Getting There...

Over the weekend the Mr and I tackled a few more projects around the house. Nothing to earth shattering, but just enough to make this place feel a little more like home. To begin we finally installed all the vent covers, outlet covers, and light switch covers although every time I turn a corner it seems I find one we missed. I have a few long and narrow vent covers that I still need to paint, because apparently they don't make them anymore. So grateful I kept them! We hung a few pieces of art and our chalkboard. As you can see we still have happy christmas on it. Ha. I'll change it up once I buy some new chalk. The Mr painted the door Tricorn Black by Sherwin Williams for Lowe's. It was a game changer. We had the pendant light hung and it's beyond gorgoeus in person. My favorite may be the way it looks from the outside. Still a million more steps to go, but at least it no longer looks like we just moved in.

You can see where we started here.

chalkboard | pendant light | chairs west elm {similar}

Another Not So Exciting Project Done...

I am quickly learning during this renovation process some things aren't the funnest to do or even make the most impact. This is one of those projects. The highlight though is that it does check another thing off my mile long list and it was free. This house had decades worth of tv and telephone wires hanging on the back of the house. They were contained in plastic tubing but it was deteriorating and we simply did not need them. 

BEFORE:

DURING:

My sweet papa has been helping us with projects here and there. He truly was the force behind getting us in the house in time from the very beginning. He came earlier this week to fix a leaky spout that was outside and then we decided to tackle all the hanging wires. Between the back of the house and the basement we pulled two industrial sized garbage bags full of no longer in use wires. I honestly got a kick out of chasing down wires to see what was good or not. I swear I would have made quite the contractor in another life.

AFTER:

So much better right? Such a simple thing to make the house look clean and less scary. Still on my to do list is to pull all the current plants in the around the house planters and add rosemary. I can only imagine what our back yard will smell like then! I am also thinking a tin roof would give me all the heart emojis. I am so trying to remember this is a long term project and can't all be done in a day or year for that matter. Baby steps.

string lights can be found here. We went with the black wire.

The why behind paint color...

Last week I received the below question and thought maybe a few of you may like to know my thought process behind some of our decisions too. Over the years I learned that every design decision should have a clear cut reason behind it. If not I tend to tire of it easily, but if I have a purpose behind said design choice it seems to have longevity. Am I weird? Maybe so, but I'm so okay with that. Ha.

{reader} My question is: was the decision to keep it the same {paint color} a design choice or a time choice? I think it looks great in your place but I'm wondering if you're happy with it or do you plan on painting the trim later?

The above room is from our new house when we just moved in. It's "un-decorated" but all the major key players are in place ready to be brought to life again. Before we moved in we painted all living areas Sherwin Williams Alabaster. That included the walls, ceiling, and trim. We tried about a half dozen different whites and this was the clear winner. We get an incredible amount of natural sunlight so many of the whites tried to turn blue or gray. Alabaster has a slight yellow undertone that keeps it feeling warm.

Now back to the question... I knew before even buying this house that it needed to be all one color. It is a mid-century modern ranch and I wanted to stay true to the modern feel. Painting a space one color automatically leans towards a clean and modern look. Of course this mostly only works with white unless you are gusty enough to have a colored ceiling which I am not. I wanted the space to feel light and airy which white accomplishes easily. Why I did not do the standard ceiling white was a design choice that proved to be practical also. The slight yellow undertone that makes this white warm does not read as yellow because there is not a another white to compare it to. If we did the standard ceiling white and had it join the Alabaster walls then you would see the blue undertones of the ceiling making the walls look more creamy which I did not want. On the practical side it also made painting easier because we had no lines to cut in.

Above is from our rental were we were able to paint the walls, but not the ceilings. The ceilings were a standard ceiling white and the walls were Martha Stewart Talc from Home Depot. As you can see the "white" of the walls read much more creamy because they were up against a very white ceiling. Boo. Over all it did not kill the look though because in a 1931 craftsman house a clean and modern look was not needed. This house was meant to have character and tons of it.

This is our home from the beginning of my blogging days. Sorry for all the tags, but I had to take it off the Houzz tour I had way back then. We bought this home as a new build. They gave us three choices to paint the walls and this was the closest to not brown they had. It was Sherwin Williams Rice Grain. Once we moved in we painted the trim and doors Sherwin Williams Mega Greige which is still one of my all time favorite colors. I choose to have dark trim here to add some character to the new build. This house was almost too perfect and I wanted to add some age to it so this was the easiest and cheapest way to accomplish it. Later I did end up painting the whole house white which you can see here.

Let me know if you have any "whys" and I would be honored to answer them! Of course everyone's design methods are different, but would love to share what has worked for me. I truly believe everyone should have a home they enjoy regardless of budget.