Category: Library

Library Alcove

For the last three days, I’ve looked pretty much like this:

Painting, painting, painting. But I finally chose a color for the ceiling! It’s “flowering herbs”, or as Brandon’s family calls it, “Cooney green”. I don’t know the whole story, but Brandon’s Grandma Cooney used that color (a lot?), and subsequently everyone else in his family has used it in one of their rooms. We were thinking of using it for the guest room, but I thought it would be a beautiful ceiling color for the library (and it is).

We still need to paint the trim white, but the ceiling and the walls are done! Two coats of paint each. Whew. I’m tired.

I know the smart thing to do would be to leave the area clear, because we’re going to put all of our bedroom furniture out there while we put in our new floors this weekend. I just couldn’t though. It seems so anti-climactic to spend three days painting, and then just leave it. So… I brought up some furniture and set up the alcove.

The black table was my first purchase from IKEA. I think I was 16! The lamp was in my office, so it will probably go back (unless I buy a new lamp for my desk, which I certainly wouldn’t mind doing). The chair is part of a set of four that I grabbed from an alley – I think they were from a waiting room. Two of them have arms and two don’t. I may bring the other armless one up for the other side of the table (in front of the window). The curtain and the pillow are from Pier 1. I’m not totally crazy about them, but I do like them. Really, we needed some curtains and we needed them quickly, so those seemed fine.

The rest of the space is still crazy and messy, but at least one corner looks nice!

March 27, 2007
Butterflies in my Stomach

Hrmmm… What do you all think about this?

I was at Paper Source today, and I just happened to see those buterflies. So I thought: “Oh! I can frame them in little shadowboxes and hang them down the hallway!” I bought that textured yellow paper, and I can pick up some white shadowboxes pretty inexpensively.

I was planning to put them in the library/hallway/upstairs space, and I think they’d look good against the chocolate brown walls. I’ve never really been into taxidermy or butterflies, so it’s sort of strange to me that I thought to do this little art project. I still think I might just return the butterflies and do something else. We’ll see.

*edited to add: No need to worry, butterfly lovers. These are indeed fake butterflies!

March 13, 2007
The Chicken or the Egg

So many projects are hinging on other projects around here. The living room hasn’t been painted because I want it to complement the wallpaper for the dining room (which hasn’t been chosen yet). The dining room is in shambles because the kitchen cabinets (not yet assembled) are in there. The kitchen has stalled because I want to paint the ceiling to start, but I haven’t picked a light fixture (I may be changing the placement).

Things are not much better upstairs. None of my clothes are put away because we haven’t built the new closet/wardrobe yet. That hasn’t been done because we want to paint the bedroom first, but of course we’re waiting to do that because we might take up the carpet (and therefore the baseboards too). And the painting of the library/hall hasn’t continued for two reasons: there are clothes strewn about, and I haven’t decided what to do for the ceiling color.

*sigh* …so I guess I need to pick a light(s) for the kitchen, and decide what to do about the bedroom floor.

March 12, 2007
The "Library"

Our upstairs hallway/landing/library is coming along nicely! We painted the walls a super-rich chocolate brown. Well, some of the walls. We only painted the two walls where the bookshelves are, because there’s too much stuff in the way to paint the rest! We’ll get to it eventually.

At least the shelves are up! They’re anchored to the wall, the glass doors are on, and the lighting has been installed. Here they are, in progress…

… and a bit further along, with some books in them…

The ceiling is the same white it was. I’m not sure what to do with it yet. Brandon wants to keep it white, which is the obvious ‘safe’ choice. I don’t really mind it because we’re painting all of the wood trim white, and the bookshelves are white too. It’s just so stark though. I don’t know if I’d want it to be the same brown as the walls, because it gets quite dark at night. Maybe a brownish/taupe color? Something a bit lighter than the walls, but still complentary? Or a color from the carpet (tan)? Any ideas?

March 8, 2007