Paul Street House Tour - Nursery

I have already posted about the nursery when we first finished it, but you know how rooms just sort of change over time.

I already miss Paddy's sweet little room...it will be fun to come up with another room to suit him once we move to West Point.

Before -

Before Paddy was a glimmer in our eye, this room was a very messy storage room. 

After -

Jenny Lind crib, Gap Kids blanket, PB Kids Bumpers, and Hat Rack made by my dad

the Brimfield cart...

I love the addition of the pouf...it is also amazing storage for all the baby blankets!

the owl pillow I made, my $5 thrift store chair, and Target trumpet table

baby hangers are one of the cutest things ever, in my opinion.

the mobile I made from balsa wood...

the pinwheels that my friends made for the Boston shower...

Paul Street House Tour - Kitchen

I struggled with the kitchen at Paul Street.  We are used to small kitchens, so that was fine.  However, I had a hard time seeing past the gray faux-wood laminate cabinets with blue trim, the bright blue laminate back splash, the remnant laminate crown moulding edging out the dirty drop ceiling (which held the original tin ceiling hostage!!!  Who would do such a thing!?)  and the fake brick linoleum floor that never seemed clean, no matter how much I scrubbed it....okay, I shouldn't have started on that list.  I will stop here. :)

I couldn't be more thankful that our buffet from Randy fit in here.  It provided necessary storage for us, and it warmed up the space and made me happy.  We painted over the faux-stone looking wall paper with plain white because I didn't know how else to salvage this room.

Before -

See...I wasn't kidding about the blue, right?

Check out the faux-stone wallpaper, gray laminate wall, the light fixtures...ugh.

See that drop ceiling?  and, can you see the laminate 'crown moulding'?  Blek.

After -

Our Ikea Lack shelves that never sat flush against the wall....but, to their credit, they never dropped my cookbooks - PHEW!

Some vintage towels I found on eBay, hanging on a towel rack I made out of dowel rods and ribbon I had laying around...

I adore this poster that we had framed from the Keep Calm Gallery.

Paul Street House Tour - Guest Bedroom #2

We lived on the second and third floors of this 1870 Victorian, so again, in our rush to find a place to live, we completely forgot that Sean couldn't stand up straight on the third floor, and it was even a very close call for me.  We had a nice large room up on the third floor that you can stand in the middle of, but the sides slope pretty severely (sorry to all the guests who banged their heads....probably more than once).  It was a very spacious room with wonderfully deep built-ins along a whole wall which stashed away all my wrapping, craft, and bedding goodies.

Before -

Random chairs that do not belong to us...

After -

I changed out the green pillows for some orange ones up here and we got a large geometric print rug, but I never took after shots!  Yikes.  This will at least give you an idea.

Not a great shot of the room, but you can at least see the new rug/different accent pillows in the background...Glory and Paddy had a lot of fun playing up here...

Rising Gael

Sean and I were able to go into the city on Friday to see a Rising Gael concert.  The lead singer of this Madison, WI based Celtic band, Erin, was one of Sean's classmates at Boston College.  I was blown away by the talent of this group.  They incorporate so many different and unique instruments into all their songs...and they even added some Irish dancing into a few numbers.  They are clearly very passionate musicians...there was no way you could not be entertained by their performance.  To top it off, Erin has the sweetest, most beautiful voice...I was sad when the concert ended!

*Note - she also has the most unique and gorgeous handwriting that I have ever seen.  I am going to have to recruit her to give me a sample of her writing just so that I can share it with you!

If you are looking for some new music, check out Rising Gael....

Paul Street House Tour - Bathroom

We only had one full bath on Paul Street, and due to the choppy nature of the house, it was far away from everything.  Visitors could never remember where it was because of its strange location. 

It was a decent sized bath for an old house...it served as our laundry area as well.  I had lots of grand schemes of things to do in here...figure out a way to put a curtain around the washer/dryer, frost the window glass, etc. but we quickly got to the point of not wanting to put any additional money into anything that we couldn't take with us.  Thus, we just got the roomy shower curtain rod, and I used my standby Ikea Hemmes curtains as a shower curtain because I wanted a very long curtain for little dinero.


Before:

After:

I am embarrassed about the wrinkles!  I wish I was a more motivated iron-er!

look at these tin ceilings...precious!

Paul Street House Tour - Guest Bedroom

I had never painted an accent wall until the guest bedroom.  I am on the fence as to whether or not I would do it again.  I think a wallpaper accent wall would be fantastic though...

Another repeat color...we painted Sherwin Williams Kestrel White.   I painted the accent wall with a dark teal - I don't have the exact color right now since everything is packed and somewhere out in storage land...

Before -

 

After -

Here we have an Urban Outfitters headboard, Home Goods lamps, bedside tables are from a Glen Ellyn store back in 2000. 

An Ikea-ful picture...Another Ikea Regolit lantern, Ikea curtains, and Ikea bedding...both the white duvet cover and the orange and white geometric print.  We brought the rug back from Ireland last year.

 I refinished this old armoire with my dad after I graduated college.  As you can see, I have yet to find good hardware for the doors.  Add to my project list....

 On top of the armoire sits framed Paper Source Japanese paper, my now broken stained glass :(, and a jade plant.

The painting above bed is one that Sean brought home from Iraq.  On the Kestrel White wall, the top painting is a watercolor by Suta Lee.  Below that is a picture of the Slade Drive street sign that Brenda took for us in a frame built by Randy.

can't get enough of the radiators.

Paul Street House Tour - Master Bedroom

Our Master Bedroom has a door that MAY be six feet, one inch tall.  Poor Sean...lots of ducking. 

Before -

notice the horrible orange/brown sliding plastic door.  This was the first thing to go.

We painted Sherwin Williams Monorail Silver (SW7663).

After -

We were very happy with how the color turned out, and I loved the gray color with pops of red/pink.  Here you see the bed that my dad made, Target black bedding/accent pillow, Home Goods lamps, end tables from Marshalls, DIY silohuettes, and the craigslist desk with Target lamp (I broke the matching one :( )...

still enjoying the pop of color...although Sean seems to be trying to turn this into a 'clothes collector'...

 Our ABC print from Lee Brantley of Columbus, GA

 a little old, a little new.  I will really miss these radiators...

After removing the plastic door, I decided to use the tight space between the bathroom and closet as a getting ready area.  I flanked the doorways with my favorite standby, the Ikea Merete curtains and tension curtain rods that I hope to re-use in another house.  I added the DIY Lampshade light fixture since there was no light in here....again, you should see the mess of wires that goes along with this concoction.  No wonder my hair dryer is always flaming up.

half bath...or, as I call it, the cruise ship bathroom.

oh, leaded windows, I will miss you.