Freshly Painted Dining Room Shelves

I adore my newly painted shelves so much that I now lovingly refer to them as my 'shelfies'.

 

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No, seriously though. I can't believe that I even hesitated for a second wondering whether or not to paint our new creamy-beige-y-yellow-y Pottery Barn shelves. Once I swiped on the first brushstroke of white primer I just knew it was the right decision. White all the way, baby. White, white, white, white, white, white, white. Thank you to all of my friends (that's you) who left your feedback. It was pretty unanimous - everyone told me to go for it! A few little pep talks were all I needed.

Even though I had zero patience and rushed to put cute dishes and flower pots back on the shelves while the paint was still drying, I'm still not quite finished. Right now they are a solid, crisp white. But I'm going to use the same technique that I used on my super huge window mirror and add a little bit of brown-tinted glaze to add a bit of dimension to them. Maybe this weekend. Or, maybe the one after that.

When you back up a little bit you can see how they are centered in between the window on the left and the small wall / opening to the living room on the right.

If I ever get around to the last step I'll probably write a little tutorial on how to paint over a factory finish. Although I'm sure a dozen expert furniture painters have already written about it already. Maybe mine will be called 'How to Imperfectly Paint Over a Factory Finish' or better yet 'The Slacker's Guide to Painting Over a Factory Finish'.

Did I mention that I absolutely love them now. They make me swoon and I hate the word swoon even more than I hate the term mood-board.

 

So this is pretty funny. In a casual conversation on Friday night I asked Alex what he wanted to do this weekend. He mentioned something about working on the basement and possibly taking his snow-machine out for a drive. Then he said, "What about you? Let me guess - playing around with the shelves in the dining room." Of course he meant it in a you're-so-quirky-and-adorable-way and not a you're-a-big-weirdo-way.

 

So yeah. The next time you order some shelves by accident when you're still not really sure if you want them, and they end up being way too ivory and not so much white, just paint them. You'll be so happy that you did.

Translation: I love my newly painted shelves a lot.

Have you painted anything lately? Leave a link in the comments - I'd love to check it out. :)

 

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The Tiny Task Lamps I Chose For the Master Bedroom

 

Our master bedroom doesn't have a lot of options when it comes to rearranging the furniture. With two large windows on the longest wall, it makes the most sense to have the bed centered between them. However, with a king-sized bed it only lives a teeny tiny bit of space on one side.

 

I searched for years for the perfect, chippy side tables that would be small enough for our space. I came across a few at the Christie Lake Antique Show one year but they were almost $500 each. They were cute, but not that cute. Eventually I ended up finding a pair of matching white tables from Homesense. They were the teeniest ones I could find. (You can read that whole super-exciting story here.)

 

 

I'm really loving the look of dark task lamps paired with white furnishings lately. So, for the last few weeks I've been on the hunt for some oil-rubbed bronze task lamps. Here were some of the contenders:

 

 

 Clockwise from top left:

 

Harrison Bedside Lamp - Pottery Barn

Academy Task Lamp - Restoration Hardware Baby & Child

BHG Orb Hinged Metal Task Lamp - Wal-Mart
Bradley Task Lamp - Ballard Designs

Libby Desk Lamp - Rejuvenation

Metal Camden Task Lamp - World Market

 

Some of the lamps were out right off the bat because they were insanely expensive. I'm pretty sure that Alex would have a heart attack if I told him that I spent $600+ on two little lamps. My favourite choice out of the bunch was the Pottery Barn one (large picture above). So, I decided to use the measurements listed on their website to see how they would look in real life. I found some shallow bowls that were 8.5 inches in diameter, just like the lamp base, and put them on each side table to see how they would look.

And...... they looked ridiculous. The bases of the Pottery Barn lamps are just way too big and out of scale for the little tables. Just for reference, the table tops are only 15.5" by 11.5". So, I kept searching.

That's when I noticed a mini version of the Restoration Hardware lamp. It's called the Mini Academy Task lamp. And it's sooooo cuuuuuuuuuuute.

Mini Academy Task Lamp - Restoration Hardware Baby & Child

 

I played around with Photoshop for a little while the other night (okay so it was the whole night) and added an image of the lamp to one of our master bedroom pictures. Whaddayaknow it looked pretty good.

Since the lamps are currently on special from $100 to $75 each, I went ahead and ordered them yesterday. The amount of money I saved by buying them on sale basically covered the shipping and taxes. Yay!

$200 is still a little bit expensive for me but I decided that it would be one of my splurges. I checked all of my other options (you can bet I stalked the lighting aisles at Homesense for days, okay weeks, okay years) and I wasn't able to find anything remotely like I was looking for.

So, I'm happy with my decision so far. I really, really, really, really, really hope they are nice. It's my first time purchasing anything from Restoration Hardware. Their stuff looks super awesome online so I'm hoping it will be just as nice in person.

Now, it's a race against time. I have to tell Alex that I splurged on these lamps before he gets home, sits down to relax, and reads this post on his own. We have a totally healthy relationship like that where he reads all about my spending on the internet. Tee hee!

P.S. Let's pretend that I bought these lights from the adult store instead of the kid one, m'kay?

P.P.S. Am I the only one who goes back and forth a zillion times before committing to something for their home?!?!?!?!?

Pharmacy-style floor lamp.

P.P.P.S. I was never really a fan of the pharmacy-style lamps until I got one for Cooper's room. It was the only floor lamp that I could find at the time that I sort-of liked. Now, I absolutely love it! It's one of my favourite things in his room. :)

Modern Cottage Office Inspiration

Hello my fellow Friday night bloggers.

 

I don't know about you but instead of being out partying I've been copying and pasting different task lamps into Photoshop to see how they will look in our bedroom. For the last two hours. How about I blame it on the fact that Alex ditched me to go out snowmobiling and I'm on toddler duty. It's totally not because I'm an old fogey, m'kay?

 

You will never guess what happened last weekend. Alex started asking me questions about our future little office nook in the basement. He started asking things like, "Are you going to want a built-in light at the desk, how wide do you think you want the desk opening, did you decide what you want to do for a counter?"

 

Of course I squealed and showed him ten thousand pins from Pinterest. Uhhhhh, I think he got a bit overwhelmed at that point.

 

So, I decided to do something completely productive like create a modern / cottage office inspiration board. (And yes, I am fully aware of how ridiculous that must sound to some people.)

Image Sources

I'm in love with my own inspiration board. Who needs a husband on a Friday night when you can have these dreamy pictures? Right?

 

Right?!?!?!? (Echoes.)

 

I made a little collection of 20 items that would work together to create a cute little office space. If you want to check it out, click on over here.

 

Oh yeah.

 

P.S. I really like making inspiration boards.

 

P.P.S. The term 'mood board' drives me crazy for no apparent reason.

 

P.P.P.S. It's chick flick time. I'm out!

New Wall Shelves in the Dining Room

A few weeks ago I told you about my accidental online purchase of some wall shelves from Pottery Barn. They were the 3' Crown Molding Shelves in Antique White. Well, they are here, they are installed in our dining room, and I love almost everything about them.

 

Image - Pottery Barn

 

Here's what I do love about the shelves: they fit in the space perfectly, they are very sturdy (and have a really awesome mounting system), and they are nice and chunky. (What can I say, I like my shelving chunky.)

 

The one thing that I'm not loving about the shelves though is how not-white the 'Antique White' is. They are sooooooooo yellow-y creamy.

 

Sniffle.

 

I've tried living with them as-is for the last few weeks to see if I could get used to the colour. As of today, I've officially decided to go ahead and paint them. 

 

While I don't particularly like the idea of buying things brand-new (that are kind of expensive) and then having to paint them - I think I will a lot happier in the long run if I do. It will be the difference between me really, really liking them, and me loving them.

 

So, a new can of Fresh Start Primer is on my to-do list to pick up this week. My goal is to have the shelves primed, painted, stained, and re-installed by Valentine's Day. (You know it's because I want to make a cute little Valentine's Day display, right?)

 

In the meantime, here is a picture of how the shelves look right now - with a few little trinkets on 'em of course.

What do you think - am I crazy to paint them or would you do the same?

:)

The Master Bedroom Before Picture. It's bad. Very bad.

I realized the other day, when I posted a few pictures of our new and fabulous closet doors, that I've never shared a real before picture of our master bedroom.

 

I had to get the hubs to dig up this picture from the archives. It's the picture we took during our very first walk-through as proud, first time homebuyers. (Although now I'm not so sure what we were so proud of back then. The house was SO UGLY!)

 

:)

 

Are you ready for this? Here she is........

 

Oh, the memories. Some of my favourite things from the room (barf) include:

- peachy-beige painted everything

- dusty rose-coloured carpeting

- brown and blue plaid curtain panels

- raw wood trim around the windows

- louvered bi-fold closet doors

and

- faux-gold outlet covers and door hardware

 

Man. I can't tell you how happy it makes me that all we have left to work on in this room are the finishing touches. SHOPPING!!!!!!!!!!  I have some plans up my sleeve to add some wall art, bedding, and cottage-y accessories. And I am {PINKY SWEAR} going to get this room finished this year.

 

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

 

Oh, and just for comparison's sake (even though I shared these exact photos the other day), here are the sort-of after pictures of the room:

 

 

 

I like white. I don't like peachy-beige.

 

  

 

 

OH YEAH, and while I'm here - did I ever mention that I have a Facebook page now for Cozy.Cottage.Cute.? Yup, and I've even been updating it regularly for the last few months. Wait a minute...... did someone kidnap the real me?!?!?! Christmas decorations put away the week after Christmas, two posts in one day, updating my Facebook page regularly..... something strange is going on that's for sure. ;)

 

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January Before and After @ Thrifty Décor Chick

Just Some Cute Ribbon and Twine

Just before Christmas I came across the cutest wrapping supplies at Homesense. It's no secret that I love plain, old, jute twine. (I've used it here, here, here, here, and here.) Well, Homesense had these little wooden spools with over ten different varieties of fancy schmancy twine. I had to stop myself from buying them all (it was hard) and chose two of my favourites:

 

 

On Christmas morning I got a little surprise. I guess my mom saw me standing in the wrapping aisle for ten hours trying to choose my favourites so she bought one of the larger ribbon / twine combo sets for me. Love! Even though Christmas has passed I can use up some of that red ribbon on Valentine's Day. Oooooh, Valentine's Day.

 

 

 

I love how the spools and little box are made out of wood so they can be reused. And, they are cute enough to leave out on display. So fun!

 

P.S. I'm wearing the cutest pink sweater that I picked up at Target on the weekend. It was less than $20 and it's a cross between a cable-knit sweater and a waffle-knit undershirt. Just believe me when I tell you that I'm in love with it and just might go back to get a few more in different colours. If you couldn't tell, I'm really loving our new Target.

 

P.P.S. We've had a toddler breakthrough! I was able to peel off all the painter's tape from our heating grates this weekend. Little Coopster made it his life's mission to jam all of his toys down there for awhile. We've moved onto bigger and better things like driving 500 Hotwheels off of the living room coffee table.

 

P.P.P.S. I feel like I'm sort of catching up on life. Our Christmas tree is down, the decorations are wrapped and packed away in the basement, and to top it all off I also managed to pack away the Easter bunny and Easter eggs that were still on the dining room hutch from last spring. Yay, me!

 

P.P.P.P.S. Curious how I did on my list of challenges for 2013? Come by later this week when I'll be sharing a self-evaluation. Hint: I might have squeaked by with a pass. ;)

 

 

Shaker Style Bi-Folds for the Master Bedroom Closets

I can't contain my excitement. After many, many, many, many, many years of living with no doors on our bedroom closets (the horror, right?) we finally have the doors ordered, primed, painted, and installed. I pretty much couldn't sleep last night because of it. I kept opening one eye all creepy-like just to make sure it was real and not a figment of my imagination.

 

In case you are newish here, and because I love to give extremely long-winded explanations, I'll share why it took us so long to get this job done.  

 

When we first moved in, several of the closets had louvered bi-folds that were painted in a ghastly peach-beige. It still gives me the shudders thinking about it. Since I was a big baby about ugly closet doors I made Alex get rid of them all right away - not really thinking about the repercussions (looking at the messy contents of closets for years 'n years).

While we were able to replace the bi-folds in the front entry and breakfast room with new, off-the-shelf bi-fold doors from Home Depot, the master bedroom closets were an odd size and needed custom doors. Custom doors cost a fortune, my friend. A fortune.

So we waited, waited, and waited some more. This fall, after we almost bought a cottage and then didn't (story to follow), we found ourselves with a little bit of extra money that we were planning to use for a down payment. As a surprise, Alex went and ordered the doors. It was his way of saying that we finally get to start working on our house again.

Yay! Working on our house again!!!!!!!!!

Once we picked up the doors, Alex's dad primed and painted them for us (THANKYOUSOMUCH), and we installed them yesterday. (Alex pretty much installed them by himself. I sat back and said things like, "A little to the left. That gap is too small. Raise it up just a tad on that side. No, the other side. Okay now move it back to where it was at the beginning.")

I can't tell you how happy this little bit of progress makes me. I can finally throw stuff on the closet floor without anybody knowing. Ahhhhhhhh, so liberating!

Here are a few pictures of the new doors:

 

I think I'm ready to start adding some finishing touches to this otherwise plain-Jane room. Those pretty doors are just the motivation I needed!

P.S. I still haven't been able to tame the new, lumpy duvet. I'm pretty sure it's goal in life is to annoy me.

:)

 

Updated to Add: The closet doors were a special order through Home Depot. They are pine doors made by the company Milette and they are painted in Simply White by Benjamin Moore. The paint colour on the walls is Old Prairie by Benjamin Moore.

 

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