When boredom strikes...

I do random things like this at work if I'm all caught up and extremely bored.

MASTER BEDROOM (click to enlarge)

I know there are some people that are all "eww, a matching set?" when it comes to furniture of any kind. In some instances, though, I don't mind it... Especially when the furniture I've chosen has a wood finish since I'm not really a fan of mixing wood tones. Hell, I don't even like that my couch has dark-stained legs while the rest of my living room furtinure is mission-style oak, LOL. When we first bought the furniture for our bedroom, it was only the bedset and nightstand. We were picking up our new couch a few weeks later and the store was going out of business. We were just browsing while they were loading the truck (Andy's grandfathers both have trucks for us to borrow, yay!) and they had the display armoire marked down to about 30% of the original price. There wasn't a knick or scratch on it so we had them put it in the truck too! Anyone with a true vintage bungalow (I'm talking not a new construction built to look like a vintage one), knows that the closets are almost non-existant. The armoire is sooo nice for the storage we were previously lacking!

The one thing I'd like to change about the master bedroom, eventually, is the carpet. Unfortunately, unlike most of the house, there's no hardwood underneath it. And when I say most of the house, I mean it -- the living room, kitchen, dining room, hallways and guest room all had the original hardwood!

GUEST ROOM (click to enlarge)

This is more of an "I wish" board than an "I have" board considering that, other than the paint, I only have three things from it, LOL. I posted a few months ago about wanting to get a cream bedset but I was browsing online and became only slightly obsessed with iron beds. I found the one above and fell in LOVE! I figured I wouldn't have to match the nightstand to the bedset and stumbled upon the lively green nesting tables above. They'd be a great contrast against the teal walls with cream trim AND they'd pull in the bits of green in the bedding. Sold! And how great is that rug? Thanks, Target, for having some cute and affordable options!

Remember this post? I talked about Craftsman colors and gave a little grid of the colors in my house? Compare row two there with row two here. I've talked a lot about repainting my dining room (which I still haven't started, by the way... So glad they let us push the pick up date for our set out by a week.) but I'm certain I haven't mentioned repainting my hallway. It hasn't happened yet, but will soon. Anyone who knows me is well aware that I'm browsing art pretty much all the time... I came across this whimsical print:

And, like anything else, decided I needed it. My hallway paint was based on vintage garden magazine covers. I'm not really a floral person. They were pretty and on sale so I ordered them. It's been three years and now I want to change it up, lol. I'm the painter so why not?! I just need to find a few other corresponding prints and the hallway will be added to my to-do list.

Oh boy...

You see, friends, I have a problem. Once I get the littlest spark of an idea in my head, I immediately start looking for inspiration. Yesterday I said something along the lines of "if I ever decide to repaint a room, it would probably be my dining room." That quickly turned in to "OMG, I NEED TO REPAINT MY DINING ROOM RIGHT NOW, NOW, NOW!" in Kaycee-land.

I've had an idea for a wall color and accent color combo for a little while now. So, I was all "sup, Google?" And what I found really makes me want to paint my dining room cream:

I especially love this last one. The ivory built-in with creamy, buttery walls? LOVE. Absolutely love. And I know, I know... Cream is a color too. I worry that it may be too neutral for the rest of my house. Y'all know this girl is not afraid of color. I don't want the dining room to feel like I just haven't gotten around to painting it. So, who knows. We'll see. :)

I found this picture while browsing Google, too. Are you kidding me with that wrap around art wall? I almost pooped my pants when I saw it! Just kidding, but still. AMAZING.

I found this, too. I don't know where to buy it or where I'd put it, but I love it and have decided I need one.

Craftsman Color

I did a lot of research about Craftsman homes shortly after we moved in to our dreamy bungalow in 2007, and the one thing I really noticed is the fearless use of color. If it's found in nature, it's fair game to go on the walls and I LOVE that! I knew I was going to have a lot of fun picking paint colors and decorating. I actually had made a little chart before we even started THINKING about finding a house of what I'd want to paint the rooms... That went out the window once we bought our house. I really wanted to fit my colors and decor to the Arts & Crafts design of our bungalow.

The other day, I was bored at work (shh!) and browsing "Craftsman decor" on Google (shh!!) and came across these drawings. They made me smile because the colors you see in them are the colors that I chose for my house four years ago.

I made a little chart of all of the colors on the main floor of our house. Eventually I'll do another for the basement but the only thing that's painted down there is the half bath and that's a light, buttery yellow color. I kinda-sorta told Andy he could do whatever he wanted to the basement but I have a feeling I'll get bossy and decide paint colors and flooring down there too, LOL. It's just my nature. ;)

Of course, who is to say I won't change my mind on one of these in a few months and decide to change it up? Especially now that I can cut in without having to tape all of the moldings/trim/beadboard off! The only room I could possibly see myself changing the color for (right now, anyway!) is the dining room. I like it but I kind of feel like red dining rooms are everywhere! Do I know what I'd want to paint it? Nope. But we'll see. It'd be easy while it's empty and waiting for the new dining room set, eh? Tempting. ;)

Lazy Sundays = Art Browsing

We've already determined that I'm a huge fan of artwork, especially vintage art... And especially creepy vintage art. It's a little dreary today and my town is having its annual Saint Patrick's Day parade which means my street will be packed to the brim with cars (I live two blocks off of the street it's on) so I'm not going anywhere that I don't have to today!

(Sidenote: I will be going to my dad's later this afternoon for an early dinner. He sent me a text yesterday asking if we wanted to come over and have chili cheese dogs. Guess I forgot to tell him I went vegetarian two weeks ago, haha. And we've also already determined that my dad is the most outdoorsy-outdoorsman ever and so when I texted back and said the guys would love it but I don't eat meat anymore, his response was "...What?" LOL. He then asked if I wanted tofu hotdogs (NO) or a salad (YES). So, early dinner at my dad's is my one destination today!)

So what do I do when I don't have anywhere to go and don't feel like being productive? I browse artwork! I believe I've mentioned before that our living room is 30 feet long. One side has a 13 or 14 foot long built-in and the other, except for an open doorway leading to the hallway, is alllll wall. I knew as soon as we moved in that it would be my gallery wall and I've been collecting art ever since. I've got roughly two dozen pieces and am still hunting. The sizes vary (though I have a lot of 13 x 19!) from 4 x 6 to 24 x 26 but the colors are pretty much in the same families -- pale green, pale red, creams and browns.

I've got the perfect Craftsman pale green on my walls (thanks to Behr!) so I figured I'd show you the "Colorsmart Preview" that started it all. (Yeah, I totally saved it, and added the name of the color just now!):

While none of the prints below are creepy, here are some of my favorites found today that I've decided I absolutely must have in my life:

Okay first of all, it has peacocks on it (which I love!), but look at all of the amazing color!

I really have no idea what this is for, other than it's showing some kind of "togetherness" throughout the world with all of the flags on the skirts of the women, but again with the color! Need.

One of my favorite kind of prints? The kind that depicts places from long ago. Here's a "bath house" in San Francisco! Love the ladies dancing in the water.

Another favorite kind of print? Vintage ads! Edison lightbulbs! Amazing! Love the fact that his little "pony tail" looks like a lit candle wick.

Do I already have three vintage prints of foxes eluding the hunt? Totally. Could I use another? Totally.

I <3 art nouveau. Just sayin'.

I absolutely adore silly prints. Obviously this puppy is ready to sit down with his family and enjoy Thanksgiving. Totally something my dogs would do. They already eat off of a fork. (Shh! Don't tell Andy.)

I have no clue why the frogs and rabbit are carrying another frog in some kind of hollowed out apple. All I know is that this needs to be on my living room wall. PRONTO.

The watermarks should give away the fact that I found all of these on All Posters. There are almost 37,000 vintage prints and it's safe to assume I've browsed them all. And will soon own half. ;)

Open-face cabinets...

...Are a pain in my tuckus. I have been absolutely obsessed with the kitchen in our house since the first time we ever walked through it. It has the original cabinets... The big ones on either side of the sink as well as the cabinets above the island all have glass inserts. When we first moved in, other than tossing a few plates and putting the extra pots I wasn't quite sure what to do with yet in them, my open face cabinets had no decoration. See below: 

You can even kind of see our original dining room set, in the background of the first picture, too! (And the hideous pendant lights from the previous owners, lol.) We also have a cabinet next to our stove that holds all of our spices with an open face as well. Once I got to the point on my household "to-do" list that I was past the big things and could focus on the details, I had to try to figure out what the heck to fill these cabinets with. The cabinets to the right of the sink already had one shelf full of an antique depression glass set (two sizes of informal glasses as well as two sizes of formal stemware) that we were gifted by a family friend. You can kind of see them in the second picture... As well as little baby Sadie!!

The problem is that it took forever to figure out what to do with the rest of the cabinets! I think that part of it is the fact that they don't need to serve a purpose. We have more than enough cabinet space for pots, pans, canned stuff, etc. and so the shelves that can be seen through the glass are purely for the sake of looking pretty! I went through all kinds of decor and couldn't find anything I liked enough to "stick." I've had plate sets, and a collection of vases, and a mix of both and everything has just been a big ol' thumbs DOWN.

So, I did what any 21st century 20-something would do. I searched our BFF, Google, and came up with two gems:

Even though these are shelves and obviously NOT cabinets, they're open to the room and so I figured it was close enough. :) I love the mix of artwork with all of the dishes. I also love the pop of teal, since I've planned to incorporate pops of color in my cabinets.

I am 100% smitten with these cupboards. The mix of glass with porcelain and then throwing in some sterling silver pitchers? I'm like, gaga over this. I love the big vase of fruit on the counter, and I think I might start keeping my fruit this way too!

Over the last few weeks, I've been slowly acquiring little knick knacks to help fill my cupboards. Cake plates, platters, creamers, tea pots... All in cream ceramic. The pop of color I'm using? Red. I've gotten a few red vases, a few ceramic chubby bird statues in red, chargers... I bought a few things in a butter-nut squash color, too, to bring the color of the walls in to the cabinets. I think my favorite find, though, was a set of four small pictures. All of them are in distressed black frames, they're all vintage scientific prints -- two of red corals and two of anemones. I'm so excited to mix them in it's not even funny, lol. Right now everything is up haphazardly  on the shelves until I can plan out how I want them in there. Y'all know me and my lists... This might take a while, haha.

Weekend Wrap-Up

We were all about the house this weekend. Which, in looking at my last week or so's corresponding 365 pictures, it may seem that we've been all about the house for, as Tred would say, a "minute." This is kind of true! The procrastination we've had in finishing a few projects that we had previously put on the back burner is GONE and we're trying to get everything done, done, done!

We bought two of these fans to put in the living room:

We're finally ready to say see-ya-later to the ugly track lighting on ONE side of our 30 foot long living room. This Saturday, Andy will be replacing the lighting with one fan and then installing the other on the other side of our living room. I really have no idea which of the previous owners (since '45) thought it was a good idea to have lighting in only one half of the room, but we're over it!

I ordered the new kitchen faucet as well! In the end, I got it for $185.00 less than the original price (that's an extra $70.00 more off than I thought I'd get) and I am so excited about that! Plus, with Amazon Prime, I paid $3.99 for overnight shipping so it will be here tomorrow! Can't wait to get this bad boy installed!
  

We caved and got this light for our bathroom, as you've already seen from my 365 from yesterday. I know that I said before that we were keeping our previous light fixture in there (it was oil rubbed bronze but I re-finished it in brushed-nickel). Well, when we put up our new fancy-schmancy curtain rod and curtain rings, they were a totally different shade than the light. And it looked weird! This light was half off and I love that the shades point up. With our old light, the shades pointed down and you could see the lightbulbs. I know, who cares, right? That'd be this girl. Sigh.

When we first moved in to our house, there was berber carpet in our living room and hallway. Since I knew that Craftsman bungalows were known for all things natural-wood, I was a little curious. Especially since the kitchen, dining room and one of the bedrooms still had the original hardwood floors. So one night, Andy peeled up a corner and it was like music started playing... Underneath the carpet was the original hardwood with a pretty pattern around the edge. I think we ripped up ALL of the carpet that same night, LOL. In the last four years though, it's been a pain in our butts as far as upkeep goes. We have four dogs and so all of those little puppy paws on hardwood = scratch city. This weekend we decided to buy two huuuge 9x12 rugs. This way, the pattern around the edges (it runs through the middle of the room too, which is why we wanted two rugs... The 9x12's will fit perfectly in the middle of the pattern.) still shows but the rest of the floor isn't getting destroyed. Problem solved!

I found these finials (and matching rods) to hang up the new curtains for the dining room. We already know how hard it is to find burnished brass ANYTHING, so I was ready to scream when I realized I was going to need curtain rods. Not to mention the fact that the windows in our dining room are abnormally large. I'm talking, two are 78 inches across and one is 114 inches across. Yeah, huge. AHH! We were looking at rugs at Home Depot and what did I spy right across the aisle? These finials with matching rods! And they were long enough for my windows!

  

Yep, I said new dining room curtains up there... We were at Marshall's over the weekend (just like every other weekend, it seems like!) and right after I found the clock that I posted about a few days ago, I walked by the curtains and found the deal of a lifetime! I figured there was no way in hell I'd find curtains there for my dining room since I'd need six panels and there usually aren't that many of one style available. I found six beautiful, gold silky panels though! What'd it put me back? 39 DOLLARS FOR ALL SIX. Insane, since that was the original price for just ONE panel! Woo! I thought it'd look a little weird to have 9 and a half foot and 6 and a half foot windows with curtains at the ends and nothing else but I was stumped when it came to what kind of valance to get. I browsed and browsed and browsed and just when I thought I couldn't browse anymore, I found the ones below. Chocolate brown with gold leaves! Perfection! Andy's mom is making sheers for us (hooray!) so we can get rid of the ugly, ugly blinds from the previous owners. By the end of the week (I had to order the valances), our dining room windows will be bland no more!

Other than buying out what seemed like all of the tri-cities in the home-decor category, we watched the Red Wings and had chicken fajitas at my mom's, LOL. What exciting lives we lead. ;)

Deal o' the week

Super pumped about this faucet, y'all. Once it's here, it'll be sitting pretty on our pedestal sink in the bathroom. Retail? $110.00. What'd I pay? $45.00! WOOOO! Pretty sure I'll order the kitchen-sized faucet for our kitchen sink as well, since it's currently $115.00 cheaper than it normally sells for! Amazing.

Re-doing our guest room

A few months ago, we got a new mattress and boxspring for our bedroom. This meant that our guest room got an upgrade too, since we moved our previous queen set in there and gave our old full set the boot. Fortunately for me (although Andy sees it otherwise, lol) this also meant that the guest room got new bedding since our other stuff was the wrong size. I really had no idea what I wanted since we were going to be swapping bedrooms and I could pretty much start over as far as decor went. We were out one night to pick up a few sets of sheets when I walked by a comforter set. It was one of those moments where you kind of just walk by something, give it a passing glance and then realize what you saw so you put it in reverse and take a closer look. What's more Craftsman (other than sleeping with a blanket of leaves, maybe) and/or quentissential Americana than a quilt? Seriously. And the colors were so fun! So, the set was mine -- err, ours:

That started my color palatte. The bedroom that is to become the guest room has cream crown molding, chair rails, baseboards and closet doors so I knew that I could get away with a darker color on the walls. I decided to use the dark teal color on the quilt as my wall color. Thankfully Behr has ColorSmart and so I was able to select and modify colors until I found one that worked, as seen on the random bedroom walls that Behr lets you "paint":

Eventually, and hopefully soon, I'd like to get a bed set like the one below. It's almost identical to the full size one that we had (it was a birthday gift from my dad when I was 16 or 17) previously... I just like cream headboards, I guess!

I'm obsessed with artwork, seriously. On my down time, if I happen to be online, I've always got a tab open to browse All Posters. The art I'm using in the guest room? I've actually had the prints for about two years now. They were on clearance and I just loved them... They're not anything like what I typically buy (I tend to stick with vintage ads or plant/wildlife scientific-type prints) but for some reason I just had to have them! I think I spent maybe $5.00 a piece on them, which is insane because they were about $40.00 a piece when they were first available. Anyway -- to sum it up -- I love them, I just had no where to put them! So they stayed stashed in my cupboard in their little cardboard roll. It wasn't until I brought the quilt home that I realized Heshi Yu's artwork had the same teals and yellows as the quilt and so, umm, CHA-CHING! Guest room walls = done! I'm using "Springtime" (first piece) and "Skaters" (second piece), as seen below:

Now all I need is the willpower to stop procrastinating and start painting. Blech.

Okay, so let me elaborate...

When I said earlier that my search for the perfect dining room set has gone on for three and a half years, I wasn't kidding. I know, I know... You're wondering how it could possibly take someone three and a half years to find a dining room set. Well, uhh, I don't really know. Does it make it any better to know I've really only averaged finding and nixing one set a year? No? Well fine! I've totally found pretty ones but they're just not "the one." There's one thing I really obsess over and it's my house. I grew up in an old Victorian home that my mom decorated to look like everything was original and that's probably where my obsession comes from. I don't have a cookie cutter house, I absolutely did not want a cookie cutter house and so this vintage Craftsman bungalow of mine will look like a Craftsman bungalow! I feel like that should have damn it at the end of it. ;)

Anywho. I thought I'd tell the story of my search. It started with this dining room set:

It was perfect! Until I realized it was the exact same color as our hardwood floors. That might not be a big deal to some... But, it was also the same color as the baseboards. And the crown molding. And all of the woodwork/trim around the windows. Guess what? Our dining room is open to the kitchen except for an island with open-face cabinets above it. The other three walls? ALL windows. Yeah, it was a little overwhelming.

And then there was this one:

I loved it. A lot. The backs of the chairs were beautiful. It definitely had a vintage look. It was on sale. It had a matching buffet. The top of the table was a pretty, dark mahogany color. Well, it was until you set anything on it. The pretty mahogany stain scratched away just from having things placed on the table. Yeaaah, no.

Andy was kinda-sorta obsessed with pub height tables which I still, to this day, don't get because he HATES sitting at them if we go out to eat. I mean, really hates it... Like, "wait an extra 30 minutes for a regular table at Lucky's" hates it. He was all "why not?" and I was all "WHY?!" and I thought I had successfully dodged the pub-height bullet. But, alas, one day we were browsing furniture websistes and we saw this one:

Andy was all "woo hoo!" and I was all "WHY?!" and he was all "wah, wah, I like it and I never get a say in how our house is decorated, wah." So I caved. I will admit that the Craftsman undertones of this table helped to sell it a little. All of the slats on the chairs are pretty, I still think that. I just couldn't get over the fact that I don't see counter height tables as formal. One thing I really wanted in a house was a separate dining room and to me, a separate dining room calls for a table that's a little more formal than simulating sitting at a countertop.

So there we were... Still stuck with the little four seater table that we got when we moved in. Every so often, when we're out and about, I make Andy stop in to furniture stores just to browse. He loves it! (Just kidding) We came across a dining room set and I fell in loooove. It was heavy and had trestles just like the first table. It was a little lighter than the floors and trim in our dining room, it was distressed and it had pretty metal details on the corners. It was big enough without a leaf to seat six people comfortably and with the leaf could easily accomodate 8-10. PERFECTION. I sat on my hands about this one, though.

Me sitting on my hands might be different than the normal person, though. Me sitting on my hands means that I spend every waking minute thinking about how bad I want the table and just knowing that when the time comes that we actually suck it up and go to get it, it will be gone and I'll be devastated. Did I say "might be" up there? I meant "is totally." It also entails me dragging Andy to the furniture store as often as I can just to look at it. It took the better part of a year of me doing this and still wanting the table to bite the bullet. That picture up there is a peek of the set and much better quality than the picture I took with my camera phone, LOL. Come this time next month, it'll be sitting pretty in my dining room and I'll never think about dining room tables again.

Bad, Bad Blogger

I have been a bad blogger, it's true! Have I been posting lately? Yes. Has it been much more than my 365 pictures? No. I've been busy planning and working on household projects and to be honest, I haven't touched my computer much when I've been home! While I'm still doing stuff around the house, I figured I need to at least update my blog with what's been going on! So, have some tidbits:

- My lack of posts stem mostly from the fact that I'm re-doing my bathroom from top to bottom... And when I say top to bottom, that is sooo literal it's almost not even funny.  Other than the toilet, sink and tub, the only thing staying is the mirror and that's only because it has beveled edges and goes with everything, LOL. I've spent the last week painting every inch of the bathroom. The walls have gone from tan to dark gray. The wainscoting, cabinets, doors, trim, ceiling and beams have all been painted bright white (they were all previously off white). Next up is installing all of the new hardware, putting the light fixture up (same one, because I love it so much, but I got some of that spray paint that replicates brushed nickel and changed it up from oil rubbed bronze since all of our new hardware is brushed nickel) and hanging the new art. But before all that? Putting in new flooring. I'm so looking forward to being done!

- Before I started in the bathroom, I completed my quest for new living room curtains. It doesn't seem that hard but ya know what? I'm PICKY! We had pale green, pale red, gold and brown checked curtains for out here but I have so much artwork that I decided I wanted one, solid color for the curtains. Rust red. I seriously had to trek all over mid-Michigan to find some! And when I finally did, it was at Marshall's of all places! But they're perfect and had matching valances so my heart is happy and my living room windows are complete!

- Andy started a new job this month! His background is in IT and he's been trying and trying to get something in that field ever since he volunteered as a power user when he first started working for Dow. He finally interviewed for an in-house Network Technician position on a Tuesday, was called in for a second interview two days later and then was called and offered the job an hour after his second interview! He was really excited, especially since the company he now works for has contracts with major corporations like GM, Target, Blockbuster, etc. and he gets to play with their networks all day.

- Once the bathroom is finished I plan on finally swapping our bedrooms. We're currently in the bedroom toward the back of the house and I want to move into the guest room we have toward the front of the house. We have a Craftsman bungalow from the 40's and the bedrooms are the same size, so it doesn't matter which one is the "master." We've got to repaint the rooms though. :( The new master bedroom will be the same pale red we've had to go with all of our existing stuff in the current master, but I got all new bedding for the guest room when we upgraded the mattress set in there from a full to a queen and so we'll be painting the new guest room a dark teal color to tie together all of the new bedding!

- The search that I'm ashamed to admit has continued? My hunt for the perfect dining room set. I've spent about three years hemming and hawing over what I want. I think, though, that I've found *the one.* I won't say anything more until it's for sure... But I think after this week we'll own it and I'll be in love with it. And THEN I will share my love with the blogging world. ;)

I told you my life has revolved around house stuff lately. One little snippet about Andy and the rest is all home decor. Yikes. More not so boring stuff later!