Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Follow me on Pinterest!

I've created a Pinterest board titled "My old house." and have been pinning lots of ideas for my new house. Feel free to browse and let me know what you think in the comments below!


Follow Traci's board My old house. on Pinterest.

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Samantha's Princess Bathroom

I recently talked my friend Megan into painting stripes in her daughter's bathroom after she talked me into helping her redecorate the bathroom into a Princess theme. And to be honest, it was harder and easier than we had both anticipated. I've painted horizontal stripes before but this was my first go-round with vertical stripes. I must say - the green Frog tape is the way to go with stripes! You will not be disappointed with the results. Trust me, crisp, clean lines each and every time.

Here's where we started:

90% of the painting job is in the prep work. Prep wisely.
I'm only kidding, this is how we started:
Lots of tape. Use a credit card or putty knife to seal the edges of the tape. You'll thank me for that.
We didn't use an exact science when measuring. The bathroom has tiles that we ended up using as a guide and we ended up doing stripes that were 2 tiles wide. And we're glad we did that - anything smaller would have been a taping nightmare. Do we paint this one or not? Tape on the inside or outside of the line? Paint, no paint, paint, no paint, no paint...wait, I need to start over. 

After about 2 hours of taping and 2 beers each, we started painting. I do the detail work of cutting in and Megan rolls. We've painted enough times together to know each others strengths and she's one of the only people I can paint with and not want to take the roller out of her hand and send her away to do something else.

We removed the tape while the second coat was still wet. This is very important when painting - removing tape from dry paint can lead to also removing paint and is super frustrating. Just take my advice and remove while the paint is wet.
I need to work on removing beer bottles before taking pictures. 

Thanks Frog Tape for those amazingly crisp lines!
The next step is also very important. You need to buy EVERYTHING PRINCESS FROM THE HOBBY LOBBY CLEARANCE AISLES, right Megan? If it was pink or princess, she bought it. I'm glad she did though because we ended up having lots to choose from. It's also very important to have a friend that can sew (ahem, me) so you can have her sew up some curtains for the space as well.

In the end, I think we have a princess bathroom that's not overly "OHMYGODI'MAPRINCESS" bathroom.
Big giant crown over the mirror, check!

Disney princess towels and princess rules, check!

Crown candle holder on toilet, check! And flower poms hanging from the ceiling, double check!

Princess, princess, S for Samantha, check!
Megan is going to record Samantha's reaction. I told her that if she doesn't like it, I was going to come over and paint the entire room white (I don't take criticism well apparently). But I'm pretty sure she's going to go nuts over this space. She's actually seen all the items but thinks that they were buying them for "Aunt" Traci and may have lost it when she couldn't use the princess towels immediately. I don't blame her, those are some pretty sweet towels!

And one more picture, because I love these flower poms - it's my favorite part of the entire room!
Don't be surprised if you see these make an appearance in my new house



Thursday, July 17, 2014

I got bored....so I bought a house.

I haven't even looked to see the last time I posted, but I know it was a long time ago. So much has happened in the past year - some good, some bad and some, well, expensive. Here's the expensive I'm talking about:

I bought a house.
I'm not talking expensive in that I can't afford it, I'm talking expensive in that it's the largest purchase I've made in the past year. But it's less expensive than my rent right now and I'm just bored without any projects to complete. And trust me, this place will give me plenty of projects.

A little bit about the place: it was built in 1902 and is on the National Historic Registry (which says it was built in 1898). With it being on the National Registry, there are certain things that I can and can not do to the exterior. Their motto is "Repair before Replace" and I am all for that - except when replacing would make the home more energy efficient or is less costly. But I won't get into that now, I knew what I was getting into before I signed my life away.

My style leans towards modern, but I'll be embracing the history of this home (by not painting the trim white) but also keeping my decorating on more of the modern side (I bought magenta curtains for the living room).

I close on August 29th and will begin the rehabbing process almost immediately. I'll be updating the blog with my progress and I hope you'll follow along! I'm sure my "My Opinion Monday"posts are about to get a little more interesting.
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