The dawning of decorum

I love to decorate. It's one of my favorite things to do. Unfortunately, it's an expensive undertaking. Over 5 years ago, I redecorated most of my house. It all started with the changing out of 75% of the flooring. I had hard wood put down in the entranceway, family room, dining room, hallway, and my bedroom (it replaced the forest green carpet that I thought was such a good idea when I purchased my brand new home 4 years before that). Additionally, I replaced the linoleum floors in the kitchen, laundry room, my bathroom, and the guest bathroom with a large beautiful rustic looking tile. Then I couldn't be stopped.

I love what painting does to a room. It adds such dimension...such warmth. I just hate painting. 9 1/2 years into my house and I've only painted my bedroom and bathroom (twice). Honestly, the whole house needs painting. I had dabbled with the idea of having a painting party this past Fall. I figured if you feed them, they will come. I lacked the true ambition to see it through though.

For Christmas, I asked my parents for a new shower curtain and the accessories for my guest bathroom. A few weeks before Christmas, I went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond and picked it out. I guess I really hadn't thought too much past the gift and then the actuality of the situation slapped me once I actually had the gift in my possession. I couldn't possibly display this new shower curtain and the accompanying accessories without painting the bathroom to bring the color scheme all together. Project #1 for The New Year: 2010 had wormed its way into my life. I went to WalMart and bought all kinds of painting supplies - brushes, etc. I then went to Home Depot with the toothbrush holder in hand to help me pick out a color. I found a selection of paints that were primer/paint combos (perfect for those of us who really really hate painting) PLUS they really had pretty colors. I found 3 that would work and took all 3 up to the girl who worked there and made her choose the one I would take home with me. She chose "dragonfly" which is totally the one I was hoping she would pick! Yay! My next stop was Kirklands to find artwork for the walls. I did not have a vision before me as to what I wanted to do, so I wandered around the store for a good 45 minutes with different ideas popping into my head until I saw it. It was one picture and it was perfect. I built my plan in my head and found the rest of the pictures (all on sale) to help to create my masterpiece. I then went home to do the taping.

The next day, I did the painting with full anticipation of putting everything into place the following day. Here's where things got rough. Old Kim would have noticed the few splotchy areas and said "oh well, that sucks" and put up all the stuff anyway. New and improved Kim (read: anal retentive) needed to fix it. There went another day. So the next day (which was yesterday, by the way), I was so excited to get home and put everything in its rightful place. All was going well until I couldn't find one of my two hammers to put up my pictures. RAR! The pictures had to wait until today. This ended up being okay because I decided on a couple more items to buy from Bed, Bath, & Beyond to finish the look. Even though I still have one more thing to add (a chocolate brown valance which I have yet to buy), I wanted to go ahead and post the pics to display my beauty.

Of course, the pictures can't possibly do the bathroom justice, but it will serve its purpose. My only regret was not taking BEFORE pictures for those of you who never saw the bathroom in its former state.

I'm going to take a short break from painting to focus on decluttering my home, but rest assured that the kitchen it my next undertaking. Choosing a color for that one is going to be a bit trickier.