The Summer of Home Improvement

Posted by on June 8, 2008 in knit | 7 comments

I hereby officially declare that this is the Summer of home improvement here at chez Lucy. A very long time ago, I ripped down the ugly wallpaper in the living room. And then I did nothing. The wallpaper had been pasted directly onto the dry wall, so that meant it had to be mudded, and to match the rest of the house, it needed a particular sort of plaster texture, and it was just all too much to deal with. So I didn’t, until I finally worked up the courage this week. I went to Lowe’s and bought a box of joint compound and a trowel, and did it all myself. I think I just pulled a muscle in my arm while patting myself of the back. You can sort of get the idea here:
Plaster

Note to the guy at Lowe’s who I asked what I needed to complete this project: Please don’t tell me what I do or don’t want to do, I’m not a complete idiot, and when I say I want plaster, I mean I want plaster, and not orange peel texture. You’ve never been to my house, you don’t know anything about my taste, and most importantly, you don’t know what I am or am not capable of. I find that very irritating. I think I should bring him this picture and be all, "hey idiot, see, this is what I wanted, and this is what I got, because I’m not afraid to try and do it myself." but maybe that would be rude. Anyway, moving on…

I can only give you some previews of a couple corners of the room, because I have a few more projects to complete. Once I got the walls all looking how i wanted them to look, I primed and painted. As usual, the first color I picked wasn’t quite right, so I had to go back to the store with my paint-covered hands in my baggy painting pants and pick out another color, and the paint girl was quite surprised and impressed that I was doing my own painting, but at least she wasn’t all condescending like the Lowe’s guy. The new color was just right, and I happily finished painting and artfully arranging various pieces of art on the walls.
Vignetter

I was lucky enough to get one of Claire’s gocco prints, which I matted in bright turquoise, to go along with my little bird plate and Anthropologie hooks. The clock is from Urban Outfitters, but I don’t think they have it any more. The wall color is from Dunn Edwards, and it’s called Fly a Kite. It’s a nice periwinkle blue.  I especially like how it looks with the yellow in my kitchen and hallway, because you can see the two together in the archways:
Archcorner

Those are my beloved paint-by-numbers pictures that I found, framed, at an antique mall for $18 for the pair! What a bargain! And I also love my big pear. If you look closely, you can see that some ofbthe frames in the hall don’t actually have photos of anyone I know. Classy, no? But at least they’re hanging up, right? I better add finding photos for the frames to my to-do list.

I also got the curtain rods up and the two wall sconces, which are sort of ugly, painted. I’m hoping that my new paint job will make the sconces more bearable. Now I just have to make curtains, paint the door, re-install the sconces and slipcover the chairs. Not much at all. Heh.

I’m pooped and sore all over, I have more to share, but I think I better get some rest first. Thanks for all the nice comments about my skirt and weight. I really think that picture is just at a really good angle, and also, remember that you can’t see my bum, there’s plenty there to lose :o) I am behind on responding to comments, and my stupid e-mail is being stupid again, but I’ll do my best to reply this week!

And because I can’t do a post without a pet picture, here is a rare visit from Petey, who is either sleeping, as you see here, or bouncing around the house, from one windowsill to the next.
Sleepypetey

7 Comments

  1. Good for you for tackling that major project!! I can’t stand it when sales people pretend to know your abilities. Just the other day, the family and I went to a “Country Market”, and there was a blacksmith selling….actually I am not really sure why he was there. He was just sitting there next to his truck with a little table holding nothing but his cards on it. Anyway, the husband stopped to chat and asked if he made certain items, and the blacksmith proceeded to tell us that yes he can make them, but we couldn’t afford it. I’m sorry what? And you know that how? I just had to laugh. I am sure he gets a lot of work that way.
    Anyway, back to you! You did a lovely job! Well done, you!!

  2. Well done! You’re really making me feel guilty, though – I just realised it’s almost a year now and I still haven’t finished painting my interior doors. I ran out of momentum after painting 5 rooms and slacked off. Now the kids have knocked off bits of paint etc. it’s hard to feel motivated to finish what I started… ugh.

  3. Brilliant work with the colors. 🙂

  4. It looks fantabulous. I can’t wait to see it complete with curtains. I love that picture of Petey and the angle from his paw! So fuzzy and cute he is.

  5. I love the color you chose, it’s so bright and happy. The name is wonderful, of course that is the color of the sky when flying kites! Great work.

  6. Periwinkle blue is my color. If any article of clothing is periwinkle blue it magically finds it’s way to my closet! Can’t wait to see it in person.

  7. What a sweet house! good for you for just going for it. Those swinging dicks (not a nice word but I love it!) at the home improvment stores are intimidated by ladies who KNOW WHAT THEY WANT… inside they’re thinking (whoa she is much smarter than I am…I can’t let that one out of the bag!) and so they overcompensate. Now that I see your colors, I get a better idea for the sconces. I think you are going in the right direction. Trust your instincts, it’s just a little paint, right????
    You are inspirational!

say something nice...