The little brick house- retrospect

It has been one year since we have left Georgia and our first home behind us.  This is the house we spent almost 4 years in.  Where our daughter turned 1 and our son was born was born.  It was the first place that I was able to pick the wall colors and make all the decisions.

We knew when we purchased the house it would not be a permanent residence.  At most, it would last us 5 years.  So my decorating decisions were based on a possible resale situation.  That and I was either raising babies or pregnant, so home repair needed to be light and child friendly.  Luckily the house was only a few years old and still had the builders paint on the walls. 

I had been longing for a red kitchen for about 3 years before we purchased the house, so I knew that was where I was going to start.  I was lucky with the color the I chose (I wish I had made note of the color, shame on me).  It ended up being the right shade of red.  It did however, take me 7 coats to get it right.

(We always had the best light in the kitchen.)

In the living room I went a bit more neutral, and I was never extremly happy with the paint color.  The color itself was nice, but the room was always dark that I thought it needed to be lightened up.

(When I took these pictures, it was for the MLS so most of the personal touches have been removed.)

I adored our main bathroom. I loved the way it turned out, and it was all a happy accident.  Initially, I wanted a white and black room.  But, with no window in there, I didn't think I could pull it off, so I went with a gray.  The gray however, separated as it dried and I decided to camouflage by adding a lighter stripe. Problem solved.  I accessorized in with black frames and easy easy, it was done.

Bedrooms round out the tour.  Simple and basic.

Our Master was never much of a Master.  It had all sorts of incarnations.  Bed on the floor (while we were co-sleeping).  The crib next to the bed, the crib in the corner, the crib out of the room. Then we had to bring in the office (so our son could have his own room).  Here is it at the end, as sad as it is.

I knew I wanted to have a girly pink room for my daughter (before she could tell me what she wanted). I painted her walls pale pink and added a fleur de lis stencil part way up the walls.  It is a shame that I didn't take better pictures as I loved the treatment and it is hard to see. 

Poor Little man, got what was left over.  He never did have a proper room in Georgia.  But he was young and a boy.  I don't think it really mattered to him.

 So there it is, simply done.  

No matter how long ago it has been.  I will always have the happy memories of our children as babies in this house.

Kitchen Project - Weekend 3

Weekend three is finally over and the kitchen cabinets are painted.  The majority of the work is done.  All that is left is the accessories and a new faucet.  I am sure that is something that will come over time, although I do have a trip planned to IKEA next week.

I decided to use SW6937 Tantalizing Teal on the bottom cabinets.  It is bright and happy.  I love the unexpected nature of the color and the whimsy it adds to our house with our young children.

I will be going bold and will use red as my accent color.  I will need to bring in a bit of yellow as well to help tie into the Living room and the far wall in the dining room.

The hearts are just for fun, until I get some actual curtains.  It helps that Valentines day is just around the corner.  Also I am not ready to get rid of my popcorn garland that has been up since Christmas.  I just love the texture and color of it. 

-Hello there little bird-

My dirty-faced kids already having fun

I want to give a big shout out to Life in Grace for the inspiration for my new kitchen.  She is amazing- I love her kitchen and took it as my jumping off point.  Make sure you take a look.


Check out Santuary Art for her First big project of the new year party!

Confessions of my kitchen makeover

This past weekend I completed the painting on the bottom cabinets in the kitchen. I have come out on the other side happy with my accomplishment. Is it perfect? No. Is it for everyone? No. But it is for me and my family and we are loving it (for its current state).

As I started ripping out the tile, my loving husband would tease me about ruining the lovely house he got me. Even though I knew he was teasing me, I was very nervous and unsure of what I had undertaken. I gently explained to him my fears and asked him to stop. Which he did :)

I wondered if I was really able to do what I set out to do.  Did I take on too much? Was I taking something that was functional and ruining it, just to see if I could do it? What was I doing? It's not like we have a bunch of money lying around to repair it if I royally mess it up.

So back to the beginning. How did I get to this point?

We bought a house.
It was in great condition, just a bit dated.
I am obsessed with decorating
I believe I can do -fill in the blanks- (whatever that happens to be)
So it was just a matter of time until I attempted something big.

So after getting the house I waited until inspiration hit me. After living in the house for a while I knew that changing the layout was not necessary. Sure having an island would look nice and I have always wanted one, and sure the peninsula is not too my liking, but the fact of it is, is the kitchen functions wonderfully. It is the best set up that I have had, and I don't feel the need to mess with its functionality.

Then one day I came across the image. This image. from Life in Grace (check out her site)
I knew from he moment I saw this that this was the jumping point. I love the colors and retro feeling, the unexpected, the whimsy, the fun. That is what I wanted for this kitchen.

So the journey began. With my paltry budget of, whatever I can scrape together, and my over riding need to update my kitchen I started off.

And off I went- fear and all.

Kitchen Project-Weekend #2

Another weekend, another step completed with the kitchen project. Last weekend I was able to put up the bead board, this weekend I was able to finish the shelves and paint.
I am very happy with how the shelves turned out. I never did like the way the cabinets just ended. It was just awkward. Now they seem to make some sense.
I also painted the upper cabinets and the walls. I chose Sherwin Williams Cotton white for the cabinets. I am very happy with the outcome.

Regarding hardware, I went back and forth on what I was going to do? I thought of brushed nickle, bin pull, glass knobs or just reuse the originals. I finally just cleaned up what I had and put them back on. In the end it saved time and money. The results are great, actually better than I had anticipated.

I went ahead and painted the walls the same color as the cabinets and bead board. That will make more sense when the bottom cabinets are completed.

Here, again, is what the kitchen looked like when I started...
It is getting closer to the end.

Buffet project done- finally

Here is the final product. I wish I had found the paper I wanted, or should I say, found the paper at the price I was willing to pay.... so instead I used a stencil to get the result I wanted.

Here is what the dresser looked like when we inherited it.
Yuck, is all I have to say about that.

It turns out to be the perfect piece to anchor the sofa and it works great as a tool chest.

Putting up the Bead board

So what to do after taking down tile? Well, that would be to put something back up. We, meaning I, decided that bead board would be the easiest for me to work with and the cheapest as well. Here is the tile before the demo....



and here is the after. This is what I accomplished in two days.


I am loving the look of the bead board. It seems to clean up the look and helps with the cottage look we are trying for. I am surprised on how easy it was to do.

Next up in the kitchen- finish the shelves.

Die Tile Die!

After owning our house for almost a year, and hating the tile for the entire time, I have decided that enough is enough. It is time for the tile to go bye-bye. And after about 3 hours of work- voila....


Down came the dreaded tile. Now on to the fun part.