The beginnings of a kitchen makeover

I really love our kitchen, it is about 10 times bigger than our old one, and it is open to the family room, but I love the look of painted cabinets, so this week I am starting the process of painting all the cabinets. I like to paint, but the quicker I can achieve my desired outcome the better. So I found this paint at Lowes - Zinsser perma white - "Two coat system, no priming required!" I was sold.
The color I am using is a Sherwin Williams paint color (Softer Tan). I saw pictures in this blog with kitchen cabinets painted this color. It is a soft cream color. So I bought a quart of the Zinsser paint with the Softer tan color mixed in to try out. I painted one end of the counter and the island. And the 2 coats really do seem to cover well. It is just a long process, but I am really happy with the results so far.

Here is a before picture, this was about a week after we moved in. Kind of dark with the brown wall color and then the cabinets too.


















and the kitchen chairs got a makeover too - I spray painted them black (used Valspar grey primer and satin black paint). They now co-ordinate better with the black appliances and granite countertops - I may paint the table too, still thinking about that.




















Here is the island after new paint! I am very happy with the big change so far.


























now I have to paint these...... (I am thinking of a different color for inside the cabinets with open shelving, any suggestions)





















and these.......

and these too.....

eventually we will buy hardware for the cabinets too, but it won't be cheap - I have counted and we need 27 knobs and 14 drawer pulls. I think I want to get the bronze color to match the fawcet.

Maybe by next week I will be done with the painting the cabinets. I have to buy more paint first......

Yard sale finds

I am participating in the "I love Yard sales" blog party hosted by Rhoda at Southern Hospitality, make sure you check it out.

My friend Heather and I went to some local yard sales this weekend. Getting up at 6am on a Saturday, on my first weekend of my summer break from teaching did not seem like a great idea at first, but I'm so glad we went, I found some unique things.

First up this old shutter with the paint chipping off. It is old and shabby, but I really like it for an art piece and it was only $3.
It is in my front living room by this $2 original art piece I picked up at a Goodwill store in San Antonio. The old dresser it is sitting on is from a yard sale - it was $15.



















































Next is this sewing table, which I passed up earlier in the morning - it was marked $5. Heather bought a piece of furniture at the same sale and when she went back to pick it up the sewing table was still there so Heather picked it up for me, FREE! This is after I taped off the top and spray painted it black (it was scratched up). I liked the dark color of the wood so the rest of it I just touched it up with a stain pen.



Here is the table re-purposed as an end table in my family room.




























This picture shows my favorite ever yard sale find - this green chair was $24.
The shelf beside it I picked up on Friday at Goodwill for $12.99. It is old and rustic but the things in this room are starting to come together. The white chest I talked about in thisprevious post.
































Last but not least, this heavy iron chair I also found on Saturday with Heather - it was $7. Over the upcoming weeks I am on the look out for more patio chairs and things like this for the back yard!





















"Mommy when are you going to stop taking pictures and look at my Star Wars guy?"

Time at the farm and another furniture "re-do"

We visited Chris' aunt and cousins today at the family farm in East Texas. It was a good day to be out and enjoying the outdoors. On the drive out there I started reading Oh My Stars by Lorna Landvik - I have read 2 or 3 other books by her, it is a good book!

The kids enjoyed some of this swinging:





















we enjoyed wildflowers on our walk.





























































some of the locals thought we were coming to feed them - see one of these things not like the others?











































Thomas was a happy boy, plenty of rocks and sticks to collect on this walk.










































and plenty of this swinging for my girl who has always loved to swing












































and here is what we brought back - this cedar chest has been in Chris' family since the 1960s, so not an antique, but I guess you could call it 'vintage'.



it has seen better days though, some of the wood veneer was broken, and some scratches and damage on the top.































After some white semi gloss spray paint












Right now it is in the front living room and it's a place for some pillows and to sit under my black and white picture from IKEA that reminds me of walking down that road at the farm.


One day when we get a new couch in here this may make a good coffee table, or it may make it's way upstairs to my bedroom for extra storage.

Thank you Nana!

Thomas was so happy with his birthday packages - all the new clothes, especially the spideman stickers! He is pretty good about posing to have his picture taken now. And usually Molly never sits still at all so this is a rare picture with her too! The flowering plant in the background I got last week as one of my gifts for teacher appreciation week.

Vacation

I have the best mother's day / anniversary / birthday / Christmas gift this year! We are going to New Zealand to visit my family in July. Me and the kids will stay a month. I don't mind missing the hottest part of the Texas summer at all.

Chris will go with us for 2 weeks and we're going to have a 3 day family stay in Disneyland in California on the way. It will be the kids first "Disney" experience, so they are excited to say the least!

The pictures above as well as the one on the header on my blog were taken on our last trip in 2007. It will be Kate's 6th trip and Thomas' 4th.

Drop cloth drapes

One of my favorite blogs to read The Lettered Cottage has some great ideas to decorate inexpensively. I wanted to try the drop cloth drapes for upstairs in the kids playroom but there was a window without any curtains in the living room so I tried them there first and I like it so much the kids playroom will have to wait. I got the drop cloths from Wal-mart for $8.97 each.
I just washed, dried and hung them - they probably would look better if I ironed them too























a picture of the main part of this room - the pillow covers are from Pottery barn ($8 on clearance) and so are the fake lemons in the lantern. I also got a tall white candle from Wal-mart to go in there today (not in the picture). I really should have closed the bathroom door before taking this picture. And that piece of wood on the wall was from a baby gate the previous owners had attached there.
The new rug is from Target, not only is it nice and soft underfoot, but it stops the furniture from sliding on the wood floors.




















the valances I have on the other side of the room, and also on the kitchen / dining area windows. (Sorry the picture is dark, a lot of light comes in these windows)

I did find the body pillows were on sale for $5 each and I couldn't pass up this cute pillow cover (I love owls and it reminds me of this
collection from Pottery barn kids, so my daughter will be happy she got something for the playroom, perfect for laying on to watch tv.

More projects

swingset before and after pictures


































pond before





















pond "after" - Chris got a new pump and got it all in working order