Feeling blue ......

The last time that I decorated with blue, I was painting the nursery for our second daughter with the intention of adding pink if it was a girl.   That was before it was a common occurrence to find out what you were expecting!

I don't have anything against blue, it's just that until now I really didn't have the desire to incorporate it into my own home.  I'd been noticing a lot of blue pop up in store displays and magazines, so I decided that I'd bring some into my main bathroom.  Since I like using black as the unifying color in each room, my plan was to use blue and black with touches of white.

I showed you my wall hanging transformation here.  My plan was to use mostly what I already owned and to paint a few items to bring in my new color.  I used Rustoleum's Slate Blue to paint the tissue box and picture frame.  I placed a piece of scrapbook paper in the frame along with the cutest picture I could find of my grandbabies in the tub.  I did a little photo editing on picnik to add the words "splish, splash I was taking a bath!"  (original - I know, but I like it!)

I painted this little lantern (the same color) that I found at Good will for $4.99.  It was half off that day, oh yeah!  The little ceramic container was a great find at Salvation Army for $1.99!  I didn't want to overdo it!  Just a bit of color here and there was what I was going for.

Then I gave my stool a little redo so that the babies could reach the sink!

This is the one and only linen "closet" in the apartment.  I took a tension rod and hung a curtain panel up so that when the door is closed, you don't have to see ....

This!

So this is my attempt at adding a splash of color and organization to a plain, white, apartment bathroom.  I'm enjoying the touches of blue.  I'm not sure why I stayed away so long!

Hanging book rack

Remember these from the 80's?  I had one in my "blue goose" kitchen to conveniently hold all of my spices.  I got it for $1.99 at Salvation Army!

No, I'm not going back in time.  I had a new plan for this baby.

I'd been looking and looking for a small book/magazine rack to hang on the wall.  I didn't think it would be so difficult to find!   I'm glad now that I didn't run across one.  I'm certain that if I had, I would have spent more than $2.00 on it.

One day I did what I often do when I can't find what I'm looking for.  I went to a thrift store hoping that I can find something to transform into my desired item.  I knew the second that I saw this blast from my past that this is what I needed.

I know, I know.  That looks an awful lot like a toilet that it's hanging by, doesn't it?  Let me just say that I'm not the Dean Koontz fan in this household (love you, sweetheart!)
Nothing difficult to this redo.  I simply took out the center shelf, spray painted it black and hung it up!

I may be looking for more of these while I'm out!  I've know of other people who enjoy "private reading time" as well .....

Wall hanging revamp

I got this wall hanging at a garage sale for $5.00!  It was cute just like this, but not quite what I wanted for my space.

I've been adding some blue into my main bathroom and decided to give this piece a little bit of color.
Hmmm.... what can I do with this that won't cost any money?
I really wanted to find paint that was the color of Meditative from Sherwin Williams.  In my stash of paint samples that I use for my paint consultations, I had some full sheet samples of that color.  I decided to use Mod Podge and "glue" it on instead of trying to match paint to the achieve my desired color.

Now I needed to decide what to put on for the image.  I discovered The Graphics Fairy, an amazing site where you can print off any image you'd like for FREE!  They have great vintage art and fun images for almost any project imaginable.  I'll be using this site again for sure!  Since I was making this wall hanging work for my bathroom, I found some adorable vintage perfume labels.  I printed them and cut them out.

This was my first attempt at Mod Podge.

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One trick that I learned (the hard way) is that after you paint it on the surface that you're applying it to, you should stick the paper on, smooth it out, and wait until it dries a bit before applying more to the top.  

This is different than the directions suggest, but I found that it tends to curl up on the edges if you do it that way. 

After applying the colored paper with Mod Podge, I placed the vintage images on top and repeated the steps. 

After it was all dry, I decided to antique them a bit by brushing on my antiquing glaze and softly wiping it off until it looked right to me.  It's difficult to see in this picture but before I applied the glaze it looked too "clean" to me without out it.

I'm still working on my bathroom by adding bits of blue here and there.  I've got a few more projects to finish up before I'll be satisfied with how it looks.  I try to never say that I'm finished.  My family reminds me regularly that by the time I'm finished with something, I'm ready to start over!

Living simply ~ in the Living room

Well I just couldn't take the "all white walls" situation!  I asked the apartment complex if it was possible for me to paint.  They said, "no problem, paint away!  You just have to paint it back when you move out."  Enough said!

                                      Click on images to enlarge

Since we don't plan to live here long, I talked myself into painting only one wall.  It's central to all the rooms and it has our cute little fireplace mantel on it.  It was the perfect one!  I usually use Sherwin Williams paints but I really fell in love with this color that Miller used to carry.  It's called Ozark green and my brother used it in his dining room.  They no longer offer it in their line but they can look it up and mix it.  I love it!  I think it'll look fantastic with all of the seasons as well!

The living area is small and compact, especially given the fact that it's supposed to double as a dining room.  This was my design challenge in this space.  Do I give up valuable living space by placing a dining table here when my husband and I usually (ok, always) eat on our laps in front of the TV?  The answer may seem obvious but I  had to really think about this.  What about when our kids and grandkids came over, where would we eat?  We have a counter height bar with two bar stools in the kitchen area for two of the three grandkids.  I decided that would be good enough.  After all, they need some floor space to play!

To warm up the white walls,  I used my black and white curtain panels on the windows and my black screen behind the sofa to add color and height.  That screen is one of my favorite things that I own.  It works great by adding color and interest to a corner like this or using it as I did in my last house to create an entry, like I showed you here.
I angled the sofa at the same angle as the fireplace.  I've said it many times before and I'll say it again, pulling furniture out from the walls doesn't eat up more floor space.  It actually gives you usable space behind the furniture and also creates interest in a room, making it appear larger.

This is the focal point wall with our cute little electric fireplace.  That will be so cozy in the fall and winter!

So this is it.  My living/dining/play room.  A multi-purpose room for sure.  Don't let a small apartment with white walls keep you from creating a warm, cozy atmosphere.  It can be done.  You can do it too!

Controlling cord clutter~

We've lived in our apartment for 2 weeks now.   I have to admit that we're really comfortable here!  It's cozy and it doesn't take any time at all to clean it.  That's one of my favorite parts!

I want to show you the .... master bathroom.  It has all the important things that a master bathroom would need.  A shower, a toilet, a sink, but there's barely enough room for my husband and I to stand in it at the same time.   The vanity is exactly 3' 3" wide with most of that space being taken up by the sink.  The challenge in this space wasn't so much the lack of space, but how I was going to put both of our electric toothbrushes and my husband's razor in an area to stay plugged in.  There's only one plug in the bathroom, so naturally they needed to be on the counter.  I hate having a ton of cords everywhere, not to mention the fact that I would need a power strip to keep everything plugged in at once.

My solution was to take a vase that I had and to cram the power strip and all of the cords inside.  I had a piece of greenery and some decorative rocks that I stuck in to hide the cords.

These items aren't beautiful but they're necessary!  This allows them to stay charged and I don't have to stare at the cords!  Of all the things that I did to the apartment, this is the main thing that my husband was most impressed with.  It was so cute.  He said, "are you going to show that on your blog?".  So here it is!  Simple, simple, and again ....free!

I didn't want to buy a shower curtain at this time but I did want to add some color and style to our teeny tiny bathroom.  I took the other half of the curtain panel that I used in our bedroom (the one that I flipped to the other side) and put it on one side of the shower.  It was really long and I didn't want to hem it knowing that it most likely won't be a shower curtain for very long, so I tied it in a big knot.

There is no linen closet in this bathroom.  Our towels are in a container in our closet which freed up the space under the sink for other essentials.   It's not that I thought you would be interested in looking at our supply of toilet paper, but I wanted to show you how much I LOVE containers from the dollar tree!  They come in so many sizes and colors and they're, well ... a dollar!  I use these a lot of places and tend to look for colors that compliment the room they're in (even when they don't show, I know they match!)

These were my design challenges for our teeny bathroom.  They didn't take much to solve and best of all, I only spent $3.00 on the under counter baskets!