I know that's not entirely true. We've done a lot. But it doesn't feel like much, probably because I keep hopping from project to project without ever really finishing anything. It's a constant source of frustration (and undermines what progress we have made) that every room in the house is some degree of 'not done.' The dining room, the bedrooms, the living room - there isn't one room that's finished, comfortable and inviting.
I finally figured out that if I want these rooms to be 'done', I had to get busy, get motivated, and focus on just one room at a time - and keep focusing on that room until it was done, and ignore all the other projects clamoring for my attention.
My first choice was the dining room, which was the least done room in the house - and the one with, by far, the most issues. It's also a room I spend a whole lot of time in, as it's my main hang-out room on the first floor. And, I'm sick to death of having (allegedly) a dining room, but having no place to eat a meal, except at the island in the kitchen, or downstairs on the couch with my plate on a chair in front of me. I was finding it increasingly ridiculous to have a house this big, and no 'real' place to eat. (Why haven't we used the dining room? Because the table that's in there is broken - you can't put any weight on it or the top tilts annoyingly; it's just there because we never bothered to fix it or put it anywhere else).
I made up my mind that this room was going to be done (complete with nice table and seating accommodations) before the holidays. Before Thanksgiving.
So ... this weekend I dived seriously into the dining room.
Now, I'd come to a second realization about the house projects. One of the reasons nothing was getting finished was because there was so much to do that I'd get overwhelmed before I even started. So I made up my mind that I had to wrap my head around the idea of just doing one or two small things at a time, not getting overwhelmed, and slowly, by baby steps, it would all get done.
So it all started with just wanting to make some new curtains for the window. That's it ... just curtains. How hard can that be? I just decided that the place to start was by getting rid of the damned vertical blinds (which we couldn't close anymore anyway, because the credenza's in the way) and the crappy, dirty, plain vanilla valance that has been up there since we moved in. Just that. Just make new curtains.
Mushrooming ensued.
I decided to use a pattern for the curtains, because I wanted something a little 'special,' a little off the beaten path, and didn't trust my make-it-up-as-you-go-along abilities in that arena. Finding a pattern I liked proved to be challenging, but eventually I did.
That was Saturday. I was going to go ahead and buy the fabric the same day, but realized I had forgotten to bring a sample of the wall paint with me - and as it's an odd shade of green, I wanted to make sure that I bought fabric that went with it. I decided to go home, read over the pattern instructions so I could make sure I got everything I needed, and go back the next day with my paint sample.
Sunday I went fabric shopping. I wanted something unique. Well, I found it. But more on that in a minute.
I started the curtains on Sunday afternoon. This took most of the rest of that day.
But part-way through making the curtain, it dawned on me - oh crap, it won't do any good to put these beautiful new curtains up on that crappy wall. You see, when we painted the dining room before, we only painted three walls. The fourth wall - the outside wall, with the window and door, had a better quality paneling on it, it was actually kind of pretty (though dark). We thought we might toy with the idea of keeping that as paneling.
Some time ago I'd decided that wasn't going to work, as the room looked kind of stupid with three walls painted a light green, and one wall a very dark paneling. But I'd never gotten around to painting it. When I first thought about curtains, I initially only thought about curtains (baby steps, remember). So I never thought about the wall - until I found such pretty material, then started caring what the rest of the wall looked like.
So, I decided to paint the fourth wall before I put the curtains up. But then I realized I'd also have to paint the window trim for it to do any good - the trim in that room was also very, very dark wood grain - it isn't even all wood, some of it is plastic made to look like wood. Very tacky with my nice new curtains.
But we'd never picked out trim color yet, so we didn't have that paint.
Okay - so now, paint the fourth wall, and pick out trim color, and go to Home Despot and pick up the trim paint, and then paint the trim. And then finish the curtains.
Did I mention there was mushrooming?
But ... after working on the curtain for hours Sunday, then working on the dining room and finishing the curtain from about 8:00 a.m. till about 6:00 p.m. Monday, it turned out to be SO extremely worth it! I was astounded at how well things turned out.
Here's the overview shot. We still haven't replaced the door, but that's in the works. This picture doesn't really do the curtains justice.
They're even lined, and have this neat piping trim. I've never made lined curtains before, and never successfully used piping either, but this went really well.
I love this little detail, too, though it barely shows up in the photo - there's a place where I ran blue cord through two buttonholes sewn into the curtain, and gathered it up, and tied the cord - it's a nice little touch.
So now you can see why I was so pleased with the stuff I found. Although I would never have thought of "paisley" when thinking about the dining room curtains, this turned out perfect. The 'theme' of the dining room is 'beach house' - and the swirly-ness of the paisley makes me think of water or the ocean - perfectly appropriate. The colors are absolutely perfect for this room. Though there isn't a lot of green, what is there matches our odd-shade green walls. The fabric has a lot of blue and shades of beige in it, and those are two of the trim colors we'd been considering anyway. The lining fabric reminds me of sand. So the whole thing was just perfect.
When I first hung these up, I was amazed. I'd seen them come together, I knew how nice they looked - but somehow, hanging them up made it more than the sum of its parts. I was astounded at how great they looked. Heck, they look like professional-made curtains, with that trim and lining. Yeah, I'm kind of inordinately pleased with myself over this.
I am not entirely happy with the trim color we picked out, though. I had picked out something a little darker - almost the same color of the piping trim on the curtains - but got nervous it'd be too dark, so went a few shades lighter. Now I kind of wish I'd gotten the darker, and may very well go back and get that instead. While I want it to look 'beach-housy,' I didn't want it to look so pastel candy-coated.
I'd mentioned the door's in the works - we've picked out a new door, just have to get it and install it. It's got a full center glass panel, top to bottom - to let in more light, as this room's so dark. That's why I didn't bother painting the door (though I considered it) - I figured, why waste the time (when I'd already been working on this project for 10 hours today alone) when we're going to be replacing the door so soon.
Then we have to buy the top molding, paint that, and install it. Primer and paint the ceiling. There's still baseboard to pick out and get, and trim paint for that.
Then there's the really expensive component of this room - I want a banquette. It's sort of like booth seating, with benches with backs that go around one corner of the room, then a rectangle shaped table, with chairs on the other side. That's going to be the priciest thing in this renovation, but ... I decided it's far smarter in our case to buy it instead of trying to build it.
Lots to do before Thanksgiving, but I have faith.
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