In spite of being knee deep at work, I have found some time to do some small DIY projects around the house. Emphasis on small. Yes, small, but very nagging. There is great satisfaction in getting these crossed off the list.
Our house is your typical 70's ranch. We were told it was professionally decorated. In the year 1974. Said professional decorator must have had a strong affinity for a strange pale yellowish, greenish hue that brought to mind a toned down version of bile. If you have seen or smelled bile you know it you will never make it as a paint chip color name. Anyway, the carpet, the drapes, the basement walls, and yes, even the woodwork were all varying shades of Puked-Up Bile (copyright protected - don't tell Sherwin Williams). Behold the before:
The picture doesn't really do it justice. This is the backside of our hall closet door that we have not painted, just so that every time we get a band aid, we can look back and see how far we've come. We did a minor redo of our kitchen awhile back and the only trim work that had not been touched was on the window over the kitchen sink and in the dining area. We had replaced our patio door this past fall, so that one had been conquered, and these two stuck out like a sore thumb. This trim work was actually a dark walnut stain. It took manymanymany coats to cover.
It has become my goal in life to someday own a house with warm, sexy, thick, wood stained, woodwork. I vow to never paint trim again, but I do like the finished product. AND I finally hung my shades too. I also vow never to have nicely scalloped trim work above my kitchen sink. I guess I was feeling lazy that day when I was antiquing the cabinets. Should have gotten rid of it then.
So why in the world did we buy this house? Well, it had good, albeit yellow, bones, and it had these big gorgeous corner windows in the living room. It was the windows that got me, I'll have to admit. I also admit they have been a challenge to "dress"? After I pulled down the thick lovely faux silk faux bile drapes about 10 seconds after we moved in, I experienced the quandary of how to address some style, a bit of privacy, and some insulation from both the heat and the cold, all on a somewhat limited budget.
I did have some pretty Pottery Barn sheer dummy panels up for awhile, but decided we needed something a little more substantial. I found these nicely lined 96 inch gold panels at Lowe's drastically marked down to $12 a piece. So I bought some rods, some clip hooks and thought I was good to go. The problem was I could never get them to hang just right, no matter how much I ironed, adjusted the clips, adjusted the rods, they still looked like cheapy $12 drapes from Lowe's. See what I mean?
It was bringing me down every time I looked out my pretty windows. My mom and brother had just hung some drapes with grommets in their homes, and I liked how they hung so much better. So, while scoping out fabric for another project one day, I found some snap on
grommets and thought,"what the heck"? Here's the grommetized vs. the ungrommetized version.
So much better, don't you think? Never mind that they hung half finished like that for about a good two weeks. They have now been all successfully grommetized. I don't have an official after picture yet, but let's pretend it looks just like this.
Yeah...well one can dream, but I do think One Kings Lane stole my windows.
