Decal-in' It Up

Remember the decal we got in this post? Well it's finally being put to good use. We mentioned in the aforementioned post that it would most likely be used in some form or fashion on the giant sliding doors in the back room. The doors take up most of a wall, so it just seemed a shame to not be able to display any art on them (please ignore the mess on the floor and table, and the fact that the windows aren't painted yet in this picture).

 

Enter decal. We mentioned when we first wrote about the it that we weren't sure if we would actually use the actual decal or use it more as a stencil to paint with a similar but slightly different color as the rest of the room onto the doors. But when Jake looked at it more closely he decided that stenciling would not work out the best. You can kind of see why in the picture below. 

 

Not the best stencil material. But, we really liked the colors of the actual decal anyway, so it wasn't a loss. Jake was the one who put the decal up since he's good at detailed stuff (I don't have enough patience). He also decided that trying to follow the picture from the packaging exactly would be too much of a hassle, and most likely somewhat impossible, so he just winged it (no bird pun intended, sometimes these things just happen). Here's an in progress shot. 

 

We both really love the result, and several people that have seen it thought that it was painted onto the doors, I almost hate to admit to them that it's actually a decal. Every time I kind of want to put my thumbs in my pockets, puff my chest out and say, "Yeah, we're just awesome like that", but I've refrained, so far that is. 

 

And here's a quick look at both doors, proudly showing their plumage (ok, I may be taking the bird thing a little far now).

 

And while we're on the subject of the closet doors, here's a quick switcheroo we did in less than 5 minutes one night. The old pulls on the the doors were gold. 

 

It's hard to tell the color in the picture a little bit, but trust me it was gold, and gold isn't really our thing. So we decided to switch them out for silver ones. 

It may not be the biggest change in the world, but sometimes its all in the details, and we definitely like these details better than the former details. Here's a close up of the nice, shiny, new pull. 

It may not really be your jam, but we like the subtle difference it made on the doors, somehow they felt cleaner and more streamlined. 

Anyone else added a decal recently, or maybe made a very subtle change to something in your home? Do tell!

What's Your Decorating Personality?

I found this fun little quiz in a Better Homes and Gardens email that I get weekly and thought it would be fun to check out. My personality is apparently Polished Casual.


"Polished Casual: You love to mix and match your favorites from several styles, so Polished Casual is the best way to describe your look. Crisp, fresh, and always comfortable, this approach anchors itself in neutral, subtle hues and furniture that isn't fussy but isn't slouchy either. Pair your clean-lined sofa with a dark leather wing chair or a weathered metal table—anything goes, but simplicity is key."

Here are a few pics of rooms that I thought fit the bill pretty well:

found on pinterest, originally from here

found here

found on pinterest, originally from here

Sounds pretty accurate actually, although I'm not entirely sure that wanting to raid Jennifer Aniston's closet has anything to do with my decorating style... So what's your decorating personality? Take the quiz here and see. Then come back and let us know what you get, and if yours seems as accurate as mine.  

The Other Blue Door

As I mentioned last time, we now are the proud owners of two blue doors, one for the front and now one for the back. It wasn't necessarily intentional, in fact, it didn't even cross my mind that we already had a blue door when we were deciding on a paint color for the interior of the back door; it just seemed like the logical choice. Blue just looks that good.

The color we chose was actually one that I bought a couple of samples for to use on a bench remodel that I plan to get around to someday. It's Artesian Well from the Martha Stewart Living Collection color matched to Olympic Premium no-VOC paint. The way we ended up deciding on it was I just decided to throw some of the sample that I had on hand up on the door in the midst of my window trim painting escapades, it provided a nice break from the tediousness. Low and behold though, it was a great color for the room! Woop woop!

Artesian Well is the color on the bottom of the sample. And just as a side note, if you haven't checked out the Martha Stewart Living Collection paint samples I would definitely suggest it. They have complementary colors on the reverse side that tell you good uses of those other colors. Coincidentally, the coordinating color to Artesian Well is one that is very close to Drifting Dune that we used on the walls in the back room; maybe I should become a paint coordinator...
*I wasn't paid for this little plug for Martha Stewart, btw, she and her company have no idea who I am, although that would be kind of exciting if they did, anyway, I just like the whole color coordinating ideas that they have on the back of the cards.*

Ok, enough with the choosing process, here's how the door thing went down. We took the door off its hinges and set it up on our saw horses outside to get our paint on. Jake removed the handle before painting too, just to make it a little simpler. We primed first, which was a great decision because of how smoothly the paint went on once the primer was dry. We decided to paint the edges of the door too and leave the outside plain for now (we may paint it the same or another color somewhere down the road).

 

I went ahead and had Jake tape off the window for me too so that we wouldn't have to do the whole razor blade thing later, it just seemed like the easier option in this case. Two quick coats of paint later and Jake was reattaching the handle and the door was looking like this.

The whole painting project only took about an hour including drying time because it was so hot out that day and the sun was shining right on the door. We left it out to dry for about 2-3 hours though, just to make sure it was good and dry when we hung it up. It's such a pretty color, here's a close up of the color for you.

And here's what it looks like in its new home.

We really love the results. The soft blue just seems to finish off the room even more, and we love the way it looks paired with the white trim, just so fresh and homey. And I love how the green of the outdoors looks framed in the light blue color.

Anyone else been adding more blue doors? Or maybe another color theme that seems to be on the brain right now?