THE CAVENDER DIARY

Since everyone has seen the recent pictures of our den, there have been several requests to show before shots. I’m not sure “before” is really the right word. This room took us some time, it’s more like a 2 year evolution….

Here is what the room looked like when the previous owner was still here…

Not really bad…….but, not really good either…….This room had the most furniture in it. Actually, it was the only room in the whole house with pictures hanging on the walls.

After we placed a bid, and came back for the inspection, I snapped this picture of the fireplace.

What color is that? The fireplace backs up to the garage…and the unpainted brick in there is such a beautiful creamy color. And notice that it’s GLOSS. Everything in the house was painted gloss……Get this, even the ceilings. I apologize if you have glossy ceilings in your house, but there is still time to fix it. Look at the first picture in this post, you can see the windows reflected in the ceiling.

Here’s Jamie taking care of that wierd-ass color right now……First thing he did when we got the keys.

I focused on painting the ceiling…with actual freaking ceiling paint. It only comes in flat, in case you are wondering.

The walls we painted Martha Stewart “Fawn”. They would have been an RL color, but just one month before we moved, Home Depot stopped selling RL paint. Lubbock and Tyler were the only 2 cities in Texas that still sold it. Since both of those cities are several HOURS away from Dallas …….Martha won. (under breath) reluctantly.

I love the way the black fireplace plays off the khaki.  Actually makes it look thicker and more substantial.

I haven’t  mentioned that we were powerless the first 4 days of painting. TXU forgot to put in the work order to turn our power on. We had plans to do way more painting before our furniture arrived, but could only paint during daylight.

Speaking of furniture…..This looks so sparse.

So this is probably right after the movers delivered our stuff, because we were waiting on our Pottery Barn sisal with the black banding to come in ….and that ain’t it.

The entertainment center is an even sadder sight…I had forgotten about that giant blueray player.

We kept our books and artwork in the garage so the electricians could do this easier…

And eventually this …….

That’s right, install the cans……If you don’t have them…I Highly recommend them , they are sooooo choice. I’m not sure how I have lived all these years without them. When we’re finished, they will be in every room of the house ( only 4 more to go, and 2 of those are bathrooms  ). I’m getting amazingly adequately good at installing them myself. You can see an example of that handiwork here.

I had to add this picture of the coffee table being glued together with aquarium glue. We had to take it apart to move it here. It was really the last major project in this room …..

So there y’all have it  …..the evolution of our den. Check out the finished room here.