New Bedroom Curtains!

It seems I've caught a sort of spring decorating bug.  First it was the living room and now it's followed me into the master bedroom and I just can't stop.  

The master bedroom also happens to be the current "Let's Room Together!" challenge so there's lots in the way of motivation to change some things up.  I spent most of my free moments last week deep cleaning our bedroom - under the bed, baseboards, dressers, mirrors, etc...  All the while looking forward to the most fun part of the challenge for me - hanging new curtains.

It's not that our current ones were bad, on the contrary, I love them.  Love them so much I've stowed them away for another change of wind (usually if I'm not going to use something decor-wise, it gets sold).  I found them on Facebook marketplace last year and paid a whopping $20 for all four panels.  They're velvet and oh-so-luxe.  (Pssst, they're these curtains* but the dark taupey color of ours don't seem to be sold anymore.)

Rub 'N Buff Chandelier Makeover

I haven't been able to spend as much time as I wanted gussying up the dining room for the #letsroomtogether challenge because life has needed me elsewhere these past few weeks but I did get a couple of hours last week to knock out a fun project I've had planned for months.  The fun part - tackling this project meant I could finally try a new thing - Rub 'n Buff!  I bought my tube at Michael's with a 30% off coupon but you can find it on at most craft and sewing stores. 

Have you ever heard of it/used it?  I've read lots of posts where this stuff was the main character but I've never had anything to try it on...until last week.  And let me tell you, it's kind of amazing.  There are certain things I'll probably choose to use it on instead of my usual spray paint going forward.   

This time around?  It was our dining room chandelier.  Here's what that chandelier looked like the day we closed on this house:

Our Spring Living Room + An Easier Way to Hang Frames Straight & Level

I don't normally decorate with the seasons (besides Christmas) mainly because I don't want to store seasonal decor nor am I quick enough but I managed to do so in our living room this spring thanks to some springy fabric finds I made pillow covers out of.   Just changing those up made all the difference and was all I needed to do to go spring in here since our furniture can already pass for the season.  I ventured out of our norm and threw in a little bit of blush pink (I made those pillow covers out of this curtain panel* - it's semi-sheer so I layered it over the existing pillow cover) that nods to the abstract painting that's hanging in the breakfast nook.  You can't see it in the photo below but here it is up close and personal.  Just adding that pink really unifies this whole, big space. 

  

The kitchen in the background will hopefully soon look more like it belongs (paint!) and maybe even the fireplace (mortar!) but even still, I'm liking the fresh new view.

It looks especially fresh when you look back on what it was two years ago:

Half Bath, Half Done

It's the third (and last!) week of the current #letsroomtogether challenge and I've (slowly but surely) made some aesthetic progress on the half bath!  It's probably the room I'm most embarrassed about when we have visitors.  Everything else anyone sees is at least put together even if it is still outdated (I'm looking at you kitchen.)  But this room, it looks like it belongs in a house that's been slated for tear down.

Ok, so maybe that's a slight exaggeration but still, it's pretty bad.  You can't tell in pictures but paint has chipped off the walls in small pieces, leaving small areas of drywall exposed.  Why?  Because when we took the wallpaper off, it took off some of the paint behind it along with some of the walls texture.  I've sent lots of eye rolls back in time to whoever installed the wallpaper, believe me.  I don't know what they didn't do that they should have but something went wrong here.  Along with the chipped paint, there are small pieces of wallpaper still attached to the wall where the blue was painted over it, the cabinet is pretty roughed up, and then there's that awesome linoleum and outdated wood trim.  I bet it was a beaut back in the 80's but those days are long gone.  

But it's ok because we're finally moving past this ugly stage.  The first week, I started filling those places where the paint and texture came off, removed the rest of the wallpaper left near that bottom border where the blue paint starts, and filled the loads of nail and dry wall plug holes.  Then, I primed and painted the window and door trim.  (Oil-based Kilz primer + Valspar paint color-matched to Pure White by SW.) 

Throwing Shade

Or maybe it's Throwing Shades.  Or maybe even Setting Shades.  Yep, that's better.  But, keeping with the shade theme, this isn't about any sort of insult.  It's actually quite the opposite.  Let me explain.

During the breakfast nook weeks of #letsroomtogether, one of the things I really wanted to get done was swap out the chandelier.  It's probably original to the house (built in the 80's) and just isn't quite our style.  The plan always was to move the big drum shade we temporarily hung in the entry way to the breakfast nook but sometimes plans change and this plan did.

Here's the existing, outdated chandelier:

But, this is after I spray painted those socket covers gold to match.  I did what I do lots of times - got an idea, had to execute right away, and forgot to take a bonified "before" picture before I jumped in.  Luckily for you and me, it didn't really look that much different before.  Something had to be done with the socket covers though.  They were really worn, darkened, and warped (why I don't know...maybe the type of light bulbs once used?) at the top.  Not even a good scrub with some soap and a toothbrush made a difference.