Ikat Entry Way {finished!}

Last month (how has it been that long?!) I posted a picture of our entry way.  At that time I had only gotten one wall done, & was just about to leave on vacation.  Almost a month later, I FINALLY finished it!

I didn't really have a plan or pattern.  I just bought a quart of yellow paint, roughly measured out a couple of lines (so I could keep the pattern semi level), & started slapping the paint on the wall with a 1.5" angled brush.  I started with the zig zag on the bottom & worked up from there creating a diamond pattern.

Once I got the pattern painted, I put a fresh coat of paint on all of the trim.  It needed it - badly.  It's been on my list literally for YEARS...so it felt good to get it done!  The previous owners had painted it "white", but as you can see in the picture below, it had pink undertones which I'm not a fan of, at all.  The bottom is freshly painting with BM's "Simply White".  It's a night & day difference.

I still need to paint the inside of the front door (yellow? turquoise? slate blue?).

I'm really loving the semi crazy, unexpected, bright pattern in that little entry way.  It's such a cheery way for guests to enter the house!

Ikat entry way

I can't believe that I haven't posted anything for almost a month!  Yikes.  Summer is SO busy with Eli away directing basketball camps for two months.  I'm a single parent for the summer & it's hard to find time to blog!

We haven't completed a lot on the house in the last few weeks, but we're slowly working on a few things...two of which are the entryways.  I tore out two layers of old linoleum in the side entry in preparation for tile, & am in the process of painting an Ikat "mural" in the front entry way.  (Crappy iphone sneak peek below!)

The small entryway used to be painted a medium tan color that was just feeling to dark.  I was needing some "happy" injected in there!  Yellow always does the trick...

Dad has also been working on turning those old windows into French doors for the attic bedroom.  They look awesome, but you'll have to wait a bit longer for a picture of those...sorry!

We're also working on stripping the old, chipping paint off our garage doors so we can repair & repaint them.

Busy.

I have so much to write about the cabin, circus, the White Earth Pow Wow, Tball, the drive-in theater, Valleyfair, the 4th, swimming at the beach, etc.  Oh, & we're leaving for Michigan early next week!  Hopefully I'll have time to update everything in the next few days & get caught up a little bit!

Mini Makeovers: Entry way light, caulk, & painting trim

For years I've had a list of small, inexpensive or free fixes/repairs/tweaks that I'd like to (or need to) make to our house.  Guess how far I've gotten on that list - not very.  For some reason it seems like those tiny, 15 minute projects are the hardest to tackle, even though a lot of times they make a huge impact.  That's about to change friends.

I've challenged myself to cross an average of one item off the list each week.  Some weeks I might finish one, some weeks I might not get to any of them...just so my average is one per week.

So, here's where I'm at after week one, with help from my mom & Grady.

Mini Makeover #1: Ugly entry way light fixture.
I know that gold is back, but this here ain't no pretty gold.  I actually like the globe on the original light, so thought I'd put a quick coat of ORB spray paint on the base to freshen it up a bit.  After taping up some newspaper on the ceiling, the whole shebang took 5 minutes...if that.  Easy peasy.

Mini Makeover #2 & 3: Cracked bathroom trim & hallway/dining trim retouch.

After a too hard door slam in the bathroom a couple of months ago, our trim inside the bathroom got popped away from the wall a little bit.  I had to cut away the old caulking & nail the trim back down, resulting in a gap between the trim & tile.  Before I had a chance to nail the trim back down, the door started rubbing against the wonky trim & peeled some paint off.  So in addition to caulking, we now had to paint the trim, too.  (While we were at it we gave all of the door trim in the hallway & dining room a fresh coat of paint too since there were a few dings here & there.)  Caulk = 1 minute, trim paint in bathroom & hall = 1 hour (with two people working).

Mom & Grady painting the newly repaired trim.  (I wish I looked that cute in my undies!)

Future Mini Makeovers:

paint small strip of wall that was missed in kitchen

paint 1 piece of trim in kitchen

stair railing in basement

wallpaper side entry ceiling

paint exterior doors

paint dining room built-in

threshold by patio door

patch old curtain rod holes

patch cracks in living/dining rooms

repaint living/dining rooms

lay wood floor in hall closet

new smoke alarms by bedrooms

new doorknobs on entry closet & our bedroom door & closets

patch cracks in bathroom & repaint

new shower curtain

art for bathroom

kitchen window treatments

touch up trim in front entry

paint front entry ceiling

I'm sure I'll think of a few other things to do, but this should keep us busy for a while!

Here's to getting stuff done & crossing items off lists!