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Let’s talk Kitchens
My kitchen demo has begun. I have waited for this moment since we have moved in four years ago. We started by taking out the corner section of the kitchen. We decided to put a pantry in the corner instead of having wasted unusable counter space. This will give me two pantries which I know sounds weird, but I will no longer have to go downstairs to get food out of the storage room to cook dinner with. We have the pantry framed and ready for dry wall. The cabinets are ordered, and we are waiting for them to be delivered. We are completely changing the layout of the…
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New front door
I got a new door! When we bought this house, I didn’t love the front door and I knew that eventually I would buy a new one. My front door had a couple of fun looks while I was waiting for the new one. First, it was the turquoise door. Then I painted it apple green. I was known as the house with the green door…seriously, that is how I described my house. It was hard to choose a new door, it was a big purchase, and I wanted to get it just right. We ended up choosing this door, and I love it! I was nervous about all…
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Floor D.E.M.O
Finally! After four years we are tearing up the main level. We have done this level in stages, so we have paint and molding done, now we can add the finishing touches and put in the floor. I am excited because the kitchen is next. The cabinets are being built, and I can see the end. Here is the before the demo picture. The floors were wood, but too light and they didn’t run through the whole level. I wanted the same dark wood we used for the upstairs on the whole main level, so we had to tear up the old floor. We were lucky. None of the…
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DIY wreath
We just finished our upstairs hallway and I have been having fun decorating and adding some accessories. I bought this hook originally to hold pictures, but I decided to put it in the hall and hang a wreath on it. I wanted something simple and without a lot of color. I looked all over for a wreath I liked, but I couldn’t find one. School is out and I have some extra time, so I decided to make one instead. I found these fun burlap flowers at JoAnns and I was excited. I am not fond of silk flowers, so these were just right for me. I got a grapevine…
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Mud Room
We are making progress on our main level. This past weekend we worked hard getting the new mud room ready for paint and tile. This room is right off the garage and use to be the laundry/computer desk/mudroom. We have moved our laundry room upstairs, the desk will be in the kitchen, and now I am going to have a for real mud room with cabinet lockers to store all the shoes, backpacks, coats….. Lets just say I am excited for this room! We painted this room the same notre dame gray that I used throughout the main living space of the house. I used the same vintage black and…
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Molding…tons of molding!
There has been a lot of work going on in our home the past few weeks. Lots and lots of painting! I love adding wainscoting to a room, but it is a lot of work. Cutting, sanding, caulking, priming, and painting two coats of white. But it is worth it! Here is a peek of how some of the rooms are coming along. Here is the family room the day we moved in. I am so so so over brown! We took out the harth and added some molding around the fireplace. We spray painted the brass grills on the fireplace and painted the whole wall white. This is our…
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Accent walls
We have still been working on finishing the main floor wainscoting this past week. We have the fireplace wall done…not painted, but framed out, and I love it! It started out a plain wall with just backer board nailed to it. We then measured, measured again, and measured again until we came up with the right dimensions for the molding. We ripped four inch MDF boards, measured again, and cut them to fit. Once the boards were ripped and cut we started assembling. It went pretty quickly at that point. We decided to trim around the fireplace with two inch boards. I want the wall to have a clean look…
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Creating some Columns
Over Christmas we demo’d some walls to make an opening for new columns for our staircase. Well, after finishing the wood upstairs, painting the stairway, and painting the upstairs and entry, we finally are making progress on the columns. We drew up some plans, and went to work covering the two by fours with MDF and backerboard. Both products paint up nicely. We measured how big we want the recessed panel to be, and ripped some MDF strips on the table saw. We brought them in, put them together, and then nailed them when we were happy with how the seams looked. We decided to build out the bottom with…
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My fun clock project
About twelve years ago my hubby built me a clock for Christmas. I love this clock, and have been looking for the perfect place to put it in our home. After we got the wood done in the upstairs hall, we decided the natural spot for the clock would be in the hall. I was so excited, the only problem was the paint color. The color that I had painted it matched the rooms in our old home, not this one. I am keeping the hallway pretty neutral, just black and white photos, even the chair in the landing is black and white. I knew I wanted a pop of…
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Wood
We have finished installing the wood upstairs. It looks amazing, and I am excited! Everywhere except the bedrooms has wood floor and it opens up the space making it feel warm and spacious. I chose a engineered acacia wood floor. I love the dark floors and light walls. It has been a lot of work…especially for my husband…but I am loving the results!
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How I re finished my stair railings
We’ve been busy around here lately. After we got the downstairs wall demo’d we started working on the stair railings. I knew the look I wanted, and knew it would take a lot of work. The original railings were a light oak and white. We are putting a dark acacia wood on the floor, so I wanted the top of my railings to match. We decided that instead of just painting the whole railing, we would try stripping off the varnish and stain and try re staining the wood. We used a citris stripper we found at Home Depot. We painted it on the wood top, waited the recommended time,…
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Some more demo
Yep it wouldn’t be home around here without a little demo. Over the Christmas break we spent a day taking out part of a wall. It was a milestone for us…it was on the main level…the last level to finish. I did not think we would ever get to this point. So it has started and I am so very excited to show our little demo project…the start of my vision for the main living space. I really hated how the walls closed in the stairs, and that I couldn’t see the stairs from the front door. We decided to fix that by tearing out a section of the wall…
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Flash back Friday
As I was finishing up my room project I started thinking of all the other rooms I have created in the past which led me to look up some old pictures of my other master bedroom and bathroom. It is so funny how styles change and you change along with them. I use to love dark jewel tone colors, and black painted furniture. It was pretty, but I love the light colors I am using now. They are so much more calming to my personality. That is why I love decorating. It is a constant evolution of change and creativity. Nothing has to stay the same forever, and you can…
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Another painting project
I did a lot of painting in my bedroom. One of my favorite pieces that I painted was actually my bed side table or cabinet. I can’t believe I didn’t take a before picture. I was in such a hurry to get my room done, I just grabbed a paint brush and went to work. This piece use to be black everywhere. It even had black wooden knobs. I painted it the same white as the fireplace and trim with my satin trim paint. I took an electric sander and distressed the heck out of it. I found these great knobs in Shelley and was actually going to use them…
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Giving things new life
I love finding items and giving them new life. Creating something with them to use them a different way than was intended. It is a fun creative outlet. This project was actually my hubby’s idea. We had bought this lantern at Hobby Lobby to use as an accessory on a shelf in our room. We were looking for a lamp for our night stand and decided this would work great as a lamp. With a little drilling and electrical it became a lamp just like that. Another fun idea is to re purpose old windows or doors as picture frames. I found a window that fit 8×10 mats to display…
