Friday, July 25, 2008

Newly Framed Art

While the official Apartment Therapy Cure is long over, I've still been making some small improvements and will make updates here occasionally.

I possess one and only one piece of real art, a painting by my sister. I decided it deserved a real frame, not the Ikea frames I use in the rest of my home. I got a recommendation for a DC frame shop that lets you do some of the work yourself to reduce costs. The frame looks great! Here it is:

Saturday, May 31, 2008

Final Touches

I will still make a few tweaks here and there, and complete some final paint touch-ups, but here are "after" and "before" photos from my project.

The bathroom (I'm very pleased with my final choice of linen colors!):
The bathroom "before". The photos just don't convey the state of disrepair:

The living room "after." (I still have a few paint touch-ups to make):


The living room "before." I'm so happy to be rid of the louvered wall (on the left between the kitchen and the living room):

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Choose your own adventure

I took some photos of two different options for towels/bathmats. (I haven't had a chance to touch up the paint, so forgive the obvious smudge about the TP.)

The towels I originally purchased (I can't remove them from their packaging until I decide to keep them). If I do keep this set of towels, the trash can doesn't have to stay:

Another option:
The second version definitely pops A LOT more and I like that. I'm just not sure it is as warm as I would like. I like that the bathroom is so cool and clean, but I would like also like it to feel warm and comfortable.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Too impatient

I'm too impatient to wait for the final reveal. It is probably going to be a while before I can complete my final paint touch ups (that's my job, not the contractors'), so I have decided to post photos of the not-quite-finished product. Besides, I'm having second thoughts about a few of my accessories and I could use some feedback on that.

Photos as of 10 minutes ago are below (first the overall effect, then some details, including the new tile baseboard).

I bought towels in two colors, this pale grayish blue and a darker blue (What you see hanging is actually the bath mat). I'm having double thoughts about the towel colors now that I see them here. I think I would prefer towels that are more turquoise, like the trash can shown in the second photo. Any thoughts?

Right now the art is propped up on the towel bar and not hanging on the wall. That's because I don't like the frame it is in. It adds one too many silver/gray to the room. That's an easy fix though:

Sunday, May 18, 2008

It keeps going and going...

I was back in town for the weekend and I was sick. Which is too bad, since I had a lot I had to get done. To save some money, I decided to paint myself. My boyfriend helped me with that this weekend. In any case I'm a day or two away from a completely functioning bathroom. At this point I'm going to save the photos for a final reveal...

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Looking good

I'm still out of town but my boyfriend was nice enough to stop by and take photos of the recent progress on my project. They look great and I can't wait to see everything in person.

The shower tile:

The floor:


The knee wall in the kitchen. I talked to the contractor about the finishing they added that had not been what we discussed. They redid the finish and this is more in line with my tastes:

Hooray!!!

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Losing track of days...

I've been traveling from one place to another-- this past weekend I was in Michigan and now I'm in Minnesota for work. As a result, I haven't been able to take photos of the most recent progress. As I understand it, the contractors have begun tiling the bathroom. I'm looking forward to seeing it on my return. In the meantime I am enjoying the fact that my hotel room has a functional bathroom.