Thrifting // Secondhand Scores!

Another successful trip to Goodwill in the bag...check out my finds.

3 yards of fabric

DIY // How To Paint Kitchen Cabinets White Update

With the cabinets in place we were on to the next step..."Painting the cabinets white, we're painting the cabinets white..." The Queen of Hearts would not be pleased with our cabinet transformation, but we sure are!  Simply changing the color and height of the cabinets (in addition to our changes with our windows & walls) has transformed our kitchen from a heavy and dark place we didn't want to spend much time in, to my favorite room in the house.  I love its bright and airy feel.  I can only imagine how amazing and open it will be when we finally have the walls taken down between the nook/mudroom/kitchen.  I'm never going to want to leave.

Now let's take a look at our Before photo with the addition of the stainless appliances.

DIY // A Spring Ready Yard Makeover

The weather the past few days has been pretty dang nice, which means that it wasn't raining...finally!  I swear, this year we've had the most rain in history.  That spells overly exhausted for this SAD sufferer.  Luckily, I was able to boost my mood and our curb appeal at the same time.

It wasn't much but I picked up two evergreen azaleas and three anemones at Costco yesterday.  Then we cleaned up the yard and dug out two flower beds, one around our pine tree and one around our oak-ish tree (still not sure what it is.  It might be a cherry? or dogwood?  I really have no freaking idea.)  I chose to plant all five of the plants under the pine since I wouldn't have to deal with any surface roots.  I also took the two creeping myrtles that I had planted in pots last year and re-planted them under the pine tree, as well as 4 dahlia bulbs.  I still need to add a few plants, but with the addition of the brick border (the bricks are from a patio we removed) this little flower bed is looking pretty damn good.

So, here's our before...

The pine tree is in the background.  The cherry(?) is in the foreground.

Knockoff: DIY Lord Bodner's Octopus Triptych

I about died when I first saw the Lord Bodner Octopus Triptych while I was feeding my brain...err, I mean, while watching Giuliana & Bill.  The original is a copperplate engraving by Lord Bodner and was published in 1826 in London as part of a series studying creatures of the deep.  You can purchase the framed triptych version from Natural Curiosities for $3550, a framed print from Outer Banks Trading Group for $1590 or there's another original artwork created by Julie Canale for $3550 that's just as swoon worthy as the Bodner triptych.  So, feel free to fork over your hard earned cash, but might I ask why, when you can make a smaller scaled version for pennies on the dollar?

Supplies:

DIY // Paint. The Choice That Never Ends

We're taking a little break from the kitchen redo.  We still have the cabinets to paint and all the trim to do, but we're tuckered out.  So we're moving on to something that still allows me to be a slug on the couch.  That's right, we're back to talking paint.

We've finally decided on a paint color and hopefully I don't have any color-remorse like I did for the interior paint...(although I am totally digging the taupe color, so maybe it wasn't so bad after all!  We're going with Behr (because that's what we have available in this rural community) and we've chosen Silver Hill for the body of the house.  We tested it outside in the natural light and it's the perfect blue/gray color we were looking for.  We've also chosen Behr's Flaming Torch for the door, which will give us that pop of color we were wanting.

Exterior House Paint - Behr Silver Hill

Door Color

We're still trying to figure out the complementary colors.  I did track down this on Behr's website which seems promising, but where would we use the colors?  Trim, porch, shutters...?

Or should we go with one darker hue for an accent, like black or these amazing charcoal colors from Behr?

Behr's "Sled"

Behr's "Deep Space"

I really struggle with choosing colors - one color is easy, but combinations...that's a tough one. So, feel free to share your suggestions and since I'm a visual type of person, pictures are ALWAYS encouraged!