Metamorphosis Monday and Thrifty Monday

I pretty much forgot to take a 'before' of the family room. I decided on Thursday night that with Cabinet Man and Snickerdoodle gone, I could get it painted. So I turned the TV to Burn Notice and Royal Pains, pulled the furniture out and put a base coat. No primer, and it's been a while since they were painted, so I just used a flat finish white paint.

I had a gallon of Pratt and Lambert that I'd picked up at the landfill recycling at least a year ago and finally got it open. Pretty color, but really close to what was there and I wanted an actual yellow. So I went down to the hardware store on Thursday morning bright and early and found the paint desk. That WONDERFUL young lady looked at my sample, looked  at the bucket and went to work. She added a clear yellow and white. More yellow than the white, but it really worked. So I came home (making a stop at the dollar store for painters' tape and a 2"  brush). I taped up the ceiling and baseboards and started painting. As I got into it more, I decided that I needed to go ahead and do the walls in the kitchen that sort of 'flow' from the family room. It's all pretty open there. So I got the wall that runs BY the fridge (didn't pull it out, just taped the fridge and squeezed the brush behind it). I then got the wall up to the ceiling. I never planned to paint the soffit as pots and pans are up there and the shadow...you just can't see it. I got the wall on the other side up to the cabinets and the wall that the end of the bar rests on.

I love it. Very warm and inviting. The color is just not coming across and since we 'tinkered' with an existing color. It literally doesn't exist.

The morning sun comes in here and brightens it up, then turns to gold later in the day. Can't wait to see it in the winter. The room looks a LOT better without the dog crate in there too. There are no ceiling lights in the house except for the loft, the dining room/office and the kitchen. The picture is the Texas Hill Country from a gallery Cabinet Man's uncle owned years ago in San Antonio. I've got to get something else around it. I've got some bluebonnets that I stitched years ago that I might put up there.

Then I did the office wall around the bookcase. Cabinet Man made a gorgeous bookcase in there that is about 7' tall and 6' wide. It is wormy maple which had a stunning grain, and holds all our Biblical research books, study guides and Bibles. The bookcase is too big/heavy to move alone, even if empty. And if I emptied it, I'd put the books back in the wrong order and wrong places. Guaranteed. Even if I wrote down the order and shelf. So I took an old sheet and draped it over the corner.

This is after I had done the white base coast. You can see the wall where the bar is, but it looks green for some reason. It's yellow. The office wall has a sample of the green I was going to use. It was a little dark I thought, so I missed in about 2 oz of white.

I also took out a dropleaf maple dining table that is up against the wall. There is absolutely no place inside the house except there. I'm tired of it being a catchall no matter how often I clear it off. So it's in the front room now until I can move it out to the garage. I'd like to see the thing. We've had it over 20 years, not my style or taste, but my MIL gave it to us after buying it from my husband's aunt. I needed it at the time, along with the buffet, but I am just tired of them both. I still have two of the armed chairs that go with it. Seems like the others went in the truck at one end and never came out at the other end of the moves. I might clean it up and put it on CL. It's really still in excellent shape and I have to two leaves.

Anyway, after a while, I realized that I could paint V E R Y  C A R E F U L L Y  at the end of the bookcase and be okay. Since I wanted something next to it, I put a little tv tray table I grabbed at Goodwill a few weeks ago and haven't painted yet. I have a little lamp that I had painted on it along with a doily one of the paternal grandmothers made. Antique Ball jar with an arrangement in it, photo of CM and Snickerdoodle as a newborn in the frame his ragged Bible and pulled up a wicker chair that I redid. No cushions for it, so I pulled out an old falling apart chenille bedspread and wrapped it around a ragged piece of foam, wrapped another piece around two extra pillows I had and voila! A girlie sitting area in my hubby's office. Oops! I'll leave it for him to see, then figure out what to put there instead ;D But it's very pretty right now.

Here's the chair before. I posted on it I believe when I grabbed it. It's trashpicked ;D

Yeah, it's too girly. I need a leather chair there...hear that God?

I'm late jumping in at Met Monday and Thrifty Monday, but let's go see what else they have. http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/2009/07/welcome-to-27th-metamorphosis-monday.html and http://southernhospitality-rhoda.blogspot.com/2009/07/all-for-10.html

PS: I think Caleb has figured out I am suspicious,http://susieqaworkinprogress.blogspot.com/2009/07/shhhhhh-he-trying-to-kill-me.html so he is doing the "Faithful Dog" bit, lying at my feet under the computer table, following me from room to room. I won't let down my guard though...