a much needed facelift

Hi everyone, it's Jessica! My mom asked me to do a guest post today about all of the painting we did while Mabry and I were visiting her last week.

Mom was a little skeptical that we were going to get everything that she wanted to painted. I think she was surprised to find that not only did we paint the whole house, but we did it in only four days.

I'm a machine people. When I put my mind to something I work and get it done. Rip the band aid and all that. Know what I mean? You would think after twenty-seven years Mom would know this and not have been the least bit surprised on what we accomplished.

Let's start with the master bedroom. The top photo is the before. Please take note of the periwinkle-baby-blue-nursery color that was on the walls. The color didn't exactly make this our favorite room in the house. Mom picked out a really pretty creamy brown color that looks so much better with her furniture and decor, don't you think? (The lighting in the second photo really shows how rich the color on the walls is.)

The master bathroom had been that same blue color and we repainted it a very pale brown. It looks much better, but this was the worst room of all to paint. There was so much cutting in and taping off. Plus I had to spend way more time than I wanted having that bird stare at me from the stained glass window. The people who owned the house previously had put that up there and I can't wait for the day my parents take it out.

I have a confession, somewhere in all the photos I took while visiting (and there were over 1700) I accidentally deleted the before photos of the living room. If you scroll down a little further to the before shot of the dining room you can see the peach color that the room used to be.

What you can see in this photo are the new lined burlap roman shades I had made for Mom for Christmas. They came from the designer/creator while I was there and we managed to sweet talk my Dad into helping us put them up. They really brought the room together.

This next photo is of the breakfast nook that leads from the living room into the kitchen. It also shows the most accurate portrayal of the cream color we painted the living room and kitchen. It is a very neutral and clean color.

No before pictures of the kitchen either (same peach as most of the house had been). Not because I lost them, but because I am pretty sure Mom would kill me for posting a photo of her butt. She was leaning down getting something in a cupboard when I took the picture and there was just no good way to crop her out.

You can thank me later, Mom.

My favorite transformation was the dining room. Note the peachy colored walls that matched all of nothing in the rest of the house:

Talk about a dramatic change! The bottom half of the walls were painted in the same neutral cream as the kitchen and living room. The top half was a terra cotta that my sister and I convinced Mom to be brave and try. After we were done painting Dad helped us put up a chair rail along the wall.

I took a close up of the wall (bottom middle photo) to show you exactly what color the dining room is.

There you have it. Five (large) rooms painted in less than four days. Not too shabby when you consider we were also having to keep an eye on (and continue to potty train) a two-year-old throughout the whole process.

Thank heavens for the Shrek 2 DVD.

Even if we did have to listen to it roughly a dozen or more times.