smoke

Is the new, lovely color that has found it's way onto my lower kitchen cabinets. I was never totally feeling the taupe. Always just looked like my lower cabs were dirty. Of course, now it looks like my dishwasher is dirty. Just that ugly staining that kind of dishwasher gets as it ages. We'll deal with it for a few months, then hubby has promised me a new one! :)

I had some reservations repainting what I'd just paid a guy to do for me a little over a year ago. But, I've been obsessed with the idea of going blue/gray long before I did the taupe. I played it safe, and it didn't pay off. I'm happy now. Least until the color scheme completely changes in my house again :)





                                                    Benjamin Moore Baby Fawn

Benjamin Moore Smoke

outside changes

I thought I'd wait to post on some of the things we've done outside, till the lawn was nice, green...lush. But, this here drought we're havin' in the Midwest is NOT agreeing with that plan. Dear Lord..send us some rain!!! It's awful!! And brown..and dead. Sigh.
So, I've snapped some pics and will go ahead and show off the few little things we did back in the Spring.

The door. Oh..the white, boring door.

 I took off the hardware, and spray painted it ORB. And David painted the door with a Valspar's Green Apple. Fresh, clean...cheerful. Lovin' it!
.

The following wk he knocked out a couple of sets of shutters, then we painted them black. All very inexpensive changes. But, big ones in our eyes. Both things are something we've been dying to do since we bought the place. 6 yrs ago!

 And you can see some SERIOUS tree growth over the years! And to think..the one on the right almost got yanked out for "failure to thrive", haha!

the evolution of a living room

Snapped some more pics this weekend of some of the changes that have taken place over the last year of our living room. It's been fun looking back and seeing how drastic our taste has change. All that red...yikes!! So, glad that phase is over :)

This space actually started with these little dinky white framed pictures. Here we thought we really stepped it up by changing the frames out to dark ones, LOL. gotta luv the plain, postage stamp of an area rug.

And this is where that rug was replaced. Of course, like everything..I'm over this rug. I've looked for awhile for a replacement. But, haven't found one I'm willing to spend the $$ on. Because, the next one isn't going to be just another "quick fix". We also ditched the recliner. This is the set up we use every Christmas when the tree goes in front of the windows. And I always hated putting everything back. So,  two years ago..we just didn't. We lived with nothing in front of the window for 6 months. Waiting, and shopping to find the perfect 
chair.

Now we have some big changes. Replaced the coffee table, which I'd been dying to do. And everything just took off from there. Once that awful honey oak eye sore was gone, the rest slowly started to get picked off.

The over bearing red curtains..poof! Gone! Replaced with nice, crisp white ones. The purchase of our little IO Metro occasional chair. And some pillow changes.

Behind the couch, we had this going on

And once things started to "lighten up", it went to this.

And then finally...the bookcases I've been dreaming about since we bought the place. Magically appeared!! Ok, not so magically. It was days of work for my hubby. Which BTW..I think he totally rocked it!

So, here's a little before and after picture recap

So, there ya have it. In about a year..it'll all change again :)

not a fan of the ceiling fan

But, I AM a fan of this pretty little thing now hanging in our bedroom!!
Last week, while I watched our ceiling fan shoot sparks (and dust) across the room my first thought was "shoot, gonna have to get a new fan". Knowing full well that was the direction we were headed. As David has always thought designers were nuts when they took out fans, and put up new lighting on the decorating shows. We both actually prefer the constant circulation of air that a fan provides, so it's never really been up for discussion.
Made a trip to Lowe's, and found a fan we both liked. Then I snuck off to lighting..and oohed and ahhed over several purty, little chandeliers. It was clear he wasn't on board. We then trucked on over to Wal-mart to see what they had to offer..just in case we could swing this at a cheaper price. And there was this ADORABLE little Hunter retro table fan.

Hubby agreed it looked great, and would give it a try. Once home, we knew we were in love! It actually provided more air through out then the ceiling fan. It was adorable and wouldn't be a huge dust collector!
So, on to the hunt for the perfect light.....
I did some google searches, and knew I'd have to be pretty thrifty. And I came across a few different chandeliers at Home Depot. Oh, how I'd love to walk into an antique store and pick up an awesome vintage light. But, that wasn't gonna happen.
When I came across this little beauty at the bargain, or shall I say "Internet special" price of $49 (originally $99) my first thought was...piece of junk. Surely, how could this be any good at all?

But, after reading the reviews..I decided what the heck? For $50 bucks, we'll go look at it. If it's terrible..we move on.
So, I called the store to make sure they had one in. And talked to a gentleman who also told me he'd honor the Internet price. Cool beans!
When we got there, we couldn't find it hanging as an example. At least, we didn't think we were seeing it. I was looking for something small...fake looking. But, once we were in possession of the box they were holding up front for me..I realized we DID see it. And it was BEAUTIFUL! Seriously..in person, it doesn't look like a cheap piece of poop.
When we were checking out, the lady seemed shocked I was offered the Internet price, because their in store sale price was $77. I assured her Chad told me I could have it at that price. So, she rang us up!
It was a little time consuming to put up. But, we knew it would be. Not a big deal, though.
And we're loving it!! And hey..did I mention..it's acrylic!?! :) Which BTW..you totally can NOT tell in person!

And here's a flash back of what the room was like when the bed was on the other wall. And was oak.  Two wall colors, and 4 bedding sets ago.

the blue kitchen table

We did it! We painted the kitchen table a BEAUTIFUL blue color from Sherwin Williams. It's Georgian Bay, and I couldn't love it any more!
I was hesitant...as always. Thinking maybe we should just refinish the table, and go with a darker stain? Maybe white? Even thought about black for a bit.
But, I wanted bold. And I think we got it!!

This was the space just a few short months ago. And look at it now!!

New DIY curtains, hubby's wonderful built in bench (still need to find fabric and make cushion), little art gallery wall, lovely MASKROS light from Ikea. And my pretty, little blue table!
This little nook in our home, was such an eye sore. And now it's one of my favorite spots in the house!!

Here, we didn't have the leaf in yet. Still not sure if that's staying, or going.

Wow..so glad I'm over that "red stage" :) 

And could the table be any more off centered from the picture?? lol 

And of course, when painting the table..I had to go for a slightly distressed look. Especially with all these boys banging around at meals, and running hot wheels across the table :)

Instagram

New app, that I'm diggin' on the iphone!

floor pillows

My sister sent me the cool, funky cow print one. And I just loved it so much...I sent hubby to Sam's club to get a second. The boys love them!

Our little eating "nook"

Just like the wonderful bookcase David built for me last month, this project has been on our minds for years!
This poor corner of our space has been the ugly duckling all these years.

Just an old honey oak table, chairs that came with the set..and a random picture hung on the wall.  I upgraded chairs to black ones, which helped. As well as a cute, black bench David built for along the wall to make it easier for the little ones to get to that side of the table. (Of course, can't find any pictures of that look)
And it also didn't take us but a couple years to get rid of that red!!

I still need to make a cute, little covered cushion. Maybe some small pillows. And would love to find a rug eventually. And paint the table. I'm thinkin' a pretty funky blue, but I'm just a little skeered!

Here's some pics of the project as we (or shall I say David) busted it out!

And for the wall, we went with the ever blog popular faux board and batten.

Little gallery wall. Made mostly of pics my kiddos have made.