project: home.

Love it! I want another matching lamp for the other side of the room.

The bedroom is finished! Sunday night we slept on the couch because the paint fumes were still pretty strong. Yesterday after I got home from work and while Nate was still in class, I moved the furniture back in, positioning the bed in the middle of the wall instead of in the corner. We love it!

Our wedding "guestbook" hangs on the wall.
I used to hate Nate's beat up dresser from college,
but it looks kind of cute here. :)

I would never have guessed I'd be painting and decorating and doing DIY projects. I have never been very good at it but I guess when you read enough Real Simple magazines and see enough cute ideas on blogs, it makes you a little more courageous. I made a quick trip to Michael's and picked up some floral pieces: blue to match and red to compliment.

Before and After

Nate's night stand is nothing more than a TV stand I got in college, and it didn't really match the floors or headboard. So for less than $10, I picked up a small can of wood stain at Michael's and a plain unfinished TV try turned into a cute Early American stained side table.

I've also been painting a round side table, but I'm not quite sure what I'll do with it. The top wouldn't stain well because it was just particle board, so I painted the top white and the legs are the Early American stain. I might use the Cloud Burst blue to paint a stripe on it, but there's really no place in our bedroom for it.

Once you get started, these little projects are actually really simple. And there are tons of places online that offer inspiration and instruction.

When I was at Michael's, I also picked up a spray can of chalkboard paint. Apparently I was so excited that I didn't notice it wasn't black. (I looked at the picture, okay? It's black!) I thought the lid was just green for fun. This is totally something that happens to me all the time. I don't know why.

So I was a little disappointed when I started painting some glass from picture frames and it was green. I hoped it would change colors to black but alas it did not. Oh well. I would buy black paint next time. Not yet sure what I'd do with it next time ... more frames? Kitchen back splash? (Hmm ... intriguing!) Wait and see!