xmas 2011: ho ho ho

I don't think you're ready for this jelly.....but get ready, cuz here it comes.

We decorated for Christmas.  Which, I never used to be crazy for... UNTIL the beau came along and UNTIL I was slapped in the face with so much internet-blogland inspiration.  And let me tell you, I am loving what we got going on!  Now, there is more I would love to do, but budget, time, and space to store the other 11 months of the year is keeping me under control.

First, I put out some Silver & Gold (by ways of my spray-painted pine cones featured before.)

just like the clay snowman sang about

Second, I filled 3 vases with silver ornaments and silver Mardi Gras beads.

glam BAM!

I LOVE these.  I would love to make some fake presents (in shiny red wrapping) and place around the base of the vases and under some vases to give more dramatic height.  But I couldn't justify this when I had no room to store these empty boxes in the off season.  Next house, for sure.

Third, we got a tree.  A fake tree.  A fake, white tree.  Oh you better believe we got funky up in here!

won't you take me to FUNKY CHRISTMAS TOWN?! 

Yup, sparkly white tree + all red ornaments = the hotness.  I am in love.  The reason why we have a pint-size ghost tree is because Xmas will be hosted by another, and we didn't want a real tree to die while we were away, and we wanted to enjoy the holiday cheer.... so, obviously, this was the only logical answer.  Please tell me you love it and want to be like me.  Or, you know, lie.

Fourth, the peace wreath from last year (seen/done here)?  It's inside.  MADNESS, I KNOW!  But we needed to balance out an empty space & add some height so onto the wall it went (hung with a 3M removable hook.)  

kum-bay-yah, yo

I figure, this is a more stylized wreath that could rep the hippy indoors and match the circular plate on the other wall.  Oh!  And we did think about mounting the wreath ON the gold plate, but it didn't look as good as we thought it would.

Fifth, the bar got blinged. 

erm, the garland is level... the angle is just, um, messin with the view

That's a basic lit garland draped along the frame (with 3M hooks,) and strings of beads (usually for the tree) hung through the glass racks.  It took a bit of finagling to get the beads to stay and more to get them the right lengths.... I scrapped having them all the same length because that would talk TOO LONG.  Look at it all lit up!  I love how the garland really frames the bar.

Sixth, the table.

The bowl is Ikea.  The filler is, yup, more beads.  The napkin rings?  BEADS AGAIN!  (Bet you didn't see that one coming!)  And that lovely, delicate table runner was a gift from a very close family friend.

beads, beads... GLORIOUS BEADS!!!!!

adding some quaint to the otherwise glitz-fest

I have also, when we were using the chargers but not the fancy-pants napkins (I use those only for foreign dignitaries,) I put them all in the center bowl.  I kinda like this too... like a pick-your-poison of, um, hand towels.  Whatever.

So, there you go!  This is how we deck our halls and bring out the figgy pudding.  What did you do?  Anyone hate a non-green tree??

(See Link Parties page for list of who I've linked too)

dining room: a new-old floor!

Man o' man, those stick tiles... I can't even begin to tell you how elated I am that they are gone!  I love a good demo/uncover job- there's something almost addictive in the "ok, just one more tile" mindset that I had.  

a window to Narnia

Backing up, when I bought this house, these green peel-and-stick tiles were in the dining room and kitchen, (I believe previous owners renovated the kitchen with stock cabinets, and wanted to make more of an eat-in kitchen than a separate kitchen and dining room.)  Early on, I had removed the tiles in the kitchen to reveal basic white ceramic tiles.  I knew the tiles in the dining room were installed over the hardwood that runs through the rest of the house, but wasn't sure 1) what the quality of the wood was, or 2) if removing the tiles would damage/strip the wood. 

stupid puckering

These tiles quickly became the bane of my existence.  With a house that is all hardwood, but for a few area rugs, Swifer-ing has become our floor-cleaning method of choice.   This is a problem, when EVERY. LIP. OF. THE. TILES. PUCKER. UP.  I may have exaggerated.  Probably more like half.  But it is the half that gets the most traction, and therefore the dirtiest, and even more therefore needs the most Swifer-ing!  

So, as I stated in this post, while cleaning a few hours before my cousin arrived, I decided to pull back a little corner, and see how it cleaned up. 

Then I pulled back a little more...

And a little more...

Until I pulled the whole tile up!  

And then the beau came upstairs and caught me red-handed.  Sheepish me.

BUT IT WAS OK!  Because it looked awesome.  

this was ~30min of tile-removing after work

All in all, it took us 2 nights after work (and after walking the dogs, and with one of us fixing dinner for part of it,) plus the first 5 that I pulled up out of impatience.  Not too bad, right?  Definitely an easy and fairly quick task (as far as DIY is concerned.)  

And, here is how we did it:

To remove adhesive tiles from the hardwood, all we needed was GOO GONE, plastic putty knives, and a whole boat-load of paper towels (sorry, environment!)  The tiles would pull up fairly easily by hand, with the putty knives as a back-up if we needed help and extra prying power.  After that, a solid soaking of GOO GONE sat on the exposed adhesive for 7-15 minutes.  We found that waiting made it easier to scrape up the gunk, instead of rubbing it off* with a paper towel right away.  After the time was up, we used a putty knife to scrape up the GOO GONE and the adhesive from the wood.  This created what can only be described as boogers.

*OH MY!

floor boogers

After all this was mopped up, we went over it with some warm and lightly soapy water, to get rid of the slipperiness left by the GOO GONE.  

After the first full night of tile removal:

I will tell you that I shoved that giant trash bag full of tiles with my foot... and ended up with a cut on the inside joint of my pinky toe!  I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW YOU COULD HURT THAT!!!!  Those tiles were sharp!

After all the tiles were pulled up, we went over the floor with a one-two punch of Pine Sol then Old English.  The rationale being Pine Sol would clean up any remaining residue from the adhesive remover and the Old English would condition, protect and make it shiny.  What we didn't anticipate was in glossing up the dining room, we ended up feeling sorry for the rest of the house!  Poor house, with its dull, dog-printy floors...

Anyways, we did find one area with a bit of damage:

It isn't too bad, but definitely not what you would call good.  I don't know where this damage came from- in the two years I have been here, I have never seen any water come in or pool there.  Gotta think it was a result of something the previous owners did, right?*  

As luck would have it, we keep a door mat by the sliding door AND I had a second one stashed away.  Laying both of these down helps to cover and protect the damaged area until we can properly fix it.

*... Right????!?!  Please don't say my house is going to fall apart.

damage hiders

Plus, they look good and keep the feet (human and canine) from tracking all the dirt in the world in.  Double score!

So, to sum it up: having continuous hardwood floors throughout the house makes the house flow, feel bigger and looks amazing (duh, double duh and triple duh.)

Final glamor shot (which was spoiled by this post, but oh well):

LOVE.  

dining room: update

BEFORE

These were from the real estate posting.  You know what I noticed about real estate listings?  You are never really able to tell how dingy the rooms really are...

Move-in day.

DURING

I LOVE those candlesticks!  They were thrift-store purchases that were painted silver (see???)  I plan to play around with how many I display on the table and in what way for different centerpieces.  Oh, the possibilities!

Anyways, you can see that we painted the walls and hung curtains.  Otherwise, there is not much else that we did to this room, until....


AFTER

Oh yeah, look at that beauty!!  All hardwood and no stick-tiles!  THE HOTNESS!!!  So, after the curtains and the paint, we recently removed all the stick tiles (stay tuned for a more in-depth look at that in the next couple of days.)

A few things in this room that I love:

Here's a HomeGoods find though I forget how much it was (how many HG buys do I have?  No clue.  A thousand???  Yup, that sounds about right.)  I love the star-burst mirrors!  I am toying with the idea of making a star-burst collection on this wall... have yet to decide.  What are your thoughts? 

I still love this spray painted chandelier re-do (read more here.)  Just realized* that I have a few touch-ups to do on it, though... WHOOPS!  I am thinking about painting the candlestick holders a soft, buttery yellow.  I was thinking about a design, but... don't know.  What do you think?**

1. Paint a design (like yellow latice-work over the existing beige/ream) 
2. Paint all yellow 
3. Leave as-is?  

*Ok, so the beau pointed it out.  I was quite happy in my ignorance, thankyouverymuch!
**Note: I do have an extra candlestick holder to experiment with (I need to fix one of the holders, and they are sold in packs of two.

So there you go, our dining room!  What do you think?  I know its pretty ordinary, and I plan to use those shelves to add some personality, fun, and continuity to the space, but that will  be in time.

Soon to come: the tile removal process!  Riveting.

stick tile removal: what lies beneath

It seems as the temperature rises, so does our ambition.  And so, even though I have fleeting moments where I think we will only have one project at a time- start to finish.... buuuuttttttt that doesnt happen.  You know what does happen?  We start 29 projects at once.  Yup, 29.  

We currently have the following on our plates:

1. Replace bathroom vanity and lighting.
2. Remove outlining bushes in the front.
3. Re-seed/grass backyard.
4. Paint bed frame in guest-room #2.
5. Paint dressers in guest-room #1.
6. And.... REMOVE THE STICK TILES IN THE DINING ROOM!!!

These guys have been here from the beginning.  Originally, they were in the kitchen and the dining room making something of a larger, eat-in kitchen, I guess?  During the first year, I removed them from the kitchen to reveal white, ceramic tile underneath.  Though we knew the stick tile came up easily and that there was hardwood under them, we held off on removing them in fear of finding super damaged wood or damaging the wood in the process.  Well, these stick tiles aren't just ugly, they are a pain in the patootie.  They also have been peeling up at the edges, creating it impossible to sweep/swifer the floor (all the dirt just gets caught along the puckered-up edge!)  

Enough is ENOUGH!  I got so irritated at these while cleaning, I pulled up a corner and cleaned up the adhesive... then more of the tile... and more...  

(I removed one tile on Sunday, but then ran out for a Sunday-Funday with cousins.  After dinner the next night I pulled 4 more up.)

Look!  Not damaged!  Why would you EVER cover that up?!?!?!  Seriously, WHY????

Some tiles take a little more muscle to pull up than others, but nothing too bad.  After maybe 3 or 4 hours:

Holy Awesome.  

I'll post more, with better pictures and how we managed to get it all up, once the room is complete.  Weekend, HERE I COME!!

dining in style: table settings and spray-painted candlestick holders

Table settings!  How exciting!!!

Cooper Cameo!

...or ya know, not.  Around October (YES, October- the month that ended 38 days ago.  Shut up,) I laid out a new-to-me (i.e. inherited), thin yellow tablecloth.  I'm really digging the pattern and I love how thin & gauzy it is- makes spills easier to get out!  I threw some small, decorative pumpkins (not pictured) on there & called it a day.

Then, I got inspired.  I envisioned a holiday table full of mis-matched candlestick holders, all in silver finish.  So after obsessing over this idea for a few weeks, I finally got to Goodwill & a local thrift store to raid their selection.

It just so happened the thrift store was having a 1/2 off EVERYTHING sale, that day... so I think I paid a total of $6 for all these candlestick holders:

To clean, I merely submerged* in a big pot of boiling water for a few minutes and wiped/dried with a paper towel.  Added bonus: fun droplets of wax floating around the pot, (and later solidifying into a filmy layer floating on top!)  A quick sanding and it was SPRAY PAINT TIME!**  A few coats of Rustoleum Metallic Silver (making sure to get all angles & crevices!) and done-zo.


*Or, submerged as much as possible, seeing as some were too tall to fit in the pot.  Others had felt bottoms, which I didn't want to get wet, so those were dunked only halfway.***  
**Yes, again with the spray paint.
***WORD TO THE WISE: be very VERY careful when taking the pieces out of the water!  ESPECIALLY with the half-submerged ones!  Water (BOILING water!) tends to collect in crevices you didn't know existed.  This means when you flip the holder right-side up, all that boiling water falls onto your hand and scalds you and then you have to fish out ice cubes from your water while dining at a restaurant with friends to cool the burn.  Seriously, be careful.  It could happen to you.

How'dya like dem, er, pumpkins??!

At first, I piled all those tiny pumpkins in the center, grouped the candlestick holders into two parts and arranged all on top a shiny, olive-y/candy-apple-green table runner (from Overstock.)

... then I got a'lil quirky:

This is how the table looked while family visited over Thanksgiving.... they were amused.  What I found fun was how much the pumpkins encourage playing and rearranging by my guests!  It was a fun conversation starter, at the least.

And then?  Then we enter the Christmas month:

The original vision was to use these candlestick holders to ACTUALLY hold candles!  Wild!  I picked up a container of candlesticks at Ikea for a song.  Went with the "chandelier candles" over pillar/long taper candles as, 1) the tapers were out of stock, 2) tapers are more prone to shifting & sitting at an angle instead of straight up at attention, and 3) I like 'em chunky.  So, literally minutes after my Thanksgiving guests left, I changed up the tablescape because I was a very eager beaver. 

And then I couldn't stop myself...

TA-DA!  This was the vision I had back in early November: 

a) Hodge-podge of candlestick holders, spray painted silver and grouped together

b) Chargers!  Like a grown-up!!  Again, in silver.

c) Lighter (i.e. NON-hunter) green table runner

d) All added to my red plates & INSTANT CHRISTMAS!

I think I did pretty well for myself.  In un-packing some of the beau's boxes, I stumbled upon a set of white, hotel napkins, which complete the look perfectly.

Yes, those are Hershey's Kisses on top of the napkins.

What do ya think?  I do a little happy dance (on the inside) every time I see this.  The runner is perfect!  I wanted a simple runner that could be used for multiple designs and seasons.  As done above, it works great for the fall with more oranges & browns.  Add some red and silver, and we got Christmas.  Maybe add some yellows and light blues or pinks & I'll be set for the springtime???  So many possibilities!

While gift shopping online, I saw Pottery Barn has the same idea... for 3-8 TIMES the cost I paid... FOR A SINGLE CANDLESTICK HOLDER!  Ridiculous.  I also saw Centsational Girl had the same idea for candlestick holders (and beat me to the posting-punch!)- don't they look awesome?  The only problem is resisting the urge to buy more....

from blah-brass to chic chandelier: spray-painting a chandelier

After my re-found love of spray painting, I started searching the house for my next victim... and if I can't spray-paint the dog, I'll have to settle for the dining room chandelier.



I LOVE them!  Love love love.



So, I first found myself in a bit of a pickle: what color do I paint MY chandelier??  I contemplated A yellow/mustard to match the living room?*  Black to match the kitchen appliances?  Dark brown to go with all the furniture/wood? White, because that seems to be the most widely-loved?

[BEFORE]

In the end, I chose an cream/almond, (aside: they REALLY need to broaden the spray-paint color selection!  Rust-o-leum, please take note.  Thank you.)  I figured brown or black would be too dark.  And yellow... while I would LOVE it, I don't know if I could have found the right shade.  One day, I will have a boldly-colored chandelier... but alas, not today.

Anyways, this change was amazing.  I am absolutely in love with it and couldn't imagine going back to the silly brass!

Here's how:
1) Clean the chandelier thoroughly with windex/409/vinegar (particularly needed when the owners before you never cleaned and your house was left vacant for 6+ months with an open window...**)
2) Scratch up the surface with some sandpaper.
3) Tape off any wires or parts that shouldn't be painted (like the light bulb sockets.. could also stuff these with tissues.)
4) SPRAY PAINT!  Remember: light coats! and many of them! until fully covered!  It's best to start spraying with the nozzle facing the middle of nowhere & then drag across the object, (this prevents puddles of paint.)  I hung my chandelier in a tree out back (very outdoor-party chic!) for even, all-over coverage... especially when pulling the chains/wires away from the fixture.  If you don't have a place to hang yours, I hear putting it in a large box works well... or just lay down some newspaper and go at it!

[AFTER]

Upon re-hanging, I saw a small spot I missed- if this happens to you, just spray a lot of the paint into a plastic cup and, using a q-tip/paint brush/foam brush, dab on.

I also bought a fabulous 16" ceiling medallion to really set this puppy off in style!  Whatcha think?  Be kind, tell me you love it.***

The next question is, do I paint a pattern (with a yellow to tie in the living room) on the candle sleeves or leave them as-is??  Oh decisions decisions....

*OOPS!  Haven't shared that update... but that was only because it wasn't really "done" until recently!  I'll do that soon... but for now, you can see a peek in that before shot.
**I'm not bitter.
***I really can't wait to see my dad's reaction... he's a lover of all things traditional and, particularly, of brass light fixtures.


chandelier inspiration images: Apartment Therapy