Sleeping Under the (Stenciled) Stars

I'm exhausted but proud.

All the carpet is gone and we now have laminate flooring on the second story of our home. All the rooms are freshly washed and painted.

While I know it's gauche for those who drink their tea with their pinkies extended to speak of money and cost, I am not one of the gentler class. I'll happily admit that we couldn't have done this if we'd hired professionals or paid full price for everything; plus, we learned a lot of new skills in the process. The laminate flooring was bought at a massive discount, so we paid about twenty-seven cents per square foot for that. The paint we bought on sale, as well, and it hung around in our garage for a year before we used it. We just took the paint cans back to Home Depot and had them reshaken.

In the months between when we bought the laminate flooring and when we actually used it, Husband found whatever flooring tools he could at pawn shops and bought the rest when they were on sale on Amazon. He used every single tool he bought, and they all made the job so much easier.

Sophia's room was already painted (she did that on her own a couple years ago), and it was the first to  get new flooring the weekend before she moved back in. Then we moved on to the hallway and the two boys' rooms before finishing up in the master bedroom.

The walls got washed and Little Gary wanted to help me paint. I love this deep peacock blue that we put on two walls. The other two walls are painted with the light blue I used in the hallway.

It doesn't look like a glossy magazine photo, but all his stuff is back in and he loves it. The room is pet-odor-free (yay for Kilz odor-blocking paint!) and contains a dresser that I will someday get my hands on and make very pretty.

The hallway, done in "Winterscape" by Glidden paint. There is no natural light here, so I thought it was best to keep the color light and bright. I'm on the lookout for fabulous wall sconces for more and better lighting. The door at the left on the edge of the picture is the linen closet. At the end of the hall is Joseph's room, and at the top of the stairs is the master bedroom.

Joseph's room got a coat of a sage green paint, which is a massive improvement on the dark jailhouse gray that was originally on the walls (forgot to take a before pic, but it was a color the owners before us had painted on). Doesn't the wall color look so nice with the floors?

We were going to use the same sage green in the master bedroom that we'd used in Joseph's room, but I just wasn't feeling it. I love green, but I've been craving indigo forever now, and that's what I wanted on the walls. Fortunately, Husband was game, so we picked this luscious deep sapphire blue and put it on all four walls. There's so much natural light in our large room that the dark color doesn't make the room cavelike, but at night the color becomes cozy and enveloping.

I also loved the idea of stenciling a wall or two instead of using wallpaper. When I first suggested that idea to Husband, he had this mental image of a row of bowtie-wearing geese marching around the walls near the ceiling, and he said, "Ookaay...you can do whatever you want." He was very relieved when I explained what I actually wanted, and we were both thrilled that the Royal Design Studio stencil I fell in love with was on sale.

I love the way it turned out, but I was so sick of stenciling by the time I was finished.

I made a plumb line with materials I had nearby--orange yarn and a paint can key--so that I could keep the stencil on the straight and narrow. Pro tip: work your stencil along vertical columns as much as possible. I went diagonal once when I was first starting, and that created a situation where I had to tape off and repaint some of the wall to correct the pattern.

Here I'm making progress, but I realized that I have to wash the stencil after every nine or ten uses to prevent paint buildup on the spokes of the star. I started scrubbing the stencil of all paint after completing each column. It added more time to the project, but it was worth it.

After several days, I had a completed wall. The last column took about three tries, and I had to keep taping off sections and repainting them until I got the pattern to align correctly. I love the high contrast with the blue and white, but I could have gone more subtle by using a shade or tint of the blue or even a quiet silver or gold.

It was late by the time I got the headboard painted and hung. I used Vintage Mustard chalk paint from Behr on my brown vinyl headboard that I made a few years ago. It took three coats, but it turned out really well. I love the yellow against the starry background. 

My mother's neighbor ordered this rug from Wayfair but found it was too large for the room she wanted to put it in. Because she offered it for free, we happily took it off her hands. Unfortunately, we both hated it once we had it unrolled in our painted room. Its traditional pattern clashed heavily with the style of the room, even though I was using it to inspire my color choices. I don't mind an eclectic style, but the rug really is awful with everything else.

We found a smaller, more serviceable area rug at Walmart to use until we find something we really like. Meanwhile, that same neighbor who gave us the rug also didn't like the chairs she ordered, so she gave those to us, as well, and we created a little seating area at the other end of the room. I'll put a small coffee table in between them as soon as I find one that I like. We moved only one of the three bookcases back in (the other two fit happily in the hallway without impeding movement) and heavily culled our book collection. The massive massage chair is by the window now, and the office desk is gone.

Husband found a glass and metal bar with a definite art deco vibe that someone was selling for a very reasonable price. We needed a place to showcase his rock collection, and on the bottom shelf, he has his flutes and the speaker he uses when he hooks a mic up to whichever flute he's playing. 

I'm working on the details of the room--the wall hangings and the bedding and all the other little decorating touches that make a room look cozy and lived in. I'll bore you with more pictures once I'm satisfied with the result.

Meanwhile, we got tons of apricots off our tree this year. 

And in other news, Husband found a great deal at the place where we stay when we go to St. George, the Sports Village, which has a nice pool, tennis courts, mini golf, racquetball, and a bunch of other fun things in the clubhouse. Usually, we go with my in-laws and as many of the kids as are available to come with us, as well as any relatives who have come in from England or elsewhere. The two- or three-bedroom condos we've booked are spacious and very clean and comfortable.

This time, it was just four of us: Husband and I and the boys. My in-laws were out of state visiting two other sons and their families, and my parents were dealing with some health issues. We booked a one-bedroom that said it comfortably slept four (there were mattresses we could bring in from the garage).

Unfortunately, although the condo was impeccably clean and stylishly decorated, it was tiny. Microscopic. The kitchen was so small that you couldn't fit two people in at the same time, and so narrow that you couldn't fully open the dishwasher door. The bed looked absolutely lovely, but it was a queen, and it was stacked so high on two bases that you couldn't sleep on the edge without rolling off. The two of us with our body pillows were uncomfortable all night. We ended up putting a mattress on the floor of the bedroom--squeezed in between the bottom of the bed and the closet--where Husband slept. There was a rollaway bed that Little Gary used in the living room while Joseph slept on the couch, but Joseph snores. Loudly. We were all uncomfortable and tired, and we ended up leaving a day early because the boys were homesick. Other than that, we had a good time.

The road home.

Summer's just about over. Husband has mandatory meetings this week, and I start my mandatory trainings next week. I'm feeling more than a little dread, but I suppose that's not unusual when you've become accustomed to decadently controlling all your own time.