decor: painting trim

When Tony and I were house hunting, we looked at so many flips. And they were all gorgeous, of course -- granite countertops, freshly painted walls, all-new grass and landscaping, beautifully tiled bathrooms, nicely staged. Our house was different. There was no furniture in it at the open house. It was poorly lit. The walls in our living room and dining room were a horrible green. All of the vents and outlets had been painted over. The bushes in the front yard were dying. Basically, there was a lot of low-hanging fruit in terms of cosmetic home upgrades.

And it's worked out well for us. We've spent evenings and weekends here and there working on the house, and we have a home that looks leaps and bounds better than it did on Moving Day.

Among the most tedious projects we've undertaken is painting the trim, doors and windows in pretty much the whole place. The trim in our living room and dining room was a horrible creamy-green, chosen, I'm sure, to match the horrible green walls. The trim in the bathrooms, kitchen, and hallway was beige. I am here to tell you that no matter how clean beige trim is, it always looks dirty. I want to ask the previous owner, "Why, for the love of all that is good, would you paint the trim such horrible colors?"

So, room by room, Tony and I have been painting the trim. We are painting it white. Before I owned a house, I never would have imagined myself saying this, but in the past year and a half, I have developed very, very strong feelings that the trim in your home should be white. It is clean. It makes your wall color pop. Clearly, though, there are exceptions. Like if you are lucky enough to have beautiful natural wood trim. Or if you are a bold decorator and want to paint your trim dark brown or black. But, please, stay away from the beiges and creamy-greens.

I think you can see what I'm talking about from this picture, which I took last weekend after starting to slather on white paint on the door of the laundry area. (This is among the last trim areas I've had to tackle, and I've been putting it off because those slats were a major pain.) See how the beige looks dirty? It even blends in with the neutral wall color.

Two coats later, and here we are, all finished! With a Victor shot for good measure.

decor: window shades and sheers

Tony and I moved into our house a little bit over a year ago, and for several months we'd spend our weekends doing home improvement projects. Like painting. Especially painting. Oh, the painting! Walls. Trim. Inside. Outside. Not to mention the mini-demo projects, yard work. Organizing, decorating, re-decorating, discarding. Our to-do list hasn't gone away, but we've tackled most of the high-priority projects.

Our calendar was pretty open last weekend, so Tony suggested we block off Saturday and Sunday for some home improvement projects that we've been putting off. It'd been a while since we've made multiple trips to home improvement stores in one weekend. (Specifically, two Home Depot trips and one Frager's trip.)

My favorite project of the weekend: finishing the window treatments in our second bedroom. One of the shades had been broken since we bought the house, but this isn't a heavily trafficked room, so replacing the shades wasn't a high priority.

I ended up buying vinyl roller shades, which I've always liked because they're sleek looking. And then I saw how much they cost, and that made me like them even more. I ended up with heavy-duty, room-darkening shades, for about $20 each. With the brackets and plastic pulls, the we spent just under $50. Not bad for two windows.

I have sheer curtains on the outside of the windows, so I mounted the shades on the inside. You measure the inside of your window, and the folks at Home Depot cut the shade to the right size for you.  And this is where the two Home Depot trips came in. Apparently the cutting machine at the Home Depot in Northeast has been down since the derecho storm earlier this summer. So we also made the trek out to Home Depot near Landmark Mall. The installation itself was relatively simple and required a drill and a screwdriver.

And, voila, new shades! Happy Jessi.

<3

From the archives:

decor: vintage postcards

the garden: strawberries

My first strawberries have arrived! I'm growing just one plant in a pot, which is giving me enough berries to snack on here and there. 

And unfortunately, I think my homegrown strawberries have ruined grocery-store strawberries for me. Seriously, these berries work taste buds I didn't even know I had. 

I bought the plant in May at Home Depot in Northeast. The plants looked like they'd been neglected, so they were on sale for $1.49. I rooted around for the healthiest one I could find with flower buds, and when I got it home, I pruned off the dead leaves, fed it a little Miracle-Gro, set it in the sun, and it perked right back up. 

It's been an easy plant to grow, and here's a planting tip I picked up from my dad: When you put the plant in the ground, bury only the roots, leaving the crown to sit on top of the soil: 

Mine is an everbearing plant, so I'll be getting berries until winter. And strawberries are perennials, so I'm expecting fruit again next year.

I think my biggest challenge with this plant is going to be Woman vs. Nature: getting to the fruit before the birds and critters can find it. 

decor: vintage postcards

Tony doesn't usually take the lead on home decor projects, but he got the ball rolling on this one. We framed vintage postcards from the cities we've lived in and hung them at the entry to our house: 

Tony picked up the first three postcards at an antique store in Ohio: his hometown, my hometown, and where we went to college. I liked the postcards, but we didn't have a plan for them at the time. We kept our eyes open and eventually found postcards at antique stores for the other three cities we've lived in: Augusta, Ga., Phoenix, and Washington.

It's a good reminder of where we're from. Plus, they're pretty darn cool. The Washington postcard may be my favorite:

I picked up the frame a couple of years ago on clearance at Michael's, and I bought the glass this weekend at the Lowe's in New Carrollton for about $6. As a side note, I found out the Home Depot in Northeast that I usually go to doesn't cut glass for you, but the Lowe's will do it.