Over the summer, while BB and BG were in Tennessee with grandparents, Husband and I worked hard for several days on lots of house projects.
We painted BG’s room. “PINK!” is what she wanted, and pink is what she got.
We built a “new” bed for BB, and we put finishing touches on a “new” desk for him.
We finally decided on a paint color for our bedroom – surprise! It’s the same color as most of the rest of the house – Garden Stone by Clark + Kensington. We used it in our bathroom as well. It was amazing the difference it made in those two rooms – so bright and fresh. (I hope to have another post about the bathroom coming up soon.)
(PS – The man who mixed the paint for us at ACE said, “Would you believe that this pink and this gray have the exact same amount of red in them? These two colors are a perfect fit.” Yes, yes I would believe, because I analyze paint colors like investors analyze stocks. It’s an obsession. Hence taking weeks to decide that we had already picked the perfect color for the bedroom – the same one we used in the living room and the hallway.)
I cannot remember why I’m wearing these goggles – sanding or drilling or something – but I look legit, right?
A few months before we painted our bedroom, I took the doors off of my closet. It had those bi-fold doors on it before, and while I liked having them open all the way to see my whole closet (I like seeing all my options), I hated the doors. And I hated the way, when they were open, they blocked the entrance to our bedroom. You had to close one door to open the other. It just bugged me. So one day, I removed the doors and moved them into the garage while I decided on a solution.
But then, as often happens to this ENFP, I start a project, but then other projects catch my interest, and I forget to go back and finish the first one. Especially when it’s not really posing an immediate problem.
But then, during project week, Husband said, “Should we maybe do something about your closet? Or are you planning on not having a door forever?”
Confession: While the organization of my clothes is pretty Type-A – divided and sub-divided by category and then organized by color – at least once a week, the hangers are a complete mess, and the shoes are just a jumble on the floor. No one really wants to see that.
So, after brainstorming several solutions, I decided on the easiest – curtains. I had extra panels that matched the existing bedroom curtains (these simple ones from IKEA), so I went in search of new curtain rods.
I found these brackets, these rods, and these finals. LOVE them. Classic, not too trendy, simple rod, bold finials and brackets. And I like how the black hardware ties in with the black armoire already in the room.
I liked them even more after they were hung.
The black armoire is now Husband’s “closet”, and my closet it tucked away behind the curtains. Ahhhhh, so much better.
As often happens with projects, we ran out of time to put up the rods for the other windows while we were finishing up our week of projects. So we’ve lived with bare windows for 5 months. It’s been fine. One window faces the back of our house with a huge Rose of Sharon in front of it, and the other is high up with only a view of a fence.
But maybe you’ve heard about our weather in Northern California lately? Crazy storms, crazier wind? I came home one day and thought, Wow! It’s really sunny in here. Oh wait, something’s missing…. The Rose of Sharon had toppled over, roots ripped out beyond repair.
After a couple of weeks, Husband (do you see a pattern here?) said, “Do you think maybe it’s time to have SOMETHING on the windows? Since the window is right by our bathroom, there’s nothing to block light or sight, and I can see directly into our neighbors backyard now, which means they can probably see us?” Right. Can’t procrastinate any longer.
It took less than 30 minutes start to finish. A small time commitment to ensure privacy for all.
But 30 minutes was all I had that day, so now you want to guess what’s left?
Yeah, maybe I’ll get to that last one tomorrow.
beautiful objects 
Hi! Love this post. Ok, two questions….. I need to know your favorite light/white paint color. I have a big space that has paneling that is painted a dark TAN (not mauve), kinda brown/tan and I want to lighten it. I’m thinking navajo white. but will that be TOO bright? Also, do you have a favorite way to determine where to put your curtain rods (how far above) windows? Thanks!!
If I’m going white, I like a pure bright white, especially if it’s just a small section of the room, and if the trimwork is also a pure bright white – I like them to match. If you’re doing more than one wall, like a whole room or a corner of a larger room, and you don’t want it to feel stark, you could go a light version of any color, and it would lighten it up dramatically. (Our gray walls feel really light and bright, even though they are gray – and pure white trim adds to that effect.)
For curtains, I think high and wide to make the windows appear larger and let in as much light as possible when opened. In our room, I went 4″ down from the ceiling and 8″ outside the window frame. (I would have gone up to 12″ outside the window, but I wanted it similar to the window behind the bed, and with the lamps and artwork on the wall, I didn’t have as much room to play with). Really, you can have the curtains hang almost completely past the edge of the window (but I like to keep a tiny bit of overlap). Hope this helps!