Nesting Place

Welcome to day 12 of our series 31 Days to a Better Dressed Nest. I’m so glad you are here.

I am the only girl in my house. I’ve got 3 boys and a manly husband and they all own guns of various types, shapes and sizes. They are manly. And I am girly.

For the first 10 years of our marriage our house was quite plain and masculine. Leather sofa, canvas drapes and neutral colors. I loved it.

Then we slowly changed over and added more color and pattern. Before I knew it our house was full of toile and pillows and painted pieces. A few months ago I started thinking about our home–ok, so I’m always thinking about our home. It’s quite pretty to me. And I’m afraid it leans a little too girly. See that lovely bunny, the one with wings? Two years ago it hung in our bedroom. I know. My poor husband. One day I realized how feminine it was and asked my husband if it bothered him and he said ‘not at all’. He’s nice like that. Or nonobservant.

I still love all my pretties but I blame some of my girly decor leaking out every where on the fact that I do not have a daughter.

And look at our current bedding. I adore it, but I feel it’s entirely too ladyish. For now I took off the duvet and I’m using the chocolate brown comforter underneath. I think our room needs to change from cutesy to sexy. And I have no idea how I’m gonna pull that off for virtually no money but I’ll keep you informed.

It doesn’t take much to let the guys in on the fun. I’m trying to be more aware of making sure the stuff in our home represents all who live here. Does that mean no toile sofa and not pretty painted armoire? No way. But, there are a few ways I’ve found to help man up some of our rooms.

Here’s some ways I’ve made our rooms a little more manly, or at least things I’m planning to implement

• Plaid and houndstooth fabrics
• Black furniture
• Wood finishes
• I’d LOVE to find a big nice leather chair for my husband
• Display the guitar
• Mount the 100 year old beautiful shotgun on the wall

Make room for their stuff: I love a pair of dirty man boots outside the front door on the porch.

Does your house lean more masculine or feminine?

Welcome to day 5 of 31 Days to a Better Dressed Nest. If you are new here or if you are old here and not paying attention, we are taking the month of October and talking about quickish, easy ways to freshen up our homes before the holidays.

Today, let’s paint something. Anything. With any kind of paint that you have.

This yard sale table was painted with spray paint. No, I didn’t prime it or sand it. You don’t have to email me to ask me for sure if I sanded it or primed it. I promise, I just found a pretty color, took it outside on plastic bag and hit it with a few coats. Within an hour I loved it all over again. It was an inexpensive table, I don’t spend time trying to perfect inexpensive items. My time is valuable. And so is yours.

You can’t paint everything with spray paint but you can use it for lots of things. I use spray paint for small tables, rocking chairs and wood chairs, empty frames, lamps, chandeliers. Don’t use spray paint for the top of your dining room table. It probably won’t turn out the way you want it and you will want to hurt me.

I painted this chandy with red spray paint.

You can also use those little bottles of acrylic paint. They are less than a dollar and you can use them to update photo frames, mix them together to paint that door you hang on the wall. They have a super flat finish unless you spray the finished item with polyurethane so I like to use them on things that look good with a rough finish.

This red frame was painted with acrylic paint.

I was sick of these flimsy “wood” cabinets in our guest bath. So I got out whatever paint I had laying around {from the armoire project} and in an hour I had a new looking bathroom. No, I did not prime or sand. I used BEHR paint plus primer in one. Two coats. Here’s my lazy girls guide to painting cabinets.


If you’ve been putting a big project off like I did, take my advice, you’ll be glad you did it once it’s done. I waited 4 years or so to finally paint this armoire. My only regret, not painting it the day we got it. I was dreading all the “time” it would take. It cost less than $40 to paint and was done in a few hours that was spread out over 24 hours time.

Same with the table. It’s funny how we put off painting something that we can’t stand for fear that we will ruin said thing that we already hate how it looks. Why are we all such ridiculous perfectionists? Save your worry for things that actually matter.

Some of you are paintaholics. You are professionals at painting your walls, experimenting with new colors and not afraid to change it up with paint. For you, your assignment is to finish that paint project or tackle the one you have been hoping to start.

For those of you that when you hear me talk about painting something, start telling yourself that you will not be doing that because you “don’t know how to paint” or your husband is too busy to paint for you or, you aren’t rich so you can’t paint or, you might ruin that frame that’s cracked and in your garage with cocoons all over it if you paint it–I’m talking to you.

Paint something. Anything. You can do it! It doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful.

If you want to paint a wall and you never have, here’s a little video

PS:

I never use a fresh roller pad for the second coat–if I even paint a second coat
If the color is light and I do a good job with the first coat, sometimes I skip a second coat
It rarely takes me more than a gallon to paint a room–unless it’s a big room

Now be gone, and paint!

If you missed the previous 31 Days posts:

Day 1: Give something away
Day 2: Move something
Day 3: Utilize plants
Day 4: Add an element of surprise

And check back later today, I’ve got an announcement.