Our latest home project: Living/Dining Room

Home projects bring about a multitude of emotions: dread for the manual labor, excitement for a new look, and joy to see your ideas come to life. For me it's definitely all of the above. Bryan and I have been staring at some stark white walls for far too long and finally we had had enough! So I set out for Sherwin Williams and rounded up all the swatches. I narrowed it down and then went back to Sherwin Williams for samples. Most people I would say buy 1 or 2 samples of the colors that they're pretty sure about, but just want to double check. Oh no, not me... I bought 6 samples to start, but by time I bought the actual paint it ended up being 7 samples. My walls were essentially "polka dotted" with splotches of different potential colors for a good week and everyday I would stare at them and analyze and then ask Bryan daily which ones he liked best. That was probably a little annoying, huh? haha

 

 Finally, I took the plunge with some encouragement from the nice ladies at Sherwin Williams. I decided on Kilim Beige for the walls and Tea Chest for the highlight wall. With the help from dad, and working tirelessly day to night for one weekend, we were able to get it all done! Well...I may have captured a picture of a nap there in between. ;) I couldn't resist taking this pic when I saw him snoozing in the plastic covered couch. 

Drumroll please...WE DID IT and we love it!!! A drastic and warm change from the stark white! We also decided that the manual labor wasn't so bad. We're getting kind of good at this whole painting thing. :)

I wouldn't say I'm a complete perfectionist, but I suppose I have some perfectionist tendencies because that blank spot between the TV and the peaked ceiling was driving me crazy! So I was on a mission. My missions usually start with Pinterest and there I discovered this great company called Dali Decals that creates beautiful wall decals that are great quality. Check out their website! They have super cute decals for kids' bedrooms; I can't wait to decorate our kiddies bedrooms. :) I purchased a large script "D" in matte beige for that blank space that was staring at me. It was super easy to do and it looks so cool!

 

Our living room is finally complete! 

 Our dining room and living room are connected, so we revamped in there too! We added a new painting from Garden Ridge in Columbus, OH that I bought when I was visiting my sister and brother-in-law and some new curtains (JCPenney) and curtain rod (Sears $14! aka great deal)!

Tips for myself (for next time) and for anyone else out there listening: 
1. Plan ahead! Choose a date (or days) that you will complete your project and notify the people that you need to help you accomplish this goal! This really helped us prepare ourselves and the people we needed too!
2. Don't be afraid of buying 7 samples! Colors look so different on the paint store swatches in the store due to the fluorescent lighting. Also, it's nice to see the color on YOUR wall against YOUR furniture! It helps.
3. If you see a color you like somewhere, for example a friend's house- ask them what color and where they got it! That's actually how we found one of our colors! I had thought I had picked my colors and then the day before I went to go buy paint we were at our good friends house, The Bails, for bible study and when I saw their walls it clicked that it would work for our home too!
4. Throw something in the crockpot to have ready to eat for your workers! I made a big pot of chili. It was delicious.
5. Don't be afraid of color. If you're going to paint, you might as well make it count! I'm always scared to paint darker colors, but Bryan loves them so he helps me take those plunges. Every single time, he's right!