Sunroom + Living Room Wall Progress

Whew... this past week has been a marathon of projects. I've been DIY'ing since 8am today, trying to squeeze the last few things in before company came (too late, they are in the pool without me, so I'll make this quick...)

Here was our sunroom, last Sunday:

The drywall people came on Monday and added some much needed insulation:

And brand new humidity-resistant drywall:

And then there was light!

By Thursday, it was ready for paint.

And so I painted it a soft, beachy shade of blue: Tropical Mist by Valspar.

It shows up a bit lighter in these pics, but it's a nice pale aqua and really adds to the room.

Next came the moment I've been waiting for since the day I first walked in to this house... vertical blind removal!

I don't have a demo picture... so just take a look at this very old picture and visualize them vanishing before your eyes:

Next it was time to hang some curtain rods.

Way back when, on our first big Ikea trip, I picked up a bunch of rods and curtains intended for this room. I'm not sure what I was thinking, but I bought black curtain rods... which just stick out like a sore thumb in this light, bright room:

Don't you agree? They stood out even worse in person.

I considered spray painting them white before installation, but I figured I'd give them a try and see how they looked.

I tried hanging a curtain to see if it would look any better....

Nope, it didn't.

So I removed all the rods and set up a spraying station in the garage.

As for the brackets—at first I tried carefully painting them with a brush, but that was an agonizingly tedious disaster, so I had no choice but to spray them while mounted:

And this is the current state of the sunroom.

I'm still debating adding some sort of stencil pattern on the ceiling, but the verdict is out. There's a lot we have to accomplish in this room, and we now have a deadline of April 28th (we're throwing a big birthday/pool party, and this is where many guests will be hanging out, so I want to make sure everything is ready to go).

Next up...

Remember this console table I refinished last week?

It's back in its home... with a few other new projects:

My ladder has been built, wall map has been hung, and table accessories have been made over.

Here's how it looked a few weeks ago:

And let's see how close I came to my original vision...

Pretty close, eh? I actually like the real life version better.

I added the aqua glass vase to the mix just to see how it would look. Still debating on keeping it there or not.

Then I moved the vase with sticks over to the corner by the fireplace in the aqua vase's old spot, but I kind of like it there now...

Thoughts?

Here's a peak at some of the new table accessories:

These DIY vases were left homeless after the sunroom demo, so I thought the new table would be a great place for them.

I painted the old gold ampersand (a few bucks at Hobby Lobby) in Valspar's Magic Spell (the color of our foyer and dining room)—which is also one shade darker than the living room wall.

On the next shelf, I have a bit of reading material:

Anyone else reading this book? Absolutely love Kelle.

Next, you'll see a couple 5x7's in cheap Ikea frames...

I Left My Heart found here

San Francisco map found here

And the globe I turned from this:

To this:

I'll post a step by step in my next post.

Next, I finally hung my large 20x28" world map:

World Map found here, in "taupe"

And the biggest project of them all... my personal favorite, my weathered wood ladder:

Of course, I'll have a step by step on this in my next post as well.

And that, my friends, wraps up a week of DIY crazyness. Brad's yelling at me to come get dinner and there's a margarita with my name on it, so I'm off to enjoy the evening. Happy Easter to all!