February 9, 2012

Small Steps

I'm linking up on Thurdays with Jules of Pancakes and French Fries, as part of her 2012 William Morris home series.  

My projects this week are not very exciting, but the "After" effects of both make me happy.  Small, inching steps are still forward progress, and I'm still crossing line items off of my 2012 master list.

The first one is a sequel to last week's project, of doing a thorough cleaning of my son's room.  The worst part of his room I didn't even discuss last week, because I (actually, my husband) hadn't yet installed the fix.

But this weekend, we (again: husband) removed the old, filthy, nasty, broken metal blinds that came with the house when we bought it nearly eight years ago. Of course, they weren't always this bad. But after years of dusting and trying to push the grime around, I just gave up.    Here is the before shot: 
And no, that is not the golden glow of sunset shining through and making them that color. That is dirt, plain and simple  How embarrassing.  But there it was, one of those simple fixes that we didn't bother with and pushed to the backburner. Here is the bright and shiny after:
 Woot woot! New blinds.  Faux-wood, but so much better looking.  Poor Tucker: his room has the worst views of any of the bedrooms.  This is the largest window, and it looks right at the side of the neighbor's stucco.

 Onto my next minor fix, which was to add some color to my office nook.  I've had these photos by French photog Robert Doisneau framed for several months, and wanted to switch out the boring beige mats that came with the frames right away. I couldn't figure out what to use, all the stock mats were just too boring.
But recently I ordered wrapping paper of French paper ephemera from Paper Source, and used that.  I'm not really a Francophile at all, even though I'd love to visit Paris someday (and Midnight in Paris was my favorite movie of last year).  I just thought they were a good match for my writing ladies up there: one typing barefoot along the Seine, and another of Simone de Beauvoir at famed Parisian cafe, Deux Magots. 


There are still more pops of color I need to add to this area (a slipcover for my white Parsons chair, more art on the neighboring walls)  but now, looking up as I type at my desk, I don't have to be irked by those boring beige mats , and the reminder of another pesky, small project that I haven't gotten around to yet.

Two down. Many, many more to go....

10 comments :

  1. The paper totally makes those photos. They were nice on their own, but they have been elevated to fantastic.

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  2. What a lovely little nook! Faux ood may be easier to clean than what you had before.

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  3. Those mats are simply wonderful! They take the photos from nice to *WOW* - well done! Also, have to say hooray for new blinds - that's no small project! :-)

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  4. about two years ago we traded in our *forest green* {ugh!} broken blinds for some wooden slat blinds. although they still gather dust they are so much easier to clean. small differences make huge differences!

    chrissy
    http://mydearwatsonblog.blogspot.com/

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  5. Whoa, what a difference those new blinds make! The "new" light coming in probably make a huge difference in the look and feel of the room. Nice!

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  6. I love your office nook! The mats are wonderful, and the new blinds make a huge difference!

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  7. I love the idea of using wrapping paper to mat photos!!
    Thanks for the tip!!

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  8. The blinds!! The ones in our sons' rooms are sooooo bad. It's embarrassing. I think we might replace them with shades, only because I heard those are the best for allergy sufferers, like Mikey. My dream would be plantation shutters. Seems like they would be easy to clean...

    And that mat idea is so cool!!!

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  9. Thanks again to everyone for the nice compliments. I've used wrapping paper as matting once before, and often use colored posterboard for mats. Framing art can be so expensive!

    And Jules..sigh: yes I too would love plantation shutters throughout.

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Thanks for commenting! :)

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