The Octagon House

This is the first weekend in almost a month that I am actually refreshed from all of our activities. It was such a retreat! Let me tell you, we worked hard all weekend. But it was exuberating to be working on our dream instead of working on our old house. I got to spend time with my husband! We got to watch a MOVIE together! It was amazing!

Saturday we got to spend time with my family. We met them for lunch and just visited! I felt as if it had been ages since I had seen them and felt relaxed! Not worrying about the house in P-ville. Afterwards I met up with my good friend George and went shopping for a bit while Floyd and Grady went home to work and take a nap (I’ll let you figure out which boy did which!) Later that evening I got to spend some one on one time with my mom. So grand. I loved it!

So while I was with George, I was on the hunt for wallpaper. I think I mentioned in my previous post that I planned to wallpaper the back of the book shelves. I thought that it would just make the book shelves “pop!” But as it turned out, the majority of hardware stores were actually clearancing their selection out. And while this might sound like a good thing, it wasn’t. Most of them only had one roll of a design that might go and they weren’t reordering them since, of course, they were clearancing them out. Then if a store actually had enough square footage, it was ridiculously expensive since it was new.

I put my thinking cap on. What could give me the same look? Fabric! It could give a very artistic background and possibly be cheaper. So George very patiently drove me around while we looked for fabric. We just couldn’t find something that clicked. And finally we found it! As soon as we saw it we knew it was it! Bold! Bright! Artsy! George graciously purchased it for me and I am so grateful that he did. I could not be more excited with how it turned out! Thank you George!!!

Thus the fun began!!

Isn't the fabric amazing? I'm pretty attached! And there are my master tools: Spray adhesive and scissors!

The blank canvas

Kind of missed the first steps but here is the first book shelf nearly completed!

Floyd tucking the edges behind the shelves

Tuck tuck tuck!

Here I demonstrate the powers of spray adhesive - We sprayed it on the wall and on the edges of the fabric

Floyd measures to make sure the section I cut fits!

Floyd sprays the glue to put the fabric up! Super easy!

This whole project of putting fabric in the back of the bookshelves took about two hours. The bad part was we started at around 1AM so we finished around 3AM! Ha ha! But we got to sleep in the next morning so it wasn’t too horid! I was absolutely in love witht he new look! Once we completed it, I invited my mom and Aunt B over to help unpack some books! It was nice to start making a dent in our house full of boxes and to spend time visiting! Thank you for the help ladies!!! The shelves looked astounding. I LOVE it!

Aunt B and my mom unpacking books! Ah! So exciting!

Unpacking onto our beautiful shelves!

I then put fabric on the top of one of the more open shelves. Its going to hopefully host baskets and other knick knacks and tie in the shelves in the background! Ready for some pictures of our weekend project? Here we go!

Our beautiful library in the making!

Look at all of the boxes left to unpack! And then ignore them and look at the shelves! lol!

♥♥♥

I put fabric on the top part just to tie it in!

Here is a head on shot! ♥

There ya have it! I have the opposing shelves almost completed as far as painting goes. Sadly I didn’t have enough fabric for the back of that but I think this is just the perfect amount of accent. I love the color that I chose for the trim and shelves. Its such a yellowy cream color. It makes the extremely yellow color on the walls look even more outlandish! Tomorrow the second coat of mud on the cracks will be dry, sanded and I can start painting the rest of the colors on the wall! I am so excited. Here are the names to give you a clue: “Blaze” and “Applesauce Cake” I keep praying that they will look good and that my brain doesn’t fail me now!

I’m thrilled at the idea of having this room done before my surgery. It such a warm and inviting atmosphere and I can imagine wanting to spend a lot of time in here! Hopefully I will post again tomorrow with pictures galore. I feel so grateful that the room is turning out nice! Hopefully these ideas keep coming to me so the rest of the house will be as cozy as this!

Thanks for reading everyone! Its so nice to be able to share this journey with you all!