Home Improvement

Remember when I had that big internal debate about paint?

Well, I did it. While ago too.

And I looooove it!

The flash may drown out the contrast, but the recessed wall there is a slightly lighter shade than the rest of the wall.

And it's the same shade as the one in our dining room:

Still love it. Lessons learned: 

• Painting with two people makes things a lot easier.
• Plastic drop clothes aren't that great. Buy the canvas ones.
• Martha Stewart Paint isn't the greatest. 2 coats were needed on every surface painted, the colors looked slightly more blue when finished then when on the wall as a sample, and I had to go back to buy more, because again, the coverage wasn't fantastic.
• Paint makes everything look awesome.

Maybe a few of you noticed that awesome little sofa table in our living room. Kudos for such a keen eye. A few weeks after I finished painting, and after a looong hard week, I was perusing craigslist on a slow Saturday at work, when I came across this beauty:

Antique. English. Wood. Marble top. 80 smack-a-roos. I was all over this and fast! I kid you not, I have been picturing a table like this in my mind's eye since the minute we moved in here. I was over joyed to find it. 

And while Arthur liked it the way it was, you might have noticed that I really don't care for brown.

To the Paint!!!

This was after 2 coats of Behr paint and primer in one, in the non mixed, white as white can be semi-gloss. I paused there and thought that maybe I wanted to keep it there. You know, "rustic."

And then I remembered that I don't do shabby-chic/things that are cutesy/anything with a saying on it and that  my heart stops for contemporary and modern design. 

So I continued to paint. And behold:

Le project fini!

I will admit, I couldn't stop staring at it for like, the first few days.

It's a beauty.

And you know what my favorite thing about it is? The handles. They're not the originals, as I discovered when I took them off to paint, and saw the original imprints themselves...but I love them just the same. They're like dimples on a baby's face. How can you not say, "That handle is adorable." I know I can't.

One more, just to get the overall effect.

Now I'm looking for a lamp. Something big. Bold. Funky. Maybe like this:

Expensive West Elm Lamp. Figures.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Places to get a badass cheap lamp? Do tell.

Oh, and we painted our coffee table blue. Bright friggin blue. I like it! No one else has said anything yet, but you know, I don't care. I'm the only person I know with a blue coffee table.