Home Design Cool

Hey there! I’m so excited to share the guest room reveal with you today! I was thrilled to work with Sherwin-Williams again this year on yet another room makeover. (See our master closet makeover from last year here!) This is National Painting Week and I’m one in a group of bloggers sharing spaces to kick that off!

I’m so in love with this space my friends. I shared the process I went through as I picked out the paint last week. The new color is called Softened Green and it so soothing and pretty – absolutely perfect for a bedroom.

As a reminder, here’s a couple before photos. The WAY before, from ten years ago:

And then the more recent look with new bedding:

I was so ready to get rid of the ombre/square look though! I was a little nervous when I poured the new paint color in the pan because when wet it looked really light (which is what I had before). But it dried to a lovely color -- a slighter deeper green tone with some gray to it.

When I was done painting I had to deal with an issue that I knew was going to be a problem from the start. Because I had taped off this wall (twice) and painted the squares, there were tape lines to deal with:

First of all, you’ll see in a minute that this is not a good representation of the color. It’s so crazy how they can look different with settings and light. It appears much grayer in this photo than it really is.

Anyway, see those lines? It’s not a paint issue – the paint covered beautifully. I’ve tried many things over the years to cover those lines after the fact. With a bit of sanding they can be minimized and a coat of primer helps too.

I had something in mind for this wall anyway, so I wasn’t too concerned with it. I wanted to do some kind of trimwork, similar to our master bedroom, but I didn’t want to spend as much on the mdf to do so. So I went with my favorite wood “planking” product – underlayment. It’s seriously so cheap, only $13 for a four by eight foot piece:

I had the folks at the hardware store to cut it down into strips (one piece was just enough for the whole wall). The painter’s tape I used years ago was two inches wide so I went with 2.5 inch strips of underlayment so they would be sure to cover everything well.

This stuff is great – I’ve used it numerous times now (you can see it on the kitchen island here and fireplace here) and I usually only need to use one coat. I think that’s mostly due to using good paint. ;) It’s such a big time saver.

I just used the strips of it to cover where the taped off lines were on the wall and when I was done it completely changed the look of the room!:

I love using this underlayment – it’s a lot thinner than the usual mdf I use so it’s a little more subtle. I did sand down the edges because they were rough from being cut down. I also used a lot of paint along the edges to get those filled in and give it a more finished look.

I have to tell you – this is my new favorite room in the house. I think I say that every time I work on a space but for real, it is such a calming, pretty space. While I worked on it I would just stand in there and look around. It was so pretty!

Before the back wall had four colors and the other walls were a lighter color. It helps to soothe the room a bit to have it all one color:

I shared some small additions a few weeks back, including this free wifi printable for guests:

Remember when I showed you that inspiration photo last week of the green and black accents in a bedroom? That’s always been my goal here – the combo feels fresh to me. The bedside table is really an old sewing machine table I grabbed from the side of the road years back: I cut down the legs to make it into a nightstand. It’s still one of my favorite furniture projects ever. :)

If you’re like us the guest room is the catch all for random furniture in the house. I tried my best to make it all work well in this room. This side of the room is my favorite: 

The artwork is just inexpensive frames with scrapbook paper inside. So easy! They look so good with that white popping against the green!

I showed you the process that took this window from the basic before: To the pretty after by adding window trim. It never ceases to amaze me the difference it makes:

The crisp white with the green makes me so happy. Pretty. :)

Remember how I told you how much light can change the look of a color? On the day I took these it was really cloudy outside so the color went more green. When the sun is out and it’s brighter it goes more gray. I love both versions. :)

The tall dresser used to sit in this corner but I moved things around to lighten the view a little bit when you walk in:

The cedar chest is an antique I found thrifting years ago and it’s great for storage in here. The light was for a future project but because we don’t have an overhead light in here I wanted something in this corner. I LOVE how that little spot came together. Simple and functional (a great spot for luggage!) but cute.

Here’s a better look at the bench:

It just feels so much better without the bulky dresser in that corner!

I moved that to the other side of the room and added some life to the top:

I have plans to paint the dresser (it is a real mess up close) but honestly, I don’t mind it at all now!:

I think it will be a stunner in black so it will happen someday. But this goes to show how good this color looks with cherry wood. If you have maple or cherry kitchen cabinets this color would be lovely on the walls!

The major costs were $20 for the window trim and $13 for the wall treatment. With a few new accessories and art, I transformed the room for less than $200!:

I didn’t include the bedding in that since I’ve had it but it was a crazy good deal too.

I wouldn’t mind spending a night in here. :) It’s such a relaxing space and feels a bit more sophisticated now too – just what I was going for!: 

LOVE it. Paint and a little trim were the biggest projects in here – it does take some time but it such an affordable update with a BIG impact I’m totally OK with that.

If you’re looking for a gray green tone, this Softened Green may be the one for you! Have you tried this color? Now, I’m off to go take a nap in that bed. :) Be sure to check out all of the other blogger projects in celebration of National Painting Week!

Disclosure: I was compensated by Sherwin-Williams for this post but all thoughts and opinions are my own. I only share products I know and trust.

Welcome to the weekend! Whoot! I’m back today with a super quick flower tip. I shared this on social media this week but got a lot of questions so I thought more photos would be helpful.

If you love hydrangeas as much as I do (and who doesn’t, for real) then you’ll love this tip. I hear it works for other flowers like roses as well.

I love this because I used to hate when I’d buy a bunch of flowers at the store (or cut them from the yard) and then they’d droop within a day or two. This little trick allows you to keep them (hydrangeas at least) for 5-7 days, sometimes more.

Here’s what I’m talking about – see the sad little one in the bottom corner?:

Before this trick that one would have been tossed in the trash. Sometimes it happens within a day of bringing them home!

Well, as you can tell from their name – hydrangeas LOVE water. It’s kind of hard to give them too much (at least after they’re cut). The first thing you’ll want to do to plump them back up is snip just a little bit off their stem. (This helps prolong flowers in general.) Then you just soak them in water.

Here’s that droopy one and another one that was looking slightly sad in their bath:

I use cool water. You’ll want it to cover them at least most of the way. I kind of push them down in the water so I don’t have to use a ton of it.

You’ll want to make sure the flower and the stem are both in there. Timing is different for every one – some perk up in 20 minutes, some I leave in there and just check back to see when they are plump again.

Here’s the same flowers after they’ve soaked up the water:

Awesome, eh? It’s like magic! :)

You can do the same flower more than once – just be sure to clip some off the stem first.

I find that you can keep doing it for awhile, but they just don’t last as long the older the blooms get. I’ve had these for almost a week now: 

And each one has been bathed at least once. :) It’s different every time I buy or cut them really – some hydrangeas last for five days without needing a bath, some need it within a day or so.

When I mentioned this trick on Facebook, a reader mentioned a method she uses – she said to snip them down and replace the water in the vase with HOT water, then put the flowers back in. I tried that because it would be a lot faster, but it didn’t work for me. The first photo with the droopy one up above is actually after I tried that method. (Hours later.)

So I don’t know what I did wrong but for some reason it didn’t work for me – but I’ll try it again! As I mentioned, I hear this works for other flowers as well. It never hurts to try, right? It’s worth it to get a few extra days out of these beauties. :)

Any tips you use to prolong the life of your flowers? If I don’t have the packet of flower preservatives that come with them, I’ll sometimes use ground up aspirin. I’m not sure if it really helps or not. I’ve also heard clear soda and even vodka work in the water as well. Cheers!

Welcome to the least thriftiest month of the year for us. :) Other than December that is. Now that the weather is nice the wallet is emptying because I want to buy ALL THE FLOWERS. I do my best to use perennials in my garden and beds but sometimes you want some beautiful, flowing petunias, you know?

Our temps here went from the mid-50’s to the mid-80’s in a week, so I’ve been working outside every day for the past week. I like to try to get the clean up and most of the planting done for the season before the heat of the summer hits.

It seems we’re surprised every year when fall happens and we have an enormous amount of leaves to rake up, especially in the back. And every fall we say “we’ll do it this weekend” and then that weekend happens to be the first snow or first frigid weekend of the fall and then it never happens. It’s only gotten worse as we plant more trees in the back too.

So EVERY spring I spend a ton of time cleaning the leaves out of the flower beds and it takes EONS. So. many. leaves.

Thankfully I enjoy working outside -- I find it really rewarding. Sweating my butt off in early May, not as much.

While I was cleaning out the beds I worked on some pruning and other clean up as well so I thought I’d take you along for a spring tour of the garden and some of the latest additions. I’ll share it again this summer when everything is really blooming, but it’s fun to see the before and afters as the season goes on.

I have a few knock out bushes and they are so easy to take care of – you don’t really need to prune them but it helps to keep them pretty. You can see on the left that they get scraggily looking:

I was so late pruning this year – it should really be done earlier if you want to manage the shape of them more, but I don’t care too much about that thankfully. :) You can see on the right that I just cut down the dead parts of the stems, careful not to cut off any blooms. (No big deal if you do though.)

I planted the lamb’s ears last summer (I think it was last summer) and the dead foliage needed to be cleaned up:

I find doing this (and clearing away the leaves at the base of the plants) does more than just make them look better – they can breathe better too. After doing this every year I swear the plants shoot up within days. You can even tell with this one – the photo on the right is just a couple days after I cleaned all that up.

I want to add some more evergreen bushes to our landscaping – so far these two small bushes and two boxwoods around the corner are all we have:

They are fairly new as well. I’d love to have more green during the winter months so eventually I’ll add more. We have new mulch coming next week – as you can see, it’s impossible to remove all the leaves!

I’m so excited about the lilac bush I planted last year – this variety is supposed to bloom all summer long:

I adore lilacs and am hoping one day this little guy is huge. So far it looks like there’s zero to little maintenance on this one – no pruning needed so far. Ignore the wasp spray by the way – we get a TON of nests every year on and around our deck and I’m constantly watching for them. Those stings are no fun.

The blooms smell delicious already and I can’t wait to cut a few and bring them inside!:

Around the corner from the new lilac are a couple peonies. I talked about my love of them and the care last year. They are unbelievably gorgeous. You can cut them all the way down to the ground in the fall, but again…I tend to forget. Or it gets cold. Or I find something else to do.

No worries though, because they will come back again just fine:

I just cut down the old stalks to make them look better. These varieties are a darker pink and they didn’t start blooming till last year. There are already a TON of blooms on them so I’m hopeful for a bigger crop:

The bush in the back is a butterfly bush – I’m attempting to create a small butterfly garden in that area. It’s slow going. ;)

I went to my favorite nursery the other day and avoided buying another hydrangea plant (I now have 11 of them). I did come home with this beautiful hanging basket:

So pretty! These blooms will help tide me over for another month or so.

Years ago when we were apartment dwellers I dreamed of a house with one plant in the yard – the clematis. I researched it online and drooled over photos. I don’t know why it took me so long but I finally planted one last year. It was late in the season and it didn’t do great, but I have high hopes for it this year:

It’s already bigger now than it got last summer! Can’t wait!

Another climbing plant I’ve tried is the climbing hydrangea:

See all the leaves in the mulch?? This is after I cleaned out the beds. Four lawn bags later!

I wanted something to trail up the back of the fireplace and tried ivy at first, but many of you warned me against that because it can be so invasive. I gave the ivy to my Dad and tried this climbing hydrangea instead. It is a bugger though. It will NOT bloom. I think this will be the fourth summer I’ve had it and it’s never produced one bloom. I hear that it takes them a few years, but dangit, this better be the year!

Thankfully it’s still pretty just as it is, but some flowers would be real nice. :)

Last week I added some more hanging flowers – someday these beds will be full of flowering plants, but until I figure out exactly how I want to fill them, I add in color with hanging baskets:

You can see one of my beloved pee gee trees there as well. Another plant that doesn’t need much care at all and it produces TONS of big, beautiful blooms.

Around the other side of the deck I have a few more hydrangeas and then my prized peony. Peonies like full sun but I’ve determined from my plants that they love morning sun best. This one gets absolutely HUGE every year and now produces a ton of blooms:

Peony watch 2015 has started:

One of my other favorite plants is this limelight hydrangea. This one is zero maintenance as well:

Well, I take that back. I did remove the old blooms from last year, but it grows fine even if you don’t do that. I just snap them right off:

This one took a year or so to start blooming as well, but now it’s absolutely covered in blooms every year. It’s getting HUGE too. The limelight produces beautiful, white cone-shaped blooms.

While I wait on the plants to start blooming, I went ahead and planted in some urns by the fireplace:

That’s coleus in the middle and then petunias around it. As you can see, I use a lot of purple and red back here – it goes well with the outdoor furniture and cushions. :)

Our urns from last year absolutely fell apart – it was a mess. I grabbed some more at Lowe’s after looking everywhere (even though they were more than I wanted to spend). Thankfully the sweetest woman stopped me in the garden section and told me about the urns she had just picked up at Target on sale. I went and got these instead and they are a little shorter but well worth it for $30-something cheaper! Thank you friendly woman at Lowe’s! ;)

In a month or so the pee gee trees behind the planters will start blooming and this view will get even prettier!:

Goodness, we LOVE our backyard! We had the patio and fireplace added four years ago – it was our first big purchase after we paid off our debt. I have so much I still want to do out here but it is an absolute dream come true to have this space!

It’s a ton of work to keep up with the landscaping, not gonna lie. But I love this work. It’s good get your hands in the ground and get dirty. :) And I love taking care of the plants – looking after them, watering them – that’s my “me” time in the summer. I find it to be very relaxing.

I’ll share these spaces again later this summer for my annual garden tour. Until then you can check out last year’s here. Have you tried any of these plants at your house? Any advice for me on my newbies – the clematis and the lilac? And I welcome thoughts on the climbing hydrangea if any of you have had success with it!

Here’s to cleaning up the leaves this fall! Sure.