The Lighter & Brighter Kitchen!

So we have been working like crazy here

I've been wanting to re-decorate our kitchen for some time

and I've been pinning inspiration ideas like crazy

Side note - one of the things that I may love the most about pinterest

is the fact that I now can basically show Scott the ideas in my head

instead of spending hours trying to explain it while he

just looks at me like I am crazy

(or gives up and just nods his head)

So after much heated discussion we opted

to NOT paint the cabinets

Scott likes them just they way they are

(I would like them white...)

and since we were re-decorating a kitchen

"that looks perfectly fine as is"  (Scott's words)

and my wonderful husband is helping me

I figured I better pick my battles

Plus he does have a good point...

they are not builder's grade.

They are very nice...and it's a TON of work

and after painting the kitchen, living room, back splash, chalkboard wall

I am done

So anyway we re-painted

put up a bead board back splash (LOVE)

and I did get my chalkboard wall

Which Lilly has now claimed as hers...

as in I'm not allowed to draw past a certain point

So here is what we started with

Not bad...but a bit dark

So here is what it looks like today

(well only after I cleaned off all the counterops

...it is never really this clean)

Ohh do you see my new rug by the sink

I have never spent $40 on a rug (remember I am cheap)

but that thing is like heaven under my feet while doing dishes

Even Scott was impressed and didn't even blink at the price tag

Still gotta change out that nasty ceiling light 

 I had just enough fabric left over from re-covering the chairs

to do a curtain for the window - yaaa!

We replaced the annoying vertical blinds

that keep out pretty much no light, don't run on the track smoothly

and basically just tick me off most days

with Lenda curtains from IKEA

You can see Scott's under mounted lights in this picture

This was totally his favorite part

I do have to admit I like them a lot too

And here is our Lilly's chalkboard wall 

I still have decorations to put back up,

gotta get to that ceiling light,

would love a new sink,

and some cool vintage metal bar stools

but all of that can wait

I love that I now have a brighter, lighter more cheery kitchen :)

The bead board adds just enough white to make this girl happy

and I'm so happy I have a husband who is willing to go along

with my crazy ideas :).

New/Old Bathroom Mirror

Well we got the bathroom mirror up

and I love it!

My parents had bought a dresser on craigslist

that didn't work out for their space

so they gave the dresser to my sister

and I was lucky enough to get the mirror that attached to the back

When I first told Scott I wanted to hang that mirror

with the frame & all

in our bathroom

I got some funny looks

but thankfully he is getting used to my weird ideas

and just went with it with only a few grumbles here & there

We had to find something to cover up the screws on the bottom

and I really wanted a shelf

so we grabbed a piece of barn wood in our garage

cut it down to size and screwed it to the bottom

It's probably not something that everyone is going to like

but I love it and I'm so excited about the character it adds

to our somewhat blah bathroom :).

We still have to do something about the light fixture

I'm thinking we will spray paint it for now

and then that way I won't feel like I'm in a big rush to replace it

...and then buy something that will work, but I don't really love

cuz I do that all the time!!

I can't believe a bathroom is taking weeks to re-decorate!

we have a few more projects to complete the room

and I'm trying to not rush it as I like that

collected over time cool old stuff that somehow meshes perfectly together look

but for someone who is very impatient it is hard to go at this pace



Bathroom Cabinets

So I have wanted to paint the cabinets

in our kitchen for some time

but I have never painted cabinets

and I'm kind of worried how they would turn out

cuz it's kind of a permanent

like as in if I screw this up I'm in T.R.O.U.B.L.E.

So I decided to attempt a practice run first

we are in the midst of re-decorating our bathroom

and I figured that would be a great place to evaluate

my cabinet painting abilities

Here is what I started with
(well actually this is the girl's bathroom cabinet
but ours is the exact same but apparently I didn't have
a picture on file like I thought I did)

This bathroom is gonna get a makeover soon too :)

Oh and I may have failed to mention

that I am somewhat lazy

and like re-decorating projects that involve

instant gratification - which is probably not the best thing
when painting cabinets

So I opted for Behr paint in primer in one

in Coastal Fog (LOVE this color)

I quickly sanded down the cabinets

cleaned them up

and applied 2 coats of paint

I only applied 2 coats because I knew I wanted to distress them

yes I am totally weird like that and don't like things that

look too new

After sanding them down with sand paper

I sanded them with steel wool

which created a kind of grey glazing effect

without the mess of glaze, paint or stain

And now I have "brand new" cabinets

and it only cost me $6 for the 2 sample sizes

of behr paint

Ohh I saw this idea on Pinterest and just had to try it

I attached the magazine file with some of those

3M command picture hanging strips

& it worked awesome!

Now at least the hairdryer, flatiron & curling iron

are organized...still gotta work on the rest :)

Oh and I wanted something different for our mirror

here's a sneak peak of what we are thinking...



A Grown Up Bed

So since I have moved out of my parents house

which would be oh about 13 years now

I have never had a grown up bed

It's not like my bed is only a mattress sitting directly on the floor

I mean I've always had a metal frame under the bed

and there was a few year stint in there

where I had a head board that was purchased

on clearance for $60

that moved and made noise

everytime you rolled over in bed

What I am talking about is a headboard & footboard

that match and says

Hey I'm not in collage anymore

I'm a 30 something mother to two crazy girls

and I'm a grown up now

(I may be asking a bed to say a lot)

So when we started our master bedroom re-decorating process

a grown up bed was definitely on the list

So the big search began

I looked online

I scoured the local furniture stores

and went to every thrift store I could find

and after weeks of searching I found this online at Overstock

The Stanley Kind size bed

for $342

It was exactly what we were looking for

The bed was going in front of a window so

we wanted metal so we didn't block out any of that

amazing natural light we get...at 6 in the morning

I may be crazy, but I love that the sunshine wakes me up

even if it is at the butt crack of dawn

So we hemmed and we hawed

but in the end we ordered

and on the day I ordered

the bed was marked down to $308

and I had a 10% off coupon

if that isn't a sign it is meant to be

I don't know what is :)

I have never ordered anything on Overstock

but after one time I think I may be hooked

Shipping was $2.95

$2.95 for a king size bed - that's just crazy!

and it arrived on my doorstep just 5 days after ordering

and the nice UPS man put in my garage for me

all the while looking at me funny

because I had this goofy grin on my face

and kept doing my happy dance

I think both the UPS man and Lilly thought I had gone nuts

The bed itself is awesome

it's sturdy and doesn't creak

even when the kids jump on it

It is a perfect fit in our bedroom

and it feels pretty good to finally have a grown up bed :).

White Plank Wall

Well after only a week of painting

every night

 the plank wall is now painted a nice off white

I don't know if I ever shared a before

but here it is

there was absolutely nothing wrong with the room

it just didn't have a very open, airy, relaxing feel to it

I didn't say "ahhhh" when I walked into the room

it was more of an "mehhhh"

This is where we were after 5 hours of putting up the

plank wall using toe board from the Restore

for $28 total!

And here it is now

Yes I know we still need to put the vent back up top

and add some corner trim

(which I found for free yesterday - score!)

but I'm already in love

At first I thought I was going to have to paint the

entire wall with a paint brush, but the roller worked fine

(thank goodness)

So the majority of the wall was pretty easy to paint

but I still had to get between each board

and to do that I used this brush borrowed from

the girls' craft supply

It only took about 3 hours total to do that part

which I split over two nights so I didn't pull my hair out

Here's one more shot of the end result

It adds so much character to the room

Now we only need to get a grown up bed

some decorations

new/used lamps and new/used end tables

hopefully we will be able to slowly accumulate those!

http://serenitynow4amanda.blogspot.com/2011/05/weekend-bloggy-reading-link-up_20.html

http://www.remodelaholic.com/2011/05/remodelaholics-anonymous-72.html

A Bowl Full of Lemons



Plank Wall is Up!

Okay so I'm jumping on the plank bandwagon

and I couldn't be more giddy!

I've been eyeing all the beautiful plank walls I see out there

horizontal, vertical, wide, skinny, oh all the choices

Here are a few of my inspiration pictures



The Lettered Cottage

Decor Pad



We went back and forth on horizontal vs vertical

until I read somewhere that if you do it vertically you may run into problems

because not all the planks will be up against a stud

and may not be up there very securely

So horizontal it was

Then we needed to decide what to use

I priced out mdf, 1 by boards of pine (in various sizes)

and it seemed the pine would be the least expensive

but it was still going to be around $130

for one wall

and we weren't sure how to handle where the 1 by boards

would butt up against the door casing

and the baseboard

So the whole idea was just kind of put on the back burner

until we could figure things out...

until I walked into the restore and saw this

Each piece was 8ft long and 4.5 inches wide (or close to) and about 1/8 in thick

I had no idea what it was

I just knew it was perfect for our plank walls

and it was 70 cents each

I priced out how many pieces we would need

and came up with a total of $28 for the entire wall

Hot diggity dog!

I did check with my husband first

but as soon as I got the okay

I wrangled a coworker into meeting me there

so we could load my find into his truck

Once it was home

and the girls were in bed

we set up our workstation

and started planking our accent wall

(oh and I am so happy Nolee can sleep through the finishing nailer!)

We put it up leaving little gaps between each board

but not between the rows...

well after we got to about here 

I started thinking we needed to leave gaps between the rows too

to achieve the look we were going for...

so I pulled it all off and we started again

a pain in the butt, but I'm so glad we did

Much better

We used the thickness of one of the boards

as our measurement in between rows

and after about 3 hrs of holding our measurement board

I looked at the back and guess what

all this stuff is toe board

which my husband informed me is for the bottom of kitchen/bathroom cabinets

I don't know why, but it was really bugging me not know what it was

Oh and I got to learn how to use the saw

and this

I love learning how to use new tools!

So after about 5 hours of total work

we have this 

We still have to prime and paint, but it is up

I actually like this look but it doesn't go with

the look we are going for in our room

It feel very urban to me

and I don't know why but I think it

would make an awesome backdrop for a picture

So there you have it

our own version of the plank wall for $28!

http://www.houseofhepworths.com/2011/05/11/hookin-up-with-hoh-48/