Flash Master Jam

Happy Monday Lovlies! How is your holiday weekend treating you? We have some family in from out of town and are very excited to see everyone. The weather has finally decided to be beautiful, no complaining over here at Casa Katsaros. As we mentioned in a previous post, we have been working on the master bedroom, and are ready to share with you! Brace yourself, this is going to be a long post.

If you aren't up to date with how we got to the current state of our bedroom, check this and this out to get you in the know. Now that everyone is up to date, we had to make a bit of a mess to get things in order.

After moving things out of the room, and coving up the heavy stuff, the room looked like a wreck. Almost so bad, I couldn't image it actually finished. A messy room is a messy mind, and this room was pure chaos.

We had only painted one wall with the stencil we bought over at Cutting Edge Stencil, the rest of the room was in the original putty color that came with the house. It was driving me bananas.

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We decided to take the lighter color from the stencil, Cumulus Cloud by Martha Stewart, and have it color matched with Behr Premium Plus Ultra so we wouldn't have to prime + paint + paint again. It's a really large room, and as much as we love the result of paint, the process is kinda grueling. We also invested in some new tools because of this.

Let me introduce you to your new best friend. This is the Ryobi Duet Power House Paint System. She's not perfect, but she's darn good. Here is the deal in a nutshell. For $99 bucks, this investment is totally worth it. We picked it up at our Home Depot along with two gallons of the paint to finish off our room. Being this paint system is so efficient, we wasted nearly no paint, and only needed one gallon of paint. The process of painting the room took about 1/4 of the time we thought. It has a duel option, but Joey pounded it out with out my help. I did corners and used 3M tape, while he did the bulk. So why isn't she perfect? Truth is, she is a pain in the booty to clean. The cleaning instructions are vague, and he made a mess in the laundry room. Even with this flaw, we totally recommend the investment, it will save you time, paint, and in the end a lot of money. We have a lot more painting ahead of us, and the quote we got from professionals (we were curious) was outrageous.  

Notice the dramatic color difference on the two walls? Looks a bit more blue than we anticipated. Odd thing is, the room seems to change colors depending on where you are looking. The number one rule of design lives in lighting, and this is the first time we really experienced how dramatic the difference can be depending on said light. 

So the bones of the room are finally finished. The furniture is purchased and placed, the patterns and textiles have been selected and some are even living in the room. The "sparkle" and fun stuff is missing. One major item we haven't bought yet is this amazing mirror via Restoration Hardware:

She's pretty and would fit perfectly over this:

Best news is, she's $1,200 and that's not including shipping. If you paid attention to previous bedroom posts, we have only spent just a speck over $3,000 for the whole bedroom. Seems a bit silly to spend that much on a mirror, but then again, she is very pretty....

In the meantime, the room is pretty unsparkely. The fun part is picking all the accessories and homey/cozy things. Check her out so far. We would love to know what you think!

We have some of those sparkle items in hand. If you remember, we have some amazing pillars from India circa 1880. I love them I drool over them. Right now they are hanging out in the upstairs hall until we decide on a few things.

We also have the amazing white moose head from Z Galleries, which sadly did not fit in the mudroom chilling in a basket, soon to be hung over the fireplace.

We also got some curtains from West Elm we placed behind the bed....for now. We love them, but aren't quite sure how we feel about them dressing every window in the room.

After we put the pillars back up, we will have a better idea of what works. Also, notice we are still fan-less? Another massive Restoration Hardware love fest going on there.

So there you have it! Our "finished" bedroom! As we add the elements that make it a home, we will happily share. Some financial contemplations and moral dilemmas going on as far as the things we love, and is the cash worth it. Have you ever faced this? Let us know, we are curious about how to solve a problem like a $500 fan you can't DIY your way through.

Happy Memorial Day!

YOU'RE CREATIVE, Right?...

...well then you are going to love this! Lamps Plus has asked us to spread the word about a mighty fine contest they are running! They really want to make their blog a place for everyone who loves interior design, and decided that their blog should have a piece of our readers + lovers of interiors in it. They are inviting everyone to partake in giving them a new name with a “Name That Blog!” contest. In fact, whichever reader ends up with the most votes in this contest will get a $250 online shopping spree for partaking. Yes please! Here is how you can get in on the fun!

 

1.  
   1. Comment on the Lamps Plus Blog Post Here.
   2. As a comment on the Lamps Plus Facebook Page Here.
   3. As a tweet using the hashtag #namethatblog
   4. By email to community@lampsplus.com

The submission period runs May 25^th- 31^st. The community will then vote on the top names June 2^nd- 9^th

Good luck! We are all looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with! Hurry, only a few days left to enter!

Reality vs The Blogosphere

Hey there friends! Hope this week is treating you well. Is the rain taking over your life like it is here in the North East? It's non stop, and on a mission to murder my seedlings. The past few years it seems we have two types of weather: annoying and unlivable. Hope the good stuff is coming soon.

So why have we been so MIA? We are ready to share a little bit. No need to brace yourself, it's not over the top news, but some pretty sweet stuff going on. Here we go:

1.) We are making final edits to the mater bedroom, and have been set back, hence nothing to share. We will be making a new post this week on the bedroom progress. We are 90% there. Whew. She's a monster.

2.) Our blog is being redesigned! I thought it would be complete by the time we left for LA, but we have been experiencing delays virtually as well. We are super excited to put our best step forward via the internet. Honestly we didn't think blogging would be something we did all the time, so we kind of pieced together this blog as best we good, graphically ignorant and all. We decided to call upon professionals to make this blog look the way it should, and we are giddy with anticipation to share.

3.) We decided to do the unthinkable. We are taking on the challenge of painting the outside of our home, ourselves. Mmmhrmmm. DIY baby. It's been a mission to agree on paint. A mission I tell you.I want her to look like this when we are done:

4.) We are in the middle of resurfacing our kitchen cabinet, replacing counter tops, adding a new sink and dishwasher. Say it with me...MONSTER. This will be a fun blog post. We are doing this on the CHEAP and have some great tips!

5.) Work is CRAZY right now.

6.) My car broke, and I don't get a new one until this weekend. Getting things done out of the house has been a creative endeavor.

7.) We have cancelled many trips, and it's time to take them back. We haven't had a "just us" vacation in a long long time. Montreal, we are coming! Also, St. Louis, Indianapolis,  Atlanta, Moheegan Sun, St. Paul, LA (again), Italy, and Bali....

8.) I never took to the whole "guest blogging" thing. I don't really have any reason. I guess, it's a blog about out home, and who else can write about it better than us?

9.) We miss eachother.

10.) Pinterest.