A Blog Post in Which We Talk About (and actually) Paint

Last weekend, as I approached Sunday mid-afternoon, I had paint cans out, sticky brushes, wet surfaces, ladders in multiple places, piles of tools, piles of dirt, and piles of mulch. Inside, I had a fairly revolting bathroom, a disaster of a kitchen, and no clean laundry for work the next day.

It was pretty glorious. It was the first time in months and months that I'd been able to actually get some paint on this house. And while I am really surprised I ended up at work on Monday wearing a bra and shoes (and all the other appropriate items) and with no caulk still stuck to my legs, it was worth working up to the last minute.

When last we left the exterior projects, we were here:

I'd decided that even though it didn't show progress from the street side, where everyone drives by, it was worth having the patio area painted, where we spend all our time. The window facing the camera is my oldest son's bedroom window, which faces west. The window on the far right is the kitchen eat-in window, which faces north.

I like how the green color makes the brick foundation a feature instead of a detraction. I've still got a ways to go to fill this space, but the right things will come in the right time.

A "from the very beginning" before of the area:

To a wider angle shot, showing the screen porch on the west/back of the house, still with the mauve/beige paint. There are some problems with the exterior siding of the porch, and we're trying to decide what to do before we jump in to the next painting project. 

While I was waiting for caulk to dry, I also did a quick spray paint job on a large rusty metal enamel tray I found in my garage. I wanted something to protect my new patio table from flower pots, and I did not want to buy something.

With leftover spray paint (in orange, and spatters from an almost empty bronze can) it went from rusty and knock-your-eye out yellow to:

It is a good foundation for my island of misfit flower pots. Even though it's already past midsummer I'll probably find something to put in them.

I also got started scraping some windows (far less glamorous, but necessary nonetheless). And I mentioned dirt and mulch piles too. We had a little bit of a landscape project going on as well. I'll get to that in a separate post.....

Right after I get my laundry done, and my bathroom clean.

How's your summer project list? Making progress?

Fast Vintage Kitchen Cart Rehab

We've been up to two things, mainly, around here in the last two weeks.

1. Rain. No additional explanation necessary.

2. Rock. This kind:

My second oldest, Noah, is involved in a summer School of Rock program every year, and it's been a blast. He's the one in the center of the above photo.

So, while waiting for it to stop raining (again) and between rehearsals and practice, I tackled a small project, this kitchen cart, which was lurking around the basement storage room when we moved in:

It was rust on the tops of the shelves, and spider egg cases under the shelves. Ick.

I was really more in the mood initially for a vintage bar cart for the screen porch, but they are another item that have gotten trendy, and therefore expensive. Also, for a screen porch I wanted something a little more sturdy and little less precious. It needed to take the extremes of temperature and a little abuse. Enter the rusty kitchen cart.

In fifteen minute intervals here and there over the last couple of weeks, I dismantled, cleaned, and sanded the cart:

I had a can of spray paint that looked like the old matte gold color of many mid-century metal decor items, but ran out before I got it all done, only to find that they had discontinued that color. You know, AFTER I'd started the project. Forehead slap.

The closest color I found was more dark bronze, which wasn't what I was going for, exactly, but it was close enough, and I was not wanting this to be a production of hunting down the precise color. I wanted it to be done, not another project waiting indefinitely. And, as my brother-in-law likes to say, "It ain't goin' to the fair."

But as I was putting on a second coat, I realized that spraying the darker color around the edges of the shelves and letting the overspray shade into the center, I had a more realistically vintage looking effect than just one solid color would have been anyway:

Happy accidents. Let's hear it for those!

I put it in the corner near the door of the screen porch, which had looked like this before:

And here's the after:

To protect the top I added a vintage tray:

The tiki fork and spoon are in rough shape. They were $1 items from a box of estate auction junk at a flea market. I cleaned them and sanded them a little, but they need restaining and a little additional work. However, I just decided to hang them to get them up off the floor and out of the way, and I have a feeling they'll probably hang there awhile before I get back to them. So for now, we're just going to say they have "patina." Alright? okay. 

While exterior painting remains the goal (c'mon Mother Nature!), this project is getting me a little closer to making the screen porch a place I actually want to spend time in. 

That's a good thing, even if it isn't on the official schedule.

Twin Boys' Room Part II

The goal for Ben and Joe's room was for it to be a play space as well as bedroom space. Our basement level isn't yet ready for habitation, and the sole living room in my 1939 Cape Cod is too small to host the inevitable tide of Lego pieces, Nintendo paraphernalia, books, and Hot Wheels cars associated with not one, but TWO eight-year-old boys.

Luckily, their room, which is on the second floor, is spacious enough for all of that. While it is under the gable and not a complete full ceiling room, I was able to arrange it with the two twin beds under the eaves (enough head space even for adults), and a big floor space in the middle for play.

A made bed? Who's fantasy world is this?

Above you can see a book shelf niche that was built in to the wall, rather badly. One of the things still on the list to do is clean up the trim, and paint both it and the plywood back. The window that defines the full ceiling height (though it's only really 7 feet) is in between the beds.

Monkeys, bats, and fuzzy puppies.

Above is the other side of the window. You can get more of an idea of the ceiling lines of the room in this shot. The quilts are Nautica, and Mom and I got them at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. I like them for their 1950s classic boy's room feel even though they are new. How many times can you go through the register line to use up those "one item only" discount coupons? Just ask me. The pillow shams are sewn (by me) of denim recycled from a futon cover. To be perfectly honest with you, they're only there to gussy up the room for company; the boys wouldn't put up with them on a regular basis. And it's not like this is pillow overload even in this photo. There must be something on the male DNA strand that rejects multiples of pillows. Or throws them on the floor.

"We seem to have run a'bureau, Cap'n!"

The dresser is a few years old, and is another piece of Sears, Roebuck mail order furniture, pine, that I saw fit to paint. I did it with my twelve-year-old son's school desk in this post here. It's already got some dings and wear you can see in the photo. It was from the era in my life (which I'm now over. Who wants to do what everyone else is doing?) when I worshiped all things Pottery Barn, and sought Pottery Barn Look for Barn Sale Price. I've got more money in the new hardware than I've got in the piece of furniture. There's a matching dresser/bookcase piece too, but it wouldn't fit along any of the walls in the new home, and is now in the walk-in closet, which I'd like to turn into a reading nook.

The artwork is a collage I put together of patriotic background fabric, an old Life magazine cover that had become separated from the rest of its edition, some vintage post cards, vintage celluloid buttons, and some military themed ribbon and appliques from the fabric store.

Renovating a Teen Boy's Bedroom, Part Two

Wednesday I had a blast showing off the results of my teenage son's room renovation. Today is part two of the bedroom renovation blog post. I'll just do a little mop up on the smaller details, and (because I'm a realist) I'll also list the things still left to do (sigh).

Grant's bedroom was actually one of the easier ones to pull together because we had a good start: the narrow-strip oak floor had never (by some miracle) been carpeted over, and the walls, while so grubby they were yellow (ick), they were the original plaster and relatively smooth and undamaged.
We chose Valspar Polished Silver, a nice medium gray, for the walls.

I'm geeked because the chest of drawers wall was pretty economical to put together. The chest of drawers was free, found in the house. I'm glad I had the courage to look past the dirty salmon paint color, the spiders (eek), and the smell. That got spruced up with a quart of Valspar Almost Charcoal, and some low-to-mid price range knobs from Lowe's (and buckets of Lysol solution to get rid of the odor).

The round mirror was also found in the house, leaning up against a wall on the screen porch. The architectural prints were $5 each from The Candy Shoppe on Etsy and just popped into inexpensive discount store frames. I didn't even matte them--it's just white typing paper backing them. The fan I've had for a long time (I'm not sure about you, but the longer you have something the less what you paid for it "counts." Amiright? Right!)

A little lamp lunacy

October 2011

It's says so, right down there in the corner on my blogger profile: I buy ugly lamps. Or at least, I buy lamps that other people consider ugly. Friend Kristy has this expression she tossed off on a recent antiquing foray: "I will try to be supportive." Though at the time she was commenting on one of my other obsessive compulsive disorders (junk costume jewelry) people often say this and similar things to me about my lamp lunacy. I'll just say that I tend not to like any lamp made after about 1978, when people's tastes went completely safe, boring, and brass finish.

Combine that with my curbside shopping habit and my wee problem with spray paint, and you have my last lamp adventure. My twins Ben and Joe share a room in the new (old) house and the theme, if you can call it one, is sort of "navy blue/travel/masculine/plaid" with the influence of mid- to late- Lego disaster (their contribution). The bedroom came with an L-shaped built in desk (more on that in future posts). I was looking for a lamp that would a) look cool b) survive two seven-year-old boys, c) come in under $20.

This is what I found laying in the gutter on my way to work one morning:
Lovely, no? 

Yep, the gutter. 

No.

But it was free, and it worked. (Note: In the near background you can see the weirdo pink painted drawers of a dresser I found in the basement. Another blog post for another day. Same sort of 'sow's ear, silk purse' sort of category.)