Overview Of Window Treatments In The House

 

To hang curtains over patio doors or not?

If it were a house I was living in, then no.

The view is four acres of rolling fields and trees.  Very private.

But I figure not everyone feels secure without curtains. 

So I selected very light, filmy ones that wouldn't darken the room and could be pulled back easily.

The curtains were only $3 at the local junk store.  The bad news: the curtain rod was $76 at Lowe's.

Four plain black (reads dark gray) curtain panels for the living room picture window.  I wanted the focus to be on the view, not the curtains.  I got the curtain rod for $3 at a garage sale (spraypainted the finials to get them a silver that I liked).  The curtains were purchased from Walmart for $54.

The Front Bedroom has soothing gray tones, so I chose a faux tie-dye curtain wall.  I used FOUR twin bed sheets to pull that off -- Eddie Bauer from Target.  Approximately $25 per twin bed set -- yes that does add up.  (On the bright side -- I have four twin bed fitted sheets and four pillowcases for the two twin beds that will go in that room.) The "curtain rod" was a stair handrail that we bought at Habitat Restore for $9.  The "curtain rod holders" are coat hooks that were purchased from Lowe's for $6 each X 7.  Yep pricey, But if you consider that it is an entire wall...  And then there is a second smaller window.  The curtain rod for it was $20, and the curtains were purchased from Walmart for $27.

The primary bedroom curtain were ones I had purchased at a garage sale a year ago for $10.

Three panels on one window and two on the other, 84".

Two curtain rods were cheapies from Walmart for $30.

Last, but not least are the den vintage barkcloth curtain.  I have had the fabric forever, and they are a little worse for the wear but I couldn't pass on them for a mid-century look.  Curtain patches were $8.  Curtain rod for one window was a piece of wood purchased for $6 from TrueValue (I already had the curtain rod hooks from somewhere else).

Work On The Den Is Done

 

The walls in the den are two-tone, with inspiration coming from the mid-century bark cloth curtains.  The curtains matched the existing wall color which was meh-cream.  I painted a slightly darker tan on the bottom half to give the room a little heft.  With a black chair rail separating the colors.  It really gave the room some personality.

This room is funkier than the rest of the house.  More relaxed.  So the light fixture is funkier.  Purchased from ebay for $42. We bought a different back door from Habitat Restore for $85.  (I know, you will miss the taped-over doggy door.)  Of course I painted it.  We reused the hardware from the original door.

We tore out the woodburning stove, which gained us a bunch of floor space.  In the opposite corner was a funky bump-out where the walls did not even pretend to go down to the floor -- Bob extended that to the floor and made it look like a real wall.

The authentic mid-century curtain turned out to be a ton of work (most everything is!)  But they do give a sense of privacy to the space.  The 1970s license plates were leftover from my junking days, and add interest and color.  Some of these pics were taken before the license plates went up. As hard as it was to get the room in this condition, it is going to be fun to decorate.

Just Another Day At The Office

 

Today was Monday.  Not after having a weekend away from the Mid-Century AirBNB, just another day.  First thing to tackle -- painting black on outside of both exterior doors.  I had them already prepped with all sorts of fancy spraypaint that is supposed to help with adhesion. The paint is a good quality exterior that is supposed to be good for doors, but "True Black" it isn't.  More like charcoal gray. (Why would they call it "True Black" when it clearly isn't?)  The doors turned out pretty good, just a little detail work left. After my husband gets home tonight we will drag the front door from the "spraypaint shed" and re-install it.  We haven't had a front door for a week, and a sheet behind the screen door doesn't offer much security.

Then "surprise".  Lowe's brought the new refrigerator at 9:15 am.  The delivery window was between 10 am - 2 pm, so I am glad I was there.  Why do I feel like I can check this off my list when I didn't do anything?

Second job -- finish putting together the second nightstand for the primary bedroom.  Also, take apart the one I did yesterday and do it right this time.  Now the drawer opens.  Also .... someone was not paying attention when the description said how tall these nightstands were. We will have to figure out a way to raise them up to bed level. Update: ended up just donating these two, buying two used bedstands and painting them.

Third job -- unbox one of the bookshelf headboards that is going in the front bedroom.  MUCH assembly required.  Bedsides unboxing (which they didn't even count in their 15-step assembly list) I accomplished step 1.  And yes, there are two headboards.  I am 1/30 of the way done.  With that thought, it is time to call it a day. If you could read between the lines, I am about at a mental, emotional and physical breakdown here.  The family reunion was just a couple weeks away, and I needed the house to be functional by then.

Finished In The Bathroom

 

"Mama said there'd be days like this ...."  that is what Bob said before his THIRD trip to the hardware store / while he was working on a Saturday / after finding rotted boards around the toilet area / after he ran out of hexagon tile in the shower (which I had him buy, because I didn't trust myself to purchase the right amount.)

I purchased the gray tile for the rest of the bathroom floor at Habitat Restore weeks ago.  I didn't trust myself to purchase the right amount then either.  So I bought all of it -- slight overkill.  But still only paid $26. Well, it all turned out splendidly.  

And it gave me incentive to finish the walls.  That stenciling on the upper half? It about did me in. I have to say -- I wouldn't recommend it.  I definitely would do something different if I had a do-over. Yes, it looks good and was cheap -- but it was just stinking hard work. Not for the faint of heart.  The mirror came from an antique store for $14.  The light above that is the original brown fixture, just spraypainted.  Same vanity and sink, but we used silver fixtures that were left in the house.

Specialty glass guys came and measured for the shower door and later installed it.  They did an awesome job and it was not as expensive as getting a glass door from Lowe's and having it installed.

The stylish bathroom light / exhaust fan.  Quiet and looks great.

The bathroom is by far the smallest room in the house.  And by far the most expensive.  AND the most time consuming for both Bob and I. The most blood and sweat.  But also the most important.  Someday I may be able to look at it without remembering how exhausted it made me. And caused me to have plantar fasciitis for the next 6 months.

The Laundry Room In All Of It's Glory

The original pitiful little laundry area was never a laundry "room".

Just an ugly little branch off of the kitchen.

I needed that to change -- both for AirBNB looks and locked place where I could store linens.

Bob went the extra mile to finish the laundry room wall and door before the flooring guys came.

And of course, yours truly had to get that wall primed and painted.

Now it can be called a room!

The new flooring made it look so glamourous. 

Of course Bob got the baseboard in after this pic was taken.

We bought a new stacking washer/dryer from Lowe's.

It certainly wasn't cheap.

And a folding station!  We repurposed a section of the kitchen counter. FREE.

The cabinets below were left over from my own kitchen renovation.  FREE.

The top wire shelf came from one of the bedroom closets. FREE.

The shelves will be great for storing extra linens.

I love me a good laundry room.

(Barely) Surviving The Bathroom Wall Stenciling

 

I priced wallpaper for the bathroom.  I mean, it's small -- so how much could wallpaper be?  Shocking.  The peel and stick Magnolia brand was lovely, but would have drained valuable decorating dollars.  (Not to mention how much we hate wallpapering.)  So we chose a Mid-Century type of wall stencil.

It is only for the top half of the bathroom walls, and only on the front 2/3 of the bathroom.  But first there is always the tedious prep work.  Taking down the towel rack, medicine cabinet.  Filling in and sanding all of the groves in the wainscot paneling. Really hard😓. The prep work actually took a couple of weeks -- I could only stand to mud the walls an hour at a time. Then the sanding. Then painting on a coat of good primer to seal the plaster. 

The lower half of the bathroom is a lighter shade of gray.  

(My husband says we are doing "fifty shades of gray" in the house.)  

The top half I painted a darker shade, so that the white stenciling will really pop.

We purchased the stencil from ebay for $22.

Then the snails-pace stenciling. Attach with tape. Stencil -- dabbing a "dry" brush 1000 times.  Remove stencil.  Allow to dry.  Repeat process 25 times. Question life choices.  Like:  Why, why did I choose stenciling?

Primary Bedroom Bones Done

This bedroom will be the "main" bedroom.  The one with a queen sized bed.  Why did we choose the bedroom in the back of the house for the main bedroom?  Quiet, less road noise.  But mostly, it will have a view of four acres of wildflowers sometime in the future.  To compensate for the lack of natural light, I choose a very light gray paint for the walls.

The drum ceiling light, I plan on having black accents in this room so I went with a light with black geometric design. Curtains hung.  I had a dilemma with 84" curtains.  Hang them high (which I what I am inclined to do), or lower so that they hit the floor?  I obviously went higher, it's just my preference.

The walls and floorboards have all been touched up.  This baby is ready for a bed!

Repainted white closet, with no door.