Painting & Decorating

I have spent a good bit of time (and money...thanks to potterybarn.com...) in the past few weeks trying to make our house feel like home! We normally move into a house very quickly and have everything unpacked and on the walls in less than a week. This time it has taken so much longer! For one thing, Chad was already back at work when we moved into the house, so I did all the unpacking by myself. We also bought new bedroom furniture right before we moved, and moved our old furniture into Addison's room. That totally changed the decorating scheme in both rooms. I haven't done a lot of purposeful decorating before, so it has taken me a while to get what I want.

Mya's room was probably the easiest...

A few updates to the foyer...

I have gone a little Uppercase Living crazy in decorating this time. When I bought this expression for the staircase landing I envisioned tons of family photos filling the wall. However, I found these removable/reusable photos from Uppercase Living and I had to give it a try. These pictures are 2'x2'...the smallest you can order. I was a little worried they would look corny, but I am really happy with them. Best of all, when I ordered they were buy one get one free! I am also excited we can reuse them each time we move. Since those pictures are so big, I decided less was more in this space.

When my mom came up for a visit, I put her to work! We did several painting projects. (yes, we will have to paint all the back when we move, but it is worth it!)

The Living Room.

I was going for light gray. When we first started painting it looked purple. Thankfully we kept painting and it got more gray the more we painted. As long as I don't turn on the florescent lights, it doesn't look purple now.

Next, Addison's play area, which is right off the kitchen. Just a tip - Home Depot's Paint & Primer in one worked great for the dark gray in my bathroom - not so great on this red wall. It took almost a gallon of paint (3 coats) for the one wall. It is still not perfect, but my mom did a great job. Since I've had some experience trying to get red wall here are some tips if you plan to try it...

Use a gray or tinted primer

Get a flat or eggshell finish

Be very careful cutting in that you don't get it too thick or you'll never get rid of the lines

Be slow and steady with the rolling to minimize streaks

Be prepared to paint at least 2 coats, plus primer

I also want to build this bookcase to go in this space (just one):

Plans courtesy of Knock-Off Wood. Who knows when we will get around to doing that though

Next, Addison's room. She wanted it pink, but we compromised on purple.

More to come including the half-bath and master bedroom!