Archive for the ‘after’ Category

Fireplace

Friday, June 13th, 2008

I’ve been obsessing about what to do with the fireplace. This is always bad news when I start focusing like a laser beam on a flaw in the house. I can’t eat, I can’t sleep, all I see are fireplaces.

Here are some inspiration images that I’ve been thinking about…paint is a cheap and easy solution.

(via. Design*Sponge & Design*Sponge)

Below are some older shots of the fireplace after we refinished the floors and painted, but have yet to move in…notice the weird vents on the side. I HATE them and would like to make them disappear.

Just for kicks…

Right BEFORE we moved in and just AFTER. (It looks even worse now – like some sort of crazed flea market. What a mess!)

I think I want to take the leap and paint the brick. As is, it looks very traditional and the bricks do have some staining and paint on them already – I feel so guilty slapping paint on perfectly good brick that I need to justify. Also, that ugly mantel is very traditional, very very small and very very very boring.

Some more retro inspiration.

(via Sunset, Home Atlanta)

So any ideas? I’m leaning towards painting the brick a semi-gloss charcoal gray and beefing up the mantel and painting it a glossy white…and then stacking cut firewood inside the fireplace cause I’m super trendy.

FILED UNDER: after, before, fireplace

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Hot seat

Friday, June 13th, 2008

Oh yeah. New toilet seat.

BEFORE (actually way before without, floors or molding) and AFTER (its still without caulk and paint, but whatever I’m busy, who’s asking?)

I’ve been having some trouble finding a pink toilet seat to match my old pink toilet. I stopped by ACE Hardware and unexpectedly ran into this pink beauty.

Well I just noticed you can buy this Mayfair pink toilet seat on the website for around $10 and I paid $16 in store. What a rip off – well I guess if you count shipping and waiting – its OK.

A small detail, but it makes a world of difference. Now if only I can find pink bolt covers…

FILED UNDER: after, bathroom, before

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Custom chair action

Tuesday, June 10th, 2008

I got this vintage gold mid century chair yesterday and loved its retro shape – especially the flared armrests. I kind of hate the fabric, but don’t have the time or money to reupholster it, and the fabric is in pretty good shape.

Iggy loves it. Every new chair I bring home he claims for a few days and then loses interest.
The bottom skirt kind of gave the chair a seventies vibe I wasn’t digging. It had wonderful mid century peg legs underneath, so I decided to remove the skirt and give the chair a cleaner look.

First I cut off the skirt leaving a few inches of fabric to pull underneath and staple to the bottom frame.

I used an electric staple gun to staple the leftover fabric to the bottom of the chair. It was really easy, just pull it tight and staple.

The legs unscrewed so I pulled them off, cut around the base for the legs and then screwed the legs back on top of the leftover fabric to finish off the corners.

So this is the final result! I like it a lot better and the shape of the chair really stands out now.
Maybe one day I’ll get it reupholstered, but for now $20 and 20 minutes of stapling really worked out well.