Our Breakfast Nook - Current Project

October's room of the month is the breakfast nook (or any place you eat if you don't have a breakfast nook).  We should be getting that beam in the kitchen ceiling in the next month or so and then we'll get down with that kitchen makeover but since this room is right next to that, we'll start here and just flow over into the kitchen.

I for one, can't wait for that.  I feel like the kitchen with it's studded wall is the project that's been hanging over our heads in a dark cloud.  I don't mind unfinished things but when a room is unfinished and ready to be finished but has to wait on, in this case, cooler weather, patience is a daily struggle.

But, we'll focus that will to finish on the breakfast nook and maybe we'll forget about the studs...

Here's what our nook looked like right after we moved in:

And this is what it looks like today (behind the aging lens of an old iPhone):

Our Entry Way - The Reveal!

September 1st I set out to makeover our entry way and I announced that it would be the #letsroomtogether space for September but really, I figured I could probably get it done in two weeks.  Ha ha ha HA!

Hellooo Sheena.  Take a deep breath and settle down on those hippity-high hopes from here on out.  Time ain't crawling like it used to. 

That joke was on me but also on the sad state of our entry before we started.  Let's back track...

All the way back (a few months) to popcorn ceilings, wallpaper, and that sad trim.  The ceilings got smoothed over, the wallpaper came down, and the trim got freshened up.

Add a few more throws of confetti here and there and...

Crossing My Ts and Dotting My...Lamp

Let me tell you a little story about a lamp.  I found this one at Goodwill last week:

I went in to hunt for a lamp and came out with one.  Huzzah!  While that probably sounds incredibly lucky; a first-time find, it took me three strolls through different Goodwills to find the perfect one.  Patience and perserverance here kids.

However, the lamp itself 'twas far from perfect, even though it seemed unused.  

That inner layer of cream paint was cracking and peeling, bubbling and shuffling.  But the shape of the lamp is what caught my eye and I knew I could remedy that poor paint situation.  (After all, this wouldn't be my first time taking care of peeling paint inside a lamp.)

Painting Trim - Tips and Tricks

Painting trim is the absolute worst.  I think I've said that about ceilings but now that I'm past the ceilings and onto the trim, I can whole-heartedly shift my opinion.  It's tedious and time-consuming and...the worst.

But, I've picked up a few tips along the way (this is my second time painting alllll the trim in the house after all) that I'll pass on to you in case you're ever staring down the miles of *insert ugly color* trim.

First, a picture of the current sitch in our entry.

Feast your eyes on that painted trim!!  The crown molding is hard to spot in pictures but in real life, it shines against the matte ceiling.  I can't tell you how happy I am to be done with trim in here and moving on to painting the walls!  It's like the icing on the cake!

Back to those tips and tricks though...

Prepping Walls for Paint, Post-Wallpaper

The entry way is September's #letsroomtogether space!  Did I already mention that?  Who knows but I know I haven't mentioned the progress I've made in here.  What looked like this before we touched it:

Now looks like this: