A Little Kitchen Update

Progress around my home is slow moving lately. And trying to blog about it when I finally finish a project is even slower. A couple weeks ago my husband and I took on the task of changing up our kitchen nook.

Kitchen nook = The awkward space behind our counter that is too small for anything useful.

Enter metal crates and spray paint.

Lucky for us, my husband's family farm had lots of these old metal crates lying around. We used over 30! We pressure washed off all the old grime and grease and prepped them to be painted. 10 spray cans of paint and 2 very sore fingers later, we had shiny stackable crates.

I've always wanted open storage in the kitchen and now I have it!

The best thing about this whole project is the crates are interchangeable and nothing is attached to the wall.  Meaning I can change it around or completely take the whole thing down if I get sick of it.

My House: Reading Nook

What was formally known as the teeny, tiny office has become a sitting nook right outside our bedroom. This space has always been hard to address because of the odd shape and small size. 

I slowly collected things from around the house that I wasn't using like my chair, nesting tables and lamp so I didn't have to spend anything to create this space. Free makeover!

I've had this faux bamboo mirror sitting in my basement for a year 

so I gave it a fresh coat of white paint.

To give it some interest, I hand painted the inside a bright teal.

We recessed a book shelf for some extra storage.

For some cheap art I bought a calendar with some colorful pictures and framed them on the wall leading down the stairs.

Drum shade pendant is another thrift store find.

One more space done on my quest to finish decorating my house!

Little Updates

I managed to fit in a few small updates to the bedroom this 

weekend in between yard work and more yard work.

First, I painted my plain white lamp shades dark teal and I'm really liking the effect.

I felt like this side of the room needed some dark, saturated colors 

so I whipped out some acrylic paint I had stashed away and painted it on with a foam brush.

My next little bedroom update is I finally hung some art above the dresser.

I found a set of vintage metal wall frames while thrifting and used one of the free print outs I posted about last week to fill them.

 

So there's my little update.

Teal lamp shades...

Horse art...

And a sleepy cat.

He's not really an update, just more of a lazy blob.

Office Progress

As promised, here are a few pictures I snapped with my phone of the office.

It's still a work in progress but I'll keep you posted as I go.



Reupholster & Repaint

Remember these chairs?

They were a thrift find from long ago. Too long ago.

Well they had a bit of a makeover and they now reside in my living room.

And here's the set a bit more dressed up...

I used this fabric that I purchased from Fabric.com

I wasn't about to take on the reupholstering job so I set out to find a professional.

I was able to get a great deal by calling around for prices. 

Don't stop at the first quote your given.

 The 4th place I called quoted a third of the price than the first place did. 

Also, don't forget to check references. Reupholstering is not cheap and you don't want to pay to do the job twice.

You will also notice my walls could pass for a patch-work quilt.

Who knew deciding on the perfect gray/green/white color could be so hard.

I'm getting to the point where almost every room in my house has been repainted.
Thank the good Lord because it was pretty obvious we did not know what we were doing when it came to paint selections!

I like to refer to the original living room color as "skin."
With a name like that, it's time to repaint.

After pictures hopefully soon!

Problem Solver

This is what it looks like to finally get the pictures that have been sitting in storage hung.

Looks pretty good, right?

And this is what it looks like when you smash a hole in the wall with the ladder that you just used to hang the pictures:

Before I rant on and on about how many months it took me just to hang the pictures, I'm telling myself this is an excuse to repaint the office.

Oh and if I'm repainting then I might as well get new furniture.

And new window treatments.

And I might as well move the office into the spare room and make this my new "quiet time" room because Lord knows I will be needing it by the time I'm finished.

See, I just solved my problems without ranting.

Table Top Reading

I recently picked up a few more books for the living room coffee table.

She was looking a bit bare and some good reading material was on my watch list.

Lucky me, I stopped in Half Price Books where I found some great books for only a fraction of the cost.

Some of the bigger books cost up $75 brand new!

I think the most expensive book I purchased that day was $10.

I loooove me some deals.

Just a few others from around my living room.

Happy Monday!

The Never Ending Story

That's just what I'm going to call all my posts about my bedroom updates.

Granted, they wont include giant flying dogs or the mythical land of Fantasia, (hopefully, most of you have seen that movie. If not.. awkward). But with the way things are moving, it may be awhile before I get everything established.

So last time you saw the master bedroom, it looked like this:

I tried and tried to love the red pillow but soon it became hard just to like it so sadly, it was returned.

Here is the updated room:

Notice the new lamps from Tarjay....

That's Target for those of you who don't speak french. ;)

My little sister gave me the two West Elm pillows on the right for Christmas.

I love the stork pillow so much! I'm sure it will be moved around the house quite a bit.

We moved the dresser to the other side of the room and freed up the window nook.

As I speak type, I'm looking for a cozy reading chair to put in the corner.

Close up of "hat lady."

I found this print stashed in an antique shop in upper Wisconsin. I also got the unicorn print on my dresser there as well

And last but not least, I switched the black shadow box frames for some gold framed mirrors.

Hopefully everthing will stay in it's place so I can address the other much-needed parts of the room.

Have a wonderful rest of your week!