed, and hung up two light fixtures. The first, the PVC icosahedron pendant I made to replace the too low, never used ceiling fan.

I looked for a cheap pendant and canopy at home improvement and thrift stores, but didn’t find anything. Soooooo, I decided to steal the $6 thrift store pendant from the dining room. Ditched the shade, using only the guts. We had a few metal down rods from other pendants, so I covered the cord with a small piece.

While it may not stay forever, I’m super happy with the open, modern, geometric shape.

I still might replace the top and bottom points, just to make the peaks a little more obvious.

While Ben had the supplies out, I asked him to install a new light in the boys’ room, too. Snagged this one at ReStore for eight bucks. A quick scrub and ready to go. Wish I would have thought about this before and painted the gold canopy. Ahh well. Still better than the boob light that was there.

Bonus, we could raise chickens in here with a light like that. Not that it’ll happen, but we could. And I just might be able to start (and hopefully finish!) scraping the popcorn off the ceiling. Handy Sammy will be out-of-town for a month, so we can shift the boys to his room, giving me a month of time to get it done. Without disturbing him. Woo to the hoo, I’m ready for this. At least I am in my head, my arm might hate me by the end of it.