Alternate title: Why Crate & Barrel has probably blacklisted me from ever making a purchase from them again.

Just kidding.

I want to start this post off with a disclaimer: I LOVE MY TABLE. Crate & Barrel has been nothing but helpful with the process of getting me my table, and I love them for that. This is simply the story of how it took me 4 tries to get the perfect table for our living/dining room.

When we first started thinking about moving (early in 2012), I knew we were going to be in need of a new dining table. The one in our apartment was a glass top table I’d acquired back in 2007 for $100 from my boss at the time. It served me well for 5 years, but it would definitely need to go once we moved into the new house.

Thus, the hunt began. I got Justin involved in the process, and we both decided we liked the look of a farm table. It’s classic, it’s sturdy, it can be dressed up/down. On top of loving the farm table style, we also took a liking to the look of reclaimed wood. We looked into having a custom made table out of reclaimed wood and started pricing out some options.

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Well, this was an interesting turn of events, to say the least!

When we first moved into the house, we quickly realized that the carpet in the back room/the room that will be my office was looking pretty nasty (the pictures are a bit light: the dark spots on the carpet were very distinct in person and a deep cleaning wasn’t going to help alleviate it).

There was no way we were keeping it, so the hunt for acceptable new floor began. The winner ended up being a bamboo flooring, since it is supposed to be extremely durable. The plan was to install the bamboo floor, along with new 4.25 inch baseboards around the room. First thing’s first: it was time to paint the room before the new floor was installed. Since the carpet and baseboards were going to be ripped out, we didn’t have to lay a drop cloth or worry about being careful around the baseboards. I selected Gossamer Blue by Benjamin Moore for the wall color. It is such a happy blue/green hue, and it pops off the wall really well without darkening up the space too much.

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So, when I took you on a tour of our house, I pointed out the fact that our bathrooms had extremely low ceilings…and fluorescent lights installed.

They were not our cup of tea, so to say. Thankfully, with a bit of hired help we were able to increase the ceiling height by a foot. And it makes all the difference in the world to us. The fluorescent lights and huge wall mirrors were removed, new drywall was installed, and recessed lighting was put in as well. What started out as a cave of a bathroom is now much less boxed in. No more fluorescent panels in the ceiling, and where the ceiling once met the top of the shower, there is now a foot of space above. (P.S. sorry for the brightness in the “after” pictures…they’re a little blown out – whoops)

Don’t you think so?

I’m so glad we were able to get this project finished. At this point, we’ve also painted the bathroom and are thinking about taking out the shower door. I still need to find a mirror to go above the sink…of course because I am looking for one it is impossible to find a mirror I like!

So – can you see the difference? Have you dealt with fluorescent lights in your home before?

Last week, I took you on a quick photo tour of our new home. And, as promised I am going to keep updating you on the status of the changes we make as time goes by!

First up: the paint! The previous owners had the interior of the house painted a medium brown color in flat paint. Honestly – it appeared darker in person than it does in my photos. There was also a hallway and section of the kitchen that was a brownish red hue. I wanted to brighten things up with my decor and color scheme, so I looked towards lighter shades of paint. As much as I love gray and was tempted to go with that, I wanted to bring in a hint of color as well. Benjamin Moore’s Paris Rain ended up being the winning selection for us, and I could NOT be happier with the results. It is a grayish green, and the appearance changes depending on the light in the room – sometimes it looks gray, sometimes it looks more green…but it never stops being pretty! And Benjamin Moore paint in general is really great – we got an eggshell finish on ours, and the paint itself glides on with ease and covered really well…we only needed to apply a primer to the dark reddish brown walls (we could have just done 3 coats instead of 2, but we did 1 coat of primer to conserve the Paris Rain as much as possible).

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