Closet Transformations

This may be the most boring post EVER. BO-OOH-RING. But, I've had a few requests, so here's the new closets.

Imagine if you will a hallway with a closet with a door. (You have to imagine, because I don't have a photo.)

And now, imagine if you will, white trim around this closet. It will look so much better, I know it will. But, like Verizon, I give in to what people want, even though I'm not ready....(Did anyone get that? Bueller....? Bueller....?)

It certainly makes things feel more open. I do love it. The boys haven't gotten into it, in fact, they don't even care about the stuff in it.

Here's what I did to the bedroom closets:

(Imagine sliding, hollow-core, fake-oak closet doors as the before....)

And now:

(Gus' room)

LOVE.

(Jack's room, but the closet is shared with Porter.)

The boys love it because they can get dressed at the same time. And that in turn leads to less fighting! And that makes for happy parents.

Why aren't those stripes matching up? Why aren't those curtains ironed? Why isn't that trim painted yet? Get on it woman.

Oh, the curtains all came from Target. I used the cheapest shower curtain rod I could find and just put it behind that little lip that comes down from the trim.

Easiest. Transformation. Ever. Of course, after I figured out how to get the closet doors off the track. That was a pain.

No doubt.

If you give a girl a drill.

If you give a girl a drill....

She will take take down mirrors.

If you give a girl a drill....

she will then decide to paint.

If you give a girl a drill, she will change out a few lights.

If you give a girl a drill, she will have to put up new mirrors.

And so, If you give a girl a drill, she will have a brand new bathroom in a day.

YEAH!

Okay here's the lowdown. 

I didn't get in trouble for taking the mirrors down. In fact, he barely bat an eyelash at it. I'm pretty sure he is quite used to coming home to change. I'm so glad because, to be honest, clowns scare me, and the circus, I'm pretty sure, has clowns.

Bathroom deets:

Wall color: Behr "Cumulus" in Paint plus primer. It took almost one gallon.

Mirrors: Martha Stewart for Home Depot. $49.99 each.

Lights: OUTDOOR wall lights. THAT'S RIGHT. Outdoor lights. Awesomeness at it's finest. $35/each.

Medicine cabinet: last year Goodwill purchase, for $7. THAT'S RIGHT. SEVEN DOLLARS! Oh, that's my half marathon schedule on the mirror....ugh.

Seashells: Bahamas.

Rug: PB, last year.

Cabin fever at it's finest.

Oops...

Please tell me this happens to you.


I'm painting trim. (Yes, STILL.)

I got a sample of wall paint to try in the bathroom to brighten things up.

I tried it. (I don't like it.)

I also don't like the builder mirrors.

I pulled on one of the little mirror nubs. It came off.  Easily.

There is no longer a mirror here.

I started to paint thinking maybe he won't notice that the mirror in front of his sink is missing. I mean, he's a guy, how often does he look in the mirror?!

The mirror is sitting in the bathtub....we don't use the tub anyway!

If you don't hear from me for a few days it's because he sent me to work with the traveling circus in China.

I'm not kidding.

Lord help my cabin fever.

Mom Ramblings #23

1. My mom was a Vikings Fan. We live in Wisco. Hubs is from Wisco. If I see another commercial or crazy story about the Packers going to the Superbowl or the Packer fans so excited and all the crazy things they do for the Packers I may just vomit. Packers, Packers, Packers. Ugh.

2. I've opened the wrong pantry door 1,576,345 times since I switched everything around. So annoying.

3. I took the hall closet door off in our upstairs. I'll have to show you what it looks like. Lots of baskets hiding things. Don't let me forget to show you.

4. I still have the winter blahs. Yuck.

5. I'm wondering why no one wants this gorgeous table....

6. Blissdom, Blissdom, Blissdom....it's all I hear about and I still have no idea what it is (I mean, I do, but do I want to go? Do I need to go? Should I be going?)

7. I've read two really good books on my Kindle (that I treated myself to). The first was The Glass Castle. SO FANTASTIC. Then I just finished Half Broke Horses. JUST AS FANTASTIC! Both were written by Jeannette Walls.

8. Hubs and I had date night on Saturday and got to see True Grit and then went out for sushi. Yum. And the movie was sooo good. I loved it.

9. Porter talks like they did back then. "Mommy, I DID NOT do that." No contractions. EVER. Cracks me up.

10. I'm loving having the dining table in the ummm...dining room. Now, I feel like we are using every room in the house to it's potential. That makes me happy.

11. Oh, and we've been eating dinners in there! I've been making dinner. I know. Stop what you are doing and read that again. I've been making dinner.

12. Did I tell you that I took off the closet doors in the boys' rooms? I did. I guess I need to show you that too. I like it. It looks cool.

13. My Brother-in-law sat next to Ashton Kutcher on the airplane after the Bears/Packers game and they watched the Jets/Steelers game on his Iphone. How cool is that!? Hubs hates it when I name drop, but COME ON! That's fun.

14. I can't wait for garage sale season. Is it spring yet?

15. I'm thinking about renting a big tent and having a sale...would you come?

Pantry Makeover Session 2

You'll laugh. I know you will. You'll think I'm a total nut job. I'm okay with that.

I had the intention of making our pantry look more organized and more like this:

 

Such a great idea! So, on Saturday morning we started measuring and we realized that it wasn't going to turn out the way I had envisioned because in reality it is this tiny little closet that really doesn't amount to much. So, instead of wasting a bunch of money on trying to make our pantry look like this

 I shifted things around. I'm pretty happy with the way things turned out. So far. 

Here's what we have:

In our kitchen we have two doors. Behind door number one on your left was a bunch of pans and glassware and cookbooks on some really deep nice shelves. Behind door number two on your right was food on some wire racks.

I shifted all of the food and baking items and things to door number one and moved the pans and such to door number two. (Everyone following still?)

So, here's what it looks like now:

I'm hoping to change out the doors. How cool would it be to have a split door on one or both of the pantry doors. Also hoping it will brighten things up in this sad little area....

So, grand ideas, turned into something else. And I'm okay with it. Sometimes that happens and you just have to roll with it. Plus, then hubs and I didn't have to do any work this weekend. Yeah!

This big ole' table got refabbed

I got this table this past fall.

Actually, I got the chairs first.

Not the greatest looking chairs! But,  I painted them white and reupholstered them in my favorite flower fabric. (This has nothing to do with anything, but the fabric reminded me of someone - so, Thank You Traci fro the fantastic "Happy", I LOVED getting it!)

The chairs were bright and cheerful and yummy fun.

I love the distressing.

After talking to my Sister-in-Laws they thought I should just do the table with it too. So I went back to GW and picked it up. It's huge with the two leaves.

You may or may not remember that I painted it white. It was gorgeous! But it sat. In my garage. Forever. I put it on CL, I had it on FB, on White Butterfly, I even did a flyer and posted it at Bruegger's. Not a single bite.

Look at how beautiful the sides are!

So, last week I started to strip the top in the cold. And I sanded it with my belt sander, in the cold - dear Lord there was a lot of stuff on it. And it was cold. I sanded and wiped and cleaned and restained with some ebony stain. In the cold. Then I brought it in and put some poly on it. I know others like to use lacquer and such, but I like the softness (in the look) of polycrylic. So that's what I use. 4 -5 layers thick.

And here it is now:

Such a HUGE difference. HUGE.

I love the way this looks more than anything. Not more than my hubby or my kids, or my family, but, more than the way a salted caramel hot chocolate feels in my belly.

It just makes the table. Totally.

Love. Now it needs to get out of my kitchen. If you want it, go over here.

LOVE. IT.

Pantry Makeover

It seems that everyone is cleaning out and cleaning up. Especially the pantry. The pantry seems to be a big one this month.

We're gettin' on the bandwagon, and redoing our pantry. We're doing this for several reasons, actually.

I've been reading the Family Dinners book (see my post about it here) and making sure that we've got a few staples in our pantry so that no one goes hungry, God forbid there isn't pasta in the cupboard.

Here's our current pantry.

Things are fairly organized, but the shelves are not great. They are starting to bow in the middle and we can't put things in the back because we can't reach them. They also aren't very kid friendly.

So, the idea is to get things into jars, so they are visible. I've got a few already. Then I found these at TJ Maxx for seven dollars. That's right, 6 glass jars for fourteen dollars.

I'm hoping this weekend we will be taking the wire shelving down and adding some C shaped shelves made out of MDF in there.

I'm also hoping to convince hubbs to put up a glass door....we'll see about that one!

Here are a two pantries from Country Living that I dream of.

I love the color AND I love all the glass jars and the baskets....

And this one. Wow. I love the white. And the chalkboard. And of course all the jars. Delish.

Hopefully I'll have something to show you next week!

Lighting in the work room

I get to change my mind right?

I wanted a school house light. Then I went to look at them at Lowe's and the one they had for eighty dollars was the size of my thumb. The one's online ended up being a crapload after adding in all the necessary items, like oh say, the fixture.

So, I saw a new one at Lowe's that I liked but it was on back order. Of course.

I came home and sulked, like you knew I would, and then I looked on Amazon and found the exact one, for twenty dollars cheaper. And free shipping. Can't beat that!

The awesome thing was that it wasn't supposed to be here until the end of this week. And I got it yesterday!

So, of course I put it up. Right away. I had to switch a few light switches around, but that's okay, because now our dining room has a dimmer switch, which is what I wanted anyway.

And so, after all that blabbing, here's the new fixture, in it's proper place. No more ducking under the chandelier, no more looking at the wires wondering if it was going to be like that forever....

Fantastic. Love it.

DIY Yellow Chandelier

People. Pe-ee--ple.

I'm giddy. I love when I get giddy over a project. LOVE.

The other day I mentioned painting my GW chandelier, that has been in almost every room of our house.

Because I am who I am, and have the patience of a gnat, I couldn't wait until our new fixture for this room came. And so, I moved the light to the dining room. AND painted it.

Yes, that's right. I moved it then painted it. If you've been reading for some time, I am infamous for painting fixtures while still attached. I turn off the electricity to that fixture, cover holes in the fixture, and plastic goes over everything. EVERYTHING. Floor included. Then, prime it, wait, spray it yellow. I used spray Kilz and Rustoleum Warm Yellow. It only took one can of each.

And, in about an hour - you have this:

Holy Bananas. I mean seriously. I love it. I am just so excited. It just adds such a fun little thing to our house. Most everything is white or gray, so this just brings in a bit of whimsy.

And of course, because I am who I am, I distressed it a little. I always get nervous doing it, but, I'm always glad that I do.

Dining Room is finished. Until I get to that trim. And change something again.

YEAH! Thanks for the push to get it done!

I haven't shared in awhile:

Go see what these talented painters can do!