ORB TIME!

After painting our hall bathroom I've been itching to ORB our mirror.

The mirror itself doesn't bother me too much, but it's just kind of meh. It was here when we moved in and we aren't particularly attached to it so we figured there wouldn't be any downside to ORBing it. For anyone not familiar with the terminology, ORB= Oil Rubbed Bronze.

I propped the mirror up on some scrap 2x4's that were lying around and spread out some trash bags for overspray. To protect the mirror I just taped down some printer paper. Classy, I know. Gotta work with what ya got!

Here's what it looked like after I impatiently ripped off all the tape and printer paper:

I'll be the first to admit that I didn't do so great at the whole "thin, even coats" thing. It was more like one thick and uneven coat followed by a few thin and even coats. whoops. In real life it looks pretty even.

Here's a solid Before & After so you don't have to scroll up.

I approve. Although I want to shimmy it over a smidge to the left so it's properly centered. That sucker is sorta heavy though. I'll get there. The next step might be to ORB that hardware as well... too matchy-matchy?

Fabric Photoshop

I recently ordered some fabric swatches from this fantastic website. Carousel Designs is a baby bedding company but they have some really cute graphic fabrics. I want to make some curtains to go in our living room so I ordered a handful of swatches and quickly narrowed those down to 3 favorites. Step one was to use Frog Tape to stick them to the trim around the windows. This allowed me to get a bit of a visual as to how the finished product would work (sorry for the different shades of green on the walls. My white balance wasn't agreeing with me).

Option #1: Gray Ikat pattern with a yellow center.

Option #2: Green Ikat pattern with a blue center.

Option #3: Navy blue graphic pattern.

At this point Phil's favorite was option 2 and I was leaning towards option 1. I decided that I needed some better visual aids. Enter my buddy, Photoshop.

Option #1:

Option #2:

Option #3:

Phil was watching Ip Man 2 while I took pictures.

After these imperfect renderings I'm leaning towards Options #1 and #3. I think Option #2 is just a little too much green for the space. #1 is my current favorite but there's something about that graphic navy pattern in #3 that makes me a little giddy. 

What do you think? What's your favorite?

Photoshop Life

I seriously have a problem. An addiction. Photoshop. I should be packing since we move in 7 days and my goal is to be done packing in 4 days. But what am I doing instead? Photoshop-ing what our future living room would look like with certain furniture in it. It all started because I wanted to see what the room would look like with built-in shelves around the fireplace. Once I learned how to distort images so they actually looked like they somewhat belonged there I had to do the whole room.... It pains me to say this is what I've been doing for the past...hour and a half.

If we ever do build shelves around the fireplace they won't look quite like that, but similar. Somewhere we can display some frames, books, and whatever other knick-knacks we accrue along the way. Then I joked with Phil that I could probably find a picture of our couch and make it look like it somewhat belonged. So...I did. I added the pillows that Emmie recommended for us, some pretty blue chevron curtains, and a super cute tufted ottoman. I think I like it. I'm not sure how I feel about the green walls/blue curtains though. What do you think?