Home Progress

So, the new floors are in and a (relative) peace has settled in the house.  No more workers and saws and buzzing noises and dust!  Well, I should qualify... there is lots of dust around here!  But at least the creation of daily sawdust has ceased.  Phew.  You can see that Gemma is inspecting the floor carefully.

I shopped forEVER for an area rug to lighten up the (now) dark floor and brown couches and brown furniture ... and I finally found one, which arrived last weekend.  And I love it.  (It's from Garnet Hill, btw.  This is my second rug from them and I have been delighted with the look and quality of both of them.) 

I'm not liking the yellow sofa pillows much but this was the first look with the rug down.  I now need to reaccessorize and haul the stuff that I stored upstairs during the floor work BACK downstairs, and get things moved back in.  I also found the perfect fabric to make curtains and soften up the room some.  So it was a good news/bad news thing.  Yay! I found the right fabric!  Oh no, now I have to make them!  Eventually. But that rug makes me very happy. 

And, as long as the floor guys had moved the dining room furniture out to the garage during the work, I decided to take the opportunity to paint a piece of furniture that has been bugging me since we got it.  The dining room is relatively small, with a wall that has two windows and a narrow space between them.  When we found a china cabinet that would fit in that space (at a consignment store for a great price) we grabbed it.  It fits well and it functions beautifully -- but it was very dark, stained wood and I ended up feeling that it loomed over the room in an unpleasant way.  When the floor guys took it out of the room, I felt instantly relieved.

So, inspired by the furniture painting lessons and encouragement on Pinterest and DIY blogs, I decided to paint the thing. 

 One of my favorite home improvement/decorating bloggers, Kate at Centsational Girl, provided great detailed instructions for painting furniture which gave me just what I needed to know.  So I've been spending time sanding, filling, priming and as of yesterday, painting. Here it is with the first primer coat.  (That front piece, which has glass-fronted doors, stacks on the rear piece.)

 Upon reflection, it probably wasn't the smartest idea to start with a huge piece with drawers and doors and two big sections ... This is clearly going to take some time.  But heck... I figure that once I do this, any project after will seem easier.   I should add that on this piece, the shelves are nailed in place so painting those bottom shelves equired lying on my back and painting to get the undersides, which are visible when the piece is assembled and glass doors are on  (While swiping away from that not very comfortable position, I pondered  Michelangelo. There is not a Sistine Chapel in my future.)

See that round table up there in the living room picture?  I plan to paint that a creamy white.  I should have started with that, I'm thinking now.  Oh well.  Live and learn.  And paint.