Decisions: Living Room Wall Color

When we moved into our house each room in the house painted a different color.  It was pretty, too bold and country classic for me.  In the last two years we've slowly painted each room gray, white, taupe and cream.  I know, totally boring, but it maximizes the limited natural light we get in our north-facing house.

The one room we haven't touched is the living room.  It's painted a pretty marigold yellow - something I would never choose myself, but Abe and I have always loved it.  That is, until recently.  The color is super cozy, but absorbs the light and blends in too much with our honey maple wood floors and trim.  Everything feels so yellow.  But the clincher was the new couch fabric, which ended up being a very light gray (oopsie, always see a sample before you buy!)

This photo shows the old couch fabric. It was a great color, but the material was no match for a yellow Lab puppy.

In conclusion, I've made my case for painting the walls a new color and finally got Abe to agree to a change.  The big question is:  What color? and the follow up to that is:  How do I feel about accent walls?

In my head I'm picturing maybe a grayish purple or a grayish light green.  Abe is against painting the walls just plain gray, which would be my preference.

Benjamin Moore has a great website for browsing colors.  These four are my "safe" choices. I'm sure they'll look nice, but I feel like they might make me bored.

 

These totally negate my wish for a brighter room, but I feel like it would really make the wood in the room pop while camoflaging the black tv and black frame of the couch. My gut says it might look awesome, but I have a feeling it'll be tough to get Abe to buy in to this choice.

Before & After: Built-in Shelving and Window Seat

I spend a lot of time in my office, but for over a year I was working out of a mess (see below).  After much planning and research I came up with a plan to give myself some much needed storage and Mr. Paws a much needed - and deserved - window seat.

These intructions from the This Old House website gave me the inspiration and basic directions. 

I already hady two RAST chests from Ikea, some gorgeous old wood planks left up in my attic, vintage brass handles from Etsy, and fabric for the window seat.  All I needed to buy was a pre-assembled kitchen wall cabinet, two 6 foot 2x4 pieces of lumber, stain and shelf brackets.

Stuffed Quilt Sewing Project

This project was time consuming, but super easy and cheap! After hemming the guest room curtains I had 2 yards of nice charcoal gray fabric leftover (Ikea makes their curtains way long), and I also had stuffing from an extra couch cushion. I figured I would combine the two and try making a stuffed quilt. For the back of the quilt I used cute yellow/black/white fabric that I had in my attic stash, and then bought some blanket batting for the middle layer (not totally necessary, but makes the blanket a little smoother so you can't feel the seams).

Piles of fabric squares

Making the top of the quilt involved making fifty-six 7" stuffed squares, sewing them into strips of eight and then sewing the strips together into a larger square.  The alignment was a little off, precise measurements has never been my strong suit. 

Finally, I sewed the three layers (quilt, batting, back) together and trimmed the edges with light gray bias tape.

Supplies:

• squares of fabric - 7" is manageable. You need one top and one bottom for every mini pillow.  Use cheap fabric for the bottom layer, no one will see it.  Chopping up an old sheet is a great way to reuse & upcycle!
• stuffing (you only need a small handful for each mini pillow)
• fabric for back of your blanket
• blanket batting
• bias tape

I ❤ My Cat

The title of this post should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me.  My new I ❤ My Cat zip pouches are now available in my shop!

Secret to getting your beloved cat to participate in a photo shoot?  Lots of compliments and lots of beef flavor crunchy treats.

Friday Night Spelling Bee

Last week was a long one filled with lots of work and a stomach virus that lasted a little too long.  So Abe and I were pumped when Friday rolled around and Colleen and Kenny invited us to dinner at Isamu.  After dinner we came back to our house for a few drinks and my Dorm Rock play list on Pandora. 

We also pulled out this old 1940's parties and games booklet that belonged to my grandparents.  Abe found it in a side table I inherited and it's full of weird games like "Cracker Eating Content" and "Gay Nineties Party" (and they mean 1890's - suggestions include taffy pulling and polka-dot ties).

The four of us attempt board games often and it usually ends in argument.  However, Spelling Bee sounded like it could be fun so we whipped out the ol' dictionary and gave it a whirl.  We stil argued.