This is the Before obviously.  Pretty enough, but just bleh to me.  Needed some life!  Have I mentioned before that I am not a fan of LOTS of stained wood.  A little here n there is fine, but I need to PAINT!

Ah, here we go.  This is what this needed.  I used Behr paint & primer in one and the color was speckled pepper. 

After a couple of coats I took the hand sander and distressed it just a little around the edges.  I tried to get a few decent pictures for you but my camera stinks.

Yeah, I know I need to clean the floor.  Plus, now looking at these pictures I need some chair cushions.  Maybe I should try to make some myself...we'll see.

I didn't distress it too much but I like the way it turned out.  I think it looks good against the wood floor, a nice contrast.  Plus, the best benefit is that is doesn't show all the kids scuff marks and "toe" prints! Ha!  Okay, now I have to go clean the floor!  Ugh.  ~See ya!

Putting the kitchen back together again...

 

I have bare space up above my cabinets now.  I am having a mental block as to what to put up there.  I don't want it too cluttered but I do want it to add interest and create visual height.  I'm just shopping around to see what I find and not in a hurry to just throw something up there.  Any suggestions?

Snow Day!

This is what we woke up to this morning!

 

Even Marley, the wiener dog, didn't want to venture out.  It was beautiful & coooold.

 

School was canceled so we all snuggled up in our beds for awhile before finally getting around.  We decided to bake some muffins for breakfast, build a big, warm fire and have hot cocoa.  I love snow days!  

 

Wherever you are today I hope you are having a wonderful day!  See ya!

Kitchen Re-Do...Before & After

I wanted to show you our kitchen re-do.  I call it a re-do because our house is only 3 years old and we built it ourselves.  Sooo, you would think that we would have it just how we want it right? Wrong. I change my mind weekly, okay really daily, and luckily my husband is game for the changes too.  We have about a bazillion projects either in mind or currently in the works in this "new" house of ours.  Here is one of them...  Oh yeah, by the way, I don't think I even took a before picture!  I suck -- please use your imagination.  We paid extra money for knotty alder wood for our kitchen cabinets and it was stained a very light color mainly just to seal them and enhance the wood tone.  My hubby is into the wood look, me NOT so much!  Here's the afters...

 

Here is what they looked like with the painting finished, however no glazing had been done yet.  If you look at the bar (unpainted wood) which is how the cabinets looked before painting.  I'm not sure how much I like them at this point.  I wanted white cabinets but was overruled.  This color is our compromise -- at this point I am just bleh about the whole process!

 The process of glazing was pretty quick and easy.  I did like them better after this part was done.  We used Valspar antique glaze.  I also used a hand sander to distress the cabinets a tiny bit then we sealed them with Valspar crystal clear sealer.  Our center island was painted black and distressed then sealed with the same sealer.  We also painted to underside of the breakfast bar black, distressed and sealed.  We added under counter lighting while we were at it.  I have no idea why we didn't do this at the beginning when we built the house, but I love it.  We found our hardware on ebay for $1.59 a pull which was awesome since they are just like the ones I had found at Home Depot and they were $4.59 a piece!  Here is the finished kitchen.

 

It is a BIG change from the stained wood and I'm glad for that.  I suppose the color is growing on me, but Eddie (hubby) LOVES it!  It was a TON of work and I'm glad its done.  I like the hardware and am so happy we got such a great deal on them.  What do you think?  I'd love to hear your thoughts!  Till next time...

~See Ya!