Painted Cabinets

Welcome to my kitchen. My messy, messy kitchen. Don't fret, the dishes in the sink are clean. I can't stand the smell of dirty dishes.

I have been thinking about painting my cabinets. Here they are, in their true 80s glory. A year ago our dishwasher broke. It was a lovely almond color. As you can see on your left, there is an lovely almond stove top. The ovens and fridge are on the wall I'm standing against to take this picture. Also, a beautiful, 80s almond color. I hated them. When the dishwasher broke I got a black one. Recently our double ovens broke. My friend had double ovens in black. She had totally remodeled her kitchen and was getting rid of fairly new double ovens. I snatched them up, along with a black gas stove top.

When I went to go pick up the ovens I got to see her brand new kitchen and fell in love. She had beautiful cream cabinets with a slight glaze on them. It was the push I needed to go buy paint and all the supplies to paint my cabinets.

This is the color, although I hope it's slightly darker on here then it will be in real life. It's Kwal's Sunkist Ridge.

It's all been sitting in my garage for a month. I'm a little undecided on the color (I know, a little late now). But I'm wondering if it will look ok with the counter tops. I prefer dark counter tops with light cabinets, but that's not in the budget now. These are light with a creamish and black flecks.

The thing that is holding me back the most is the cleaning of the cabinets. I've heard I need to use TSP and that sounds like a huge job. The kitchen isn't that big, as you can see, and I plan to use a paint sprayer for a smooth finish. I just need to get started and do it. I really want it done, the actually doing it part is the problem. Now for a little motivation...

The REAL Stencil

So I had to switch stencils. I was cheap and bought a cheap stencil at Hobby Lobby. BIG MISTAKE. The registration marks were so small it was hard to line up, the stencil itself didn't move well around the corners or top of the wall. It was a mess. I broke down and bought one from Royal Design Studio. So much easier. The registratoin marks were huge and also part of the pattern. It was so easy to line up. It also came with a smaller stencil to do along the top of the wall. Here's the finished wall. I couldn't get the whole thing because it's a small room. I just did one wall. I still have to paint the molding and door. I also accidently got gray paint on the cupboard. I was going to paint that anyway, just not now. It will now be painted a little sooner than planned.

Now, to decide what to hang on the wall.

Powder Room

Yes, this usedto be a sewing blog. Now, I have a two year old who loves to push buttons on my sewing machine while I sew and is very interested in the iron. I am making a quilt for her new bed, but it's slow coming since I have to do it while she is sleeping. That time is getting shorter too. In the meantime, I'm redoing my powder room. Here is the before. Are you bored yet?

The paint is a putrid 80's color of some sort. This bluish splotch is me testing some oops paint I bought for $1. It wasn't this blue in real life. It was more of a dull, wet cement color so it didn't get to stay.

I painted the bottom white and I'm in the process of stenciling over the top in a light gray/blue called Cloud Nine from Kwal. It's slow going, but so far I love it.

Not quite sure what to do at the bottom though. It doesn't go all the way to the sides or bottom and the stencil doesn't bend very well.

Hopefully this bathroom won't make you want to die of boredom anymore. Ignore the ugly, putrid door. I ran out of white paint.

Home Improvements

When we moved in we knew we had a lot of work to do. Over the past few years we've realized that is an understatement. Here you can see our front doors. They look ok, right? I haven't loved the double doors. Sure, it was great on moving day, but it looks weird if you only put one wreath on it. Also, I've found people get confused about which door is the one opens. Who knew? The worst thing about these doors is they only have those four tiny windows at the top for letting in natural light. They open into an entry way with a formal living room on the left and a formal dining on the right. There is no light and very dark entry.
(I can't get this picture to go below the other, but we've replaced the double doors with this. Hopefully our door guy will be back soon to finish. We love it and it makes for a much brighter entry.) In this picture you can see the banister going up to the porch is missing at the bottom. Well, a week after we moved in we took out the carpet in the formal dining room and added wood floor. My husband, dad and I worked on it ourselves. As my husband had a long piece he took outside to cut he hit the rain with the tip. Barely. The whole thing fell off. It was rotten all the way through. This was just the beginning.

Here's a better picture of the railing. The part that isn't falling off.

This year is the year we've designated to help out our overgrown yard. We've replaced the rotton railing with a vinyl one. Hopefully we can get our drip system working and I can plant flowers in my flower boxes soon!