summer project

it has been a busy, busy summer. as i've mentioned before, nearly every one of our weekends from june through september have been booked solid. i haven't had as much time to work on the house as i would have liked this summer. with such limited time, i've been puttering around with our entry way whenever i have a spare minute or two.

it's a very small little space that was covered floor to ceiling with horrible, horrible wallpaper. i wish i had taken before photos, but of course, i didn't think of that until after the wallpaper was down. here are a few photos of the finished product:


the color of the walls is "pressed leaves" from the martha stewart collection. (in bear paint)


i found this amazing fabric that is really similar to the pattern i painted on the wall. quite a lucky find! especially since i found it after the wall was painted. and it's almost exactly the same color green.




here's a closer version of the pattern i did on the wall. i originally found this fabulous wallpaper that i wanted to put up, but at something like $200/roll, i just couldn't bring myself to do it. so, instead i cut my own pattern and painted (i can't bring myself to say "stencil" because it brings up visions of puppies and horrible fruit motifs) but anyway, i would "stencil" the pattern and then age it by removing a lot of the paint to make it look as if it had been there for a long time. i did the entire wall from floor to ceiling. it took some time but the results were well worth it.


i also painted the bench with some green accents to match. the hubby is always amazed that i can do such things without a ruler! :)


and here's our "name plate" for the front door. i actually made it years ago from some old lead type, but i still love it.