AT Style Cure Day 7.1: Cinderella Part 2 -- The Fairy Godmother Strikes Back

I cleaned my room! Where's my gold star?

I even cleaned the window, which was super dingy and had never been completely cleaned in the five years we've lived here. Sure, I wiped down the easy to reach inside bits from time to time (year to year), but this time I cleaned the inside and outside of all four panes. I am way too proud of myself over this. It was really hard, but I only fell out of the window one time. Just kidding, I fell out zero times. But it was super scary leaning out of the window to clean the outsides. And I have regular sized arms so I had to clean half of each outside pane by leaning out the bottom and reaching up and the other half by leaning out the top and reaching down. Has anyone ever done this? Is there an easier way that I am missing? And what is up with that creepy inclination to just jump out the window? Just me?

I also removed all the crazy patterns from the room, and I am starting to believe that I will not have to paint.*

*Except for the closet which I totally just painted. After sanding and spackling and wishing upon stars four nights in a row, the former mountainous region in the closet was finally smooth enough to paint. Smooth enough for the inside of a closet, anyway. I used the same light blue-grayish color that I painted the living room and basement with because it matches everything. Voila!**

Remember the before:

**Anyone know how to make an accent over the a in 'Voila'?

AT Style Cure Day 7: Cinderella, Cinderella

Apartment Thereapy Style Cure Day 7: Clean Your Room & Collect Paint Chips

I wonder if I'm allowed to go out and play on Saturday before it's clean, MOM.  Ok, I won't. But I won't collect paint chips becuase I'm still in denial about having to paint and also I already have ten million paint chips. See.

My name is Darlene and I am a Paint Chip Hoarder.

AT Style Cure Day 6: WHOOPS!

Apartment Thereapy Style Cure Day 6: Learn About Color.

Apartment Therapy published a great Lesson on Color here.

Warm and cool I kind of get and want to care about. I like blues and greens and lemony yellows and I hate reds and browns and buttery yellows so let's call me SUPER COOL and leave it at that, yeah?

And did you know that white is cool and black is warm? Emo kids all over the country are going to be pissed.

More disturbing is the 80/20 rule. 80% of the space should be neutral and 20% can scream at you. Can I change that to a 20/80 rule? Because there is SO. MUCH. COLOR. happening in that room.

The bedspread is bananas.

The $10 fabric panels I scored from Urban Outfitters one December 26 years ago that I hung as interim curtains when we first moved in is full of color and pattern. And birds.

The decoupaged nightstand we made this summer turned a nice white surface into a color and pattern explosion.

And the walls. They're, um, a bit bright. I REALLY don't want to have to paint them. (Again.) But I also really don't want have nothing else but black and white (and gold -- the headboard is brass and the mirrored closets are edged in a sort of matte gold color) in the room.

I'm off to Google Image turqoise/teal rooms and convince myself that this can work. It might work; I excel at denial.

At Style Cure Day 5: Stupid Measuring

Apartment Therapy Style Cure Day 5: Make a Floor Plan.

I HATE MEASURING. In the most whiniest, forget this stupid Style-Cure, I-give-up way.

The usable space of the bedroom is approximately 10' x 10'. One wall is all closet and mirror. The opposite wall has a window that is not centered, but is not really on one side either. It is placed to look even from the outside, not the inside. In fact, it is just annoyingly close to the middle that a full-sized bed doesn't fit in the corner without covering a few inches of the window.

So the most logical place for the headboard is on the wall where the dresser is in the above picture. It's been there before, it works. I only moved the bed to use the rest of the room for storage when working on the Big Basement Redo.

And that little dresser will fit on the wall with the window. I did measure that. (With my arms.)

I know from experience that there will be just enough room between the bed and the window wall for an Ikea Lack side table, and it will not bump into the actual window. I need a few more coats of Modge Podge but hopefully we'll be able to use Chicken's creation in the room. (Yes, I call my daughter Chicken and have for years. Yes, it started around the same time the Chicken character was introduced on United States of Tara. It was unconscious and unrelated.)

FLOORPLAN!:

**I used the excellent floor plan software called Sharpie & Clipboard. It's been around a long time. Since before computers, even. Nothing beats the classics.

AT Stye Cure Day 4: HA!

Apartment Thereapy Style Cure Day 4: Set up a One-Room Outbox

Ok, so I took my Before Pics and was so disturbed by the closet full of junk I decided to start cleaning it last night.

Hopefully, setting up a one-room outbox means making an outbox out of one entire room, because that's kind of what I've got going on here.

I took everything out of the closet with the idea of giving it a good wipe down. And then I realized that I hadn't seen this crap since the LAST time I took everything out of this closet. I decided I wanted an empty closet more than I wanted old coats and shoes that pinch and broken lamps and ugly frames. I gave the plastic shelving a bath (for real, in the bathtub) and took out the sticky dusty wire shelving.
I took a look at the empty closet and noticed that the walls were beat up. And actually breaking. Yep. One entire corner was all plate techtonic style where the drywall has shifted and caused a mountain range. Fantastic.

So this means the house is settling. Fine, I knew that. Or maybe it means the foundation is broken. Semi-fine, since I live in a condo and if that is the case, I don't have to pay for the repair. But NOT FINE because I cannot unsee that corner. And now I want to paint the inside of the closet. But first I have to fix the San Andreas Fault.

I googled things like 'fix my stupid drywall in the closet' and 'help my closet is Pangea all breaking apart' and 'drywall fault lines' and then finally 'please help me fix my drywall'. I just wanted to dust. Ugh. (Lesson: cleaning is time consuming and dangerous and to be avoided at all costs.)

I'm not a big fan of research that lasts more than fifteen minutes or one phone call to my dad, but I did learn: something something drywall tape something something mesh tape or paper tape and joint compound mud something something patch something caulk. I know, how about I scrape all the mountains off and caulk it and paint it. Maybe?

I grabbed a utility razor and began my mountain-top removal campaign. But once I started, it seemed to peel off with a super straight edge. Oh, this must be the drywall tape. I'm gonna have to replace it. And drive somewhere. And change out of my pajamas. Lame.

Well, I checked the tape stash (yes I have a 'tape stash') and I have something mesh-y. Maybe this is drywall tape? I don't think it's any other kind of tape. I remember one time my dad fixed some drywall in the old place so maybe needed to buy drywall tape. That settles it: this is definately drywall tape. Probably.

I don't have joint compound but I have vinyl spackle. And caulk. And regular spackle. Let's make this work. I REALLY don't want to go to Home Depot. (It's closer than Lowe's. I hate driving. This is not an endoresement. It might be the opposite.)

After five more minutes of googling things like 'can i use vinyl spackling instead of drywall mud pretty please', I found two pages that gave me just enough confidence to jump in. Ironically, they were both in Home Depot's forum pages (didn't even know those existed...HELPFUL). So thanks, HD, for helping me avoid a trip down your aisles.

Today I'm changing Set Up an Outbox to Fix the Closet. I hope AT doesn't mind.

**Oh, wait, I did take all the closet crap out to the van for a Goodwill run so that counts, right?

AT Style Cure Day 3: GET A ROOM!

Apartment Therapy Style Cure Day 3: Choose Your Room, Sit for 10 Minutes & Take Pictures

When I saw the title of today's assinment, I was like PEICE OF CAKE this is so easy because obviously the bedroom needs the most love. But then I read the part about how this is supposed to be just a quick style update and not an entire renovation. So my bedroom is out, actually, since that whole thing needs to go. However, the guest room/Sophie's Room is perfectly functional if a bit mismatched and boring. And dusty. Which I noticed after sitting in the room breathing the air for ten minutes.

So, ok, changing course a bit, I've decided on making over the guest room. It will need a crib soon anyway, since I recently became an auntie (!!!) and my sweet little neice lives in the area and I expect lots of fun sleepovers in the future.

Baby Vera, six hours old:

Also, I recently picked up a dresser from Craigslist that needs to be repainted. And Sophie and I played Fun With Decoupage this summer all over an old while Ikea Lack Table, which might work in the room. It definately needs a deep cleaning, better lighting, and organization.

So behold, the Before Pictures:

Oh my gosh, I can't believe I just posted those Inside the Closet Shots on the internet. Where all the robots can see! I'm going to go clean that closet right this minute.

AT Style Cure Day 2: WINDOW SHOPPING!

Apartment Therapy Style Cure Day 2: Go on a Style Treasure Hunt

I would LOVE to have been able to do this. But instead I took my two teenagers to two different airports on two different days this weekend. And as it turns out, the shops at the airports are lacking in style. Unless I want to decorate with half price James Patterson paperbacks because then I know just the place.

So, I pinned and pinned while sitting at the airport all weekend.

Style Cure Board

And I may have cheated and bought a rug from Joss & Main. Because those things have deadlines, dude.