Thrifted mirror

I'm here again to confess my undying love for oil rubbed bronze spray paint. Just kidding but kind of.

The first thrifted item I bought was this large mirror at the Salvation Army for $14.99. I loved the unusal shape (long and skinny) and the beautiful curvature (is that a word?) of the top. I had to have it.

I also had to paint it.

So I taped it off and covered the mirror part with newspaper, being very careful to get as close to the edges as possible, as not to spray the mirror itself. I  love the result and can't get enough of seeing the delicious metallic bronze against my grayish wall in the entryway.

I love how long it is, so it has become my go-to full length mirror when I stand back far enough. I for one think it looks expensive and new and it is really old and cost me $14.99. I also think it looks very nice paired up with those Target frames that we got as a wedding gift!

Blue la la

So far I think our guest bathroom has undergone the biggest "makeover" in the house. I knew I would want to start out by picking a shower curtain and then letting it develop from there. Since this is our only bathroom in the house to have a shower curtain, I wanted something that I really loved!  We have a gift card to Pottery Barn that we can use at West Elm, and as soon as I saw this shower curtain in their new fall line I was in love:

At $39, it was a bit higher than I'd normally pay for a shower curtain, but since we had a gift card I didn't feel bad at all. I love that I can mix the indigo shades with tons of different colors- green, yellow, gray, coral, I could go on and on.

Next, I painted the oak cabinets in Martha Stewart's Glass of Milk. To be honest I was expecting it to be a huge pain after all of the horror stories I've heard. It went so well and I didn't even sand the cabinets. I put on two coats of Zinnser Bullseye 123 primer and probably three or four coats of the Martha paint. I was very happy with her paint. I already had the brushes, primer, and everything so the project cost me about $13 for a quart of the paint, and I barely used any of it.  Here is a picture of the before:

Here we are after a coat of primer. At this point I was a little nervous about all of the brush strokes showing:

But not to worry, this is how it turned out:

I also painted the bathroom in the same color we used downstairs, Milk Pail.

We hung the shelf that we scored at the PB Outlet earlier this year for $4.97 over these towel hooks that were already in here. I like them and I think that hooks function much better than racks anyways, so those will be staying.

A closer shot of the shower curtain and the pattern. You can't tell in these pictures but each print is just a little different shade than the next.

So what's next for this room?

• Accesorize the white shelf. I'm thinking of various bath related items in apothecary jars, etc.
• Get a soap dispenser.
• Either get a new mirror or frame out the existing mirror.
• Purchase bath mats.
• Hang some art.
• Find some great knobs for the cabinet doors.
• Eventually change light fixture.
• Eventually change faucet.

House Tour Updated

Just popping in to say if you are curious to see some before and "progress" shots of spaces I haven't shared on the blog yet, you can now do so on the page above you labeled "Our Home" or by clicking here!

Powder Bathroom Updates

On Saturday we painted our small powder bathroom in just a couple of hours. It all started when I bought a gorgeous mirror from HomeGoods for only $29.99. I came home to take off the old mirror in the powder bath, which was super easy- it wasn't glued at all like I've heard some are, it was only screwed in. The only problem was that the room hadn't been painted behind the mirror and this is what I found:

I thought it'd be no problem, since the sellers had left a bunch of paint in the garage. So I set out to find the paint. I thought I'd found it, but it turned out to be not so:

So I just put the mirror up anyway and it looked really silly. Until this weekend, when we decided to do something about it. We went to Home Depot and had no idea what kind of color we really wanted but the blueish greens sort of jumped out at both of us, and we decided on Milk Pail by Martha Stewart. We had it colormatched to Behr Premium Plus Ultra and got to work painting... a few hours later it was done and it looks great with my beautiful mirror.

I hung a shelf we already had over the toilet.

I got this fluffy rug and pretty green towel from World Market.

And a close up of the pretty finish on the mirror. It reminds me of mercury glass. I think I should get a mercury glass candleholder for the shelf.

I still need to hang a towel ring (I'm going to spraypaint one that I found at ReStore) and a toilet paper holder. Eventually we'd like to get a new light fixture in there as well.

I love the difference a great paint color can make!

A Masculine Office

Aaron works so hard. At work, at home, at school, at church. So one thing I was really excited about in our new house was giving him his own designated office space that he didn't have to share with a guest room or my crafting stuff. I think he was pretty excited about it and has big plans for it (one of our friends gave him the idea to put a kegerator in it... oh jeez!) Right now though, we've successfully filled it on a pretty tight budget. He definitely deserves this space to work in. I know a nice environment can go a long way!

We started out by painting the room. I was hoping for him to choose a navy blue and sort of guided him by showing him rooms with dark colors. He didn't love the navy, but what he chose was something very close- a deep blueish gray called Intellectual, by Behr. Part of this decision may have been the fitting name :) We've used Behr Premium Plus Ultra paint and primer in one in all of our house so far and really like it.

We thought a wingback chair would go really nicely in there, and be a spot for him to relax while reading or studying. We went to my very favorite thrift store, Next to New, and there it was! Interestingly enough, we had already talked about how cool a teal color would look, and there were two of these beauties in good condition with nailhead trim just waiting for us..

They were $75.00 each, and we thought that was a great price. We thought about it for a while, and decided to go back a few days later and see if they were still there. They were, so we bought one! We're so happy with this find.

We also bought this little chest that we are going to use for our printer. It was $30 and we aren't sure what to do with the finish yet, but we might give staining a try. We love the geemetric shape in the doors.

We must have had good luck that day, because we got home and our neighbor had a 70's laminate bookshelf sitting out on their curb for free. I convinced Aaron to at least go look at it and we ended up walking it home. I painted it oil-rubbed bronze and Aaron loves it! Our first curbside find. Here it is before, I knew it would look great with all of those pretty curves:

And after.

So that is the office so far! I still want to get a rug to tie the space together and some accessories for the bookshelf. I also need to get another poster frame from IKEA to hang another of his posters and hang those on the wall. I'm also working on some original works of art for him... more to come on that. And, I think a little cube ottoman might be nice to go with the chair.



What we've been up to

Well it has been 4 weeks that we've lived in our home. It is really feeling like home now, and we've done a lot so far to make this place ours. We've unpacked every box, painted three rooms, got a few new furniture finds, hung new or old curtains in every room, made a few cosmetic changes, and spent a lot of money at Home Depot. I'm on a first name basis with the paint guy!

We've bought a grill, a lawnmower, a drill and saw, 4.5 gallons of paint, a few new furniture pieces, eight curtain panels, all new guest bedding, a shower curtain, and much more. I'll do my best to share it all here. And let me just say, thank goodness for gift cards, summer birthdays, and no mortgage payment the first month (woohoo)!

Here are a few sneak peaks of some of the things we've been working on.... and I promise to be back on Monday to share more!

P.S. I hate to add to the commentary about the sweltering heat right now, but it is so. dang. hot. So far, we've had 51 days of 100+ heat, and we're shattering records every day... todays high? 107. We have literally gone months without seeing a drop of rain. So, the dog days of summer are far from being over and this just makes it hard to want to do anything!