Category Archives: Decor

Questions, Opinions, and Decisions

April 17, 2014Categories: Decor, RenoSarah @ 702 Park Project

One thing I’ve come to really love about blogging is that I have an audience to pose questions to, and in turn I receive a wide variety of ideas and opinions. If you’ve been following for long, you know that I love to hear what you think about certain options. So today I wanted to revisit some of those questions and bring you up to speed on where we stand!

1. TV in the Bedroom — Yay or Nay?

The majority of you answered that a TV in the bedroom is a no-no, and we have to agree. For now, we are putting TVs in the den and in the office.

No TV here. Just our very very sparse looking room. (By the way, that’s our new king size bed! Yay!)

2. To Paint or Not to Paint?

Most of you answered that we should keep the closet simple and white, and again, we agree. White it is!

3. Closet Suggestions Needed!

While we’re on the topic of closets…remember our storage issue? A lot of you had some great ideas. We decided to get a pair of these, since they extend to 7 feet, don’t rely on the walls for support, and got excellent reviews…and we had a pretty awesome coupon. We haven’t gotten around to setting them up yet though…I’ll let you know how we like them when we do! (Down the road, I’m really hoping for some custom built ins. Patience, grasshopper…)

4. Countertop options.

We got a wide array of answers and suggestions on this one. The votes were spread pretty evenly between painting the existing countertops, installing concrete countertops, and simply buying new countertops. Sorry to disappoint you, but we still haven’t made a decision. The kitchen just really hasn’t been a priority lately. But I can tell you that we have ruled out painting them. I’m really interested in this new faux-marble laminate, but Charles understandably worries that they will look cheap. The pictures I’ve seen look great (like here and here), but I need to see it in real life.

5. It’s Not Always Black & White.

Once again–still no decision. This will be a DIY for us, so there’s really no rush. I have to admit, I’ve been a high-gloss black advocate from the beginning, but after all of your interesting suggestions, I’m starting to question that! I played around a bit on Sherwin-Williams’ Paint Visualizer Tool and came up with some pretty cool options…

Fuschia

Teal

Hunter Green

Maroon

I haven’t even shown these to Charles yet, so I’m interested to see what he thinks. I feel more unsure than ever about a color choice, so I think we’re just going to have to go for it and dive right in! It’s just paint, right?!

There it is. As you can see, we’ve made a lot of progress in some areas, and virtually none in others, but that’s just how it goes I guess. Check back soon for more updates and decisions! :)

Weekend Work

April 15, 2014Categories: Decor, RenoSarah @ 702 Park Project

Y’all. This weekend. It almost killed me.

Charles and I worked all day Saturday until 1 am, and then had another 14-hour work day on Sunday. I don’t think I’ve ever been so tired. By Sunday night, neither of us could really walk, and all our muscles hurt. We literally were crawling around on the floor and cracking ourselves up. I think we were delirious from all the primer fumes, cleaning product fumes, and the thought that we might be almost finished.

You see, we busted our butts all weekend because we had an appraisal on Monday afternoon. I never realized how important the appraisal was, but it basically determines where you stand with your mortgage and how much insurance you can get. So it’s pretty important.

We prepped (7 hours total) and primed (5 hours total) the entire master bathroom, including the vanity, the master closet, and the upstairs hall bathroom. So now they are VERY white, but very clean. They look way better than before! I’ll be sharing pictures with you later this week.

On Sunday, in a matter of about 4 hours, we took the formal living room from looking like this…

To this…

It’s definitely not finished, and I’ll probably be changing out and adding some furniture and a rug, but wow–what a difference!!

When we moved our stuff in, we pretty much created what we call a “work out of” room on each floor. On the first floor, it was the formal living room. I’m embarrassed to even show you the before picture, but it certainly adds a little drama to the reveal!

I plan to add a rug…maybe gray or navy…and long drapes. I’d also like to find a couple of chairs to go opposite the sofa, and I’d love if they had a little gold in them. I’m definitely planning to switch out the end tables and coffee tables too. They are hand-me-downs that are much appreciated, but need to go!

And probably my favorite part of the room: my grandmother’s silk scarf that I had framed.

It’s an original Polo scarf that was given to her years and years ago, and she gave it to me before she passed away. When we were little, my cousins and I used to play dress up with her many many scarves, and this one was always my favorite. It means so much to me, and the colors are just perfect for this room. I plan to do a color scheme centered around this piece…navy, white, tan, pink, teal, and gold.

So now you can see why we’re so tired…we did the things that we had planned to do in the next 3-4 months in one weekend! This week, I’m resting!

By the way, many of the items in the pictures above are for sale. You can find them here and here.

National Painting Week

April 11, 2014Categories: DecorSarah @ 702 Park Project

Did you know that it’s Sherwin Williams’ National Painting Week? In that spirit, I thought I’d do a little round up of our paint colors throughout the house.

Thanks, Bob Ross.

When it comes to paint brands, we were all over the place. We have a little Sherwin Williams, a lot of Glidden (our painter’s preferred brand), a little Valspar, and a little Benjamin Moore. But with the exception of the Glidden paints, all of our color choices were matched at Lowe’s. Piece of cake!

Ok, let’s get started. Keep in mind that these pictures were all taken at very different stages of the project, and the difference in lighting makes a world of difference.

For our foyer, stairs, upstairs hall, mudroom, and laundry room, we decided to go with an off-white called Kitten White by Glidden.

We had the foyer, stairs, and hall professionally painted, but we did the mudroom and laundry room ourselves.

The formal living room is a very pale pink called Moment of Promise by Glidden. Seriously, who comes up with these names? This room was also professionally painted.

The den is Churchill Hotel Maple by Valspar. We painted this room ourselves. To be honest, this is probably my least favorite color in the house. I don’t hate it, but it’s hard to add color to. And this room definitely needs some color!

The downstairs bathroom off the den is Delta Sandbar by Valspar. I think it looks great with the bright white built ins and trim. We painted this bathroom, including the built ins ourselves.

The butler’s pantry is Lazy Gray by Sherwin Williams. This was another DIY.

Yet another DIY, the kitchen is Morning Fog by Sherwin Williams. It’s just one shade darker than Lazy Gray in the butler’s pantry. We also painted the cabinets ourselves.

Heading upstairs, the first guest bedroom is Fresh Cut by Glidden. We had this room professionally painted.

The second guest bedroom is Del Mar Shores by Glidden. It’s hard to tell, but it’s a very pale yellow. We tried out Orange Bisque by Glidden, which was a lovely coral color, but just a little too much for Charles. Since I already had my pink formal living room and pink couch, I couldn’t really argue! (We ruled the Orange Bisque out after just a swatch, but our painter didn’t get the memo and painted the whole room. Oops!)

The office is probably my favorite color of all. We decided to go bold with Filoli Dark Iris (read: navy) by Valspar. We my dad painted this room–three coats–and I think he did a pretty fantastic job! The darker color shows a few imperfections in the plaster walls, but in my opinion, that just adds to the character of the house. Does anyone really expect the walls in a 112-year-old house to be perfect? If you want to be my friend, you answer no.

For the guest bathroom off the office, we went with the same Lazy Gray from the butler’s pantry. I think it complements the navy well. We also painted this room ourselves. (And no, this was not me trying to be artistic…I just can’t hold a camera straight.)

Continuing with the blue theme, we decided on the very popular Palladian Blue by Benjamin Moore for our master bedroom. I love it! It’s actually more of a seafoam green in person, but either way it’s very soothing.

All of the trim and cabinets in our house were painted in a glossy stark white.

So what’s left? We have yet to pick out a color for the master bathroom. We tried Ocean Air and Seafoam from the same Benjamin Moore family as Palladian Blue, but neither were working for us. I think we have about decided to pick a gray from our shower tile. To be determined…

We also have yet to pick out colors for the dining room. We have decided on a wallpaper, but want to wait until it’s up to decide what color to paint below the chair rail. And honestly, I can’t show you a picture of the wallpaper because pictures just don’t do it justice. Unfortunately, the budget isn’t allowing for wallpaper right now, so that’s on hold.

We also have to paint the upstairs half bathroom. To not break up the stairs and hallway, I think we will probably go with Kitten White in here. This is a temporary bathroom anyway–we have plans of making it into a full bathroom for the front two bedrooms eventually.

Lastly, we decided to stick with white in our master closet. But I have plans to jazz it up a bit with a fabulous rug!

I have to give a mega shout out to my awesome paint crew: my mom, my dad, my brother, my future sis-in-law, my mother-in-law, and my aunt! You people are amazing and I love you!!

Bringing Spring Into Your Home

April 10, 2014Categories: Decor, Guest BloggersSarah @ 702 Park Project

Good morning! I’m sorry I’ve been a little MIA this week–I’ve been under the weather. This pollen is not my friend! I promise to be back next week in full force with lots of delicious updates! :)

Today, I’m over at one of my favorite blogs, Eat Sleep Decorate, talking about a few spring trends, plus my favorite places to shop for spring goodies. Check it out, and be sure to explore Amy’s blog a bit. I know you’ll love it!

It’s Not Always Black and White

April 7, 2014Categories: DecorSarah @ 702 Park Project

I’d love to share with you what color we went with for our front door after this post, but actually we still haven’t decided! We’ve been putting it off, and now the time has come to officially make the decision. Charles and I are still on opposite sides of the fence on this one, so I’m counting on you to weigh in!

Here’s what you need to know…

1. Our porch will be painted a very dark gray…darker than what you see in the pictures above.

2. All trim is painted white, and all shutters are painted black.

3. The numbers you see above are no longer usable, so we can match new numbers to whatever colors we pick.

4. We have quite a few options: paint both doors white; paint both doors black; paint the inside door white and the screen door black; paint the inside door black and the screen door white; paint either or both a completely different color.

Ok, now it’s your turn. What do you think?

Updates, Because Change Takes Time

April 2, 2014Categories: Decor, RenoSarah @ 702 Park Project

Sometimes I forget that things don’t have to be perfect before I can show them to you. I have to remember that the beauty is in the process itself.

Before I started blogging myself, I had literally only ever read about 2 blogs in my life. But now it’s a community that I feel at home in. That being said, it’s hard to not feel like everything needs to be styled just right before I can show you the reveal. There’s so much eye candy out there, and the pressure to live up to it is a little ridiculous at times.

One of my favorite blogs, House*Tweaking, has a tagline that reads “…because home doesn’t happen over night.” I love that! Just because I don’t have a final “before and after” doesn’t mean we haven’t made huge strides and I can’t show them to you.

So with that in mind, here are various updates on where we are with the house.

The bathroom off the downstairs den is finished! We painted the room Delta Sandbar (by Valspar) and had some custom built ins added around our pedestal sink. We did all the painting in this room ourselves, including the trim and cabinets.

We weren’t crazy about the sconces we had picked out from our local lighting store, so we caved and bought these from Lowe’s. I think they look a million times better!

We put a new lid on the toilet and after a good cleaning it looks brand new. Finally, I added this Threshold shower curtain from Target to pull in the awesome 70’s green tub.

We finished painting the den in Churchill Hotel Maple (by Valspar) and moved in some furniture and a rug. We painted this room ourselves as well. The lighting is kind of weird in here because it doesn’t get a ton of natural light…I promise it looks good in real life!

This room still needs lots of decorating, but it’s getting there. I definitely want to add many more pops of color. It’s very bland right now!

We moved the vintage chest I found into the butler’s pantry to store serving trays and platters, as well as some bar essentials.

And we moved our old handy-me-down Ikea bookshelf into the space where the refrigerator used to reside. Because we don’t have a ton of cabinet space, we plan to add baskets to this unit and use it as our pantry for the time being. We also installed a wine glass rack above the shelves for extra storage.

The biggest changes have been taking place in our master bathroom. You can see the various stages here, and a peek at our new tile floor here. The few people that have seen the picture of the tile floors and then seen them in person all have the same comment: the tiles are so much bigger than they look in the picture! The tiles are actually 12″ by 24″, so they are pretty substantial.

We had our vanity custom made, which actually ended up being cheaper than finding something pre-made to fit the 9-foot wall. Given that this was our inspiration for the vanity, we were extremely pleased with the way it turned out! Now it just needs paint and hardware!

I included the picture of my handy husband so you can see how high the counters are. Since we were already going custom, this was a must for us. I’m 5’9″ and Charles is 6′, so the extra height will serve us well.

We ordered our vanity lights from Lighting Direct online, but weren’t crazy about the way they were installed.

So the hubs switched them around and now we like them much better! (Plus they won’t collect nearly as much dust.)

And the tile shower is really taking shape. (All of our tile came from Lowe’s.) If you recall the options that we had for the layout of the master bathroom, we decided to go with the smaller shower to make the room flow the best.

The grout is going in today, then we will just need to add hardware and glass. Depending on our budget, we may wait on the glass and do a right angle shower curtain for now. Possibly something similar to this.

And last but not least, we got rid of this awful and tiny front porch light.

And got this one instead.

So there’s a few updates. Any questions about sources, just ask! The house is definitely taking shape and finally beginning to look like a home. I promise to share more updates with you soon! :)