Moving over to the dark side-Two PARA Paints Blog Crew projects

I have two half-PARA Paints Blog Crew projects to show you this week. One is half done and one is one-half PARA Paint :-)

The loft is painted, and I LOVE it! My final colour choice was PARA’s Rainy Skies. I had to repaint the baseboards (PARA’s Climb the Mast), which I got done this weekend, and now the loft is ready to be decorated – WOOT! So no final reveal pics today, but here’s a peek at the wall colour…

Orange and purple are going to be the accent colours. I went a little cushion-crazy at HomeSense last week! Still deciding which ones to keep, which ones to get more of, and which ones to bring back…

The runner-up colour for the walls was PARA’s Potion. But I had another project in mind for it. I’d started painting a coffee table with Annie Sloan’s Paris Grey and Provence, but then decided to use Potion instead of Provence. I know I took some before pics, but I can’t for the life of me find them. But the coffee table is from the same set as this end table that I Annie Sloane-i-fied last year:

And this is how it turned out:

Did you know that you can wax latex paint just as well as chalk paint? Yep, you can! I waxed the top and used a silver paint pen to highlight the groove.

I used pewter Rub N’ Buff on the pull…

And the feet…

I haven’t decided if I should sand the base to give it a distressed look or apply some dark wax or just leave it as it is. What do you think?

Thanks to PARA Paints and Bonds Decor on Bank Street for providing the paint :-)

PARA Paints Blog Crew project: Craft room reveal

First there were the Kelly Wearstler-inspired walls:

Then there was the Tiny Fey Sexy Librarian Desk:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then the purple door with turquoise edges:

And now my craft room is ready for its final reveal! Come on in and let’s take a look around…

As scary as it was, this is how the room looked before I got up the mojo to clean it up.

Hubby built a bulkhead to hide that silver duct pipe…

Which now doubles as a magnet board! The three magnets on the left are glass pieces from RAVEK architectural glass art – I just hot glued small magnets to the backs of the pieces of glass.

I hung some colourful jewelry from these dog butt magnets :-)

As you can see in the before pics. there was no ceiling and just one bare light bulb in the middle of the room. Hubby installed a ceiling and pot lights…

And then I convinced him that the room really needed a chandelier – especially because I found the perfect sparkly purple chandelier at HomeSense :-)

I also picked up a couple of orange ceramic boxes and a bright pink clock at HomeSense.

I saw these pink pencil holders at Ikea – perfect to add another touch of bright pink to the room.

As I walked towards the cash with the pink pencil holders, I though to myself it was too bad Ikea doesn’t sell pink trash cans and OH MY GOD, THEY DO SELL PINK TRASH CANS! I snapped one up, and now it’s holding foil for more foil art.

I originally planning to paint my old Ikea Billy bookcase and use it for display and storage, but by this point I was tired of painting and just wanted something done and ready to go. The Expedit shelving unit from Ikea was perfect…

But the unit sits flat on the floor, so it would have to stand away from the wall in order to clear the baseboard. Unless we added legs to it – and it just so happens the Stuva Grundlig legs come with green feet in just the right shade to go with the desk :-)

The back legs are positioned far enough in on the base so that the unit clears the baseboard.

This baby is solid and definitely won’t be tipping over! Even filled with my craft stuff and projects and a few knicknacks, like buttons and pieces of costume jewelry and beads….

These white boxes from Ikea hold all my bottles of paint. The labels are paint chips in the colours of the paints that are in each box. Now when I need green paint, I know where to find green paint :-)

One of the end walls in the room has a big opening. I assume it’s there to let in some light from the patio doors, seeing as there aren’t any windows in the room. It really didn’t serve any useful purpose before…

…and then I had an AH-HA moment – why not create  a little something like this:

Image via Houzz | Design by Martha O’Hara Interiors

Hubby added strips to each side of the opening with holes that metal rods from Home Depot sit in.

 

And voila, a gift wrapping holder that doubles as a privacy screen from the rest of the basement :-)

I want to be able to use the desk from any side, so rather than pushing it up against a wall, it’s in the middle of the room. I like to paint and work on crafts standing up, so hubby modified it to be counter height. But for the sitting down kind of projects, there’s a purple counter height stool from Wicker Emporium.

I picked up some colourful plastic baskets at the Dollar Store to corral my stuff in the desk drawers.

The ledges are the perfect place to put my finished artwork and some more knicknacks….

A huge thank you to PARA Paints and Bonds Decor for providing all the paint for my craft room. Here are the colours that I used.

	P5216-14D	Climb the Mast	Desk legs, ceiling, trim, stripes on walls
	P5021-41D	Shopping Spree	Desk body & legs above brass bands
	P5021-34	Splurged Again	Door edges
	P5021-24	It’s A Steal	Walls
	P5072-65	Sunkist	Inside of drawers
	P5044-62	Leek	Top of desk
	P5196-51	Platform Sandals	Door

I’m so happy with how my craft room turned out. It’s bright and colourful and functional, and all my craft supplies are now in one place and within easy reach. Well, for now, anyway – knowing me, it won’t be neat & organized for long!

Do you have a craft room or a designated spot in your house where you work on your projects?

Linking up here…