I Saved My Husband $5,000.

After reading that headline, you are probably thinking – yeah…….right.  Well, I really did and maybe even more.  It’s kind of a long story, so pull up a chair.

 

 

 

This is the after shot.  Now let me tell you what I did.

 (Before)

My husband works from home.  His office is a working man’s office with papers and files and books and manuals, etc.  When we lived in our last house, his office was in the basement, and he was a happy camper.  He had cabinets custom-made to fit the space, and he picked out everything by himself.  When we sold the house, the new owners didn’t want the cabinets, so we brought them with us.  He hung them in his office as a temporary fix.  At least we thought they were temporary.

 

(Before)

His office is the first room on the left as we enter the front door meaning it’s the first room every guest saw when they visited, and I saw it a gazillion times a day as I walked past.  I inwardly cringed.  We purchased shades so that the room could be hidden away when we had guests, but it was still there.  We talked about having someone add trim and get a professional to paint them. Plus, we talked about ripping them out, even though they were perfectly fine, and replacing them.  We just didn’t make the commitment.

 

 

I painted the desk last year using the color Naval by Sherwin Williams, and we both really liked it.  Then a friend suggested that I do the same thing to the wall and cabinets behind the desk.  Then it would all magically blend in, and it does!  She was so right!!

 

I left the back part of the desk unpainted, and consequently left the bottom cabinets unpainted so they would work well together.  We love that two-tone look, too.  It works in a kitchen, and it works in here.

 

I was able to complete this project in just two days when Mr. Right was out of town.  He removed all of the doors for me, and because they are free of moldings and knobs, they were easy to paint.  First, I sanded them and then cleaned them with Krud Kutter which worked great.  Next, I applied a Sherwin Williams primer that was tinted a bluish gray.  Next came the paint.  I used an eggshell finish on the walls and a semi-gloss on the cabinets.  Because I was painting them navy, the walls and the cabinets all took four coats even after using the primer.  I let them dry thoroughly between coats.

 

When we put the new/old armoire in our great room, we moved the highboy into the office to add to his storage space.  (The room also has two closets with shelves that are out of the camera range.)

 

We layered the old trunk from his grandfather under a table.  (That shoe is a tennis shoe that I had bronzed from his college basketball days, and the light was converted from an old heat lamp.)

 

We both really like the way the room looks now, and it might just be a permanent fix.  The only thing we might do is add knobs to the doors, but then they might change the look and make the cabinets show up more than we want them to.  We are going to live with them for a while, and Mr. Right can decide.

 

 

Here’s the side by side that I just love.

 

 

I love the masculine look of the dark wood, the dark cabinets, and the dark rug.  It’s very RL (Ralph Lauren, and you know I love me some Ralph.)  So, for less than a hundred dollars and several hours of work, I saved my husband a load money.  I told him he can put that savings into jewelry.  A girl can wish, can’t she????

 

 

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Take care.

 

Linking to Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style and Miss Mustard Seed Furniture Friday