forgetful

Picture this: It’s the mid-seventies. Pants are bell bottomed, disco is on the radio, and smoked mirrors are all the rage.

Fast forward to 1985. Times have changed. Bell bottoms are now acid-wash. Disco is out and glam is in. And those smoked mirrors? They should be long gone. And for most people they are. But the company who was building our house must have had a surplus they needed to unload…

And let’s not even talk about the the oak bannisters and spindles…

Fast forward again. This time to 2010. As Dan and I walked through the house we would buy two days later, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Smoked mirrors everywhere. Seriously. And not only were they smoked mirrors, but they were surrounded by oak frames. Horrid. I kept thinking to myself that they’d be easy enough to take down.

Want to get a better look?  Ok.  It’s worth it.

6 or so months after moving in, I finally got my wish.  Dan and his dad got the giant mirrors down.  And the removal was fairly easy.  But keeping those mirrors up on the wall took a lot so when they came down, so did half the wall.  So much so that we actually had to hire a plasterer to fix the huge holes.

A few coats of paint later and some shopping for the frames, and the 80’s were back where they belong – in the past.

(As you can see, the cats are loving it too…)

I’m seriously over the moon with how it turned out.  Having a showcase for some of my fave pictures doesn’t hurt either…

I also think the boy/girl signs on the kids bedrooms are too adorable for words.  I’ve been thinking about coating them in chalkboard paint to make them dual purpose but I haven’t had the extra minutes this week to do it.  How awesome would that be though…?

So…what do you think…?  Likey?

Next up:  Our forest green and burgundy living room gets a lighter, brighter new look.  Stay tuned.

I’ve been busy over the last few months.  Not just with work and kids, but with the house.  While we aren’t in a position to renovate the kitchen and other big projects at the moment – finding the time for that is almost a joke at this point – the small things have been driving me crazy and with some paint, patience and a little elbow grease, I’ve been able to make some significant changes round these parts.

The first and maybe most fun was a project that I’ve been dreaming up for over a year.  Yes, since before we moved.  I had the supplies ready to do this to our old house but we moved instead.  And then I got lazy.

But it was so unbelievably easy that I can’t believe I waited so long!

So a few nights ago, I taped out a rectangle on one of our blank kitchen walls.  Used painters tale and measured to make sure the lines were straight.  And then I primed it.

Then I cracked open the can of chalkboard paint that has been kicking around forever.  With a good shake we were ready to go.

It says that you can paint a second coat within 4 hours, but I waited a full 24.  It definitely needed a second coat.

A few hours after that dried, I pulled the tape off and VOILA!

I actually did a little happy happy, joy joy dance when it was all done.  I love it.  We cannot wait to start getting into the chalk to get our doodle on.  Well, we can wait.  We have to wait 2 more days before we are supposed to draw on it.   So excited.

What do you think?  Would you turn an entire wall into a chalkboard?  Am I crazy or brilliant?