The Power of Paint {Kitchen Facelift}

Usually when people get facelifts it is to make them look better.  More fresh or younger looking.  When we moved into our house our kitchen looked liked she was about 40 years old.  So we needed to give her a facelift so she could feel more like a 25 year old.  She fought it along the way but in the end I'm pretty sure she's happy.  Confident...pretty...think Marilyn Monroe standing on the air vent confident!

Too much?!?

Moving on then...

There are only a few more rooms left in our house to show you.  Today I'm showing you our kitchen and the changes we made to update it. 

I only have these two before pictures.  These cabinets are just your basic builder grade cabinets.  There isn't really anything special to them.  We were lucky that the first owners of this house added the crown moulding to the top.  So at least we had that to work with. 

The first time we tackled this project we were just starting out as DIYers so we were not exactly sure what we were doing.  Matt took off all the doors and lightly sanded them down.  He then primed and painted them with latex paint. 

We picked out a milk chocolate brown color for the cabinets.  When we were done painting I thought I was in love.  I had always loved the look of brown cabinets.  And in some cases I still do.  So this is how the cabinets stayed for about 6 years.

 

You can see in the picture above that we hadn't even painted behind the oven yet.  Over the years the paint around the knobs started to chip off.  There were nicks from the boys climbing on the cabinets and running into them with cars.

This year when we decided to put this house on the market I knew these cabinets would need a paint job.  Plus, my taste had changed and I was over my brown cabinet phase.  These pictures make me cringe.  Eeeewwwweeee!

This time around instead of sanding I used oil based primer.  I painted these cabinets back in February and there isn't a single nick around the knobs.  So oil based primer holds up much better.

And here is our kitchen today.

We have changed so many things in this kitchen.  This is another spot in the house that took me forever to realize what I really liked. 

Here is a list of changes:
Painted cabinets (Fieldstone by Benjamin Moore, island color is Black Beauty by Benjamin Moore)
Installed new floor tile
Updated all appliances to black
New sink
New faucet
Added floating shelves
Decrapified the kitchen counters.  Did you see all the crap I used to have on there?  What tha?

And that's it folks!  100 meeeellion times better don't ya think?


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Beneath My Heart

Master bedroom reveal

Why is it that the master bedroom is the most forgotten about room when it comes to makeovers?  Is it because we're so concerned about the rest of the house looking nice that the master just goes on the back burner?

That was the case for me.  How many people see my bedroom besides my family?  Just about none.  I've always wanted a room that feels relaxing but is also pretty.  Our room is not big by any means but it has worked for us. 

Back when we were going to build our next house I had pinned many images of how our next room would look.  Our room was going to have a bay window with big tall windows.  Tons of light would shine in which is what I love. 

Source

Source

These two pictures were my favorite choices.  Very much my style.  But I decided to go with the first one for our next master. 

I found some bedding similar to the first picture and all I needed was the colored pillow.  I gave you a sneak peek of our room in my last post with the placemat pillows that I made.  When we decided not to build our house and move to Wyoming I had already purchased this new bedding and thrown away the receipt.  So it couldn't be returned.   

So I present to you our master bedroom.

  

I don't have any before pictures from when we first moved in the house.  The walls in this room were a very dark brown color.  It felt very closed in and smaller than it was.

We really didn't do much in this room as a whole.  We added crown moulding and painted the walls.  Matt and I picked out neutral colors to paint in here.  The back wall is one shade darker than the other 3 walls.  The first picture is a shot from the doorway.  To the left is our tiny bathroom.

Meet our tiny bathroom. 

We painted the cabinets in here a dark color to match the mirrors.  We took down the big builder grade mirror and added the two smaller ones.  The light fixture in here is the same one in the kids bathroom.  The big cabinet above the toilet was added for more storage.  The faucets were changed out along with the hand towel racks, toilet paper roll holder and larger towel rack.  The crown moulding was continued in here as well as Matt laid the same tile as in the kids bathroom. 

So there you have it.  Our master bedroom is complete.  I hope in our next master I can add the cooler color on the wall like in my inspiration picture. 

Sources:

Bedding-Target $89 (bought on sale plus had another coupon to make this even less)

Coral pillow-Target $.88 (clearance placemat)

Wall colors-not sure (We no longer have the paint we used.  It was from Walmart though.)

Curtains-Target (clearance table cloths)

Sheets-Target $49 (I think it is the mint ash color)


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Beneath My Heart



Flip flop bling

Good Monday morning ya'll!

I was in Hobby Lobby recently and came up with an idea while strolling through the jewelry section.  I'm sure this has been done before and you can find it on Pinterest but I haven't run across it yet.  So I wanted to share this easy way to bling out a pair of flip flops.

The possibilities are endless at Hobby Lobby or Michaels.

 

The next row behind this one is the flip flops.  Pick any color that you like.  These are $1.99 when not on sale.

 

 



Once you have your color(s) selected go back to the jewelry section and pick out a coordinating jewel to go on the flip flop.  Make sure the jewel you choose is not too big and that it will be comfortable when you put the flip flops on.  I picked my jewel and placed it on the flip flop then put the flip flop on to see how it would feel.  Also, the jewel needs to have a flat back so that it can be glued on. 

 

 

 

I ended up going with the blue and picked out a pretty jewel to go with that color.  My jewels were not on sale at the time so try to catch these when they are so that this can be cheaper.

 

 

Cut off the little ring if there is one.  I used pliers to pry the ring open.

 

 

Use some sort of heavy duty glue to attach these to your flip flops.  If you don't have any then just go by the glue section while at Hobby Lobby and see what they have.  I used J-B Weld.  I also used a clip to add extra pressure to make sure the jewel got a good grip on the flip flop. 

 

Let these sit for 24 hours.  I'm very impatient and didn't let mine sit long enough and it came off.  Then I had to wait another 24 hours.  Ugh!

 

When it's all dry this is what you end up with.

 

 

How cute are these?!?  I love them.  It takes a boring flip flop from drab to fab! 

 

My total cost was $10 but if everything was on sale it would have been much less.  You could also do this if you had a pair of flats like ballerina slippers. 

 

Have fun! 

**Updated**
I've worn these flip flops several times and the J-B Weld did not hold.  So I tried regular super glue.  That did not hold the jewels.  So then I tried Liquid Nails and Gorilla Glue (it's for wood but I had it on hand so why not) and that didn't hold either.  Now I'm trying Loctite Flexible Adhesive.  This is for use on plastic so hopefully this will hold.  I'll keep you updated on what works.   



 

 



Placemat pillows

It's Friday...Friday...gotta get down on Friday!  Everybody's looking forward to the weekend!

Yeah, I channeled Rebecca Black for that one.  Now you're going to have that one in your head.


Reason #5452 why I love Target.

The clearance sales.  Swoon!

While in Target recently I went through the summer clearance section.  They had these placemats on clearance for 70% off.  That made them $.88 each. 

Sold!

When I saw these I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them.  Pillows on my bed!  Now, I'm sure you've seen it done a million times but what's one more?

Use a seam ripper and make an opening big enough to get your arm in.  Stuff a bunch of batting here there to make the pillow fluffy.

If you are anything like me and can barely sew a button on then use fabric glue to close up the seam.  I made sure my opening was on the bottom of the placemat so you can't tell where it was open.  Run a line of glue as close as possible to the edge.

Ta da!  A nice pop of color for our master bedroom. 

The pillow I had been stalking at Target that was a coral color was bought by a certain friend of mine and returned to a different store.  Now that pillow is clearanced out and gone forever.  You shall remain nameless but you know who you are.  :)

But I like this better.  Especially since it was only $.88 instead of $20.

Come back soon too see my master bedroom and the changes we made.

 

 



A beach...In a bathroom?

I'm back today with another room in our 6 year house transformation.  This was another room that had many colors on the walls until I got it just right.  Sometimes it just takes several tries before you're happy with the final color.

When we bought the house the bathroom was painted Barney purple.  I don't have any pictures of the purple but I'm pretty sure if you look under the counter you might see some purple...and yellow...and green...and blue.  If these walls could only talk.

Wait...yellow, green and blue??  Yeah about that...

I thought I wanted a Tuscan bathroom because I saw it on HGTV and they made it look awesome.  So I tried to match it.  Matt and I taped everything off and primed the Barney purple away and slapped some banana yellow up.  When it was all done it looked like the sun had exploded in the bathroom.  It was blinding bright.  I was pregnant with my first at the time and I sat down in the hallway and just cried.  Poor Matt!  He knew this wasn't going to work and that I hated it. 

We very quickly threw up more primer so we didn't need our sunglasses every time we walked in the bathroom.  I then went to Walmart and found a shade of sage green that was perfect.  It was light but not too bright.  There isn't any natural light in the bathroom so this color worked.  We lived with the green bathroom because it wasn't blinding.

You can click on each picture to see a larger version.

    

We replaced the light fixture with a new one from Lowes.  Also, we painted the cabinets white.  They were just a white washed finish before.  It was ok and it stayed like this for about 4 more years.

Then I discovered cooler colors were my thing.  I'm not so much a fan of warm colors especially in rooms that do not get any natural light.  So I told Matt I wanted to paint...again!  Insert eye roll here.

After priming the whole room again here is the final color we ended up with.

Isn't that just breath of fresh air.  I love the beach and I wanted to bring a bit of it into our home.  I used lattice strips from Lowes for the board and batten on the walls.  I measured everything out to make sure all the pieces were evenly spaced. 

I repainted the cabinets black and I spray painted the little cabinet above the toilet black to match.  We used door/window casing to frame the mirror.  I think that gives a custom look to the mirror.  One of the biggest changes is that Matt laid tile down.  Also, another can light was installed in the center of the room to give more light by the shower.  Matt raised the fixture over the sink so it wasn't shining right on the mirror.  We added crown molding too.   

I have some sand dollars that I've collected from trips to the beach and thought they would be perfect for our beach bathroom.  That little basket on the counter has some of my shells in it too.  We also changed out the builder grade faucet for a brushed nickel finish.   

I'm so proud of this bathroom and the changes we made.  It was a lot of work but the end result was so worth it.   

Sources:

Wall color-Sky by Waverly Paints 

Light fixture-Lowes

Floor tiles-Lowes (clearance items)

Trash can-Target

Soap dispenser-Target

Shower curtain-Target

Faucet-Lowes

Towel hooks-Home Depot

Sunburst mirror-DIY project

Frames for sand dollars-Hobby Lobby (clearance items)

Toilet paper basket-Goodwill (still had tag on it from Target)

Hand towel/toilet paper roll holder-Walmart 

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Tatertots and Jello

Texas Love

Happy Saturday to y'all!  Have you had a great week?  It seems time is just flying by this summer and pretty soon it will be back to school time. 

 

I wanted to drop in and just talk about all the things I'm going to miss here in Texas.  I've been in Texas my whole life except for 2 years when I moved to Utah for school.  So that's 29 years here and I hadn't planned on going anywhere anytime soon.  There are many things in Texas that I'm going to miss and just wanted to share a few. 

 

So in no particular order here are the things I'm going to cry about leaving behind (not really but maybe).

 

Oh Target...what can I say except that I love you!  You make me smile and take me to my happy place.  You've taken all my millions and it will be the longest year of my life without you.  I love your clearance specials and 90% of my house is from your store.  Please build more stores in Wyoming!  Pretty please oh pretty please!!

Firehouse Subs is the best place to go for sandwiches.  No.questions.asked.  Down right THE BEST.  If you don't have a location by you then if you see one as you're driving down the road, slam on your brakes, make an immediate U-turn, and go inside.  My personal favorite is the Sub on a Club with the jalapeno chips.  Oh and you MUST use the Firehouse sauce on your sandwich.  It's the icing on the cake.  Go find this place now!!





 

We love Chick Fil A!  We love it because it's clean and so yummy.  I don't feel guilty when I eat Chick Fil A food.  I know it's not the healthiest thing out there but it certainly isn't the worst.  We meet our friends there to play sometimes when it's too hot out or even too cold.  They refill our drinks for us and always help me with my kids if I'm by myself.  It's like a fancy fast food place.  Love you Chick Fil A!

 



 



The closet Kohls to us will be in Salt Lake City about 2 hours away.  I don't spend a lot of money in Kohls but I do love to find a good deal every now and then.  They have a good selection usually and always have sales.  My favorite section is the jewelry.  Not the fancy jewelry but the cheaper section.  I guess I need to go get a really good fix before we leave. 

 

 

What will I do without this place?  Next to Target I think this is my favorite store.  There is just so much inspiration and pretty things inside.  My current store isn't as close as Target but if it was it would be dangerous for sure!  I'm starting to see a trend here with stores not being in Wyoming.  What the heck have I got myself into?

 

 

I think the best time of year is the spring time here.  The bluebonnets are everywhere and they are gorgeous.  I now regret not getting pictures this year with our kids.  But at the time we did not think we would be leaving.  There is usually always a beautiful mixture of flowers along the roads.  I'm sure Wyoming is beautiful too but this is just the only spring I know and love. 

 

 

 

My two favorite trees are crape myrtles and magnolia trees.  We have 4 crape myrtles in our backyard.  I love that they bloom this time of year since everything else dies since it is so hot.  The blooms do not last long but they sure are pretty.  And the smell is heavenly.  Maybe Wyoming has crape myrtles. 

 

And of course we will miss all of our friends.  All of the above things are worldly things and our friends are what matter most to us.  We really hope to be back soon to visit or even live again. 

 

Have a great weekend!  Another room in the house tour will be coming up soon.

  

  

 



Little Red Dining Room

This is a story about a room.  The room that caused me to fall in love with our house 6 years ago. 

Once upon a time, there was a pregnant and hormonal girl that needed a bigger house to live in.  She searched and searched and finally found a house that felt like home.  The reason it felt like home...the beloved red dining room.  It was perfect in all its red glory.  The room had a dimmer on the can lights and the chandelier had candles on it.  She had dreams of romantic dinners in the dining room with her sweet and wonderful husband.  Then along came kid #1, then came kid #2, and finally kid #3 and still no romantic dinners under the candles.  Oh well...it was a fairy tale to begin with.

One of the very first projects we did in this house was in the dining room.  I loooved this room.  But it did need just a little something to break up all the redness.  We decided to add wainscoting to the bottom half of the walls with a chair rail above that. 

You can click on each picture to see a larger version.

This house is full of weird angles and it makes it difficult for full shots of the room.  This is standing in the hallway looking in the dining room.  In the above picture we had already taken down the oh so romantic light fixture from the previous owners and replaced it with the original fixture shoved in the attic.

This shot is from the center of the room looking out to the rest of the house.  Originally, the dining room had carpet in it, which I will never understand.  Who puts carpet in a place where food can be dropped on the floor?  Craziness!!

After living with the little red dining room for a while I soon realized that it was too dark compared to the rest of the house.  So I convinced Matt that we needed to paint the room and not just one color either.  Two colors.

I chose the color Tobacco Road for the top color and a shade of brown for the bottom color.  After I finished the Tobacco Road color on top I really wasn't happy with it but I wasn't going to dare tell Matt that I hated it and I wanted to repaint already.  So I lived with it but secretly it gave me the twitches every.single.time I looked at the room. 

This is a poor old cell phone picture that I took when I was trying to decide on the color for the bottom half of the room.  We also ripped out the carpet in here and installed laminate floors.   

Here you can see the final color of the room.  It was ok and an improvement from the dark red from before.  So I lived with this for about two years and then this year I decided I needed lighter.  I made an agreement with Matt that if I painted the room by myself with no help then he could take 1 climbing trip to Oklahoma.  If he helped me then he could take 2 climbing trips to Oklahoma.  I did it all myself. 

The color in the laundry room is Silver Sage from Restoration Hardware and the shade just lighter than that is called Light Silver Sage.  Go figure!  I love these two colors.  So that's what I chose.  When the late afternoon sun hits the dining room the color is perfect.  This is a shade that changes colors as the sun hits it throughout the day.  It's fresh and cozy, I think anyway.

So here are the after pictures.

It's a dramatic difference.  The "curtains" are from Target this last Christmas.  Target had a beautiful selection of table cloths and so I bought two and hung them up.  Using table cloths as curtains is a great inexpensive way of getting the look you want in a room.  So next time your in a store with table cloths check them out as a possibility for curtains. 

I have since added two benches in here for seating for the boys.  I love this room and it makes me happy every time I walk by it, which is about 1 million times a day. 

The light fixture we found at a garage sale for $10.  It was from a model home down the street so it was a sweet score. 

I'll be back soon with another room transformation. 

Have a great week!

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