Let Them Eat Cake (Steak or whatever)

For anyone sitting around saying, "We can't afford to go out to eat because money is tight." (aka me) Here is your chance! I want to thank My Milwaukee Mommy for this amazing deal at Restaurant.com. They in no way paid me to say this, I love just their blog because I may not be a mom yet, but I love saving money!

Now through August 10th, you can save 70% off at Restaurant.com! Depending on the restaurant you choose and their discount, you could be getting $25 worth of food for $3!!!!!! Use the promo code MENU to get the deal. Go for a fancy night out and try a restaurant usually out of your price range.

Max and I scored brunch at one of our favorite hangouts the Red Dot on Milwaukee's Eastside. Saa-Weet! Poutine anyone?

Please let me know where you get discounts! I'm curious about all these fine eateries!

Living Room Accent Wall Revealed

It's partial reveal time! Horray!

With my design background I have never been scared of color. That being said I also knew that I could possibly go overboard if I didn't have some boundaries for myself. In the living room, I wanted the room to have a feel of action but also a place to relax. Doing this would take a little bit restraint no to go crazy. I was inspired by this Pintrest from HGTV, a mostly neutral room with an accent wall of color.

Source: hgtv.com via Maureen on Pinterest

Using Glidden's Color Palette option, I did a little bit of color exploring. I knew I wanted a blue dining room but also knew that when I knocked out the partition wall the two rooms would need something to tie them together. That brought me to a matching accent wall. I already had the free paint from Glidden's giveaway so I was good to go.

I know what you are thinking, "Alright! Just show us already!"

Voilà! The living room accent wall. I finally incorporated some gold lamps that we already owned to give the room a more neutral feel with better night lighting. A project down the road will be giving them a fresh coat of paint and new shades.

Here is another view with just the lamps.

For this past Christmas, I received/chose these curtains as a gift from my mother knowing that I wanted them to be shown against a bright color to bring out their opaqueiness. They look gorgeous here.

The rest of the walls in the living room I plan to paint a light beige color (to yet be determined) that is a little darker than the curtains.

Cost of this update thus far:

Curtains (gift) - $0

Paint (online freebie) - $0

Lamps (already owned) - $0

White trim paint (already owned) - $0

Curtain rod (already owned) - $0

FREE

Here is a growing list of we need to do yet to the room:

- Knock out and fix partitioning wall between dining room

- Paint the rest of the walls the TBD beige paint color

- Fix-up and/or paint shelving units

- Add art work

- Incorporate some sort of house plant

- Get all carpets professionally cleaned

- Add area rug to room for balance (chevron maybe?)

- Paint or replace the rest of the trim

- Add fun throw pillows to room (orange maybe?)

- Add a few fun accent pieces

- Arrange shelving units visually

- Add fun side tables

Man looking at that list looks exhausting! Oh well, all in good fun!

How have you incorporated color without going color crazy?! If you have, how did you tone it down?

So I've Been Lazy

I want to say that I've got so much more done on the house, but I'd totally be lying. I started this painting project over a month ago and am currently waiting for part to finish drying to put the final touches on it. While I wait, I wanted to give you a preview of what I have been neglecting.

So remember my free paint from Glidden here? Well it arrived probably 4 days after I had filled out the form online (which is awesome on their part) and I clearly underestimated the size of a pint of paint. A pint is perfect for painting furniture, abstract art or an accent wall! I still want to paint the dining room a rich blue color and knock out the (shabby) drywalled partition between the living room and dining room (seen below). But the question, how was I going to tie the two rooms together.

The accent wall was the perfect solution! So taking my freebie paint I decided to tackle an accent wall in the living room with the plans to color match the dining room later.

Here is the accent wall being painted "Cobalt Blue" which is a shade darker than the annoying fish half-bath from before (now fish less).

Just for fun, this is the other side of the room. Guitar Hero anyone? I know what you are thinking, "What is this, 2007?"

Before I could paint of course, I had to fill in hole marks from the previous owners. I have never Spackled in my life before so I was happy to use Dry Dex since it was more like "Spackle for Dummies". Pretty basic stuff, goes on pink when wet and dries white. The hardest part was scrapping the excess off evenly.

My lovely assistant was no help and decided to take a nap. I suppose he does need 18 hours of sleep a day...

A little sanding and I was on my way to the priming and paint...

So long story short, this project then sat for almost a month with all the out of town adventures we had. Apparently I felt the watching of many Netflix TV shows was much more important after work as well.

On a sad note, our roomie Scott is moving out after life handed him a different path. He will be missed!