Fixing up the Stairs

When we first moved into the farmhouse, the stairs were in pretty bad shape. And by bad shape, I mean they were really ugly. There clearly had been a runner on the stairs that was pulled up, and the remaining white paint left something to be desired.

So, painting the stairs was actually the first thing on our to-do list. We got started pretty much the day we closed on the house - we figured it would be better to paint the stairs before tons of critters (namely our 4 cats and 1 dog) were in the place. We started painting despite the fact that we didn't even have power in the house... fortunately it was the beginning of summer. Still not too hot but very bright!

We spent a ton of time sanding down the stairs a bit and then cleaning them up. We discussed filling in the divets and dents and nail holes from the historic runner with wood putty to make the stairs perfect and flat before painting them, but then we said SCREW IT!  We didn't buy a 101 year old house so it would look brand new! These dents have charm!  (this could also be interpreted as: we were just too lazy).

We meticulously taped all of the stairs. Then I just had to slather the brown paint on.  Again, we used the Behr Ultra Paint + Primer in 1.  No particular reason.  I just like it.

After painting the stairs, we took some time to get the bannister and the top rail, to complete the look.  We also painted the stair faces and crown molding white, to make them look clean and pop.

the final product

from the top of the stairs

The stairs actually got a little knicked and banged up when we moved in and hiked furniture up this squeaky set of old (and surprisingly narrow) stairs.  In that respect, it would have been better to wait until post furniture move-in to paint, but we plan on getting a carpet runner, so we weren't too worried about it!

Living Room Updates!

The farmhouse actually has a pretty good floor plan for such an old house.  The living room is pretty open to the kitchen, and most of the house gets a lot of natural light.  

Unfortunately, the living room barely gets any.  :/  There's only 1 small window in the front of the living room, and it gets minimal light because of the roof over the front patio.  So, it's consistently really hard to take pictures of the living room.  :( There was a LOT of sun the day we closed, so I did manage to get these pictures of the living room before we moved in.

Painting the living room was one of the first things on my agenda after getting fairly settled in, because I had a box filled with picture frames that I wanted to get on the wall.  

For the living room, we used the same paint as the kitchen - the Behr Premium Plus Ultra Paint and Primer in one, and we chose a light peachy/rosy color scheme for the living room.  I initially just painted the back wall (because that's where I was putting the pictures) and we decided to make it an accent wall with a slightly darker color.  We tried to pick a color that wasn't too dark, however, because we definitely didn't want the living room to end up dark as a cave.

It definitely would have been easier to paint before moving in...

I actually took the color and wrapped it around into the kitchen as well.  I ended up really liking the mauve-ish pink color.  It felt very warm and homey.  :)

After getting the wall painted, I could finally put all the pictures back up again. That was actually a lot more tedious than painting.  I had spent hours and hours (and hundreds of dollars on frames) developing a perfect 11ft x 3ft picture collage in the condo -->

only to realize that I did not have a single 11ft long wall in the farmhouse... 

OMG. *sigh*

So I ended up having to formulate a new design to fit the living room wall in the farmhouse.  I had to buy 1 more frame to make it work - and that poor frame is still empty.  But someday, it'll be the perfect spot for a wedding picture!

Clint is busy playing Diablo III on a Saturday morning.
He just loves playing Diablo III in front of our beautiful picture collage! 

Now that I'm not in a super modern lofty condo, I might end up switching back to color pictures, but for now I'm happy with it!

Kitchen - Painted!

I wasn't a big fan of the yellow/creme color in the kitchen.  Not because I don't like yellow (I do), but it looked... 

dirty? ugly? dingy?  Something.

So painting was the obvious choice.  But we don't let Clint paint anymore, hehe. That was unfortunate though, because painting the kitchen was nothing short of a huge pain in the ass.  :)

But in the end, I think it was worth it.  

We used Behr Premium Plus Ultra (a Paint and Primer in One) in "Misty Morn UL220-9" = a light blue color:

Not only does it help the island 'match' the kitchen, but it really brings out the color pattern in the marble.

It also kind of matches the distressed blue paint on the shelf.

Puff was so tired after a long day of painting.

It seems like blue is probably not a common color for a kitchen, but I find it pretty soothing. I also really like the way the 

stainless steel and cabinets look with it.

On top of the pleasant change of color, the kitchen just FEELS so much cleaner.  The walls were dirty, and filled with cobwebs.

Now the kitchen just begs to be cooked in.  :)