Around the World…Right from my Stairs

As I mentioned the other day, I have been hanging artwork from my travels along the wall that goes up the stairs in my house. I thought I’d share some shots of that!

The Closet, a Before and After

Finally! I managed to get some shots of the closet today.  I didn’t exactly take a before and after picture, but because I only painted one closet, you can get the idea of what it looks like:

It’s Here, It’s Here!

Okay, so I’m neglecting my usual Pinterest Friday post in favor of a post on my hutch…which is finally finished!

This afternoon, the piece I actually needed FINALLY arrived, and I was determined to get the hutch finished and set up tonight (darn it!). I even managed to lift the surprisingly heavy top piece on to the bottom by myself, though I’m sure my back won’t thank me tomorrow. So without further ado, here it is!

Worth the wait!

Around the House…

I’ve been dealing with some very frustrating migraines and exhaustion lately, and I’m tired of them, because they keep me from having the motivation I need to do things around the house! I’m hoping that a new prescription for glasses and contacts, and working on changing my sleeping routine will find me in good shape by the beginning of next week.

But in the meantime, I wanted to share a couple of small things I’ve done in the house this week.  I realized last week that a lot of the photos that I have in the house are out of date – I had photos of my older niece, back when she was still in a stroller!, but not of my younger niece.  And I have photos of Barney, but not of Oliver.  I’ve got to pick up the black and white I did of Ollie tomorrow, but I did pick out some great shots of my nieces and swap out the photos I had hanging in the living room:

Foiled by the Pre-Fab Furniture

I was so excited to finish up my kitchen buffet and hutch tonight and start organizing the kitchen.  I got all the pieces of the hutch out, and started to get to work…when I notice that the first piece I need (part B) is missing the inserts that I screw the cam-lock screws into.  Since this is pretty much a major stabilizing part of the piece, I can go no further.

At first, I thought perhaps I’d grabbed the wrong piece…but no, it was part B as indicated.  Then, I thought maybe I was looking at the wrong side…but no.  I checked it against part C, which is the identical piece that faces it, and the evidence was there, clear as day.

So I called the company on the instructions, and yes, they have to send me a whole new part B.  Which is maybe a doubly good thing, since part of the piece came cracked as well (just cosmetic).  But now I have to wait 5-7 days (and I’m guessing that’s business days) to get the new part so that I can finish the hutch.

Furniture for the Kitchen

As promised, I said I was going to talk about a piece of furniture that would really help my life.  It arrived in pieces on Thursday afternoon, and I put the first part together tonight.  I knew that it was going to take a while because I’d read the Target reviews, but I wasn’t prepared for how frustrated I’d get.

What am I talking about? It’s a kitchen buffet/sideboard, which I’m putting in place of my baker’s rack.  The baker’s rack has been great, but I needed something with more storage – I have a lot of storage in my kitchen (although it could really use a pantry), but I’m tired of having to stack everything to get it to fit – it’s just not that convenient.

So I’m hoping that the buffet will allow me to expand and organize the kitchen well. And boy, do I need to do that – downstairs in my house is starting to look like a tornado has gone through it! And my OCD self is getting a bit, okay a LOT, anxious when I see what I need to do.  But I’m working on it one area at a time!

Painting the Hallway

My mom says she’s created a monster with my sister and I, because we both have addictions to painting.  When I moved in, I painted everything in the house (except the trim) and read somewhere that you’re supposed to paint every two years (who has TIME for that??).  Even though I’m not planning to do anything of the sort, I did want to paint the hallway for two reasons – one, I wasn’t loving the color of it after I’d painting the closet and bedroom doors, and it looked so dingy next to the bright white and two, I have a basset hound who drools.  Ordinarily, the drool is caught by furniture in the way, which I can easily wipe off.  But in the hallway, it ends up on the walls, and no amount of scrubbing makes them look perfectly clean.  So it was time to paint!

I chose a color from a magazine that I thought was yellow.  It turns out it wasn’t.  It’s more like a very light tan, which was a bit depressing, as I realized that brown in the hallway makes it feel darker (there’s no natural light directly in the hallway).  But my mom convinced me that it does the job of brightening things up, and looks lovely and fresh.

I got through one can of paint before I realized I’d need a second, and lost my head of steam by the time I picked up the second can.  So this is all the progress I’ve made so far – I must try to finish this after my trip, or someone will see it before long!

Before

Before

After (still wet) - hard to tell that there's a difference at all, unless you see the two colors next to each other.

It does look yellow here!

In the last picture, you can see the difference between the two colors, and I admit that it does seem to brighten up the hallway – changing the CFL bulb in the one light fixture that I did paint up there to a regular “reveal” bulb from GE also made a HUGE difference.

So I’ve got to dig deep for my painting motivation and finish this up soon!

Shut the Front Door!

I just love that saying, so I had to use it as the title to this post which is about…you guessed it, my front door!

You may not know this about me, but I hate the paint color on my front door and shutters. I know I live in a beachy area, but that doesn’t mean everything has to be pale and well, ugly!

Here’s the front of my house (I apologize for the hazy view, it was really humid when I took this and my camera was unhappy):

 

It’s hard to tell here, but the shutters and doors are a very light blue.  I mean, are we baby boys?  My next door neighbor had painted them before the previous owner moved out – he was painting his and since our houses have to look uniform, and she didn’t want to have to do the painting herself (he offered to do it), she just let him go ahead with the light blue.

Ugh.

So the next time he mentions that it will need painting, I’m putting my plan into action for convincing the neighbors that it needs to be a different color.  I did a few mockups in PhotoShop to see what might be some good colors.  What do you think?

Dark Gray – it looks black, but I like a dark grey.

 

The colors appear lighter on the two front doors than they do on the shutters, but the shutters are closer to the colors I actually like. Which one is your favorite?

A Closet Makeover

I’ve mentioned before that I’m embarrassed by my clutter.  I don’t have a lot of it, but sometimes, things just build up and it gets out of control.

My guest room closet was a good example – I am so glad I really cleaned out that closet and then it was ready for painting and loveliness.

One of the other things that was really bugging me was the linen closet in the hallway.  It had started to become a catchall for things I was giving to goodwill, painting supplies, all kinds of travel toiletries and more.   It was out of control.

The "Before"

I had picked up paint for this closet, as well as the closets in my bedroom and office, and since I tweaked my back carrying the guest room’s closet doors downstairs a few weeks ago, I thought it best to settle for a low key project.  This was low-key considering all the heavier stuff I’ve done lately, but it definitely didn’t help my back!

My first job was obviously to empty the closet out and sort through everything.

The way that these closets were all made, the shelves just pop right out.  That really makes a huge difference when you’re talking about a tiny closet!

Once I’d gotten the shelves out, I realized how yucky this closet was – I’d put contact paper on each of the shelves when I moved in because they were just gross! So I was really glad to paint over them!   I also saw another spot where the builders cut corners – I see them all the time – they had neglected to finish painting the inside of the closet, and part of it was just primed.  Not a problem, just one more thing overlooked – it makes you wonder about the hidden things that were “overlooked” that might be a bigger fix!

I painted two coats of the grey in the closet, which was a bit darker than I’d expected.  That’s okay, it was just a surprise:

All done!

In the meantime, I’d set up some drop cloths in the bathroom so that I could paint the shelves out of the way.

As they dried, I put clear contact paper over the top of each shelf – I wanted to have a very smooth surface for the items in the closet to slide off of – particularly any towels or extra sheet sets.   Then, I put them back into the closet one by one.

First the top shelf

I’d managed to clear out some space in the downstairs bathroom the night before, so I put the majority of the paper towels down there (that’s where I use them after all).  So I was able to fit a few paper towel rolls, tissues and toilet paper on the top shelf – I’m a BJ’s shopper, so I need space for bulk items!

I got another two shelves in – on the second shelf, I put plastic boxes with extra toiletries, and my travel items, and on the third shelf, a basket with hair projects and my extra toilet cleaner (hey, it has to go somewhere!).

The last two shelves actually went together on the fourth set of bars – I could have put one of them on the bottom set of bars, but I like that this gives me one larger shelf.  On the third shelf, I added a bamboo container of q-tips and an air fresheners and on the bottom shelf I put towels and sheets, along with a basket of extra soap and body lotion.  The only thing that went into the bottom of the closet is the bamboo shelf I have for the bathtub.  Big difference, huh?

Of course, in between coats, I was lying on the ground to stretch my back out, and I noticed that the door to the attic REALLY needed painting.  Since I had the trim paint out already….

I know, I know, I should have just left it, but I’m a glutton for punishment.  I got it done, and it looks great:

Hard to tell because the hallway is ALWAYS dark and it was nighttime, but take my word for it, it looks good!

I do need to do something about this though:

Just think of all the skin cells on this baby...shudder

Fortunately, I know that you can clean that without having to replace it. I just have to find the tip online and I’ll be doing that!

Also while I was lying on the floor, I noticed how gross this looks:

I won’t even show you what it looks like when it’s open and on and you can see all the dust in there that I’ve been promising myself I’d clean since I moved here…three years ago. Ahem.

My dad mentioned to me a few weeks ago though that he would help me take it down at some point so that I could spray paint it.  I have that lovely metal spray paint already, but it makes more sense to do it in white to blend with the ceiling. So that’s what I’ll do.

And then there's this.

I think this is the only smoke alarm to be originally installed with the house since the smoke alarm downstairs and the carbon monoxide detector upstairs are both white and upgraded looking.  This just looks gross.  So I’ll be looking to do what I did with my doorbell and just replace the cover.

It’s so true, every time I finish one job, I find four more to put on the list. But I think I’d be bored if I ever finished with this place! Or I’d just move!

Fireplace Before & After

I really, really wanted to be able to do a special mouseover trick to show you the before and after, but unfortunately, wordpress doesn’t allow javascript – it’s a long complicated story that involves a lot of internet searching, which I won’t bore you with!

So instead, you get the old, boring before and after.

Before:

After:

Much better, don’t you think?

Here’s a broader look:

So pretty! And if you look carefully, you can see Barney and me in the reflection!