**** We've just had the home inspection, so I feel like I can post this now. It doesn't look like there's anything horribly wrong, mainly some rotting siding and porch rails. Please pray that the seller agrees to fix it. I'm trying to rest in the knowledge that if God has this for us, it'll work out.**********Ok, here they are... what you've all been waiting for... pictures of the house interior! I feel no love for her decorating, so its hard to visualize how to make it my own. I'm thinking a warm neutral paint on the walls... something beigy/yellow, WAY more beige than yellow. I want it to be dark enough to make the possible white crown molding and trim pop, but I'm not looking for anything truly in the yellow family. I want it to have a warm glow when the sun or lamps hit it just right, but not to be dark or too yellowy otherwise. I don't know if that makes any sense.
Because there's an opening between the breakfast room and the kitchen, I'm thinking this color will be used on the living room, the kitchen, the hallway, etc., all the areas that flow together. We plan to paint all the trim in the house white at this point, maybe the ceilings, too. At this point, it looks like we'll have to do it ourselves. Hmmm... Maybe it won't get done for awhile. We need serious painting lessons. =)
I have an oval braided rug in multiple neutral tones that I can put on the parquet floor. That drape that's blocking my light over by the french doors is coming down. I don't quite know what to think about the little strip of crown molding on the top of the fireplace or the tiny strips of wood on the sides of the fireplace. Would the strips be painted the same color as the walls? What would it look like without them? Even more scary... what's underneath them? =) 
This is the only room in the house that already has crown molding. I'm wondering if I should take it down because I would ideally like to put up something a little wider, or if I should just deal and put up matching crown molding in the rest of the downstairs. We were only planning to put crown molding downstairs. Apparently, putting up crown molding can be expensive... we're just not sure how expensive yet. Maybe I could get away with just doing the living room, and that's it for now?
This is my fabulous kitchen. I love, love, love the extra counter space on the side. I have never had enough counter space in all the houses we've lived in, no matter their configuration. I think that's about to change! I was planning to put my blue plates up there above the cabinets. Do I put crown molding there, too, or do I leave it off for more space for the plates? I'm tempted to just leave it off so I have room for maximum plateage. =)
We're planning to use this breakfast nook as our dining room. We think the table will fit there just fine. I love the idea of being able to serve off of the counter instead of the table. You can see the narrow hallway down to the front door off to the side. That rail in the bottom of the picture is all that separates the nook and the living room. It's a very open floor plan. Can I paint that lamp above the table with porcelain paint to make it look less '80s? Any other ideas?
Funky shaped master. It is HUGE! I'm thinking of placing the headboard of the bed between the two windows and doing something similar to the Nesting Place's bedroom style there. I don't quite know what to do with this room. I think the color of the wall is dark enough that it highlights the fact that this room is a funky shape. I was thinking of a powder blue that blends better with the ceiling in here.
There is a little dressing area and sink in that back corner. I think that will be great! I want to get rid of what one blogger calls "Miss Piggy lighting" over it at some point. Maybe some sort of fake window treatment above it to soften it a bit? I'm also thinking a curtain on a shower curtain rod to cover the bottom of the dressing area there.
This is one of the extra rooms. All three bedrooms are really large. This is the smallest. It appears that they have painted over an existing wallpaper strip. I'm not looking forward to trying to get that off. Any suggestions?
This is the other extra room. One of those doors goes to the bathroom. All of the bedrooms have walk in closets! We also have a bit of a window treatment conundrum. Some of the windows have miniblinds, some of the windows have absolutely nothing, and some of the windows have pull down shades. I'm tempted to go with all shades on the front because they would pull all the way up and let in the maximum amount of light, while putting up something to cover them. But... the window treatments in the front are really obvious, so I feel like I need to have the same thing across all the windows because it looks funky if its not uniform... especially without blinds. This is a tough one. I also really like shades for sleeping... =)
There ya have it... the new home tour!!! Now I need you to weigh in. I hope I have some readers who love to decorate to help with my ideas and tell me if I'm heading in the wrong direction. =)
The beauty of blogging is summed up in comments. They are what make it a discussion instead of a monologue. This is one of those times I'm hoping my friends will utilize their commenting voice. If you think you need to register to post a comment, you don't. You can comment as anonymous... just sign your name on the bottom of the comment to let me know who you are. Thanks, y'all!
6 comments:
I think crown moulding is a great idea... it's expensive to have someone do it for you, but actually quite reasonable to do yourself (in my experience)
It makes such a difference in the room. And I would think you could leave the moulding that's there as is and do the size you like in other rooms. And I'm with you -lose those drapes right away.
Congrats, Ellen! How exciting about the new house. Can't wait to see pics with your stuff inside.
If it were me, and it's not, so take it or leave, I would paint the kitchen and living areas a nice cream or light tan or paint a chair rail of red in the kitchen and breakfast area. Just for a little color but not enough to make it too dark. Then I would paint all the cabinets in the kitchen white. I really like the contrast of tan against white. It looks like for that light in the breakfast room you might just want to replace it. They aren't that expensive and I bet your Dad could do the wiring. Dan switched out some of ours. Oh, and check out do it yourself books from the library and see if the changes are something you can do, if not hire it out. Oh and about the room with the border, you could paint over it too or rent one of those steamers that the professionals use to remove OLD paper. FOr a border only it wouldn't be that much work. That's my two cents! Happy decorating!
Yeah, I just remembered your table is blue...red wouldn't look so good next to your table, but it would look great with all my red furniture! Ha! I guess I have a hard time decorating for others. That's why no one pays me to do it!
I think we're thinking now of trying to put up the crown molding ourselves, in just the living room, with the help of a couple of kind friends. Looks like we'll be doing all the painting ourselves. It's possible that only the trim work downstairs will get painted if we do it that way. Crossing my fingers on the inspection still... I guess I will be all week.
My sister uses some mixture of fabric softener and water (I think? I can get you the exact "recipe," if you wish) to get rid of wall paper. We had to take down some border at the tope of our kitchen, and I pretty much just ripped it off and did a little scraping with water (it wasn't really put up correctly, so it was pretty easy).... If you have the time (and patience and family available hahaha) you can do a lot of the work yourself and save lots of money. Expect your paint colors to not be exactly what you had in mind, once it dries and the light hits it. We painted one extra bedroom yellow (I was going for pale yellow), and walking into it the first time was like Whoa, where'd the sunshine come from? My bathroom was a bit more loud than I wanted, too, but I actually liked it better the way it turned out.
We had to decide what we could afford to fix (or HAD to be fixed) immediately, and we're still working on the rest (like new, not-from-the-50's matching door knobs throughout the house!) as we have the money and/or time.
Most importantly.... Make it fun! ;)
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