Yesterday I was home due to the Federal holiday, so I decided to make myself useful [something I had avoided all weekend by spending most of it sprawled on the couch, under a puff, watching hours of HGTV]. So I set up my ladder, draped some plastic, and finished painting the girl cave ceiling. As you may recall, I started painting the edges of it back in October… The color is a beautiful, rich dark purple called Galaxy by Benjamin Moore.
Last week I built, primed, and painted a cat platform and ramp for the dining room. A few days later I attached them to the dining room windowsill. But after a week of enticing [treats], encouraging [kind words], tough love [dropping on ramp and saying “up up up!”], I realized the cats [particularly Bonkers] were never going to use the ramp.
4 days ago I built a DIY spice rack with some trim wood I bought at our local hardware store. 3 days ago I primed it. Yesterday I painted it, and today it is DONE! It’s my birthday today [43!], so I decided I’d wait until today to hang it up, as a birthday gift to myself 
Last week I bought wood to build a cat platform & ramp for the dining room, as well as for the DIY Spice Rack. I bought a half sheet of ¾” plywood, which I had them cut down into a 23″ x 15″ platform and an 8″ x 48″ ramp. I sanded the edges, nailed treads to the ramp, then primed and painted the ramp and platform.
Today, after a 3 week break from even thinking about DIY [due to traveling for the holidays, a wedding vow renewal on the beach 2 days after Christmas, and friends over for New Years], I decided it was time to get back into it. I’m starting by making my long overdue DIY Spice Rack!
At the end of October I started painting the girl cave ceiling, but didn’t get very far due to vertigo issues I’ve suffered from since May. I’m painting it Benjamin Moore Galaxy – a beautiful, rich, dark purple. I think it will look so cool once it’s painted and covered with tiny LED lights. I know it’s not typical to paint a ceiling, let alone paint it dark, but my girl cave is, well, my GIRL CAVE. And my art studio. And I can decorate it however I please
After painting the Girl Cave walls Violet Mist, I decided to paint the built-in cupboard Amethyst Shadow, which is from the same color family. I decided on high-gloss paint because I love the look of shiny furniture! After 2 coats of BIN primer and 3 coats of Amethyst Shadow, it was done and looking fantastic! It took 2 weeks to fully cure before I could put anything on it. For the hinges & hardware I used Krylon Fusion Mystic Prism Effect spray paint.
The fire alarms in our condo are hard-wired to the walls. Over the years they’ve become very ugly and yellowed. Particularly the 3 upstairs alarms – one in each bedroom, and one in the hallway about 15 feet up. They all say “Do Not Paint” on them. So last weekend I finally got the last of them painted. You saw that coming, right? I made sure not to paint over the green light. Or the red light. Or the slots where the smoke and fire get in.
When I first considered moving into the condo, back in January 2012, I convinced my husband to let me turn the 2nd bedroom into a GIRL CAVE. Thankfully, he agreed I mean, a girl has to have somewhere to hang her dragon stuff, her knife collection, her disco balls, and set up her art studio, right? After spending many hours in the cave over the following 18 months, I finally decided on a color scheme for the walls!
