q is for quandie

I’m still painting trim in the piano room, but meanwhile, I thought I would share a past project with you.

My husband and I have lived in our house for nearly 26 years.  Yep.  That’s a long time.  Definitely enough time to have made plenty of changes throughout.  After that much time, you can even get to the projects that weren’t very high on the priority list.

The pantry is one such project.

I have to admit, I often hide things behind closed doors.  My mom says this goes way back to my childhood when I would shove my coat in the toy box or under the bed rather than putting it away properly.  If I can shut a door when guests come over and hide the mess, then I don’t worry too much about it.  That explains why my pantry looked like this for over 20 years.

Oh, the shame!  Wine, cat food and toilet paper, oh my.

I should also clarify here that my ‘pantry’ is really just the stairway to my very creepy cellar.  So, yes, that is a big opening where the floor should be.  There are stairs going down there.  Nonetheless, this is valuable storage space that is right off my kitchen.  Not only that, the window you see faces west and gets incredible light as the sun is going down, all of which is wasted behind a closed door.  My ultimate goal was to put in a door with a window, so even when the door is closed, that light would shine into the kitchen.   Therefore, I needed to clean this up.  No more hiding the mess.

First we had some repairs made to the plaster walls and ceiling.  Next came a fresh coat of paint in a lovely shade of aqua.

Ahhhhh, better already.

I knew I needed proper shelves in here instead of the tacky metal garage shelves.  However, I was limited by the depth of the ‘floor’.  I searched high and low for pre-made shelves that would fit my space.  No dice.  I had to bring in the big guns.  My neighbor/handy man Ken who loves to work on projects like this.  He took a million measurements, I showed him pictures in magazines, and voila, he just whipped up some custom shelves for me complete with wine storage.

Fantastic, right?

Next came the little details inside.  Vintage storage containers to disguise the less than pretty stuff, like Kleenex or cleaning supplies.  Blue canning jars, vintage cake taker, old kitchen scales and locker baskets to hold the paper goods.

A wall of chalkboard paint on one side for fun and a new glass shade for the light fixture (from a garage sale, naturally) were added.

And finally, the new door.  Purchased through craigslist, outfitted with vintage hardware from Etsy, and trimmed down and hung by Ken.  Isn’t it fab?

And now that you can see inside, I keep it nice and tidy … most of the time.

Step one of project ‘domino effect’ was to repaint the walls in my living room and piano room.

Stop, let me back up a moment.  I have a traditional “L” shaped living room/dining room combo.  Two rooms separated by an wide archway.  However, I chose to put a baby grand piano in my ‘dining room’ and turn another room into the dining room.  So, now it’s the ‘piano room’.  I’d love to say that I play.  I bought the piano with every intention of learning to play, but that one is still on the to-do list.  Meanwhile, I have found that a baby grand piano is the most versatile piece of furniture.  Perfect for gift wrapping, crafting space, bar or buffet for parties, laundry folding table … endless uses.

So … as I was saying … step one was to repaint the walls in these two rooms.  I began by sanding the edges of the old stripes.  Jeanne suggested this, and she was right.  There were still a few spots where I could see the ridges of the old stripes; it would have been much worse without the sanding.  If you ever paint over striped walls, remember this tip.  Next, I covered the old stripes with a fresh coat of white.  I used Dutch Boy Platinum ‘no prep no prime’ paint in Cotton Blossom.  As you can see, it covered beautifully.  I was worried that it would be difficult to cover those stripes, and it wasn’t at all.  Of course, as per the rules of the ‘domino effect,’ a fresh white on the walls meant I also needed a fresh white on the molding (again Cotton Blossom).  Luckily I had just painted the ceilings a pale aqua last spring, so they were good to go.  Now I had a fresh blank canvas of white walls and trim with a pretty aqua ceiling.

I then whipped out my Frog tape, a yardstick and a pencil.  Using measurements that Jeanne and I worked out for the best placement of the stripes, I just measured down from the ceiling using the yard stick, made pencil marks, and ran my tape.  I don’t bother with a level, because nothing in my house is level anyway.  I don’t use a chalk line, because I find them very messy to clean up later.

I began with just one small section of wall, and one of my favorite shades of grey that I use on furniture.  Dutch Boy’s Silver Case.  However, as I often find happens with paint, a color that looks good on furniture, or looks good in one room, suddenly looks awful in another.  The Silver Case was all wrong!  Too much of a lavender undertone.  Luckily I had an extra gallon of the grey that we used in our basement.  I splashed a little on the wall.  Too dark.  So, I added some white to it and tried again.  Perfect!

This time I chose to use just two horizontal stripes.  It was so much less work than the floor to ceiling striped wall I did last time, and I think it has just as much impact.  Plus, having the large expanse of white at the top makes the ceilings seem much higher.

Ah.  Look!  I was right.  The buffet is so much prettier with white and grey stripes.

In one weekend, with Jeanne’s help, I was able to get the piano room walls painted.  I still need to finish painting the trim in this room.  Such a putzy job, but must be done.

Next weekend I’m recruiting new neighbor Karen for part two of step one.  Painting the living room walls.  I’ll keep you posted on my progress!

I am often victim to something I like to call the ‘domino effect.’  It’s that thing that happens when you decide to change just one thing in a room and somehow it leads to a complete makeover of the entire room, and often the neighboring rooms as well.  Do you know what I’m talking about?

In this case, it all started with painting the oak buffet.  You know, this one…

I totally love the new color on the buffet, and it sort of works with my olive green striped walls … but gosh, wouldn’t it be so much better if the walls were white and pale grey?

I did the stripes in my living area several years ago.  Here is a picture from when they were brand new.

I love them.  Even though my husband initially said he felt like he was living in a prison cell, he came around when the rooms were finished.  I’m planning to do another horizontal stripe in here, but something just a tad more subtle.

Obviously, if I change the wall color to white and pale grey, the window treatments are going to have to go.  That’s OK, they aren’t really me anymore at all.  The sofa and ottomans are relics from the time before I realized that buying matched sets of furniture shows a distinct lack of imagination.  Unfortunately, I can’t afford to replace the sofa right now, but maybe I can disguise it with a cover of some kind.  And surely I can come up with an alternative coffee table to replace the ottomans.

You see what I mean?  The domino effect.  Stay tuned to see where it takes me.  I’ll keep you posted.

I have collected vintage glass ornaments for many years now.  I find them at garage sales and antique shops.  At first I kept any that I found.  Any color, solid or with a painted design.  But, as my collection grew, I knew I needed to cut down and only keep the ones I really love.

Now I stick with mostly pink and aqua, but I love a little pale green thrown in too.

And recently I culled out most of the solid round ones too.  I love the ones with pretty hand painted designs, or those with a unique shape.

I display my ornaments on a small silver tree.  This is my only tree.  A larger tree would overwhelm my house.  I don’t use any lights or anything else on this tree, it doesn’t need any extras.  It is sparkly and gorgeous as is.  It looks perfect next to my newly painted buffet.