Dark or light side?

Hello all! Hope you had a great weekend! We took a little road trip to the Chicago area for a couple drum corp shows (for hubby), Legoland (for the kiddo) and IKEA (for me). It was a fun, quick trip!

So now that the powder room is done I’m moving on to a room I’ve been itching to change up for a while – our master bedroom. I made some changes earlier this year using things I already had, and the room got a few other changes a couple years ago.

We have a new addition coming to the room that kind of spurred a new redo on but I’ve been wanting to change some things up for a while – No. 1 on my list is getting rid of the striped wall behind our bed. It’s given me the itches for a few years now.

But my biggest dilemma before I can really get moving is the wall color – I’m torn between the allure of a deep, dark wall color and the light and bright look. I STILL can’t decide. Every time I think I have I see a new picture and it takes me back to the dark side. Or light. Or dark.

You get the idea.

I’m drawn to the moody, comfy feeling of a dark room:

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Did you notice the trim is painted the same color as the walls? What do you think of that?

Although if I went dark I would keep the headboard light like Dear Lillie’s room:

The light bedding brightens up the room and gives great contrast – I’m a lover of contrast you know.

I actually have a sample of a deep navy color like Carmel’s room:

Mine has a little more of an aqua tint to it, if that makes any sense – like a peacock blue. Can I just say how much I LOVE that mirror above her bed too??

In general I think it’s easier to pull in colors with a lighter room, but I love how color was used in this room, even with the dark walls:

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I do love the pop of pink with the dark chocolate walls in this bedroom:

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Just not sure the hubby would go for that. ;)

Here’s a great example of how a darker color completely changes the look of a room:

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There’s plenty of other changes too, but isn’t funny how much bigger it looks in a dark color? You always think it will be the opposite but that’s not always the case.

But here’s the thing – I’m finding I’m loving the power of a neutral wall color. It’s soothing, yes, but it also allows you more options when it comes to decorating with color:

My friend Layla’s old master bedroom is one of my favorites:

I love that the walls and bedding are light but the room is still so warm and colorful.

I think it’s evident by my photos (and recent projects) that I’m loving the wall planks:

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I just adore that room – I think every room can take some black pieces and this looks amazing with the white walls and green accents. Love!

And no, I’m not planking our bedroom walls – I need a break from the painting for awhile. ;)

Of course it doesn’t have to be white on the walls – I don’t think I could do an all white room anyway. This greige-ish space is just beautiful:

I love that you could pull in pretty much any accent color and it would work. It’s that a gorgeous room?

I love this blue color too – and it proves that a lighter color can still offer plenty of contrast against white trim:

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I also love that there are plenty of darker accents in there (rug, chairs, ottomans) that offer some depth without making the room really heavy.

Overall I just love the idea of a calming, serene space:

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But the thing is, our current wall color is darker (Tornado Watch at Lowe’s) and it feels super cozy too:

A dark room feels like a hug to me, a lighter one feels like a big breath of fresh air.

Decisions, decisions.

A few months ago I was getting ready to slap a deep color on the walls, now I’m leaning big time toward a light color. I think I’m ready for a change!

What is your favorite for a bedroom – dark or light? Do/did you struggle with your wall color like me or did you know exactly what you wanted? Do tell!

P.S. I also painted the Bub’s room a dark blue but kept it light with lots of white trim – you can see it here.

Powder room redo, complete!

Well, the time is here. After ten five three long years, the powder room is finally. done.

It is a GLORIOUS DAY people!! I’m seriously so excited to have this room complete, and I’m even more excited that I LOVE it so!

Let’s go back a little bit first, shall we? Pretty sure this room has been five colors now. I’ve never even shown you the before before, but here’s the before since I’ve been blogging: 

It was in my dramatic days. :) I had a love of all things chocolate brown.

I painted it years back but it was still a mess – holes in the walls, only one coat and the brown was popping through, and then I started the wall treatment forever ago and it sat like this for a while:

And then I got the planking done and things started to come together, but I think a lot of you thought I was losing it a little bit:

Did you see my vision? Or did you think I was losing my mind? Or creating a room that looks “a little bit like a barn” as my SWEET husband said?

Well, he finally sees what I had in my head…now. I admit it doesn’t always come together till the very end. Part of the reason this one took so long is I couldn’t decide on a final vision for it – I had a few ideas over the years but finally last year inspiration really hit, in the form of the Bub’s art:

The whole space was inspired by the beautiful colors in this art – at first I was going to paint the walls a bright red, (as you can see above), but I realized quickly that it was going to be too much.

Instead I went neutral but that’s allowed me to really have fun with color in this space:

By powder room standards this is a big one. Don’t I know it.

Painting all those wood planks made me want to poke my eyes out:

The end result was SO worth it though.

Would I do it again?

It may be too soon to ask. ;)

It’s hard to get good shots of this room with my normal lens so I used a wide angle and it made parts of the photos blurry, sorry about that. But I wanted you to be able to see it as I do (without my contacts in, obviously): 

The room also took a while because I decided last year to continue the wood floors into the room, but waited until it fit in the budget (it ended up costing $300) and the timing worked – we had to pull everything out of the room to have them done:

We went without a toilet for a couple weeks and without a sink for a couple months. A fully functioning bathroom is highly underrated. ;)

I adore the dark floors in there. They really warm up the room, especially against all that white trim. Gah. My favorite! I got that rug from Target about a year ago, maybe two? It’s been a while. I loved the colors in it, and when I realized how well the Bub’s artwork matched I knew my plan was meant to be!

It’s also hard to take pics of this room because there’s so little natural light. So bear with me on these! Here’s a good shot of all of the planking that went on in here:

Remember when I showed you the process and mentioned that I didn’t worry about the seams and lines of the wood planks matching up? Well, the board and batten trim I put over everything is the reason why:

The wood planking I used only came in eight foot lengths, so I knew I’d have to cut them down on that long wall. The b and b look was perfect for hiding all that not-so-good stuff! It’s SO not perfect people, it never is!

You can see a good shot of the wall treatment and the new trim around the doors here:

I’m SO glad I decided to rip out the trim and redo those doors!

Here’s the linen closet door with it’s craftsman trim:

It makes such a difference!! Luscious.

We used to have a pedestal sink in this bathroom:

And I loved the faucet but the sink was not my favorite. I did like it when we moved in because it was different than a regular vanity that I was used to. But eventually I missed having some storage.

So we went with the IKEA bathroom vanity instead – the only major purchase for this room (other than the floors):

The vanity and sink together came in under $300. I shopped all over the place and still found that to be the best deal for the size. I LOVE the sink – it’s so nice to have room for the soap dispenser!

I’ll blog about that whole piece more soon:

The lights are one of my favorite parts of the room – I found them at Home Depot and just thought they were so different. Kind of vintagey, I love them!:

They also match the new faucet perfectly – couldn’t have worked any better!

You can see in this old pic that we used to have one light fixture above the sink:

I always wanted to do two separate lights, I just love that look!

So that we did:

It brought the light down almost a foot and I just like the lighting better this way in here.

You can see in this area how I mixed blues and reds in the room – again pulling from the art and the rug. It’s a combo you wouldn’t think would work just talking about it, but I LOVE how fresh and pretty it is against the white! I think they work great together!

The blue is more of an aqua blue, but I also used a little true aqua in here too – in the knobs I told you about here and the vase on the vanity:

It’s really a candle holder but I think it works even better as a vase. ;)

The towel is that darker blue and the stuff near the toilet pulls in more of the red:

I meant to put those lights on a dimmer before I took pics, but it hasn’t happened yet. I’m not touching this room again for awhile! Girl needs a break.

You may recognize the boat oar from my last post. ;) It got a little redo and I stinkin’ love it:

So that area about the toilet is hard, don’t you think? I struggle with what to do there – a starburst mirror would be pretty but I already have one mirror on that wall, and do people really want a mirror there? Uh. No.

I almost hung shelves there to fill and decorate, but in the end I wanted it to be simple – I didn’t want a lot of stuff in there. The oar was a perfect fit and it totally makes me smile when I see it. :) (Although I may hang it higher since the toilet paper blocks some of it.)

I really, really adore how it all came together (and I better!!) – it’s so fresh and fun and I really couldn’t be happier. It was a TON of work, not gonna lie. Those planked walls…the installation really isn’t bad, it’s the painting. If I was smart I would have installed it all and then sprayed it before the floors were put in. But oh well…live and learn. I survived. :) 

Here’s a before and after shot – the dark brown we had for years and the light, bright and colorful version we have today:

The total cost was about $1000 for the whole room, which I didn’t think was too bad considering we have hardwoods in there and a new vanity, sink, mirror, faucet, light fixtures and new walls. Oh and that was spread out over a span of about a year, so that helped too.

That’s why I take forever to do all my spaces, don'tcha know? To spread out the costs. ;) (That kind of is true actually. That and I just take forever.)

Anyway, here’s a source list for many of the items and I’ll follow up with more detail on the sink and vanity!

Rug – Target a couple years ago
Frame – Goodwill
Oar – thrift sale
TP holder – HomeGoods last year (I painted it) I just saw some more last week!
Light fixtures – Home Depot
Vanity, sink – IKEA
Faucet – Lowe’s
Mirror – Home Depot
Wood for walls – Lowe’s (see here for how to)

Any other questions? Let me know and I’ll answer them! I did a little happy jig yesterday because this room is finished and I love how it turned out. Can you believe IT’S FINALLY DONE? Sorry for yelling but IT’S FINALLY DONE!!!

Holler.

My new love

Hello all!! Happy Monday! I’ve already mentioned that I’m slowing down to my normal sloth-like pace on the blog this summer, but this also means my posting times will vary quite a bit. OK…they do anyway, but they will even more so in the summer. I’m not a good blogger that writes posts ahead and has them ready to go first thing in the morning. I wish I was. *Hangs blogging head in shame.* So things will be a little erratic, I hope you’ll hang in there with me. :)

So. I’ve fallen in love with a new city. Well, I should say park. A big one. You all know how much we love NYC – it’s our favorite place on earth, other than home. But now it has some competition, named Disney. ;)

Last week we took a very quick vacation down to Florida. And when I say quick I mean only about three days. And when I say vacation I mean VACATION – this is our first real family vacation (other than to New York) that we’ve ever taken anywhere that didn’t have something to do with work.

I’m serious people – every trip we’ve ever been on as a family (or heck, even as a couple!) has had something to do with hubby’s work. Every. single. one. And now that he’s retired, we were able to carve out a few days to get away. That would have never happened in summer’s past!

So the whole fact that we got away was so special to me, you have no idea. And the fact that my son and I (yes, I was a Disney newbie) finally got to Disney made it even more special.

We spent our first day in Legoland actually – the Bub is Lego obsessed so we HAD to go there. I think he was more excited about that than he was Disney! We had some interesting moments with downpours and tornado warnings and taking shelter in the restrooms with everyone else in the park, but after about an hour the day turned much better and we were able to really enjoy the park without crowds – it was perfect!

That evening we headed to our hotel at Disney and I started falling in love. We stayed at the Polynesian and it was STUNNING:

I wanted to spend about an hour taking pics but we just didn’t have time while there. I will do it next time – the grounds are just gorgeous!

So I totally got the Disney “thing” the second we walked in to the hotel – we were greeted and escorted through the hotel to our building. The squealing started (from me) when we walked in to our room and I saw the cute little touches everywhere:

And it continued when I realized the view from our room:

I almost cried. I almost cried a few times on the trip. It was emotional to finally get there after 37 years – it made me so giddy and happy.

The emotions certainly didn’t stop when we walked in to the park for the first time:

I had an obsession with Cinderella’s castle. I could have spent an hour just walking around that one thing.

It’s magical, of course:

So I mentioned this was a quick trip and I know so many of you experienced Disney folks are freaking out that we only spent two days at the parks. I know. But it was our only chance to get away in June (hubby is retired from teaching but so busy with other obligations already) and I didn’t want to go later in the summer when it was stupid hot, so this is what we got.

And we took full advantage! We rode a TON of rides in the short time we were there:

The Dumbo ride was one that I was especially drawn to – it just screams Disney to me:

The small world ride was one of my favorites too, but Splash Mountain was our family fave hands down. SO. much. fun.

We spent one evening in Epcot where we dined in Mexico:

And it was incredible. ;)

Hubby wanted us to stay for the Illuminations show that night, it gorgeous evening:

The show was AWESOME, we all loved it. Although hubs said it used to be even cooler and was more of a laser light show:

This view was another one of those that made me misty:

It was an amazing trip. I totally get it now. Totally. I am hooked.

I didn’t plan for our first trip like most would – I didn’t ask friends what we should do, didn’t read any blogs, didn’t make any dinner reservations. I’m the kind of person that just needs to figure it out for myself. I didn’t want us to be trying to rush to this or this “must do” while we were there, I just wanted us to experience it as we would.

And we did. And it was perfect. :)

I figured out a few things fast on this trip – here are my tips for any fellow newbies who may be going this summer:

1. Don’t try to look cute. Just don’t. The heat/weather/splash mountain gods will laugh at you.

2. Buy the fan with the water in it that you pass on the way into the park and think, “I’m not so not spending money on that!” For all that is good…BUY IT.

3. Dole Whip is seriously the most amazing, beautiful, delicious thing you will ever, ever, ever eat. Ever.

That’s just about all you need to know. :)

We didn’t even get two full days in the parks – the last day we got slammed with this:

We waited it out for about an hour, then when it calmed down a bit we did a little more, but it was just too intense. We headed back to the hotel for a much needed nap and a great meal.

Usually when we head home from a trip I’m ready. The only time I’m not is when we’re in New York. I felt that this time too – I was SO sad to leave. I wanted to stay for another week – and for this homebody that’s saying something:

We’re already planning our next trip. Hopefully later this year. :) I cannot WAIT!!

Are you a Disney fan? Did you feel like this after your first trip? How many times have you been? When do stop missing it? ;)

**P.S. Early June was a great time to go – I wanted us to go at this time of year on purpose. We were there before so many schools were out for the summer, the weather was hot but not as hot as it gets in mid/late summer and we actually got a hotel discount for staying that week. The only issue was the rain – I hear it’s an especially rainy season for Florida.