The Eventual To-Do

Time will tell what we actually get done this weekend, but until then here are some things we would like to do. Not today or tomorrow, but eventually, lets say this summer. Summer is a great catch all for projects, because I am a teacher and envisions my summer lasting for an epic amount of time where I am free to work on things around the house, and visit friends, and take vacations, and, and, and… To bad summer actually ends up with me going to more classes to keep my certificate up to date and my only vacations are to attend friends’ weddings (same for visiting said friends). Sigh. Well, on with the grand ideas.

First, some inspirational decor photos. Love these. They are from the blog From the Right Bank.

  I think these interiors would be even better with wall color. White is a bit too boring for me; of course, that could have something to do with my parents’ house being stark white with not a hint of color (or design) anywhere. Silly hippies, don’t you know you should have had a bohemian eclectic style?

Bill and I would also like to give woodworking a go. We would like to try our hand at handcrafting some furniture. Lucky for us there is this hand dandy site with plans all laid out in a supposedly user friendly way. I only say supposedly because we have not used them yet and cannot attest to their friendliness or animosity. Knock off Wood has some really cool projects and we are definitely looking to try making some bookshelves, coffee table, and nightstands.  Of course, before we tackle some of those projects we need to invest in some proper tools… Hmmm, Bill’s birthday is coming up. That is a worthy excuse to buy saw horses, drills, saws, and whatnot, right?

I would also like to try my hand at some stenciling (or even free hand?) wall art. Check out these awesome (and affordable) stencils at Cutting Edge Stencils.  I heard about them at The DIY Showoff, where they are currently holding a giveaway. My big questions, is how much painted wall art is too much painted wall art? Hmmm? I have been envisioning adding some period stenciling above our picture railing in the living room. However after looking through Cutting Edge Stencils I want to also add an all over damask stencil to our dining room (below the picture railing) and some of the tree, flower, and bird stencils to the bedrooms and bathrooms upstairs. Ahh, decisions, decisions. The damask for the dining room. I would want to do it only using a stain, because I like the more subtle play of color on color. When I lived in Italy in one of my apartments had a golden fabric damask bedroom. I loved it. I would post a image, but it was from the days when I used a film camera, so no handy dandy digital images. Sorry. Birds and branches for a bedroom. I really like the layered image (and the kitteh, of course).  Anemones for my craft room. In other exciting news: anemones are now blooming in my front garden. Exciting  being a relative term here. Maybe some XL zinnia blooms for the upstairs bathroom? I’m curious what all goes into making a stencil. Perhaps I could create my own with an exacto knife and some sturdy plastic. I think I would really like to buy one to start with (maybe the damask, because that would be the most complex to create). That way I can get an up close look at the materials used and see how the smooth the whole stenciling process goes. From there I think I could come up with my own flower, tree, and bird stencils (but perhaps I am being wholly over ambitious).

Anyone out there ever used a stencil to paint? How did it go for you?

Okay, one last eventual to-do. Our kitchen cabinets. Of course, I would eventually (as in years down the road) like to get the kitchen entirely redone.  Put in an island, rework the layout, put in a breakfast nook, change out the ug-fest recessed lighting, and a handful of other things… But until then I would like to do some DIY updates: paint the cabinets cream, paint the walls a robins egg blue. Valspar 5004-9B, Cincinnatian Hotel Abbey, to be exact. I want to paint the interior of the cabinets Freshaire Choice FA049, Summer Dragonfly. Unfortunately, their color selector is dumb and I can’t get an image of the paint chip to share. I want to take the doors off of the cabinets we use to store our dishes, but leave them all the others. There are currently no drawer pulls or knobs, so that is also something that needs to be taken care of. I’m not sure yet what color I want to paint the ceiling (any suggestions?) or the exact shade of cream I want to use on the cabinets. We also have ugly linoleum in the kitchen and I was thinking some checkerboard marmoleum might be the quick fix I’m looking for. Something like that, but in different colors…

I also want to add corbels to the upper cabinets. I got the idea from Layla over at The Lettered Cottage. We already have crown molding on the top (even if it was most obviously a DIY job by the former owner and is in need of some definite repairs). Okay, that is now more than enough of my future to-do list. Now it is time to get off the laptop and go actually get something done (i.e. plant some dahlia bulbs and dig up some nasty ‘decorative’ gravel- an oxymoron if I ever heard one).