Seeing Stars

Remember how I was complaining about how I was hating our entry way?

Well I decided to go all 80's Madonna Lucky Star on the walls....and since I seem to have the attention span of a peanut...I may or may not have also changed the entry floor.

Oops. I could pretend that I am sorry, but I am not.

The entry was fine. Nothing to write home about. Except for maybe the fact that the tile in the entryway may have some elementary school bathroom nostalgia for you.

I had painted the stairs, but they were bumpy and not quite what I wanted so 

I repainted them. Much better.

I tried to talk Blake into possibly doing new tile in the entryway, but he very kindly pointed out that we should probably put our money elsewhere.

I even taped numbers on the floor to try and sway him...for when we finally did re-tile.

The only thing that taping the numbers did was spark my curiosity. 

"I wonder if I can paint my entry tile?"

So without another thought I got to it. I washed the tiles really good and then used TSP to wash it again. Then, using an oil based primer, I gave all those multicolored bathroom tiles a solid coat of white.

At this point, I was so happy that I couldn't see the mauve tiles that I was blissfully unaware that this might not work.

I thought that it would look the best if I could do what I had done with the fireplace and make the tiles still look like tiles, only repainted. 

Using a small brush I began to paint the grout lines with Grout Renew in Grey.

 Then I took a small brush and, using black oil based paint, started painting the squares. I painted three squares before I realized that A) this was going to take me an eternity to finish and B) it looked awful. I mean really really bad.

So I did what any discouraged DIYer would do. I threw a tantrum and started to paint the floor black.

It was immediately better. A little less "craft project" and a little more "shiny and new." You will not be surprised, however, that I can not leave well enough alone. It's not in my DNA.

I decided to tape out the numbers on the floor. Cutting all the little bits of tape to cover up the grout was time consuming, to say the least.

On a side note:

I know a lot of people have mentioned that they are surprised that I can do this stuff with kids around. Well, this is what it normally looks like:

Me, Penny (Canon half the time) and Ariel.

And my projects are not always without incident. I am sure this is not going to be the last time that one of our kids end up with paint on their feet.

Anywho...

Taping out the numbers worked...OK. But I wasn't completely happy with it. Some of the squares had bleed so I decided to just tape off those squares and paint them.

That didn't work either. So then I taped off the squares tried to "seal" them with paint and then paint over the top again. Still no luck. 

So then I surrendered. Somethings aren't meant to be...like mullets, lamé pants and my entryway numbers.

I was not deterred by my numbers fiasco. I was determined to make our entry fun! We all know nothing says "fun" like stars.

I started by touching up the paint on the wall and giving it a good wipe down. Then I used what I had on hand, which happened to be a cookie cutter for the star shape. I would hold the cookie cutter up to the wall then trace the star shape inside. I noticed early on that the star shapes were all a little different because I would turn the cookie cutter a little bit with each new star.

I randomly spaced the stars, and although it is hard to tell, if you look closely you can see the star shapes outlined in pencil.

I tried to freehand paint inside the stars but they didn't look sharp enough. So I taped off the stars, covered them with a light coat of the wall paint and then painted them black. I wasn't super particular about how I taped them because I wanted the shapes to be a little random. 

When taping sharp edges I have learned that using a putty knife as a blade is very handy. (Just like this)

As I was painting along I told Blake "There is a very good chance I am going to hate this and end up painting over it."

I was wrong.

It is fun, but not too busy.

The floor is shiny and, prior to what I would have previously thought, makes our entry look bigger.

 It gives our entry just what I felt it was lacking...

a personality.

Looking Back--Before and Afters.

Blake and I have lived in this house for a little over 6 months.

 It has been fun, interesting, and at times endlessly frustrating.

We have worked really hard to make this house feel like ours...and while it is not quite done, and we have a lot of plans for it yet, it feels more and more like home every day.

Today I was organizing our photos and came across some of the originals from the house listing. I thought it would be fun to see the comparison shots. There are still things that have a long way to go, but...we are OK with that.

The Living Room

Before:

After:

Living Room from a different angle

Before:

After:

Dining Room

Before:

After:

Dining Room From a different angle

Before:

After:

Kitchen

Before:

After:

Kitchen from a different angle

Before:

After:

Bathroom

Before:

After:

The Girl's Room

Before:

After:

The Upstairs Hallway

Before:

After:

The Entryway Stairs

Before:

After:

*Downstairs*

Toy Room

Before:

After:

Spare Room

Before:

After:

Family Room

Before:

After:

Hallway

Before:

After:

Bathroom

Before:

After:

Laundry Room

Before:

After:

Some rooms not included in the pictures?

Boy's room, Master Bedroom, Master Bath, and the Secret Laboratory and passageway.

Some things I would like to accomplish in the future:

• Finish the hallway. Maybe add some board and batten. For sure I need to finish painting the cupboards.
• Blake and I would like to make the toy room into two separate rooms. One would be an office, and the other would be a spare room.
• Decorate Boy's room. Possibly build some shelves to make it function a little better.
• New carpet downstairs. It really is very dirty and needs to be replaced. 
• Finish the master bathroom, then decorate the bedroom. 
• Build shelves of some sort to help in the laundry room for holding/folding clothes.
• Remove bushes from the front of the house and work on the gardens.
• Replace doors and baseboards throughout the house.