Updating the Office

I have been hard at work this past week refreshing the office with new paint and stain and accessories!  The office was formerly painted a pale gray.  But it was so light that it always looked bluish to me.  It was supposed to be gray! 

It has been almost three years since I painted it, and the flat paint hasn’t really worked for me.  I can’t get the marks off the walls, so I figured it was time that I could try again.  This time I picked a nice medium gray color (Steeple Gray by Olympic) that was a shade darker and more gray than the previous color (Silver Threads by Olympic).  I also bought satin paint, so I could easily wipe it clean.  After clearing the room, I had to carefully maneuver our massive desk halfway into the room so I could crawl under it to paint the back wall.  #giantdeskproblems  Then I painted the rest of the room, moved the desk back, and painted what was left.  :)

Once the walls were finished, I decided to put a couple coats of polyurethane on our desk top (since it was all cleared off).  There were a couple of worn places where we run our computer mice around.  So I lightly sanded it with 320 grit and brushed on a couple coats of satin poly.  Then I realized that the rest of the desk was gloss poly.  Ugh!  So I had to go buy more poly and start over with the sanding and applying.  Needless to say, three days into this and not having our desk, I was getting frustrated so I quit after one coat of gloss.  It really needs one more coat, but I’ll just put that back on my to-do list.  Haha! :) 

While I was out shopping for polyurethane and lamp shades for the bedroom (since I stole to give to the living room) I spied a gray lamp with a gray trimmed drum shade!  I knew that would look awesome on my desk with the new paint color.  It really freshens up the space! 

Since I had the bookcase emptied and pulled into the other room, I decided now was a good time to refinish it as well.  I had always planned to stain it Bombay Mahogany to match everything else in the room.  And even though is particle board with a paper backing, I transformed it with a couple coats of poly-shade.  I think it turned out pretty nice!  It certainly looks more expensive than before, and it now matches the desk.

The gray paint also looks great with the velvet chair in the corner.

All in all, I am happy with how the room turned out.  Hopefully we won’t have to paint again until this room becomes something besides an office! :)  Now, I can turn my attention to other projects, including some new art for the den.  I’ll be back, but in the meantime, you can find me here:

Living Room Side Table Update

Yikes! It’s been almost a month since I’ve posted here.  Don’t worry, I have been hard at work around the house and yard, as usual. :)  We’ve been picking beans and corn and weeding and spreading mulch down in the new garden.  And I’ve been repainting walls and refinishing furniture in the house.  Today I am bringing you one of those house projects—refinishing the side table in our living room.  This is a project I have been wanting/needing to do for a while now.  We got this side table secondhand from my boss six years ago when we moved in and it fit perfectly between our two large couches.  It has been neglected over the years, used and abused, and was in need of attention.

The other night while I was on the phone (best time to receive inspiration) staring at the scratches and water marks on the top, I thought, why not start on that tonight?  So I did.  I took it to the basement (which is wide open and ready for projects now that we got rid of our broken ping pong table) and promptly started sanding off the old finish with 150 grit on my palm sander.  When I took out the little drawers I noticed there were screws under them to connect the frame to the table top… Hmm… I decided to take those out and see what happened.  Then I found more screws on the other side and a whole row of them around the back!  Turns out the “corner hutch” part of the table was only screwed on (no glue!) which meant that I could easily remove it.  Eureka!  I had never really used that area with the shelves and drawers and it was a bit outdated so I thought I would see what it looked like without it. 

I finished sanding it down to the bare wood and got rid of all the scratches that evening.  Then I suggested to Michael that we leave off the top part and just have a simple flat table instead.  He was skeptical, so I carried it back upstairs for a visual.  We both loved the new open look. 
I filled in all the screw holes with wood putty, sanded those and then began restaining it with our favorite Bombay Mahogany polyshade.  I did two coats on the whole thing then an additional layer of color on the top so it would be nice and dark.  I figured the most light would hit the top so it needed to be the darkest area, plus you can’t really see the apron and legs anyway behind the couches.  After the polyshade was dry I put on two coats of satin polyurethane.  Then I waited for that to dry before carrying it back up to the living room. 
Then came the accessorizing… my favorite part (except maybe sanding, that part was pretty fun, too!).  I had to try out a new lamp shade (that I stole from the bedroom) and I loved the update!  I added a brass bowl of TV incidentals and some dried hydrangeas which tie into the colors in the lamp shade.  Plus I added a plant from the den (something for Bandit to chew on). 

While I was reorganizing this side, I decided to spruce the other side, too, where I added a fern (more things for Bandit to chew on).  Luckily these “Kimberley Queen” ferns are only $4.50 at Walmart so if this one doesn’t like my TLC (total lack of care) I can afford a new one to replace it down the line.  I love it, it looks so fancy!  The little urn we found in a pile of junk my neighbor was giving away for free.  My mother carted off the whole lot of stuff which was mostly gardening supplies and old pots.  But I snagged this little jewel for myself… hooray for free stuff!

And since we are doing the living room tour, I must show you my new mirror that is over the side cabinet.  Mama got this mirror from a friend and then mentioned that I might want it... well, yes, yes I do!  Thanks, Mama!  Isn’t it lovely?  I like how the curvy part at the top mimics the curves in the front of the cabinet.  It’s way nicer than our old blah rectangle mirror.

Before I go, you know you want to see the before and after of the side table, right?  Here you are:

Lovely!  Now that the living room is finished, I can get back to the other room that’s in progress… the office.  I repainted the walls and I am working on staining the bookcase.  As soon as it’s done I’ll be back with the details!  I have lots of work to be done before summer is over! 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

Garden Update: Green Beans, Sunflowers, and Steps!

Mother Nature has been hard at work in the garden this month… I have been in the garden, but not really working all that hard. :)  Mama Guthrie has also been there, and she works a lot harder than me!

We put in a row of forsythia bushes and lilies on the left, added some perennials on the right and weeded all about.  Plus we started working on the steps leading down through the wooded path from the English Garden to the gate.  Here’s a look at what’s been going on:

The pathway down from the English Garden is steep and uneven, so we thought putting in a few steps would make the journey easier and more picturesque.  :) 

Basically, we started at the bottom and dug a level place for the first step.  Then we lowered it in place and checked it for levelness before filling in behind it.  We aren’t being super picky about spacing because these steps will just follow the terrain of the ground.  So some may be deeper than others if the hill will accommodate that.  But because we are using 6x6’s for the actual steps, they will all be the same height.

We had these timbers left over from when we dismantled the swing in the English Garden.  John cut them in half so we could reuse them as steps.

Mama has always claimed that she can level by eye, whether she is laying rocks or pavers or timber steps, apparently.  This is what we got after she eye-balled this step:

Looks good to me!  :)

We ran out of timbers after five, so we’ll have to get some more of those to finish the rest of the hill.  And these are just sitting on the dirt, with no reinforcement to keep them from moving, so we still have to hammer rebar in to hold them in place. We’ll be back to share the rest of the steps at some point!

Now onto the garden!

While Mama was weeding the creek bank and picking up rocks (a million of them at least!) she built this little dam in the creek.  Now the water trickles through the rocks and makes a lovely sound. :)  And it’s cute!

While she did that, I planted some more lilies and the forsythia on the left side of the garden.  It’s lovely, yes?  Just wait until next year and everything will look nicer!  Some mulch would certainly help!

The garden is looking good; as you can see the corn is getting taller!

We finally have green beans growing on the vines!  Yay!

And my pumpkin is almost ready to harvest.

The sunflowers are blooming, too, which is my favorite thing ever! I love them!

Speaking of sunflowers, we have this random volunteer sunflower coming up on the right in the weeds at the edge of our property.  How special!

The corn is tasseling, so hopefully we’ll be seeing ears soon!

And I picked my first green beans this morning.  What a harvest! ;) 

While I wait on my tomatoes, peppers and corn, I’ll just enjoy the zinnias and sunflowers…

Happy Summer!

P.S.  To see the garden from the beginning, check out:  Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.

Happy 4th of July! (and Happy 5th Birthday Blog!)

Happy Independence Day!  And Happy 5th Birthday to It’s a Horvath’s Life!  288 posts and counting, I’ve been blogging about my house, my garden, my family and other random thoughts from my life for five years!  Thanks for joining me here!

We decided since the weather was so beautiful (85 and sunny!) that we should host a little party for the 4th of July!  My family came and joined us for hot dogs and hamburgers, potato salad, baked beans, deviled eggs and apple pie!  Yum!  The house and lower deck were festive, decked out with all my patriotic décor. 

I even made some cute little arrangements with paper fans left over from Ruger’s Cowboy Party. 

We spent the afternoon stringing beans from my mother’s garden (goes pretty fast when five people are working!) while Papa entertained us with his guitar.  Then we had dinner and went out to play cornhole and visit on the deck.  I put more bunting on the lower deck, along with my sparkly centerpieces from our party two years ago.  I also added my Moravian star light to the string lights in the ceiling.  It’s both festive and functional!

Riley was worn out from a day of running around chasing the cornhole bags! 

After everyone left, Michael and I walked over to the town square for the local fireworks show!  Once again, it did not disappoint.  It was a great day!

Hope you all had a fun 4th of July celebration! 

A Garden for Fairies

Are you aware of the “fairy garden” phenomenon?  It’s sweeping the nation… truly. ;)  Okay, I don’t really know how widespread the fairies are, but I figured if there are any in my neighborhood, they might like a cute little house to live in, and a cute little garden to frolic in.  So, I’ve been gathering supplies to build a special place for them.  I had originally intended to spend no money on this little project, since I figured fairies appreciate frugality.  But then I spied this little fairy dwelling at Joann for 70% off.  Apparently a lot of people thought $20 was a bit much for a tiny house, because there were a lot of these left on clearance!  (I’ve found that most of the accessories marketed for the fairies are quite pricey.  Which is why I made most of mine or scavenged for scale-appropriate rocks and trinkets that were just laying around.)

When I got home, I realized that I already had a perfect spot for the fairy house, but I just hadn’t noticed it!  You see, one of my deck planters had an unfortunate loss, the “thriller” plant (to be joined with the filler and spiller) had suffered a mysterious fatal disease and was mostly dead.  So, I dug it up (gave it to my Mama with the green thumb) and in it’s place, I put the little fairy house.  It’s perfect… serendipity! :)  Planter saved!

All that was left after that was to rearrange some of the “shrubbery” for a little yard and garden path.  The pathway is little striped seashells that I had collected on a beach trip.  (I like the smooth, flat kind.)  I rummaged through my jewelry box and found a little seashell tortoise to live in the yard.  Then I added a little rock sign welcoming fairy dwellers to the “Fairy Cove”.  :) 

Next, I added a little twig birdhouse and a couple of blue birds to the side yard.  The birdhouse my brother and I made with a stick cut into a short piece.  We drilled a hole for the door, notched the top and added a copper roof.  The perch is a piece of matchstick that we stuck into a tiny hole on the front.  Then we hung it on a tiny shepherd’s hook made from a coat hanger.  Thanks John! 

The finishing touch was a tiny fence made from wooden skewers cut to length and glued to a ribbon.  That will keep the flowers from invading the side yard. :) 

I hope some fairies come along and take up residence!  I hear purple flowers are their favorite!