The Makeover Continues ...

I have completely neglected blogging lately, mostly due to the fact that none of our projects are complete yet.  Wow, what a roller coaster ride!  It's amazing how each colour decision affects the next.

As per my last post we started off priming the whole living room and kitchen.  The initial plan was to paint both rooms Behr Butter Cookie yellow but last minute we wondered how a nice fresh light blue might look (Ok, it was after Frank watched a show on HGTV and saw a great paint colour in a room that had similar window light and trim as our rooms)  So, he called me at work we discussed it and I picked up some sample pots of paint on my way home.  Here are the samples on the wall:

Yuk!  the yellow isn't working and the blue is looking too grey.

Luckily Frank recorded the show with the blue paint he liked so we watched it together.  We actually paused the show on screen for over an hour while we discussed our paint selection.  Then we were off to HD to purchase Wave Crest ...

Ok, so we have our blue!  Above just shows one coat of Wave Crest around the window.  Of course, every trip to HD & each decorating show we watch the decor plan gets "tweaked", we had a brief lapse while at HD and were going to use a brick wallpaper behind the gas stove in the LR so we had multiple samples of wallpaper hanging up behind the stove ... can you say "head spinning!"

Now, on to painting the kitchen cabinets, white.  After our weekend of painting the dog woke me in the middle of the night to go out, our living room is this beautiful light blue as is our kitchen and the kitchen cabinets had a very light coat of white on them and it was a full moon ... OMG!  It's so white in here!  It does not look right.  What now?  Well I asked Frank what he thought of the colours and he was undecided.  HGTV was calling him once again!  So while I was at work he called me with a new blue for just the kitchen walls and I picked it up on the way home.  Tuesday Frank and his friend Eric repaint the kitchen walls while I'm at work ... what a joy to come home to.  That's better! (sorry no photo yet)

Flip forward to this Saturday, I put Martha Stewart beadboard wallpaper up on one wall of the kitchen and now it feels like things are coming together.  We still aren't loving the kitchen cabinets, the White looks like chalk, we aren't sold.  Soooo, out come the swatch books and we look at the little inspiration piece from Behr that has our 2 blue wall colours in and there is a really creamy white called Swiss Coffee, I like coffee! Yep, that's what it needs!  Here is a one coat reveal of the Swiss Coffee with the new blue in the kitchen ...

This is just one coat and we are still considering some aging toner around the edges, of course the doors look much better when the knobs are on too.

Here's another look at the before (just for you KA) ...

What do you think so far?

We've finally started the painting!

Boy life gets the in way when you have a long list of DIY's!
Well I'm excited to say that the work started at our house yesterday and the best part is I was at work while it was happening.  How cool is it to start checking things off the list when you don't even have to lift a finger (except for picking up the Subs to feed the boys at the end of their busy day)

Here's a quick preview

Wood Stove shiny burgundy wall - Before

Here is the wall primed! Ahhh, can you say relief.  We will be doing a faux stone treatment behind the stove ... full details on that project will be posted when complete (or during if I get impatient)

Kitchen burgundy Before, well at least this pic is kind of neat since this is the day we took possession of the house.

And here's the kitchen primed, yep it's messy but it's so much brighter!  The end wall colour is going to be a butter cookie yellow, I hope to get the cabinets painted and distressed this weekend.  I'm so excited! 

Stay tuned!  Lots more pics to share as the weekend progresses.

** I do want to add that I hope to get better pics as we progress, I rushed with all of these pics and clearly time of day and camera settings are different from Before to After which doesn't tell the best transformation story ... I aim to do better with that as we complete the project.

My attempt using the natural elements ...

 WARNING:  I am sharing my failure with the hopes that some of you will share how you overcome the challenge I faced.

I am inspired by the many postings at Funky Junk Interiors SNS#55.  I have not done much decorating with natural elements - twigs, pine cones etc..  Well,  I have used Pine Cones when I was a condo owner but I purchased them from a Christmas Store, they were cinnamon scented so they were a nice Christmas addition.

Let me show you my inspiration for this week ...

I found this image and inspiration at Libby Langdon's site 

I love the natural feel, and I thought it would be a great seasonal transition piece, I was considering adding sea salt (for snow) as we moved closer to Christmas.  So Wednesday night I rushed home to start my project, I had to put this together Wednesday night because I was going to stay at friend's for a week

Diversion ... I am typing this from their sofa now while one of their dogs tries to get my attention scratching on the patio door, there he's back in now, now dog #2 is scratching, Dog #2 is in and she is staring me down and wants my spot on the sofa, Alrighty now we're settled, me and 2 Golden Retrievers on a sofa and my toes are being licked, I can't concentrate, should I go get some socks?

Where was I?  Pine Cones and Twigs!  I rushed home Wednesday night and ran out to the yard to clip some twigs off of trees and collect pine cones.  I decided I wanted my arrangement to look a little more rustic so instead of ribbon I used twine.  So, here we go I assembled the materials

The Vase,  challenge number 1, the vase base is narrow and my pine cones are huge!  But hey, I'm shopping the house for this arrangement.  Ok, no avoiding this here is as far as I got with this arrangement ...

I got to this point and I was straightening the twine and a couple of little spiders started to surface, then a little worm eeeccckkkk!  I quickly picked it up and ran outside with it and gave up!  Can you see the bundle of candles on the left side of this image, I was going to use them since I wanted white candles, Frank pointed out that they looked like a bundle of dynamite, at this point I wish it was dynamite cus I would blow this DIY up!  Why am I posting this?  I'm new to "crafting off the land" please share with me ... is there something I should be spraying these items with before I use them so I will not encounter invaders?

I can't leave you without sharing my Guest Bloggers for the evening ...

Chance and Ruby

I'm linking to Funky Junk Interiors SNS (for advice)

"To Do" List .... Not yet worthy of the Gitter Done over at Funky Junk Interiors

The golf course is closed for the season and Frank is finally enjoying a few days off.
He loves his work but during golf season he has one day off a week - that just isn't enough time to get into a DIY project. So with a few extra days off this week he organized and rearranged the furniture in the office. It's looking good. I think he'd get upset if I took a picture right now because he hates the lime green walls. There is a lot less furniture in that small room now, and more items to sell on Kijiji.  Time to trade the modern frosted glass desk for rustic distressed pieces with a story to tell.

Anyhoo, I'm going to be away from home for a week so who knows what might be done by the time I get home ... walls primed and ready for Butter Cookie Yellow paint? Perhaps the faux brick/stone may be sculpted on the fireplace wall and ready for me to paint.

Here's a little preview of the area the brick will be going ...

We will be so happy to see the shiny burgundy paint gone.  It runs behind the Gas Stove and into the kitchen.  Frank is looking forward to slapping the drywall mud up and sculpting it into rustic aged bricks.  We did a similar project 6 years ago on our kitchen back splash.  Here's how that turned out ....

Stay tuned for the final results, it would be nice to have a stone wall and mantle to adorn with Christmas decor!