Painting & Texturing...In Progress

Wonder what's happening in our house this week? Our formal living room and hallway are getting retextured and painted!! This house will finally feel more settled once this is finally done. Every time I walk through the front room, I'm reminded that we need to get it painted so I am SO happy that it's finally happening. We've have blue swatches painted on those walls for months. Not to mention, our beautiful painting from our family friend has been patiently waiting to be hung up in the formal living room for almost 6 months now and it is time to put it on display!

Why did it take so long, you might wonder? If you can remember back to May, I posted that I thought the room would get painted the following week (meaning 2 months ago)... clearly that didn't happen. It's been impossible to get our painter to commit to a date. Remodels, family emergencies, out of town... you name it, he's said it. He is such a sweet guy which is why we waited for him (plus, we know he does a good job) but seriously, we were getting antsy. We would have painted the room and hallway ourselves but we really wanted it to get retextured. After the kitchen remodel, part of the opening was a different texture than the rest and, in the hallway, there was a lantern-like light that we removed and covered up. It was covered up nicely but that area was completely smooth while the rest of the wall had the funky 50's style texture that the rest of the house has. Therefore, it was necessary that we evened out the walls and made it consistent.

Here's what the front room looked like on Monday (the day before they started work):

Okay, I lied that was the room on May 13 but it's pretty close to how it looked on Monday. We now have a cute floor lamp in the room, but you get the idea. :-)

Do you like our beautiful Cost Plus bookshelf? We were eyeing that thing for years! We just didn't know we actually needed it until we bought our house and realized that a bookshelf would be perfect on that wall. It conveniently covers up the thermostat but has an open back so we can easily get to it to adjust the temperature. Plus, we love the design on the side of the bookshelf.

Here's a recap of our checklist. I'm checking off the painting since it will be done in the next few days.

• Loveseat

• Side chairs

• Side table

• Buy a bookshelf for the wall to the left of the loveseat

• Paint the walls a grayish blue

• Hang our beautiful wedding gift (painting by family friend)

• Buy the remaining furniture - end table, ottoman, and floor lamp
• Buy an area rug

• Pick out fabric for the curtains

• Sew the curtains (task for my superwoman mother)

• Hang the curtains

• Get a plant to bring in some life

• Hang pictures

• Make/buy a piece of artwork to hang over the credenza

So there's still a lot left to do but I will feel a lot better once the room is actually painted. There was another big change in the house this past weekend that we did ourselves (woohoo!) which I will hopefully post about soon. Just need to upload the photos.