Posts Tagged ‘before and After

Dutch Boy Paints emailed me about a month and a half ago and offered to send me four gallons of paint to try and review on my blog.

Do *I* want four gallons of FREE paint? Sign me up!

They sent me a color deck so I could select my colors.

(Image borrowed from A Design Story)

Oh my oh my. I don’t think I’ve ever been SO INDECISIVE in my entire life! What room should I paint? What color should I pick? Should I get a few different colors? I hemmed and hawed for at least a week or more. I’m sure Dutch Boy was wondering what on earth they’d gotten themselves into!

I went to the Dutch Boy Paints website and selected their Inspiration Gallery where I saw this picture:

They had me at Foyer and Honey Bear.

I’m usually so “safe” when it comes to paint, but I thought I’d go out on a limb and try out yellow for my entry way. The official color is “Honey Bear” and I ordered it in Satin finish.

I was like a kid in a candy store the day they arrived!

First off, these paint cans are off the hook. I mean, seriously look at them! They have a pour handle on the side of the container, a handle on the top to carry, and they are plastic!

And then I opened one of them up to check out my new color when I discovered a POUR SPOUT inside the lid.

Srsly? Why oh why aren’t ALL paint brands packaged this way? Dutch Boy had my heart just with the paint container alone.

Here’s my foyer/entry way that I was going to test out my new paint on:

Basic builder beige. And you can’t really tell here but these walls are dirty and disgusting! I’ll show you a picture at the end of this post with a close-up of these disgusting filthy walls.

So I started to paint…

This paint goes on great. It’s smooth and thick and coats really well. And the best part? IT DOESN’T STINK! It’s got this Arm & Hammer action going on which eliminates that horrible migraine-induced-high-on-fumes headache I usually sport when I’m painting.

Here’s a close-up after only ONE coat of paint. ONE COAT people!

I did paint two coats though just to be “safe”.

And “after” both my coats of paint:

I’m sure this is solely because of the color choice, but I LOVE THIS COLOR. During the afternoon it looks bright yellow, in the morning it looks pale buttery yellow, and at night I swear it looks beige. It is such a beautiful color and will look even better when I get those other two rooms you see painted a light gray.

One reason I chose yellow is because I’m planning on painting the majority of my house a gray color with yellow accents, so I figured a yellow entry way would really work well with the rest of my color scheme. (You can see my indecisiveness about the gray on this post.)

I’m still not completely finished. I have to rehang all my decor and I have to paint that gawd-awful purple room (I mention it in this post under Dining Room) and the other room a gray shade. This yellow already looks so fabulous, I can hardly wait to see it up against the gray!

Oh, and one more teensy-tiny detail I forgot to mention… I still need to actually finish painting my entry way!

I couldn’t reach because it’s a two story foyer, and I’m TERRIFIED of heights, so I have to wait until my husband will climb up there and paint for me, or until I cave and hire a painter guy to come finish it for me (probably the latter).

And now for the much anticipated side-by-side Before & After comparison.

This is one photo. I took a picture of the corner wall where the staircase starts. Now I REALLY need to paint the stairway. It is so grotesque!

Yikes. Yup, that “before” section is how the entire foyer looked before I painted it. Gross!

So, to sum up, I LOVE this Dutch Boy paint. While researching about Dutch Boy for this post I realized they are owned by Sherwin Williams. No wonder the paint is such top notch quality. Sherwin Williams and me are tight, but I might have to start having an affair on Sherwin with the cute little Dutch Boy.

It’s time to retire the ol’ blog layout, header, & buttons.

I’ve loved every second of the orangie blog. It’s where this blog came from. It’s my roots.

But as they say, “It’s time to grow the hell up!”

You may have noticed I removed the original header a few weeks ago & put up a basic temporary one.

And now I’ve finally gone and changed the whole darn layout.

Here’s the very first button I ever made:

I want to be embarrassed by it, but it just reminds me of my first days living in Los Angeles when I was bored and depressed and missing Texas. I created a blog to help fill the void while I was in California for 6 months.

Now I’ve got a better button, but it’s still not great (as Lorie has pointed out to me on numerous occasions. Don’t worry, we are friends IRL so she’s allowed to text me and ask if she can please make me a new one because mine isn’t centered. That’s a true friend! )

I’m still waiting for my button, Lorie!

And of course I will never forget how sweet and kind Nikki from Creative Knack was to make me a plate based on the look of my blog.

<3

And I will love it forever! And it’s hanging on the wall on my staircase, so I can see it every day!

I LOVE my new layout. I want to thank my amazing husband Ben for staying up until almost 5am getting everything moved over for my new stream-lined look.

He is SO AMAZING at all this coding and HTML, CSS, JavaScript, MYSQL, & PHP (say wha?).

(I had to ask him what all those “coding things” were called so I could add them to the post.)

I still need a new header and hopefully some new buttons. I’ll get to it soon!

Click around. See all the new tabs and functions I’ve got goin’ on. And check back soon and click some more. I’ll be making even more updates and changes over the coming weeks.

So, goodbye to the orange, hello to the future!

I’ve temporarily taken down the Fall decor and busted out the Halloween stuff!

I pulled out my box-o-scariness…

… if you can call it “scary”

I’m more of a “cutesy” seasonal decorator.

I had most of my decor already, but I did make a few spray paint adjustments…

I painted the wreath black as well as the candle stick that I bought months ago.

For the wreath I decided to go low-key. I just painted a wreath black and hung it with a 1 1/2″ thick orange ribbon.

I was planning on doing more detail on the wreath, but once it was painted I really liked it plain.

I love my little crow perched up on top of the mirror. Subtle and spooky.

Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter, In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore.

I bought this little guy from the Dollar Spot and gave him a fresh coat of white spray paint for plastic.

I added a few subtle details…

Lots of spider webs

and candles

and hints of ribbon

and cute spooky little ghosts and pumpkins

and spiders.

Cutesy and glitter make me giddy.

And the Halloween mantle is DONE.

I turned my fall table piece into a Halloween one by adding some moss and ribbon.

Little bits of ribbon can make anything look festive!

I used a sharpie to draw a face on the lil’ punkin’

Isn’t it cute with the moss and spider and web?

Who can resist a mini truffle dish with moss, skulls, and a bow?

More cutesy stuff.

I wish I could take credit for these, but I bought them years ago on a mega after-Halloween sale.

So adorable.

And of course Halloween just isn’t complete with a spooky glitter tree!

Candy, anyone?

Here’s to a fun,

Halloween!