COLOR IN THE KITCHEN

Once these two projects were done (bar, cabinets), I was again ready for another! Ready to get some color on the walls! But I had a really hard time deciding on what color. After MULTIPLE samples, we finally decided on a good neutral color that complimented the dining room well, was simple, and looked really pretty with the cabinets!

The thing we learned in the long search for color was to think outside the box. I knew I wanted something in the green family (to compliment the color of the dining room) but after a long day of frustrating samples realized that was not working. We started looking in the grey/brown family and finally found Clay Pebble by Behr - a very earthy color with just a slight green undertone. It wound up being the perfect color - FINALLY!!!

Just a small example of the amount of samples we tried - eeks! 

Before

During

And after 

Because of the lighting in the kitchen, it is hard to get a good picture, but you get the idea! 

Adding color always makes things feel a lot more cozy and more like home! 

and because I cannot just stop after one project, next will be making curtains for that window :)

trashcan find

I was hanging out at the park one day with a sweet friend of mine and I saw this:

She laughed when I said I was going to dig it out, but I loved the wood and saw some potential! 

I got it home and let it sit in the sun for several weeks - just to let the sun do any sanitizing that might be needed! Then with the help of my sweet husband we got the 'signs' off and in about 5 minutes I had them painted with some sample paints we had! 

One was a gift for my sister for her engagement party, one for our laundry 'room' and one for us! 

{Fun. Simple. & Free}

a simple can of paint

A simple can of paint can do wonders to a room:: here was our guest bathroom before: 

{plus a few paint samples on the wall}

 All of the decorations I had in there were just things that I had when we first moved in! I was ready for a small make over in that department too! 

And the after....ahhhh COLOR.... so much better!!! 

We used a high gloss paint in here. I normally dont like gloss, but thought it would look nice and be a fun change for the bathroom! 

I used some other things I had to decorate with for now...soon there will be a lot of baby stuff in the bathroom I am guessing :)

~Bless the Lord Oh my soul~

This is one of my favorite things we have hanging in our house!!!! 

Using some pallets we had picked up off the street, John cut, using a hand saw, 6 pieces off the pallet and we naled some scrap 1x1's we had on the back to hold them in place! 

Then wood glued a small piece on the top so we could hang it! 

Once the stain dried on this, I painted one board a gray from some sample paints we had and then stenciled in part of Matt Redman's 10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord) - One of our favorite songs, and a great daily reminder! I used some of the craft paint I had just picked up at an estates sale to paint the lettering

And there it was! 

bathroom make over in an evening

Our bathroom has felt kinda boring since we moved in. I wanted it to be peaceful and after putting about 5 samples on the walls for color, I decided to keep the walls the color they were originally! Our bedroom is full of color and finding something to compliment it without going over board just wasn't working! I did however, want to tie in those same colors! {teal, grey, yellow, and white}

It all started all started with a stop by an estate sale on the way home from work one Friday afternoon, where I picked up a few stitch work pieces, a vase, a small metal box and lots of craft paints - all for under $4.00 - I began planning and by the time John got home, I was ready to take on the bathroom! 

We had picked up 2 pallets off the road a few weeks before and I decided that between my estate sale finds and those pallets we could have us a bathroom in an evening! 

Before

After

{How to::Shelf}

Before

 After
{How to: Bless the Lord painting}

Before

 After
{Making the frames:: Small and Simple}

 the projects can be found below::


Bless the Lord painting


Shelf


Frames

And that was it - we were done! It was a fun evening with my sweet husband and we have really enjoyed the way it turned out! 

'better than love'

The inspiration for this project.....

♥♥♥♥♥ Dancing to 'Better than Love' by Griffin House, for our first dance! ♥♥♥♥♥ 

This painted canvas came from Good Will for less than a dollar!  

 At the time, our bedroom walls were still empty and I was ready to add some life to them!!! I tend to be a very sentimental person so I wanted the things on our walls to have meaning or a good story! 

I took contact paper, which I had, and traced letters onto it and carefully cut them out using an exacto knife! 

Spaced it out using a ruler and then stuck the letters to the canvas! 

I then painted the whole thing with a grey sample I had from another project! 

 When it was all dry - I peeled off the letters and had this beauty! 

Pictures of the walls coming soon!!! 

And a few more pics just because...loved this special moment

Our gorgeous wedding pictures were taken by a dear life-long friend of mine, Lissa Anglin!

Facelift for kitchen cabinets!

So literally before we even fully finished the kitchen bar, i was already begging John to let us start painting the poop brown cabinets. It didn't take long for him to get on board...he just needed a few weeks to recover from the major project! 

So we started! We thought it would be a much easier project if we stayed organized so we started with pictures of what was in each cabinet  - then emptied them all out! 

Then we labeled each drawer and cabinet door with a number and then put the same number inside the cabinet so that we would remember where each one went! We also put bowls in each cabinet with the hardware from that door so that it all stayed organized! 

We did a quick easy sand down and then went on the primer! We asked Lowes to add in some black to the primer so that at least we would have a little less coverage to do with the dark paint! 

We chose to leave the insides of the cabinets the brown color, such a time saver and it doesn't bother me at all to have the insides different! A big tip we learned was using foam brushes!!! Foam rollers and foam brushes kept the cabinets from having any brush marks! The color is Valspar 'Lincoln Cottage Black'- Satin finish!

Prep work! 

And then the paint went on....this took some time but the patience was well worth it! I love the color we chose and was so thankful for the organization we had put in at the beginning..made the 'put it all back together' go much faster!