pretty little home

It's no secret that I love my house.

And I never love it more than in the springtime when it looks it's best!

This month I did just a few small projects to spruce up the outside of the house.

First up, this very sad pillar on our front steps. Wow. I didn't realize how TERRIBLE it looked until I put the before and after pictures together! Unfortunately, the wood was rotted in places, so I got a hard drying, paintable wood filler and filled in all the cracks and holes. I sanded everything completely smooth and used Behr's best quality exterior paint in my favorite white (Creamy White). It's not perfect and it's not a long term solution, but it looks so much better and it's a quick fix until we can replace the wood on the pillars. 

My second project is one of my favorite things I've ever done to my little house: windowboxes!! I fell in love with the idea of windowboxes just this spring and found all kinds of great, easy tutorials on how to make them. I used cedar fence posts, sanded them nice and smooth, and screwed them together, then used the same Behr exterior paint to paint them white. The biggest mistake I made was cutting the wood myself. When I went to Home Depot to buy it, it was close to closing time and I couldn't find an employee to cut it for me. I got tired of waiting, so I decided to just take it home and do it myself. It's much harder to cut wood perfectly straight and exactly the same length than I thought, so the first windowbox I made is definetely not perfect. I did better on the second one!
To hang these, I screwed metal L-brackets into the studs under the window. My original plan was to just put the boxes on the brackets and screw them in from the bottom, but they didn't feel very sturdy that way because the windowbox wasn't secured to the house. I ended up taking them off the brackets and drilling holes through the windowbox, then screwing through the windowbox, through the brackets, and into the studs. They feel much more secure now!
Here's how I found the studs: If you look at house framing diagrams, you'll see that there are studs framing the window on all sides. Studs are generally 16 or 24 inches apart. My window is 48 inches wide, so I took a guess that the studs were placed 16 inches apart, putting two studs under the window instead of just one. So I simply measured 16 inches from where I guessed the king studs (side studs) were and drilled holes there. I hit the studs on the first try for all of my brackets, which honestly, was pretty lucky!
Drilling through aluminum siding (yes, we have aluminum siding) was simple. You just want to make sure that you don't tighten your screws flush, because the aluminum siding will buckle. It needs room to move.

Here's the view from the street. I love how much character and charm they add! Here's to hoping I can keep the plants alive and that they really fill in.

The one where I paint the kitchen cabinets

Hello!

I spent all of January painting our kitchen cabinets!

Now they're done!

And I'm never going to paint anything ever again!

Just kidding, it wasn't that bad. And the results were worth it!

My before kitchen was fine and I was happy with it for quite a while. I don't know what the finish on the cabinets would be called, but it was NOT the typical '90s honey oak (that would have been gone the first 6 months of living here). It's nice, but now let me show you the transformation!

Ta-da! I am really happy with the finished product. It's so much richer now. We did not intentionally paint the cabinets to match the barstools, however. I'm trying to decide what to do about them now--maybe glazed coral? Any suggestions?

We also added hardware, which we didn't have before. I had my heart set on copper hardware--the cabinet's hidden hinges are copper and I fell in love with how it looked against the gray-blue. Copper hardware is expensive, though, so I bought some cheapo stuff from Amazon (these bin pulls and these knobs) and spraypainted them with Rustoleum hammered copper spray paint, plus a protective glossy topcoat. They add so much warmth to the darker cabinets!
Now a little bit about the actual painting experience... I'm not going to bother giving a detailed post because there are plenty out there already. I spent a lot of time researching products and had it narrowed down to General Finishes milk paint (find it on Amazon), Benjamin Moore Advance, and the Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations kit. I settled on the kit because it promises NO sanding or priming (says it right on the box!) so I figured if I didn't have good results, I could get my money back. Other products might claim to not require sanding or priming but say on the can that it's recommended.
Instead of sanding, the kit comes with a deglosser (like liquid sandpaper) and you use that on all the surfaces to help adhesion. Then you use the bond coat in your choice of their tintable colors--we chose "Castle". After two coats of bond coat, you can put on the decorative glaze (we skipped it) and then the protective topcoat. Everything was super simple, just time-consuming! I used a 2 inch angled brush and there are no brush marks anywhere. To avoid brush marks, you just want to make sure to use very little paint and brush in the direction of the wood grain. I read terrible horror story reviews of the topcoat being so difficult to work with and bubbling, or being streaky, or leaving brush marks, but I didn't have any trouble with it at all. It's a nice low sheen, too, instead of high gloss.
Total time: estimated 50 hours.
How much did this all cost?

• Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations kit: $78
• Hardware: $30 for 10 bin pulls and 20 knobs (yeah, awesome stuff!)
• Spraypaint: $4.97
• Spray sealer: $5ish 
• Longer screws for hardware: $.97
• Total: LESS THAN $120!!!!

If you are thinking about painting your kitchen cabinets, do it. It's a lot of work, but anyone can get great results if you are patient and use the right product!

Poor pictures of my awesome bathroom

It's been six years this month since we moved into our house. Since then, we've painted (and repainted) every room except for the living room (which was already a wonderful shade of olive green that we love), changed tons of light fixtures, built giant bookshelves, put up a huge headboard in the master bedroom, framed bathroom mirrors, added closet doors to the laundry room, made a mudroom in the garage, painted the front door (four times at last count), and painted the kitchen cabinets (pictures coming soon). With all that, there is one room I have just never been happy with.

The hall bathroom. First it was builder beige boring. Then it was bright screaming turquoise. Then it was Pinterest inspired pretty (but with a really bad paint job).

But now... now, I finally LOVE the hall bathroom. Love. I can't stop looking at it!

First up, I had my dad paint the walls and ceiling white (Creamy White by Behr). This was a huge improvement in itself because I had painted the bathroom tan a few years ago and got it all over the ceiling and did an overall terrible job.

Next, I painted the vanity (Happy Camper by Behr). I just used a sample jar in eggshell with the intent of going back and buying a quart--but the eggshell was perfect so it only cost me $3! I love this bright pop of green against the creamy white.

Now comes the crazy part. One gold Sharpie paint pen. One afternoon. This tutorial. I didn't use a level or straight edge when I did mine because I wanted it to look hand-drawn. Turned out ah-ma-zing. The pictures truly do not do this justice at all. The triangles are metallic gold and shimmer on the wall. I love it so much!

Last thing I did was frame the bathroom mirror with scrap wood. I didn't stain or paint it, just left it this lovely natural blond color. I hung our typography map of New Orleans and an awesome print of "Single Ladies" that I got from this Etsy shop. So fun!

Please ignore the shower curtain--I am hoping to pick this one up on our next Ikea trip.

Also, I know these are TERRIBLE pictures. This is a long, narrow room and it is so hard to take good pictures. Just use your imagination or stop by and ask for a personal tour of our Beyonce bathroom :)

Cut glass owl knobs on the vanity and a brown owl vase to hold toothbrushes :)

One thing I love about how this room turned out... I actually like how the original '80s brass fixtures look! If you can't afford to replace everything, just embrace it!

My Pinterest inspired bathroom and laundry room makeover!

Back in January, I decided to repaint our guest bathroom. I needed a project, and since it was the brightest turquoise you have ever seen, it seemed like the right room to work on. I totally shocked everyone when I decided to paint it a neutral color, but I wanted to try something new. And guess what, I like it!

I call this my Pinterest inspired bathroom because it looks like every other bathroom posted on Pinterest--neutral "greige" wall color, ruffle shower curtain, shelves over the toilet, you get the picture. I mostly took all my favorite elements from my "hall bathroom" board on Pinterest and copied them.

I got the shelves from Target. The jute covered container is a #10 food storage can that I hot glued jute on. It took forever and I got major rope burn on my finger, but I love how it turned out and it's great storage. The little yellow frame is a cross-stitch that I got at DI. It says "Dearest Daughter, God is near you". I thought that was appropriate, since this is my three daughter's bathroom. The other frame is Tempe's earring holder. 

Instead of a towel bar, I got four decorative hooks from Hobby Lobby and screwed them into wall anchors for the girls to hang their towels on. Don't mind the old wall anchors that I just painted over. I couldn't get them out of the wall and I stopped caring. Also, the wall color--I spent $3 on this. It's a funny story, actually. I found it in the Oops paint at Wal-Mart, but it was from Home Depot (had a tag and everything). I suppose I could have just walked out with it, but I took it to customer service and they agreed to let me buy it for $3. It's a great color, but flat, which isn't great for a bathroom. So far it's been ok and I figure I can afford to paint over it if I have to!

This bird cage is something I did years ago and it never "went" in our bathroom. Now it does!!

The cabinet in here used to be kind of light pine (I'm not sure what you would call the finish). I painted them white and put textured wallpaper on the door front and added some cut glass owl knobs.

I saw this on Pinterest and really wanted it, but those things are like $40 on Amazon. But after I started looking for one online, I found this one at DI for $4!

Ruffled shower curtain!
And now on to the laundry room. My laundry room is just a closet in the hall bathroom with some folding doors on it. It used to have three shelves that were barely hanging out of the walls and the walls themselves were all scuffed up and gross. And the lowest shelf was hung too low, so I couldn't open my washing machine all the way! 

I put up beadboard wallpaper on two of the three walls and painted the third the same color as that metal star (also as my garage door--another $5 Oops paint find!) Instead of three shelves, I just put two back up--high enough to open the washing machine fully. I wanted nicer brackets, but they are kind of pricey, so I just spray painted the metal ones. I LOVE how they turned out!!

 The top shelf has my girls' "special" boxes. I also keep gift wrapping supplies in here, but besides that, I keep it decluttered. It makes me so happy to open this closet and do laundry now!

oversized rustic Christmas star

Now that Thanksgiving is over, we broke out our Christmas stuff.

Yay!! On Saturday I put up the Christmas lights. Silly me didn't test them before putting them up because hey, they worked last year when we took them down, so why wouldn't they work now, right? Well, most of them don't work. So now I get to drag the ladder out and test each bulb one by one.

On Sunday we put up our Christmas tree and our special "symbols of Christ" Christmas ornaments that Jason's mom gave us the first year we were married. I sure love these ornaments! 

Yesterday afternoon the girls helped me test a recipe for cooking class--a little Christmas tree snack and project in one--and then we put up the rest of our Christmas decorations (we have a lot). We finished decorating our tree for Family Home Evening, while listening to the Chipmunks, just like we did when I was a kid.

Today I was hanging out on Pinterest when I saw this awesome giant star. I really loved it. I really had to have it.  But I am the cheapest person alive and I didn't even want to spend $5 on yardsticks. Plus Juno was asleep so I couldn't go to the store for any supplies and I didn't want to wait. I needed instant craft gratification.

Luckily, my neighbor's old wooden fence saved the day!

Are you sick of me using my neighbor's old wooden fence for craft projects? I've used it as my headboard in our new master bedroom, a window shade, and in my garage mud room. I'm almost out of it, so this is probably my last old wood fence project.

 I cut the boards down to about 3 1/2 feet and arranged them in a simple star shape. I overlapped the ends so that each point has a rounded end on top (instead of the straight edge that I cut). Then I screwed each point together. DONE in about 15 minutes!

It's a very big star. I put it on the mantle and wrapped Christmas lights around it. I really love it. Next year I might hang it outside the house on the chimney, still wrapped in lights.

What are you doing to get ready for Christmas?

flashback: closet playroom

One of the very first projects I did in our house was to turn our closet under the stairs into a playroom for my kids.

Yes, our playroom is in a closet. Our house is small, what can I say?

I originally posted about it here, but it's changed a bit in the last few years, so I thought I would update. Still my favorite shade of robin's egg blue, though!

The biggest change is the book rack. The original book rack in this room only had a few shelves. They were set too close together for most of our tall books, so the tall books were in a basket on the floor. Except, they were never actually in the basket. They were usually just scattered around. There was no where near enough space on the book rack or in the basket for the amount of books and toys I wanted to keep in the playroom.

Enter Giant Book Rack. This metal shelving unit was out in our shed and we weren't using it for anything, so I brought it into the playroom instead. The lower shelves are tall enough for tall board books. Along with books, I keep a bunch of other stuff on the upper shelves, mostly stuff that I rotate through our quiet time baskets or get down when the girls specifically ask for it.

• Nerf guns and darts: I keep these in a large plastic bag with a zipper. I think a shower curtain came in it. Shower curtains, sheets, tablecloths, things like that all come in those clear zipper bags and they are perfect for storing toy sets.
• Magnetic doll and her clothes: also in a plastic zipper bag.
• Pizza making set: pizza and toppings, apron, empty spice container, pizza cutter, etc, in a plastic zipper bag.
• Discovery bins: Pencil boxes with different sets of stuff. One has a tea set, one has odds and ends for inventing things (allen wrench, mini screwdriver, old zippers, calculator, anything that my girls can pretend to take apart and put back together), one has a magnifying glass and a couple of insect flashcards.
• Viewfinder and viewfinder cards: the viewfinders are just on the shelf and the cards are in a little drawstring pouch that I made.
• Plastic bingo boards: also in a plastic zipper bag.
• Photo albums

Along with the bookshelf, there's a magnetic chalkboard and alphabet/numbers magnet set hanging on the wall and a basket with stuffed animals. We have a set of desert stacking blocks that are a huge hit and a cardboard mailer tube which is great for playing telescope, or using as a tunnel for little cars, or rolling balls down. There's a fluffy purple rug, a soft kid-sized armchair, and a bunch of pillows for lounging around and reading. In the back of the closet I keep the fort kit my awesome brother and sister-in-law gave Tempe for her birthday--kind of like this one. And last of all, Tempe's Star of the Week poster is hanging on the wall.

Our playroom may be small, but it is a popular room. It's a surefire way of getting Juno to calm down during a temper tantrum. It's the one room where anyone who wants quiet time is allowed to kick everyone else out and be alone--Helena takes advantage of it a lot. It's a great place to snuggle up with a good book, pretend you're in a rocket going to outer space or a bear in a cave, turn out the lights and tell stories by glowstick, or just pass the time while mom is making dinner. My tween cooking class students are even known to sneak in there and look at comic books after we're done cooking :)
You know you want to pin it!