I Want a New Rug

I know I haven't kept you updated on much home stuff because honestly, we haven't been doing much home improvements as of late.  We have made one small change to our living room. Remember the carpet tiles we got from Kentucky that I was so excited about? Unfortunately, they haven't been working out too well in the space. 

Due to running around like this...

And rolling around like this...

I think due to all the running around, it started to get a little "gappy" between each tile, similar to the picture below. Maybe it was an installation error on our part combined with the high traffic from the dogs.  In the end, the carpet tiles just weren't working out...at least not in the living room. So, we moved the tiles out (we're hoping to put them in our bedroom) and started looking for a regular rug on Craigslist.

Justin found an 8x10 rug on Craigslist for $80. What a steal! He and our friend TB went that evening to pick it up. Here they are, moving the furniture around for the perfect placement of our new rug.

Ta-da! A good selection made by Justin, if I do say so myself. He followed our blue and brown color palette to a "T" and got us a great deal on a rug!

I obviously liked the new rug, but you can tell the boys were pretty happy with the rug as well.

Travelin' Miles for Carpet Tiles

One major thing that our living room has been missing is a rug. 

I wasn't too keen on getting a regular rug because although Louie is 90% potty-trained, he still has some "accidents." I couldn't imagine spot cleaning every time he made a mess on it. Several spills, messes and accidents later (I consider the living room is a high traffic area), you got yourself a ruined rug. After doing some research I thought the perfect thing for us would be carpet tile. You can configure them in any size you want and if one of the carpet tiles gets dirty, all you have to do is clean/replace that single tile. Completely Louie-proof. 

I originally had my heart set on getting some FLOR brand carpet tile (the Sophitikat pattern to be exact), but after taking into consideration the price of the pattern I wanted (about $13/tile) and shipping (more than $50), I realized it would cost nearly $300 to make a rug the size we needed (8x6). The price is somewhat reasonable when you're talking about rugs, but I'm not reasonable, I'm cheap. ;)

One day while Justin and I were lounging around watching TV during our winter break in Kentucky, a commercial for a place called iCarpetiles came on. They specialize in commercial and residential carpet tile and they're based right in Louisville, so I figured we might as well stop by and see their selection.

 

Upon entering their showroom (which is in their warehouse), you can see a bunch of framed plaques. It looks like they've been featured in several publications so that must be a pretty good sign.

We perused their samples and although their patterns weren't as trendy as FLOR, they were still pretty solid. Since we have a blue motif going on in the living room we decided on the blue strata pattern. They sent our request to the warehouse and they loaded up our car with the tiles. Note: These carpet tiles are heavy! When we flew home we had to distribute several of tiles in our suitcases since the carpet tile package exceeded the 50 pound weight limit.

When we got back to DC we put the carpet tiles together and it was super easy. We laid them out in our living room and unlike some carpet tiles where you have to use double sided tape and stick it to the floor, we used the iCarpetiles' product called "Tac-Tiles." All you do is stick them in the corners where floor tiles meet, and voila--instant rug.

Action shot of Justin putting the carpet tiles together

Here's a picture of the  finished product. (Louie approved :)

I know it sounds cliche but it really anchors the space! To me, it looks like a large rug and you wouldn't know that they were carpet tiles unless you looked at it real close. So far I really like our rug but the best part of these carpet tiles was the price. For an 8x6 rug (with five extra tiles to spare) it only cost us $96 dollars and no shipping (since we brought them from Kentucky), which to me is definitely a good deal! 

Water Damage Repaired?

Remember a few months ago I told you guys about the leak in our bedroom room (from our air conditioner) that dripped all the way down to the living room?  Well, it looked like this:

After a few months of tolerating it (yes, we let it go for months, don't judge!), Justin was able to patch the water damage to make it good as new.  Sorry, I don't have any "action" shots of Justin repairing the wall, but just imagine him spackling, then priming, and then yelling about how the paint wasn't adhering to the newly spackled areas.  Despite his frustrations he was able to fix it. Yay! Sorry these aren't the best pictures.

But it looks like nothing ever happened right?

Justin even fixed the paint chipped areas behind the recliner.  I don't have any before pictures of the damage, but apparently when you would rock on the recliner it would chip away at the wall behind it. Whoopsy.

You would think that this would be the end of our "leakage" problems, but it's not.  Just when we thought we were in the clear, another problem had to rear its ugly head...more on that later...

Octopus Art

What do you call it when you have more than one Briones? Brioni! hehehe...get it? This post is about a piece of artwork that features an octopus in many design blogs such as this one:

Splendid Minta

And more famously in Giuliana and Bill Rancic's dining room as seen here:

I love how the triptych (three pieces forming one work of art) covers a large amount of space.  It's called Lord Bodner's Octopus Study, and I thought it would be the perfect piece to go above our sectional.  A reproduction of this print can cost anywhere between $2000-$4000!  That doesn't including the framing and mat which would also drive up the price.  Since Justin would kill me if I spent that much on anything, I decided to search the internet for some cheaper options so that I could get the same look for less.

I saw similar octopus prints on poster websites but the colors weren't quite what I was looking for.  Eventually, I came across the design blog Splendid Minta, who offered a great do-it-youself tutorial on how to duplicate this triptych.  

Basically, she took free octopus clip art and used a design imaging tool, such as Picnik to design her own color combinations.  I stuck with the blue and white color combination and used the octopus clip art to design the image below.

Close enough, right? Luckily, this image is high resolution because I was able to blow it up to huge proportions (about four feet tall per panel!) and took it to the local Kinko's to get it printed.  Note:  If you plan on making this image a triptych, have the framer cut the print into three equal panels.  I unfortunately had the print shop cut it for me and the three panels weren't even.  :(


Next, I took it to Michael's to get framed.  They were having a 60% off sale on custom framing, but it was still a little more than I was expecting to pay.  However, once I thought about it--the custom sizing, custom mat, and the fact that I could put something different in the future (maybe some interesting wallpaper) I figure that it was worth the investment (or at least that's what I had to convince myself ;).

A few weeks later, I was able to pick up the finished product and it was ready to hang.  Too bad we weren't quite ready to hang it because we were off on our measurements a few times.  

Let's just say that that the future owners of this home will have to patch up several holes in the living room walls. Whoopsy.  

So here's Justin...

Beneath the finished product

Excuse the crappy cell phone photo.  I was trying to get a shot with the least amount of glare, but you get the idea.  I am so happy with the finished product and even happier that I didn't have to spend thousands of dollars for it!

* * *

Folks, I have had several request for the original image I used to make this triptych. Unfortunately, due to blogger size restrictions I will not be able to post that image in this post, nor will I be able to email you the image due to email attachment limitations. The link to the Splenda Minta website (which is what I used) I believe has the best instructions on how to do this yourself. Happy DIYing!

Planning out the Living Room

A few months ago, Justin and I attended a interior design presentation held by our Realtors, Christina and Greg. The presentation was titled, "Three Simple Steps to Uncovering Your Unique Design Style:  What to do before embarking on your next design project." (If that title isn't us, I don't know what is!). Holly O'Brian, an interior designer, led the presentation. She was able to give us some awesome advice on where to find inspiration both online and in books, as well as find our design style.  Justin and I pretty much have the same style, classic and traditional, but I always try to add a bit of a modern flair.  After the presentation, I showed Holly our floor plan and she offered to do a complimentary CAD image of what our living room could look like. How cool is that?

Below is the drawing of the our living room that I gave Holly. Lovely, isn't it?

And here is the image she came back with:

Property of Holly O'Brian


She even made some suggestions on some furniture accessories.  Below are some storage ottomans from Crate & Barrel.

And here is an ottoman from Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams. It looks totally chic!

She gave us some really great ideas for our living room so you'll just have to stay tuned to see how our living turns out!

It's a Paint Party!

One things for certain, we are not paint experts. It took us several coats, to achieve color and consistency that we wanted in the living room. And at times it seemed almost like we were going in circles (e.g.: paint the wall - get paint on the ceiling, paint the ceiling - get paint on the wall - "It's a vicious cycle!"*) But we got it done...finally...

Here's our friend, TB,  Justin & Jill in action...

The living room, painted in the creamy, warm color of Manchester Tan (from the Benjamin Moore Historical colors of course!). Don't mind the ugly white ceiling fan, it will be making its exit shortly.

And here is the finished product...

Another angle of the paint job.

I love how the color changes from grey/beige/white/cream depending on the light. How versatile!

Anyway, while the painting in the living room was going on, I assigned my sisters to paint the downstairs bathroom. I picked out this really dark teal color called "Swizzle Stick."  I was hoping for a peacock theme in bathroom with teals, blues, chartreuse, and brown.

Here are some pictures of my sisters looking less than enthused.

In hindsight maybe this paint color wasn't the best idea. 1) My sisters can't paint within the lines! (but what do you expect from free labor?) 2) Their mistakes (e.g.: paint on the ceiling) were blinding obvious due to the dark color and 3) The glossy finish of the paint combined with its dark color made every hole and bump in the walls stand out. Why I picked a gloss finish for the bathroom (as opposed to satin or eggshell), I have no clue.  Oh well. I guess this is a learning lesson for me, but heck! We are keeping it! I'm a frugal gal at heart and too much time/money/energy/paint was already spent on the bathroom paint project. And who knows? With the right accessories it might turn out nice!

*If you know what movie that line is from you get a thousand cool points! :)

Week 15: It's Primetime

While the kitchen is getting finished up, Justin and our friends (with a little help from myself) have been hard at work painting our living room. Remember how it looked?

Yup that me in our dark hunter green living room. The paint color was not doing the room any justice. It made the room appear smaller than it actually was--almost like a cave. wop wop. Justin and I decided that before we any furniture in the living room (besides the recliner and chair), we would paint the so we wouldn't have to go through the hassle of moving everything around. Yes, I know that people say that you should see how all your furniture and accessories coordinate before you pick a paint color, but since the color I picked is a nice neutral  (Benjamin Moore's Manchester Tan) I doubt that it'll cause any surprises.


But before we got to painting we had to prime the walls to hide the dark green paint. Boy did we have to prime!


(You can still see a bit of the green in this pic...)

And prime so more...

Stay tuned to see the finished product!