Stripes!

I decided to take the plunge on Sunday and paint my bathroom wall in red stripes. I had it in my head that it would be an easy and cheap project because, after all, it is just one small wall and I wasn't even painting every bit of it. Well. It was cheap; the paint and supplies cost me about $20. But easy? Not so much. The tape took some time to put up, as expected, and the 3 coats of paint went on pretty easily. However, when I took the tape off later in the evening to admire my handiwork, I found out that painters tape? Is the devil's adhesive. The red paint had bled under every. single. edge of tape on the wall. My beautiful straight lines were raggedy and horrible to look at.*headdesk* So, then I got to spend the next 3-4 hours fixing the paint job on the wall. I took a 1/4 art brush and white paint and cleaned up each and every stripe edge on the wall, from top to bottom.

And then to add insult to injury, while I was standing on my tub painting the wall above the tiles, the towel rack that is grouted into my tub tile decided I had leaned on it a little too hard and fell. The ceramic end shattered and left a huge gaping hole in my shower tiles. I'm trying to decide if I want to attempt to fix it myself or get my landlord's handymen to do it for me.

The bright side to all this effort is that now I have red stripes in my bathroom!







They are bold without being eye searing and they really bring together all the little red things I'd been trying to add to the other side of the bathroom. I'm really pleased with how they finally turned out and, once I get that towel rack fixed, I'll have one room of my house completely finished! \o/

(Four more to go!)

The List!

Ok! I finally finished my to do list for the Fall Cure (baby steps, baby steps). It's impressive, even for me, and I'm sure I forgot stuff. Broken out by room (though I will probably reorganize it later so it's by week, here is the scary list:

Loft

• Make curtains
  
• Hang curtain rod
  
• Paint railing
  
• Paint a/c box
  
• Get side table
  
• Get new lamp shade (texture opportunity)
  
• Finish and install headboard
  
• Looking to getting a white shaggy rug
  
• Art of behind the headboard
  
• Paint windowsill/remove stains
  
• Get pillow sham for green pillow (texture opportunity)
  
• Get feather pillow to replace busted one
  
• Move black clock to loft
  
• Investigate ceiling draping
  
• Install ceiling draping if necessary
  
• Fix dust ruffle so it falls to floor

Kitchen

• Replace hinges
  
• Find and hang art
  
• Investigate lighting options
  
• Install lighting if appropriate
  
• Replace coffee carafe with proper utensil holder
  
• Replace plant coffee mug with proper pot
  
• Replace trash can with under counter lidded option
  
• Get faucet adapter for filter
  
• Investigate recycling cans

Bathroom

• Replace soap pump
  
• Paint wall?
  
• Sand, spackle, and repaint shower rod holes
  
• Decide on plant life/placement of bathroom objects
  
• Declutter cabinet
  
• Fix broken towel rack in tub

Hallway

• Do something about bike?
  
• Take down fire extinguisher, replace with art or some enhanced landing strip
  
• Paint ladder?

Den

• Curtains
  
• Paint
  
• Get Dengar to fix water damage in wall
  
• Remove table
  
• Get desk
  
• Paint bookshelf with chalkboard paint
  
• Desk lamp
  
• Floor lamp?
  
• Add table for crafting
  
• Organize closet
  
• Declutter boxes, put things away properly

Living Room

• Buy stereo either w/ iPod holder or air hookups
  
• Paint shelving
  
• Replace (make?) scratching post
  
• Reupholster chair
  
• Reupholster ottoman
  
• Get tray to place on ottoman
  
• Paint feet of couch/chair and table base
  
• Find frame for squid
  
• Art for walls
  
• Side table for couch
  
• Side table for chair
  
• Pillows
  
• Table lamp
  
• Reposition track light
  
• Rearrange furniture
  
• Find a way to clean cobwebs
  
• Window treatment?
  
• Put Halloween decorations away
  
• Candles (Or just tealight candle holders)

There are a lot of implied steps, like coming up with a furniture arrangement, picking colors, buying flowers, arranging vignettes, cleaning, etc. that need to be done in order for the above stuff to work. I'm assuming I'll do a lot of it in preparation for or as a result of the stuff above.

This week I'm going to tackle a few DIYs, clean, and create a style tray. I'll continue to use my del.icio.us tags to create my style tray and will try to nail down a cohesive look for the place. That's the plan anyway. My weekend will be lost to my motorcycle course (\o/ finally!), so much of this will need to be done by Friday. Eugh.

Onward!

Apartment Therapy's Fall 2008 Cure!

So in an effort to finish decorating my apartment and finally make it a comfortable, happy place I'm not ashamed to invite people over to see, I've signed up for Apartment Therapy's 2008 Fall Home Cure.

Basically, The Cure lasts 8 weeks and is designed for sloths like me who can't seem to get their acts together and finish decluttering/decorating/arranging/cleaning their apartments. The process follows AT founder Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan's book, "Apartment Therapy: The Eight-Step Home Cure," which I had just finished reading a few weeks before the cure began.

I have to say, I wasn't overly thrilled with the book. I felt it often veered away from being preachy about home design and into being preachy about how one particular lifestyle (the author's urban, upper middle class, pseudo-green yuppie lifestyle) is better than any other. However, it did have a great, detailed plan for pulling a space together and, let's face it, I've lived at the current place for long enough that, if I were going to get it done without any sort of help or push, I'd have done it already. Plus, by following the Cure on the AT website, I'll be able to get great feedback and ideas from other folks doing the cure and I've been dying to have someone to talk to about decorating. My mother gets bored of me talking about it. :\

So, I've gone ahead and signed up. This past week was Week 0, which basically meant I took some 'before' pictures and made a list of all the things I have to accomplish in the next 2 months. My target is to get everything completely done before my dad comes to visit me in December.

Below are the before shots I took. It occurred to me after I posted them that they don't show off all the stuff I like about the space, but oh well. The worse they look at the beginning, the better the after shots will look later. Soon (i.e., whenever I get around to typing it up) I'll post my list of things to do as well as pics from around the web that inspire me.










Oi. Looking at these pics again remind me of how much work there is to be done. Wish me luck!

Furniture Made of Awesome

I found Dust Furniture through their Etsy page, and it was one of the few times where pieces of furniture actually made me giddy. Check it out:





Vincent Thomas Leman is the designer for Dust and the guy responsible for the whimsical, eye catching pieces (mostly bookcases and cabinets) that the company sells. Unfortunately, as with most handmade furniture, even the smallest table runs close to $1000, which is out of my current price range. Woe.

Bienvenido a mi 'blog' por la clase de castellano!

Hola! Bienvenido a mi blog por la clase de castellano a George Mason. Estará muchas más informaciónes aquí en el futuro. Espero que mi castellano va a majorar rápidamente.