Our Disaster of a Guest Suite

Last weekend our guest suite looked fairly sparse with just a few pieces in it.  The bed (which was my first grown-up purchase), a rocking chair (that was my mother-in-laws and she refinished when she was pregnant with Erik), a secretary desk and mirror that was my great-grandmothers, and a lonely lamp that Erik had with a whopping 40W light bulb in it - yeah it was dark at night!

Well, I decided the room needed to feel a little more "homey" as my father-in-law and his fiance are coming to visit the house for the first time.  Erik and I picked up a ceiling fan last weekend (that's still hanging out in our living room after a 5 hour debacle getting the one in our master bedroom up).  I also decided the room also needed some side-tables, lamps and art.  Nothing a trip to IKEA and Target can't handle. 

I started out picking up a side table and lamps at Target. I've been eyeing the lamps for a good three months, hoping they'd come down in price, but alas, they held firm on the price, so I bit the bullet.

Next up, an unfinished side table from IKEA.

Add a quart of black paint from Sherwin Williams (working on using the gift card I won in December), and I have a disaster area upstairs. 

I got a second coat on the pieces this morning, I plan to do one more tonight and let it cure for two days before assembling.  Other than that, I'm thinking that I'll do something with the frames in the background, bring up a rattan trunk I have in our living room (to go next to the chair), get the ceiling fan up, and possibly introduce this bedding I originally purchased for our master. 

 Hopefully it all gets done before Thursday evening, so I'm not rushing around on Friday!

Dining Room Art - Taking Shape

Back in January I had mentioned some artwork I'd seen that I wanted to attempt to DIY, five months later, I've actually started the process!

I started by creating a file in Microsoft Publisher; making it a custom size paper - 12x12 (same as scrapbook paper).

I printed the documents, which printed on four pages, and taped them together to give myself a template.

I pulled out my light table, and attempted to trace, but I realized how unsteady my hand truly is.  That's when I busted out a variety of cups as a tracing tool.  This special cup was purchased during Red Sox spring training; not only is it a good template, it also lists important dates! :)

The next step was to "trace" the pencil marks with paint.

Then fill them in.

All three "pieces" as they are today.  I'm going to make sure they're dry, then erase my random pencil marks.   

From there, I'm going to apply some distressing ink to give them an aged look, then pop them in the IKEA frames that have been hanging out in my office for the past four months and finally get some artwork up on the dining room wall.

I'm someone who typically likes clean lines and symmetry; my paintings have neither.  I'm hoping the imperfections will give them more personality.  I guess time will tell, and if over time I hate them, I can always replace them.