What the Duck??

   I was in a craft store yesterday afternoon on the hunt for foam rubber and I got distracted by an incredible display of colorful tape! What? YES ~ tape! Duck brand duct tape now comes in about a zillion patterns and colors. Brilliant marketing move! I completely forgot why I was in the store and before I knew it I was zooming home with a truly cool 10yd roll of black and white checked tape!

   This was my plan:

   I have this absurd hallway of doors ~

   Really? Who thought this was a good idea? Those lead to the basement, garage, powder room and closet. Even better, they don't all match, the garage door is completely different then the rest of them - you know a man came up with this. Besides the pile of doors, the hallway is dark and has a very closed in feel.

Solution:

    Some bright yellow paint to liven things up because yellow has this wonderful reflective property and is perfect for a dark, dingy hallway. I'm a huge fan of brightly painted hallways, it's such a nice surprise, and who doesn't want to be led somewhere by a fun color? Then to complete the transformation, Duck tape! I love the playfulness of this and the best part is of course that when I change my mind it's an easy removal!

 

All this fun for a quart of paint and $4 worth of tape - who knew?

Rug Binding 101

   So - I'm in the middle of painting the main floor when I suddenly realize that my livingroom rug HAS GOT TO GO! I love this rug but it's green and brown and beige circles - nice. The living room colors are purple, blue and yellow - definitely not gonna be okay.

   Not to worry, I have a purple rug (handy, right?). The only problem is that it's a remnant so the edges aren't finished, it looks like a crazy frayed mess.

 On to the internet I go....I'm envisioning myself hand binding a rug with a curved needle and embroidery floss for the next 5 years.... GAK! After about 11 seconds of searching I find this awesome product from a company called Bond Products, Instabind. For well under $100.00 I get a 54' roll of instant rug binding! The website is really nice, there are videos of how to use the binding, clear pictures of the colors and styles available, prices right up front and super zippy shipping!

   

   Two days later, the binding arrives. Its a piece of binding attached to a 2" wide section of adhesive. The adhesive sticks to the back of the carpet, you run a little bead of hot glue along the edge and in no time flat you have an amazing carpet at a fraction of the cost of buying finished rugs!

     The entire process took me about an hour to do a 10'x12' rug. You simply make sure your rug edges are straight. I used a rotary cutter for that because cutting carpet with scissors is a nightmare! Peel the paper backing off the binding to expose the adhesive. Stick the adhesive strip to the back of the carpet starting in the center of one side of the rug. When you get to the corner, cut the adhesive strip up to the binding, bend it around the corner and keep going. The adhesive gets stronger as it sets so you have time to fudge it around if you don't get it perfect.

    Once the tape is all on, you go back around with your hot glue gun, run a little bead along the edge and press the carpet down firmly. When you get to the end, you overlap slightly and glue the ends together.

   This was so simple and so inexpensive. I paid $80.00 for the rug at a remnant sale, $10.00 for padding and $54.00 for the binding. I don't think I could have purchased the rug for under $500.00 - Whoa! High five ME!

   Now back to painting the livingroom!

That White Has GOT to GO!!

    We're fast approaching our first anniversary in this house... time flies, fun... you know. I'm finally desperate enough to have color that I'm pushing past my fear of these tall ceilings and all this open space. I just can't stand it anymore, I have to have color. Just like I need oxygen, I need to be surrounded by color. I worried that I would have to paint everything the same color because you can see every room from everywhere. Then I decided that I would just paint what I loved and if it was frightening I could always paint over it!!
    A trip to the paint store resulted in this:

 A SALE!! on Behr Premium Plus paint in Martha Stewart colors - Plum Wine, Lagoon, Wampum and Mimosa. An absolute steal at $21 a gallon. Martha Stewart paints have this little symbol on the corner so you can flawlessly match colors - gotta love that woman's organizational skills!
   The lighter shade of purple (Wampum) is the color I started with. I painted two walls and knew I was on the right track.

      The blue (Lagoon) was next. It's almost a teal but not quite - it looks great as a frame to my yellow, blue and orange kitchen.

   The green (Mimosa) went on the half wall that separates the living room and dining room and down the hallway of doors. It's a fun color, depending on the light or the paint on the adjoining wall it looks yellow to green. It really brightens up the hallway!

   A day and a half of work and I was able to go from this:

   To THIS!!!

   It makes me smile every time I walk into this room. If you're wondering where the dark purple is, don't worry I'm not done yet, I still have the living room to paint!