Door Brainstorming

It's been a little while since I painted the front door yellow and I still think it's missing something. Don't get me wrong, I am so happy that I did it but it feels.......incomplete. So, with this in mind I turned to Pinterest and below are some of the ideas I found. But first, I am re-posting a picture of the door so you can have it fresh in your mind.
P.S. - Ignore the green Frog Tape. I was priming the frame outside.

Please share your thoughts. 

Source: jonesdesigncompany.com via Sarah on Pinterest

I like this one because it's subtle but I'm afraid that if I do this then there will be too many curtains on that wall. It would be a soft color curtain too, nothing over the top or in your face.

Source: ourhandmadehappiness.blogspot.com via Sarah on Pinterest

This option is a little more subtle and provides me the option to have a curtain without the curtain overload. I could have it over just the windows or extend it full length. Maybe have it tied of in the middle with a fun ribbon or strip of fabric.

Source: mikeseidle.com via Sarah on Pinterest

Or, I can paint the inside panels. Too much yellow? Maybe a softer yellow or the gray wall color?

Ok, well that's all I have found for now. Which one do you like? Or, do you have another idea I have seen yet?

Greeted by sunshine

There's nothing like walking through the door and being greeted by a burst of yellow. It's so uplifting, happy, and heartwarming. 

I've always wanted a yellow door. I think they are so eye catching, so pretty, and slightly eccentric...heck! I'm all three of those so it's a match made in heaven!

The door originally was red on the outside and white on the inside. But with a little priming and a lot of coats a miracle can happen.

I just think it really makes the room pop and definitely livens up that side of the room. There really wasn't anything wrong with the white door but now after seeing it being yellow I can't imagine it being any other way. In my mind, it kind of sections off that side and makes it a room of its own. (Side Note: Do you see the Christmas wreath on the front door in the top picture and a piece of it in the right of the bottom picture? I took this picture on March 4th and it was purchased on Black Friday! My wreath still smells soooooo good and it's not dying! Might as well keep it up and enjoy it, am I right?)

Now, let's move it on outside.

I love it on the outside even more than the inside and it makes me uber-eager to paint the rest of the outside, but we don't even have colors picked yet, so, on the back burner it goes. Oh well, back to the door. Painting over this red was AWFUL! It was aggravating because it did not want to go away. It took me 5 coats (including the primer) before the red stopped showing through the yellow.

The white you see on the frame is just a primer for now. I decided to go ahead and prime because I couldn't stand looking at the red and the yellow together...blech.

Do you agree with me? These two primary colors do not belong together, especially on our front door.

Although, I am a little worried now about having it pre-primed. The other day, I remember reading that another blogger's paint peeled because they waited too long between priming and painting (for the life of me I can't remember where I read that). So, now I'm nervous. Everyone, cross your fingers for me because painting all the nooks and crannies were a pain in the rear and if I have to do it again I'm going to go bonkers!

Ok, now I need your advice. I feel like the inside is missing something and I can't put my finger on it. Do you like the door and the frame as it is, or, do I need to add something?  Here is the inside again with a couple different angles. Please comment and give me your thoughts; they'd be much appreciated!

P.S. - Don't mind the Frog Tape on the windows, I'm still priming the outside frame.

 

A Gray Outlook

Let's talk about the living room.

Like I've mentioned previously, I read a lot of blogs before we actually purchased a house. I was obsessed. I had to know what everything was going to look like, and one of the things I noticed I was drawn to was gray walls. I love the look of gray walls because they can go with any kind of style. It looks beautiful against the natural woods but still allows my modern curtains to pop.

Yet, before I actually put the room together I created a mood board. Why? Because I was buying a bunch of random things at thrift stores without giving it much thought and I wasn't sure if it was all going to work together.

 

The top right corner was the inspiration for this room and how I decided to put it all together. So, I created a gray background, took pictures of the items I already bought (the couch, the chair, the vase, the picture frames, the bar/vanity) and added things that I thought would compliment. I thought it would look good to put distressed white floating shelves above the bar, add a yellow lamp, some yellow curtains, and a rug. 

Is this how it actually turned out? No, but it's close. 

I ended up putting the china cabinet in the living room (it matches with the bar), moved the bar into the family room as a TV stand, replace the yellow lamp with a black one, and I am currently without a rug. Yet, even though it is not the same as my mood board it accomplished what I wanted it to do; it allowed me to see that even though I was buying things randomly, it was still all coordinating together nicely. 

As far as my purchases go, I would say 75% of the items in the room are from a thrift store or garage sale of some sort. I'm awkwardly proud of these purchases because they were a steal. Take the green chair for example. It is from Goodwill but made by Baer's. The tag on the bottom of the chair said it was shipped from the Baer's factory two days before I bought it at Goodwill. What does this mean? It was brand new and it only cost me about $130! The only items I did not buy second hand are the picture frames, the TV stand, the curtains (although, those were DIY), the little side table, the pillows, and the gray throw on the couch. 

Yet, putting this room together wasn't as easy as I'm making it sound at the moment. We hit a bump in the road when it came to painting. I bought two different gray paints and put swatches up on the wall and decided on Valspar Polished Silver. So I drove down to Lowes and bought a gallon. That is where I made the mistake. I ended up needing two gallons so I went back and picked up another but when I got  back to the house my mom noticed the label looked different. So we called Lowes and asked them about it and they told us that the formula was exactly the same just logo was different. 

Well....guess again.

If you look closely on the left near the arch and up at the top of the wall you can see the new gray.

They did change the formula and the new gallon of Valspar Polished Silver was significantly lighter than the first gallon. I was bummed. I preferred the first gallon, I like the darker gray much better than the light but I was all out (and so was Lowes) so my only choice was to repaint over everything with the new gallon. We got the majority of the walls repainted but the wall with the china cabinet has some spots that you can still see if you were looking very closely.

However, there is a silver lining in all of this. Lowes has a color satisfaction guarantee and I took advantage of it. I painted the two colors on a paper plate and brought that in along with the two empty paint cans and they gave me a full refund. I painted my living room for free!!! Can't beat that!

The lesson I learned in all of this is to take home improvement one step at a time and see where things lead. They may seem bleak at first but things will turn around and the sun will still shine.