2011 is over already, can you believe it? Since this year was our first full year of blogging (and living in the house), we figured we’d jump on the end of year list bandwagon! So without further adieu, here is a list of our top 5 favorite projects that we completed around the house this year…

5. Powder Room Paint Job

Though painting is nothing all that special, we took a flying leap out of our comfort zones with this near-black paint choice. I think it paid off

4. Pencil Eraser Art

This was another project that didn’t take me long, but had a big impact. I still love looking at this thing and I’m thinking of ways to use some pencil eraser art in the future.

3. Entryway Chair Rail

This was our first molding adventure and we got a serious high off of conquering those funny angles. Therefore, we loved it this year.

2. Stamped Concrete Patio

While we did not attempt this one ourselves, we definitely did not expect to have an awesome patio this year. It’s a reader favorite so our wood plank stamped patio gets the runner up position on our 2011 list!

1. Office stripes

Measure once, measure twice, okay measure 5 times then level, remeasure… 18 hours later peel off tape and have clean stripes! The amount of blood, sweat and tears that went into taping this room and the almost perfect finished product (we needed a few touch ups) make this our favorite project of 2011. Plus looking at the stripes through our french doors everyday makes it even better!

Honorable Mention:

The Baby.

Look at the little chin chin! I couldn’t resist the baby bomb

Hopefully 2012 will bring even bigger and better projects. We’re really surprised at how many things we’ve checked off our to-do list this year. We have a bunch of things to get started on for 2012 ASAP! What should we tackle first?!

Remember back when we painted our powder room? Well, we pretty much left it with our last update of just hanging a mirror and some shelves. Literally days after we painted, morning sickness kicked in and I lost all motivation to finish the room (we even still have touch ups to do). Considering I’m hosting a work Christmas party tomorrow and we’re hosting Christmas Eve on Saturday, I figured it was time to AT LEAST get a toilet paper holder.

I hoped to paint some artwork for the room this weekend, but that didn’t happen. So while in Target a few days ago I saw something red and had a revelation. I decided to use red accents in the room for Christmas. The year round plan was aqua (you can read about that inspiration here), but I figured since all of our Christmas decor is blue and green, I’d change it up with some red and silver in the powder room.

I began to pick up some things around Target and yes, it killed me that I was paying full price. I don’t think I have ever paid full price for anything Christmas related, as I usually just buy stuff as I see it marked down on like Christmas Eve or after Christmas. But in the end, it was worth it.

We decided to put the towel ring between the toilet and sink. Previously, we had a cheap towel bar all the way across the room, so you would wash your hands, then proceed to drip water all over the hardwood floors to get to a towel which was to the left of the toilet the picture above. I used some seasonal soap in a red bottle (which you can’t see in the pictures, sorry the room is small) and a candy cane scented candle.

On the shelves I put 2 red candle stick holders that I got from Target. I have the same ones from last year in silver and blue (which I of course didn’t pay full price for but these I did, grr). I didn’t put candles on them because a) I couldn’t reach b) my ankles were already swollen from buying gifts all day and c) I don’t plan to light the candles so why put them up there? I’ll save the candles for some of my other candle holders this year

Besides the standards of spare towels and t.p., you’ll notice that my pencil eraser “S” monogram has moved into the bathroom. Since our tree is in the entryway, the entryway table got moved into the living room on the side of the stairs. The monogram was teetering dangerously in a easy-for-cat-to-break zone, so I figured it was best to move it.

Okay these next elements were really hard to photograph because of the size of the room, I basically had to sit in the sink.

I hung two Ikea frames that we’ve been collecting to eventually make a gallery wall in our entryway. They are directly across from the toilet and on the wall next to the toilet.

Since I have a variety of white frames, I tried some larger ones but decided to go with this size. The larger one looked great across from the toilet, but was overwhelmingly dramatic when opening the door. Inside I put some wrapping paper, also from Target. It’s the foil-y shiny kind.

It’s very hard to capture how the metallic paper looks with the dark paint, but I love it.

I like the patterned wrapping paper so much that I’m debating whether or not to make my own prints for the room or just buy some non-holiday paper to frame for the long run. I’m loving the red also and thinking of picking up some clearance red items next week for the rest of the house next year. Since it’s going to be the baby’s first Christmas next year (a baby whose gender we now know ), I want to go with a colorful and bright color scheme. Red, green and aqua it may be, so might as well stock up now!

A couple of weeks ago when I planned to do a post with some frequently asked questions, I wanted to include a section for all of the paint colors we’ve used in our house. Mike ended up taking over the post for me when I fell asleep, answering his own version of our FAQs. Since the #1 question I am asked is what paint colors we’ve used in various rooms, I figured it was about time the question received it’s own post!

Here are all of our current paint colors displayed together. Some observations…

1. I never realized how well all of our house colors blend together. Since I didn’t really have the whole house in mind when choosing colors, I’m surprised that they all work well! I especially thought the dark gray was bolder and less expected, but even that blends in well.

2. The two middle colors on the top and bottom rows do not look that similar in real life. Or maybe they do? Mike says they do. I think the top color is more brown based and the bottom one is more of a true gray. At least I’m consistent in my choices

Here is our color breakdown, by room.

Family Room & Kitchen:

Wedgewood Gray

Benjamin Moore HC-146

Entryway & Upstairs Hallway:

Himalayan Trek

Benjamin Moore 1542

Living Room & Dining Room:

Waynesboro Taupe

Benjamin Moore 1544

Office:

Light Stripe- Gray Ghost

Olympic D17-2

Dark Stripe- Silver Fox

Benjamin Moore 2108-50

(we color matched the dark stripe to Olympic, but it is nearly identical to Olympic’s Silver Dollar D17-3)

Powder Room:

Cracked Slate

Olympic D44-5

You’ll notice that our recent paint projects have been done with Olympic’s no VOC paint. We try to keep things as toxin free as possible around here since Macky has seizures and we don’t want any unnecessary triggers. Plus those smells just aren’t good for anyone The Benjamin Moore paints we used were for rooms we had professionally painted before we moved in so Macky wasn’t exposed to those fumes (we couldn’t paint our two story entryway on our own so we hired it out).

I hope this post answers all of your paint questions in one spot. I plan to update it as we paint more rooms down the road. I’ll also add this post to our top navigation bar for easy access

This weekend we got around to hanging a few things in the powder room- 2 white shelves from Target and a mirror from Lowe’s.

The lighting is impossible in this room and yes there is spackle all over the walls. One of the shelves took a plummet in the hanging process and took some wall with it. The story of our lives.

We’re thinking of spraying the shelves a glossy white, using the remaining spray paint from the deer bookends I recently sprayed. I just like the idea of blending them with with the sink and potty.

As for that mirror?

We knew we wanted something fancy looking. I’ve loved this mirror for as long as I can remember and previously considered putting it in the entryway.

But this espresso finish? Not staying.

Yes, we’re planning on painting this frame an aqua sort of color, as I mentioned my love for this combo last week.

(the sink needs another round of caulk and some paint from when the previous mirror came crashing down….I told you touch ups were the story of our lives…)

I’m thinking we’ll go with one of the lighter tones to balance the super dark walls.

It’s come a long way from where it was just 2 weeks ago!

We also shopped around a little for some accessories with no luck. Who knew turquoise mist hand towels were so hard to find? Yes, turquoise mist is the new name I’m using for that color we’re trying to achieve. It’s actually the name of one of the paint swatches up there, but it’s a little too blue I think. I’m in search of the perfect turquoise mist

Our main goals at this point are to paint the shelves, paint the mirror and finish all of the touch up work that we keep piling on. Then I’ll figure out what to put on those shelves!