Metallic pumpkins!

This time of year, pumpkins have puked all over our house. In a really nice way. I have wood pumpkins:
Hee. Aren't they precious?

I have glittered pumpkins:

(Take some glue, brush it on, and put on the glitter.)

I have real pumpkins all over the place outside:

I have metal pumpkins:

And last year I used black paint and made some cauuute tags to make a set of "Welcome" pumpkins:

But this year my favorite pumpkins are my metallic ones:

For these, I took cheapy plastic pumpkins and sprayed them with my beloved oil rubbed bronze spray paint, then took just a bit of my loverly glaze and brushed a bit on over the top:

It gives them just a little bit of shimmer. Sigh. I love my glaze!! (By the way, my pumpkins were all about a buck, from Hobby Lobby on sale and WalMart.)

I also did some with a copper spray paint, with a bit of the ORB spray over it:

Some I did the bronze first, and then just a bit of the copper, but it's a lot more subtle:

At our dining table settings, I used the copper by itself on some:

And added a bit of ORB spray on others:

Here's the good stuff -- my faux glaze I use on just about everything (from Lowe's), the Rustoleum ORB spray paint it's getting harder and harder to find, (boo hiss) and my "burnished copper" spray paint from the craft store:

Check out the metallic pumpkins at Whispering Creek House and at 320 Sycamore. And the gilded gold leaf (what a good idea!) pumpkins at The Magic Brush!

Remember you can enter the ABCD Images giveaway till Monday the 26th at noon Eastern time!

And YES, the dining room is coming tomorrow. I'm finishing up the bench and it's proving a bit more difficult then I expected. (Why would I expect any seating in this room to be EASY ??)

P.S. I believe I said "pumpkins" 78 times in this post.

Free paint! Get yer free paint!

Thanks to my fab readers Brenda and Katrina for the heads up on another paint giveaway from Glidden!

Go here to register for your free paint. It's not quite as easy as last time -- you have to tear off a label from another paint can you already have and send it in to get the free paint. Here are the rules:

Send us your completed registration form along with the brand name off any paint label. Simply tear off the brand name portion of your label and attach it to your mailing, but please be sure to keep the safety information segment for your future needs. Must be postmarked by 10/16/09 and must be received no later than 11/16/09 to be eligible.

Mail these items to: Glidden Paint Test Drive, 33625 Pin Oak Parkway, Avon Lake, OH 44012-2320

Not too bad for a free quart of paint though! You have to register by TODAY!

I'm bor-ring and got another black quart...but I know I can always use it! :)

I'll be back later with what is the most adorable Halloween project EVER. You will love it! Adorable!

The fifth wall. (And another dining room reveal!)

OK peeps. I've been wanting to talk about this topic for awhile. It's something very few do, but it makes a HUGE impact in a room. (In my little bitty opinion.)

The decorating element I love to add to a room is one most people never think of doing -- painting your ceiling. Not another coat of white -- a color. EGADS! Yes, I said it! Color on your ceiling! Ahhh, I've gone and lost my mind, right?

It is by far the one addition that I think makes a HUGE difference in the way a room feels, and it costs $20 for a gallon of paint.

The owner of the decorating firm I worked with turned me onto this, and I was SUCH a nonbeliever at first. I was hooked after our first painted ceiling though. I mean, head over heels in love, hooked. There are some "rules" that you may want to follow that I don't, and I'll tell you those in a bit. Also, there are some myths about painting a ceiling I'll address too.

I had the ceiling in our family room/kitchen combo painted the same color as the walls and absolutely love it:

Reason number one I love painted ceilings -- if you have crown molding, it will make them absolutely pop off the walls when your ceilings are painted. When you have crown and a white ceiling, at least the upper half of it washes away, and for all that work and money, you should SEE it. ;)

I am chomping at the bit to get the crown installed in these rooms, because I know it will look ahhhhmazing against the Sisal colored walls and ceiling. ;)

In our chocolate colored powder room, I painted the ceiling the same color as the walls, and look how the molding pops!:

I added a thin coat of my glaze over the paint, just to give it a little bit of fun. (I think you can do whatever the heck you want and get dramatic in three rooms -- laundry rooms, powder rooms and dining rooms.)

In our son's bathroom I did the same blue as the ceiling in his room:

I didn't go the same color as the walls in these rooms because I wanted to tie in the blue that was used throughout, I wanted it to give the look of a sky, and it was just plain cute:

We don't have overhead lighting in our den (pounds head on table for that), so it's the darkest room in our house. I went with the same color of the walls to keep the cozy feeling we had going:

And I. love. it. (I'm going to install crown in here too, forgive my horrible cutting in...)

There is a common thought that painted ceilings make the room darker -- this is only true if the room is small, has low ceilings has little lighting. If I did a dark color on the ceiling in our master bathroom, with tall walls and tons of natural light, I can promise you it would not be darker in there. Swear. Bet you one meeellion bucks.

Another thought is that it make the room seem smaller. Even a small room like our den didn't shrink -- I swear it got bigger. When you remove the white ceiling, the eye just keeps going...it doesn't stop. I make the room seem more expanse and taller...YES, taller. When the ceiling is white, it stops your eye and shows exact height of your ceilings.

My first attempt at a painted ceiling was years ago. I wanted to give the illusion (there I go with illuuuuusions again!) of a tray ceiling in our dining room, so I put up molding, and took a color out of the light fixture for the inside of the molding:

I added a glaze to the top to make it glitter just a bit, and at first we loved it. It has stayed like this for years, but with the recent dining room redo, it just wasn't working anymore. I had the ceiling painted a couple weeks ago (I splurged and called my "guy" I use for ceilings when I'm feeling lazy) and had him leave the color on the inside, thinking it would look cool: Ummmm, it didn't. It looked like baby puke.

So in about an hour and a half, I finished it up and continued the chocolate brown:

And I adore it. (Oh yeah, I'm waiting on a special little somethin' for that empty area to the right of the table...patiently...waiting...)

The light, I have always loved...

But now I'm craving something more traditional...is that wrong? I spent a pretty penny on this light. I can't believe I'm considering this. Yikes. I have a spot where I may be able to put it, but I'm not sure what I'll do. Thoughts?

There are general guidelines "they" say to use when painting a ceiling. The first is, if your ceilings are eight feet or lower, go half and half with the color -- like half white, half wall color. Or at least take the wall color lighter a few shades. Also, if you are painting ceilings in small rooms, the general thought is to go lighter.

If your ceilings are nine foot and taller, you can go the same color as the walls. If they are VERY tall, I'm talking like 15-20 feet -- you can darker than the walls. This is for instances when you want to make such a tall space cozier and not as cavernous feeling. And it works!

My rules are...do whatever the heck you want! I almost always do the same exact color that's on the walls, no matter the size of the room or ceiling height. You can do a different color, you can go lighter, darker, whateva. I highly recommend flat paint though. Any other finish will be too shiny. If you want some shiny, use a glaze like I did to glam it up...but do it sparingly.

Painted ceilings are not for everyone. And you will be sceered, verrrry screered the first time you do it. (Heck, the fifth time you do it!) But I have yet to regret one of them in our home.

Next up...I'll show you my cheap-o hutch redo!

P.S. I believe I said "ceiling" 267 times. 268.

P.S.S. I am finishing up answering your questions on my Q and A post tonight! That was FUN!

How I paint.

**The paint color I used is Cinnabark from Behr. Sorry about that! :)

I've been teasing you so bad with my dining room redo. I know, I'm a big meany!! Totally! Because of the holiday sale on paint at Home Depot, I thought this past weekend was as good as any to start redecorating our dining room:
This has been the one room in our home that I cannot get settled with. I've struggled with it from the beginning. This is because of a couple things -- the furniture is the first. I absolutely LOVE it, don't get me wrong. I love the curvy lines of everything, love the wood. But it was a rushed purchase to try to fill the space. Now I wish I would have taken my time and filled in the room one piece at a time, mixing and matching furniture.

The other reason it's been giving me issues is the window wall is shared with the living room, which is the space with huge ceilings. There is a cardinal rule in decorating -- supposedly you are not supposed to break up a wall that runs through more than one room with a change in paint color. There was just no way we could paint the WHOLE wall without paying someone $500 to come in with a scaffolding.

I was so stinking tired of not loving this room, and I am never one to necessarily follow the rules, so I went ahead and started my redo. (Which included ignoring that cardinal rule -- buhwahahahahahaaaaa!)

I will share the steps it's taking to redo this whole room as I get through them, and then I'll show you the result at the end. Don't worry, I'm almost done, so it won't take too long. For now, I thought I would share how I paint a room. I bug y'all all the time about how much painting a room can change the space for very little, and this room sure is an example of that.

You need very little to paint. I use a decent angled brush, a 3/8 nap roller, blue painters tape, an old sheet and the paint. (Well, duh.)

Before you tape anything off, take your dry brush and clean your baseboards with it -- it gets all the cat hair dust off the boards so the tape will stick well:
It's always a good idea to take a duster around the top of the walls too. There are usually lovely little goodies up there you really can't see from below. Not fun when they get in your paint. Uck.

I always use painter's tape for the baseboards. The other areas I've learned to cut in, which I'll show you in a second. This is the brand of tape I use and it's always worked great:
I paint baseboards and cut in areas around the ceiling and moldings first. That gets the tough stuff out of the way, and then filling in with the roller is easy and quick. (By the way -- take your blue painter's tape off as soon as possible after you paint. When it's WET. If the paint dries it will create a seal with the tape and may take up some of the paint when you peel it off.)

Cutting in is a term used for taking your angled brush and, without using the painter's tape, painting right up against molding. I still don't know if it saves much time, but as you get better at it, it does make painting a room a little bit less of a hassle.

I was cursing the day I put so much blasted molding in our dining room. Argh! Fists shaking in air!! Although, as I got into it more, I found it oddly relaxing. I know, I'm a complete fruit loop. I try to do things right, but often I rush through painting a room because Iwantitdonerightthissecond. Cutting in so much in this room made me slow down and do it right, and it was kind of nice.

To cut in, dip your brush in the paint just a smudge, on the side that you are cutting in. Then wipe off some of the excess like this:


I like to start away from the molding first, then work my way closer to it. You have to have a steady hand and take your time:



After you cut in, filling in the rest is easy peasy Squeezies. Professionals always do two coats, but I always do one and then wish I had had the patience to do two. :) If you take your time and use plenty of paint on the roller you should be fine with one coat.

The result? Do you want to see?

Huh?

Do ya?

I'm such a brat. Here's a peek:

Oh yeah, and I totally broke the decorating rules and split up the rooms with molding. I didn't even take out the baseboards, I just did it. And guess what? I like it, and it WORKS. So there, cardinal-rule-creators:
Sticks out tongue.

The color is to die for. It is so dramatic, so warm, I am in luuuuuuurve...

Next, I'll show you my new window treatments, the new centerpiece, the ceiling, and the change I hope to make to the hutch. And more, I HOPE! We will seeeeee...

Do you paint? Do you hate it? Never done it? Are you too scared? Why? Share with the group, talk amongst yourselves!

A black door.

OK, I know I promised the garage redo, and it's coming, I cross-my-heart, pinkie swear. It's been at least 90 degrees with 900 percent humidity this weekend, so making the final little changes puts me in a full out sweat fest.

It gets a bit nasty, and I think it's best I finish it up tomorrow. :)

Anyhoo, I wanted to show you my favorite part of the garage -- our painted door. Who knew a black door could make a girl so giddy? I saw a similar project over at Just a Girl a few weeks ago and knew her door must. be. mine.

Well, OK, not her black door -- that would be totally weird. Copying her black door would have to suffice. I started with a white, blah, builder basic, dented, dirty white door:

I used my free quart of Glidden paint (that I also used on my side-of-the-road table) and my free paint liners:

They work every time. ;) I didn't prime it -- but I do recommend priming if you have one iota of patience (unlike me). I did four coats, at least 12 hours apart. That would have been cut in half if I had used one coat of tinted primer first.

I considered making my own vinyl lettering, but about two seconds into it I realized it wasn't such a good idea. I went to a local signage shop and they had this one for me in a couple hours:

Again, if I had just a smidge of patience, I would have ordered it from my advertiser, but alas, I had none. (Patience, that is.)

Love it!! YES, the lettering is slightly off center. I've already gotten over it. A little. Not really. I'm lying.

Now I want to paint everything black!! The cat! The car! The trim in our laundry room!:

What do you think?

Garage coming later this week -- it's really not that fantastic. Really -- I mean, it's just a garage. But the decrapification level (thanks Sue!!) is pretty high. Awesome.

Squares and stripes

First of all...bare with me. This is my sister dancing with Donnie. (About 30 seconds in.)

Warning: Turn down the volume unless you are a fan. Lots and lots and LOTS of screaming:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7Qth0Rp0Jo

Sniff. I'm so proud!! Oddly enough, she was only up there for 20 seconds or so. It felt like four minutes while we were there. This is a good thing, because it means I was only standing there frozen like a total dweeb for less than a minute. Good stuff.

OK, so let's move on. The long awaited squares and stripes post, which works well for this time of year (stars and stripes...get it??). It's really not rocket science, and yet again, there will collective "DUH." when you're done reading, but I like to share so I'm sharing. OK? OK.
First, the squares. The two items you must have for squares and stripes is a level (either the one below or a laser level that sends a beam of light straight down the wall) and blue painters tape. For this wall, I used two inch painters tape for the whole wall. I used the white wall as the background, but if you want a color, you'll need to paint it that color first.
Then, the measurements all depend on the size of squares that you want, or how many rows/columns you want. Say your wall is 127 inches -- and you want six columns of squares. You'll subtract two inches for each end of the wall, and each two inch space between each column -- basically each spot the painters tape will go.

Like this:

127 inch wall

six columns equals seven two inch sections (on each end of the wall and between each column)

7 sections x 2 inches (for painters tape)=14 inches

127 inches - 14 inches= 115 inches

Now divide 115 by six (for six columns)= each column would be 19.16 inches wide.

Do the same for the rows up and down as well. I know I made this seem complicated and it's really not that bad. It may take you a few tries to get the right measurements -- it did me. The rest is easy, it just takes time.

I hope that made sense! After you've figured out your measurements, you'll just need to measure off your wall. I use a yard stick, with the measurement marked, and I keep moving it down the wall, marking, say, 19.16 inches up and down the wall. Then take the level and use it to make straight lines on the wall vertically and horizontally.

Take your blue painters tape and run it along the lines. You can use the laser level and put the paint along the laser line, (this is how I do it) or you can put a light pencil line down the wall and then tape that off. To make sure no paint bleeds under the tape, I've heard many tricks, but all I do is take my thumbnail and run it down each side of the tape. You can also use a credit card or pan scraper. It works every time for me.

For stripes, my little trick is to use the yard stick again. In our son's room, I wanted the stripes in different widths -- two, seven, three and five inches. I did all the painting before the chair rail was put up, so the top of the stripes doesn't have to be perfect. Before I started, I marked the measurements and colors on my yard stick, and then used the painter's tape to hang the yard stick on the wall:

Using the marks on the yard stick, I used the level and painters tape to put the stripes down the wall. With stripes, you can't do all of them at once. My wall was cream, so that stripe was done. I had to paint three other colors, so I did the dark and medium green first, let it dry (I did NOT wait as long as they recommend and you don't need to) and did a quick second coat. Then I pulled off the tape and the next day did the third, lightest green by reapplying painters tape on each side of that stripe and painting:

Of course, the more colors, the longer it takes. It seems complicated and again, it's not. The great thing about varying stripes is you don't have to measure the wall like with squares. Just figure out what look you want and go. Once you get going, it will go surprisingly fast. Surprisingly. Swear. Pinky swear.

I taped off most of the stripes in my son's room within a couple hours, and the total paint time was probably a few hours.

I did stripes on one wall in our bedroom as well:

This was done by just painting the wall the base color, then taping off one foot columns and painting a shimmer glaze over the base. It's a really subtle look and I absolutely love it.

My biggest tip when using painters tape -- take the tape off when the paint is still damp if at all possible!! I've heard from professionals to keep it on till the paint is dry, but when I've done that, it makes a mess. The lines turn out awful, because the tape pulls up little pieces of the paint. When it's damp the tape comes right off, leaving a clean line.

If you have any other tips for a clean line or painting stripes/squares, please leave them in the comments! I know many of you have textured walls and I know it can be done, I've just never tried it. ;) I appreciate any other thoughts!!

It takes some patience, but the result is so custom and beautiful, you won't regret it!

P.S. I went to the best antiques shop in Indiana today and whoooeee, I have some eye candy for you later this week!! If you follow me on Twitter, you have already seen some of them. Fabulous!!!

Free paint?!

Holy crap! If you go to:

https://www.glidden.com/promotions/free-paint-giveaway.do

Pick a color online or at Home Depot and they will send you a free quart. That's it. And it's in my favorite finish -- eggshell. Swoon. The offer is good through July 2 or while supplies last. Get to it!!

Ummmm....I gotta figure out what color I want!! The pressure, I can't take it!!!

(Thanks Tara, Renee and Kari for the heads up!)

Stay tuned -- tomorrow I'll show you how I paint squares and stripes. Oh, and I'm giving Twitter a try. I've sucked at it if you've been following me, sorry. But if you really care what I have to say, go ahead and sign up. (See the left.) I'm uber exciting you know.

All things PAINT!

Alrighty, I don't assume to know much. But I have picked up a few things about paint in da "biz" that I wanted to share with you. So here. we. go. OH, and I'll throw in a few of my paint colors in here to, so I can link up to Melissa's Paint Party!

Family Room: Sisal, Ralph Lauren/Behr

Picking out color:

MOST of the time, it is helpful to start with some sort of inspiration and work off of that. A pillow, fabric, a vase...anything. When you start with the paint color and go from there, it gets more difficult to decorate around it. Ask me -- we picked a color before moving in for half of our house, and now I know it is really hard to work with. Really hard.

Obviously, you can pick out a wall color first, if it's a neutral, like a cream, tan, gold, etc.

*You can color match just about ANYTHING. Take your inspiration into the store and ask them if they can color match it. Then, you can ask them to adjust the shade according to what you need.

*BEFORE you buy your paint, pay a few bucks and get a sample. Take it home and paint it on a poster board. Hang it on the wall and live with it for at least 24 hours. Look at it during the day, at night, on a cloudy day...you will be shocked at how different the color will look in your own home, in your own light. I cannot stress how important this is. I know how hard it is to be patient and wait that extra day, but you will not regret it.

*If you have a home that is more of an open concept, I always recommend picking a color you love and working off that paint chip -- lighter for some rooms, medium for others, darker for some. This keeps it in the same family but they all work together.

*There are three rooms I think you can totally have fun with and get dramatic if you want -- laundry rooms, powder rooms and dining rooms. That's just my personal opinion though, it's YOUR house and you can do what YOU want and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. It's just paint.

Master bedroom: fireplace wall, Mossy Aura, Valspar; walls, Tornado Watch, Valspar

Picking a finish:

If you have ever had a builder, decorator or painter pick your finish, they will most likely ALWAYS pick a flat sheen. This is because flat paint ALWAYS looks better, on any wall. It hides all imperfections in the wall.

BUT...if any of these people have children under ten, they would NOT put this sheen in their own homes. Flat paint is awful awful awful, uck, yeck, blah!! It is impossible to clean. When you wipe it, it wipes up to a shiny sheen. You cannot get marks out of it without making a shiny mark on the wall.

*For living spaces, I like eggshell or satin. You can wipe it off if needed, and it hides imperfections pretty well. For any space that may get messes on the wall, a glossier sheen is best. I use a gloss for our bathrooms and laundry room. (I should mention, I should not have used this in our master bath. With the super high ceilings the glossy accentuates all the roller marks, which annoys me every. day.) I always use high gloss for moldings and trim.

*There are new wipeable flat paints, which I am liking. I used this in our powder room and so far, so good.

*I always use latex paint. Oil holds up better (from what I hear) but I've never had a problem with latex. It's so much easier to work with.

Living room: walls, Beechwood Grey, Porter

darker accents, French Toast (I think!!), Porter

(Porter changed all of their colors about a year ago and the closest I've found now is Thumper and Ranch Mink.)

Painting:

I always use the following every time I paint:

1. Blue painters tape. Masking tape also works.

2. Cutting in tool – spongy-type thing that you can use to paint the top of the wall and around windows and doors.
3. Angled paint brush.
4. Plastic paint trays – you don’t need to buy the expensive metal ones. The plastic ones work perfect.
5. A couple rollers

*I highly recommend Behr paint from Home Depot. You really don’t need to buy the expensive paints (Sherwin Williams/Porter). If you find a color that you like in one of these lines, take the chip to the big box store and they'll match it.

*Make sure you get more than enough paint. It is recommended you do two coats – I never do, but always wish I had. There are calculators online that can tell you how much you’ll need, or ask the paint department employee. It is important you get enough because no two batches will be exactly the same. If you run out of paint and have to get more mixed, you will most likely notice a difference in the paint color. This is incredibly frustrating...so avoid the frustration. :)

* If you have a house with an open floor plan, it can be hard to figure out when to start and stop colors. Most of the time I don't recommend stopping in the middle of a wall to start a new color, but there are exceptions. (I say this because I'm about to do it.) A general rule is to make your colors flow with the direction of the rooms -- as you walk through them. (From the front door, through the house.) So if you are questioning where to stop a color at a corner or break in the wall, consider how the space flows. I hope that makes sense!

*One of my best tips is this -- when you stop for the day, take your paint brush and roller and put them in a large ziplock baggy. Or put them in a few grocery bags and tie them up, airtight. Some recommend to put them in the fridge, but I find you don't need to do this. This keeps the paint on the brush/roller wet so you can pull them right back out hours later or the next day to use them again.

Office: Fired Brick, Sherwin Williams (matched at Home Depot). This looks orangey in the pic but is really a nice brick red.

After you are done:

Keep the paint chip in a file, or better yet, write down all of the paint “codes” and keep them – it is so frustrating to not have the exact color written down when you need it. Just about the only thing you can’t color match is your wall!

*If you have small airtight jars, this is a great way to hold some extra paint and keep in handy for touch ups.

Nursery: Pale Sand 1, Pale Apple 1, Apple, Apple 4, Lowe's

OK, any other questions? If so, I'll edit this and add to this post. In the meantime, check out everyone else's favorite paint colors at Melissa's place!

Laundry room: Manila Tint, Behr

Have a GREAT weekend!

P.S. I know many of you had questions about how I did my sign in the last post, so I added some details to the end of the post for you. And I'm trying to visit all your Goodwill transformations, but it may be next week before I can get to all of you! Keep linking up and enjoy the inspiration!