A Little Paint Job and A Mini Kitchen Tour

When we first moved into our apartment, I loved the idea of an all white kitchen. If you would like an explanation, I don't have one. For some reason, it seemed like a good idea (probably because we were close to broke with all the wedding expenses and white paint was cheap). At least it made the walls look clean and better than they had looked before. 

But after living here for 8 months, I decided it needed a change. It was just too plain and boring for David and I's personalities. And since I have started spending more time in there cooking (and sometimes burning) food, I wanted to jazz it up and make it look a little more inviting.

If you haven't noticed yet, our kitchen is TINY. Our bathroom is bigger than our kitchen... it's true. But on the bright side, it made repainting it a breeze! I also had to paint it all with a brush because we don't have any rollers. (I vaguely remember this predicament from my last post that involved painting. Weird)

I chose a color out of our stash of paint that is pretty familiar to any of you that read my blog regularly. SEA FOAM. I could paint my entire house this color and never get sick of it. Okay... that might be an exaggeration but who doesn't love this calm yet playful color?!

So with my backsplash painted and my counter tops cleared of all clutter, my kitchen got a facelift! Plus the sea foam blue works with our not so appealing countertops.  

I kind of love this little corner of our kitchen. Maybe not as much as our chalkboard wall on the other side of the room, but close. Aren't those little flour, sugar and miscellaneous canisters so cute? 

And last but certainly not least, my cookbook. A dear friend of mine made this for me as a wedding present and I couldn't love it any more even if I tried. She is one of those people that oozes so much creative talent that it's sickening. ;) 

There you have it. A little look into my every day kitchen and my impulsive need for change on a regular basis. Do any of you want to change something up in your home? Well what are you waiting for. Go do it!

XOXO

365 Challenge: Bathroom Wall Makeover

Have you ever just had one of those days where you just wanted to change something about your home? Like you needed to rearrange your bedroom or in my case paint a wall in your bathroom just to get your fix. Well last week my interior designer alter ego was in full force. Soon I found myself scrambling through our paint supplies and searching for a decent paint brush. (I hate cleaning out paint brushes... So usually we have to buy new ones for every other paint project. Oopsy!)

 I didn't really have a plan. I had seen tons of eccentric, geometric accent walls on Pinterest and HGTV and I was always drawn to them. I quickly snatched up the painters tape and soon had a system down of how to get the right shapes I wanted. Okay... maybe I didn't have a system... but it was loads of fun! ;-)

Soon I had all my tape up and I started painting. White was the only color I had on hand that would go with the color palette in our bathroom. I picked shapes out at random, trying to space them out so that I had room to put in a different color in between the white ones. So I painted...

... and painted. Eventually the tape towards to top of the wall started to peel off before I had even gotten up there to paint. Come to find out, it's because our heating vent is directly above that wall thus causing the tape to not want to stick. That, my friends, was annoying! But I stuck it back up and kept pluggin' away. Once I had all the white painted, my hands hurt. Keep in mind, I was using a brush but a roller would have made this job much easier and quicker! But you use what you got when you are in desperate need of a change in home decor "scenery".  

As for my second color, I had no idea. I climbed back up into our paint supplies and found manna from heaven. Okay, not really but close. GOLD SPRAY PAINT! Oh yes, you read that correctly. Gold. Spray. Paint. Needless to say, I broke a ton of home decorating rules that day.

1. I used spray paint inside.

2. I used a very bold METALLIC color.

(What a rebel I am, right?!)

Then I got this. My first thought. "Oh dear sweet baby Jesus. What have I done?!?" I panicked and started coming up with ways to cover it up before David got home. "Really Chrisi? Gold in the bathroom?!" "This is awful..." "Stupid interior designer alter ego... You didn't even go to college!" 

I may or may not have said all these things out loud to myself.

Then I peeled all the tape off and VOILA! 10x better ( I think.) It still needs some touch ups where the gold paint dripped but I am happy with the outcome. If you don't know me very well, then you probably don't know that I am a planner and a master list maker. So for me to make an impromptu decision of this magnitude is a big deal! 

I guess I can say that sometimes it is better to do things on a whim! Have any of you been contemplating changing something up in your home? Have you ever used spray paint inside? Please share below!

Dresser Re-do

I would venture to say that I am a very enthusiastic person. Those that know me would probably agree with that statement. With that being said, sometimes I'm a little over enthusiastic and over ambitious when it comes to DIY projects. Like this one.

It was on a rare Saturday that we had absolutely no plans. We were so excited to have an entire day to ourselves. We slept in, made a big breakfast and just relaxed. But by noon, I was antsy. I had to get up and do something. Anything. Then it hit me. Let's redo our dresser! I already had the primer and paint. David, being as sweet as he is, nodded his head out of sheer "husbandly" love and we emptied the whole thing and brought it out onto our patio.

After getting it outside and searching for an electric sander for 30 minutes, we ended up having to sand it down by hand. After about 45 minutes of sanding, we had to go search for paint brushes. After searching for... awhile, we came to the conclusion that we left them at the other church campus during VBS time. Soon, I began to feel a little defeated. Why on earth didn't I plan this out a little better?! We finally found 2 beat up brushes and decided to use them to prime the dresser.  

Did I mention that it was 97 degrees outside with a heat index in the 100's that day? Yeah. (Sorry again babe!) Thankfully, the paint didn't bubble in the heat or get too sticky. That would have made this a complete fail. Anyway, while the primer dried we decided to cool off and run to Lowes to buy polyurethane to seal the dresser and to buy replacement drawer pulls. Why did we need to replace those you ask? Please check the picture below and don't become too jealous.

Oh yeah! Check that baby out. Cute, huh? Let's just say Hobby Lobby saved the day with their big selection of knobs and drawer pulls! 

So after gallivanting through Hobby Lobby and getting a tad bit sidetracked by their Christmas decorations, we selected these three knobs. (The picture on the right is an image I found on pinterest to show you the color scheme of our bedroom. Plum, mustard yellow and mint instead of sage.)

We ended up buying three of the one in the middle, taking it home and hating it on the dresser. They were just too small. So we went back, shopped around some more and left with three new knobs that we absolutely love!

Are you ready to see the finished product? Let me remind you of what it looked like before.

 And after...

 Tada! We love it. It is kind of difficult to see what color it is but it sea foam/mint green.  Like these super cute bikes! >>>

There you have it! After enduring the heat, hand sanding and lack of preparation, we have a lovely mint green dresser that I adore. Have you ever tried to tackle a project on the fly, only to realize it was much bigger than expected? Please share in the comment section below. 

Chalkboard Paint Obsession

Imagine my surprise as I am scrolling along on Pinterest and I come across this awful picture above! First thought,who doesn't love chalkboard paint as much as I do? Second, why on earth is this being repinned on Pinterest: the DIY Utopia?! Excuse me while I become over dramatic about chalkboard paint! Of course you can chalkboard paint everything! *sigh*

In our most recent endeavor of planning a wedding, we used chalkboard paint numerous times.

Used on this old four pane window to write our love story.

Honeymoon Fund or now we call it our Vacation Fund

Again, on a window for our wedding program. (Favorite use for it yet!)

We even used it in some of our engagement photos, like this one.

And now while we continue decorating our house, it's still in use!

An entire wall in our tiny kitchen. Perfect for lists, encouraging words or notes to one another!

So whoever says you can't use chalkboard paint on everything has obviously never met me! If I had it my way, our entire apartment would be one giant chalkboard... Okay, maybe not that far but you get it! Have any of you used chalkboard paint recently? Are you as in love with it as I am? Do share!

XOXO

Chrisi