Category Archives: our home

O Christmas Tree

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December is almost half way through (CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?!), and after getting our tree decorated last weekend, let’s give it a moment in the spotlight…
Pretty, right??

I feel like there are two types of Christmas tree decorators… the traditionalists, and the theme decorators.

Myself, I’m a traditionalist – my favorite part about decorating the tree is to hang all the sentimental ornaments I’ve gotten year after year and reminisce (much to Kris’ chagrin) all about when I got them, and the stories behind each…

Mixed in with all the sentimental ones, I’ve got colorful globes, and glittery ribbon woven throughout.  I had big hopes this year to swap out the gold ribbon for a fun black and white stripe, but it was impossible to find.  So gold ribbon it was.  At least I upgraded from my sheer ribbon last year to a big, chunky glitter ribbon.  It really stands out and sparkles so much at night when the lights are on.
This year, the tree is a bit different from years past – I could not find our tree topper to save my life, but instead of going out to  buy a new one, I just rounded up some ribbon we had stashed in one of the boxes to make a pouf for the top.  
It’s not my favorite, but it’s not half bad and adds almost an extra foot to the top, so I’m ok with it…
I’ve been collecting one ornament a year since I was a baby (some years more than one), so that’s quite a few unique ornaments. I got these ballet slippers when I was maybe 8 years old.  I remember so distinctly – there was a small antique shop near our house, and even though these were one of the more expensive ornaments I wanted them so badly… at the time, there was a book about a ballerina I was obsessed with… it was called The Silver Slippers and the book came with a ballet slipper necklace (one of my most prized possessions) – thus I NEEDED this ballet slipper ornament.
I have no idea what happened to that book (or the necklace) but this ornament is still one of my most cherished.  Isn’t it funny how some things stay with you?
         

 

In addition to the personalized ornaments – the angels, the bears, the little birds, and the Santa with his surfboard (that’s Kris’ ornament) my mom has been giving us a box of vintage glass ornaments every year as well – they totally remind me of the ornaments in the movie A Child’s Christmas in Whales.  It’s a family favorite, and I love being able to hang those up as well.
I love that the tree is colorful and fun – maybe one day I’ll have a second tree to decorate as a “themed” tree – all bird ornaments and feathers, or all jingle bells and silver sparkles – but I love the character this has, and I love how packed in all the ornaments are.  It’s the one time of year that “more” is better (I think).

Growing up, we’d go with our parents to cut our tree down in the Santa Cruz mountains, and while we’ve skipped it a few years, I love our new tradition of going to the school around the corner from our house to buy the tree, and walking it home in the chilly evening.

Even though we haven’t cut ours down this year, I honestly cannot imagine not having a fresh tree.  To me, there would be no magic in taking a tree out of a box, and the smell… oh the smell… it’s SO GOOD.

It’s like a fresh fir forest in here I tell ya!

It’s pretty in the daytime, but at night is when it’s really magical…
Now, not to brag, but I’ve got to take a moment to give myself some credit for thinking creatively. Storing stuff is always in issue in this little apartment… after the ornaments were on the tree, we were left with boxes upon boxes, and without anywhere to put them, I decided to wrap them.
Yep, those presents under the tree are just empty boxes my friends.  What better place to store them than in plain sight – the tree looks so much better with presents under it, and I don’t have to worry about what to do with these boxes… win-win.

The guy at the tree lot also cut quite a lot off the bottom of the tree, so we ended up putting a box under the Christmas tree stand to bump it up a bit.

I actually think we will do this every year from now on.  I like how it creates space under the bottom branches for the presents to tuck under!  Another happy coincidence…

So what about you??  Are you a Christmas tree traditionalist or do you prefer the themed trees?

Chic Sheepskin

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It’s no secret that I’m a total fan of faux fur… it’s so soft, and on cold winter nights, there is nothing better than snuggling on the sofa with something fluffy and cozy.

We’ve got faux fur happening in the living room in the form of a throw blanket and two throw pillows, and I decided to take it another step further a few months back with a sheepskin throw.

Do you remember this chair in our dining room (turned office space)?  It’s been one of my favorite chairs since spraying it dark, recovering the cushion and adding this sheepskin.  On weekends, it’s where I drink my coffee or talk on the phone to my mama.

For anyone still not sold on the idea of a sheepskin throw, let me just say… it is SO GOOD.  So freaking soft, and plush, and just $30 from Ikea.

They look so beautiful draped over a chair or sofa, but would be equally amazing as a little rug on the side of your bed (there is nothing worse than the cold floor in the middle of the night when you get out of bed for a glass of water).

Wouldn’t they also be the perfect little rug for a baby’s room?  I mean you spend so much time on the floor, why not spend it on something soft??

Thoughts?  Do you love sheepskin as much as I do, or is it something you’d rather admire from afar?

It’s a Winter Wonderland… in our Hallway

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Woot woot!!  The hallway is ready for the holidays!!
I tackled this area of our house last night, and I’m REALLY happy with how it turned out!!  I’d bought this deer head a while back when Target’s “Stag Head” collection came out, and while he’s been living on our bookshelves for the last month or so, he’s made himself right at home in this little winter wonderland scene!
We (sadly) don’t have a mantle in our apartment, so I like to decorate this area the same way I’d decorate a holiday mantle.  This year, it’s a snowy woodland scene…

This table has actually been in our living room for the last year or so, acting as the drop spot for keys, mail, etc, but since we had to make space in the living room for our Christmas tree, this table had to move back into the hallway.
Initially, I wasn’t a huge fan of having the table in the hallway – our apartment is pretty small, so to me it felt more cramped when you walked down the hallway.  The table is narrow so it doesn’t actually take up much space – it was more “visually” cramped than anything else, but now that it’s decked out for Christmas, I absolutely love it!
Well hello there Mr. Deer…
I can’t tell if he’s totally creepy or totally cute.
That blank stare looks totally “zombie killer deer” up close, but it’s much less creepy in person.  I kind of love him – although I think he’d be even more dapper with a bow around his neck…

And the trees!!  I picked these up at Target for like $8 each, and I had a coupon for 30% off, so I think my mini forest only cost around $18 in the end.  I didn’t love that they were all the same height though, so I got creative.

I still had some fake cobwebs from Halloween, so I just fluffed those up and stuffed them in the bottom of a clear vase to re-purpose them as “snow”.

I then propped the other two trees up on whatever planters I had laying around – you can kind of see in the above picture that the “tallest” tree is actually on a candle votive stacked on top of a planter than I quickly painted gold (for continuity). You can hardly see them, so it looks just fine to me!

I also love how the “mercury glass” frames look all frosty here.  Originally when I had hung all the frames on this wall, they were empty, but I saw some mirror spray paint, and in a moment of curiosity decided to try it out.

I’d read that it doesn’t come out as shiny as a normal mirror, so I decided to make it more like mercury glass – you just fill a spray bottle with water and vinegar, spray down the glass, and spray the paint, then wipe it off.  The water / vinegar mixture creates these cool splotches making it look A LOT like mercury glass…

The ornament garland was a DIY project that I worked on last year – click here to read the tutorial on that… super simple and inexpensive, and it has really held up!!

I was playing with the different settings on the camera and really like how crisp and clear the forefront of this shot came out.  
Despite taking these photos in the early morning light, its nice and bright…
And this next photo was a really proud moment for me… 
I was able to play with the aperture on my camera settings to get the background really blurred out, and the foreground really focused.  I’m still a total photography novice, but I’m always so proud when I manage to get a really great picture…

So that’s our little hallway turned winter wonderland.  The rest of our place is STILL a hot mess, but we’re getting there slowly but surely.  My goal is to have everything decorated and cleaned up by the weekend.

How is your holiday decorating coming along??  As slowly as mine??

Christmas Spirit = Christmas Mess

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Whelp it’s been a rude awakening being back at work so far… I was just getting used to the life of leisure, and then 7:30 came around this morning VERY early.  Despite my ongoing depression of being back at work this week, we’ve started decorating for the holidays which is very fun… and by fun… I mean hard work.  For the most part our house is a HUGE mess – boxes everywhere, tissue paper galore, and a very fragrant, very busy bare tree in the middle of it.

I’m still in the process of tracking down all the boxes of ornaments, lights, and garlands, so for now, the only thing that isn’t a complete mess is this little shelf in our dining room…

Just one – the rest of them have been cleared off, and the dining room table is a mis-mash of it’s former contents as I contemplate what I want to put up for the holidays.
I don’t dare show you what the rest of our living room and dining room look like right now… it’s bad.
Better photos and more information on how to make those cute little paper trees is on it’s way once the shelves are Christmas-ified.
For now… 
Happy Monday!

We’re calling it "Pre-Christmas" Decor

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Let me preface this post by saying, yes, I am fully aware that we haven’t celebrated Thanksgiving yet… 
But let me also just say, Thanksgiving is the latest it’s ever been… EVER… so since Thanksgiving is so excruciatingly late, I figured it couldn’t hurt anyone to hang a few harmless wreaths in our living room over the weekend….

I LOVE boxwood wreaths. Possibly more than any other wreath.  They are fresh and simple, and need no adornment, which around the holiday season – when the motto is “the more lights, tinsel, and general bedazzlement, the better” – a simple wreath is subtly festive.

In my case, I went with four subtly festive boxwood wreaths… for $10 each, how could I say no?!

I decided to hang them in each of the windows of our living room…

I absolutely LOVE LOOVVEEE LOOOVVVVVEEEEEE them.

The best part about boxwoods is that they dry so well.  These windows get direct sunlight all day long – pretty much from about 9am until 4pm, but boxwoods keep the bright green color even after they’ve dried!  Last year, I kept our wreath from the holidays, and hung it on our front door through the summer.

Now, I never normally take photographs at night in low light like this, but, with the wreaths in the window, I found it nearly impossible to photograph them during the day.  They were completely blacked out with the sun behind them in every shot , but I guess it’s nice to document our house with the cozy lamp light too… this is actually how I like our house the best, even though it doesn’t turn out in photographs so well.

God… we really need to do something about the coffee table – the bane of my existence.  Its SO scratched up on top, and the storage below is just not attractive.  Functional… yes, but I’m sure we could get rid of half that crap and not miss a thing.

Perhaps that’s something tackle next weekend… the decrapification of our coffee table… and then the selling of the coffee table and buying of a new one……….

Anyway… enough talk of my hoarding ways… let’s get back to my pretty wreaths.  Don’t you just love how they get a little up-lighting from the side lamps?
And notice my new lampshades… $5 on clearance!  Woot woot!!

Gotta love a good deal – ok last glamour shot of the wreath….

Hope you all had a lovely, productive weekend too!!

xoxo

Foolproof Fall Flower Arrangement

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Do you like the alliteration of this blog post??
Me too… but what I like even more was how simple (and inexpensive) it was to pull together this flower arrangement.
I went to the supermarket and picked up three small bundles of flowers:
One bundle of berries, one bundle of mums, and one bundle of astroemerias… not sure what those look like??  It’s these:
I spent less than $10 and I think that the arrangement turned out really pretty – WAY better than any of the pre-made bouquets in the store.
Not to toot my own horn, but I think I kind of have a knack for flower arranging… one of the things I’ve learned is that keeping the flowers in the same color family REALLY helps you keep it pretty and elegant.
In this case, I stuck with deep reds, maroons, and raspberry shades.  I absolutely LOVE how the astroemerias have green in them that fades into a deep red… it really brings a lot more dimension into the arrangement.
In general I think that sticking to a single color family works so well, because when you pick different flowers in different colors, there are a lot of different textures going on, so it confuses the eye and can easily look messy..  Having different flowers in the same color family is less “confusing” to the eye, so it ends up looking planned, while still being “interesting”.  
In this case, it’s autumnal reds. My old faithful is white, but blue’s and purples (with hydrangeas and iris) would be really pretty, and orange hues would also be amazing – and especially seasonal right now for Thanksgiving (with roses, tulips, branches, leaves, berries…. the list is pretty broad).
One of my other secrets to more professional looking floral arrangements is to cut the stems short.
It takes .2 seconds to plop your supermarket flowers in a vase with their long stems… and it shows.  It ends up looking cheap, but taking the extra two minutes to cut them down and arrange them in a shorter, wider vase, and it ends up looking like something you picked up from a florist.

Finally, I like to stick with flowers that all look fairly different from one another – if you have too many ruffly flowers, you can’t tell that they are different (which there’s nothing wrong with that) but by picking berries in this arrangement, its more unique, and dresses up these otherwise really cheap looking flowers (I mean mums??  Just ask my mom how much she likes mums on their own)

I’m thinking of wrapping the vase in burlap for Thanksgiving week, since it’s really the last few days our home will be decorated for fall.  After that, it’s going to be a Holiday bonanza around here!!

Happy Thursday 🙂

Hotel Bedding DIY

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Our bed got a mini update last week – nothing earth shattering, but a definite improvement…
It’s probably not very noticeable to most people, but we FINALLY got some euro shams for our bed, and I did a little hotel bedding DIY on them.
I’ve been wanting actual hotel bedding pretty much since we moved in here a few years ago, but its SO expensive.  Even just 3 euro shams from Restoration Hardware run several hundred dollars, and I was not about to pay that for just a few decorative pillow cases.  Thanks, but no thanks.
I’d been digging on Overstock, eBay, and Amazon for other options… I looked at a few at Macys, Bloomingdales (yep, they sell bedding online!), and Lands End, but either the options were still really pricey, poor quality, or the wrong colors.  I wanted either navy, or a dark grey (black seemed more limiting since we have a lot of navy going on in here)…
So I decided to experiment with a little project.
I’d seen projects online where people had used grosgrain ribbon to trim out curtains, so I figured the same could be done with pillow cases.
I started by ordering some fairly inexpensive plain white euro sham pillow cases off of Overstock.  I ordered these ones in case you’re interested. They look nice, but aren’t the best quality to be honest. I don’t really care since we’re not sleeping on them, but I wouldn’t recommend them for anything other than a decorative euro sham.
Once I got the shams in the mail, I went to the fabric store and bought 10 yards of their 1″ cotton grosgrain ribbon.  Our euro pillows are 26″, so I needed a minimum of 8 2/3 yards, and in case I messed up a bit, I wanted extra yardage.
A word of warning – do not go with a synthetic grosgrain ribbon.  When you iron it, it crinkles up, so be sure you pay the extra few dollars for the 100% cotton (learned that the hard way folks).
Anyway, the project was really simple – once I had the ribbon and the pillow shams, I got out my stitch witchery (iron on adhesive tape) and went to work ironing the pieces of ribbon on.
If I were to go back in time and do this again, I’d also invest in a REALLY sharp straight edge, and something to measure a perfect 45 degree angle for the angled cuts for each corner, but live and learn. I found that my sewing scissors weren’t quite as sharp as I would have liked, so it was more difficult to get a perfectly clean cut on a 45 degree angle. A few of the corners aren’t perfect, but its not that noticeable.
Live and learn.
Anyway, I still need to go back with a paintbrush and a dab of glue to all the cut edges to seal them and ensure they don’t fray, but the project only took me about 45 minutes to iron everything down, and get it on the bed.  It also cost me maybe $80 total for all three pillows and the ribbon – SO much less than any other option, where the pillows ran close to $50 each.
I’m really happy with how it all turned out (clearly), and our bedroom just feels so much more finished. Like I said – a small change, but it’s one more thing to check off the list!

Happy Monday!

Our new Bar Cart

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Happy Monday you guys!

I’ve been MEANING to post this for several weeks, but let me introduce you to our new bar cart!!

Yes, you heard me… BAR CART.  Hollllaaaaaaaa!!!

I’ve been wanting one for close to two years, and after much hunting, and much waiting I have one!! Do you remember the one that got away??  If only I’d pulled the trigger on a truly vintage bar cart, but everything happens for a reason, right??  Anyway, remember how I posted about this one from Target’s Threshold collection??

Well, I couldn’t help myself!  I swear, once I saw it, it was a done deal.

I had a little difficulty tracking it down, but I wasn’t ready to pull the trigger without seeing it in person. After locating one about an hour away, it was love at first sight.

I LOVE the brassy bronze finish, and the wood tray tops are a really nice touch.  I mean, it’s actually wood people!!  I’d read reviews that people said it looked and felt more expensive than it is.  This is the truth!!  It’s heavy, and feels so sturdy.  I could not be more happy with it 🙂

I had so much fun styling the top.  Turns out, we like our cocktails, because after gathering up all the bottles of alcohol in one place we had everything we needed!  Vodka galore, tequila (when and why did I buy that??), whiskey, and all the fixings for the perfect Manhattan.

Add to that, the really pretty cocktail glasses my mom gifted me (I actually think they are the old school champagne glasses with the wide bowl) some martini glasses, and all the tools for mixing, stirring, and straining drinks, and we were in business!!  There ALMOST wasn’t enough room for it all!

Once all the bar essentials were in place, I needed to add some fun accessories.

It is fall after all, and I couldn’t resist this cute little wooden fox.  I mean, what is a bar without a sassy fox??

I also loved the bronze candle holders – at night, they give a really pretty amber glow to the area.

Speaking of foxes… have you heard and / or seen the video for the song, “What Does the Fox Say“?? So hilarious – one of my coworkers introduced me to it, and I still can’t decide if it’s a joke, or if they’re serious.  Listen to it a few times… you’ll find yourself humming it at the most random times!

Anyway…

I’m still not loving the lower shelf’s styling, but it’s fine for now.

I felt it needed some height, which is why the lantern landed there, but I just don’t love it.  Still working that out…

The light was really bright from the living room when I was taking these photos, so excuse the washed out pictures…  I was aiming for a shot from further back to get the shelves in there… and the print hanging above the bar cart.

I hung that months before I knew we’d ever have a bar cart!  How perfect is that?!

Here’s a little birds eye view…
I know I said I was staying away from faux flowers, but these are seriously the ONLY ONES left in our house, and they had a really nice autumn vibe to them.  I couldn’t resist!

So that’s it!  Our new little bar cart that encourages the observance of cocktail hour… not that I’m complaining!

What do you think??

Are you running off to the store to get one of your own?

Who wants to play the role of Betty Draper with me?!

Revamped Gallery Wall

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It’s a subtle change to those that don’t spend a lot of time in our house, but our gallery wall got some revamping a few weekends ago…

I had been thinking of changing out the layout of our gallery wall recently, and then began toying with the idea of swapping out the art we had framed.

I know… the gallery wall had only been up a few months, but there was something about it that never felt 100% right to me. I LOVED the La Baule print that had been there before, and the punches of yellow and blue brightened things up in here over the summer months, but it seemed too bright for fall.

Here’s how it stood a few weeks ago…

The bright yellow and blue demanded other bold bright prints to help balance it, but the abstract prints to the left always felt too matchy-matchy.  I also felt that there were too few frames, and the frames were too homogeneous.  We needed more variety – in both the art and frames, and with fall on it’s way, I wanted more muted colors.

Originally, I’d been imagining a clean white gallery wall.  Here were a few inspirations I was looking at…

Source
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Gorgeous, right??
Well once I started collecting new pieces to frame, I kind of fell in love with the gold all over again.
Also, after thinking about it more, I realized that since the walls and curtains are so light, and a lot of our accessories and furniture are dark (dark rug, dark love seat – STILL NO NEW SOFA, UGH – dark coffee table, etc.) the room would end up feeling bottom heavy if the frames went white… too many dark colors near the floor, and too many light colors near the ceiling would make the ceilings feel shorter.  Not a good thing.
Long story short, we stuck with the gold.

This wall started with the Martini & Rossi Vintage poster… 
I actually had this hanging in my last apartment, and it’s one that I never tire of. The minimal color palate of black and white is simple, and the blocks of color keep it from feeling too busy.  Plus she is so pretty, and we DO love our cocktails around here… it was an easy decision to bring her back.

I then found an Etsy artist that I kind of fell head over heels for…

I admittedly went to town with her pieces, and it was a challenge to choose a few instead of adding all of them to my cart.  I am not kidding, limiting myself to just three was the hard part – there were so many that I absolutely LOVED.

One of my favorites is the framed print at the top of this group (pictured below) – the colors aren’t accurately captured in this photograph, but her paintings have such saturated color.

The peachy color of the girls skin against the deep navy and dark peacock blue is so pretty in person… I also think that the dark background helps balance out the black background on the Martini & Rossi poster.

This is perhaps my favorite piece – she’s also from the Clare Elsaesser collection and the colors are so pretty…

It is actually called, Married to the Sea.  Isn’t that just the best name??

Check our her Etsy Shop… there are SO many gems in there, and totally affordable!

A few more that I love… this one is similar to the one I have framed, but with more of the grey blue tones… And this one is so fun – perfect for warmer months, but with the weather cooling down, the more moody colors and intense images were speaking to me. SO GOOD!

Speaking of moody… check out that owl!

I’ve been hoarding that print for over a year now, and he is so creepy and weird… he actually looks kind of evil, but I’m obsessed with him.  He’s so beautiful.  How could you not love him?!

And then there’s the vintage surf print… front and center, just for my honey. I found this at the antique shop near our house before it moved locations, and knew that Kris would not only love it, but really appreciate that I was incorporating one of his passions into our decor.

Love you babe!

In the spirit of muted colors, I also swapped out the pillows and accessories from the bright blues to a black and white palate.

The faux fur pillows are still alive and well, and down below are two new additions from West Elm…

I am trying to be more careful with my patterns, especially when our rug makes SUCH a statement, but with all the blacks and grays and whites, it’s not nearly so busy…

And here’s a peek at the entire room from the entryway.

The light is definitely changing with fall – the mornings in here are flooded with that sunshine-y yellow light, and it is the best way to start the day.

While we’re on the subject of our living room, don’t you think a natural wood coffee table will really look great in here??  I do… maybe I’ll add that to my Christmas wishlist 🙂

Happy Thursday!!

Full Dresser Reveal – Ikea Tarva Hack

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So last week I’d jumped the gun with excitement and posted a few blurry pictures of the newly painted dresser that is in our room functioning for storage and as a TV stand…
This has been a long time in the making… remember LAST FEBRUARY when I first started talking about this???  Well, it’s only taken me eight months to finish this project 😉  With the hardware attached, I can OFFICIALLY check this project off the list!
Yep, that’s my reflection in the TV!!

I can’t even begin to explain how good that feels to be able to say it’s DONE.  Phew!

I am so pleased with how it turned out – the ultra-marine blue paint color brings such LIFE to our bedroom without being overwhelming, or too in your face.

I am in love with how it all turned out, but it was a LONG road to get here… let’s start at the beginning…

Ikea… on a Saturday… NIGHTMARE.  I got in, I got out, and a glass of wine later, I was ready to get the party started get this dresser built.

Step one: organize nuts, bolts, and assorted other random pieces Ikea packages up.

All I’ll say is… be VERY CAREFUL to be sure that you are using the right little screw thingy for each step of the process… you do not want to have to go back and take apart the dresser halfway through because you used the short screw and not the long one – TRUST ME on that one.
You may also want to enlist a buddy to help read the instructions… they use pictures, not words, and some of the little drawings I STILL can’t figure out…. bottom left picture… what do you think that says?? “Don’t break the furniture you’re building?”  Is that what it means?  Thanks Ikea… wise words…
I’ll spare you the boring details, but our living room was a disaster zone for two nights, as it went from this…
To this… an almost completed dresser! 
WITH FUNCTIONING DRAWERS.  
Holla! 
Look at those drawers… that open and close smoothly.  A work of art I tell you!  I’ve never experienced a more satisfying moment.  
Well, except for that time when I was home from college, and went to Costco with my mom, and saw that the girl that bullied me all through high-school was working the front door…  that was also an EXTREMELY satisfying moment… Deanna!  Is that you??  Going places in life I see… 
Another story for another day… 
Anyway, it felt REAL good to get the drawers working…
Moving on… the wood is pine, which means that it secretes oil from the knots in the wood for years… YEARS PEOPLE… so to be sure that the knots stayed hidden, and that my lovely paint job stayed intact without any bleeding from the wood, I used a super-duper primer.
Kilz primer got the best reviews online for sealing in wood oils on pine furniture, and so far so good.
I read that having the primer tinted made things MUCH easier to paint over when using a dark paint color.  I am SO THANKFUL I did this – I probably saved myself an extra coat of paint (or seven), and many frustrating hours in the long run.

The tinted primer won’t be as dark as your paint color, but it helps SO much.  It went on a light blue (pictured above) – I did 4 thin coats with a roller (to be sure none of that oil from the wood came through over time), let it dry, sanded it, wiped it down really well.

Then it was time to paint.

I just did regular water based paint (for easy clean up) in a semi-gloss – three coats with a roller later, and these bad boys were drying in the living room…

The most interesting thing to me about this paint color is that it photographs so differently in different lights, and that’s actually how it is in real life.  In bright direct sunlight, it’s a rich peacock blue, but in the afternoon it’s definitely a darker moodier version of itself… sometimes it almost looks like a dark green.
Like a mood ring – it’s totally fascinating to see!
Remember my inspiration for this color?? It was this Peacock Blue Dresser from Dimples and Tangles that got the creative juices flowing – I still love how her’s has the lacquered look.  
It’s AMAZING.
Anyway, you all know about my love of the brass hardware – it was quite a hunt to find!  My first order was cancelled because they ran out of lion head pulls!  WTF… I had to hunt it down elsewhere, which added a few extra weeks onto this project.

The dresser was in our room, just waiting for those pulls, and when they came, I was even more excited with how cute these guys were!  Quite sassy if you ask me.

RAWRRRRR.
And so, that’s the story my friends…  are you ready for the massive photo dump??  Here we go!
The view from my side of the bed… that’s a pretty realistic image of how the paint color reads in person – like the color of the ocean 40 feet down… gorgeous!
And a few close up images of the hardware against the paint…

Our old problem was that the TV stand that had been in here was too low to the ground so we couldn’t see the TV from the bed… especially once we bought our giant California King, with the extra high box spring.

Now, as you can clearly see, the TV is at optimal viewing height…

This room is SO TRICKY to photograph – it’s not big, and so this was the only angle where I could really get the whole dresser in.  Awesome photography skills – clearly.

And as I’m posting these, I’m realizing that there are a few unintentional selfies where I’m reflected back in the TV.  In my pajamas.  Awesome.

On another topic, how awesome do those navy and white curtains look with the dresser???  Totally baller.

Next up on the list… what do we do with this wall above the TV??

It’s a HUGE improvement to have the TV higher on the wall, but it’s still very empty feeling.  I know I have a bit of a problem and want to put something on every wall, but I swear to god, this wall NEEDS something.  I was thinking sconces, but the lazy part of me is like… ehhhhh.

If we didn’t have so many freaking mirrors in this room already, I’d consider a trio of round convex mirrors, and I haven’t completely ruled that out, but I’m trying to think of something other than another mirror…

Here’s a photo of our lovely dresser from the bathroom door looking back towards the hallway and our dining room / office area.  I love that the spaces have a really cohesive feel…

Oh, and don’t forget to notice our dust ruffle on the bottom of the bed.  It’s a subtle change, but a HUGE improvement since you could see all the crap stuff we were storing under there and it just looked so unfinished, and ugly, and messy, and terrible.  UGH.

Now it’s hidden and I’m SO much happier.

This next photograph was taken from an angle I don’t often capture since the salmon tile in our “art deco” (aka old as hell) bathroom is all up in your face.

What you can’t see (thank god) is that the shower was re-done at some point since the 1930’s, and in an attempt to match the coral tile, they went with pink.  Pepto bismol pink.  That doesn’t match.  Not even close. Oh well…

And just for good measure (and since i was already in there with the camera) I got a few photographs of the headboard and new bedding together.

I’m liking this combination for fall, and I love that the Duralee fabric on the bolster ties in with the other colors in the room, and brings a punch of color to wake things up a bit – as you can see, I’m still on the hunt for euro shams.

Standing a bit further back, you can see yet another empty wall that kills me a little every time I see it. The wall above our bed and headboard just needs SOMETHING.

I think I nice oversize clock would be nice here – again, trying to stay away from more mirrors in here… plus it will help keep me on time as I get ready in the morning…

So that’s it!  The new dresser / TV Stand / Ikea hack is complete!  If you need to find me, I’ll be in bed watching TV from now until forever.

Just kidding.  Kind of.

Happy Tuesday!!