The Black is Back! - Painted Front Door

I've been a long-time lover of a good, unique colored door. I even created a specific Pinterest board, just for them. My only problem though, is that I have a hard time committing to a really bright, loud, specific color, because I'd rather accent with those shades instead... hence the reason that I ALWAYS opt for the classic black, when it comes to our front entryway door :)

In our last house we hired Justin from Southwest painting to come and spray our door, and he did an amazing job. So naturally, we hired him and his awesome crew again, to fancy up our new houses door!

They tape off the space really well that they're spraying, with a plastic tent-type structure, and then get to work.

Faux Barn Wood Painting DIY Tutorial!

Okay guys, are you ready to revisit the Faux Barn Wood Painting tutorial!?...

I ask if you're ready, because there are about a trillion photos. ha! Even though this process is SO easy, and relatively quick... I wanted to make sure that I didn't miss anything important that you may need to know, when attempting this barn wood look on your own.

If you remember from this post from our last house where we custom built this worktable around two Ikea draw units...then you now that this is where we used our barn wood painting technique. 

At this point, if you're not into the whole "barn wood look", then you can just stain it, or paint it whatever color you want! But I love to mix different styles together, especially when they're close to each other, to add visual interest, so I went all barn-wood-crazy on this tabletops be-hind!

:)

I'm admitting right now, I am NOT a furniture refinisher/painter. It's just NOT a skill that I pretend to posses. I mean... I'll paint a small table, or an occasional frame, but I actually have most of our large furniture sent to my friend Sausha who sprays everything flawlessly, when I need something refinished really well.

I tell you this because there is NOTHING technical about how I came up with this finish. I was just messing around in the garage, pulling out cans of whatever I had on hand, until my scrap piece of wood looked juuuust right :)

I've broken this tutorial down into 4 main steps, so it's easier to follow. But the great thing about this painting technique is that it can really vary in color however you'd like! Darker, lighter, more or less 'distressed' looking. Just play around with it and have fun!

Painting: Questions Answered + Saving Time & Frustration

Since our last post; Tips for Picking out your Next Paint Color, we've had a couple of questions come in that I wanted to address, PLUS a few painting tips we want to share.

First, yes, Autumn Haze by Glidden IS what we have in our living room and like I mentioned before, most of our house, upstairs and down.

Because our basement is so dark and there's only one large window in the family room space, the Autumn Haze DOES tend to look a tad bit creamier/darker down there, than up stairs where there's LOTS of natural light all the time. This doesn't bother me at all, but just a heads up for those of you painting rooms without great natural lighting.

Tips for Picking Out Your Next Paint Color

A few days ago I went with Cason and his Mom to pick out a bunch of paint swatches for her new house. Cason's parents had been living in the same home for over 13 years, and after they raised all 6 of their kids and served a mission in Africa, they decided that it was time for a change... so they bought the loveliest home up on the mountain, with a killer view, not too far from where they lived before.

The house itself is in awesome condition, and only about 7 years old. The layout is perfect, and the moldings are beautifully done, with attention to detail around every corner. I sort of love it, if you can't tell :)

Something that isn't Cason's parents favorite though, are the paint colors. For them, it's just a little too dark and mustardy, so they're looking to lighten everything up a bit. 

Initially I was thinking Glidden's Autumn Haze (of course), mostly because it's what we have throughout our entire home, and also because it's been my favorite go-to neutral paint color for the past 3 years; but we also snagged a few other options that we wanted to try out too.

Table Redo for $12 - Holla! + My Best Tips on How to Spray Paint Furniture

Over the years I've gotten LOTS of emails with questions about this little' ol table in our entryway. I have to agree with almost everyone in saying that it's pretty much the PERFECT size for an entryway like mine. Measuring at around 56 inches wide, 35 inches tall and 11 inch wide, this lovely lady has been with us through thick and thin, and will probably always have a place in our home, one way color or another.

:)

You know how you have something for SO long that you sometimes forget where you even got it? Well, that's happened to me once or twice with this piece, actually. I finally asked Cason where we snagged this, and he reminded me that it was from a friend who was moving about 8 years ago. He recalls that we paid $20 for it. This whole time I was thinking we picked it up at our local thrift store.

Yikes, bad memory. ha!

You can read all about our table redo, when we painted this baby white, but just so you know, it originally started out in natural wood, then went deep red with a black stain, transitioned into white with a glaze and now, we're goin' a pretty shade of green... well, Jade, to be exact.

:)

When we painted this table white we rolled it with latex paint and a non-textured roller. This time, since I've been diggin' the whole sprayin' scene lately, I thought we'd try spray painting this table instead, and along the way share some tips and tricks with all of you.

First, we removed the hardware from the drawers and doors. I always put mine in a plastic bag, to make sure they all stay together.

As you can see, our table has been beaten up, and stained (due to a plant that leaked some water while we were away on a 3 day long vacation). No worries though, I just took a 100 grit sandpaper to the top of it, and evened everything out. The sanding got rid of most of the yellow water stains, and a few of the nicks and scratches... but any deep gouges from kids or decor, I didn't really stress over. It gives the table character and a natural "distressed" look that I sort of like.

Because our table wasn't finished with a lacquer or super-shiny paint, I didn't have to worry about reaaaally sanding hard-core. Just a light once-over was enough. Then to make sure I got rid of any dust, I used a dry cloth to wipe any unwanted dust particles away.

In the Kyrlon 24 in 24 challenge, we used this Jade color on a bathroom vanity redo, and I LOVED it! Since then I've been wanting to get my hands on some so I could spray something in my own house this shade. One coat brings out the greens in this color, two & three deepens it a LOT more and then you see all the blues that are combined as well. LOVE it!

Project Basement Makeover - The Best way to Paint Baseboards

Alright, now that we've got our home buying history and the story of our basement all explained...

Come on, you can't say "nitty-gritty" without thinking about and saying it like Ignacio (aka: Nachooooo!)

Last week was sort of a bust... literally.

I was trying to whip up some healthy wheat, zucchini muffins for me and Cason and accidentally 'busted' my glass sugar jar on the edge of the counter. Stupidly, my initial reaction was to catch the jar (to save it, because I LOVE the style of these canisters so much and they're hard to find) but once I did so, I realized that that wasn't such a great idea. Ack! Let's just say that the shock of finding an instant small pool of blood on the floor, from a pretty gnarly cut in my hand, was enough to almost make me pass out.

In true blogger fashion I snagged my phone to document the mess, until Cason yelled at me to stop walking around because I was leaving drops of blood everywhere.
(sheesh, where are my priorities!? lol)

I tried my hardest to get the bleeding to stop on it's own, but by the next morning I had come to terms with the fact that I was probably gonna need a doctors help in that area. So a few hundred dollars, (a slight infection from waiting too long to get my cut looked at) and a couple of stitches later (my very FIRST stitches EVER, to be exact)... I was back in business.

...sort of.

We were right in the middle of painting our basement and we'd both been going back and forth on who should take the daunting task of painting baseboards. Well, since it's sort of a one-handed job, guess who got it? uuuugh.

To be honest, I was actually okay with it because it meant that progress was still being made and that's all that mattered at this point. Also, I feel like painting baseboards is a lot like folding laundry, doing a big sink-full of dishes or vacuuming. You dread doing it initially, but once you get started, it's oddly therapeutic. Maybe it's because it's a mindless, time consuming task, but either way... it hasn't been too bad.

Don't get me wrong, it's not my favorite thing to do (far from it, actually), but about 20 minutes into it I was REALLY happy I at least had the tools I did, that made the whole 'baseboard-painting-process' move a lot quicker; so I thought I would share some of those tools with you as well!

We covered a few of these tips in our how to paint trim work & moldings post, so you can check that out if you want too.

Basically there are 3 key things to remember when painting baseboards.

Use a Great Brush

Pick the right Paint in the right Sheen

and

Protect your Walls and Flooring

Project: Basement Makeover - Our House History & Painting

Whew! Are you guys ready for this? Good!

I'm not gonna lie, I sort of feel like I'm sharing a deep, dark secret by showing you our basement and telling you the real story behind it all. You'll see more why a little later on.

 Nevertheless, it's got to be done, so here we go...

Welcome to our first basement walk-through in our home.

Yup, we were just babies havin' babies when we built our first (and current) house 6 years ago.

Wait, let me back up for a second to give you some perspective on how things have actually gone down for us and our house history over the past 8 years.

Our VERY first "house", right after getting married was a basement apartment in a really old home that Cason's Dad owned, that we both helped remodel and build. (who knew that DIY'ing homes was going to be a constant life-long job/hobby for us!?!?) We don't even have photos, so I had to google map it, but you get the idea... and yes, it looks like a cave. ( felt like one too)

It was infested with spiders ALL the time, the shower had a really yucky smell that would seep up through the drain, so we would neatly place a toilet plunger over it after showering, the windows leaked when there were big rain storms and Cason had to duck down a lot, just to get through the door jams and one of the hallways. BUT, we were in total marital bliss, so to us, it was perfect.

:)

A Kitchen Re-Style: Part 4 - Cabinets & Backsplash

It's definitely time for another kitchen re-style post, don't ya think?

If you missed parts 1-3, then you'll want to catch up on those, below.

  

If you remember, last time we were in the actual kitchen, we installed our new sink... and YES, I'm still smitten by our Ikea farmhouse sink EVERY day. For those of you who have wondered, emailed and asked, I'm happy to say that it's held up perfectly!!! I 100% recommend it.

I have to be totally honest in saying that this next update is something that I've been a little timid to post about, because I know how many of you have voiced your strong opinions on how sad it would be if we were to paint over our beautiful wood cabinetry.

Well guess what?... don't hate us too much, but we went ahead and did it. Eeeeek!

We lived with our new farmhouse sink and lighter granite counter tops for a few weeks and ultimately, we knew that in order to get the COMPLETE look that we were going for, we'd have to take the plunge of painting our cabinets too.

So I called Copper Canyon Design back in to start the process.

Yup, you read that right. We HIRED out our cabinet painting and did NOT Do-It-Ourselves.

***GASP!***

Yes, we believe in DIY'ing lots of things, but when it comes to cabinets that we were going to be looking at and using EVERY day, we knew we couldn't get a flawless, glossy, durable, smooth finish like the professionals could. Plus... Cason and I totaled up how much it would cost us to DIY our cabinets, verses having Nic and Jeff do them and guess what? With the cost of a sprayer, paint supplies and other equipment we'd have to buy, we were only going to save a couple hundred bucks... and that doesn't include the TIME and LABOR that we would have had to put into the project! Then ultimately, after Jeff and Nic told us that the whole cabinet painting process for our kitchen was only going to take about a week from start to finish... it literally took us not even 2 minutes to make the choice that we were going to leave painting our cabinets and building out our island to the pros, who were already well-equipped with everything they needed.

The process started with the removing of cabinet doors and drawers. Those were taken off-site to be sprayed and finished with a lacquer-based paint. 

Once all those were out of the way Nic started in by painting the faces of our cabinets.

Because I wanted our kitchen to look a bit more unique and customized than it did before, I chose to paint the island a really light gray and build it out a bit with a panel design that Nic and I came up with.

Even just having the cabinet fronts painted white changed the entire look of the kitchen right away, and I quickly KNEW that we were onto something good

:)

Color my Room with MyColortopia by Glidden

This past year we've talked quite a bit about Glidden's awesome tools from their MyColortopia site.

If you're new and haven't had a chance to visit and explore, basically, MyColortopia is a site full of great ideas on how to decorate with color and bring your house to life, with tips and tricks shared by lots of your favorite bloggers. It's a destination where people who are easily overwhelmed by interior design decisions and painting can get advice, guidance and inspiration... and no matter how awesome we think we are, we ALL fall into the "overwhelmed category" with room makeovers from time to time, am I right?

MyColortopia offers a few really cool tools you can use to help you plan out your next room makeover. One we posted about before was the My Life, My Colors tool, to help you find out what color schemes best represent YOU, based on a few multiple choice questions that you answer about your personality and lifestyle.  Another great resource that we shared was the Show Your Colors feature. This was awesome because it lets any homeowner submit their before and after photos from spaces they've redone in their house, so they can share it with others! You know me, I LOVE a good before and after... and I love lookin' in on other people and how they live.
:)

 

So now I'm REALLY excited to show you this brand new tool that MyColortopia released called Color my Room. Guys... it's freakin' AWESOME! Since our little laundry room is still a blank canvas and we have yet to do much to it since the last time we talked about it, I thought it would be fun to play around with this new color tool to get a few different looks.

DIY Gold Rimmed Dinner Glasses & Striped Napkin Rings

Just as I promised, today's post is a quick tutorial all about our super simple, yet extravagant looking gold rimmed dinner glasses and striped napkin rings that we used for our Christmas tablescape this year.

Cason and I looked high and low for gold rimmed glasses to add that elegant touch to our table setting, but all we could find were wine glasses that were always WAY too expensive and only came in sets of four. Since Cason and I don't drink and our kiddos would be using the glasses too, we decided that our glassware needed to be something that was a lot more substantial, less expensive and not quite as fragile. 

We spotted this set of 12 footed goblets from World Market for only about $24 and knew that they would be the perfect shape, but didn't have a gold rim. So we thought... "If we can't find 'em, we'll just make them ourselves!"

With the help of some leftover ScotchBlue painters tape, some mulit-surface acrylic Martha Stewart gold craft paint and a foam brush, we were in business!

Master Bathroom Vanity Makeover

Yippy-skippy! This week is going to be ALL about our Master Bathroom Makeover, and today I thought we'd start out with a few post links and reminders of things we've already covered/conquered in this itty-bity space.

This small bathroom has DEFINITELY, by FAR been our longest, most design challenging project to date, and Cason and I both agreed that it was because we kept trying to make the space bigger, better and more grand... when it wasn't really possible. ha! Once reality hit and we figured out that walls couldn't be knocked down and our coffin-type shower wasn't getting ripped out and replaced (due to having no budget for that) we finally came to peace with our design plan and moved forward.

:) 

To read individual posts about progress made on our master bath so far, click on the images below.

   

   

  

Now that you've gotten up to speed on some of the posts you might have missed over the past TWO YEARS... yes, it's taken us THAT long to get around to finally finishing and posting about this freakin' bathroom... we wanted to show you in a few posts this week, some more up-close details and tutorials on how we refinished a few specific areas in this space, to make our master bathroom feel and look as good as we could possibly make it.

First, is our vanity!

Because our master bathroom is super small, we knew that our vanity area (taking up as much room as it did) was really going to have to set the tone for almost our entire space.

Just a quick reminder: Cason leans more towards a modern style, and I tend to go heavy on the cottage-feel... so mixing the two together in perfect harmony can sometimes be a little challenging, but in our experience it always has a pretty great result!

So we moved forward with clean crisp white cupboards (with slight distressing) and sleek modern pulls and handles. This is what we came up with in the end!

We love it, and it definitely reflects our style a LOT better than the look we had before.

Here's how we did it: