weekend update
so this post from new-to-me-and-new-favorite-blog, 110 + 2, made me laugh the other day because it so accurately sums up my own internal dialogue/debate during my home DIY projects. it’s quite a relief to see that not everyone out there (except me) with a paintbrush and some panache can transform trash to treasure without breaking a sweat (or making a beginner’s mistake… or, um, several…).
anyway… from my absurdly long list of tasks to accomplish this weekend, i managed to tackle about 50% of them. not too bad, right? first up, behold the entrance door makeover…
before:
(and yes, i am choosing to be blind - for the time being - to the scuffs and paint splatters on the poor abused hard wood floors left behind by the previous tenants - so i would appreciate you doing the same. grazie.)
and after:
more than anything i like the fact that it differentiates the entrance door from the other interior doors (a distinction, at the very least, my 10 year old niece will appreciate since during her visit a few weeks ago, she had an understandably tough time remembering which of these two side-by-side doors was the one to the bathroom). the one thing i’m dismayed about is how much old paint and other gunk has built up on the door knob and top lock (a little hard to see in my grainy, terrible picture above) and how impossible it is to remove - i think the easiest thing will be to ultimately replace them at a later date. oh, speaking of later dates. same with the painting of the shoe moldings at the base of each door saddle (because that would entail me going down to the scary basement to retrieve the primer and molding paint. shudder.)
and then there were some other somewhat unremarkable projects that went on here over the last two days - hanging pictures, unpacking the last of the boxes, pickling some cabbage (oh yeah, that’s right!) - but i will say i am pretty proud of this accomplishment:
it’s a funny pic that does less to show off the new, SUPREMELY CHIC, black wooden blinds than to highlight the unfortunate fact that none of my floors/ceilings/windows are parallel or level and that my apartment may be one plant away from being classified as a jungle. (it also shows my super groovy woven sampler woven by my grandma years ago!) BUT - i promise you, these made-to-measure blinds are such a vast improvement over the flimsy ikea ones i inherited (oops, i forgot to take a “before picture here…sooorrry). so these SUPREMELY CHIC black blinds now adorn the two dining room windows as well as the window in the kitchen. i’m so, so, so in love. and so what if while installing these custom beauties i needed to break out my hand saw and black sharpie marker… nobody has to know, right? and whatever works, works!
more to come, folks, more to come!
