Hello! I have been giving you sneak peeks and snippets about what I’m doing with my basement media space, and while I still have more I want to do, I figured a reveal was in order.  After all, no space is really ever “done” is it?  Well, not in my house anyway… You all provided some great input on how to manage some of my design dilemmas, and overall, I’m really happy with the way it looks.  I wanted to go with a deep color on the walls, since this is a big gaming/movie watching space, and the dark walls definitely work in that sense.  So, let’s get started!  Here is a shot of the space as it stands now.  The wall color is Aegean Teal by Benjamin Moore. Here you can see my addition of my equestrian art (aka – horse picture).  It really works beautifully down here!  Even though my 13 year-old son called it “girly”.  Whatever.  And the throw pillows really punch up the space nicely, and my new lamp found a home down here as well.  All great finds from TJ Maxx.   The only thing I want to change (right now) is the ottoman.  It has […]

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Hello friends! Thanks so much for your feedback on my basement media room in progress.  I’m still considering my options, in terms of the panels, and how to deal with them, but I did paint around the panels for the moment, and it’s looking GREAT. I will show you those changes soon, for now I wanted to share some of the pillows I picked up to tie my color palette together down here.  I dropped my son off at soccer practice last night, and just happened to pass TJ Maxx, so what’s a girl to do? Luckily, I channeled my inner Maxinista, and found some great pillows for my basement. I already had green pillows, and was glad that I could reuse them in this space.  They tie in perfectly with the colors in my new pillows, and I love the pattern mix too.  Makes me look like I know how to mix patterns, doesn’t it? I was kind of on the fence at first, since they seem kind of predictable, and I was thinking about adding other colors down here – yellows or orange maybe.  But now that I have these in place, I’m really digging them. What do you […]

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Hello! I hope you’re all having a great week!  With it so uber-hot around here, it leaves me wanting to curl up in a cool and comfy corner.  And where would that be?  The Basement. Now, I’m not talking scary-cellar basements.  Think luxe, sit-and-stay-awhile basements.  I have shown you my basement space here and here, and I’ve been doing some more work to make it mine (ok, who am I kidding, my boys get the most use out of this space).  But, it’s coming along.  I blogged about some great color palette ideas from Sherwin Williams that I have been using as a starting point for this space.  A refresher… I have already used Ethereal Mood on the walls going down the stairs to the basement and along my board and batten wall near the bar area (of which I apparently have no recent pictures to share).  But here is the stairway… We have a media area that is great for watching sports (go Reds!) or for cozying up for a family movie night.  It’s a separate area, without being completely closed off from the rest of the basement, which I love.  I just haven’t been too jazzed by the baby-poo colored walls down there. So, I’m drawing inspiration […]

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Hello Friends! Hope you all had a wonderful July 4th holiday weekend.  Ours was great, despite the oppressive heat around here.  Looking forward to a “cool down” with highs in the 80’s! As for my “Nooks and Crannies/Crooks and Nannies” post, many of you guessed correctly.  As one reader commented, she was taking advantage of a  “five finger discount” here.  I will tell you that I will forever be an Apple customer, and thanks to their iPad locator functionality, I was able to channel the Cagney in me, and locate its whereabouts (at a pawn shop) after it went missing.  Along with my son’s Kindle Fire. This whole thing brought out my inner Mama Bear as well as a bit of Donald Trump.  Having never fired anyone before, it’s exceedingly easy when you add the Mama Bear factor. Ok, on to the built-ins!  I finally got around to painting them that pretty Aegean Teal color that I’ve been wanting to incorporate into our home.  It adds a nice punch of color that I think will tie in nicely with the curtain panels I ordered from Avec Dieu Couture’s Etsy shop. I spray painted some of the picture frames white so they […]

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I survived the half-marathon, and let’s just say it wasn’t my prettiest race, by any stretch.  But, I finished, and the whole goal was to get some of my running mojo back.  And, as an unexpected bonus, I beat my husband. 🙂 I recently posted about my family room painter’s remorse, and am happy to report that I am no longer remorseful!  The paint is staying, and I have been working on a second coat.  I have mentioned that we’re planning on redoing our kitchen cabinets, and painting them white.  Originally, I was going to hire this out, but now we’re considering doing it ourselves, starting with a small section of the kitchen.  The understanding is that if it’s a huge fail, we will hire it out.  A friend has a heavy duty paint sprayer, and I’ve been researching it, so we’re going to give it a try.  I want to do a glaze of some sort too, and we’re going to paint the island a different color.  This is kind of the grand plan at the moment.  We want to use the black on the island and the cream color on the perimeter cabinets.  These are the samples I’m using. As […]

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