All Moved Out.

It's empty! It's funny; to us it felt smaller all empty than with all our furniture in it. 

It was crazy moving out. Why does it always take longer than you think it will? We are putting all of our stuff in storage for now, so that was adding an extra little bit of stress to the event, but we are all done. After we moved, I had to clean the whole house with a deep clean, so I didn't finish until about 8 o clock Friday night. Tomorrow, we close on the condo. Good bye little condo! It's a little bittersweet, ya know? My best friend is sweet enough to let us stay with her for now. 

here's Jordan, driving the big rental bus/van thingie. It was funny. 

Anyway, just wanted to check in, and let you all know what was up! I'll be back with more normal design stuff soon. :)

Knee-Deep

Oh man!

We're in it now. 

Packin' it all up. It's crazy how long it takes to pack, huh? Even in this tiny place. I guess the main thing is all the dishes and glasses and stuff. It's just so time consuming. We're hauling it all to a storage unit for now, so it's quite the undertaking. 

Mika is unsure:

This was yesterday, while I was packing everything up. He always hangs out at the bottom of the stairs here, but the one-arm-secured-safely-on-the-ground-to-brace-himself-from-the-dangers-of-packing-up-boxes was new (and hilarious... to me... but clearly I am far too entertained by his daily life).

He later decided that he'd found a better perch to keep an eye on my crazy packing:

much better viewpoint. 

alright, I'm off to move! Wish me luck. 

Pack It Up, Pack It In

Last night, Jordan and I were discussing our little home and how we've enjoyed it. While we feel like we are "over it" and have outgrown it (no children planned, just needing more than one bathroom/shower, better guest room, etc), it really has been a great little place for us for the past 3.5 years. It's allowed us to save a lot of money, and the location is supreme! There are so many great little restaurants and shops around here, within walking distance. Plus, the coziness of this little home has been great. 

I've been thinking about all the looks I've given this condo - its kind of crazy. I wonder if I'll continue to change decor a lot in the future, or if, as I continue to make larger furniture purchases, etc, that Ill chill out with that a little? What do you guys think? What's your experience? I feel like I've already chilled a little in the non-stop-redecorating department, but that might only be because I knew we were going to move, and I don't want to spend time or money on something that's not going to last, you know? 

I wish I could show you guys photos of my rooms and houses in college (maybe i'll try and dig some up! My college roommates can vouch for this.). Talk about redecorating. I was constantly changing things up. It's so funny to look back on, and to think about those passions and ideas flowing into my life now. I always loved decorating and interior design, and I had no idea that it would be part of my job in the future. I was an art major, but I changed from art, to education, to interior design and finally settled on Fine Art. Anyway, I guess I'm just rambling about my decorating passions, but I have just been thinking about how all that is leading me to where I am at today, and I am really happy with it. I have a job I love, and I am working in a field that literally makes my heart beat faster, because I love it so! 

Decorating has always been my favorite thing. I always say that I'm not sure I could ever do it for a living, because I like what I like, and I don't want to compromise to help pick out things for someone else! So, I do decorative painting instead, where I can have a little more give and take. Does that make sense? I have loved decorating my homes, and I thought I'd take a look back at the many MANY looks the condos had over the past 3.5 years!

we started out here, in the living room: 

pretty! hah. this was like, literally the day after we moved in. It's an effective "before" picture, I always say.

I ended up getting rid of that sofa pretty quickly, and bought my $25 thrift store sofa. Then, I painted the walls white and did a little furniture arranging: 

At this time, Jordans office area was in our living room:

yikes!

The area across from the sofa, where the bookshelves are now:

(looks like this now:) 

hah!

Then, I reorganized and things got a bit more symmetrical:

But, of course I got tired of the white, and decided to paint it gray in there:

and it also looked like this while it was gray:

Then, at some point (It was inspired by a client's home) I decided to paint it a blackish blue:

And finally "finished" the room when I got the CB2 clear waterfall table:

I loved this look for a long time, and it probably is the look I've liked the best. 

But of course all good things must come to an end, and I decided to go back to white this past spring (spring of '12)

And this is where we stand now... I still don't love it, or feel like it was ever finished in this look, but I am still loving white (This white has too much yellow in it, though, which is weird, because it is not a yellowy white on the sample card), and want to paint our new house practically all white.

whew! 

That took forever to write. Can you believe I've done so much changing up? I have a feeling I'll keep at it. It's what I do!

happenings.

Hi!

Did you all have a nice weekend? It's crazy how weeks are just flying by right now. Things have gotten so busy, and it seems like I'm constantly typing, "did you have a nice weekend?" here... It's like... where did the week go?!

Anyway! I had a great one, and was able to get out and enjoy some nice Spring weather, so that made me happy. This week, we are packing up the condo and moving out! Crazy, huh? It's been a great 3.5 years here, and we've loved this little condo. It's going to be bitter sweet. I am super excited about the new house, though (more info on that later), and for now, we'll be staying with family and friends (the house we are buying is not finished being built, so we will be homeless for one month). We officially move out on Thursday, and close on selling the condo on Monday. 

Today, I thought I'd just share some photos from my iPhone of life, lately. 

pollen counts in ATL have been out of control. This is pollen all over me - can you believe it? SNEEZE FEST. It's actually gotten a little bit better - this photo is from a week ago or so. Everything was green/yellow. Spring comes with a price! haha.

This is the afternoon sun in our condo's kitchen. I can't remember if I already shared this photo on here or not, but I took a picture because I thought it was pretty in there. We don't get a ton of sun light in the condo, except for early morning in the living room, and late evening in the kitchen, but Mika enjoys soaking it up when he can.

This was a photo I took of a table that I painted last week at the studio. My client asked for a high-gloss look and I was really happy with the results. It was for two night stands - they look almost lacquered now! 

This is a photo I had on my phone of how I want our kitchen tile to be. Subway tile with dark gray grout. I love!

I recently went back to Escorpion to do some work (we updated their outdoor fence with some bright turquoise/red/yellow/green paint. If you drive by 5th and Peachtree, take a look! It's hard to miss.), and snapped this photo inside the cute dining room. 

I grabbed this photo from All Things Style Trader's instagram account, because I loved the neon dipped cement pots. I'd love to DIY something like this, on a larger scale! 

and last, did anyone catch this:



???

This is from my friend Cristi's (from Charm Home) Facebook page (I stole it. Thanks, Cristi!)... it was the season premiere of their show Elbow Room on HGTV which was this past Saturday. I made my TV debut by painting a mural for the show! The room turned out beautiful. I know some of you saw it - thanks for watching! I was a little nervous that I might embarrass myself to the max, but it wasn't too bad! (other than that I sounded like a man.. what the...)

Mycolor Blog Post

I blogged over at the Mycolor blog today, go here if you care to check it out.

HGTV's Elbow Room & Me

hey dudes!

Guess what? This Saturday, (April 20th) at 9am, I'll be on HGTV's show "Elbow Room". It's the season premiere, so you know you want to get up early and watch! ;)

A few months ago, I filmed with the crew and painted a mural for one of their transformations. This show really goes all out, as far as their reno's, and the transformation was amazing, if I do say so myself! 

My friend Cristi works on the show -- check out her blog post from this morning about it. I had a great time on set, and getting to work with the fun crew that produces the show. They were all super-nice and fun to be around. (we also were able to lament about the perils of resin-working together. Apparently, they had a resin project gone awry last year, and we discussed my wine cork table on camera, too)

here I am working on my mural: (not staged at all ;)

here's the day we filmed at my studio: 

I hope you watch and let me know what you think! Hopefully I don't embarrass myself too much. Eeks!

Outdoors

As I mentioned yesterday, we are moving soon, and along with a new house comes the opportunity for outdoor livin'. We'll be out of the condo, where we really don't have an outdoor hangout area, into a house where we can spend time outside, in a yard. So exciting! I don't have the greenest thumb, but I'm excited to have more plants to spend time working on. Hopefully with more light in my house, and porches, I'll have better luck. 

Much like the rest of the blog design world, I love succulents. As you know, I have my fake succulents in my house, but I plan to have real ones outside on my porch this summer. Here are some photos from Pinterest that I have pinned and am loving lately. 

Cutest little midcentury modern planter!

another cute planter:

via Modernica

I love the natural feel of this outdoor area:

via 

I love the look of succulents inside concrete planters. 

via

Did you see where Jenny is planning to make some concrete planters? I think it's a great idea. I'm thinking if I can conquer resin work, I might could conquer concrete. Could be fun! 

If not, this is a good idea:

via

I wonder if it would leak? Anyone tried it? Concrete planters can be pricey, and those pavers are only about $3 each or so! Could be worth it to try, huh. 

I really can't wait to get back to doing more home projects. I feel like I've done so little decorating and DIY-ing for my own house lately. It's sad! 

Refrigerator For Sale!

Well, my friends, the time has come -- we've sold our condo! Woo! We move next week, and I am going to be getting a new refrigerator in the future (I'll share new house details as soon as I can), so we won't be needing the one we have here.

It's Electrolux brand, and we are asking $300 for it. It can be picked up (we're in Atlanta) beginning next Thursday, through Sunday. It has a couple of dings on the front, but is in great working condition and very clean. 

email me at kristen.fountain@gmail.com, if you are interested or have questions! :)

Starry Sky Nursery

First, I want to say that all my thoughts go out to Boston and those victims and family members affected by yesterday's tragedy. So sad and senseless. It feels a little silly to talk about design during a time like this, but hopefully it can be a little bright spot amongst all the sadness. 

_____

Last week, I painted the nursery of a client of Sherry Hart's. The baby boy was born a few months ago, and Sherry and the client are putting the finishing touches on now. It's looking so cute! 

They commissioned me to paint some whimsical stars on the ceiling -- sporadic and watercolory. Sherry picked a pretty reddish-orange, and I painted them in with water and paint. 

She just asked me to place the stars randomly around the ceiling. I wasn't filling in the whole room, just sort of sprinkling them -- I did one smallish one sort of away from the others, over the crib, to give the baby boy something to look at! I thought it was cute and sort of fun for it to be a little "off"

Other side of the room:

Fireplace Makeover

Hi all! How was your weekend? Mine was great and BUSY! I went to bed at 9pm last night. Ahhhhh. 

I wanted to stop in and share this short fireplace makeover I did a few weeks ago for a really sweet couple! 

Here is the before picture:

The house has lots and lots of wood, and my client wanted to "relieve" a little bit of that heavy wood look. (I believe we might be attacking some more of it with paint pretty soon here!)

So, I did a distressed look on it:

what do you think?

TGIF

It's Friday! Woo! 

I'm wrapping up a week of exhausting paint projects (I spent all day Tuesday painting the fence at Escorpion, and let's just say that I was getting up from sitting on the ground, or leaning over the whole day to paint an iron fence in a distressed look, and my back and body are killing me! Then, yesterday I painted a ceiling. These old bones, yeesh), and I'm glad it's the weekend! 

I wanted to wrap up today with showing you guys little peeks at the Mycolor Paint Party, and all the work the cool bloggers that participated in that did. I organized the event, and I'm so happy with how all their projects turned out (and thankful to them for participating).

Nicole from Sketch 42's neutral tray project

Angela from The Painted House's wonderful dinner party decor ideas

Courtney from Courtney Out Loud's cute curbside find makeover

Joi from Nuestra Vida Dulce's cute toddler table refresh

and finally, 

Claire from High Gloss Blue's block printed hand towels

I hope you all enjoyed, and entered the contest for chances to win free paint! Have a wonderful weekend. 

Scissors Sister

Remember that band? The Scissor Sisters? I loved them. Are they still around? Maybe. I need to look into it. That disco crazy music made me happy. And so did this video:

 I remember standing inside my house on Moreland avenue in college, and seeing this video for the first time at like 2am, and going nuts because I really loved the song. Remember when MTV played a lot of videos?

Anyway.

I was trying to be creative with my post title, which never happens. But! I painted a fun scissor themed wall last week, that I've been excited to share with you guys. I was commissioned to paint this for a hair salon. The designer told me exactly what she wanted, and she told me that I interpreted in the exact way that she was expecting. Gotta love when that happens. 

Here we go!

I created this stencil like I make all my stencils. I drew out the pattern on paper, then traced it onto clear acetate, then cut it out with a razor.

We wanted the scissors to have an old fashioned feel, so I gave them a little twirly whirly embellishment.