Kiss My Brass

The door handles in our house were a mix of brushed nickel and brass. You can probably guess which I prefer. Enter spray paint.

Spray paint party in our yard!

The after, re-installed.

How to:

1. Remove all hardware. I recommend labeling which handles came from which door if yours are left/right specific like mine are.
2. Wipe down with a coat of liquid deglosser (near the paint thinner at the store).
3. Stick all the parts in styrofoam or cardboard, including the screws. 
4. Using Rustoleum Universal Metallic Paint + Primer in One, spray 3 light but even coats with 10-20 minutes of dry time between each.
5. Flip deadbolt locks back and forth between coats. 
6. Let them cure for 48+ hours; the longer the better. We lifted that table and carried it into the garage for safe drying.
7. Re-assemble (make sure you do the screws lightly and by hand so you don't mess up the new paint job) and enjoy!

This update is totally a personal preference detail. I do think it immediately updates the look of your home since most new homes use nickel or oil rubbed bronze vs. brass these days.

We have one lingering brass handle and that's the front door. It will be taken care is this summer when we paint the door though! Adios brass!

Budget Decorating: Our Guest Room

We have a lot of extra rooms at the moment. I'm sure one day they will be filled with adorable, well-behaved, exceptionally smart children. ;-)

For now, we wanted to make our guest rooms feel welcoming without spending a fortune on them.  The upstairs guest room is my favorite of the two. Decorating the whole room cost about $150  including paint. We painted this room when we moved in (as the room had 60+ sailboats stenciled on the wall in paint) and I love the color we chose. It's a soothing beige with hints of a grassy yellow/green.

The bedding was a super clearance find from Macy's Martha Stewart Collection. The entire set with all the pillows was $60. I actually chose the whole color scheme of this room around the bedding. We had the bed skirt, lamps and old IKEA furniture from our apartment. We also had the drapes...I tried to make them work in the city but they didn't. They are definitely too long for the height of these windows but they are hidden from the doorway - out of sight, out of mind.

I found a few accessories at the thrift store or at Homegoods. I love this green vase and throwback college pic. We had the tall "green sticks" as Scott calls them and a black mirror (not pictured above).

I created the canvas artwork with a wooden "S" letter from Michael's with an old canvas, some super glue and a can of spray paint. Super simple tutorial: Glue on the letter, spray paint, hang. Voila.

And, of course, these guys have to live somewhere in our home so this is their room. :-)

Master Suite Before & After

Continuing the celebration of our one year house-iversary...the before and after of our master suite.

One of my favorite rooms in our house is our master suite. I guess it's technically two rooms but there is no door between them. Our bedroom has huge windows overlooking the yard and forest preserve and vaulted ceilings. Our bathroom has the same vaulted ceilings and is open to the bathroom. The toilet is tucked away in its own room which was a huge selling point. I don't know if we can ever go back after having this luxury. I think it's essential for a happy marriage.

We knew the master had a lot of potential when we viewed the home but the color was so dark and the way the furniture was organized blocked a lot of light from the windows. Here's the before with a dark, wine colored paint.

And now for OUR space...light and bright blue paint with an accent wall (Martha Stewart's Peacock mixed at Benjamin Moore), all our bedding we registered for at Macy's finally broken out for our king size bed and rearranged furniture. And a Casablanca ceiling fan (a gift from my parents) which is amazing.

Wedding day photos were printed poster size and inserted into IKEA 20X20 frames.

The woods look amazing in the summer and fall!

Playing with the panorama function on our camera - the entrance to the master bath is the opening on the left.

The master bathroom was brown. So very brown. Brown paint, brown shower curtain, brown floor and light brown cabinets. Oh, brown towels. I guess they liked brown. And lights from the 90s.

Here's our new master bathroom. I painted the cabinets using Rustoleum's Cabinet Transformations Kit in Espresso (big fan!) and we updated the light fixture. We chose to use the same paint color as the bedroom since these rooms flow into each other. Throw in a new shower curtain, rugs and towels and it looks like a totally different room.

Ahhhhhhhhhh!

Art from my Bachelorette Party which matches the bathroom perfectly

 We love it!