Surprise Bedspread Find

I was out looking for a bedspread specifically for the guest room. I have a somewhat of a  vision of what I want in that room, now it is just a matter of finding it. I’m thinking solid color light fabric with texture-whites or grays or beiges. Then I want to layer it with lots of pillows and a throw to bring in color. Here are a few examples of what I was thinking.

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I’ve been keeping my eye out for something that would fit this style in almost every store I go to. Sometimes I think setting my mind on something and then trying to find it is harder than just shopping until something strikes me. I don’t feel like I’m being too picky; I’m open to different colors after all.

I rarely shop at Dillard’s because they are just so expensive most of the time, but I thought maybe I could find something on sale. Right off the bat, they had a clearance table and I immediately gravitated toward it. But no guest room bedspread appeared.

I also need a new bedspread for the master bedroom as well, but was not ready to focus on that room just yet. I didn’t have a particular look in mind. I have very traditional furniture that I have been contemplating trying to sell so I wasn’t sure that I wanted to put my effort in that room until I decide what I want to do with the furniture. But there was a bedspread on the clearance table that did catch my eye.  I looked at it, and put it down and then walked around the table and look at it again. It is dark brown with a lot of activity going on in the print-very colorful. We abuse our bedding; we sit in bed and drink coffee; we have two teen boys that will come and plop down on it with their shoes on; and of course Charlie, our standard poodle, thinks its his bed as well. I knew a light color would not be practical in there. This dark brown one just might work. And I LOVE IT!  The question was whether or not it was going to be too “foo-foo” for hubby.

While I was contemplating the bedspread, the sales lady came up to me and said of all the bedspreads in the store, it was her favorite. (Of course, that is what sales people are supposed to say!) I asked if there were any additional pillow shams on sale as well. While she was checking I looked around some more, but couldn’t find anything I liked as well.  For 50% off, I felt it was worth it, and how often do you find something on sale that you absolutely love?

I went to check out and everything was ringing up at full price. There was no way I could justify paying full price for it, but the sales lady said she would go ahead and give it to me at 50% off since it had been on the clearance table. (I like that sales lady!)  I excitedly got home and laid it out over the bed. When hubby got home, he said it wasn’t bad and he liked how thick it was. YEAH!! I don’t have to return it.

I soon realized that I needed a third Euro Sham. (The picture on the package only showed two, but it was a queen bed and ours is a king.) I went back to Dillard’s a few days later and couldn’t find my sales lady. The new clerk was a little hesitant to give me the additional sham for 50% off, but sweet talking seemed to do the trick. Now I’m excited to get paint on the walls and carpet on the floors.

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I can pull out so many different colors from this bedspread, the hard part is going to be to limit myself to just a couple. I just love it when I have these unexpected finds. What color would you paint the walls? I’d love to hear your opinions.

Dealing With Mismatched Paint

Thanks to a recommendation from my sister, Kathy, several years ago, I mostly use  Wal-Mart’s Color Place paint. I have generally been very happy with this particular brand of  paint. It covers fairly well and it is less than $15 per gallon. YEAH!  I know it is not at all considered a high quality paint. I have used the more expensive brands that cost $40 per gallon and upward and I can honestly say I can’t tell the difference with how easily it applies or with how it wears.  As often as I change may paint color (historically every 3-4 years) it has served me well.

I would probably recommend a higher quality paint for exterior use. This might be a good interior paint, but my labor is worth something. I can paint most rooms in a day or less depending on the size of the room, but the exterior of the house takes several days to paint. If it didn’t hold up well, that’s a lot of labor to repaint it. It might be just fine, but I’m personally not willing to take the risk.

The color I have been using a lot of lately is called Hot Cafe Au Lait. As I work my way from room to room, I test a little section and it seems to go with everything. It is a very good medium toned neutral and I haven’t been unhappy with my choice yet.

Hot Cafe Au Lait

But frustrating moments are bound to happen to any avid DIY’er. You all know that Tanner painted the laundry room for me a while back but didn’t get to cutting in. Even though the wood work and cabinets are not installed, I still wanted the room to look a little more completed by finishing the brush work next to the ceiling and in the corners. He had used almost an entire gallon of paint with just a little bit left in the bottom of the can. I finished the can and need just a tiny bit more to complete the job. I had another gallon sitting around ready for my next room. I opened the can and stirred it very well. After the paint dried, IT WAS NOT THE EXACT SAME COLOR.

The tile is done and I thought the paint was done. Now the only option I can think of is to repaint the whole room again. I’m not saying that it is the fault of the Wal-mart paint as this has happened with other brands as well. The experts all say to mix numerous gallons together in a 5 gallon bucket. This works great if you know exactly how much paint you will use, but what about when you think you will only need a gallon and you end up needing just a bit more? Not a practical suggestion in this situation. What are your painting mis-haps?

Laundry Room Tile is Complete

I’m glad that job is done. Here is the final product.

 

It took more time than expected to get it to completion, but it was so worth it. Tiling is not very hard, it is just extremely time consuming. We opened a few boxes of tile and noticed a huge color variation-the dye lot was apparently mismarked. Can you see the row of tiles in the center? They are much lighter than the others, but then I ran into some light ones mixed in with dark ones in full boxes so we just mixed them all together. Tanner helped install the cement board underlayment. The next day we began tiling around 9AM. I manned the tile saw and Tanner laid the tiles. He insisted that we do an offset pattern. I insisted it was more cutting and more work. We went back and forth for a little bit and I finally conceded. It definitely adds a lot more character than the straight stack---a good choice.Tanner helped until about 3PM until two of us no longer fit in the tight bathroom. (I really thought we would be done by 2PM with two of us working-ha!) I kept working and working thinking that I was almost done. I frequently messed up the cuts when ever I had to turn the tile upside down in order for it to fit through the saw. I am one of those people who are “left/right” challenged. Throw in an upside down as well and if leads to a lot of re-dos. I was able to use those mis-cut pieces in other places, but it did add to a lot of frustrations and time delays along the way.

I finally finished up around 8PM-totally exhausted. We had moved the washer & dryer into the kitchen so I thought we would grout the following day to minimize being without the washer and dryer. My poor body would not cooperate. I could hardly move, so we put grouting off for another day. It went surprisingly fast-only 4 hours in comparison to the 11 hour it took to lay the tile.

Here are a couple more shots of the completed job.

Dining Room Rug

I have been shopping for rugs for our living room and dining room but have been struggling with what kind and exactly how many rugs to get. The dilemma is that the hardwood floors are gorgeous and we hate to cover them up, but we also want the softness of a rug or carpet under our feet. The debate has been whether or not to be bold and get a patterned rug or to find more simple, pattern free, bound carpets. I love the look of so many of the patterned rugs, but I have been afraid to commit. Will I get tired of the pattern? Will I grow tired of the colors?

I over did it with color at our last house and decided that I don’t want to be stuck with the same color for years on end and grow tired of it. Paint is easy to change, but furniture and rugs are a bit expensive to change when I grow weary of a particular color or pattern.  As I have been shopping for our house, I have been going toward very neutral colors, but am afraid that neutrals can get extremely boring. I have been shopping and looking on the internet and have been totally indecisive. And then it happened. I found the perfect rug for our dining room while shopping for sleeper sofas for the office. I just love it when I find something I had been shopping for and I just know that it is for me, especially when it is unexpected.

I love the varied colors in the rug. Not sure what your computer screen shows, but it has a dark brown back ground, with an ivory border. The pattern has gold, and blue, and maroon and green as well as tan,white and rust. I now have jumping off point to bring color to the rest of our space.

The rug has temporarily found a home in our living room until we decide on a rug for there. (We spend more time in the living room and wanted the softness under our feet.) The search continues for the permanent rug for the living room.

Have you ever had the perfect item jump out and call your name when you least expect it?

Laundry Room Progress

We have been inching along with the laundry room and adjoining bath. Progress seems to be moving so slowly, but one of the motivating factors is that Tanner painted the walls for me. He ran out of steam by the time he got to the bathroom, and he doesn’t like brush work, but what he did sure looks great. I am anxious to carve out the time to really get moving on these rooms again. Most of the year-end book work is done for our other business so I should have a little more free time to devote to our huge DIY project list. I am ready to get cabinets in the laundry room so I can get my cleaning supplies out of the garage. But wait, we need to finish the painting and tile the floor first.

Spray Painted Ceiling Fan

Our house has several fixtures that need to be updated. This can be very pricy. There was no salvaging certain light fixtures, but the ceiling fan in the living room had potential. From what I can tell it is a high quality fan with a remote. To replace it would cost a few hundred dollars. So I spray painted all the metal, flipped over the blades and got new shades at Wal-mart. It is hard to believe that this isn’t a new fan and it goes so well with the new light fixtures.

Quite the improvement from this, wouldn’t you say?

Sectional Sofa

I’m back. I haven’t disappeared from the face of the earth. It’s just that all my expert help is gone. Patrick and Chad are not only wonderful contractors, but they are great motivators for me to get things done. I want Pat & Chad back! Unfortunately, that isn’t going to happen any time soon so we will inch our way along and do what we can do with out them.

Since my last post, we recovered from Christmas and I still continue cleaning and dusting and dusting some more. We also have been trudging along with mudding the new walls. When ever we think we are done, we then realize we had forgotten an area so we would dig out our messy clothes and hit it again. I think the mudding is coming to an end, at least I hope so! I also help hubby out with book work for his businesses. I had only dealt with the absolute essential items over the past couple of months so I spent a lot of time playing catch up with paper work and phone calls.

I did manage to squeeze a little furniture shopping into my days. Our living is much smaller and laid out differently than our old house. I used to fit two sofas in the living room. I can only fit one sofa in this house. We figured that a sectional would accommodate more seating so I have been out shopping at most every reasonably priced furniture store in town.  I felt like Goldilocks. One’s too big, one’s too small or the price is too high. Another is too deep or soft or the color or style were wrong. I went into store after store getting rather discouraged and then I found it at Razook’s.  I knew the minute I laid eyes on it, it was the one I wanted. I took pictures and a fabric swatch home to hubby and he agreed. He told me to go ahead and get it. A couple of days later I went back to the store and wouldn’t you know it, it got sold out from under me. Here is a picture of it-sorry for the very poor photography. I didn’t realize how blurry it was until I down loaded it onto a bigger screen. It didn’t look quite so bad on my phone.

Here is a little clearer picture, but it only shows part of it.

The good news is that I was still able to order it at the same price. The other good news is I can order different pillows-I wasn’t too fond of the plaid pillows that came with it. The bad news is that I have to wait 6-8 weeks. So now we wait. In the mean time, I have been looking for area rugs and dining room chairs. Since the floor plan is open, everything needs to coordinate. It is hard to do that when your primary piece of furniture is missing. Fortunately, I was able to check out the fabric again so my search continues for the other pieces I am looking for. Stay tuned.

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