READER RENO: ERIKA + DAN’S PAINT ADVENTURE

posted by Greg / 5 Comments

We’re back with another reader renovation! This time around, we’re talking with Erika about her and her husband’s recent family room painting adventures…

Hi! I’m Erika, and my husband (Dan) and I seem to be renovating our house in the same pattern of projects as Greg and Ashley! (Of course, when it comes to houses, I assume people hit the kitchen and bathrooms first no matter what, so maybe it’s not such an extreme coincidence!). We recently said “Hasta Luego!” to our extremely neutral family room when we painted it a deep blueberry color. We also painted our brick mantle from white to a deep brown color, and we couldn’t be happier with the results! It’s pretty scary to paint such dark colors, because no one likes to have to repaint if it doesn’t go well. We were very relieved when our friends and family started asking for paint swatches so often that we had to grab a stash to hand out! At this rate, we’re thinking we might have to send swatches with our Christmas cards this year!

My husband and I bought our now-22 year-old house in 2009. Since the day we moved in, we have been doing projects throughout the house to update and make it reflect our own style and personality. The house was well-maintained by the original owners, but it had not been updated since it was purchased in 1989. That means there was a pirate ship’s worth of gold accents, shell sinks and circus wallpaper to boot! The family room was one of our first attempts to assert our sense of style into the home.

As you can see from our before photos (sorry, these were taken on move-in day!), the previous owners painted everything a very neutral beige color.

readerreno before1 READER RENO: ERIKA + DANS PAINT ADVENTURE

During a casual Lowe’s trip (aren’t they all!), we stopped by the paint department, and I started rummaging through the various colors. I stopped when I saw the gorgeous blue color that we ended up using. Belle Grove Victory Blue is a National Trust for Historic Preservation color. I don’t know about you, but we have a thing for colors that have stood the test of time.

readerreno 2 READER RENO: ERIKA + DANS PAINT ADVENTURE

We painted a beam in the blue color to give our family room a loft-like feel.

readerreno 3 READER RENO: ERIKA + DANS PAINT ADVENTURE

After we painted, we decided it was also time to redo the fan (check out the old light fixture in the photo at the top and you’ll understand our motive). We opted for a really big fan with wooden accents and carved-looking blades. Definitely adds to the comfort cred.

readerreno 4 READER RENO: ERIKA + DANS PAINT ADVENTURE

After we painted the walls in the blue color, it was time to guess and check on the mantle. At first, Dan recommended that I use some leftover chocolate brown color that we used in our kitchen renovation. We decided to start first by painting the fireplace moulding in this brown color (Behr “Bear Rug”). This is what it looked like:

readerreno 5 READER RENO: ERIKA + DANS PAINT ADVENTURE

Yeah, we weren’t impressed either. (Which was really disappointing since I painted the vase on top to match!). We headed back to the drawing board…

What we decided in the end was to use amore pure brown color – a dark chocolate versus the milk chocolate that we had used before. We also decided that painting the bricks in the deep brown color would bring a greater sense of warmth to the room…so we tried it out.

readerreno 7 READER RENO: ERIKA + DANS PAINT ADVENTURE

Much better? We think so. So that’s how our family room came together to give the boot to our Neutral Nightmare and bring a sense of “Dan and Erika” into our home. Here’s the budget breakdown…

Total cost for the end of Neutral Nightmare:

Paint – $30/gallon times 2 gallons

Paint supplies – Already Owned (but would cost you about $30-$40 in painter’s tape, brushes, rollers, roller pan, and floor coverings).

Fan – $230, on sale.

Total: ~$400

If you are interested in reading more of our home adventures, including our kitchen and master bathroom renovations, tutorials and tips on DIY for your home, and some general design ideas (plus some pretty hilarious cat videos)…check us out at www.afterdinnerdiy.com.

Thanks Erika (and Dan!) for sharing the beginning stages of your family room renovation! It goes to show how just a few coats of paint and a new ceiling fan can warm and personalize a space. We specifically like what they did with the fireplace. I don’t think I would have thought to paint the bricks such a deep, rich color – yet it looks amazing and gives us inspiration for our fireplace down the road. PS Ashley here… Don’t you love their blog name? I think it’s perfect!

Do you have a home project that you would like to see featured on 7HL? How about stories and tips about entertaining, interior design and cool DYI projects? If so, shoot us an email! Be sure to include up to eight photos along with a brief description and important details (your name(s), paint colors, materials, budget, etc.). Please email your submissions to submissions@7thhouseontheleft.com. By sending us your submission, you are giving us permission to post it on the blog unless otherwise stated in your email. Don’t worry, we won’t post your email address or any personal information unless you specifically ask us to do so.

06.16.11

ETSY THURSDAY: TRAVEL PLANS?

posted by Ashley / 12 Comments

It’s that time of year when we’ve got vacation on the brain. So we’ve rounded up some of our favorite travel-themed Etsy items…

richmondprint ETSY THURSDAY: TRAVEL PLANS?

For the first stop in our travels, we’re hitting a brand new local spot. We’ve been huge Etsy fans for a long time and we love their commitment to inspiring creativity and bringing relatively unknown treasures into the limelight. It’s for these reasons (and more) that we decided to use Etsy to power the new 7HL Store! The “official launch” will be happening very soon, but we wanted to give our readers a little preview of things to come. We were going to just tease a few items in a blog post (like we did here), but we didn’t feel like that was quite enough. Therefore, we decided a “soft-opening” would be just the ticket, and an Etsy Thursday post would be a great place to let you guys know about it! In keeping with the theme of this edition of Etsy Thursday, we are now offering six of our favorite destination prints (Richmond print shown above)! In the store, we will be offering art we have created for our own house – which is how the creation of these prints came about. We love destination typography art. It’s simple, timeless, and a great way to add another layer of personality to your home’s decor. The only problem is we could never find the cities we wanted! Well, we decided to take matters into our own hands and create our very own line of destination prints – 7th House style!

texaspillow ETSY THURSDAY: TRAVEL PLANS?

Truthfully, I’ve been looking for an excuse to buy one of these state pillows from Love, California for months! This would be a great gift for a grad going off to college out of state.

scallopedpapercutouts ETSY THURSDAY: TRAVEL PLANS?

I’m loving these Vintage World Atlas Cutouts from KKs Candles! There are so many clever things you can do with these: decoupage them on a tray, make a grid of them and paste them on a sheet of card stock for a unique art piece, use them for scrap-booking, cover a lampshade, or simply put them in a cute bowl for a cool conversation piece… the list of possibilities can go on and on. And they are only $4.50 for 100 plus free shipping… Score!

heartmapprint ETSY THURSDAY: TRAVEL PLANS?

If you heart Los Angeles, Chicago, San Diego, Washington DC, San Francisco, New York, or Boston, a Heart Map print from Lucius Art is a great way to share the love. We are digging the simple, understated, vintage inspired look of the prints. We just wish he had more cities available!

mapnecklace1 ETSY THURSDAY: TRAVEL PLANS?

This is one of those when I go “Why didn’t I think of that?!” Not that I’m a jewelry maker but it’s just so clever! Sophia Pip has created a unique solution to keeping a special place with you at all times: the Secret Rendezvous Pendant. If you don’t know the coordinates of your favorite place, Sophia includes resources to find your special place. Love it!

That wraps up this edition of Etsy Thursday! Do you have any vacation plans for the summer? Where are you going? In honor of getting the 7HL store underway, enter “7HLREADER” at checkout for 10% off your order!

06.14.11

ON THE SET: THE PARENT TRAP

posted by Ashley / 22 Comments

Ever have those days when you want to throw out everything you own and start brand new with a totally different style? Not that you don’t like your style but sometimes it’s fun to think about going ultra modern if your traditional or going Mediteranian if Martha Stewart is your everyday cup of tea. I have those urges from time to time, like I’m sure a lot of you do.

The other day, the Hallmark Channel aired The Parent Trap staring Hayley Mills and Hayley Mills. It’s one of those feel-good classics that just doesn’t compare to modern day movies (ya’ll know by now how we love a good classic!). I could watch it over and over again and never get tired of “Let’s get together, yeah, yeah, yeah…”

parenttrapposter ON THE SET: THE PARENT TRAP

I’ve seen this movie over 60 times – and that’s no exaggeration. Though I usually find myself unconsciously mouthing out practically every single line and singing along with every song, this time around, I was focused on another character: the rustic, mid century modern home that is known as Golden Oak Ranch (Susan’s California house):

parenttrap exterior ON THE SET: THE PARENT TRAP

Even though Golden Oak Ranch was a “reel” place rather than a “real” place (sorry, I had to go there), it still makes a part of my heart long for 50+ sprawling acres in Southern Carmel Valley. What was supposed to be a 2 hour and 15 minute movie turned unto a 3 hour home design retrospective because I kept pausing to take in the architecture and furniture. I guess that goes to show my mind has been all about houses lately!

parenttrap living 4 ON THE SET: THE PARENT TRAP

I love, love, love the rustic stone walls and exposed beams paired with the perfect mixture of modern and Spanish-style furniture pieces.

parenttrap living 3 ON THE SET: THE PARENT TRAP

The fireplace in the den (pictured below) is so massive that it almost goes unnoticed. The clean lines of the furniture strike a perfect balance with the eclectic selection of accessories and art pieces. Take any of these pieces, put them in a modern-day house, and it would look like something you picked up at Crate & Barrel last week. It’s a perfect case of how interior design tends to evolve and revolve.

parenttrap living 2 ON THE SET: THE PARENT TRAP

Ordinarily, I love a crisp white kitchen. On the other hand, in my daydream of a house in Southern Carmel, a kitchen that includes chunky exposed brick, picture windows, and zebra wood is A-okay in my book! I’m even digging the pops of color in the cookware, vase (behind the glass door) and the telephone sitting on the counter.

parenttrap kitchen 1 ON THE SET: THE PARENT TRAP

The pale yellows, blues and pinkish orange in Susan’s room are charming and age appropriate. When I was around 10 years old, I remember telling my mom I wanted a headboard just like this one:

parenttrap bedroom 1 ON THE SET: THE PARENT TRAP

And you can’t forget the funky, oversized orange and white lamps. I could totally see David Bromstad or Candice Olson using those in a room today.

parenttrap bedroom 2 ON THE SET: THE PARENT TRAP

One of my favorite features of the ranch is all of the connecting outdoor spaces. The living spaces seamlessly come together through adjoining courtyards. Who wouldn’t love that?!

parenttrap courtyard 1 ON THE SET: THE PARENT TRAP

While I’m at it, I’m going to take this daydream a tad further. If I had my own version of Golden Oak Ranch, it would start with something like this:

parenttrap ON THE SET: THE PARENT TRAP

1. Carmel Mission by the Sea / Art.com 2. The Nines Sofa / Crate & Barrel 3. Wine Barrel Sconce / Restoration Hardware 4. Old Door Ox Yoke Sofa Table / Direct from Mexico 5. Silver Horse Statue / Chinese Antique Shop 6. Azar Rug / Restoration Hardware 7. Aged Tin Round Mirror / Direct from Mexico 8. Cole Chair / Room & Board

A girl can dream, right? Do you have a favorite movie house you wish you could move right into? If you could totally change your style on a whim, what would your style be? This week anyway ; )

Parent Trap poster found here. Set images courtesy of Hooked on Houses.