Updating our Kitchen Chalkboard, plus a Valentine's Craft

I just like to paint things.  Nothing is safe in our house.  When I updated our little desk to navy it was pretty obvious I needed to update the kitchen chalkboard that hangs out with it as well.

Way back when, I found a nice sized piece of framed wood in our shed.  I'm really not sure what it was originally intended for but it looked like the perfect thing to turn into a chalkboard for our kitchen - so I did.  We have loved it but once again it was time for a change with some paint.  When our little desk received its navy paint update, the teal frame on our chalkboard was just not working with mint green walls and a navy desk.

I really considered white for the frame but I wasn't sold.  I checked our stash of paints and found a little paint sample I picked up a while back.

I'm pretty sure it was a pre-made sample that was on sale for $.50.  It was one of those, you never know purchases.  I can't help but always peruse the oops paint section at the hardware stores.  Sometimes there are decent colors to be had and at crazy cheap prices.  Matter of fact, our mudroom floor paint was found in the oops section. I scored a whole gallon of gray paint for $5.00 and then the nice lady tinted it darker for me.  So moral of the story, it never hurts to check out the paint when out and about.

A little tape around the edge and a couple of coats of paint and I was done.  Free, simple and quick.  I used a little foam roller and a small brush for the cracks.

As you can tell this chalkboard gets a lot of use.

I love the new update and I am loving the calmer feeling that we have going on in this little area of the house now.

Over the weekend Justin was out of town taking our students on their Winter Retreat so I took the time to be crafty and have a dance party.  I'm not normally one to decorate for Valentine's day but I got into the mood and couldn't stop.  I have some more to share tomorrow, but for now here is a little scrappy banner I whipped up - anyone can do this.

If you can cut with scissors and tie a knot, you are a crafter - fist bump.  I used old t-shirts, an old lace tablecloth and some ribbon...all from my scrap fabric stash.  Just cut a bunch of strips - they can be jagged and uneven it doesn't matter at all, t-shirt material is especially forgiving.  Then find some yarn, string or ribbon and tie all of your little strips along it.  

That's it, you have a sweet little scrappy, vintage looking banner to hang up anywhere your heart desires.

You can make these for any occasion and I have and will.  Tomorrow I have a bunch more Valentine's crafts to share with you, they are all easy too!  

Thanks for visiting, I'm off to celebrate my 33rd year today!

A glimpse of 2013

Its always crazy when another year has come and gone and truly humbling to take a moment to look back at the last year and remember the great moments, milestones and memories the past year holds.  There were so many things I wanted to include here and it was so difficult to narrow each month down to one glimpse.  We have had so many great opportunities and moments together as a family and friends this year and some awesome moments in student ministry.  Taking a look back definitely puts things in perspective and fuels the fire to move forward and run towards the goal even more.  I can't wait to see what 2014 holds and so thankful for each day 2013 has given.

I also had fun going back and remembering some of my favorite blog projects of the last year.  Here are a few that I enjoyed..

1. Easy Herringbone Table
2. DIY Fabric Ottoman - I was chosen for the Pinterest Challenge and blown away!
3. Making fun crafts with Silas
4. Finally posting about our finished Exterior Paint Job
5. Building our Patio
6. Getting Organized
7. Making wreaths
8. Easy Deer Silhouette
9. Our Christmas Home Tour

Thank you so much for joining me on the blog this year.  I'm so thankful for all of you!  Happy New Year!!!

Hiding the Water Heater

We love the character our home has. Its old, its not perfect but we kind of like it that way.  However, there are some things that we really just don't like.  For example, the giant black box covering the old wood stove exit pipe in our kitchen or the fact that our water heater just sits in plain view in our laundry room.  I guess if we had a real laundry room, with a door, it wouldn't be such a big deal but our house is not set up that way. Our "laundry room"  is a part of a shared space that is very much part of our house.  Here's some photos to show you what I'm talking about...

Ok, so here is our laundry room on the day we moved in.  This was probably one of the most ugly spots in our house.  This is also the direct view from our bedroom.  

This room sat untouched for a while as we worked on other things.  But you can see the doors in the photo.  The left photo is our bathroom and the right is our closet.  This is also an exit for our backyard - so we get lots of traffic through here.

So we started painting to brighten things up - we love the cheery yellow.  But the eyesore in the corner drove me crazy.  It also became the storage spot for things like our broom and steam mop...we don't have any sort of pantry or closet for those things.  I also have a little basket for trash back here - when I pull out the gum wrappers from pockets and also the lint from the dryer.  

So I found a simple solution for now - peg boards.  I actually already had these up in the attic.  So I pulled them down, gave them a little paint job, added a few brackets and I was done!

Bye, bye ugly water heater.

Something so small as hiding the water heater has made me love this space so much more.  One day I would love to get a stackable washer and dryer and then re-work this laundry space.  For now though, our washer and dryer work and we have bigger projects to think about so its staying this way.

I love how much brighter this space is becoming...

Hope you guys had a wonderful weekend!  I have more organizing going on and more projects to share this week!  

A Bench & Vanity Remake

Today we have some Simple ways to bring ugly furniture you try to hide into pieces that you want to show off.  Two pieces coming at you today.  Both are antique in nature and both required some sprucing up.  First is our sweet little bench we've had for years, it's seen better days.  And next is our cute antique vanity that Justin got for me a few years back - it's in a major need of a paint job and maybe even a little knob upgrade.  Here's a before pic of how it was in our guest room last week:

Yes, that's jungle safari parrot fabric covering this bench.  No comment.

Up close shots of the bad paint job on the vanity-

Ok, so first let's start with the bench.  I immediately ripped off the fabric and to my surprise revealed a cute toile fabric print underneath, not too bad.  I happen to really love toile.  But, it was looking pretty old and dingy and just didn't look that good.  

So I was off to search for a new fabric to cover the bench with.  I wanted something somewhat neutral and of course something reasonably priced.  I found a really great etsy site with a bunch of cute fabrics to choose from - Fabrics You Love - they are also very reasonably priced and I love supporting fellow etsy shop owners!  Here's a couple of the fabric I bought:

I decided to go with the striped fabric for this project and use the other print for a future project - both will be pieces used in the same room though so I love how they both share the same gray neutral tone.

Before I started on the reupholstering I decided to paint the bench a softer color.  I had a little paint leftover from Silas' room that worked perfectly - and you know how I love a free upgrade. (PS - It's Olympic zero VOC paint, in case anyone was wondering).

So reupholstering a bench like this is really rather easy.  After settling on a new fabric you just need a few tools, most importantly a staple gun.  I happen to love this simple tool.  Oh, also I decided to just recover over the existing toile fabric.  I could have ripped it off too but I guess I was lazy or wanted to make it harder for me - not sure which.  The striped fabric I used to recover wasn't not opaque enough so I needed a liner.  Luckily I just used a little curtain to back my bookcase with and had enough left over to use as a liner for this project.

A quick stapling of the curtain and I'm ready to cover with my new fabric.

To get a nice corner, just fold in your fabric - much like wrapping a present.

Reattach the seat portion back to the bench legs (mine just screwed back in) and that's it!  Such a simple project to brighten up a little piece of furniture!

Loving my neatly tucked in corners.

But wait, this post isn't over...maybe the most pictures ever in a post.  So I still needed to repaint our vanity and do something to the existing knobs.  

The knobs really weren't all that bad, I just wasn't feeling them in this room.  So a quick spray paint did the job.  I kept the vanity white - off the shelf Olympic paint and decided to keep the mirror unpainted.  This mirror is not the original mirror (although Justin was told that when he bought it - to his defense they were bought on different days - he received a call back from the shop owner a day after that he had "found" the mirror).  Either way, I like the way it looks.  Something about the wood and white work for me.

Still hasn't lost it's rustic charm, but it's much cleaner looking now with the new white coat of paint.

The new wall color and white trim look a thousand times better - just had to add that.

And now, all together...

Not a hugemungo difference but just enough to soften and clean everything up.  I love the clean and crisp look these pieces are now sporting.

Thanks for joining me today! 

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