Laura Ashley let me down

Posted by on January 18, 2006 in other things | 6 comments

Five days off in a row! It was so nice, and I was so busy. I got a lot done, but I’m not quite finished. Friday I moved all the furniture out, spackled and cleaned the yucky flat blue walls:

Before

Then I painted. The color? Laura Ashley Heath. The result. Wow, I didn’t know green could be so ugly. It was like anemic pea soup. We hated it immediately, but I kept painting as the sun went down, in the hopes that when I saw it in the daylight it would magically become just the sage-y green I thought it was. Nope.

During

Saturday was the day to be out and about, so I left early in the morning, stopped at the paint store for a quart of a new color (Dunn-Edwards Spooky), Expo for the little brackets for my curtain rods, the madhouse that was Ikea for a duvet cover, $3 picture frames and linen curtains which will be cut up and sewn with the floral fabric for window treatments. There was also a stop for lunch, a stroll around a quilt shop where I didn’t find what I wanted for a quilt for this room, but found some munki-munki gnome fabric and a coordinating polka dot that I had to have, and lastly, a very relaxing pedicure. That evening I painted again, and the new color was approved by everyone.

Sunday I rested.

Monday, another trip to the paint store for a gallon of the approved paint, and a stop at Home Depot for sash rods for the door and don’t forget Petco for food for the dogs. Home again and got all the paint on the walls. Picture frames stained, stain not dark enough.

Tuesday I broke out some brown and black acrylic paint and painted the frames. Picked out which botanicals to use for the nine frames, ran to the local hardware store for hangers for the backs of the frames. The eye hooks and wire that came with them would make the frames stick out too far from the walls. Slapped a coat of paint on the little desk, washed all the new bedding and fabric (yay! curtain fabric arrived in the mail!). Hung pictures, measuring and hammering so the pictures will be a perfect grid with no space between frames. Some cursing and re-hammering, creating extra holes in newly painted walls. Curtain rods installed, only one screw stripped. Bed re-assembled in room, little plates hung, bedside table moved back in.

After1 After2

Aaah. I love it. I’m thinking of hanging that architectural dealie thing above the bed. I found black and white salt and pepper shakers at a thrift store minus one of the stoppers, so am using them for finials on the bed. I still need to get a couple more pillows for the bed, and I’d like to make a quilt using mostly solid fabrics, something like the What a Bunch of Squares quilt in the Denyse Schmidt quilt book. I got some cream fleece and hemmed the edges, I’ll probably keep it spread over the bed for the cats, as they seem to think this is their bed. Of course they also think our bed belongs to them, the little piggies.

Tonight the plan is to sew up some curtains, so maybe there will be some more pictures tomorrow.

6 Comments

  1. The room looks gorgeous. I have that duvet cover on my bed!
    Love the framed prints.

  2. wow, I’m really impressed! Also like the gnome fabric.

  3. I agree with you about the colour of the walls – the second colour is so much softer and prettier.
    The room looks lovely

  4. That room looks like it belongs in a magazine! That first green was bright! I love the color you went with.

  5. Of course you know what radicchio is. Why didn’t I ask you first?
    Fred Meyer does have a pretty good produce selection, especially considering it’s winter. Some of the produce’s quality goes downhill during these months, but what can we do? I have found some random things, but no radicchio. Maybe it’s seasonal?

  6. i want gnome fabric!

say something nice...