There should totally be an "S" on the end of that. It's not a project. It's projects. A lot of them that add up to one, huge, pull out the big girl swear words PROJECT.
The "S" at the end of words almost always stands for swearing as I'm sure you know. Often when you add an "S" to the end of something the result is swearing because it intensifies and compounds whatever gross word is in front of it. Something that you can calmly deal with in its singular version becomes much worse when there's more than one of them. Case(s) in point: Electrical Shocks. Mosquito bites. Monsters. Lima Beans. 3 and a Half Mens. All worse than the singular version.
So I have a lot of projects that once completed will result in one big project with many swear words uttered along the way.
One of the very first posts I wrote when I started this blog was about how I literally sold/gave away/donated almost every piece of furniture that I owned and started from scratch.
I got rid of the red velvet couch, the side tables I found in the garbage, the lamps I found in the garbage, the red walls, the yellow walls, the stripes, the clutter, the weird-ass massive dining room "set". Gone. One month later, I'd painted my whole house white, bought new furniture, and given up garbage furniture forever. I'm just kidding. That's ridiculous. I'll never give up garbage furniture. In fact this chair is garbage furniture.
What does this have to do with My Big Spring Project this year?
I'm doing it all over again.
It was almost 10 years ago that I overhauled my house so it's been almost 10 years since I've painted it. The whole house needs to be freshened up, especially since I have a fireplace that I use every winter. Plus there are these marks on the foyer ceiling from hauling a too tall Christmas tree into the room.
And then doing it again and again until the tree was in the right place.
So that's the #1 project. Paint the whole house white again. Including the ceilings.
Once that's done I can get to part #2, which again, is made up of many different parts and projects.
I have a dining room which I use to dine in about 6 times a year. Tops. The other 359 days of the year it's a room that I walk through to get to the kitchen. A very fancy hallway basically. All of that ends this spring.
This spring I'm reconfiguring things to make the dining room a Library/Dining Room combo complete with built in bookcases around the room, a big jigsaw puzzle, gardening research books and whatever else I want on the table. Ready and waiting for action, not just a breezing through while I go to the kitchen for a paper towel to wipe up centipede guts. There will be a bench to make sitting down and getting up easier. Yes. I am that lazy and that busy. I do not have the time or energy to sit in an actual chair. I want to be able to slide in and slide out of my seat without using my hands at all.
This will be particularly useful when I want to sit down while juggling oranges, as I often do.
The best part? If I want to eat in the dining room, I can eat in the dining room. I'll still have my great, big, harvest table with seating all around it.
The bookcases. So they're going to be a bit of a thing.
Since I already had bookcases in my foyer, I dragged them into my dining room to live with them for a few weeks to make sure I was going to like them.
I do.
It's amazing how they transform this area into a room. An actual room that feels like a room.
I still have to figure out how to configure the bookcases. I have 3 ideas in my head as of now so I'll have to play around with some online programs to see which one I'm likely to like the most.
Once the bookcases are in there permanently (along with however many more I need to fill the room) I'm going to have to find another purpose for my foyer because I'm stealing the bookcases from in there.
I loved the bookcases in my foyer, but it never felt like an actual library to me. With the dining room I have higher ceilings so I can add more height to the bookcases through extenders which means I MIGHT even be able to have a library ladder.
I'll possibly be dragging the buffet from my dining room into the foyer to put where the bookcases were, but I'd also like some sort of seating. But I always wanted a marble tulip table instead of the silver table and that would look weird right beside a buffet. But I've always wanted it. But there won't be room. But, but, but.
Clearly I don't have this all worked out yet.
But (yes another but) sometimes you can't wait to do something until you have it all figured out because it may never happen. And sometimes the only way you can figure something out is by just starting.
Then there's the living room. I can't afford to get all new furniture in there, although I'd love to but if I can swing it I'd like to at least get a real chair (God rest the garbage chair). I've been talking about getting either an iconic or non-iconic Midcentury Modern chair for in there but I just haven't done it. I also think I'd maybe like a vintage leather club chair. So again, I don't have this all worked out yet.
Even though everything is going to look completely different it shouldn't be too huge of an expense because I'm mainly repurposing stuff I already own. It's amazing how easily fooled we are. I can convince myself I've completely redecorated my house just by moving things from here to there. I do it all the time.
I wish I could say this is all I have to do this spring, but there's some work on the chicken coop to do, a waterfall that needs to be fixed, a new garden plot to dig up (along with the old one), some eavestroughs to be painted and some gates to be built. Which were supposed to be built last summer.
Wish me good luck and happy swearing.
I love that you are planning to multi-purpose your dining-room. I often wonder why we even have them, especially in homes that aren't particularly large. Mine, like yours, was getting used only a handful of times a year. Two years ago we did a major renovation and even had an addition built to expand our kitchen by about 1/2. I decided to have a great big island instead of a smaller one with an area to set up a kitchen eating area. This, I thought, would force us to use the newly-opened up dining room on more of a daily basis. Now, we eat at the island, and the dining room is still basically only used a few times a year! I honestly believe our homes should just be one huge kitchen, because that's where everyone gathers anyway.
Totally agree! When I redid my kitchen I looked at taking out the wall between the kitchen and the dining room but it's a supporting wall that's about a foot thick, lol. So that wasn't an option. I think this combo thing might be as close as I get to making it a useable room while still keeping the dining room (which I need because I host Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve every year, plus have people over the odd time) ~ karen!
Back in the mid-sixties my best friend and her husband lived in the tiniest little house -- it was the garage that was left when the house on the property had burned down years earlier. So on what seemed like a large lot, way in the back, sat the "home" that no one but a couple of hippie kids wanted. It was also all they could afford. When the house burned, whoever was there at the time just divided the standard 20 x 20 garage into rooms. The best thing was that they divided it in half first, with the majority being a big kitchen and one little section of that walled off for a toilet, tiny sink, and clawfoot bathtub. The remaining half (10 x 20) had a bedroom walled off with barely enough room for a double bed and a small closet, and the "living room" wrapped around that room in a narrow L-shape.
Many happy years were spent in that house -- by the couple and all of their lucky friends. It was the happiest kitchen in the world. The only thing I ever saw the living room used for was that she installed a fishnet hammock in one part of the L, and that's where my young son happily (and safely) slept when she babysat him. Otherwise, he was playing in the corner of the kitchen with the dog, the duck, the goose and goslings that all used the dog door to get in from the cold. The kitchen and bathroom were all that were really needed.
I used to love, love, love to paint. I love color (or colour for you non-USA folks!)
But I once I got some kind of weird allergic reaction to the smell and since then I had my hubs put wood tongue-in-groove on every surface possible and left it unfinished except for our great room ceiling which is a white-wash. I did stain three walls in a cherry, a green and a purple (now that I think of it, I bet hubs did it not me!). The only room that I can paint (ok, hubs not me...) is our bathroom, which is pretty small.
Since discovering the joy of painting again using Annie Sloan chalk paint, I have painted my camper...inside and out...my upholstered furniture (you can even use cheap acrylic craft paint...I used what I had available and some of it was even old latex paint...(one part paint to three parts water). I am going to completely repaint my camper this summer even though I just finished it two years ago. I love change! And color. Sometimes when I see an all white room, it looks so peaceful and zen like and I thing maybe I should do my bedroom in that but then I see another photo of a bohemian room all full of jewel tones and it make my old hippie heart swoon. I am a new reader to your blog and I just love it. Can't wait to see more photos of your house!
This comment is for A guy, who commented "Hold down the "control" key when you click the link and a new tab will open". He may never see it, but just in case.
Thank you, I didn't know that! See, you can teach an old dog (me) a new trick!
You are so welcome! Us old dogs need to stick together.
I have a new fave white.. and it is d'bomb diggity. I think you may like it. Benjamin Moore... colour of the year... SIMPLY WHITE.
http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-color/oc-117
So good. So so so good. It's a warm white, but still white.
Did that make sense? I dunno.
Happy painting (welcome to my world haha)
Lynne
Words to live by: "But (yes another but) sometimes you can’t wait to do something until you have it all figured out because it may never happen. And sometimes the only way you can figure something out is by just starting." We need to take that to heart and start on our living room re-do that we've been talking about for 10 years. You can never over-talk-about-things. JK - of COURSE you can!! :) Thanks for the inspiration to Just Do It!
I don't know why - because I've never been in your house - but as soon as you started talking about repainting the ceilings I had the instantaneous thought that you should paint the dining room/library ceiling another colour. I dunno, it just popped into my head. Feel free to disregard.
Otherwise, I look forward to watching all this work going on, preferably from my couch with martini in hand. Oops, I mean martiniS! Almost forgot that "s".
Let's all have a swear word or words at the same time moment. Pick a date, time and how many swear words allowed. Damn..I'm really good at it.
I'm loving the bookshelves in the dining room!
We've been in our house for almost 3 years and only have 1 bedroom (with ceiling) and 1 bathroom (ceiling is done!) left to paint, thank god. My father-in-law has a rule that if you repaint the walls you have to repaint the ceiling, too, and apparently that rule is hereditary because my husband insists it is the one true way of painting. All I know is that that means that I chose our paint colors verrrrrrrry carefully because painting ceilings is literally the worst and there is no way that I am doing that again until I absolutely have to. Because my husband works a lot and so SOMEHOW I always ended up being the one to paint the ceilings. Alone.
To those talking about removing popcorn ceilings, it is a total mess. I assume that the professionals have an efficient and slightly less messy way to do it, but we had a basement flood on our first day of homeownership and while we were waiting for new carpet to be installed, took the opportunity to scrape off the popcorn ceiling with flat-edged shovels (another father-in-law method ^_^) and then shop-vac it up. I was finding popcorn texture in my hair for DAYS.
I *had* an opportunity a few years ago when we ripped up all our carpeting ourselves in preparation to put down about a thousand screws to stop the floor from squeaking and bouncing before installing hardwood floors and new carpet. I was just too pooped to handle even more mess. Now that the pain is over, shoulda done it! What did you do with the scraped ceiling?
Well, the people who built our home were extremely enthusiastic about putting the popcorn texture on our basement ceiling whereas upstairs it's that orange peel texture. So when we scraped off the extremely excessive popcorn texture (seriously, some parts were like mini stalactites), we basically scraped off enough to be an even, slightly textured ceiling that looks pretty similar to orange peel texture. Then we painted it white. :) We were lucky in that the ceiling was acceptable and didn't need to be retextured or anything after scraping.
Hi Karen,
Is that big white fluffy throw new? I remember the little one and I'd love to know where you
purchased the large one? Looking forward to the day we can see your completed projects.
Snowing here in Mass....UGH!
Snowing here too Diane! Woke up to 15 or so cm. The throw is very old. It's a Mongolian lamb blanket from Homesense. (that's Homegoods to you) ~ karen!
This was a real roller coaster of a post for me! When I started reading, I thought, "Holy bleep, she's gonna get rid of all her stuff! I want it!" But then I read on to see you meant you're painting again, not getting rid of all your stuff again. And then, you mentioned taking the silver table out of the foyer, and I was all excited again, thinking, "Will she sell it? Has anyone else called dibs on it already? Squee!" And then, down again, thinking, "She's not gonna sell it, and if she does, it won't be to me, or it'll be super expensive."
On a random side note, how do you pronounce foyer when you say it out loud or in your head? Do you say, "FOY-er" like "lawyer" or "FOY-yay" like some other word with a snooty French accent I can't think of right now?
It's pronounced FOY-yay. :) ~ karen!
Karen you are amazing. I love your ambition. I want it. Good luck, can't wait to see results.
Linda. On this 4th day of April, 2016, I bestow upon you my ambition. Now GO. Get to work. ;) ~ karen!
I have re-read & had your original "starting from scratch" post open for a bit now, wanting to do the same!!!!
Can't wait to see your dining/entry/living room transformation. Happy swearing (I'm sure most of it will be when you're painting the ceiling) ;)
I'm so excited you're going with a library/dining room hybrid. I looked online last year for ideas and ended up copying an IKEA hack that looks like it was built with this 1907 four square. You are going to LOVE it.
I think I will :) I like the open feeling of the dining room but it's so useless and just feels sad and empty sometimes. Bookshelves always remedy that. ~ karen!
I can't wait to see the "after" photos!
Had our very inexpensive painter (swore I would never paint again) paint the ceilings and walls the same Beni Moore "chantilly lace" creamy white. It's been over a year and I still love it. And I LOVE your bench! Where did you find wood that wide?
That bench is made out of a beam from an old barn. :) It's literally just beams cut up and screwed together. ~ karen!
Ohhhhh I love what paint can do, and a clean white ceiling is the best. I use Kilz and call it a day. Seals any stains, leave a perfect matte finish. Two coats of that and it's good to go.
I just painted a room for the second time in a month. Color I put up wasn't quite right, and set my teeth on edge every time I passed through. Had to re-do once I put new paint samples on the walls! Can't back out of it then!
Love, love, LOVE the idea of floor to ceiling bookshelves wall to wall in the dining room. EXCELLENT use of a room so seldom used! And buy the marble tulip table. Figure out how to configure the foyer after you have the piece of furniture that you most want to put in it.
I, personally, could easily furnish a house in wall to wall bookshelves. It never seems to be a problem filling them up, what with my childhood knick knack collection, interesting rocks/branches/pinecones/sea shells, things my kids give me-- like an official Star Trek tribble or Marvin the Martian figure, and the twenty million books I continually add to.
That sideboard would make a great base for one of your bookshelves. Kind of like a secretary. And all the dining room stuff that's in your sideboard would still be in your dining room.
You're lucky to have furniture you can change occasionally. My sideboard lives in the livingroom of this house, which could and probably will be my last. It's solid mahogany, huge, and always the elephant in the room when I try to decorate. But my great grandparents bought it at an estate sale of one of the big brewing families, can't remember which at the moment. I'm a senior, so you can imagine how old it is and of course, I can't part with it and my only son doesn't want it at the moment. So it sits there and demands that every room be buillt around it.
How old is that sideboard, Susan? Early to mid-1800's?
And Karen using hers as a bookshelf base is brilliant!
Ha, I just tore it apart to find the piece of paper in one of the drawers with the information. It turned into a great purge, thank you very much. My ggrandfather was married in 1848, so I assume they bought it around that time and it was from the estate of the Labbatts family of London Ontario. So early 1800s is probably right.
Beware the leather club chair. It looks so good in the magazine, then you realize it's way too big and clunky and dark for any place outside of a small smoky club room. Get some amazing fabric and reupholster, much more classy. If you're not sure, steal a cow hide from someone, drape it over a chair and see what the cats do to it in a week. You'll thank me ;-)
Our cats clawed the heck out of our leather office chair while climbing up to sit on the back. Might want to rethink that one, Karen.
Painting the ceiling..does "suck" however nothing was worse than my wallpapering my ceilings..yes I did that..many many years ago..in a few houses ago:)
It's all going to look great karen..everything you do turns out so well.