Robin's Egg Blue Painted Armoir

I have had this 1920s armoir for about 30 years.

It has been in the garage for at least the last 5,
so I decided it was time for it to find a new home!

But first it needed some love and a new paint job!

In the 1980s, it was a blue-grey and held our television in the living room.

In the 1990s, it was red and lived in the boys' room with the nintendo.

After that, it was many different colors, once even covered in fabric,
 because it lived in my daughter's room and held her computer.

It needed a new back and shelves as well as paint.

It goes great with my new chairs!

Still deciding on knobs: green,

or white?

http://thestylesisters.blogspot.com/2014/03/centerpiece-wednesday-mellow-yellow.html

That Old House: A Walk Down Memory Lane

 I was looking through the pictures on my computer the other day and came across a file labeled "Old House", so of course I opened it, even though it wasn't at all what I was looking for. We sold that house 3 1/2 years ago, and I had almost forgotten what it looked like.

So this week I am taking a walk down Memory Lane.

I loved the kitchen in this house!
There was so much space and that huge island was great to work on. I miss that!


But I need to remind myself that the kitchen looked nothing like this when we moved in. There was no island, nor was the pantry/open shelves on that back wall. It was just a big space with ugly wood cabinets and really ugly old laminate countertops and vinyl floor. It took time and work to get it like this!

Here's a shot of my bedroom. It wasn't that large, but my room now is so small that I can't use the footboard of my four-poster bed. However, that gives me a good opportunity to do something I have wanted to do for a long time, make a new headboard from a door.

I loved this hall bath, too. It all started with some black and white toile boxes my daughter gave me.
Next came the toile shower curtain and the other black and white accessories. The walls are covered with paintable wallpaper that looks like old tiles. I am thinking of using this wallpaper on the kitchen ceiling and make it look like a tin ceiling.

When my oldest son moved out, I made myself a little office/library with robin's egg blue on the walls and so many favorite things in one place!

hmmm, I seem to have a lot of pictures of this room.

I really, really liked it!

I painted my bedroom in this house the same robin's egg blue.

And all these favorite things are still here, just in different places, so I can still enjoy them!

 

Post-Holiday Clean Sweep

After putting away all the Christmas decorations this year, 

I still feel a need for calm.

Usually the place looks a little bare when the tree and all the garlands, bows, angels and Santas come down.

 But this year, the house still feels too crowded.

 It may have something to do with having all of

 my daughter's belongings taking up space in the shed, garage, spare bedroom and even spilling into the living room while she takes some pre-grad school classes out of town!

 But mostly I think it's that we just have too much stuff!

In fact, one of our goals for this year is to go through everything, and I do mean everything, and either sell, give away, or throw away as much as possible. 

We are looking into ebay!

So, I thought I would start by looking at a couple places in the house that are making me feel overwhelmed.

The couch is an easy fix. I am going to make 2 or 3 large pillows and get rid of all the smaller ones.

Something like this.

The bookcase is more difficult. I love books and I love just about everything on these shelves. But it is a little busy, so I will try to de-clutter here as well.

I like the styling of this one.

But these pictures tell me something else. Both of these spaces are in the same room, a room with a really intense color on the walls. When we moved here, I was rebelling against 2 years of living with a neutral color palette while selling our house, and 6 months of a rental. I knew when I put this color on the walls that I would tire of it, and now, after 2 years, I think the time has come.

 I want to keep the robin's egg blue of the bookcase backs, painted furniture and accessories, so the color has to coordinate with that.

I am thinking maybe

a nice soft gray,

a pretty yellow,

or another neutral.

Any suggestions?