Entry Way ReMixx

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My house was boring me to death.   Not literally, but almost.  

 Blah.

 Blah.  

 Blah.

Taupe every where I looked.  I can't live in a taupe world.  I just can't.  At least not for more than 4 years and 10 months, apparently.  I'm on a bit of a re-decorating kick so here is the first submission to the "Landee De-Lame-ifies Her House Project 2011."  It's a bit of a mouthful.  Sorry.

So here is our entry way as it was last week.

Are you falling asleep yet?

Its only saving grace was the curvature of the wall.  Otherwise it was choking on neutrals, coughing them back up and then gagging on them again.   Sorry to put it so graphically but people, c'mon!  How boring can walls be?  Nary a color nor an accessory to be spotted anywhere.  

So I put a plan in place and set off to complete it.  

We had to rig our ladder to reach up to that right hand corner up there.  The left side of the ladder was resting on the railing at the top of the stairs and the bottom part was wedged between the spindles.   We then zip tied it to the railing on both ends, zip tied a board to the top flat part and away I went.  

And if you don't think that is scary up there then you are an idiot wrong.  It was the scariest thing I've done in a long while.  I could sit on the top of the ladder and be fine, but up on my knees and stretching up?  Yikes.  I would break out in a sweat and shake the entire time.  I could only be like that for about 3 minutes at a time so that top part took a while.  

But I persevered.

After it was painted (it's sort of a robin egg blue bordering on turquoise color), I went and downloaded a template from here, printed it and cut it out of cardboard and set to work on my "painted wallpaper."  When I came across this design/technique I knew it was the perfect marriage of funky & traditional I was looking for.  Plus, it saved me $50 for a stencil.  Free is always better than $50.

I had to get an action shot.  Had to.

I decided to use a metallic white paint for the design.  I love the shimmer it gives off.  Just a touch fancier than regular white paint would have been.  It's reflecting off the flash in the above pic so it looks taupe but it's not, just FYI.

This girl camped out under the ladder for the duration of the project.  She was busy making cards for people, asking me how to spell things, and talking my ear off.  Sometimes when I was freaking out reaching up to the tippy top I'd have to ask her to please stop talking for a few minutes so I could concentrate.  It was fun having a little "helper" though.  

After the kids were in bed was when I'd listen to my audio books and paint into the wee hours of the morning.  It was really quite enjoyable but it did take a while.

So here is the big AFTER reveal.  

I am so excited with how it turned out!!  After consulting with my long-distance design consultant, Memzy, I opted to not do the design down below.  She said it would be "too much" and I said "good cuz I'm lazy" and that was that.  

That table and the pillow are from the living room and that chair was from our guest room (I would prefer a cushy upholstered one there but I'll need to keep my eye out for one).  I got that mirror at Goodwill for $4.  It is plastic and was crazy shiny gold.  10 minutes and some spray paint later it was the perfect shade of white.  I also painted a picture frame for that small table with the same metallic paint.

Here are the before & afters side by side.  

I now smile when I go up & down the stairs rather than get sleepy.  Not bad for 1 gallon of paint, a couple of small craft paint bottles of "metallic white" acrylic paint and a $4 mirror, huh?

Success.