Paint a Rug...Why Not?

Now that I've been in the condo for what feels like quite a long time, I'm really ready to have some rugs on the floor! Rugs are expensive, so I decided I would try to paint one myself. I went to Hobby Lobby in search of fabric paint. I could only find black (see the picture below) in spray paint format, but I wanted something more colorful. 

Black Fabric Spraypaint

Instead, I used a free can of paint (with coupon) from Ace Hardware with fabric medium. Fabric medium is this gloopy liquid that you mix in with regular wall paint. It allows the paint to adhere to the fabric better, and it also prevents the fabric from becoming really crunchy. I grabbed this stuff from Hobby Lobby for about $3 (after coupon):

Textile Medium

The paint color I picked was Sun Dried Tomato Red by Clark + Kensington. It's more of a coral than a red. I picked it to match some of the colors in the room such as the desk & chair and large bed pillow. I grabbed a $60 rug from Ikea, which is the cheapest low-pile white rug I could find in a large size. It's the Erslev rug and it's about 6 x 8 feet.

Ikea Erslev Rug

I laid the rug out on the floor to see if it was about the right size.

It's pretty much a perfect fit. It goes under the bed a little, which is fine. 

Next I decided what pattern I wanted to paint. I decided to go with easy stripes since this is my first rug-painting experience. The stripes will also match the large pillow I keep on my bed - you can see it on my chair in the top right corner of the picture above. After deciding on the pattern, I measured out how big my stripes would have to be in order to evenly space them out along the rug - about 6" wide. I left any extra on the edges of the rug, since at least one edge will be under the bed. After mixing the textile medium into the paint can, I stuck down some painter's tape to mark where I wanted to paint, and then I got to painting!

So far so good. I've actually FINISHED this one stripe at this point, but I don't have a picture. Yep, only one stripe so far. The most difficult part is definitely the putting down the tape part.

Painting a rug is actually really fun. It definitely feels like something you shouldn't be doing!

Wisdom Teeth & Mirrors

Well, a mirror is something I definitely don't want to look at right now. Considering as how I have a chipmunk cheek. Yes, only one cheek has swelled up. I'm half chipmunk. This is day four after my wisdom teeth removal, and I feel OK. There's not much to say except that it sucks, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. And there wasn't any blood on my clothes (for some reason I thought there would be...gross, I know.) Also the doctor did not have me count down from 10 like you see in movies while I was being put under. He was just talking about how his friend was a miner in Alaska, and then he started laughing, which made me laugh. That's kind of creepy now that I think about it.

Anyway, last week I worked on a mirror. Ant's mom gave me an old mirror that I found in her storage room. When we saw it, we both thought "Beauty and the Beast!"

Large amounts of GOLD GOLD GOLD aren't really my thing though, but I knew just what to do. 

SPRAY PAINT! I used Valspar's Indigo Satin Spray Paint. They had some colors in the glossy sheen, but I didn't want it to be too shiny. Satin worked well. I've used Valspar spray paint before in Deep Sea Diving for the Licorice Chair, which is another shade of blue. It's more Bluey Blue though, while Indigo has an extremely, extremely faint hint of purple. But you wouldn't know it. 

Here's the mirror after one coat. I used many light coats to get the job done, as usual. 

Here's a close-up. My coats aren't very even, but that's OK. It evens out on its own in the end. 

And after coat two. 

It took a little extra work to get all of the nooks and crannies. 

And about five coats later...ta da!

I decided to hang the mirror in the living room right next to the front door. 

My Perfectly Imperfect Home book says that there should be a mirror near the door for guests to look at their appearance when they arrive and before they leave. 

The color of the mirror matches the blue in the lampshade next to it. I love it. 

Spray paint wins again! But like I said, I'm not going to be using it anytime soon.

Source

Goodbye, Wisdom Teeth

Tomorrow (Friday) I'm having my wisdom teeth pulled out. First of all, ouch, second of all, goodbye crunchy foods. I have stockpiled the following items in my kitchen that meet wisdom tooth extraction dietary requirements (liquid enough such that no chewing is required, no small pieces of food that can be stuck in the tooth holes):

Cinnamon applesauce
Mashed potatoes
Miso soup
Tomato soup
Vegetable broth
Chocolate coconut milk ice cream
Hummus
Guacamole

Essentially what you're trying to avoid is moving blood clots that fill the holes where the wisdom teeth previously sat. So you're to avoid sucking (water bottles, straws) and spitting.

As it turns out, I only have 3 wisdom teeth. So I think that the procedure will probably not hurt as badly as if I had all 4. I hope.

One of my goals for this year (that I've only recently decided on) is to take care of some teeth related issues. My wisdom teeth have caused me discomfort on and off since I was about 21 years old, so it's time for them to come out. Thanks to dental insurance through my work I am finally getting it done.

I will report back tomorrow on how the procedure goes.

More Bathroom Excitement! (Um.)

This weekend Ant and I got back to working on the condo (a little bit)!

Ant fixed the bathroom faucet and installed the new handle trim in the bathroom. If you recall, the trim I originally ordered didn't fit because it was the wrong brand. So I ordered a new handle and tub spout for $38 from Amazon. It was listed as "refurbished" but so far I don't see anything wrong with it.

Here's the old tub trim (notice the purplish picture due to the fact that the bathroom used to be totally purple!):

And here's the new handle! I know it looks weird because the new tub spout isn't on yet. That's because it's a bit big for the space - the spout is really close to the tub. So Ant and I are going to do something magical to it, like grind it down or something? I don't know, but Ant does. So we will do that sometime in the near future. Then things won't look as nickel versus chrome mis-matchy.

I also changed out the way towels hang out in the bathroom. I used to use an over-the-door hanger like this, but the towels were always in my way:

So I bought two towel racks at Home Goods for $10/each, and now things look like this: 

And overall it's just much less annoying. Plus Martha Stewart did it, so it must be right!

Only with home decorating though. As far as anything else, particularly in regard to the interests of the American shareholder, do not listen to Martha. Thank you.

Splish Splash I Was Takin' a Bath

Over memorial day weekend I rode horses, saw a beautiful sunset on a mountain, and I made some upgrades to the bathroom. Ha-ha!

To be accurate, my boyfriend (I think I've decided to just call him Ant from here on out, because calling him my boyfriend takes more typing.) installed a bathroom sink faucet and I installed the new showerhead. The faucet was the first thing done, so I'll start there.

I picked up this faucet from Overstock a few weeks back for about $50 shipped (no tax). (Remember the Bathroom Plan?)

Overstock Satin Nickel Classic Two Handle Bathroom Faucet

Pretty! Perfect to replace the yucky faucet that was there when I moved in, complete with plastic handles...

Bathroom with Old Faucet (and old medicine cabinet!)

I considered a few other types of faucets before landing on my favorite one including the cross-handle kind and the kind with porcelain handles. While that would have been a vintage-look that would fit with the age of the condo, I thought it looked cheesy. Many of the features in the condo are very cheap, take the basic square white tile in the bathroom for example. So I have to be careful to not make those features stand out - I want them to sort of blend into the background.

So anyway, back to installation! Ant did it all, and he was awesome. He had one set back when he stuck his finger down the drain and something bit him. Luckily I had pickle band-aids so he felt better quickly. Ha-ha!

Seriously I have no idea what happened. I guess sharp things live in drains? Who knew. But I knew that as I watched his finger go down the drain, I thought, "Hm. I would not do that." But I am not a smart-ass, so I didn't say anything! Just kidding, I am a smart ass. But I still didn't say anything.

With the old faucet off, it was time to clean. Not surprisingly that was my job. Ha-ha!

Dirty Sink & Old Faucet

Clean-ish Sink!

It was so gross. The before and after is kind of remarkable. All of that nasty gunk came off! This makes me think that this is why you caulk around fixtures...so I guess I should caulk around the new one? I haven't yet. I am sure it will take me five months like the kitchen sink did.

Sink with Drain Removed

Here is where you insert all of the energy Ant had to put into unscrewing the old pipes/water tube thingys because they hadn't been touched in what appeared to be many years. And then you end up with the lovely finished product!

Finished Product! Look at that fancy new drain, too.

Not only does this new faucet look better, it also works better. The old one would sort of turn off unexpectedly if you didn't turn the handle far enough around.

Next was the new showerhead. I actually had an entire set for the shower/tub area, but I realized that the installed brand was a Moen and I had bought Price Pfister (my choice for the kitchen sink faucet as well). The set actually came with a new valve thingy, but I (and Ant) did not want to attempt that nonsense. I know my limits...SORT OF. So we decided to just use the showerhead which seemed pretty universal and send back the other parts. The Moen handle/tub spout is arriving from Amazon sometime next week.

Pfister Marielle Shower Trim

Here's the Moen handle/spout that are on their way...

Moen Brantford

The showerhead was a PAIN to install. A total freaking nightmare. For some reason the pipe in the wall would not meet the pipe at the end of the showerhead to screw in. It took literally hours of trying. I worked on it for over three hours after Ant went back home at the end of the weekend. When I got it to screw in finally I was cross eyed and my arms hurt from holding up the pipe that probably only weighs less than a pound. It had just been such a long time holding it up. I ended up putting a ladder in the bathtub so I could get myself closer to the pipe in the wall, and because I was tired of standing on the edges of the tub.

But it was worth it. The new showerhead looks awesome and works great! I can't get the little metal "O" piece to get flush with the tile wall because of the way that the pipe bends. I have to think about that. Suggestions?

It Worrrrrks!

The showerhead is raincan style, which is supposed to mimic an old fashioned outdoor shower (I think). I really like it. (And I even checked inside the wall for leaks...you bet I did, ha-ha! I ain't no plumber.)

With the new medicine cabinet and "trim" (I learned that new plumbing fixtures in the bathroom are called trim...) I think the plain old white tiles take a backseat in this room, in a very good way.

Next up I've got to install the new tub/shower handle and tub faucet, when they arrive. That should be a quick pop off/pop on kind of deal. After that...a new toilet! I am very afraid to install a new toilet. I mean, let's face it, that involves poop. Should I even try it?