One Room Challenge-Sunporch and Master Bathroom-Week 5

Week 5, holy hell!!!!  Its down to the wire now.  So the curtain hardware is delayed.  I have everything but the brackets.  They said it's probably not going to get here in time so I had to go and buy temporary ones.  What a pain.  Also, I started on the curtains and finished one panel.  I put it up to see how it would look...disaster.  The fabric, though it said was appropriate for drapery use is way too thick and heavy.  My husband said it looked like something that should be on the couch in a Mad Men episode.  Ding ding ding.  So...I'm going in another direction.  I scrambled and found some fabric that actually just arrived last night.  In the ad it said there were 10 yards available which would be tight but would work.  Turns out it wasn't continuous!  Crap.  I'm going to work some magic and make it work though.  It's going to be a heavy sewing weekend.  My favorite, insert rolling eyes.  I also forgot to mention that I ordered another piece of furniture for the sunporch.  A cute little ottoman that will serve as extra seating if needed.  Not that it matters though since it will be a miracle if it gets here by next week.

On the brighter side of things I did get the roman shade for the bathroom which is gorgeous, and the mirror for the door is done.  The door is being picked up today and the mirror will be installed tomorrow.  There better not be any hiccups with that!  I also made the pillow covers and got my chairs in which I love.  Styling is almost done as well.  Now if I can just finish those frickin curtains all will be right with the world.  Here's a peek at my progress.

(The new fabric...wish me luck!)

(The painted etagere!)

I also got the real roman shade and made the pillow covers but I'm going to wait until next weekend to show them in the reveal.

Sunporch:  -Buy coffee table, end tables, chairs (ordered)

                  - Finish styling bookcase and style tables

                  - Put up natural shades (ordered)

                  -Make curtains and decorative pillows

                  -Faux fur rug (got it)

                  -Pray that the reality mirrors my vision

Masterbath:  -Get roman shade for window
                     -Make faux roman for small window

                     -DIY bench project

                     -Find/style etagere

                     -Hang closet door and get mirror made

                     -Touch up paint

                     -TIDY UP BATHROOM.

By the way, I'm going to go through all the sources next week.  Keep forgetting to do it but I promise I will!

That's about all for now.  Next week is going to be fun.  Not the whole week, just Thursday when it's all done and I can just relax and go to work.  Wait, what?  Oh, right. Work (rolling eyes).  I'm sure everyone is scrambling now, right?   Let's see shall we?  One Room Challenge Designers and Guest Participants.

The One Room Challenge-The Sunporch and Master Bathroom-Week 4

Welcome back!  Progress is still on a roll over here.  We just got the shades in and put them up.  They look so great and now we'll have a bit of privacy when we want.  I'm still waiting for  the chairs which are arriving this week (CAN'T WAIT!).  I really hope that this is all going to look good together.  I did get some bad news though.  I have the curtain rods and rings but the brackets weren't going to work so I had to order new ones which won't get here in time.  So....I'm going to have to find some temporary brackets for the time being.  I mean I can't not put my curtains up that I haven't even made yet.  That was a terrible sentence but you know what I'm saying.

As for the bathroom, I got the etagere in and the color, though very attractive, looked AWFUL in the bathroom.  Fail.  However, I do have my trusty can of spray paint...so looks like I will be spray painting it.  Hey, whatever works.

I finished painting the pocket doors. That was a blast...not.  Especially when I figured out that I was painting them the wrong formulation of Decorators White.  I was starting to think I was going crazy since the doors were NOT matching the trim I had painted a few years ago.  Another gallon of paint later I figured out what I had done wrong.  I really loathe painting.  Anyway, the door that was lacquered is going back to be stripped and repainted the right color in latex paint.  As soon as I get that back the mirror is ready to be put on.

I also was able to do the faux roman(ish) shade .  I researched online, but everything I read was confusing my brain so in the end I just kinda winged it.

I mean, it's not perfect but I kinda love it.  The only other news I have in the bathroom is this print I got at TJ Maxx that's going above the toilet.

Cute huh?  Kind of goes with the whole botanical thing that's going on and now my husband has something nice to look at when he's doing his thing.  What can I say?  I'm a giver.

So everything is progressing at a steady pace.  Here's what's left.

Sunporch:  -Buy coffee table, end tables, chairs (ordered)

                  - Finish styling bookcase and style tables

                  - Put up natural shades (ordered)

                  -Make curtains and decorative pillows

                  -Faux fur rug (got it)

                  -Pray that the reality mirrors my vision

Masterbath:  -Get roman shade for window
                     -Make faux roman for small window

                     -DIY bench project

                     -Find/style etagere

                     -Hang closet door and get mirror made

                     -Touch up paint

                     -TIDY UP BATHROOM.

I'm pretty confident that I'm going to finish these rooms.  YES!!!  I have to make up for the last ORC I did.  I have to say I'm equally as excited to see what everyone else has done in their rooms.  So hop to it!  Featured Designers and Guest Participants

The One Room Challenge-The Sunporch and Master Bathroom-Week 3

Week 3 already?  Well I'm plugging along...

Got the side tables which I'm loving.  So far I really like the lamp in here as well.  It's starting to feel more cozy!

I started up touching up the wall paint in the bathroom.  I don't know what was happening with us the day we painted the bathroom but it looks like a couple of amateurs painted it.  So not a good job.  But it's mostly fixed.  The big hiccup for me came when we got our bathroom closet door back from the place that was supposed to strip and paint it.  The door had a super dark stain on it with missing patches of stain and we could never match it with any product that would make it look nice again so we gave up and decided to paint it.  Honestly, I really wanted a white door anyway.  When we got it back the color was way off.  Maybe because they laquered it instead of doing a semigloss latex like the rest of the trim is?  I don't know but it just looks stupid. So I'm going to have to argue with them about redoing it.  Oh joy.  Speaking of stupid, I had to add to my list of things to do in the bathroom.  I forgot that the pocket doors also have the same patchy stain on them so I'm going to have to paint those as well.  Those we're doing ourselves since it would be difficult to remove them.  I got started on them over the weekend.  Sanding, a coat of primer and two coats of paint later they still look like they're going to need a couple more coats.  So a lot of busy work this weekend but nothing fun...except for those side tables.  Trying to focus on the brighter side of things.

Next week I should be getting the shades.  I can't wait!  The curtain hardware isn't in yet so I'm waiting to start the curtains  I'm probably going to do a pinch pleat but we'll see.  I've made several curtains in my house now and I can honestly say that although they look great, they are a giant pain in the ass to make.  My ceilings are about 11 ft tall so laying out huge pieces of fabric to sew does not get me excited at all.  That will probably be the last project I do just because I'll procrastinate.

Sunporch:  -Get coffee table, end tables, chairs (ordered)

                  - Finish styling bookcase and style tables

                  - Put up natural shades (ordered)

                  -Make curtains and decorative pillows

                  -Faux fur rug (got it)
                  -Lamps

                  -Pray that the reality mirrors my vision

Masterbath:  -Get roman shade for window

                     -Make faux roman for small window

                     -DIY bench project

                     -Find/style etagere

                     -Hang closet door and get mirror made

                     -Touch up paint
                     -Paint pocket doors (F#*K!)

                     -TIDY UP BATHROOM.

Well, another week down.  Now I'm off to check out how the other Challengers and Guest participants are doing.  Can't wait!

One Room Challenge-Sunporch and Master Bath-Week 2

Well it's week 2 and I feel like I'm off to a good start.  Remember I mentioned I would be doing a DIY bench project?  Well it's finito.  I bought the bench below from a thrift store about a million years ago and have just been waiting to spruce it up.  (Ignore my hideously messy craft room.  It's a well used space.)

It was pretty ugly.  Someone covered the seat with a flimsy purple fabric that wasn't meant for upholstery.  This was the easiest fix ever though.  It involved a can of spray paint, a staple gun and some fabric that I've been holding onto for a while now.  And voila!

I think it's a pretty huge improvement and it fits perfectly in this little space.  I planned on doing the touch up painting over the weekend, but it was too cloudy to see well so it will have to wait until next weekend.

I also ordered this from Ballard Designs for the bathroom.  Not sure about the color but we'll see when it arrives.

Lastly, I ordered the roman shade which will be in the same Hot House Flowers fabric as the bench.

As for the sunporch, the fabric for the curtains is in, just waiting for the hardware which may take a couple of weeks.

And I bought some lamps.  Here's one of them.

It wasn't what I was thinking, but I liked the color and texture of it.  Anyway, we'll see how it looks with everything.

Sunporch:  -Get coffee table, end tables, chairs (ordered)

                  - Finish styling bookcase and style tables

                  - Put up natural shades (ordered)

                  -Make curtains and decorative pillows

                  -Faux fur rug (got it)

                  -Lamps

                  -Pray that the reality mirrors my vision

Masterbath:  -Get roman shade for window

                     -Make faux roman for small window

                     -DIY bench project

                     -Find/style etagere

                     -Hang closet door and get mirror made

                     -Touch up paint

                     -TIDY UP BATHROOM.

That's it for this week.  I should be getting some shipments in soon (I hope).  Anyway, check out all the other challenger's and guest participant's week 2 progress and enjoy!

One Room Challenge-The Sunporch and Master Bath-Week 1

Welcome to the One Room Challenge Linking edition.  I've been MIA since, oh, around January of 2015 (turns out being a business owner doesn't allow for much spare time, go figure) so let me (re)introduce myself.  My name is Tiffany and this ol' money pit belongs to moi.  We've been working on our house for about 5 years now and Linda's ORC has always been that extra push that I need to get stuff done.  Linda is the bestest and such an amazing talent.  I'm so thrilled to participate in her challenge again.  This time around I'm doing my sunporch and master bathroom. Yep, you read that right.  I'm doing two rooms.  In all fairness, the master bath has been 80% done for about 2 years or so.  A few things still needed to happen but we just kept putting it off.  The wait is over though and now it's on like donkey kong!  The sunporch is another room we've been working on for like a hundred years but it was just so time consuming that we had to bite off little chunks at a time.  So without further ado, I'll start with the sunporch.  Here's what the room looked like before we moved in. 

Blech. Those sheers/couch/headboard?  No thanks.  

This is the wall where we had always envisioned a book case.

And these are the pictures of said bookcase being built. This was back  at the end of 2014/beginning of 2015.  So the bookcase is done and mostly styled so I'm going to save that for the end.  This is what the opposite of the room looks like now after some major wood scraping and painting. Can you say nightmare?  Seriously, this is why the room was taking so long.  The good news is that it's ready for the pretty.  Speaking of, you'll notice the teeny sofa in the room.  Yes, the room could handle a bigger sofa, however, I adopted this from my friend who was downsizing.  If it wasn't a Brusnchwig & Fils sofa with Brunschwig & Fils fabric on it I wouldn't be keeping it in the room. However, since it is, I'm going to try to make this work because this sofa is like sitting on a cloud made of cotton candy and dreams.  The damn thing hugs you!  No joke.  

Of course I'll be needing some other textiles.  I think the imperial trellis looks really nice with it.  I do have some other options but don't have any pictures right now.  I'm going to do natural shades below the decorative glass with the sample below and that is a sample of a faux fur rug that will be happening.  I will also be making curtains for the two corners of the room, just for a little more color and layering.  They will be in the same chartreuse as is in the sofa pattern. 

I'm going to be incorporating these chairs in a different finish/color.  They're kind of angular and I'm hoping they don't clash too much with the sofa lines.  

Contemporary Armchairs And Accent Chairs by Philadelphia Window Treatments Calico

I'm doing two of these side tables as well as a glass coffee table.  I'm trying to keep it light and airy in here.  This is the room I'll hide in when I need a bit of serenity.

Contemporary Side Tables And End Tables by Brooklyn Furniture & Accessories West Elm



And now on to the master bathroom.  Yes, it's messy but this is real life.  When a room isn't done I can't seem to muster the commitment to keep it tidy.  I'll declutter for the final pictures.

I'm going to get a roman shade for this window

So hard to take pictures with the sunlight coming in.  Anyway I'd like to put a taller etagere in this little nook next to the tub.  I've got one in mind so we'll see if it works. 

I've had that standing mirror since I was in college and it's time for us to part ways. I'm going to put a bench there and I'd like to do something to the window.  It's teeny, but it needs some love.  We had to put window films up since it looks right into the neighbors house.  Makes showering interesting but I'm ok with not having my nakedness on parade.

We do have a door for this closet but we just need to get it back on.  I'm going to have a mirror made to attach to it.


So here's the to do list:

Sunporch:  -Get coffee table, end tables, chairs (ordered)
                  - Finish styling bookcase and style tables
                  - Put up natural shades (ordered)
                  -Make curtains and decorative pillows
                  -Faux fur rug (got it)
                  -Lamps
                  -Pray that the reality mirrors my vision

Masterbath:  -Get roman shade for window
                     -Make faux roman for small window
                     -DIY bench project
                     -Find/style etagere
                     -Hang closet door and get mirror made
                     -Touch up paint
                     -TIDY UP BATHROOM.

So what do you think?   I'm feeling optimistic about this.  Although I've not finished a room before in this challenge.  Whatevs.  I'm thinking positively.  In the meantime check out all of the other ORC'ers and linking participants in the One Room Challenge and let the games begin!!!!!

I Need Opinions On Choosing A Soothing Office Palette

Remember when I said that I was opening my own business?  Well I'm trying to narrow my color palette choices.  One thing that I know that I want to convey through color is calmness.  So here are some choices that I'm looking at.

I probably would stick with the bottom three grays here.

I'm doing a flooring similar to this but a different material.

Ugh, I really like all three and am having a tough time deciding.  The look I'm going for is rustic modern if that helps.  That could totally change though.  Ha!  I'm so indecisive.   So what do you think?

On a separate note, here's some progress in the sunporch.

There will be a crown on it and it will continue over the doors.

Bottom cabinets in and you can see that the ceiling is partially painted.

That's it for now.  The library ladder has been made so the rest of this should be going in soon.  I think. I hope.

The Year In Review And What's Up For 2015

So this year flew by.   I have to say that 2014 wasn't the best personal year for us, but we're hopeful that 2015 will deliver.  As for our renovation, we had a few highs.  We finished a guest room ORC style and couldn't be happier with it.

I started the office/ craft room and it's really come a long way since when we moved in. I kinda lost steam on it though and it's become a dumping ground for things without a home.  I'm putting it back on the list for 2015 though.

Then there was the foyer.  Huge huge strides were made considering what we started with and I really tried to get it together for the fall ORC, but life wasn't having it. So it's still on the verge of completion.  I know this one will be completed in 2015 though.

We also started and didn't finish the sunroom.  It needs a lot of work though so that's my excuse.  The built in bookcase should be done in the next week or so.  There was a delay on the library ladder so that's what the hold up is.  Of course the prep of the windows still isn't done.  Oopsie.  We just haven't been in the mood to scrape and chisel a century's worth of paint off.  Go figure.

One thing I haven't told you about is the landscaping.  We've actually done quite a bit of work to the outside but for some reason I keep forgetting to post about it.  I'll save that for another time though.

Now on to what I'd like to accomplish for 2015.  First off, I have something to share.  I'm planning on opening my own business which means I'll have more rooms and bathrooms to put together.  Woohoo! That's not sarcasm.  I'm really excited to put it together.   What I do for a living has absolutely nothing to do with design but the space has to be designed, right?  And I'm going to do it.  I'm probably going to be asking for opinions along the way but I'll share more about that later.

As for the house, here's the list.  I have no idea if what's on the list will get done, but a girl can dream (can't she?).
-Sunroom is the number 1 priority right now
-Finish up the foyer which is ridiculously close to being completed
-Finish the dining room.  I've actually changed up a few things in there that I didn't share.  Just forgot.
  Kinda like the outside.  Oops.

I think I'm going to leave it at this.  This seems doable.  If I accomplish more, great.  I'm looking forward to the New Year and all the possibilities.  I just have to make sure not to have too high of expectations.  I'm totally guilty of that and then I get disappointed in the end.  I'm setting the bar low this year. Yes, low expectations it is.