Kitchen Kompleted

I can't even tell you how happy it makes me to write this post. No more scrubbing, sanding, priming, painting, drilling, wrangling..... DONE.

I showed you the bottom half completed here, but now: The really big show (thanks, Ed).

Hard at times, dirty often, extremely time consuming work, but totally, completely, entirely worth it.

Top: Move-in day. Bottom: Now.

Purchased this cute contact paper on Amazon.

Of course, my brain goes to 'what's next'... backsplash, for one. But I'm trying to take a minute or two every day just to stand there and realize this portion - this big portion - is DONE. And that's a pretty enjoyable piece of time.

Logistics

Steps:
Clean, sand to bare wood, wipe down with liquid deglosser, prime (dry completely), paint - 2 coats (dry completely between each).
Measure, create a jig, measure, measure,... measure, drill, attach handles, re-hang/install.
Put lining in drawers.

Used:
Electric sander, stain-blocking primer, liquid deglosser, Benjamin Moore Advance paint (Decorators White).
2" handle angled paint brush, foam roller, vinyl bumpers.
New hardware (from here)

Time frame:
Can you devote all your time? Days.
Do you have things to do? Weeks. Yes, plural.

Absolutely Necessary:
Patience.

'Bout That Action, Boss

Shameless Seahawks plug. And this one too, because it's funnier in song.

But it's true: I was hit hard with a solid dose of gettin' after it this past weekend and took it out on the hallway door trim trio. Nope, that's not a new jazz band, it's these guys:

Laundry room straight ahead, sewing room to the right.

Powder room, diagonally across from the laundry room.

When I snapped the pictures I'd already done most of the sanding - I told you, all about that action! Up close and personal with the miles of trim, I could see just how much they needed an update:

Once fully sanded, a quick wipe-down with a rag and liquid deglosser and then it was time to prime and paint - You can see the products I use in this previous post. And remember that we took care of the baseboard in the same manner back here.

In hindsight, I probably should have taken the time to fill a couple rough spots with some wood putty and caulked the separated bits, but honestly, I didn't really notice them until the white paint went on. Ah well, another little upgrade to do another day.

I don't tape - A 2" short-handle angle brush, some paper bag, and some patience is all I needed. 

Two coats of paint later, I had a gloriously updated hallway.

I did the hallway side of the laundry and sewing rooms, and both the hallway and interior of the powder room. It feels so much brighter and somehow "higher-end", when really instead of money, all that's been invested is about six hours (spread over two days) of elbow grease.

But check out how yellow the "white" doors now look.....

Inside the powder room.

I feel a project coming on.

Talkin' Tin

I wanted to tell you about the faux tin tile I found online to give the wall behind my new chunky shelf a little oomph.

I've always loved the tin-tile look, but have you seen the price on actual tin tiles? Yikes. And the local home improvement store's fake options made of plastic were not much better at $20+ for each 24"x24" square. I actually had them in hand at Home Depot, ready to gulp and drop the $80, when it occurred to me to whip out the ol' smart phone and give Amazon a quick perusal.

Light shining down on me from heaven in the lumber aisle and angels singing: I found them. At $3.50 each and made of polystyrene (aka: pressed styrofoam), I shelved those $20 plastic versions and placed my online order.

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I had already grabbed a super-strong double sided tape to hang the plastic tiles, so decided to stick (ha) with that to adhere my foam tiles.

The tiles were so light and thin (but not too thin that I felt like they were going to crumble or anything) that all I needed to do was measure (and measure again, per usual), and slice my way down a ruler's edge with an x-acto knife.

Snipped off some tape, stuck it to the tile, and stuck the tile to the wall, gently pressing along the length of each with my fingertips. Easy, peasy, done.

I'm so impressed with the finish, and because the shelf is so deep, I'm not worried about wear and tear on the styrofoam. These tiles are made for putting on ceilings, out of the reach of daily touching or any jabbing objects poking at them. If they were in a more easily bumped area, I probably would have had to go with the plastic or real metal version.

But so far, all who've seen them in person have thought they were real tin. Not bad for fourteen bucks! Alright, including shipping and the tape it was probably around $30, but I'll take that any day.

I'd totally recommend this method to anyone. Hmm... Our dining room ceiling could use a little visual interest....

Two Cool Stools

The stars aligned, the angels sang, and light shone down from the heavens... Right onto HomeGoods.

Have you been in one? They're great, but pretty hit or miss. It's not like you're going to walk in and find a really specific thing you're looking for... Or are you...! We had a list of 5 places to go hunting for barstools to go with our new table, and this was the criteria:

Comfortable.

Not backless. 

Sturdy.

Stylistically compatible with the table.

We marched into our first stop - HomeGoods - got distracted by the pretty things browsed for a minute, and bam: Two perfect stools. They were like a tractor beam, I tell ya, and Nate and I gravitated right to 'em.

The only thing neither of us were crazy about was the cream pleather seats. But a quick flip-over in the store showed just 4 small screws holding the seat on, and I knew I could recover them pretty easily. Check it out:

This fabric is a little too classical for me, but I knew in small amounts it'd be just the thing.

Yellow for the kitchen, chestnut for the stools, black for the table.

I mentioned there were 4 small screws holding the seat in place... You'll just have to take my word for it since I failed to take photos (tricky to hold a stool, a screwdriver, and a camera... where is that third arm when you need it?!). But literally within 2 minutes, off came the seat and I had this:

Seat-free!

Centered, and traced with a few extra inches to wrap around.

Trusty staple gun - Staple, flip, done!

Tada!!

This is one stellar find and easy mini-makeover that equaled out to a pretty huge dining room upgrade. I'm in love.

One done...

...And two. Woohoo!

Deck The Walls

Christmas in August? Kinda. Especially since the last time I mentioned this project was back in December...

Remember the rope-wrapped letters I made as Christmas gifts (tutorial here)? Well it was finally time to treat myself and take care of some blank wall space.

And another blast from the past: The metal horseshoe 'wreath' I bought aaaaages ago (literally a whole year) also finally found a home in the family room.

For the record: The wall color is not this weird in real life.

Love having these pieces in our most-used room so we can see and enjoy 'em often.

A little room context.

The art above the 'J' is by an insanely talented friend of mine, Caitlin Hansen. See more of her work here. 

Mini Makeover: White & Bright

It's feeling so good to get back in the swing of home projects again - A little 2-ish week break was apparently just what the doctor ordered to get reinvigorated. That said, it's time to start the pretty tedious process of getting rid of all the Pickled Oak (seriously. that's the color name. gross.) wood still lurking at every turn in our house.

And by every turn I mean every turn. The door jambs. The windowsills. Every. Single. Kitchen. Cabinet. *sigh*

Terrible photos - So hard to get a good pic with the light from the window.

I started easy: The family room windowsill. Remember our repainting of all the baseboard? Well now that windowsill's been looking extra Pickled Oak-y by comparison. And all that nasty disjointed caulk? It had to get re-done as well.

White & bright on the bottom... Big ol' ugly up top.

Hole-y caulk! And a bunch just missing completely on one end.

caulk-be-gone

So the process begins: A light sanding followed by a wipe down with liquid deglosser, then a prime and, in this case, two coats of paint (same as the baseboard, Decorators White by Benjamin Moore).

Fine grit sand paper, Citristrip deglosser, Kilz no-odor low-VOC primer.

Priming away.

So fresh and so clean, clean.

The one time I love matchy-matchy.

Tell me, how much better is that?! But then I started to realize how dingy the fireplace looked by comparison... You know where this is headed.
To be continued...

Tunes

It occurred to me this morning that I've never talked about what music we chose for the wedding day events. I had a few surprises, so although I wanted to spill the beans pre-wedding, I kept it zipped.

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While I was encouraged by every bridal magazine and wedding site out there to "choose a theme" for the wedding, we didn't. And if I had to choose... Well, I can't count the number of times both Nate and I said "we just want everyone to have FUN".

With that said, our playlist:

Seating of the Mothers, Junior Bridesmaids (who were also our candle lighters): 

'Stand By Me', by Ben E. King

Bridal Party (including kiddos): 

'Everybody Loves A Lover', by Doris Day

Bride: 

'Livin' On A Prayer', string quartet version as performed by Vitamin String Quartet

Under Reading: 

'The Prayer', as performed by Charlotte Church & Josh Groban

Recessional: 

'Praise You', by Fat Boy Slim

First Dance: 

'Feels Like Home', as performed by Chantal Kreviazuk

Father-Daughter: 

'My Girl', by The Temptations

Mother-Son: 

'Beautiful Boy', by John Lennon, as performed by Ben Harper 

...There you have it! I must say, Nate originally was not the biggest fan of my Bon Jovi tribute, but he let me have my way. In the end, waiting on the hidden stairs with my dad and hearing that waa pedal intro kick in and everyone start giggling as they recognized the song.... AWESOME. And Nate said it was a kick to see everyone's reaction as he stood up front waiting for me.

I of course have a playlist of all of these queued up in iTunes, and we actually made each of our mom's a cd to listen to post-wedding.


I think all of our choices fit the bill: FUN!

Practice Makes Perfect

It's rehearsal day!

Our Pastor, Marty, has been out of the country on a church mission trip and is making the drive back from Mexico yet today, so I'll be running the show.

Luckily he gave me great instructions, so here's hoping I can bark out orders and everyone will listen!

Also, wonderful Nancy Lang created this for me as I unwrapped gifts at my bridal shower :

I'll be carrying it during rehearsal - Chock full of happy memories and well wishes from lovely ladies.

Then it's off to eat, drink.... and soon be married!

Prep

Officially off work for a week and time to get pretty!

Hair? Check.

Tan? Checking off tonight.

Probably just a few shades lighter than these guys.....

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Nails? On the docket for friday with 'Maids Em and Melissa.

We are close to Easter and all.... But probably NOT getting this...

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Let the prettification begin!