The Power of Paint

Whenever Country goes out of town, I usually get really inspired and do something dramatic around the house.  It's fun for me to take on some projects and then surprise him when he gets home.

So, I've had these pine dressers from IKEA, circa 1997 or so.  For years I've thought I should just take the plunge and paint them to update them a bit.  Then one day while browsing through Hobby Lobby, I was stopped in my tracks by this awesome storage type unit that had each drawer painted a different neutral color and then distressed.  I loved the piece, but had no use for it and well, the quality left something to be desired.  But, inspiration striked and I thought my set would look great with a paint treatment.

Here's the before of the taller dresser:

So, here's the how-to.  Since I was alone, I dragged each piece of furniture into the living room and onto a tarp.  A few months ago, I learned my lesson the hard way that the key to painting IKEA furniture, no matter what type of wood it is made of, is to prime it with oil-based primer first.  Yes, this stuff stinks to high heaven, but it works.

Then I rummaged around through my paint collection  cans and found a bunch of neutral colors.  I am in the habit of picking up the "OOPS" cans and samples of paint from Home Depot, so I had everything I needed already.  I painted each drawer a different color and then on both pieces, painted the top and sides in greige.

I didn't take pictures of the next step since I didn't have a free hand, but I just got out the palm sander and went to town distressing.  Then, I took a little glaze and added some black paint and brushed it on.  With paper towels and rags, I wiped it off to give it that aged look.  Here's the little piece:

And the larger dresser:

Since I had all of the furniture out of the room except the bed, I decided to paint the bedroom a fresh new color.  I was a little tired of the brown and blue.  No before pic on that one--I'm too lazy to scan one in.  But here's the after--the color is Ryegrass from Behr.  I also picked up some new bedding.  Actually, just new sheets.  I found the Waverly coverlet for $5 and the greenish duvet cover, which Tripp is laying on, for $2 at Salvation Army!!

And then, because it wasn't quite enough to just paint the furniture and bedroom, I added another project to the list.  The staircase.

Let's talk about the staircase for a minute.  This is what it looked like when I bought the house:

I'm not a big fan of carpet on stairs.  I'm not a big fan of carpet in general.  So, away it went.  The railing did nothing for me as well.  Bye bye.



And so it sat like this for years.  As in, six years.  There was also this pine paneled wall:

First I stained the treads over the course of the weekend.  Then I used the oil-based primer to prime the risers and the pine wall and then painted it all in a soft cream color.  Here's the after:

Big difference, huh?  Ah, the power of paint.  And a weekend.

Check This Out!

I almost fell off my chair at work today when I was stalking  checking out one of my favorite decorating websites, Apartment Therapy.  You see, a few weeks ago, I was cleaning and organizing the house and decided to pull out my camera to take some pics.  On a total whim, I submitted 5 photos and filled out the submission form to be featured on the website.  Never in my wildest dreams did I expect anything to come of it.  But then today, I was clicking around on my lunch hour and there it was!  My house!  Yeah baby!

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/chicago/house-tours/melanies-farmhouse-house-call-135639

Here are the pics I submitted:

How much fun is that?!

Screened in Porch

So, apparently the people I bought my house from LOVED indoor-outdoor carpeting.  Loved it so much in fact, that they did put it both indoors and outdoors!  The screened in porch had it glued down over every inch (as did my breeze way, but that's another post).  Anyhow, with a little elbow grease and some sanding, staning and painting, this little porch truly shines now!

Here is my one, sad picture of what it looked like before the process:

I wish I had taken more pictures of it, but you kind of get the idea, right?

Here the carpet is gone and I'm prepping to spray the ceiling a nice warm peanut butter color (that I got for $5 from the OOPS section at Home Depot.

Before shot of the ceiling

And. . . .  . .after

Clear coat of stain on the floor.  The furniture came from Target when it went 75% off!

What a difference, huh?  These were taken a couple of years ago and it looks a little bit different these days.  I bought an much larger outdoor rug at summer's end about 2 years ago, so that's changed the

space quite a bit. 

Quite possibly one of my favorite "rooms" of the house!!

A Little of This, A Little of That Part 2

Well, it's official--Country is back to work!  Yeah!  He is so happy to be back out there doing what he does best--building houses and so am I. 

So, the new downstairs bathroom is coming along nicely.  The tile is in and ready to be grouted.  We picked up a door for super cheap at Home Depot.  Cool story behind the door actually.  We went to Home Depot and talked to a great guy named Tom in the door department.  We told him what we were looking for; a solid wood, louvered door (this door leads to the 'furnace' room) with panels on the bottom.  Since this is not a door that they stock, we would have to custom order it.  So, he puts all the specs in the computer to see what the price would be and tells us $270.  Yikes.  For a door that leads to the furnace?  So, Country starts brainstorming and thinks we can just get a regular door and he can build the louevers himself, but we're both thinking what a pain in the arse this will be.  So Tom says, "You know, I think we have one of these up front in the clearance section."  Clearance section?  I've been to this Home Depot about a millions times, can smell a bargain a mile away and I've never even seem the clearance section.  So we go up there and sure enough, there's our door.  The best part?  They knocked some additional money off and we got it for 75 bucks!  Can you believe it!? 

So, why I think this is so cool is that on that very morning, I had donated a big box of food to the food pantry and a big bag of clothes to Goodwill.  I like to think that this is good karma coming full circle and that if you live your life the best way you can and are generous that it can and it will come back to you.

Let me give you a little background on this new bathroom.  The room started out like this:

It was a furnace/dungeon when I bought the house.  So, I put in new flooring and painted the walls a fun purple color and the workbench blue and green and turned this room into a craft room.  Shortly after, the basement flooded and all that work went down the tubes.  With that being said, we had to cut into the concrete to get to some pipes, blah, blah, blah and then we decided to put in a full bath since the floor was all cut up anyway.  Then life got in the way and this room sat for several years untouched.

Fast forward.  Here's the transition:

(When it's finished that will hold shampoo bottles, not beer bottles)

River rock mosaic tiles.  LOVE them.

This room sure has come a long way. . .almost there!  Hopefully we'll get it grouted this weekend.

On another note, I have been day dreaming about my garden all. the. time.  I can't stop!  I am soooo ready for winter to be over and I'm drooling just thinking about tomatoes.  I picked up some seeds yesterday.

What do you think?  I still have to get some onions.  What else?  Hmmm.  I can't wait.  I wish we could grow avocados here.  That would make Country and I very happy.  We've been eating a lot of 'em lately.

Also want to congratulate Tasha and Jeff on their pregnancy!  It's been a long road for them and I can't think of another couple as deserving!  Congrats you guys!  xoxo

Kitchen

Finally got around to scrounging up some "before" pictures of the house and scanned them into my computer.  Let's start with the kitchen.  This is what it looked like when I bought my house about 4 1/2 years ago:

Hmmm.  Where to start?  Well, the kitchen cabinets were in great shape.  But I was just not loving the color.  Oak cabinets are fine, but they just seemed so overwhelming for the space.  It was like you were hit in the face with a big piece of oak when you walked into the kitchen.

The flooring was a 8 x 8 white tile.  White. Very white.  See that black dog in the picture?  Yeah, well, at the time there were 2 of those black dogs.  Black dog + White tile = not good.  So I knew that had to go. 

The backsplash actually was quite interesting.  I'm not sure where the tile came from, but the tile with the flower design was king of cool.  It had a Mexican vibe and was somewhat pretty up close.  Now, I love cobalt blue, but only small touches of it.  The cobalt on the wall was a bit much for me.  So that had to go as well. 

So, the first step was the floor.  We pulled up all of that white tile which was in the hall, dining room and kitchen.  The bedroom and living room had carpet.  In went oak hardwood floors.

There's that black dog again!  So, after the hardwood floors went in, I tore down the backsplash.  Even though I wasn't at a point where I knew what was going to do in its place, I just could not stand it.  Next came new countertops, which were a high end laminate.  I just couldn't justify spending the money on granite or what have you.  It looks beautiful but I knew I wanted to make a lot of changes to the house (and still have a life!) so the budget just didn't allow it.  And you know what?  Even though they are laminate, I really love them!

With the new countertops came a new sink and faucet.  I chose a double sink except that the sink on the right is actually a "mini."  It's great for thawing stuff out. 

Oh, and see that dishwasher?  There was just a cabinet there but a dishwasher was a must, so in it went!

Next came a big decision about the cabinets.  Since I could not justify replacing them, I knew they needed a facelift . . . .but what should I do?  I thought about new doors but that would have been too expensive.  I just couldn't imagine stipping them and staining them a darker color.  Too much work!  So then I thought I'd paint them.  People thought that I might end up regretting that since once I painted them, then that was it!  But I thought that would be the best thing to do. 

Once the decision was made to paint the cabinets, I had to decide on the color.  Or colors, I should say.  I figured if I only painted them one color then I would be left with same effect as before--too much of one color.  I thought black would be great for the bottom cabinets.  For the top cabinets, I finally decided on a cream color. 

So began the 3 week or so process of painting the cabinets.  First, I removed all of the doors and set up a sort of assembly line in the basement.  I used a foam roller so I would get a nice smooth finish with no brush marks.  I scuffed them up ever so slightly.  Then, I had a gallon of primer tinted a grayish earthy color.  I primed all of the doors with 2 coats of primer on each side, allowing them to dry a day in between coats.  Then, I found a gallon of "Oops" paint at Home Depot for $5!!  It was black!  I painted 2 coats again with the black paint.  I did the same thing with the bases of all of the bottom cabinets.  Next came the fun part--Sanding!!  With my palm sander, I scuffed up all the edges to give it a distressed look.  I sanded lightly in some areas so the color of the primer showed through and harder in some areas so the actual wood showed through.  Here's the bottom cabinets:

After I was finished with the bottom, I started on the top.  I bought some whitish paint, but when I applied to the cabinet doors, it seemed blinding.  I added a bit of brown paint to make it a nice creamy vanilla shade.

Which leads us to the backsplash.  I have always been obsessed with tin tile.  It is beautiful.  It is also difficult to cut, hard to find, and expensive.  I found this "fake tin tile" at Menards.  It came in sheets and is glued on with construction adhesive.  I just love it.  If it's dirty, you just wipe it down with a wet rag.

One other decision--what to do with the microwave?  See where it was in the before picture? 

It was in a microwave cabinet attached to the wall.

 

Well, one day I came home from work and the microwave was running!  I'm not even kidding!  I was so hot I couldn't even touch it.  So once that blew up, it was the perfect excuse to pull that cabinet down.  I bought a microwave with the built in hood to put over the stove:

Ahh, much better than before.  The hood that was there before was pretty ugly. . . .here it is again:

As far as appliances, I added a new dishwasher and a  microwave but have decided to keep the stove for now.  It works well and looks okayish.  Which leads me to the fridge!  I had an almond fridge that came with the house.  It was alright.  Then one day, shortly after Country and I started dating, he called me up and asked if I wanted a fridge.  He was working and someone across the street from the house he was working on was throwing away a fridge.  It was literally across the street sitting in a snow bank.  He went over and asked the guy if it was working.  He said yes!  So Country hauled it over.  The only problem?  It was in tooooough shape.  The previous owner had made custom cherry panels for the doors.  They were in terrible shape from sitting outside for awhile (in a snow bank).  Plus, the fridge was white.  So, stainless dishwasher, black and stainless microwave, black and almond stove.  I didn't know what to do!  Even though the fridge was an upgrade to what I had (meaning it was only 10 years old compared with the current fridge being about 20 years old) it was still WHITE!  So, I bought some appliance grade black spray paint and away we went!  Country removed the wood panels on the doors and we stripped them then stained them with the same color stain I had used on my doors and trim.  Wella!

To the right of the fridge is where the microwave used to be.  Country built me cabinet/shelf to go in it's place so there wasn't a weird empty space there.

Now I have a place for my recipes, the weather station and some bills/mail.  I think he did an awesome job!

Here are a couple of "after" pictures: