The Summer of Home Improvement

Posted by marne on June 8, 2008 in knit | 7 comments

I hereby officially declare that this is the Summer of home improvement here at chez Lucy. A very long time ago, I ripped down the ugly wallpaper in the living room. And then I did nothing. The wallpaper had been pasted directly onto the dry wall, so that meant it had to be mudded, and to match the rest of the house, it needed a particular sort of plaster texture, and it was just all too much to deal with. So I didn’t, until I finally worked up the courage this week. I went to Lowe’s and bought a box of joint compound and a trowel, and did it all myself. I think I just pulled a muscle in my arm while patting myself of the back. You can sort of get the idea here:


Note to the guy at Lowe’s who I asked what I needed to complete this project: Please don’t tell me what I do or don’t want to do, I’m not a complete idiot, and when I say I want plaster, I mean I want plaster, and not orange peel texture. You’ve never been to my house, you don’t know anything about my taste, and most importantly, you don’t know what I am or am not capable of. I find that very irritating. I think I should bring him this picture and be all, "hey idiot, see, this is what I wanted, and this is what I got, because I’m not afraid to try and do it myself." but maybe that would be rude. Anyway, moving on…

I can only give you some previews of a couple corners of the room, because I have a few more projects to complete. Once I got the walls all looking how i wanted them to look, I primed and painted. As usual, the first color I picked wasn’t quite right, so I had to go back to the store with my paint-covered hands in my baggy painting pants and pick out another color, and the paint girl was quite surprised and impressed that I was doing my own painting, but at least she wasn’t all condescending like the Lowe’s guy. The new color was just right, and I happily finished painting and artfully arranging various pieces of art on the walls.


I was lucky enough to get one of Claire’s gocco prints, which I matted in bright turquoise, to go along with my little bird plate and Anthropologie hooks. The clock is from Urban Outfitters, but I don’t think they have it any more. The wall color is from Dunn Edwards, and it’s called Fly a Kite. It’s a nice periwinkle blue.  I especially like how it looks with the yellow in my kitchen and hallway, because you can see the two together in the archways:


Those are my beloved paint-by-numbers pictures that I found, framed, at an antique mall for $18 for the pair! What a bargain! And I also love my big pear. If you look closely, you can see that some ofbthe frames in the hall don’t actually have photos of anyone I know. Classy, no? But at least they’re hanging up, right? I better add finding photos for the frames to my to-do list.

I also got the curtain rods up and the two wall sconces, which are sort of ugly, painted. I’m hoping that my new paint job will make the sconces more bearable. Now I just have to make curtains, paint the door, re-install the sconces and slipcover the chairs. Not much at all. Heh.

I’m pooped and sore all over, I have more to share, but I think I better get some rest first. Thanks for all the nice comments about my skirt and weight. I really think that picture is just at a really good angle, and also, remember that you can’t see my bum, there’s plenty there to lose :o) I am behind on responding to comments, and my stupid e-mail is being stupid again, but I’ll do my best to reply this week!

And because I can’t do a post without a pet picture, here is a rare visit from Petey, who is either sleeping, as you see here, or bouncing around the house, from one windowsill to the next.