What we've been up to lately...

 So it's no secret, I'm a terrible blogger. I'm terrible at being consistent but I do enjoy posting pictures of projects when I can. I am currently 31 weeks pregnant with our third boy which translates into 7 months along. We are constantly kept busy with the boys and dog and prepping for baby to come in mid June.

Anyone who knows me knows that I love a good project and won't pass one up. I'm always day dreaming on what we can do to the house and I mostly just wonder when the funds will magically appear in our bank account. The other day, my husband was talking and mentioned re-financing our home because we have lots of equity, we could pull out a chunk without raising our monthly payment too much. The DIYer inside of me was jumping for joy but I was trying to keep my cool and so I was like "yah....that sounds cool".

We started the paperwork to refi, we received a contractors bid to reconfigure our kitchen and install hardwood floors throughout our home and part of upstairs while refinishing our TWO staircases. The bid came in wonderfully and we even have some wiggle room to get new appliances, but ALL of this depends on the appraisal value of the home. We need to hit a certain number otherwise we are out of luck. It's not totally crazy to think we will hit it and so I've been researching, flooring, types of woods, stains, widths, sinks, garbage disposals, faucets, counters, backsplash. EVERYTHING. It makes me so happy to think and dream of all these and to know I'm so close to getting what i've dreamed of. Now all we need is the number of the house to be high enough. We find out either tonight or tomorrow. Fingers crossed!

Until then, we have worked hard on painting our bathrooms from hideous 20 year old colors to soft, neutral colors. I finished painting the nursery. I just need to finish the stars on the ceiling. Here are some updated photos of what's happened since the last time I blogged.

Here is the BEFORE BEFORE. BLECH!

Downstairs 1/2 bathroom. This is my during shot.

After! Paint is Magnetic Gray by Sherwin Williams. It is such a pretty blue/green gray that changes with the light.

Upstairs guest bath near the playroom. The blue wasn't HIDEOUS, but it wasn't me.

Paint makes such a HUGE difference. Walls are Shoji White and cabinets are Magnetic Gray by Sherwin Williams

Master bathroom. I cannot believe we lived with it like this for over 1.5 years. So grody to me.

I wanted to add a candle candelabra over our tub and a friend gifted one to me. I just needed to paint it. Paint is Paris Grey from Annie Sloan.

here it is hanging. I added a dark wax of annie sloan to it. Butterfly print is from Amazon and frame from IKEA.

AFTER! Cabinets are Magnetic Gray and walls are Shoji White in Sherwin Williams. We didn't replace any faucets or fixtures. This is strictly a painted update. Which makes me love paint more and more. So much brighter and feels more clean.

The boys room BEFORE

I feel like there room needs something more, but for now, I'm happy with it. Dressers, bed, rug, curtains, lamps, and duvets are from IKEA. I made the ABC and framed ATLAS maps from books for artwork. 

This is the NURSERY before. It is naturally a darker room to begin with and this paint was awfully dark. 

3 walls are Shoji White, accent wall is magnetic gray (leftover from cabinets) and stencil is Shoji White all from Sherwin Williams. Artwork is just free printables from Pinterest and crib/bedding from my previous babies.

We needed a new dresser for the babies room, but didn't have a large budget. My max for a dresser was $100. I found this solid wood WITH mirror for $89 at my local antique mall. Total SCORE!

I painted the dresser in Magnetic Gray...yet again. Metal shelf is from IKEA, baskets are from forever ago. Changing pad cover, sewn by me. 

Eat In kitchen area BEFORE

Eat In AFTER. I know this is a different angle, but you get the idea. We changed out the light fixture to the brass one I painted, we added bamboo blinds from Home Depot and the Round Pedestal table is from World Market, Chairs are from Overstock. So much lighter, brighter and just feels cleaner overall.

Living Room BEFORE

AFTER. We removed the mirror and recently added drapes from Target and the rods from Walmart. Our sectional is from Costco. 

As you can see, we have done lots and lots of updates with just the use of paint. Paint is my BFF. If you could do ONE thing to your house, what would you do?

going green

As parents sometimes we tend to rule the home on how it's decorated, what colors we choose, to keep it clean, etc.

I tend to love neutrals with some black mixed in and I'm not huge on incorporating color into our home. The most colorful I've added is navy, which we know...it's not much of a departure in the color department.

In January of this year I purchased a raw pine bunk bed from Ikea for my boys to share a room and WANT to sleep in their bed. Its embarrassing really how often they end up in our room. We should have stuck with our queen size bed...no kids can fit in with us.

My oldest is 4.5 but he'd tell you he's 4.67 years old has opinions and good ones at that on color and how things should be. I decided that I was going to paint the bed, FINALLY. We went to our local cute boutique shop that sells Annie Sloan Chalk paint and picked up a can Antibes Green. Seriously, the sample looked gorgeous and I held out a yellow, navy, green, and ivory for my boys to choose. They both chose green. It's a bit of a departure for me, but I grabbed some clear wax and called it good.

I started painting and realized I didn't have a before picture, so here it is with some green on the bottom leg

My oldest working on his bed. He LOVED helping and he knows he worked hard on it too.

I only did one layer of green, a layer of clear wax, some dark wax rubbed on and I thought I was done. I HATED the bed. I was sick to my stomach because I swore I ruined the bed. Later I did some research that you're supposed to add another clear coat of wax and it helps blend and rub off the majority of the dark wax. Thank goodness! My fingers are sore, but it's so worth it. I actually really like the bed now!

Now all I need to do is buff out the wax to give it a nice shine. I'm excited for it to be all done and the boys could not be more thrilled to have a green bed. Happy kids, Happy Mom!

 It's pretty, right? The more I see it, the more I love it. What you don't see is that we painted the slats on the top bunk so my younger one could look up and see green.

What would you do for your kids in the decorating department? What would you NOT do?


Sources:
Bed: Ikea
Paint: Annie Sloan in Antibes Green, clear wax and dark wax
Bedding: Star sheets are from PB and the Pirate ones from Target.
Comforters: Ikea
Quilts: Handmade from my mother (each grandchild get's one)
Rug: Ikea
Wall Lamps: Ikea

desk shuffle

Since I was able to purchase a new eat in kitchen table and the lights were switched, the desk that my husband was using in the dining room needed to find a new home. Well...not literally a new home, it was my Grandmothers writing desk and I feel closer to her when I use it. It's not only sentimental, it's beautiful. So I wracked my brain trying to figure out how I was going to magically make more space in my office with my Pottery Barn X desk or place the desk elsewhere in the home, but my husband needs a good working space as well and I finally decided the office is where it was going to go.

I placed the desks back to back and they are just about the same height and same width so it worked out perfectly. AND I don't have a glare on my screen when I edit photos now (my computer now faces the wall)

The Cords have been shoved under the solid desk, so they're less visible. Yes this pictures were taken at night so it isn't the best lighting.

My husband is taller and this desk has more clearance than the wood one so it's much more comfortable for him. He's happy, I'm happy.

I'm thinking I can take the fan off my desk now that it's getting cooler. This room is at the front of our home and it just get's blasted by the sun and the room just bakes.

Sources:
Lamp: Homegoods
Fan: Target
Wood Desk: My Grandmothers writing desk
Glass Top X Desk: Pottery Barn
Chairs: Overstock.com

buh bye brass

Brass is one of those things that we find in ALL homes that haven't been renovated recently, because let's be honest; no ONE actually chooses brass to finish their home.

Lucky for me, chalk paint was invented and also super double lucky for me, brass is everywhere. People are selling it for cheap...or practically giving it away.

       

Here it is in all it's original shiny brass glory

I have dearly missed doing projects and the only way that I was able to completely update my last house was through my photography business. The extra money from shoots and dog sitting allowed for a lot of projects and decorating. Things have been super slow going here, because let's get one thing straight. If it's between your kids preschool tuition and groceries or drapes...the ANSWER will always be tuition and food. I have picked up my camera and started doing photography and in fact I'm even flying to California this month to photograph a wedding. How fancy is that? Super fancy.

I was able to do two shoots and it paid for a new round pedestal table and so we could move our long rectangle table into our dining room. The capiz chandelier is also rectangle and needed to be moved. My husband's FAVORITE thing to do in his down time is move chandeliers... Yah right. I think he'd rather be poked in the eye.

Tables, moved, chandeliers switched and then I was stuck with ugly brass over my round table. Now this is the cool part. I once saw a DIY that Dear Lillie did on her brass chandelier and I loved it and decided to do the EXACT.SAME.THING. So that's what I did, I love it. It looks french country which is what I'm trying to transition to feel of my home too. It just takes time.

Take a look at what was done!

During the painting process.

All finished! (sources at the bottom)

 I found the same chandelier that Dear Lillie did on Craigslist and decided to paint that one as well. At the moment it's for sale, but who knows, maybe I'll find a fantastic place to put it in my home.

Round Table is the Blanca Pedestal Table from Cost Plus World Market. This is before the Capiz Chandelier was moved above the other table. 

The Capiz Chandelier is now finally over the other table in the dining room, which until recently was my husbands office. So nothing is decorated and I don't have chairs, well I do actually....they're folding chairs. Not fancy at all, but they function for now. 

Sources:

Chandelier over table came with the house
Chandelier for sale was from Craigslist
Paint: Annie Sloan in Paris Gray with Dark Wax rubbed on (may add some clear wax to smooth it out, but I like it as of right now)
Capiz Chandelier: West Elm

Round and Rectangle Tables: Cost Plus World Market

k i t c h e n . c a b i n e t . t u t o r i a l

Hey Friends!!! Where have I been? I know I promised a kitchen cabinet tutorial and I haven't done it yet, until today! So here you go!

There are so many different ways of painting kitchen cabinets and depending on the type of cabinet/wood you have, your process will be different. Our last home at laminate cabinets, and it literally took us months to have it painted for all the time we had to wait during coats to make sure they were cured before we painted another coat. This time around was different in that we have solid oak cabinets and I wasn't afraid of moving a bit faster. This project took me 3 days of pretty much from morning until late night to finish.

Let's get started!
STEP ONE: I removed all the hardware/knobs from drawers and cabinets and filled the holes on the drawers with bondo because I was changing out the type of pull for the drawer.

Here is a great Bondo Tutorial


STEP TWO: I cleaned my cabinets and lightly sanded them. After talking to a few different people I realized I should have used a deglosser to just clean and take away that shiny coat, it would have been way easier.

You can learn more about deglosser's here

STEP THREE: I removed all the doors and drawers from the cabinet body and started to prime with Kilz Premium Primer (here) The better the primer, the easier the job. I sprung for the premium and I feel like it seriously made a difference. I only did one coat of primer because it went on so thick. 

You can see, I couldn't reach that door up top until my hubby came home to help me. 

All primed and the drawers are in their place because I lacked counter space to place them after I primed them.

I did all upper doors FIRST and then the lower doors. I didn't want to mix them up.

STEP FOUR: I wet sanded lightly after priming. This is a very important step and will be repeated after coats of paint. Here is what I used. The purpose of wet sanding is to give you a glassy smooth finish after each coat of paint. The paint and cabinets do have some imperfections and this step removes and smooths out a lot of imperfections when painting. You wrap the 600 grit sandpaper to a sanding block and then spray the surface and spray the 600 grit sand paper and gently rub on the surface then wipe away water with a clean cloth. When you rub your hands over the surface you will realize how much smoother it truly makes it. 

**UPDATE: My dad is a wood worker by hobby and he has some incredible work. He has studied and learned by practicing that wet sanding truly is a very important step. I have talked to some other people/professionals and they had never heard of this step. So make sure that you take the time to do it. You will be happier with your results!

STEP FIVE: I took all the old hinges and spray painted the gross brass to a more shiny chrome with spray paint. 

ALL doors have been primed and the lower cabinets have been painted with 2 coats

STEP SIX: I decided to roll on the paint with a roller instead of brush or spraying. I feel like I picked a great roller and it made all the difference. I chose a mini Purdy Roller with an Ultra Finish and spending a little extra on the roller and handle made the paint go on so smoothly that I wasn't upset with the finish. It may not be entirely perfect but it doesn't bother me one bit. 

UPPER cabinets are Behr Mirage White (up top) LOWER cabinets are Mountain Haze (on bottom) Paint is a SATIN Finish. Not too shiny!

Both upper and lower have 2 coats. Lower requires 1 more coat and the Uppers require 2 more coats to give a really nice finish.

***DISCLAIMER***:

I chose Behr paint. I did and a lot of people really dislike it because they say the finish isn't even or it doesn't coat well, or that the primer and paint in one doesn't work with one coat. DUH!!! Sometimes I'm not sure people truly use their brain when doing projects. Just because it says paint and primer in one, does NOT mean that you will be done in one coat. 

**UPDATE: I also wanted to share that the paint has been quite durable and that I am happy with the finish and product. 

STEP SEVEN: After doing my paint with the first and second coat I REPEAT the wet sanding process. 

**UPDATE: DO NOT Wet Sand after your final coat. Very important to realize. You will see sand marks, so just paint your final coat and it'll be smooth from all of the previous wet sanding.

STEP EIGHT: I measured out where I wanted all my new drawer pulls to go with this cool guide kit (here) and drilled all my holes and attached hardware after 3rd coat of paint on drawers.

STEP NINE: FINISH all coats of paint on doors and add hardware to doors once paint was dry to the touch. 

STEP TEN: Hang all doors and add new knobs to the doors

Once I finished the cabinets, I did not want to lose any momentum and I painted out our media cabinet as well. I still want to add some sort of intrigue or charcoal color to the very back wall of the cabinet to help add depth and showcase a few of the items a bit better. I also think the charcoal color would help disguise the media equipment as well.

Doors off!

Primed, except for the media shelf. Had to wait until hubby could dismantle it all. 

NOW we are all primed

Doors are primed and no I was not careful with the paint on the glass. I have a special razor that is specially made to get pain off glass. Much less of a headache than worrying about NOT getting paint on the glass. Highly recommend. 

EVERYONE should own one of these. I LOVE it and you can purchase replacement razors for when yours starts to dull.

DONE!

Everything flows so much better and it blends in nicely. I'm very happy with how it turned out.

I totally need to add a contrasting color to help my items pop. I'm debating between a charcoal paint I already have, that removeable wallpaper Target now offers or even fabric covered pieces of foam board. Ideas are always welcome!

So that's it! That's how I painted my kitchen cabinets in 10 simple steps. It takes time and if you do your prep work properly you will be able to make a HUGE difference with minimal impact to your wallet. Over all this project including all supplies, and hardware was $250 and it took me three days to complete. Much better than paying someone and you get the satisfaction of knowing you DID IT YOURSELF! Don't be afraid of doing this,  you can do it!