Well, I finally finished the foyer, or at least, finished it as much as it's getting finished before the end of the year. I have to say, for what I've done so far, I am pretty happy with it!
I was going to photoshop it up for you but honestly, I don't care about these pictures enough right now to do that. It's too late and I am too tired! But here are some good befores and afters...
Here is the foyer, when we first moved in...
And here it is now!
Close up of the window, seating area...
I had this Target computer desk I had bought in the year 2003. It was the last time I really spent money on decorating, except I had tons of expendable income and just went shopping at Target and bought a bunch of stuff. This was one of those things. This desk has also moved with me to several apartments. It cost me $100 at the time and after almost 9 years, I'd say I got my money's worth. But as you can tell, it's suffered in the long moves. Some of these cracks and knicks were so deep that no amount of primer or paint could fix it. This was my first piece of furntiture I actually had to sand. For $2, I would say the sanding block was a fantastic investment.
And here it is now! As you can see, black works much better. This is the SAME black paint I got for $7 for the gallon of Oops! paint at Home Depot. Once again, I'd say I got my money's worth. After I sanded, I primed, then put two coats of the paint, then sprayed it with my Valspar coating spray. I would say that I won't ever use this again as coating spray. You can totally see if you are not consistantly spraying this on a surface, almost like the areas that get more coverage look wet? And that's how it looks, dry. But you really couldn't tell unless I pointed it out.
Recognize those lamps and shades?
If we could all remember the lamp shade paint fail of '11....
First it was this:
Then it was this:
Now it's this!
Mu-uu-uu-ch better. I will never again use spray paint to paint a lamp shade. This is two coats of acrylic paint. Yep, 97 cent acrylic paint, applied with a sponge brush. It went on so easily and as you can see, coats so well!!! No light is getting through where it shouldn't be.
I have many more ideas for this table area, but as I said, I have other projects that need to be completed right now, so it's just going to have to wait.
Here is another shot of our tree. I probably should photoshop this one because this picture doesn't do the lights justice.
Here is one of the projects I was mentioning before.
My parents were nice enough to offer us their old dining room table. This table has been around for as long as I can remember! It's at least 25 years old and I was so grateful when my mom had mentioned that she was looking to get rid of it, and would we want it? Of course, I said sure!
Obviously, the dining area has not been this bad since we moved in, but here is was the night we moved:
And here is the current after (although I still have some work to do!)
I moved those lamps in there on a hunch they might fit. I love the light in there! I love lamps in general, to be honest, I love lamp light much more than I love ceiling light! Those lamps will be undergoing a makeover soon.
These are some frames I received as a hand me down that are also in line for a makeover. I call it "progress" when I move things from a stack or heap in the middle of a room to the room they are supposed to be in, so these pictures are one step closer to their new look.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this edition of before and after!
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