Decorating Hemlock

Dining Room Evolution-New paint color and Refinished furniture

2012-10-01T18:16:00.000-04:00

You are going to see a lot of pics in this post!!

Our dining room has gone through quite a few different changes in the last 5 years since we bought our home. Changes in paint color and I cannot begin to count how many times I've changed curtains. I think I was in love with the black dining room set for about a month but because we spent so much money on it there was no way I was able to get a new one. I hadn't measured the room when I bought the set so I didn't realize how much it would over power the room, along with the fact that once we put the leaf in there was no room to walk around the table.

Needless to say this room wasn't used much.

When we first bought our home 2007. The curtains and the paint color were left over from the previous owners.

In 2008 I decided to paint the room with some left over paint I had from the master bedroom. As you could see by the pic, I ran out of paint after doing the bottom of the chair rail. It stayed like this for about a year till I tried to decide what color I wanted to paint it.

Finally decided on SW Whole Wheat. Still not in love with this room.

I tried everything to perk up this room. Changing curtains, using chair covers...

I sold the dining room set but I kept the corner shelf, it received a make over with some chalk paint.

One of the last pictures of the dining room set before it was sold.

I finally decided on colors that would hopefully stick around for a while. I painted with Olympia One color matched to BM White Sand and the trim in Chantilly Lace.

My thrifted $25 dining room set! When I saw this set I was reminded of the set Miss Mustard Seed had in her dining room and knew I had to try and do as good a job as she did even though it is hard to fill her shoes, her furniture redos are amazing!!

Love, love the cane back chairs!

The table had me fooled. I thought it was wood on the top so I started to sand it, use paint stripper on it. Nope, not wood. A piece of Formica. Nothing I could do to change it so I painted the bottom in ASCP Old White and added an antique gold glaze to the edges.

I knew I didn't want to leave the leaning shelf in the room and wanted to do something different. My neighbor was getting rid of this dresser so I scooped it up.

A quick sanding..

The wire cubby was going to go in my craft room for storage but I had an idea, the only thing that was wrong was it was black. I used silver and stainless steel color glazes and sponged it all over to give it a galvanized look.

I stained the top in dark walnut and used ASCP in Old White for the bottom of the dresser.

I painted the drawers in ASCP in Paris Grey and used a stencil for the design.

Wasn't sure what kind of knobs I wanted so I used some that I had on an old dresser that's going to be my next project.

I used ASCP in Pure White and Old White for the chairs.

I covered the chairs in painters drop cloth. At some point I'm going to use fabric paint and do some sort of design.

After the wax was applied and buffed.

My new thrifted curio and storage. Having a dresser in the dining room turns out to be one of the best things I've ever done. The draws provide storage that I never had before, from extra plates to linens.

The black corner shelf got a makeover in ASCP as well. I've finally found curtains that I fell in love with...

Close up of the cubby done with the glazes.

Here is my "Miss Mustard Seed" inspired dining room! The only thing left to change is the rug, soon as I find the perfect one.
xoxo
Jeri

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A craft room is born

2012-04-25T19:04:00.043-04:00

No one tells you when you have babies that time will speed up. Years will go by like months and months like days. I never knew that when my youngest moved out I would cry on and off for weeks. It took me almost 2 years to finally decide to redo her room. Everyday I would walk by and found myself stopping and then just standing in the doorway of the pink room with the green carpet..Staring, reminiscing, wishing I could turn back time.

After months of doing crafts, painting furniture & cabinet doors in the family room I decided I needed a craft room, a place where I could have all my things in one place. Where I wouldn't get paint on the carpet and where there are no doggies walking into paint cans or brushing up against a newly piece of painted furniture. Let me just say it's a good thing I only use water based paints and they like baths.

The ideas started swirling around in my head, walls had to be painted, carpet to be removed. So many colors I wanted to try in this room. I knew I wanted a craft table but not an ordinary one, I wanted a rustic type of work bench and it had to have a chandelier. Meet my new baby. Yes, I gave birth to a craft room, she's cute and girly. She's young yet and still has much more growing up to do but I'm so behind in posting I wanted to share what I've done so far.

After my daughter moved out this room became a catch all of stuff from throughout the house. Notice the Bowflex my husband had to have but hasn't put it together yet...

An old entertainment center that ended up getting dismantled and thrown away for the most part. I kept the door to make a sign out of someday.

The ceiling light in this room wasn't bright at all so I had to bring up my old standing light from the basement.

Midway through filling in all the spots I had cut in. The paint I used was Olympia One from Lowe's color matched to Martha Stewart Sharkey Gray.

All done painting and just finished ripping up the carpet. What a pain it was pulling up those tack boards and staples. I thought about refinishing the floor but because of all the painting and staining that will be going on it would've been a waste of time I think and I in the long run I ended up liking the rustic look of the floor.

Match stick blinds and 3 curtains I used for the 2 windows. I wanted 4 but went a little over budget =/

I saw a picture on a furniture plans website of a workbench and knew that was exactly what I wanted but couldn't figure out how I was going to build it. Reasons being I don't own a saw and the fact that I'm bad at measuring things. I'd make a terrible carpenter. Searching through CL one day I found someone that made these in a few different sizes, the usual size was 6' long by 24" wide. Remember how I just said I don't like to measure things? I asked him to make it 30" wide because I wanted a little bit more table room. When the table arrived we discovered it wasn't fitting through any exterior doors to the house. Ops. So, off came the doors and the top of the table and with a little help and a lot of wiggling it made it to the 2nd floor. I think I'm going to stain in with a watered down deck stain in gray.

I fell in love with the shelving units on Restoration Hardware but it's a tad out of my budget. Tad=ballpark. I found this shelving unit at Home Depot and thought it was along the same style...

Some of my stuff gathered up from around the house.

The bins underneath the table I bought at Home Depot too.

Rattan and wicker baskets I had lying around the house. I really do have a basket hoarding problem. I found locker baskets on Amazon really cheap!

My chandy. I love you. Found it at Home Depot for $99.00 and I had a 40% off coupon.

The desk was an old oak dining room table that I painted black and distressed years ago. The desk divider is an old DVD rack that I painted and laid on its side. Wooden Ikea boxes that I painted and stenciled.

My name is Jeri and I'm a basket hoarder.

My parents groovy old liquor cabinet that I primed and painted. It stores all my paints and stains.

Not even close to finished yet, there's still stuff to hang on the walls and more things to be organized and the way I change my mind and rearrange things, it could be months before I'm finished...

Updated photos now that more stuff has been crammed in, I've had to get a little ingenious on how to store and arrange things while trying to maintain some type of girly-girl theme.

I wanted a mixture of things to use as storage.

Wire baskets bought on Amazon really cheap!

Part of an old ladder. For now just hanging on hooks, will eventually screw it to the door. Thought I'd use it to store some of my fabric.

This is an old metal shelf system given to me by some good friends. A wire basket that stores my wrapping paper and yard sticks.

This is part of two 5 shelf shelving systems I purchased. I broke them up into two 3 shelves and one 4 shelf unit. Each 3 shelf unit is on each side of my desk.

Left side of the desk stores my books, magazines, paint chips. Believe it or not I know where everything is. I know, you don't believe me. Neither does the hubby.

This would be the other half of the ladder that's hanging on the back of the door. I was playing around with several ideas. Its been in that spot ever since. It's old, has a history and down to earth. Kinda like me I guess...

xoxo

Jeri

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The revolving color of a kitchen door

2012-03-12T23:01:00.017-04:00

Please don't run screaming when you look at the first picture. I redid our kitchen cabinets back in the summer of 2011, at the time we also had a new floor installed. The yellow walls and white doors were painted in May 2008. I loved this yellow so much but after painting the cabinets white I decided the yellow and white had to go.

The first of many changes over the course of only a few months. I've said it before, I change paint colors like some women change nail polish! Anywho, I painted the walls SW Whole Wheat and the doors a black color that I had specially mixed.

I really did like this color but because the dining room is the same color I felt as tough the kitchen should be a different color, the two rooms just looked too bland.

Well, I did like the green and it looks great in the den but because our kitchen is on the tiny side, the green walls and black doors made it look even smaller.

About a month ago I repainted the kitchen Martha Stewart Sharkey Gray. I really do love it and it opened up the kitchen so much! With 4 doors leading out of this room and all of them painted black I thought maybe it was part of the reason of the room looking too dark. I decided to paint one of the doors to see. The picture above is the door primed with Glidden Gripper Primer for dark undercoats, love this stuff by the way.

I bought a quart of Glidden paint matched to Martha Stewart Lagoon that I was going to use on the desk I'm redoing for my Office/Craft room but decided to try it on the door. I ended up loving it!! At least for the next couple of months or so...

xoxo

Jeri

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Ru Pole Mannequin Makeover

2012-02-16T20:24:00.038-05:00

A little back story on "Ru Pole" the mannequin. I bought her about 15 years ago when my kids were small. I used to sell on ebay and needed something besides the back of a chair to post pictures of sweaters and jackets, etc. The kids decided at the time the mannequin needed a name and decided on Ru Pole, after Ru Paul who had a popular song out at the time. Each time the kids walked by it I heard, "work it girl". Well, the kids are grown now and on their own and poor neglected Ru sits in the corner of a spare bedroom gathering dust.

I recently started redoing one of the spare bedrooms into an office/craft room and was thinking maybe there could be some way I could incorporate Ru into the decor but not in her present state. Don't you hate when you're in the middle of a major project, get bored at doing the same thing for hours and decide to break up the monotony by starting another project?

This was my first project using Modge Podge and I have to say, I'm hooked. It was a little messy at first and I was having problems with the pages sticking to the cloth body on the mannequin but after I had about a quarter of it done, the rest was easy peasy.

The only problem I did have is, when I was completely done and it was dry, I started to add some Poly to it thinking it would make a protective coating. This was not a good thing to do at all. All the Poly did was make big wet, dark spots. It's a good thing I only applied it on a few spots. I ended up putting more Modge Podge and pages over the spots that looked terrible. I sanded down the wood topper and stand and stained a dark walnut.

Now to finish the craft room.......

xoxo

Jeri

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The story of a brick fireplace a recliner and a little compromise...

2012-01-16T21:07:00.041-05:00

When we bought our home in 2007 one of the things I was drawn to was the open floor plan of the kitchen and family room. I also loved the fact that there was a fireplace in the family room. I never thought that once we put furniture in that room that I would end up NOT liking the fireplace.

Picture from the walk through the night before closing and 4 years prior to me painting this room.

One month after moving in, the only thing we did was buy furniture and change the curtains. Pay special attention to that thing my husband calls his recliner. It eventually made its way into the spare bedroom. I know I'm evil.

It was dark. A whole wall of darkness. Even decorating the mantel with everything I could think of that I had in the house. No matter what I put on there it always seemed to get lost in the brick background. If your husband is anything like mine he will protest to any paint touching wood or brick. I don't know why, I don't understand it, I don't even try to. Its part of the male species I guess. After a lot of "Think it would look good if I just painted the mantel?" I think bringing it up everyday wore him down, poor guy. Now before I get any nasty comments saying "He let you?" or "You had to wait for him to say yes?" No, everything we do to our home is a compromise. Remember this as you read through the entire post, it gets better.

This was after I painted the entire room earlier this year. I had painted the mantel a couple of years before. The brick still bothered me along with the brass fireplace enclosure. I would bring up painting the brick every once in a while but the compromise for me NOT painting the brick was that I could paint the woodwork on the doors and windows. Fast forward 6 months. After taking down all the Christmas decorations we decided to rearrange everything. I asked hubby if he wanted to bring his recliner down from the spare bedroom and put it back in the family room. "REALLY???" he says. "Well, we could compromise, tell ya what if I could paint the brick I'll find a way to fit the recliner in the room."

I don't like you but you're the reason I'm able to finally have the fireplace the way I envisioned it.

Sorry for the terrible picture quality, I'm still trying to figure out my Nikon and Photoshop. I don't have pics of the during part of the project but let me tell you, painting brick is not as easy as I thought it was. Getting between the bricks was a pain in the arse!! I used a latex primer first and then one coat of SW Westhighland White paint/primer in one that I had left over from doing the rest of this room. I also need to figure out how to get the paint splatters off the slate. Opsie.

After it dried and I put everything together I wasn't "wowed". Too much white. Great, I don't love it. UGH. The brass isn't helping, maybe I could spray paint it black. Think, think...Eureka! I'll strip the paint off the mantel so it will break up some of the white.

After covering everything (this is a messy job) I painted on some Citristrip I had left over from a couple of tables I repainted. This stuff is amazing! Within 30 minutes the paint started to bubble up. The longer you leave it on the better results you'll have and it's safe to use indoors. Of course after an hour I had to start scraping it off because I'm such a (insert sarcastic tone) patient person. Most of it came off but there were some stubborn spots.

More Citristrip. More waiting....This time I gave it about 3 hours. I used a wet and dry tack cloth and went to work wiping it all off. I didn't need to sand it at all. The most difficult part besides the mess was getting in the curves and details of the wood. I used my nails and a butter knife and scraped all the goopy stuff off.

Much better! Unfortunately there's nothing I could do about the vents but my last thing will be to remove the brass doors.

The door was a lot easier to take off then I thought it would be. Now to break out the primer and paint.

TAAADAAAA!! Now I love it. It brightens up the whole room.

I ended up scraping a little too much and went through some of the stain that was originally on the wood. I might re-stain it but I think I'm liking the rustic aspect of it.

I really do need to learn what all those different Photoshop actions do...

*****UPDATE*****

After seeing these pics I decided to stain the mantel. I wanted it to match the beams in the room more. I sanded it down a little more and used Minwax stain in Dark Walnut. After it dried I rubbed it down with Minwax Paste Wax.

ok, now I'm done =)

xoxo

Jeri

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A fix for a "droopy bottom" tote bag

2011-11-28T17:53:00.009-05:00

I have a slight..ok HUGE pocketbook obsession. Always have, always will. I make no apologies. I saw this on sale at shopbop and had to have it! I got it in olive green and was so excited to get it! I was a bit disappointed that it did not look like this when I took it out of the box. Pay particular attention to how the bottom of the tote looks from the pic I took from the website.

Ugh. You might be saying, "So what's wrong with it." I don't know if it's a compulsive type of thing of mine but I don't like when my totes are droopy on the bottom. I thought it looked sloppy. Along with the fact that everything will just sink into a black hole at the bottom. I know, I need help.

I've done this before with a couple of other bags I own and it works out great. All I did was measure the bottom of the bag, length and width. I cut out a piece of cardboard to the size I needed and then covered it in duct tape. The more duct tape you add, the sturdier it will be.

Waalaa!!! Still filled with the same things that I had in it when I took the first picture but no more droop! Having the cardboard on the bottom also helps with everything in your bag falling into one lump on the bottom. Also, if you have one of those purse organizers it works out even better!

xoxo
Jeri

Small change. BIG fail. Fixed!

2011-10-10T11:00:00.008-04:00

This was the pendant light above my kitchen sink. Every time I wash dishes this bulb stared at me like a like a beacon partially blinding me whenever it was on. Along with the fact that everything in the kitchen gravitated onto the glass.

I took it down before I had a plan. I can't stress this enough, no matter what you do, always have a plan. I always end up learning things the hard way.

Ugh. I thought I could just cover the glass with some scrap fabric I had. Easy right? Sure, it was easy but the end result looked terrible. At first I tried attaching the material to the glass with hot glue. When the glue was visible through the material I ripped it all off and used craft glue. That ended up looking even worse. I had to throw the glass part out, no saving it at this point. I went searching through the house trying to find something I could finagle to cover the dangling light bulb.

The only thing I figured I could possibly use was a basket. I have a lot of those, there had to be one that I would be able to use. That would fit. This is the only one I had that was small enough. There was a small hole in the bottom of the basket that I had to make a tad bigger so the hardware would fit through. In all my excitement I forgot to take a picture before I put everything up.

I might paint it...

xoxo
Jeri

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Jumping on the Moss Ball band wagon

2011-07-18T23:33:00.010-04:00

I've seen the Moss Balls all over blog land and I have a few ideas of where to put them but first things first, I had to make them. Sure I could spend upteen amounts of money buying them but how do I justify to the mister that I spent $$$ on Moss Balls?? I bought moss and styrofoam balls, pulled out my trusty piece of cardboard and went to work.

Yup, that's my toe. Sitting on the floor cross legged brings out my creative juices. Not really, just comfy this way.

When I looked for instructions online on what was the best way to stick the moss to the styrofoam ball a lot of blogs said hot glue. Ow. I ended up with more glue on my fingers than on the ball. Out came the Tacky Glue.

I made a circle of glue on the top half of the ball and then placed a layer of moss. I then placed the layered part in my palm and put another circle of glue on the top then another layer of moss. When the whole thing is covered simply squeeze it together between your hands until the moss is compressed. Clip off any stragglers.

One of the three reasons I have a difficult time doing any type of crafting on the family room floor. Everybody is curious and wants to know what mommy's doing. This is our middle one, her name is Baby.

The little one. His collar say's "Bad to the Bone". Fits him to a T. His name is Chewie.

I tell him to get down, he does the opposite. Whoever said dogs aren't like kids never had either.

Geez, look at that face and those eyes. If I could read his mind I bet he's saying "Are you done yet? I'm about to pounce on you and lick your face off." I must have ESP because as soon as I snapped the pic that's exactly what he did.

Yay! I did it!

Now to figure out where I'm going to put them where our three dachshunds won't think they are their new play toys.

xoxo
Jeri

Refinished table top

2011-07-16T14:38:00.019-04:00

When we bought our home the family room was a lot darker and all the wood was not painted so I had originally spray painted this table that I bought at Goodwill an espresso brown.

With the family room a lot brighter the brown wasn't working for me anymore so I repainted it with some paint I had, no idea what color it is. I never really liked the top the same color and even though I sanded, primed and painted, the color on the top never seemed to "stick" along with the fact that the top sustained water marks from another pot I had my plant in.

Peeling paint and water damage from the old pot.

This stuff is awesome and doesn't burn brain cells!! Good thing too because I couldn't do it outside in 100 degree heat. Use an old paint brush, paint it on and check on it every once in a while. Or, if you're as impatient as I am, every 15 minutes.

This is what I ended up with after using my palm sander. I thought it would take all of it off. I wiped all the residue off and applied the stripper.

Waiting...

Are you done yet? More waiting....

ooooo scraped right off!!

After scraping, this is what I was left with. Some type of red stain that I could not get through no matter how much I sanded.

I figured I'd give it a shot and put a dark walnut stain over it hoping it would at least off set the red.

It did off set the red but the problem I had, was it was still tacky after almost 12 hours. I wiped it down with a little mineral spirits and wala, no more tackiness.

After it dried I added one coat of satin poly.

Eventually I'm going to paint the bottom in Chalk Paint if I could decide what color.

Much better.

xoxo
Jeri

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I am a thrifting terminator!

2011-06-26T23:47:00.016-04:00

Y'know those Terminator movies where Arnold has the computer thingy in his eye and he scans things as he looks at them? Well, that's me in a thrift store. I walk in, grab a cart and it's like a switch goes off in my brain and the eyes start scanning the whole store. Up and down the shelves, side to side, back and forth. Its like my eyes are in the R.E.M. state but I'm wide awake! I swear I can hear a ding, ding, ding go off in my brain. I've zero'd in on one of my finds!

I saw these from 3 aisles away, remember terminator abilities. There's 2 of them!! Used my ninja thrift'n skills and placed them ever so carefully in my cart buried under the other things so no one took them out of my basket. Thrift'n can be cut throat at times!

Along with my obsession for chachkies and pocketbooks, baskets would be 3rd in line. Ok, so there's curtains, pillows and bedding too. I have now confessed. I feel better.

So, what am I going to do with it? Not a freakin clue. Just had to have it, fell in love withe wooden handles. Oh and it was $1.49 to boot!

These cute little shades were 99 cents each! They might go on the chandelier in the Dining room but then I'd have to change the curtains...I do need a new light fixture in the kitchen though. Hmmm..

They did have a couple little stains on them but they cleaned up perfectly!

Candle holders for the patio table. Think I'm going to spray paint them Rubbed Bronze. They were $1 each.

Yes, another basket. Couldn't resist the rope design. This was $1.49.

Who doesn't love hurricanes? This was one of the higher priced items from the excursion, $3.49.

To add to my gallery wall. I love the soft yellow checks. This was $1.

Remember I told you about putting the lamps in my cart with the speed of a ninja? My ninja skills maybe lightning fast but tend to make a lot more work for me. I neglected to notice that the wiring and the plug looked like something from Thomas Edison's time.

Did I mention I was a daredevil too? I actually put a bulb in the lamp and plugged it in. It flickered and crackled and I panicked and pulled the plug. Ok, I yanked the plug. Didn't want you to know what a wuss I really am.

Off to that big box home improvement store I go. I bought 2 lamp kits.

I stopped by one of my favorite discount stores and found the perfect shades. Well, maybe not perfect but they were the last 2 small ones they had and of course I could never wait to see things in their finished state so I grabbed them. They're ok for now.

I put the second one on my island. Rewiring them took 10 minutes, good as new! I need so much more light in my kitchen.

Here is this weeks haul. I can't wait to see what next week brings! Love thrift stores, they are like mini scavenger hunts to me!

xoxo
Jeri

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Newly painted and redecorated Family Room

2011-06-22T09:48:00.013-04:00

I took this picture on our final walkthrough the night before closing

One month after we settled in. Wow, talk about a plain sense of decorating. Everything is so blah!

Four years later. The day I started dismantling the family room so everything was piled up on any space I could find. Love the lamp on the chair. New concept. Hey, it could catch on.

Having 3 Dachshunds is like having 3 kids. Their stuff is all over the place.

Yikes, what a mess!! Moving stuff all over the place so I could start taping off to paint.

My summer mantel and yes, I do love to dust. Well, I've learned to love it. It's either that or I become a minimalist and that ain't happen'n. I can't, I just can't..it's not in my biological make-up. I come from a long line of Chachkieiest's.

I love this black!! I painted all the doors on the 1st floor this color. It's Behr Paint & Primer, I have to take a pic of the formula. It's not jet black, more of a soft black with hint of dark green. The top of the walls are SW Rice Grain and the bottom is SW Westhighland White

I bought 2 square baskets and put them on the bottom of the shelf of the bookcase to store games and CD's

I really do have a problem with throwing out catalogs and the decorator magazines I subscribe to. Cleaning out that basket is on one of my to do lists.
I have a lot of those too. Believe it or not, on one of my to do lists it say's "throw out old to do lists".

I am SO tempted to paint this fireplace but it would break my husbands heart. He loves the brick. He used to love the wood doors and windows but I worked my magic and changed his mind, after I painted everything he ended up loving it. I think those subliminal messages worked.

So much brighter!

The start of my gallery wall. I might paint the table...

I vacuum the new slipcovers everyday. I've washed them at least once a week.

And this is why. This is only 2 of the 3. A leaf blew by and they had a need to bark at it. In fact nothing has to go by and they bark.

xoxo
Jeri

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Turning curtains into seat cushions

2011-06-21T16:37:00.010-04:00

This is a picture I took of our family room on our final walkthrough of the house the night before we closed. I have since painted and redecorated this room (see family room post) but I want to direct your eye to the curtains that the previous owners left us. I think they stayed up a total of 5 seconds after we were all settled in.

They weren't bad curtains, in fact they were custom made. Pinch pleated heavyweight Waverly (I love Waverly) fabric lined with muslin.

After I pulled out the pleats and took out the little weights on the bottom of the curtains (told ya they were well made) I separated the muslin from the back.

I have a lot of extra material and muslin left over

We have a Pottery Barnish table in the dinette area (it's a little space of floor between our kitchen & family room). I loooove the set so much but was never woohoo'd with the cushions on the chairs. What to do with curtains you'll never use again?? Recover the cushions of course!!

They weren't too bad but of course I wanted a little more color..

I try as I might to take pics as I go along but when my staple gun doesn't cooperate I have tunnel vision and just wanted to get it done. Mental note: Buy better staple gun. All I did was place the cushion upside down on the fabric, cut around the outside of the cushion leaving about 4" or so. Don't worry if it looks like this and you have extra, you just trim it all off after it's stapled in place. Ya think I would've taken a picture of that part before I screwed the seat back onto the chair? Nope, remember I have menopausal brain. I'm surprised sometimes I remember where I live. Kidding!

In between dusting, vacuuming, cleaning bathrooms and laundry, my husband has a magic hamper..he puts dirty clothes in the hamper and they magically appear cleaned and folded in his dresser. I finally got around to finishing one of the chairs.

One down, 3 to go. I figure I'll do 1 a day. You ever notice how behind in housework you get when you're working on house projects?

Hmmm...I'm thinking I might be spray painting the chairs...
I need a glass of wine...Where's my wine?????!!!

xoxo
Jeri

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Kitchen Island redo...A snowball effect

2011-06-21T10:07:00.021-04:00

Ever since I repainted our kitchen doors black and the walls SW Whole Wheat I thought the island made that end of the kitchen way too dark. I had a paint epiphany. I get a lot of those. I say it was a snowball effect because it started with this post: http://decoratinghemlock.blogspot.com/2011/06/white-door-dilemma.html

I started out concentrating on the door but my menopausal brain got side tracked (it happens a lot) and thought painting the island first might give the kitchen the POP I was looking for. It only snowballed into more projects and painting....

Primed, ready to paint. Note to self: next time go that extra mile and do two coats of primer. It always bites me in the butt when I try and cut corners.

I have a plethora (love that word) of left over paint on a shelf in my basement. First color fail: SW Wheat grass. It wasn't bad but then I got the idea of painting the kitchen walls green so this color had to go.

Color fail two: SW June Day. Trust me when I tell ya, It was waaaaaaay more yellow than this. I'm still trying to figure out my new camera. There was a third color fail SW Parakeet that I didn't take a picture of, I don't know why. Thought I did. Think all the paint fumes finally got to me.

Final paint color Behr Manila Tint. Finally a color has been chosen. Wait, the top is too light. I could stain it! Out comes the palm sander. I love my palm sander.

I used Minwax wood finish stain in English Chestnut

I did 2 coats of the stain, it never dried, still tacky the next day. Broke out the Mineral spirits, wiped it down and sanded again. The wood didn't want 2 coats I guess. After more sanding it looked much better with only 1 coat and finally dried.

Before.

After. Notice the walls and french door are a different color. That's a whole other post and boy that's going to be a long one!

xoxo
Jeri

I'm linking this post up to:

The white door dilemma

2011-06-10T14:07:00.008-04:00

I feel the need to paint the white french door (to the right of the picture) in my kitchen. Right now it's the same color as the bottom part of the wall but I feel as though it needs a pop! This could stem from my "Can never leave well enough alone" syndrome. It taunts me in all its blahness. My problem is what color??? I have hit the proverbial wall (literally) when it comes to picking out a paint color. Do I go with the pattern of the black door invasion? Don't get me wrong, I love my black doors, I just feel because there are sooooo many doors leading out of this kitchen the black door idea is getting a little overwhelming. I want to add that the small island/microwave cart that's in the middle of the picture is undergoing a little transformation itself. So far this week I've painted it 3 different colors. I'm leaning towards some kind of Sage. Oh, can I tell you I'm really not happy with the top color??? Is it this Menopause thing that is causing me to not make a definite decision? Sorry, rambling again.

Phase 1. The top of the walls are SW June Day.

Phase 2. The top of the walls are now SW Whole Wheat and all the doors are black except the french door is still white.

After much repainting of walls, an island and the door here is the kitchen as it stands for now. The top of the walls are a SW color I had specially mixed to match a swatch I had. I change paint colors like some women change nail polish.

xoxo

Jeri

Partying it up over at:

Best way I found to clean my paint brushes

2011-06-07T19:01:00.006-04:00

I paint ALOT at least I have been for the past 3 months. First off, I must say that if you decide you are going to paint anything, invest in a good brush. You can't believe the difference it makes on the surface of what you're painting and there's no aggravation from pulling those little bristles out of your paint job that tend to shed into your painted wall with a cheap brush. I have Purdy Brushes and I can sing praises all day about these brushes along with the fact that they are made in the good old USA!

Anyhoo, the point of the post is the best way I found to clean your paint brush when you're done.

Loaded with SW Wheat Grass Paint. Geez, why doesn't the color ever look like the color on the paint chip????

Freshly washed in warm water with a little dish soap

See all the paint that decides to defy me and remain on my precious Purdy Brush no matter how long I run it under water??!!

oooo smooth & silky!! Not a trace of paint left on those bristles!! Please ignore the paint on the metal and handle part. I like to see all the different colors on there, it reminds me how far our home has come since we bought it.

Now that's a clean brush!

How did she do it you ask? Was it this thingamajig that my SW guy told me would do the job???? Nope, the only thing I did was stab myself. It doesn't look it but those are SPIKES on the end of that thingamajig and boy are they sharp!!! No stitches were required.

This is it. My paint brush's pal. It's used to clean to Teflon pans and non stick pans. After I impaled myself on the thingamajig I was desperate for something else, I had to get the paint off the brush before it dried! I can't let my favorite paint brush be ruined!! I saw this under the sink, grabbed it and proceeded to wiggle the bristles on this brush in between the paint brush bristles (under warm water) and pull the teflon brush down the bristles like you're combing it. Keep repeating until there's no trace of paint left on the brush!
I wanted to add that it'll help if you get a little pressure going with pan brush. I lay my paint brush on the bottom of the sink, hold it down while I wiggle the bristles into the paint brush and scrub then comb down.
xoxo
Jeri

I'm linking this post up to:

The good, the bad and the UGLY bathroom

2011-06-06T14:22:00.016-04:00

The good because having a 1/2 bath on the 1st floor of a house with 2 floors is convenient. The bad because it's on the 1st floor and not on the 2nd floor. I won't get into details but I'm sure you all know where I could be going with that.

The ugly..Well I'll let the pictures speak for themselves because no words can explain it.

Hopefully you're still with me and haven't run off screaming in horror. The floor was some type of peel and stick tile, I think the previous owners used cement to put it down.

After pulling down wallpaper (see my wallpaper removal post) Here is the before/after. I say that because there's another after. I re-painted after the first redo. I should test out paint colors before I decide to paint the whole room but heck, I'm a rebel. I live on the edge and in the process make a ton more work for myself.

Operation 1/2 bath phase 1:

I did love the green but for this room it seemed way too dark. I took the medicine cabinet frame apart and spray painted it white, it didn't WOW me.

Operation 1/2 bath phase 2:

SW Wheat Grass on top, SW Westhighland white on the bottom and trim.

Spray painted the medicine cabinet frame a flat black.

Keep your eye on the white door because...

Yup, I painted it black. I likey.

The breakdown:

SW paint-$35 love me my SW coupons!

Vanity with sink-$280

Toilet-$300 cuz we HAD to have the one that flushes dozens of golfballs

Pergo laminate wood floor-$400 with kitchen floor included

Bamboo balloon shade-$45

xoxo

Jeri

I'm linking this up to:

Cheap and easy way to remove wallpaper!

2011-06-06T13:03:00.010-04:00

When we bought our home in 2007 there were 3 rooms covered in wallpaper. Don't get me wrong, I do love wallpaper but I guess my taste is a little different from the 1970s wallpaper that we had inherited. The process of taking the wallpaper down started with the kitchen. I had purchased some kind of wallpaper remover at my local home improvement store only to find out it wasn't working like I thought it would. Spray it on, wait a little bit, scrape off. Easy right? NOT. I ended up being able to scrape off only little bits and pieces. Needless to say I put (ok I threw) my scraper on the floor and cried a little. This was supposed to be the "best stuff to use" I was told by my knowledgeable home improvement person.

Sitting outside with a cup of coffee a neuron fired off in my menopausal brain. FABRIC SOFTENER! What?!?! Where did that come from??? Trying to think if I read it somewhere, heard it from someone, I have no idea. I put myself back together with positive thoughts in mind that this HAD to work. If not I would have to live with a kitchen that looked like it had suffered a bad sunburn and was starting to peel. I took an old spray bottle, mixed it with 1/4 cup of fabric softener and filled the rest with warm water and tried a small corner. EUREKA! It worked!! The wallpaper peeled off magically!! I squealed with excitement!! Note to self: When you find yourself getting excited that wallpaper is magically coming off the wall you may need to get out a little more.

I sprayed and sprayed and with no effort the wallpaper was sliding off the walls and my kitchen smelled like it just came out of the dryer!!

A few tips: After you have taken all the wallpaper off completely make sure you wash the walls down with a damp rag. Try and get most if not all the fabric softener off the wall. I didn't do this with the first room I tried this on and the paint took forever to dry.

Here are a few pictures of my old groovy rooms.

Between the pattern on the wall and floor this room made me dizzy.

The 1/2 bath no longer looks like this but that's a whole other post!

My husbands den. Looked more like a saloon.

xoxo
Jeri

I'm linking this post up to:

Our Dachshund babies

2011-06-05T15:05:00.002-04:00

This is Bub. He's our oldest born in 2003.

No more pictures please. Christmas 2007.

Not a happy Dachshund but he was promised gifts from Santa so he cooperated.

This is our girl Baby. She was born in 2008, our 2nd Dachshund to join the family.

Took a few days for them to warm up to each other.

Just like my kids, I wish they stayed this little.

Wherever they could find a ray of sunshine to lay in.

Our newest addition. His name is Chewie. He was born in 2010. We named his Chewie because he looks like Chewbaca from the Star Wars movies. Little did I know he would actually chew everything he came in contact with.

Don't you just hate waking up from a nap and your hair is a mess?

Yup, he's cute and he knows it

Pile O Dachshunds. This is how they sleep, all lumped together under a blanket

Dining room before and after and after and after.....

2011-06-05T13:53:00.004-04:00

When we first moved in 2007

The curtains and chandelier were left behind by the pervious owners

So I decided to paint..The blue was left after from the bedroom. Note to self: Make sure you have enough leftover paint from a previous project to tackle the next one.

I ended up running out of paint after I painted the bottom of the chair rail. I know it looks pink & blue. Trust me when I tell you I cringed every time I walked into this room. It took me 2 years to finally do something about it

SW Whole Wheat

I then decided I should've painted the inside of the china cabinet. Why didn't I notice that before I cleaned up and put everything away?

Much better but then again maybe it should be white inside? Sometimes I annoy myself on how indecisive I could be =)

Got rid of the little bar cabinet that was there and bought a leaning shelf because I love to dust so much. Its tough to sense sarcasm from a blog post huh?

I bought chair covers because I thought there was too much black going on with the dining room set and I changed the curtains AGAIN. I tend to do that a lot. To think I used to shake my head and think my mother was nuts to change out curtains the way she used to. Yup, it's true. We turn into our mothers whether we like it or not.

Done? Nah, never!

I'm linking up to:

It spoke to me...

2011-06-05T11:48:00.015-04:00

I loooove tag sales, estate sales, Salvation Army, Goodwill stores. It's called "Junkin". I used to call it bargain shopping. I like how it has a cool name attached to it now. It's true "One mans junk is another mans treasure". I love things that have a history to them. I look for furniture, chachkie's (I really do have a problem), table linens, curtains. Any household items that jump out at me. Anywho, as I was walking through the furniture section of Savers one day I stopped in my tracks to see this. I can't explain it but its like it was saying to me "Please take me home!" Sure, I said for $6 what do I have to lose? A little sanding, priming and new knobs turned that once sad little nightstand into a happy little table for the living room.

I'm linking this project up to:

http://www.perfectlyimperfectblog.com/2011/06/sugar-sack-chair-and-all-things-furniture-link-party-1.html

Adding shutters to the front of the house

2011-06-05T11:21:00.002-04:00

Ever since we bought our home in 2007 I thought the front looked plain. No umph. Sure, there's a zillion things I could think of to do but it has to happen a little bit at a time. One day while going through the isles at one of the home improvement stores (that I tend to spend a lot of time at) I had an epiphany!! Shutters!!! I think I broke the land speed record bringing these babies home!

Before

After! Waalaa!!

Small things make the biggest impact.

xoxo
Jeri

Kitchen before & after & after & after. You get the idea..

2011-06-05T10:59:00.037-04:00

Be prepared for oodles and oodles of pictures, I've changed things up quite a bit since I wrote this post many months ago...

A lot of changes have happened throughout our home but the one I'm happiest with is our kitchen. I peeled, sanded and painted till my hands ached but I'd do it again in a heartbeat. The cabinets were originally builders grade oak. Wallpapered walls, peel and stick tiles on the floor, all gone! In May of 2008 I stripped off the wallpaper and painted it yellow (June Day by SW) and painted the bottom plain old white. Then in March 2011 I decided I had enough of the oak cabinets and yellow walls. There are 4 doors off of our kitchen that used to be all white, wow there was a lot of white going on. Yup, that was changed also. I painted the cabinets, installed beadboard on the sides of the cabinet on my own but had the floor professionally installed.

The walk through before our closing, July 2007.

And I thought being a Police Dispatcher for 15 years was stressful! Nope, sanding, priming and 3 coats of paint tops that!

Decisions, decisions. I ended up painting the cabinets SW Westhighland White. Latex of course, I wasn't brave enough to tackle oil based paint.

I added beadboard to the upper and lower sides of the cabinet

To valance or not to valance? Hmm..I added beadboard to the sides of the cabinets that face toward the window frame.

I have a slight rooster addiction..

And a chachkie addiction..I only punish myself because guess who has to take all this stuff down and clean it all the time? That be me.

Lots o chachkies!

Maybe I should've put the door back on the cabinet before I took the picture.

After I painted the cabinets I realized the wall color had to go.

Bubye yellow walls and white doors!

Pin It

I'm thinking I might paint the black microwave cart.

Or maybe the whole kitchen...

I know what you're saying right now..Noooo she didn't paint the wholeeeeeee kitchen again for the 2nd time in 2 weeks??!! Ya, I kinda did. The island fell victim to it too..

Repainted the top of the walls a green I had specially mixed at SW and painted the french door black.

I also painted the black kitchen island Behr Manila Tint. That ended up being painted 4 different colors before I decided on this one. I can never decide on a paint color!

Cha-cha-cha changes....ok, now I have David Bowie in my head, not that I mind of course.

Lovin the black doors but you know what? There's 4 of them that lead out of my teensy, weensy kitchen.

Decisions, decisions...

Primed and ready to go.

My husband wants to start a pool on how long it'll be before I paint the walls or the door again. I told him I was going to start my own pool on how long before he gets..well, nevermind. For now the color of the door is Martha Stewart Lagoon that I had matched in a Glidden flat paint.

xoxo

Jeri

I'm linking this post to:

Welcome to our home

2011-06-05T10:29:00.001-04:00