laundry room ideas

When we moved into our home in December, the washer was in the kitchen and the dryer was just off the kitchen in a little walkway.  I had big plans of turning the walkway into a laundry room.  We had the plumbing done and our new front load washer and dryer were just delievered. 

Our plans are to make a counter (possibly from plywood) for over the washer and dryer.  A little fabric curatin, and we will be in business.

more pictures to come soon....hopefully!

reason for my recent blogging abscence....

Well, we had a little surprise this Easter!

Actually, it was just before easter but I had purchased a few things for the hubbs and myself for Easter.  We do not typically do Easter baskets, but there were just a few things we had each been wanting-so I just grabbed them up and put them in some baskets I already had.

The hubbs loved his new golf shirt but what else is in there?  Hidding underneath his shirt was a pregnancy test...

I think his look says it all! We had no idea...SURPRISE!

It is a few more weeks until we can find out our baby's gender...but we are hoping we can just hold out.

With that in mind, I love gender nuetral rooms.

This is one of my favorites. 

We have a few odd angles in what will be our baby's room.  I am think about the chair rail and the ceiling we will go with a creamy white from Mythic Paint that we have previously used in our house.  Below the chair, a light to dark brown.

Restoration Hardware Baby also has some Beautiful things as well.  I feel the neutrals are just so calming.

Come on, how sweet is that bassinett!?!?

I have found some lovely fabric and plan on making the neutral baby bedding myself...

....which I have not started yet!

 

From Drab to Almost Fab

With all of this nice weather we have been getting, our focus has be turned to the outside of our home. 

I wanted a place we could sit and soak up a little summer sun-so we took these aderondack chairs and made a small sitting area.  All I purchased was the outdoor throw pillows and a can of green spray paint.  I love the festive flowers and fresh lavender next to the chairs!

We replaced the old lead paint peeling shutters with new ones.  I could not believe the difference black shutters instantly made on this house.  I guess the previous bland green looked so washed out and the black really contrasts the brick and complements the dark roof. 

Next on the list was removing the old rotting shutter door.  Once we had this bad boy off we focused some much needed attention on the original front door.  It had been painted so many times and was all bumby, so we started scraping, and scraping and pressure washing and there is still more scraping to be done!

My dad was a trouper-to begin with he was trying to be careful and not get any paint and water on him, but then he got into it and before we knew it, he was covered in paint and drenched from the water!  He really loves getting dirty with a good project on our house- can't you tell?!?

I pressure washed and painted the front steps, planted some of my favs in black planters, and added a huge front door mat with our initial.

We have this beautiful OLD oak in the front yard but unfortunatly it casts shadows on the front lawn and there are patches where grass does not grow well.  We decided to plant a few small shurbs and fill it in with pinestraw for a "natural area."

My mom got us this adorable birdhouse and it has found a home in the red maple out front.  The birds and I thank you mom! 

                                                                                   

Now if only school was out then I could enjoy our outdoor areas a little more! 

Spring is in the air

After I got my GREAT pub table, I became inspired and have been working on my kitchen
 like a crazy women

Notice the lack of a back spash- yeah, that is driving me crazy!  The hubs is really excited to tackle the tile, but he just does not have the time right now.  You see, it is baseball season and as a coach, he lives at the field!  So the backsplash will have to wait another month or so until the season comes to a close.

I am thinking white subway tiles-they are so classic and really never go out of style. 

The breakfast area has also come a loooong way from when we first purchased our home

and here is our new breakfast area as of today...there are still a few loose ends to tie up

I just love the calm green Mythic paint we used in the kitchen- it is really like a breathe of fresh air.  My mother had some extra of the textured green fabric and it is perfect for the old shutters.  The simply love the way the sun comes through them slightly really showing off their texture.  

I still need to finish up with the fabric in the shutters this weekend and I also plan on recovering the chairs with the same green fabric.

I purchased the frames because of their basic clean lines-every room needs a touch of black and here is mine.  I have been saving  an old calendar for years because I knew these flowers would look great in frames- I just never got around to using them.  I simply cut them out and layered them with a couple pieces or card stock.  I am so pleased with the way these turned out-not to mention the whole project cost me less than 25 dollars!

I purchased a yard of a happy little paisley print in shades of blue and green to add a little more color to the kitchen. 

It only took 1 yard at $8 to make three of thess cute little guys.

Added some decorative trim and we are all set. 

It is amazing how color can effect you.  I find myself wanting to go into the kirchen to look!  Something about the playfulness of the fabrics, the paint color and all my glasses and dishes on display...makes me happy!

L-O-V-E at first sight

So This past weekend I spent the day with my mother and a family friend-we hit up Target, World Market, Tuesday Mornings and a few other stops!  While we were out enjoying the nice weather, we ran across this new consinment shop in town called "New Leaf."  It is not a huge place, but they had some good finds and I fell in L-O-V-E  with this table. 

 It is an antique pub table with the twisted spiral legs.  For something built around the 1920's, this little guy is in GREAT shape. This is not some "rinky-dink" table at which you are afraid to sit- it is heavy hard ans sturdy!  The craftmenship on this beauty is AMAZING!  There are no nails in it-the table is all notched out for the pieces to fit together-it really is something you have to see in person to really get it. 

It can be used as a small square table, but with the two leaves in, it is the perfect length and width for the space in my kitchen!   Did- I mention how much I L-O-V-E  this guy!

I really like the fact that the four chairs have the same spiral as the table legs

I have plans for recovering these bad boys soon, but I will have to look through my scrap fabric to see what will work best.   Hummm...My wheels are turning. 

I will post pictures when I get the breakfast nook up and running!

The Joys of an Old House

When David and I moved in, we could not get our boxspring up the stairway and into our bedroom!  You should have seen David and his younger brother attempting this-I thought any minute they were going to charge the wall to make room.  His brother Jon was determined they could get it up there(and they came really close)!  After I convinced them to give it up, we improvised by using an older and smalled box spring.  Recently we noticed after a couple of months our backs hurt and our matress felt REALLY soft.  I had looked into it and knew we could always order a box spring split into two, or buy one that folds to fit up the stairs, and then lets back out...but I had an even  better idea.  I had the idea to cut our existing box spring and fold it-I figured if it messed it up, we would be in no worse shape and could always buy a new one.

We began by removing the staples and pulling back the box spring cover-just enough to get to the wood that needs to be cut.

Then my dad cut the wooden supports directly in the middle on either side of the box spring.

There was also a metal support in the middle that had to be removed with a hammer.

Now, we were ready to bend it and you really need two people to do this safely.  Once you get it started it actually folds pretty easily and can now be taken up the stairs!

 

Once it was in our bedroom, they unfolded it.  Then, they srewed in new wooden support pieces on either side and the middle as well.

It did not take that much time and the result was amazing.  I was almost late to my class the next morning because it was the best nights sleep I have had in a while.  If anyone has the same problem, I recomend giving it a try-I can give you a more detailed "play-by-play" if needed!

Stripes Stripes Everywhere

When we moved into our 1949 fixer upper-I didn't feel like removing old wallpaper that had been previously painted over(no telling what is was glued on with)!  Only problem is, the paper had these very noticable lines where it had been overlapped.  After months of looking at it-I decided to tackle it by PAINTIG STRIPES!

The overlapping seams, are perfectly spaced so it made it a little easier.  I began by putting blue painters tape down each side of the wallpaper seam,  making sure it was perfectly straight.  Nothing worse than croocked lines-talk about making your eyes cross!

The walls were painted in a flat finish(this helps to hide the imperfections of the wallpaper) and for a nice subtle effect, the stripe is painted a shade darker and semi-glossy.

Hung a few of my family pics in my favorite pottery barn frame.

 

 I love the sneak peak you get of the stripes from the living room!