Kitchen Shelves

Well it took me long enough. Some of you guessed correctly-open kitchen shelves in place of the cabinet. Here's the before.

First, dismantle the cabinet and remove from wall.

Then find out that the space left doesn't match the height of the wall texture,darn!

It's about an 1/8 of an inch different.

Fill in with joint compound-layer after thin layer and retexture.

Repaint wall. Start painting brackets and wood for shelf. I used the same paint as my cabinets. Benjamin Moore Advance. Prime, paint 3 coats and cure.I love it, but it's a long dry time and a 3 day cure time. Waiting...

Start installing on wall and get to the last bracket and boom- it just splits into 2 pieces. Now what? Wood glue, joint compound, sanding, and repaint. Waiting...

Finally on the wall. Touch up paint and more waiting...

Finally, the fun part. I am getting ready for spring, will show that next week, so I added in a few touches of green.

I love that anybody can just grab a glass or wine glass.

I'm on the lookout for coffee mugs. I still want to hang them with teacup hooks below the bottom shelf.

I can cross that project off my list. It took way longer then I thought, but I am loving the finished look. Some day I'll get that white subway tile backsplash.

Thanks for being patient with me. On to spring cleaning and spring decorating.

Leslie

The Domino Effect

We finally made the decision to get a king size bed. That decision took over 2 years of sleeping on a super old and super sagging queen mattress. We had it delivered and I knew our old night stands wouldn't work in our small bedroom any more. When son moved he gave this little piece to me. It sat in the garage all these months. Time to start switching. My photo editing program was giving me problems, so these aren't the best photos, but I thought I'd show you how I re-do a piece of furniture.

 I wish you could have seen and felt this. It almost felt like someone had added sand to the paint on the old finish. It was rough like sandpaper.

 So off it came with some stripper. I was planning on repainting, so I just wanted to get the ugly finish off. Stripping and sanding to get through the old varnish.

 Ready to throw some paint on.

 I was wanting a rustic farmhouse look, so I left parts unfinished. I'm going to live with it for awhile and if I don't love it, I can always go back and paint. I added 2 Hobby Lobby knobs. This picture is not staged,(you can see Hubby's weights on the floor). I'll share more after we get some bedding, and a headboard. I absolutely love the bed and have been sleeping like a baby. The domino effect has begun, because now I have to see what will work on the other side of the bed. Does this happen to you?

What do you think of the raw wood with the white paint? If I decide to keep it, I'll put some wax over it, but wanted to leave it raw for now, in case I change my mind.

Off to deal with some plumbing issues and a plumber. Hope you are off to a great week!
Leslie

Closet Makeover

I don't let just anyone look into my messy closet. It's been this way for 2 years-shoes all over the floor. Boxes of finished scrapbooks, piles everywhere.

So this is what we did.

A fresh paint job and custom hanging racks to fit all our clothes.

Here's the after.

This is my favorite part.I love that every pair of shoes has a place-not on the floor.

These were ordered from Home Depot. It's the first time Hubby has had drawers to put his tee shirts, socks and underwear.

We bought these from Ikea to fit all the scrapbooks. Now I can pull them out when I want and don't have to wonder which box they are in. If I change my mind down the road we can use the cubbies for folded sweaters, bins, whatever.

We hung the belts and necklaces. I want to add a little art work when I find the right thing.

This is from Nile corp. I have never had a jewelry box. You get to choose the drawer insides to fit your needs. I counted all the earrings, bracelets, etc. and then get the correct inserts. Love this! 10 drawers-now I can fit my Mom's vintage jewelry in and I have actually been wearing it.

We even have cubbies for laundry baskets-white, colored and dry clean. There's even space to keep extra toilet paper above.

This was a 3 weekend job, but totally worth it. Hubby really loves it too. Thanks for bearing with me on the photos-so hard to photograph a long closet. It just goes to show you-the space was there to fit everything- it just had to be re-organized. Getting ready to decorate for fall. Hope you had a great Halloween!
Leslie

Bathroom Mini Redo

Hi. It's time to share my bathroom mini redo. The reason this all started (and you all know about that old domino effect) was the bathtub needed to be professionally refinished. When we moved into our house the previous owner must have used some wrong cleaner that stripped off the shiny finish. So it looked bad-really bad. But before we did that I decided an electrician was in order. I wanted a new can light over the dreary tub (no windows) and the one bathroom light over the mirror split into 2. We've never hired an electrician before and I absolutely loved ours. Of course after electrical we need to patch and texture sheetrock holes in the ceiling and wall. Then a  new paint job. I would have loved to replace the counter on the vanity-but this was a Mini Redo!  So finally the refinish on the tub-it looks brand new. Here's the before. I would be too embarrassed to show that old tub. I took down the wall paper border and mirror,

The after.So hard to photograph  a small bathroom.New mirrors are from Ikea. New vanity light from Lowes.

Light blue paint on the walls. Remember-no window so I had to lighten it up.

A touch of vintage. Strombecker dollhouse furniture from Etsy. I made a little shadow box using vintage images and scrapbook paper.

Little box, painted with white chalkboard paint.This is our second bathroom-also for guests.

I had this in the old bathroom-

White spray paint and now you see the colors of the shells.Just hot glue them on.

Here's the bathtub side. New shower curtain-Target.

I found this old medicine cabinet at a garage sale.

Used AS chalk paint.

Added some scrapbook paper.  Love that old hardware and knob. Even the glass shelf was there.

Copied a picture from an old book. The towel hooks are from Home Depot-I screwed them onto an old piece of headboard.

There it is. Probably one of my longest posts. Thanks for sticking it out.The goal was to lighten and brighten the bathroom.It feels bigger and more modern.
 It's starting to get really hot here. But that's usual for us in Texas!  Hope you all have a wonderful week.
Leslie

Kitchen Cabinet Makeover

I finally finished. Here is the after of the kitchen cabinets. I'll take you through it quickly.

Here's the before. No hardware and hohum cabinets that were kind of dark. I have no window in the kitchen area.

First I painted the bottoms. I had doors all over the place. I sanded, cleaned, primed both sides of the doors and did 2 coats on the backs and 3 coats on the fronts. I used Benjamin Moore Advance Decorator White and I loved it. It has a really long dry time, but flattens out any roller marks as it dries.Then you wait 3 days for it to cure-yes I said 3 days!

Put the lowers back together and started all over on the uppers.

Put them back and added the hardware. 

Hardware was bought on the internet through Amazon. Cheaper then big box prices.

It really brightened up the kitchen. It also made a more neutral background. Was it worth the mess for 2 weeks and the back aches? Totally worth it. This is the 3rd house that I've painted the cabinets in and I think the BM paint was the best. I used  Young House Love for a refresher on painting. Check this video out if you are thinking about doing your cabinets.

I'm so glad I took the plunge. Not much of an investment moneywise-just time, but the results speak for themselves.I still have some tweaking to do-staging it better, but now I can enjoy it.I'm still painting-some small house fix-ups, but I'm so glad this big project is done. I'm joining Cozy Little House for Tweak it Tuesday. Check out some other projects at Brenda's. Hoop you all have a good week!
Leslie