Summer house updates

 

It's been quite some time since I updated this blog, not that I am not still doing a lot around this house, we have just had a really busy summer.  On the Sunday before I am due to go back to my teaching job I thought I would share a few house updates for anyone that might still be out there reading.  We have had a fantastic summer with trips to San Francisco, and then New Zealand for 5 weeks so I have lots of those pictures to share too.  I thought I'd share some house pictures in this first post though.

 

I bought these new dining chairs for $20 each.  The person I bought them from said they were made in Dresden, Germany after WWII.  They are in great condition, just needed a little update with the fabric.  The picture below is the original fabric.

 

Then with new fabric:

(I didn't have to buy any, I just re-used from some World Market chair covers I had)

I love my new chairs.  At the beginning of the summer I had started re-painting the kitchen cabinets, starting with the island I painted a darker gray, and all the outer cabinets I painted "Simply White".  I am really happy with the change and the kitchen is a lot brighter and great to show off my vintage Fiesta and other dishes.  I took off the cabinet doors above the fridge to have more display space too.

 

The new chairs go perfectly with my maple Ethan Allen table I bought a few months previous.  Here it is with one of the extra leaves added

 

On this side is all our "everyday dishes" of fiestaware.  I cleared out the drawer below on the left for all my teas.

 

Even the pantry got a little update with new handles to match the other cabinet hardware.

 

And another summer find is this little arm chair, I found at a resale shop for $20.  The fabric is in perfect condition and the frame was already painted that pretty light blue.

 

And even our old door from the garage that leads through the laundry room into the kitchen got a makeover with a coat of dark gray. 

Blue paint

Back in August I wrote about this new pink find.  This looked good in Kate's room and it was good to have the extra storage, but as I was doing her little room makeover, I thought it would really be better for her to have a desk.

So that's why this pretty in pink went from this:


to this:

That little can of blue paint has gone a long way, I used it on the kids' bathroom cabinets, and my dresser/ tv cabinet in the family room

Birthday room makeover

Kate was away last week at a retreat for confirmation so I did a little unplanned surprise makeover in her room.  Instead of slightly messy poster wall, I printed out pictures of her favorite people and quotes (all from google images or pinterest), and bought some in-expensive frames from Target.

This framed picture she had I flipped over and made into a chalkboard.

I also gave her my green desk from downstairs and the big pink dresser that was in here is now down in my office, and it got a makeover too, as the bright pink did not fit in with my other colors downstairs.

Also new was the IKEA frame I painted blue and the lamps and love pillow (from Target).

Poetry Blog

My husband Chris has a poetry blog, and he is on day 144 of 365 writing a poem a day.

He writes the poems by hand then types them up on his $4 typewriter I bought him at a garage sale.  He has been writing poetry for a long time.

So, go "follow" his blog too:
http://talesfromthetyper.blogspot.com/

New table and fabric

I've been wanting a round table for the kitchen for a while now.  A friend was selling a solid maple one, so I got lucky!  It also came with 3 leaves, so if we ever have a lot of people over we can extend it to make a much bigger table!

I may get some different chairs, or paint these ones....

Another project I've been thinking of is turning my old coffee table into an ottoman, so a little money spent on foam and quilt batting and fabric, so now I have a brand new coffee table / ottoman:

I had too much fabric, so my office chair got a makeover:

as did this other little stool:

Happy New Year!

Wow, it's been about 5 months since I last posted here.  I had a few new home finds and changes to share though.

Just this weekend I found this little china cabinet, already painted and stained in an antique style finish.  I changed out the knobs to these from Anthropologie (on sale $2.99 each)

I gave away my big book shelf to a friend but I love this little piece and can change out the pieces depending on what I want to display.

We bought this old printers tray a couple of months ago to display some little collections of my grandmother's thimbles and other little pieces.

Also I painted the french doors to my office.  They were stained a dark color, but they were a bit too dark with the new wall paint, I like them a lot better now.

my art / family picture wall is a mix-match of things, but I like every little thing up there

my other china cabinet with some of my blue fiestaware and other pieces

and this dresser moved downstairs and is good storage for more china pieces, board games and linens

another "baby ben" clock

and another recent find, the "persimmon" fiesta ware cups from GOODWILL!   This persimmon, turquoise and gray are my favorite colors of fiesta ware, but I have some yellow, green and other colors too, I really love it all.

and I bought these new lamp shades from Pottery barn with a Christmas gift card, I love them too.