UPDATE: Houndstooth Hallway

I've gotten a couple questions about the subtlety of my Houndstooth Hallway.  

Is it too subtle?  

Are you thinking of doing something to make it pop more?

Do you think you need to re-do it?

The quick answers are no, no, and no. It is perfect for the space! 

Let me explain, because it is white on white it is really subtle, and there are times that you don't even notice it, but that is fine. My downstairs is "Palm Leaf" green, "Almost Charcoal" dark gray and "polished silver" light gray, these colors are pretty bold and another bold color would have made my head spin, I think. 

The pattern is where the "boldness" comes in. It is pretty big and graphic. 

Here are a couple pictures I took today at lunch. With the green and the dark gray the white on white houndstooth works perfect! 

E

p.s. if you like those penguins on the wall check out Penguin Attack! 

Houndstooth Hallway

You all know how much I LOVE to do projects in my house. Well the latest project that I've done and not shared with you is my houndstooth hallway.

(I know that I live in SEC territory so this question is bound to come up, Nope, I am NOT an Alabama fan. ;) )

There was one weekend this fall that I didn't have something going on. Nebraska must have had a bye week, because I would not have attempted this with only one day to work on it.

I had been debating for a long time about what to do with my stairway.  I thought it would be really really cool to put reclaimed barn wood paneling on the wall. Then I thought of the sheer size of the wall, and the amount of sanding I would have to do and tossed that idea right out the window.  So, my next thought was paint.  And a pattern. Some how I landed on houndstooth.

Before

The next big decision was what color to paint the walls.
Two different shades of bright blue?
How about a cream and camel color?
Or two shades of slate blue?
Grey? (Like there isn't enough of that in my house already)
What about doing the same color with different sheens...
White?
What color white? (There are about 1,000,000)

In the end I tried to find a white that was different from the white that was on the walls before (it was far too yellow, and clashed with the baseboards) and complemented the baseboards.

Once those decisions were made it was time to get to work.

I had Casey help me with a template, he was able to make one out of scraps from work.  Then I painted the wall with the white that I got in the egg shell sheen. Once that was dry and ready for me to tape off I whipped out my template and got to work.

There was a lot of leveling, taping, re taping, headaches, ibuprofen, beer, frustration, and work!

*side note: These pictures don't do the wall justice.

The first level and square "tooth".

This is the template that my bro made for me.

I taped around this template, I also made one out of wrapping paper that would be easily bendable for corners and the tight areas. 

8 down 35 to go

Since this is a graphic pattern that builds on itself, you can't just trace the pattern for every "tooth". (I know that this is going to be so confusing, this is about the time Advil was needed.) 

Every other "tooth" is going to be painted with high gloss, you only need to outline the "tooth" that is going to be painted with high gloss. The next "tooth"(the one that is not being painted) should be the exact same size as the pattern. 

Every other tooth is going to be bigger in the taping process, but they all come out the same size in the end. I found it helpful to mark the "teeth" that were not going to be painted with some painters tape. It helped me keep track of where I was. 

It makes a lot more sense when you are doing it! PROMISE!

about 1/2 way done

all taped off

Once the patter was completely taped off, there was some detail work to be done.  Since I can't tear tape in the straightest of lines, there was overlap that needed to be cut out with an exacto knife.  

This is about the time that I lost it and was about to rip it all down.  

Thankfully Casey was there to help with the detail work. It isn't too much different from what he does with his paintings he made quick work of it. He went around to every intersecting point and made sure the points were pointy, instead of squared off. 

Then it was time to paint! This was the quickest and easiest part of the whole process. Because I had already painted a quality base coat, and that base coat was the same color, just a different sheen, there was no need for multiple coats! 

I got to see the fruit of my labor that night! By the time I finished painting everything, and sat down for a beer, the paint was dry enough to take the tape off. 

This is how it turned out! (Again the pictures don't do it justice.)

Looking down

Looking Down

Looking Up

The darker "teeth" are high gloss, the lighter, eggshell.

Looking back on this process, I will say that it was a lot of work for subtle. Don't get me wrong I LOVE it and wouldn't changed it because it is perfect for this spot in my house. However, if I were to do it again, in a different house, I would make sure that it is more of a focal point. That much work needs to be shown off!

E

Bathroom Makeover

So, the long awaited blog post of my bathroom makeover is here! -- OK, so maybe you really haven't been waiting on it, but here it is any way...

When I painted my bedroom I decided to paint my bathroom a much much much lighter shade of the dark purple that is on the ceiling in my bedroom... If you missed that post, you can check it out here.

After living with this light purple bathroom for a couple of weeks, I had had enough. It was the perfect color for a 5 year old, princess, purple bedroom. I could NOT stand it. I had thought about using other colors, but just couldn't find the right one... But something had to change, and change in a big way.

After doing the "insane" wall I had a bit more confidence in my painting skills, and a little inspiration from a Kleenex box mom sent me a picture of, I thought I might give painted wall paper another try.

This time... BIG FLOWERS...

(On a side note -- I will say that I typically am not one for liking faux finishes, or stenciled anything...but for some reason this is different and I've been so pleased with the way things turned out.)

I did this much the same way I did the "insane" wall, however this time I made my own pattern.

First, I found a picture of a flower graphic that I really liked, and used the bro's projector to project the image onto some poster board. Then I traced, and cut out the pattern.

Second, I traced the flower on to the wall, making sure to overlap the petals and shift the pattern so the flowers were not all going the same direction.

Third, I determined which colors each of the flowers were going to be, before I started painting (I would not have looked right if two flowers of the same color were overlapping). Then I started to paint. It was just like a coloring book... Stay with in the lines.

I did all the same color at once, then moved on to the next color. The purple needs 3 coats (between you and me, I still have one more coat to do), the dark gray needed two coats, and the light gray should just be fine with one!

Now, these colors may look a little familiar...And you would be right if you said the light gray looks like the gray that is in the living room and bedroom...same with the dark gray. I say when you find a gray that you like and works in you house, stick with it! (However, if I tell my mom that I am going to paint yet another room gray, she might think I've officially gone crazy, he he he) Andy yes, that purple is the very same dark purple that is on the ceiling in my bedroom. Two reasons for this: 1 - I didn't want to go out and buy more paint, I had plenty left over from doing my bedroom, so why not use it AND 2 - I really wanted it to be cohesive with the bedroom colors.

However, I will give you a bit of warning about these colors...There is no natural light in this bathroom, and with the walls being a light purple base, the grays look a bit green. I decided after finishing that it wasn't bad enough for me to go back an repaint.

I am not going to lie I was a bit worried that the insane wall pattern and the bathroom wall pattern would fight each other, but I was please when I stepped back and saw how well the complemented each other!

So there you have it!

E

Bedroom: I'm insane wall

I've had some ups and downs with my bedroom lately... Some of you may remember my color palette from a previous blog...Well I have made the decision to abandon those colors, after I painted the ceiling purple and the walls gray. I love the colors, and still might try and incorporate some of them, but they really made the room much younger and less lux... But, the room is looing great!

The awesome chandeliers I ordered from Urban Outfitters for my bedroom came in on Friday and I was so excited to hang them, it was the first thing I did yesterday. They are bigger than I though and wanted but they still look good!


But as I was sitting there observing the room, I knew this room was in desperate need of a pattern. Since I haven't been able to find a fabric I like as much as my inspiration fabric... And the fabric I ordered from www.spoonflower.com hasn't come in yet, and I don't think I would want a whole lot of that fabric in the room... I made the decision to do something insane.

I got this idea from a friend of mine, Kim, she did this in her hall and it looks amazing! Kim, got the idea from the Jones Design Company blog (which has the stencil I used). Tank you Kim, I am so glad I did this!

I will say that mine turned out a bit more "organic" than the other two did, but it is that "organic-ness" that is just what was needed in that room... There were so many solid colors and sharp clean lines...It needed something different. So, here we go!

This is the before:


And....after:


Each of these blogs have tips as to how to do this...So here are mine and the supplies that you will need:


- Stencil, From Jones Design Company blog - I used two a paper one for corners and those tricky spots, and a cardboard one for the rest of the wall...
- Level - When I was traceing the pattern onto the wall, I started from the bottom and moved my way up and to the right... So I used the level on the first couple of rows on the bottom and the first two columns on the left. I figured if I make sure the those are straight and level I can work from there.
- Pencil - to trace... make sure you have a good eraser.
- iPod - not pictured but was necessary
- Paint Brush - I think the brush I used was wider than the other two examples... but I was happy with the way that it turned out so I am happy.
- Paint - The best part of this is that I had everything I needed here at home... I just used left over paint from when I painted my accent walls downstairs... It worked perfect!
- Beer - I can be a bit OCD sometimes and want to make everything perfect and often get irritated when it isn't. It usually bothers me, but with this I had to think that the imperfections were part of design...they make it "organic" and beautiful! With a beer in hand I was less concerned about making it perfect, and just had fun with it...
- Time - This took me 8 hours start to finish...That includes cutting out the pattern and clean up.


This was not a hard project at all... it just took some time!

E