Homemaking

Guess what, everyone? I’m baaack!

So I know I’ve gone on breaks from blogging before, but never to this extent! I basically haven’t blogged since last Easter, making my latest hiatus from blogging a massive 7 month-long gap. Crazy how time flies!

Why the long break? Well, a variety of stuff happened that preoccupied my time and/or made it impossible to keep up with my blog. But the main reason? Definitely The. Big. Move. this past summer when my husband and I finally bought our own house.

Now, the two of us have gone through our share of moves (I think together as a couple, we’ve moved 6 times within 10 years), so that part isn’t new. But this time it was WAY different. Why? Because we weren’t renting anymore, and the fact that we were moving to a house we can call our own meant I could do whatever I wanted to it!

Actually, we were really lucky because our new house had been completely renovated from top to bottom before we moved in (the last owner only had the house for 6 months, never lived in it, and bought it just to renovate/flip it). I’m talking like brand new kitchen appliances (with the factory stickers still on them!) and cabinets, newly painted walls and flooring on all 3 levels, all new bath fixtures… the works. So while the house may be old, it definitely felt more like we were living in a new one from the inside.

However, the home decorator in me refused to live in a clinical, cookie-cutter home with off-white walls.

There was a two month-long period between when we bought the house and when we actually moved in (we had to wait until the end of our prior rental agreement before moving in). During that time, I think I went insane obsessively planning every aspect of what I wanted to do with each room in the house.

I used online room planning tools to map out (to scale!) exactly where each furniture item will be. I scoured Every. Single. Furniture. Store. and bought all our furniture ahead of time before we even moved, because I was so impatient (and by doing so, I ended up having to stash all the items in the front hallway of our old condo for the last month we were there, making it impossible to get around!).

And lastly, I started my very own interior design scrapbook where I compiled my chosen paint chips that I had picked for each room, plus home decorating magazine cut-outs featuring pictures of rooms that I felt were inspirational to what I wanted to do with my own house.

Yup, I basically became full-blown OCD!

Anyway, I ended up painting five (yes, FIVE!) rooms before moving in… each one a different color, not much different from the color scheme that I have currently set up for this Knitting & Purling blog site. Y’know, very whimsical… fun… colorful… without being too in your face. Pastels, but not too light.

So to start off, I decided to turn our third smallest bedroom into a massive walk-in closet for my ginormous collection of clothes, handbags and shoes.

I’m talking a wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling massive 3- to 4-tier IKEA Pax wardrobe system taking up one whole wall, a glass-door dresser lined row after row with handbags, and custom horizontal shelves (taking up the entire width of the wall) built one on top of the other to house nothing but shoes. Hey, as I’ve said all along, I’m addicted to shopping… especially when it comes to fashion!

Previously, I would tend to shy away from the color purple. Whether as a color choice for clothing, fashion accessories or jewelry… and definitely not as paint color selection.

But over the last year I’ve really warmed up to the color purple. I’ve grown to embrace all shades too, from fuchsia to deeper royal purples. But something about a subtle bluish purple (especially in a lighter shade) always screamed elegance & style to me. Which is why I had decided to paint my walk-in closet with Monet Lily Premium Plus paint by Behr. (Hey, if I had my way, I’d be pairing that with a chic white chandelier ceiling lamp!)

As for the second bedroom? Well that has basically transformed into a giant crafts room.

Shopping aside, arts and crafts is my life (Hey, it’s even better when you combine the two! Mmmmm… shopping for handmade goods by local artisans = ♥)

Don’t believe me? Check out my newly launched KnittingNPurling Etsy store, the place where I sell my handcrafted jewelry and fashion accessories.

From my massive yarn collection to my mom’s sewing machine to my two (that’s right, plural!) seamstress dress forms to an entire wall covered with rows on top of rows of towel rails lined with enough craft punches to last a lifetime to more jewelry making supplies than I would ever be able to use… all of that are located within this room. Phew!

And since it was my crafts room, it only made sense that I painted it with Coral Dune Premium Plus paint by Behr… a coral/peach/salmon pink color that’s closely related to the main, defining color of my Knitting & Purling blog website (which is mainly devoted to arts and crafts, so it made sense).

Side note #1: Apparently I’m not planning on having children anytime soon, since there’s no room left for a baby! Well, not in the near future anyway.

As for the master bedroom? I didn’t have to think twice about this one; I knew it would be painted with my favorite color: Green.

I was thinking either Asian green tea (the color of my room at my parents’ house) or a light grass green. I ended up choosing Cabbage Green Premium Plus paint by Behr. It’s light, airy, kind of spring-like and definitely refreshing. Completely calming, and such a great color to wake up to and see first thing in the morning.

Side note #2: In case you’re thinking I’ve been completely selfish and have shut my husband out with all this girlie stuff, don’t worry! Our entire basement? His very own mancave. It’s got a TV hooked up to video game consoles like the NES, SNES, GameCube & Wii. It houses our wall-to-wall & floor-to-ceiling massive collection of CDs (seriously, we’re THAT into music), his vinyls, a turntable, a dartboard, and (the pièce de résistance!) a pool table. Find yourself in our neighborhood? Please drop by, guests are welcomed! (Well, maybe only restricted to those of you whom my husband & I know personally…)

Going back to the choosing paint colors, I had decided to paint our kitchen/dining room using Bicycle Yellow Premium Plus paint by Behr.

This was also a no-brainer. I knew I wanted a color that was bright, cheery, appetizing and stimulated the taste buds. And guess what? I got exactly that with this bright (yet creamy) & sunny Bicycle Yellow paint color.

Lastly, there’s the room I knew my husband and I would be spending the vast majority of our time in. I’m talking about the living room, of course.

Why? Many reasons, but to list a few… it houses our main TV set, our wall-to-wall & floor-to-ceiling DVD/Blu-ray media collection, our brand spankin’ new La-Z-Boy power control sofa recliner… and, oh yeah, our resident bunnies! Enough said.

And for a room as important as the living room? I chose to paint it in my second favorite color of all time (after my number one favorite, that being green): Turquoise, in the form of Spa Premium Plus Paint by Behr.

I find blues go well with everything. Especially greenish blues. A good teal can be complemented by shades of olive greens and royal purples (which, you’ve guessed it, is the color scheme I had decided for our living room). It sounds kinda weird, but trust me, it works.

Anyway, the long and short of it? It took 2 months after we took possession of the house before it was ready for a housewarming party/guests. And even still there are things left to do, such as putting up our wedding photos from Florence. But the great news is, technically we have all the time in the world to do it now that we can call this house completely ours. Hooray to that!

Super sorry for my uber long post. But hey, it DID take 7 solid months for me to get back into blogging, so you shouldn’t be surprised! As always, thanks again for your interest.

Many cheers,
Karina