Over Christmas break Matt and I bought a house in Germantown! Merry Christmas to us. The best part? ONLY LIKE 3 MINUTES FROM HOBBY LOBBY!!! A real dream come true. HL was a good 30 minutes from our old house so this is a real treat for me. We love it and are so thankful for this blessing. Let the projects commence!
The house is in great shape and most of it was updated before it was put on the market...but it's me...I'm going to change it no matter what. It's just what I do. It doesn't have to make sense.
I have a very clear vision for every room. I work on my to-do list everyday and do a little dance every time I get to check something off. Will the house ever be truly "finished"? Obviously the answer is going to be no. I lived in my last house for 4.5 years and I found myself walking around looking for things to change a week before I started putting things in boxes. It's a mental condition.
I love making things my own and finding the perfect place to put them. I love picking out every detail in a room all the way down to the trim color and outlet covers. I love planning how I'm going to make it happen and making lists. I love making the dream of the final product a reality. It's so fun to me. I'm basically in heaven with a project this big. It's OUR house. We can do whatever we want to with it. Such a liberating and wonderful feeling. I could go on and on about how excited I am. I'm so thankful that God has given me this opportunity to do what I love along with my husband. It sounds cheesy but this really is a dream come true for me.
Another thing I love to do is be frugal. I love couponing and searching the town up and down to find the best deals. This project that I'm about to tell you about was one of my cheaper ones and it made a HUGE difference in the room.
When I walked in our living room during an open house when we were looking for our home my eyes were immediately drawn to the mantle and bookcases. It was a perfect vision. What I had always pictured my living room looking like. Not how it was in that moment but the potential that was there! It just needed some love.
I'll talk about the rest of the living room in a later blog post but for now I'm going to tell you about the fireplace. First there were the fireplace doors. They weren't the prettiest sight. I researched replacing them in the beginning. That started at about $250. Maybe remove the doors and get a screen? That would be about $100 and I wasn't sure it'd look right. THEN I saw something that got my attention. My solution. Paint it myself! I'm so in love with the result and it cost me about $7 total. So worth it!
Another thing I wanted to do was paint the brick. I spent days researching what exactly I wanted. I looked up colors and everything. While doing so I saw something even better. What was this? Whitewashing. I then spent hours looking at blogs with tutorials and pictures and fell in love. It looked so easy too! Another great thing about it is that it doesn't take much time and if I didn't like it I could just paint over it. No big deal. Whelp...it happened and I'm obsessed with the result. The paint was used by the previous owner and was in the garage so guess what! This project was FREE!
I have 2 links. The first link was what I used to guide me as I painted the doors. They also whitewashed their fireplace. What a coincidence!! The second link is actually the tutorial I used for the whitewashing.
Before:
Current:
After (Update):
Sorry my pictures aren't that great at this point. The shelves aren't dry/put together and our stuff is still basically everywhere. This is one of our first of many many projects.
I mixed some white latex paint with water. About 50/50. I didn't measure or anything. I like to live life on the edge. Make sure it's pretty watery though.
I was kind of nervous at this point. Once you start there's no going back!
I was alone so I didn't get any pics while it was happening. What you do is you use a brush to put the really drippy paint on the brick and in the grout. Then you wipe it down with a cloth. Some like it more white but I wanted a more rustic feel so I wiped a lot. Just do that till you're done! It's really that easy. The whole thing took about an hour.
So beautiful! But those doors tho!
So then I had to get rid of the doors. I couldn't stand it another day. I used Rustoleum's High Heat flat black spray paint that I got at Lowes.
First tape down your area really well. I got the roll of paper, painters tape and plastic all at Walmart super cheap in the paint section. Use the plastic to make a little spray paint quarantine so it won't get on anything else. Be sure to get a mask! I don't want you to die. It's not worth it!
My dad was at my house working on a beautiful fence he gave Matt and me for Christmas. Now my dog can't escape!! We love it. He has a little bit of everything in his van. I asked him if he happened to have a mask and he dug this out. I mean you don't have to get one this intense but I looked awesome.
So...I get under the plastic with my spray paint. I'm so nervous that something was going to go wrong and everything in my living room was going to end up black. That didn't happen BUT it was probably the most stressful 2 minutes of my life.
So my day had been pretty chill up to that point. Went to work, Walmart to get supplies, came home and ate a Little Debbie snack cake...so right when I get under the plastic and start spraying the phone rings, the doorbell rings, the plastic starts touching the fireplace and making lines in the paint, ALL OF THE PAPER just detaches all at once and starts to fall down and the back strap of my mask just popped open and I was no longer able to breathe. In that moment I was like "this is the worst idea I've ever tried there's no way this is working I bet my whole house is black what have I done I'm hungry I want to be in Disney World." I stepped away. It was the most beautiful sight I had ever seen. I looked towards heaven and I said "thank you, Lord." It was truly a miracle that it turned out so perfect. I seriously...I don't...I don't even know how it happened.
I windexed the windows and even painted the lovely brass fire accessories that the house came with with the same paint (this time outside). I can't stop staring at its beauty. It made such a big difference. Tomorrow when the shelves are dry I get to put it all together. I need to cut in with the blue paint around the shelves and the living room will finally be OUR living room. I'm so excited about the fireplace project. Anyone can do it. I'm dying to decorate my bookshelves too.
Let me know if you decide to try either of these things. I'd love to hear about it! Hope you enjoyed.
PS. We painted the living room Sherwin William's Sea Salt and we love it. We're painting our bedroom with it as well. Definitely recommend. Blog post on the whole room to come.
Blog post on the finished product:
http://katiehedge.blogspot.com/2014/04/living-room.html
Hope this helps!
Blog post on the finished product:
http://katiehedge.blogspot.com/2014/04/living-room.html
Hope this helps!
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