Kitchen Crashing: More color and Floors

If you are not in the loop, check out "Kitchen Crashing" where I explain what is going on with my friends' kitchen.

Where we last left off (I feel like I am an old school tv show recap), Diana had bought a darker color to try.

On left, was to be the living room and main color, right arrow points to the color that would be accent walls.

She painted the light lavender/gray color on the hallway and didn't like the way it looked in the poorly lit space (no natural light). "It looked like grapes!" said Diana. She tried Valspar's Gravity at 75%. (I'm not sure the 25% less saturation made much difference, but whatev's.) 

Although there is the slightest hint toward lavendar, it is a gray gray color.

So, she painted the accent wall color next to it, and woh-woh, it didn't work. The problem is that they are too similar. Really, she has to go darker on the accent wall now.

So, she is going to try Opal Slate from Valspar.

It's a very gray purple color. The purple is definitely there in real life.

Diana also picked floor tile. They will be going with Mountain Mist by Cascade. It's a laminate.

It looks good, but I think it sounds like I'm chilling in my dishwasher with a pop (or soda). 

Demolition began yesterday. I just have an early shot of the upper cabinets coming down.

Stay tuned for more demo and back splash tile.

This post may be linked at the following parties (for their Blog Buttons see my Link Love page): (M) C.R.A.F.T., Amaze Me Monday, Sumo's Sweet Stuff,  (T) A Little Birdie Told Me  Stories of A to Z, The Blackberry Vine, How To's Day , Type A, Amaze Me August, , Show Me What Ya Got,  (W) Wow Me,  Blue Cricket Design, What I Whipped Up, Wicked Awesome Wednesday, Sweet Peas & Bumblebees (TH)   Creative Juice, Thrifty 101 , Smilemonsters , Everything But the Kitchen Sink, Shabby Chic Cottage, Thrifty Thursdays, House of Hepworth's,  (F) Fingerprints on the Fridge, Furniture Feature Friday,  Lovely Crafty Weekend , Remodelaholic, For the Kids Fridays, , Craft Goodies, (Sat) Tatertots and Jello , Anything Goes , Funky Junk Interiors (Sun) Creative Blog & Hop, Sundae Scoop, Under the Table and Dreaming

Master Bedroom Color Wow

The power of paint never ceases to amaze me. We hadn't touched our bedroom since we moved here, and in fact, hadn't done much for our room in many years.

So here is the before:

The green walls were there when we moved in. It was nice and bright, but I really wanted something deep and dark and cozy.

I bought that quilt 9 years ago with the plan that we would have a dark room. But we rented for so long was never practical to paint.

Gabe actually found the perfect color. He collects paint chips every time we go to a home improvement store. :) 

 

The moment I started I knew I loved it. That doesn't always happen, you know?

Love it! I can't stop admiring it when I'm in there. 

It even makes the door and closet doors look great and I figured I needed to paint them or something. So glad I did the walls first.

The color is French Gray by Glidden. Which incidentally I also really liked the low VOC formula.

We still need to actually decorate. And just ignore Matt's messy dresser. After 11 years, I have given up. I have come to terms with it. :) He needs a new dresser, I need a new night stand, we need a headboard and I'm thinking new sheets and curtains.

But for now, I just love going in there and snuggling down.

This post may be linked at the following parties (for their Blog Buttons see my Link Love page): (M) C.R.A.F.T., Amaze Me Monday, Sumo's Sweet Stuff,  (T) A Little Birdie Told Me  Stories of A to Z, The Blackberry Vine, How To's Day , Type A, Amaze Me August, , Show Me What Ya Got,  (W) Wow Me,  Blue Cricket Design, What I Whipped Up, Wicked Awesome Wednesday, Sweet Peas & Bumblebees (TH)   Creative Juice, Thrifty 101 , Smilemonsters , Everything But the Kitchen Sink, Shabby Chic Cottage, Thrifty Thursdays, House of Hepworth's,  (F) Fingerprints on the Fridge, Furniture Feature Friday,  Lovely Crafty Weekend , Remodelaholic, For the Kids Fridays, , Craft Goodies, (Sat) Tatertots and Jello , Anything Goes , Funky Junk Interiors (Sun) Creative Blog & Hop, Sundae Scoop, Under the Table and Dreaming

 

Art Adventure

I apologize; there will be no Art Adventure today. The schedule just spiraled out of control for me this week.

I have to readjust when we do art projects around here because the boys are now in school.

On Deck

Yesterday was a gorgeous beginning of fall kind of day. Sitting out on the deck I realized that I never did post about the deck!

We did the deck before the patio, so you would think I'd have shown you that. But because the patio runs right up to the deck, the yard was all quickly under construction after it was done. Didn't make for good pictures.

Here is what our deck looked like.

The steps are on the side and they were tilted and not the most secure. 

We all tended to just leap off the front.

So, we decided we needed steps along the whole front that wrapped around the side where they originally were.

For this project, I pretty much said what I wanted and Mateo did it. It's not that I can't build things; it's that he's better and faster. That is the great thing about having a partner. We have each others strengths to rely on too.

There is actually a bit of finish work to do. Facing on the risers, but it has made such a huge difference. 

We are not doing anything about the color right now. We are going to leave the wood to weather until next summer. Hopefully it will more closely match the deck and we can either stain or just seal them both then.

And no more leaping off the front or chancing the crooked stairs. We can just walk down wherever we want. It also makes the whole deck look much bigger. Yay for optical illusions. :)

This post may be linked at the following parties (for their Blog Buttons see my Link Love page): (M) C.R.A.F.T., Amaze Me Monday, Sumo's Sweet Stuff,  (T) A Little Birdie Told Me  Stories of A to Z, The Blackberry Vine, How To's Day , Type A, Amaze Me August, , Show Me What Ya Got,  (W) Wow Me,  Blue Cricket Design, What I Whipped Up, Wicked Awesome Wednesday, Sweet Peas & Bumblebees (TH)   Creative Juice, Thrifty 101 , Smilemonsters , Everything But the Kitchen Sink, Shabby Chic Cottage, Thrifty Thursdays, House of Hepworth's,  (F) Fingerprints on the Fridge, Furniture Feature Friday,  Lovely Crafty Weekend , Remodelaholic, For the Kids Fridays, , Craft Goodies, (Sat) Tatertots and Jello , Anything Goes , Funky Junk Interiors (Sun) Creative Blog & Hop, Sundae Scoop, Under the Table and Dreaming

Kitchen Crashing

My friend, Diana, and her husband, Kent, are embarking on a huge remodel project and we all get to come along for the ride. And even more fun for me, yours truly has gotten a say in what things should look like. (No veto power though. Hmm. I should work on that. I jest!)

So, the project is THE KITCHEN. Huge undertaking. We are talking a whole new floor plan, demo-ing walls, new cabinets, floors, countertops, appliances, paint...

Here's some before action:

The dining room next to the kitchen.

One view of the kitchen.

And another.

Here is looking in from the formal dining room side, which is not really their formal dining room, but more of an office/mudroom space. You can see the walls don't even reach the vaulted ceiling anyway, so no problems changing them.

I need to snap a picture of the living room too because half that wall is coming down which affects the living room too.

Getting ahead of myself. Here's the new plan:

This is along the wall that currently houses the fridge, wall to the living room becomes 1/2 wall.

The fridge moves to the opposite side next to the sliding door.

The wall separating the living and dining rooms becomes a half wall. And the layout becomes two L's. The left side extends farther than the original kitchen into the formal dining room, complete with bar to sit at and eat or just annoy the cook.

They decided on their cabinet style 

and color and countertops, 

but then I was called in for color opinion (and now I just give my two cents on everything. :) )

"I like white," Diana boldly declared. She wanted to get away from her beige and red 

and brighten things up. The day of sorting through paint chips was hilarious. I vetoed white. I know I don't have veto power, but I did it anyway. It's hard to do white right and it actually doesn't always brighten things. We finally get down to gray and blue.

Personally, I avoid blue in the kitchen since it is an appetite suppressant, but to each her own. But then Diana tossed every blue chip out. (And kept picking beige. I had to remind her we were not doing beige anymore per her instructions.)

Strangely enough we settled on purple. I am uber excited about this possibility and after playing around with Sherwin Williams color picker online, Diana got some samples and put them up on the wall.

Some were a bit "mauve-ier" in person than online, so we decided against that. Not trying to bring back the '80s.

We settled on the kitchen and dining room accent wall being the lavender-gray color in the middle and the rest of the living room being the very light lavender/gray color on the left. I realize it doesn't look like much in the picture, but it's great in person. Just enough color. However, before I managed to post this, Diana picked another bit darker color for the living room and I haven't had a chance to go check it out yet.

Obviously, the paint is not of upmost importance since it will be awhile before they get to that stage in the adventure, but it's nice to know where things are headed.

Stay tuned for backsplash tile discussions, and demolition!

his post may be linked at the following parties (for their Blog Buttons see my Link Love page): (M) C.R.A.F.T., Amaze Me Monday, Sumo's Sweet Stuff,  (T) A Little Birdie Told Me  Stories of A to Z, The Blackberry Vine, How To's Day , Type A, Amaze Me August, , Show Me What Ya Got,  (W) Wow Me,  Blue Cricket Design, What I Whipped Up, Wicked Awesome Wednesday, Sweet Peas & Bumblebees (TH)   Creative Juice, Thrifty 101 , Smilemonsters , Everything But the Kitchen Sink, Shabby Chic Cottage, Thrifty Thursdays, House of Hepworth's,  (F) Fingerprints on the Fridge, Furniture Feature Friday,  Lovely Crafty Weekend , Remodelaholic, For the Kids Fridays, , Craft Goodies, (Sat) Tatertots and Jello , Anything Goes , Funky Junk Interiors (Sun) Creative Blog & Hop, Sundae Scoop, Under the Table and Dreaming

Art Adventure: Paper Bag Houses

I orginially got this idea from an art supply catalog. You can find cool projects in lots of places. :)

Paper Bag Houses

Supplies:

• paper bag
• construction paper
• scissors
• glue
• markers
• shopping bag or other stuffing
• stapler

I like to keep the bag flat for decorating for little people. Older children may want it open so they can cover all the sides with decoration.

Have your child cut out* doors and windows from the paper, glue them to the bag, and add details with markers. Encourage them to be creative with color choices or patterns.

When ready, open the bag and stuff the inside with a plastic shopping bag or two. 

This just helps keep it puffed open and gives it a little weight. You could use newspaper, paper towels, or whatever else you may have on hand.

Fold the top of the bag down, and then your child can cut out the roof. Help them with estimating a good size if they need it. They can also decorate the roof if they want to.

When ready, fold roof in half and place on top of the bag. Two staples will hold it. And now your child has a paper bag house.

*Young children will have more success cutting (you can start as young as two) with a good pair of safety scissors. I love Fiskars Kid's Scissors. They do not have guards on the blades, but they are designed so that they will not cut fingers! And I don't get perked to tell you this. It's just an awesome product that I love and use.

This post may be linked at the following parties (for their Blog Buttons see my Link Love page): (M) C.R.A.F.T., Amaze Me Monday, Sumo's Sweet Stuff,  (T) A Little Birdie Told Me  Stories of A to Z, The Blackberry Vine, How To's Day , Type A, Amaze Me August, , Show Me What Ya Got,  (W) Wow Me,  Blue Cricket Design, What I Whipped Up, Wicked Awesome Wednesday, Sweet Peas & Bumblebees (TH)   Creative Juice, Thrifty 101 , Smilemonsters , Everything But the Kitchen Sink, Shabby Chic Cottage, Thrifty Thursdays, House of Hepworth's,  (F) Fingerprints on the Fridge, Furniture Feature Friday,  Lovely Crafty Weekend , Remodelaholic, For the Kids Fridays, , Craft Goodies, (Sat) Tatertots and Jello , Anything Goes , Funky Junk Interiors (Sun) Creative Blog & Hop, Sundae Scoop, Under the Table and Dreaming

Don't know just what to do with myself...

Confession. I always hear that line (from the title) in Cameron Diaz's horrible singing from My Best Friend's Wedding. Aren't you glad I put that in your head?

Moving on. I scored these mason jars this summer.

But I haven't done anything with them.

Here's my dilemma. I love them as they are. I don't have a single use for them, and I feel like a good DIYer would find something clever to do with them, but sometimes I just love something for exactly what it is.

They have the glass lids and I don't have a single idea where I could keep the lids on, and that's probably the coolest part. Two of the three are blue glass as well.

Does this ever happen to you? Do you ever find something and you know you have no use for it as is, but you also can't bear to alter it?

So, give me advice people! If you were me, what would you do? Or what have you done. It's not a true link party, but feel free to post a url in the comments if you want us to check out your project.

This post may be linked at the following parties (for their Blog Buttons see my Link Love page): (M) C.R.A.F.T., Amaze Me Monday, Sumo's Sweet Stuff,  (T) A Little Birdie Told Me  Stories of A to Z, The Blackberry Vine, How To's Day , Type A, Amaze Me August, , Show Me What Ya Got,  (W) Wow Me,  Blue Cricket Design, What I Whipped Up, Wicked Awesome Wednesday, Sweet Peas & Bumblebees (TH)   Creative Juice, Thrifty 101 , Smilemonsters , Everything But the Kitchen Sink, Shabby Chic Cottage, Thrifty Thursdays, House of Hepworth's,  (F) Fingerprints on the Fridge, Furniture Feature Friday,  Lovely Crafty Weekend , Remodelaholic, For the Kids Fridays, , Craft Goodies, (Sat) Tatertots and Jello , Anything Goes , Funky Junk Interiors (Sun) Creative Blog & Hop, Sundae Scoop, Under the Table and Dreaming

Art Adventure: Fingerprint Pictures

Some things we get used to and forget the wonder of it all to a little person. One of those things: Fingerprints.

Fingerprint Pictures

Supplies:

• sponges
• paint
• paper
• marker

Wet a small sponge and then load it with paint. You want to be able to touch it and get paint on your finger, but not have it too goopy. I decided two colors was enough.

Have your child press their finger(s) onto the sponge and then press onto the paper to leave a fingerprint.

You can just enjoy this, or you can offer a marker and where dry, have your child add details. Can he or she make their fingerprint look like an animal? A person? Whatever they can imagine.

Woven Canvas Headboard

I finally made Big Man (also known as Gabe) a headboard. I've been meaning to get to this since June.

Over on Young House Love, Sherry put up a fabric headboard in the guest room. She assured me that it holds up well, so I decided to do a riff on her easy, inexpensive idea.

Upon measuring things, I settled on 54" x 36" dimensions and Matt constructed a simple frame of 2 x 2s. With a little math, I figured I could have 6 inch strips of canvas and come out evenly all around.

So, I got out a drop cloth. Just the kind you get for painting. This is 6 ft. x 9 ft.

I opened it half way and marked every six inches and made my cutting lines. 

By keeping it folded in half, I was able to cut the long lengths with less time/work. I'm not saying that well, but I am sure you get my meaning.

I laid 9 strips down on the floor and then laid the frame on top. 

I stapled each strip in place, wrapping it all the way to the back. I did this only along one edge.

Lifted it up and laid the 6 strips that would go horizontal on the ground and laid the frame back down. I stapled each of the strips to one side.

Then I turned it right-side up and began to weave the strips. 

The cat was most helpful as you can imagine!

 Having left two edges free, it was actually really quick to go over and under and then just tidy it up, smoothing and sliding and pulling each into place.

I lifted the edge off the ground and pull a strip tight and stapled. Once all were secure, I flipped it over, added more staples and trimmed the excess.

We screwed a 2 x 2 to Gabe's wall to act as a hanging cleat and simply hung the headboard on the cleat. Easy peasy.

Gabe is so proud of it. I like that it is neutral, but it has some texture and interest.

He's leaned on it to read, and no problems. It's a keeper!

This post may be linked at the following parties (for their Blog Buttons see my Link Love page): (M) Mad Skills , C.R.A.F.T., Amaze Me Monday, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Singing Three Birds,  Masterpiece Mondays, Making the World Cuter,  A Little Birdie Told Me (T) Stories of A to Z, The Blackberry Vine, How To's Day , Type A, Amaze Me August, Ten Buck Tuesday, Handmade Tuesdays, Anything Related, Tuesday's Treasures, Strictly Homemade, Show Me What Ya Got, Time to Shine,  (W) Wow Me,  Workshop Wednesday, Whassup Wednesday, Blue Cricket Design, Look What I Made, What I Whipped Up, The Trendy Treehouse, Wicked Awesome Wednesday , Good Life Wednesday, Inspiring Creativity, Sweet Peas & Bumblebees (TH) Beyond the Picket Fence  Creative Juice, Somewhat Simple, Thrifty 101 , Smilemonsters , Everything But the Kitchen Sink, Shabby Chic Cottage, Thrifty Thursdays, House of Hepworth's, Thrilling Thursday, (F) Fingerprints on the Fridge, Furniture Feature Friday, SevenThirtyThree , Lovely Crafty Weekend , Simply Designing, Creative Corner, Tickled Pink 504 Main, Inspiration Friday at The Picket Fence, Friday Flair, Remodelaholic, For the Kids Fridays, Frugal Friday, Craft Goodies,  Flaunt It Fridays , Thirty Handmade Days (Sat) Tatertots and Jello , Anything Goes (Sun) Creative Blog & Hop, Sundae Scoop, Under the Table and Dreaming