Housewives Finish What they Start

It's amazing what a few coats of paint will do.  The color is Sherwin Williams "Relaxed Khaki".  We used it through the whole house, even the bathrooms.  I think one color throughout really helps the house "flow."  The trim is oil based Sherwin Williams "Creamy" in a high gloss finish.  Oil based is used on old houses on trim because the trim is often already oil based.  You don't paint water based on oil based.  I hate cleaning up oil based paint.  I hire the pros for that.

Here's the living room "after."
My den furniture from the old house fits just fine.  We went back to using one of the first pieces we ever bought; the teak tv stand from House of Denmark.  (Boy that was a long time ago.) The shelves are long gone, but the cabinet is really useful and just the right height for the big tv.

Our 26 year old rocking chair from Ethan Allen always seems to find a place.  This room is half-decorated.

If you want to make some changes to your decorating but don't know what to do--just take a picture.  All the flaws will show up.

The kitchen was a little more involved.  We "took it back to the studs" as they say.
Here's how it looked when we moved in:

This is a really great kitchen with room for our little glass topped Pier One table and Pottery Barn wicker chairs.  We put in black appliances--if I did it over I'd use stainless to lighten up the room.


The downstairs bath went "back to the studs", too.  We added the beadboard and vintage type tile on the floor.  There wasn't much room for a big vanity so we picked this one from Lowe's or maybe it was Home Depot.  I like how it looks and the storage space underneath is nice. 

The Roman shade is from Lowes. It was one panel too long so I cut it off--very carefully.

The tub is new with a white subway tile surround that goes all the way to the ceiling.  I'll always take the tile to the ceiling--I love how it looks and there's no getting the wall wet when tall people shower.

I always love the hardwood floors in old houses.  Here's how ours turned out:

At first we thought they were a little too red, but I like the color now.  I don't know what stain the floor guys used.   I had to throw in a shot of the floor intake.  Some people don't like them.  I don't like seeing the dust down in there so I try not to look.

It feels good to finish something. 

Patti