August Break: Week three

Day 13: home

Day 14: stillness

Day 15: books

Day16: floral

Day 18: looking down

August Cure: Cleaning, paint strips and choosing a 'decor pairing'

So it turns out picking gray paint may be even more difficult that picking white?! Who knew.
Thus there is a variety of swatches on my wall right now and I've been looking at them for a bit.

I decided to go with my usual (seems to have worked just fine in the past) method and go swiftly with my gut, so I chose a color this weekend and was able to score the paint for FREE thanks to a promotion at my local hardware store (where they know me now cause I'm there like five times a week. Sigh) So paint (and some supplies for said painting) have been purchased and are ready and waiting for the painting this weekend.



































As to the rest of the project, this decor pairing or project/purchase business, well that's going to be a lot of work. Partly because it's not just one thing. As stated at the beginning of this project, to start, this room only had a couch as far as furniture (with plans to move in an existing dining table and trunk) and some odd things to work around (like the huge mirror). So realistically this is less of a style cure and more of a whole room overhaul. But I digress.
As this grainy quick iPhone photo shows, the room is a bit more furnished now (thanks to some appropriating from other places and yes I did buy those theater seats at the flea market) but there's still a lot of work. As far as a 'decor pairing' with the soon to be gray paint, I suppose I could simplify it as orange accents. I will be making some hanging light fixtures with pieces acquired at the flea market, painting the dining chairs, making curtains and various throw pillows, and trying to fill in wherever else I can. Honestly at the end of the month I'm not sure the room will be 100% finished, as I don't want to rush and purchase certain furniture just cause of this cure, but I am actively searching so who knows, miracles have happened!
More soon, hopefully involving an awesome post-painting photo!

This weekend

I'll be stopping back in tomorrow with an update on the August Style Cure (spoiler: I picked a paint color!!!) but for now I'm recovering cause I was busy doing a lot of this stuff this weekend (SF's Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival) and my ears are ringing, my voice is horse and I've got a broken toe so I need to rest a little bit before getting back into the swing of things. Anyway, hope everyone has a fabulous Monday!

August break week 2

These are the photos from week two of the August Break. Some of them were more difficult than others, and there were definitely days that I interpreted more loosely than others!

Day five: Close up

Day six: diagonals

Then I missed day seven, whoops!

Day eight: a selfie


Day nine: taste

Day ten: red

Day eleven: play

{snapshot}

Just a basic dinner for me, but I thought the colors were pretty together.

August cure: outbox and floor plan

I'm a tad behind on the steps for the August Cure but I am trying to catch up.
First, I do have an outbox! Actually it's a pile of stuff on a desk that's supposed to be picked up, but it's a start. There's almost nothing in this room so there isn't really much to eliminate, however I've found this to be a good opportunity to gather some of the bits from other parts of the house that I've thought could be ejected from the apartment.
Second, I made a floor plan. It isn't completely accurate (I made it on the bus with sharpies-and got a lot of weird looks) but it dos give me a better idea of the space I am working with. Currently there is a three-seater couch with an ottoman, a rug, and a corner shelf. I would like to move the dining table into the living room, since there is space and that will free up some square footage in the kitchen for adding counter space and storage (more on that some other time) and I would like to move the bar area out to the living room as well. I currently have a tiny bar cart that I will keep using if I can't find the right replacement but it would be very nice to have something a bit larger that would make my glasses less cramped, and allow for some work space on the top.
I actually moved the couch onto the far wall, and the rug with it so I am seeing how that feels for now. I think the addition of some armchairs or a love seat would pull this all together as a seating area. I have a large trunk I can move out here to serve as a coffee table of sorts. Lastly I am looking for a dresser, bookshelf or possibly a small console of sorts for the corner opposite the existing shelves, something to balance it out.

As you can see, this plan leaves me with a lot of furniture to find, purchase, conjole friends/relatives into giving me, and otherwise augment to work with the space. But I knew this going into the project, it's a huge empty space right now and I think I can turn it into something usable and good looking, given an injection of some good luck, good thrifting, and a whole lot of elbow grease.

Next step, picking a paint color!!

Bathroom before & after

When I am stressed or upset nothing makes me feel better than getting something done. A project, an assignment, something I've been meaning to tackle but haven't gotten around to. The best is when I have something I can do start to finish. I had a difficult day at work last week and found myself, while buying shampoo at target, thinking about my bathroom. And how it was dark and weird and I should really buy a new shower curtain. Then I thought, I should redo the whole thing, small room, this could happen tonight!

So I bought a new white shower curtain and an amazing (soft and luxurious) bathmat and made it happen.

Being that this space is tiny and odd it's not the easiest to photograph but I'll do my best. Mostly I just wanted to make it brighter (it was super dark in the shower before) and add a little bit of interest.

Switching out all the burgundy (why would anyone choose this?!) for white helped. I also made my own wall decals using electrical tape (funny but it works real well) and hung some art. I went with the colors from the only decorative piece my roommate had which had black and gold. 

The process of making/installing the decals looked something like this:

I also thought it would be fun to display my collection of animal bones in here. 

After all they fit with all the black and gold. And they are so nifty!

I also cleaned out and utilized the tiny open shelf above the mirror in the medicine cabinet. Neither me nor my roommate need this pace for storage and it's nice to keep everything out of sight, so I backed the little cubby in black paper and used it as a display for all of the black and white animals in my animal collection (yes another collection, what can I say, it just happens!)

Who knows if this is a permanent solution, I will most likely change my mind at some point and want to paint or wallpaper or whatever else, but for now, it's a significant improvement. And it's a lot easier to find my shampoo now that it's not dark and cave like in there.