Never Underestimate the Power of Paint

 We recently moved apartments here in New Orleans. While I was absolutely in love with our little second-floor walk-up with its front and back balconies 'little' was the operative word and it became very apparent that my goal of spending the majority of the winter months down here would be dashed if I didn't find a larger place. 

  So about two weeks into our stay I set my intentions on a larger apartment that would be in our price range, and in our neighborhood. A tall order, indeed, but Spirit listens and not only did I find us everything listed above but located almost directly across the street from where we were!

  So the new place is easily twice the space of the old with a living room,  two bedrooms, a full bathroom, laundry room, dining room, eat-in kitchen, and a small space between us and the neighbor's house (actually, our landlords) that we can use as a dog-run freeing us up from the 'must do' chore of 3 times a day walks with the dogs. 

  The previous tenants had lived here a long time and the apartment was a little rough but it had great bones and checked every box -plus some- so we applied and spent a nervous bunch of days waiting to hear if we would be approved. It was a real nail-biter of a week! Approval finally came and we set to work scrubbing and patching and repairing. 

Here's what we started with- the living room was painted a golden yellow, the first bedroom through the pocket doors a very dark red, the second bedroom a blinding blue. By the time we got to the dining room and kitchen the walls were decked in brilliant lemon yellow. The bathroom finished off the colorful pinwheel with lime green walls!

So above you have the basic idea of the layout of the apartment (beyond the dining room is a kitchen and then a laundry room and finally the bathroom at the far end).  Most people don't care for the traditional 'train car' layout of the Shotgun cottages and, while they do present challenges- we are always up for a challenge LOL.

  Once we had the keys in hand we got to work - the majority of this being done by Jack. Scrubbing, patching, repairing, and painting everything that didn't move out of the way. The gorgeous hardware on the massive pocket doors was freed from decades of paint and we uncovered the blocked-up fireplaces to see what was there. Two still had the pretty iron inserts intact so we left them open.

  Once the painting was completed we moved in and began to make it a home--

Iron insert with original paint

cleaned up pocket door hardware

living room

living room with opened fireplace

decorated mantle in the second bedroom

decorated mantle in the first bedroom

Dining Room coming along.

We went with a soft Dove Gray with Gloss White trim throughout to freshen it up and make future repairs easier. We used art and furnishings to provide the pops of color rather than wall paint. 

  There are still little things here and there that I want to do but for now, it's completed and comfortable, and ready for extended stays by us and additional family members. And of course, our son lives here all the time so he's thrilled to have a space that he's not run out of when other people are in residence! 

  We head back to Michigan in a few days, I'll be sad to leave here but Spring is fast approaching, and with it my very busy season.  

~Annie