4.21.2011

Vintage Revival’s (aka Mandi) Epic Makeover Entry

 So here is my official bid for a Vintage Revivals makeover from the fantabulous Mandi.


When I first saw this  contest I immediately knew I had to enter my sunroom. 



Why you say, well here are Top   5 Reasons Mandi should come to my house
1.       I need Mandi’s help since she is so amazingly awesome! I first started following once I saw her teacup clock and I have wanted to replicate ever since. She does everything I am afraid to try such as being able to pull different color and pattern combinations together. I like a lot of different looks but hers always intrigues me the most. She puts the unexpected together and it is so magical.
2.       My mom can finally visit on a regular basis (and I won’t be ashamed to invite people over.)  My first floor (and who am I kidding, as well as second) are always in renovation mode. My sunroom and dining room have never served their  intended functions as rooms in the 1.5 years we have lived here. I haven’t been able  to invite my family members or friends over. I would love to have an official housewarming.
3.       I live in the city of Brotherly Love. You can do touristy crap such as the Liberty Bell, the Franklin Institute, and see Boat House Row.  You can run up the Art Museum steps like Rocky did. You can go on the duck mobile to tour the city, wait scratch that idea. They recently had some sort of malfunction and well I would want to hurt my precious Mandi and all her greatness. Must have her return to Utah in one piece. We can also sneak a trip to Atlantic City which is an hour away. Plus I will treat you to a world famous Philly cheese steak (I hope you eat meat, if not a veggie steak???) Or my mom can cook you a Jamaican home meal while speaking with her British accent. Or my boyfriend can make a mean sweet potato casserole from scratch; seriously it was gone in like negative 2 seconds at Christmas dinner.
4.       I will forever profess my love for Mandi. Seriously, I will proudly make a button professing my love to Mandi and wear it everywhere for the duration of my time in the contest. I will wear it at work, especially when I go thrifting or to the  flea market, or whenever and wherever I go out in public. If I don’t win the big shebang, I will still proudly display said button in my final room design.  I shall enlist the help and guidance of my expert button designer, Kiannalee (my 6 year old daughter) on a design fitting of Mandi’s awesomeness. Look out for post of me consulting said button designer and her final designs.
5.       And lastly just watch the video or  look at the pictures below. They speak volumes for themselves of the ugliness factor in my house and lack of vision/design.
In doing this contest, I have a video showcasing my sunroom. I realize my post below is ridiculously long and you may get lost in all the sauce so here are brief video summaries of why I should be chosen for this makeover.
Sunroom Video
p.s. I am really not that boring in person..I just sound like I am and the video camera makes me nervous...
Warning: this post is massive with lots of pictures and words. If you have a short attention span (like I do) then just watch the video tours above. If you can not watch the video, are bored, or just simply want to be entertained, and then just read skim on. I feel a contest of this magnitude and epic greatness need not to be skimped on so I am pulling out all the big guns.

Without further ado, here is my hideous sunroom.  I initially couldn’t decide on which rooms to pick but I chose my sunroom since it's the first room in the house. As a bonus, I will include my third bedroom as an honorable mention at then end of the post.
First stop on the oogly (that’s ugly but like 1 million times worse) train is my sunroom. Here is a before picture. Although don't be fooled, considering the before looks better than the current





This is the first room you see as you enter the house. It gets plenty of light with the 5 windows. You will also see It is framed by lovely French doors, or should I say once upon a time lovely door. See the nice hole in one of the panes and the disgustingly dirty trim that needs to be repainted and repaired.
The sunroom had carpet (eek) and smells and this big ol’ radiator. But since moving in, we have removed the disgusting carpet and we upgraded to central air so the radiator went buh-bye.  I miss the bench though. So now our sunroom looks like this.'





You thought you were going to see a better picture of said room but you were duped. It looks 1000 times squared worse then the before picture. See how nothing better has been accomplished. After pulling up the carpet, we found this flooring which I think is linoleum? But whatever it is, it is sure is oogly. I was originally going to leave said mystery flooring intact and simply paint over but you know that wasn’t good enough. The floor had some cracks and would need to be repaired somehow. Then, I had the great idea as I usually do to pull it up which isn’t probably the smartest idea since then it opens up a lot of cans of worms. I was able to pull up some of the mystery floor to reveal bricks and under that was some hardwood floors but it’s probably sub-floor? I dunno all I know is I didn’t move in the right direction.
So that is the state of my floor. The walls are blue but the blue they choose is a powder blue and its looks horrible so it has to go. I would love a stenciled wall or anything other than pukey powder blue.

See all that furniture. Well I have the ability to collect “junk” and for good reason. I will point out 
everything. See those lovely or should I say gastly chairs? I got them for my favorite word FREE!!! off of craigslist.  Basically, the guy asked for $5 and I was like word let me go on that son. So then I emailed and I got anxious as I did because I always seem to never be the first person. I have lost many a great furniture because of this but by the graces of the man himself, I was number one and he said they were FREE as long as I pick the up. So I responded back ASAP to claim my beauties. All they need is love.
Next is my $8 $6 table with removable glass tray from the flea market.
I love my bench from craigslist for $50. More than what I should have probably paid but it works. It’s wooden and solid as a rock. I am not a fan of the dancing children though. They kind of scare me.









Next is this cute console table ala my grandmother’s apartment. She moved in with my mom a couple of weeks ago so it was a mad rush to divvy up the goods at her apartment she has had since 93. I put my claim on this piece. She isn’t boxy like the rest of my furniture and that’s why I love her. I fill like I get boxed into too easily so I try to look for curves as much as possible. She looks quite dainty in the corner so she maybe need to beefed up or fired.

On the floor in the middle you see the two corner cabinets that were my moms who gave them to my grandmom who gave them to me. I honestly don’t know why I said I wanted them in the first place but me it was FREE so I had to say yes. I was going to use it as a temporary coffee table with storage of sorts.
Those are my primary players and honestly, if you feel the need to bench any of them I am all for it. I just need them all to meet and play nice so my house is lovely from the minute you walk in. I waver in my decisions of color. One day it’s all white with pops of color to the next were it is bold colors and pattern city. I would love Mandi’s expertise and vision for my space. I will give you 99% control of everything. I am seriously not one of those people who say you can  do anything and then heave and cry on every  little thing you do. Unless she wants to recreate this room...





and then I have to pass. Seriously this is how my third bedroom looked (now it's painted blue and orangy-yellow ceiling) when we moved it. It was all sorts of wrong. You can't see but it had carpet on of linoleum outer trim with vinyl tiles in the center.

I warned you this post is going to be ridiculously long but this is my contest entry and my plea to the goddess Mandi (and fellow readers) to pick my room or rooms for a makeover! So I must not skimp in the least. I need all the visual aids as to why I need to win. So there is my plea America  World in 1500 or less words as to why I need this makeover from the goddess herself, MANDI of Vintage Revivals.

4.15.2011

A Bench and 2 FREE Chairs: Why it pays to stalk Craigslist!

Last Friday, I was looking on Craiglist at my job. I seriously stalk that site. I am never lucky enough to be the first person and of my dealings on Craiglist, I only bought one thing so far a dresser for my third bedroom. So there was a posting for bench with flower detail for $50 and some kids dancing on the fabric. I looked at and liked it, the print is hideous but I can get past that since I will be redoing the chair. I have a vision, actually I have a lot of visions, and I needed that chair in my life. So I contacted the seller and usually I am always a day late and dollar short but by luck the seller contacted me to pick it up the next day! So I set up to go get my chair at 10:45 am Saturday morning.





It's not really an upholstered chair. It was probably store bought but I sure can fake it when I paint and trim in it out =)

Then another poster put ad up for, and I quote, "two old gastly chairs - $5" about 10 minutes later. Now usually I am prepared for the worst with these type of postings since 90% the time when people say vintage they mean ridiculously ugly. I mean very few term the phrase correctly and then want you to overpay for their junk. So the title intrigued me and I clicked a found this lovely beauty, or should I say beauties! I admit the fabric is dirty, old, and hideous but I could get past the cosmetic stuff. These chairs are solid and sturdy and with the right kind of help can be stunning!







I rushed to send an email on my phone since I can't access my email from my job and by chance I was lucky person #1. Now, here comes the best part of all. The seller emails me back and says he will give me the two chairs for FREE as long as I can pick them up the next day. Talk about #winning! I had to jump on it ASAP and I agreed to meet him at 11:00am. Why I don't know but you know that meant trouble considering Seller 1 is 46 minutes away from the center of the city (where we started) and Seller #1 is 46 minutes away from"Seller" #2 . And our house is 23 minutes in the opposite direction of Seller #2.


So my Saturday consisted of me living in my car for 8 or so hours picking up a bench and chairs after getting 0 hours of sleep the previous night because I went to the casino with my mom, aunt, and cousins till 7:00 am. But it sure was worth it =) 


Now I have a bench and 2 chairs for $50. Now the hard part is deciding how to finish them. Have you ever got any amazing deals on something you really wanted? 

I am linking for the first time to MissMustardSeed
Furniture Feature Fridays

4.05.2011

Window Shopping: Home Goods Edition

These are some items that caught my eye at Home Goods recently.
I really loved the mirror cabinet. The price not so much. It's a nice size and would look great as a tv stand.

The first chair, I saw and fell in love. I loved that it was metal and not wood. We have a lot of wood items as well as square things. I like the light and airy feel to it.

I actually bought a pair of the second chair. A bit pricey again but I love the look. I wanted an unconventional nightstand so to speak. They weren't exactly cheap at 40.00 a piece but they were a lot cheaper for the pair of tables I was eyeing at World Market. I also figure I can always use them later in the backyard if I change my mind.

The next three photos are beach accessories. I adore all items beach related so I had to restrain myself from buying typo much. I loved the seahorse on a stand. Very chic and affordable compared to the ZGallerie one.







4.02.2011

Painted Bedroom

So when we moved in a year and some change ago, I didn't really want to paint our bedroom blue. Why you ask? Because my mom has what I like to call the blue house. After my father passed, she had the house renovated. They actually started renovating the kitchen floors the weekend before he died on the following Monday. I remember that particular weekend was fun and I was enjoying myself. We were dancing to music and having a good ol' time. My uncle, mom's brother, was helping to pull up the tiles since my dad had terrible back problems.

So then once he died, my mom rushed to get the kitchen finished. She is very concerned about the house appearance and having a lot of family/friends over because of my dad's death was not ideal since it was just torn up literally two days prior. So some neighbors helped out and got the kitchen finished in record shape. She then later installed new hardwood floors throughout the house, gutted and renovated the bathroom, and  redid the 3 bedrooms with added storage and mirror doors. So she decides to pick out paint colors. I admit, I wanted blue in my room and my brother wanted blue in his room (although he had already moved out by that point but it still is "his room"). So she proceeded to paint 2 bedrooms, hallway, living and dining room shades of blue. Since her favorite color is green she had her room painted green. So I loving refer to as the blue house with a green room.

Anyways, back to our bedroom. The house was covered in wallpaper except for the sunroom, kitchen,  bathroom and third bedroom. That lovely little gem had brown panel walls but that was the least of my worries. When we first put it up in our bedroom and it was wet, it look very orangish and just made me want to puke. But then it dried and it looked like the paint swatch and was more tolerable but I wasn't thrilled. It was Glidden's Sandcastle, btw. The boyfriend refused to redo it since he slaved so hard the entire room. It made the room dark and drab. Granted we still have the same white roller shades that the previous owners left on the windows so we don't have a lot of natural sunlight. I am working on the window treatments and can't wait to update the space about it.

I apologize for the lighting in the pictures and I don't have a full room shot as of yet. It's still under construction but here it goes.

Before
First thing we did when we bought the house was get rid of that disgusting carpet and painted over the wallpaper. When I get a more full shot of the room, you will see the fan blades are missing (we painted them but I want to get rid of the fan all together) and the radiator is gone since we now have central air. The shelf is also gone as well as the air conditioner.



Progress - Glidden Sandcastle 
Didn't like the color since it made the room drab and dark. We have 5 windows that get plenty of sunshine during the day so it shouldn't feel dark and cave like.

After - Glidden Tide


Two different shots at different times although the first looks more accurate. I love this color. I originally chose it since Young House Love had it in their first house bedroom and I regretted not choosing a blue color. I am blue girl at heart. It made the room more welcoming and inviting with its cool tones. Still need to paint the trim but it has made a big difference overall. Now I need to dress up the sad windows and accessorize the room.
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