Picture Update - Living Room

The walls are done!

 

 

Patched and painted and I do declare that you can't tell where the old paint stops and the new paint starts.

I need to just do this.... and that

Where do I start? From the very beginning, there was a one-bedroom coop apartment. Pre-war. Dirt cheap. Here's the short version:

The year was 2002 and I had just graduated college, started working and bought a car all in the same month. I decided I wanted to live close to my job with an easy commute. Unfortunately, at this time, the beginning of the house market boom, not a realtor was taking me seriously. I would be told not to bother showing up to appointments, offers were already made, that I didn't have enough financial security, and basically that I was just a kid, what did I know?

Then I just so happened to wind up with the perfect-for-me living situation in my Washington, DC Coop.

I immediately fixed up what I could on my meager salary and with my limited knowledge of home improvement.


I changed out the sink, cabinet, faucet, medicine cabinet and lights in the bathroom.

I painted the living room... :



...and bedroom with a faux finish that was inspired by my Aunt Donna. She was an artist and had an amazing flair for color.


The orange color in the living room came from that oldie-but-goodie couch (made in North Carolina, furniture capitol of the world!) I inherited from some family friends. See the dark green with peach accent colors? I wanted to brighten up the room. The base coat of paint came from a Home Depot Oops shelf - one gallon for a whopping $3! I color matched it and chose a darker hue in the same family for the top coat, which was mixed with glaze and rag-rolled on top.

I also did this border stripe around the doorways with the topcoat color, just because I had seen a morroccan style room makeover on TLC and I wondered if I could achieve a similar look....


Well, it didn't quite turn out as planned, but at the same time I always get compliments on it and I think it gives definition to the doorways, since they have no moulding and the wall paint is so flow-y. You can also see the transition from the living room to the bedroom in the picture - see how the orange and green are like hot and cold yet somehow manage to work together????

In the bedroom I chose another Oops paint, since it was only $5 and I still had glaze left from the living room. This time, I used that as the topcoat and brushed it on with a dry brush technique.



At first, when I finished one whole uninterupted wall, I thought it looked like a field of grass on the wall. I hated it! But eventually it grew on me. The inspiration for this room came from these pillows I got on clearance at Steinmart:



From there, the rest of the color scheme fell into place: drape-y sheers, glass bauble rods, bamboo blinds all from Target. On sale. Then I would pick up sheets, fabric duvet covers or coverlets wherever I could find them on sale. Always in complementary colors.



The yellow is from Gaiam and the green from Urban Outfitters. The striped pillow was a gift. As was the shadowbox in the corner. And I love elephants, so that plaque was from Filene's Basement on super sale.

That was all I did for a very long time. It was enough for me to feel comfortable in my living room and bedroom. I was okay with the bathroom storage and cosmetic updates. And the kitchen? Well, that was a lost cause in my mind.

The only thing I could bring myself to do was un-clutter and change the faucet. I'll get to that next time, but for now just enjoy.....