Getting a handle on things....

Spring Break from school was last week and I spent some time in Arkansas with my friend Amy Bennett. She works for Habitat for Humanity and is awesome at it, so she is always being creative, and well, just has great style! She also knows where all of the Habitat Restores are in and around Little Rock, so we took a couple of days to explore.

Let me say, I love digging through junk, and yes, I know I look like a crazy weird hoarder, but sometimes it pays off.

At one Restore, I found some cabinet doors....

And at another I found some random crusty brass hardware.....

and I knew that I would find a way to put them together!


Here is the process:

First I laid out the handles on the cabinet front and decided where I wanted to place them.

 I drilled the holes after marking where they went.

Then I used the vaseline distressing technique I found on Pinterest from here.

I didn't know what to expect after I spray painted the door red with Krylon Banner Red. Then I rubbed off the vaseline and I was in love with the chippy red paint finish! So easy!

 Finally, I attached the hardware that I dug for in that dirty bin.

 This sign now hangs happily on our front door to greet any guests who might drop by!

 I'm proud of my cabinet door art! What do you think?

Design in my head

Hi! I have a friend who has asked me to help her come up with some decorating ideas for her home. She has a beautiful older home with lots of character and architectural detail. She also has great taste. But like so many of us, needs help getting started and options to help her make decisions. I have no before photos yet, sorry.

I've been playing around with Olioboard for a while, and I think I've gotten decent at making moodboards. It's also really fun to see what things might look like somewhere outside my brain, so, blah blah blah, here you go.

Owl be back

I have a new animal obsession. You probably figured it out from the title. Owls!
Here are a few of them that I have taken in (bought) and like to proudly display.

What do you collect?

Moody blues

I would like to start this post off by saying that I used to hate blue. I had nothing blue, I wanted nothing blue. But then, one day, I loved blue. And you can too. Okay, I'm going to stop sounding like Dr. Seuss did an infomercial, and get on with this post.

One place blue has paraded itself around in my home is upon the walls of my living room. It's dramatic; it's bold; it's teal. You may also notice another color love going on in there. Gold baby! Teal and gold were just made for each other. I hope they never break up. Here are some pictures, showing how much things have changed, if my words have not sufficed.

I have also been pleasantly surprised that all of the other colors I love to accessorize with like red, orange, yellow, and green, successfully and peacefully co-exist with the teal. It almost becomes a neutral, without being boring. Did it shrink the room being so dark? Yes. Am I okay with that? Yes. It needed to be more cozy in my opinion, and because of the ceiling height, and the white painted below the chair rail, it works. Trust me, I live here.

Chalk it up!

It's been some time since I last posted. But I am back with some pictures from around my home. Honestly, looking back at the original posts I've made on this blog, a style evolution has taken place. Dark, moody colors are in, at least with me, and gold has also been something I've fallen back in love with. So, here we are. Let's start in the dining area, turned office. I have been inspired over the past year with chalkboard paint. I love black. I love chalkboards. Therefore, I love black chalkboard paint. I painted an accent wall in my dining room. I also love gallery walls. Everywhere. They are so random, which I also am, so I am attracted to it. The last inspiration photo was recent. I don't know if you have heard, but dining rooms are an endangered species. Lots of people are doing different things with that space. Some are turning them into libraries. Others, offices.

So here are some of the inspirations I have spied on various blogs:

And here are pictures of my current dining room/ office:

You can see my kitchen a little in the background of one of those pics. Don't judge! I know you have stacks of dishes and appliances too!

And you will also notice the cords on my desk are showing! Oh my goodness, lets not all pretend like we don't have cords. But I only have one or two, so it's okay.
I love my new droffice (dining room/ office). FYI, I just made that word up, and I say it as one word that flows together, not dr's office, even though it looks like that. It's droffice. Glad we're clear on that. I am sitting here right now, typing these very words.

Oh, another thing you may or may not have noticed is this:

Yes, behind this chalkboard is my trusty air conditioning unit. And below it is the air return vent, which I painted with chalkboard paint to camouflage.

This was the before shot (We took these when we moved in. BTW.)

I know you do not blame me for being tired of looking at that oddly placed half door/ vent combo. Yup. Weird.

I just got some mdf cut the same size as the door, primed it, painted it, took the door off, put it in there, and voila.
Chalk it up to a little DIY. Pun intended.
Anyway.

That's the current droffice.

Christmas to do list

There are a few gifts I want to give my house over the next few days...

Finish trim underneath cabinets in kitchen
Paint bathroom wall that I had to patch
Patch big hole in the wall in the kitchen (where a cable jack used to be...don't worry I didn't put it there)
Paint over where I patch the big hole in the wall
Caulk and paint trim in the bathroom
Replace light in the bathroom
Put handles on bathroom cabinets
Touch up scuffs on bathroom cabinets
Clean bathroom tile
Hang up shelves in bathroom
Switch out old nasty shower curtain rod in master bathroom with new satin nickel one and new hooks
Finish rearranging/re-artifying the living room frames yet again (this time it is Christmas themed)
Bag up all clothes I don't wear and that don't fit (and attempt to pry away some of Brandon's clothes that relentlessly hang in the closet just like mine and would like a person to wear them) and take them away to Goodwill. Alecia and I are taking a trip to IKEA soon and I am getting 3 or 4 of these:

I plan on using them to create built-ins inside of our closets to hold all of our extra clothing that doesn't fit anywhere else. I will probably just put them together and throw clothes in them at first, but I have seen some very pretty pictures of some customized versions. The best part is that they are made of solid pine, not particle board and they are only $30.00! 

Bedroom Blues

For about a year now I have been stuck in on my master bedroom. There were a few items that had me perplexed: my chocolate brown headboard (made from a door), the beige striped curtains, and confusion about what color I want the comforter to be. I will not show a before shot because, well, I couldn't bring myself to take one!

So, with my hubs gone to the Arkansas Razorbacks game all day, I decided to change everything....as he would jovially say, "Sometimes I go to sleep, and when I wake an entire room has been painted or changed." Yep....I'm like a Christmas Elf. And my house is the workshop...and...I guess Brandon is Santa...anyhoo... 

Here it is! Uh-oh...just noticed that the art above the bed is unevenly spaced. I will get right on that, but I don't feel like taking another picture. BTW I made that art from an Anno Inez curtain panel and three Tyglosa frames ($25 total for the project).

 

Sorry the curtains are all wrinkled, I just pulled them out of the closet and threw them up there to see if they would work....and they did!

Shh....don't tell, but the grey comforter is actually a full sized one from the extra bedroom. I just stretched it very tightly. I love how the grey works with the curtains. Also the headboard is not new, I just slipcovered the one we have. I love the fact that it is made from an antique door (an earlier DIY project), but it is just not working with my current decor and modern elements. I do not want to permanently cover it in case I change my style yet again, which is very likely :)

 

I had to try extremely hard not to be in this picture...all you can see is my holding up my phone...and believe me...that's all you need to see.

This lamp has made an appearance in every room in the house. There's just no place that doesn't look nice!

The only thing I didn't change was the wall color. I love the blue-green wall (I think it is Alpine Spruce by Valspar)! The bad news is right now this is now the only clean room in my house. I have been pulling stuff out of closets all day "organizing." But hey, I can now tell you where the lint roller and the glue gun are, along with many other fun items that have been as lost as the as the survivors of Oceanic flight 815 for many years! The good news is I don't have the bedroom blues any longer! The best part of this bedroom makeover is the fact that I spent $0. Everything I used was from another room in my house! Woo hoo. Shop the house people, shop the house! It is so much fun to discover a new way to use the things you already own to reinvent a room!