I got home, went to hang up my jacket and peeked into my computer room (which I now occasionally stop to glance at because I love it so much) and realized I never did a full blog post on this room update! How dare I neglect you guys of such a thing?!?! Of course I am kidding. I don't expect anyone (except my mom, really) to get as excited about a room makeover as I do.
Anyway, I know I gave you a little snip-it of the update a few posts back, but here's the full rundown in a not-so-short nutshell:
First my computer room looked like this: Note that this is on a CLEAN day. The sample swatches of yellow paint by the window trim had been there for probably two years and the lovely floral loveseat came with the house. It usually had a brown sheet over it to hide the in-your-face pattern but towards the end of this old room's life, I decided, 'what's the point?' and kept the sheet off. It was more of a pain than anything. And please don't think that the pictures on the wall had any rhyme or reason for hanging there. The nails were there from the previous owner and things just needed a place to hang rather than collect dust in a corner somewhere so I hung them 'wherever' for the time being.
Beautiful, wasn't she?
I kind of went back and fourth as to whether or not I wanted to tear the carpet out of this room. I knew from when I took my living room carpet out that there was a wood floor under this stained, matted down carpet, I just still wasn't sure what I wanted to do. Then one day, back in September I took the plunge and tore that carpet out. A new roof was getting put on my house and I had a dumpster handy so I figured there was no time like the present to get this makeover started! After moving the furniture out, ripping out the carpet and pulling out a boat load of carpet staples, the room was looking something like this:
Next came the big part...paint. If you remember, I chose to go with white trim in my bathroom. I had a couple reasons for wanting to go with white: A., I liked it...I know it's trendy right now and a lot of people cringe at the thought (I used to be one of those people), but I like it. and B. the trim in my house is so banged up, dirty and full of the previous owners paint, that there is so way that removing the trim, sanding and re-staining it and getting it back on the wall is really an option. It's a long story, but trust me. Anyway, it was time to paint that window trim and those baseboards white. I won't even get into the problems I had with that. The windows ended up turning out fine but the baseboards were a different story. My dad and I ended up taking them all down and I bought new baseboards and quarter-round--the same baseboards that we put in the bathroom. I LOVE it! I really didn't get any pictures of the baseboard paint horror that occurred, but it was bad. You can't tell in the picture below, but these are the first white baseboards (before they came off and were replaced by new ones...You're lucky I didn't get close-ups!
Ok, now it was time to paint the walls! Yippee!!! Oh wait, first I have to pick a rug...I am in a big fat hurry to pick a rug so my mom and I decide to give Dock 86 a try. Has anyone ever been there? I hadn't. It's like a gigantic Home Goods, Pier1 and some other house store crammed into one gigantic warehouse. Anyway, I picked out this rug that I thought was the bomb dot com. My mom thought otherwise but I won because it's my house. Again, I didn't get pictures of it, sorry to say. It had this blue and yellow crazy pattern and some polka-dots thrown in there. I got it home, laid it down and immediately decided that I wanted to paint the walls yellow--the same yellow that was in the rug. Why I had my heart set on yellow, I'll never know. It's not for every room, and this case was no exception. Two coats of paint later, I had this room that looked like a bottle of mustard had gotten murdered in. I am not sure if it was the white trim, the lack of things on the walls or the honey colored floor that clashed with it, but it was not a good look.
Somewhere during the yellow wall mishap, I decided I no longer liked the rug, either. Actually, back up...I was still kind of on the fence about the yellow walls so it wasn't a mishap...yet. I was so stuck on yellow from the beginning that I think I thought I was going to let myself down if I didn't go with it. Anyway, so here I am, dealing with the yellow and then I decide I don't like the rug after all. It's way too busy and just yuck. So, back to the store it goes.
Next I go on another rug hunt and visit Kohls.com. I find this nice reddish Ombre rug. It's wool, it's a good price, I like it, I buy it. I get it and lay it out in the yellow room and then it was like Mr. Ketchup got to the murder scene of Mr. Mustard and set up camp. Seriously, it was like a summer picnic table in my room. Not cool. I unfortunately skipped taking pictures of the ketchup/mustard/wall/rug combination as well. What was I thinking?? I was probably thinking "don't take any pictures, just get this paint off the walls!" So now it's official....it's the walls I hate and the rug I like.
So I run my buns down to Menards and get a slew of paint swatch chips. After a week or so of the chips hanging on the wall, I decided on a color. Back down to Menards I go to get the paint. Something tells me though to just buy a test can. Did you know they have test jars for like $3 or something crazy?? I didn't either. I saw one size and assumed it was the 'test' size...to the tune of $15. It wasn't until after I got home, opened the can and tested the color that my mom told me they have TINY test sizes, not just quart sizes. Duh Leiann. Anyway, I paint a few patches on the wall and it's dark. I mean dark. I again, think that maybe I can live with it. It matches the outside part of my new rug so perfectly! Again, I let the paint dwell on the wall for about a week. Now it was time to get down to business...this has been dragging out long enough! I am out and about and go to Menards to pick up my paint. Something tells me to talk to my mom again. I say to her: (mind you, she hasn't seen the dark patches on the wall) "do you think it's going to be too dark?". And she goes "well, based on the fact that you've asked me a few times and that you have been thinking about it for so long, yes, it's too dark". And with that, the decision was made,...I picked a different color while standing in the paint swatch isle at Menards, had the can mixed and that was that! I was done farting around with paint colors!
Two more coats of paint later, the rug is laid down and we have this:
Not terrible...but not the best. By this point I am spent. I am sick of painting, sick of looking at rugs and just ready for this room to be back together. I decide that the "silver screen" paint actually looks a little lavender in the right light and it matches the outside edges of the rug nicely. Ok, it's settled. We're sticking with this rug.
I continue on with the tasks at hand: My dad and I put up the new baseboards after their all painted, we hang those cool floating shelves that I got at Ikea and I weed through 'things' to hang on my walls and the floor looks like this for a few days:
Then I decide on an arrangement for the bare wall that looked like this:
But then it actually ends up looking like this:
Allow me to explain: Upper left - old bathroom tile, both floor and wall pieces. Next to tile - Turtle painting from Hawaii. Large bottom left - State Fair painting by Michael Birawer. Large upper Right - a corner in Minneapolis painting by Michael Birawer. Lower right - golf scorecard from a game with my grandpa and uncle. Next to golf score - empty cigarette packs and match books found behind the wall during the bathroom renovation.
As you may notice, there is another rug change. While shopping at World Market probably a month and a half after the red Kohl's rug was purchased, I came across this beauty. Something made me go over to the rug section even though I had no reason to. I saw this rug and the Heaven's opened and the Angel's sang. I had to have this rug and replace the red one that I was just 'eh' about anyway. It was a lot more money than the red one, but that didn't matter. I had to have it. I called Kohl's to be sure I could still return the red one, had the worker at World Market grab the rug from the back and I was off. The best part about it was that it was marked way down when I got to the register and ended up being cheaper than the red one! It was a win-win situation. A sign. A must-have-happened-for-a-reason type-of-thing. It was awesome! I got it home, laid that bad boy down and I was a happy camper! I after hanging more things, changing out the knobs on a little dresser I got at a barn sale and finished painting the closet, I had a pretty snazzy looking room if I do say so myself. I still need to get blinds for the windows, do something with the ceiling fan and get maybe a small stand for the printer but other than that, she's in good shape! I also may want to get a piece of furniture for that big wall, but that's down the road a bit. As for the floral couch? She was put out for free on the curb while the guys put the new roof on and somebody hauled her away. I hope she is loving her new home!
And while we're on type and picture overload, allow me to share one more thing with you...
I purchased an old window at a barn sale this fall and had this vision of making it into a table top. I asked my grandpa if he would make the table portion for me for Christmas, and he said he would. I explained that I wanted the window part to open so you could store stuff in it. I had to do my fair share of work though too...the window trim was coated in thick paint so I spent more than a few hours stripping the paint and getting it sanded down to bare wood. The table is now at my house and I am still deciding if I want to re-paint or stain it. I haven't quite decided. Either way, here it is in raw wood form. Any suggestions would be appreciated! Also, this isn't her final resting place...I haven't made that decision yet, either. She is just out of the way tucked in this corner. :)
I LOVE this room!
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