Ever since moving in to our new home here in Richmond, VA I have been struggling with how to decorate the open space at the top of the stairs.  We have one long flight up to the second story with an open railing along the top portion.  It makes for a nice and roomy landing at the top before you make your way down the hall toward the bedrooms, but it also felt a little lost too.  At first we just put our old telephone table in that space, to have something there.  Although we never used it for holding our phone, this spot was quite fitting since it’s the only oddball wall in the house with a old school phone jack.  However, the last thing we wanted right outside the Little Guy’s room was an old school ringer.  Prior to painting the upstairs hallway I had two pictures hanging above the telephone table, but the arrangement was always off and too small for the overall space. 

I got it in my mind that I wanted to put a comfy chair here and a smaller table, but that did not quite make sense for the landing either.  Then after spying a couple of small and modern styled vintage dining room hutches at the local Salvation Army I got a whole different idea.  I thought it would be nice to have some vertical display, along with some lower extra storage.  I just thought one of these smaller hutches would do the trick of filling up the space without overwhelming it.  So, two weeks ago I brought one of those hutches home.

I love the simple clean lines of the overall piece and the fun graduated rectangle design on the bottom doors.  I also liked the lightness of the whole thing being up on thin legs.  At first I just planned to bring it home, clean it up and put it in place.  But, when I started the clean up process I found that the previous owner’s had left cup rings on nearly every shelf, and the top.  Those plus the other various scrapes made it a little more shabby than chic for my taste.  So, I dug up my leftover can of Minwax, Gel Stain in Red Elm from the bar project, and gave it a quick couple of coats. 

I also pulled the back off the upper portion and spray painted it bright, glossy white in an attempt to lighten it up.  After disassembling, painting and staining, then putting it all back together, I ended up with this.

It now has a smooth and slightly darker finish with a less cave-like display cabinet.  I also switched out the knobs for some simple round ones that started life as our ugly brass kitchen cabinet pulls.  All the hardware was removed and sprayed with Rust-o-leum’s Oil Rubbed Bronze.  Normally I would have opted for hammered nickel, but it felt wrong this time around with the darker wood stain.  I like how the darker hardware is noticeable, but does not pop out and smack you in the face. 

So far, I have placed some of my extra random pieces of mid-century pottery on display, but I imagine that down the line they will move on to make space for something more interesting.  I like the change up from the little table and couple of pictures, and the price was right.  I scored the hutch for $95.00 and the rest of the materials to complete the makeover were already on hand.  It has only been in place for a week and I am still getting used to something this size in that space.  I am not ready yet to say it’s not quite right and feel I need to give it a little more time before jumping to another idea.  Who knows where this guy will end up, but for now he has found a new lease on life and a comfy spot to settle in.

Kitsch Krafts

I am sad to announce that 50% off Wednesday’s at the Salvation Army recently ended.  I don’t have any idea what the reason for the change was, but they have switched up their policies and only certain items are discounted on certain days.  What a bummer!  Oh well, I just need to figure out their new discounting program and then I can get back on the thrifting horse.  Anywhoo- just before the new policy went into place I was able to score an oval mirror in the perfect size for our powder room.  At $4.99 it was an absolute bargain, of course the bonus was that the price was another 50% off.  Yes, you read that correctly, I basically paid $2.50 for a large, beveled glass oval mirror.  I had been pricing these recently and the cheapest I had found was an okay wood-ish (I think it was probably some kind of plastic or resin) model at Lowe’s for around the 50 dollar mark. 

I was super excited at what I consider a total steal, but I have to be honest and share some of the not so pretty details.  This mirror had definitely seen better days. 

There were several areas that had missing plaster, serious gouges and plenty of chips. 

Even with all the blemishes I knew I could make this mirror pretty again and that it would be the right size for our powder room.  Right now that space houses a very large, somewhat ornate burnished gold toned rectangular mirror that has always seemed giant to me.

Although, I have never attempted fixing a plaster style frame before I knew I could at least make it look better.  The previous owners had applied paint to several spots in an effort to hide the chips, but I wanted to put the dimension back into the curves and I decided that wood filler might be the trick. 

I know this is not the proper way to restore a plaster mirror, but I also don’t believe this to be a high quality antique either.  It does have some pocking and streaks in the mirror silver, but I really don’t think that comes from a nice vintage, just serious wear and tear.  However, I do like those marks because they give the mirror a little history and charm.  At least in my eyes.

After applying thick clumps of wood filler to slightly dampened chips and gouges I left the mirror alone for about a week in order to thoroughly dry.  Wood filler is not meant to be applied in thick layers and often cracks and crumbles with it’s not done in thinner increments.  I guess I got lucky because we had a week of damp, rainy days and even though the mirror was indoors the whole time, I think the high humidity helped keep the serious cracks at bay.  Once the filler was dry I sanded those parts down, trying to match the curves up as much as possible.  Another thing to remember when working with wood filler is that it shrinks as it dries, so you want to apply more than you think you will need to get to the right height and width of the area you are trying to match.  I cleaned up my sanding mess, added a coat of primer and then a final coat of the same French Gray paint I used on the chair rail molding in the dining room. After all was said and done the really big chips seemed to disappear.  I will admit to rushing this one a bit because after painting and hanging it in place I noticed a few spots that I really should have sanded down some more.  Another tip from what I learned with this project is to re-inspect the filler after sanding AND wiping down.  I think the dust had settled a little too well in some spots leading me to believe that all the sanding was complete and level.   However, once I started painting I noticed a less seamless appearance than I would have liked.  One saving grace is that I opted to leave some of the other cracks and chips that were not a part of the major problem areas.  Again, I did not want to take away from the original finish to much and in the end I think it helps to disguise my not-so-perfect sanding job.

I think the addition of the blue-gray in this space adds a nice, although subtle, pop of color in this otherwise taupe and cream powder room.  Also, I am not sure if it’s because I am so used to the size of the old mirror, but the new one seems so small now.  Eventually I plan to switch out the light fixture for something a bit more modern and I would love to add white bead board and top ledge molding to the walls.  So, I think once the other changes come around the new smaller oval mirror will look even better.  But, those are projects for another day.  In the meantime, I will accept the things I cannot change.  ;o)

Kitsch Krafts

Like everything we do around here our son’s 2nd birthday party was all about budget.  Not to just cheap out, but the reality is that the older he gets and the more kids he knows, the more expensive these little shindigs are going to become.  Not only did we want to celebrate his big day with him, but we thought it would be fun to expand on the “playdate” idea and invite his playgroup friends over with their families.  That way my husband could meet the other dads and we could all socialize for a short time while the kids went crazy- plus we needed someone to eat all the cake!

As you know from the post earlier this week, we went with an “Island” theme.  This was part of our "cheap” plan because we wanted to include water activities to keep the kids occupied.  Meaning we could set up our already-owned sprinkler and kiddie pool and let them have at it.  Being that they are all two-year-olds anything involving water and getting wet equals big fun.  So, I dusted off my Photoshop skills and applied them to Paint.net.  I have to use Paint.net because I lost my Photoshop set up when I got my new computer a couple of years ago.  (I don’t know how that happened exactly, but I no longer question the tech guy.)  I say dusted off, but really they were never anything to get excited about in the first place.  Using clip art that I scrounged up through Google, I managed to put together an erupting volcano card for the announcement.

The invite reads, “KA-BAM!, KA-POW!, KA-BOOM! (on each puff of erupting smoke) Liam is turning 2!, Join us for water fun in the sun at our Island Jam!”, followed by the address and RSVP number.  Simple, but effective.  I used standard white cardstock to print the pop-up portion, as well as, the outer card.  The volcano image was found through a Google image search and than altered in Paint.net, using the Effects tab, Artistic and Ink Sketch.  I printed the volcano image on one half of another sheet of white cardstock so that, after trimming, the blank side could be folded around to the backside of the volcano base image.  I ran an Exact-o knife across the top portion of the volcano image to create a slit just wide enough to hold the folded “eruption” styled message.  After folding the eruption puffs in, I slide the message through the slit in the base card.  Then I folded the flap over the back side of the volcano image and using a glue stick I secured the back of the base card to the front, covering the inner workings of the pop-up message.

I also printed those envelops shown above with our return address in the “Hurry Up” font and another found image of a tiki with surfboards, and the greeting, “Aloha”.  It all came out with a nice island vibe, but not too girlie which was my concern about this theme from the get go.  I figured if I stuck with tikis, surfboards and volcanoes we would be golden.  I even used more images captured through a Google search to create the thank you cards, again with a tiki and surfboard theme. 

The inside of the thank you cards reads “Aloha and Mahalo”, which the internet said meant “Hello, or Greetings and Thank you”.  Hope that was correct, because they have all been sent out.  ;o)

We used orange and yellow streamers to decorate the formal living and dining rooms, along with the kitchen and the family room.  Out of all the streamer colors I picked up, these seemed to match most closely with the majority of the printed materials, i.e.- the invite, cake decorations and the thank you cards.  At the last minute I also put together a simple pennant “Happy Birthday” banner using old light blue cardstock I had on hand and the same “Hurry Up” font used in the invites. 

Tabletop tiki with plastic flower embellished lea.

Before I deleted all the fun images I had grabbed from Google I decided to print out some kooky little tiki gods that I had come across, and then I hung them with some of the streamers. (wish I had a better picture of them hanging up. They were really cute and funny. We hung them from the chandelier in the dining room too.)

We also kept the food simple for this gathering so that we could feed everyone and stay within budget, which by the way, I set at $50.00.  Yep!  I know, insane, right?  I will follow up on that more later.  We wanted to have the party from 11:00 to 1:00, so that meant we needed to serve up some lunch.  Hotdogs seemed like the easy way to accomplish this.  Plus, they could act as our roast pig for the island party theme.  We offered up hotdogs, buns, ketchup, mustard and relish.  Simple.  Along with our “roast pork” we had a big bowl of regular potato chips and another large bowl full of veggie straws.  We put these out early so that everyone could munch while chatting and waiting for the dogs to come off the grill.  My poor Mister manned that grill through torrential downpours, by the way.  What a great dad! 

The last item on the food list was a watermelon boat full of fruit salad, complete with a paper sail, which I sunk into the mix of pineapple, strawberries, watermelon and blueberries using a khabob skewer.  As with most of my party food estimations, we had more than enough to go around.  I never seem to be able to get the numbers right when predicting how much people will eat, but I have yet to run out of food at one of my gatherings, so I guess that’s the silver lining.  To wash it all down I had pitchers of ice water, decaf sweet tea, and 2 liters of decaf soda.  We also offered beer and wine to folks since it did, after all, end up being a crazy hurricane party.  And, we had takers!  Can’t blame them when having to deal with screaming toddlers running all over the place.  ;o)

To decorate the cake I simply cut out more images found on Google and stuck them right into the frosting. Since the cake was in the shape of a volcano, complete with a red lava eruption and dry ice smoke, I figured the rest of the decorations could be pretty simple. I used a couple of Tiki head cut-outs, a couple of surfboards and a palm tree.

He was just dying to grab those little tikis up front and play with them.

Then I added an old Ron Jon Surf shop image that I doctored to read, “Hang 2 Dude!” since I was unable to find a number 2 shaped candle at the last minute. We just added two regular cake candles for him to blow out later.  To make the volcano cake, I used three angel food cakes, stacked with a foil wrapped paper towel tube in the center.  I wrapped the cardboard tube with foil not only to keep it from getting mushy from the moist cake, but also to hold the dry ice and water for the smoke effect.  I actually baked each of the cakes using the recipe in the Fanny Farmer Cookbook.  The day before the party I checked around the bakery when I stopped for last minute items at the grocery store, but what I thought was common could not be found.  It seems like there are always angel food cakes in the bakery, but not this week!  The baking was not hard, it was realizing the number of egg whites needed that seemed daunting.  Whenever I have to get the stiffness of beaten egg whites just right for a recipe I get nervous.  Each cake ended up coming out just fine, though- Thank GOD, right?!!  (The reason for this choice of cake was simply that I already owned the proper pan and they seemed to bake up a little higher than your average Bundt cake.  I figured I would get more height this way.) 

After each cake thoroughly cooled, I stacked them up sans any icing in between the layers since they are so sticky any way.  I shoved the foiled wrapped paper towel tube down the center and then began to carve away at the top two cakes to get more of a tapered mountain shape.  I used pieces of the carved away cake to cover the very top of the tube and then iced away!  I made homemade chocolate frosting from the recipe right on the back of the Hershey’s baker’s cocoa box and put one thin layer on to start in hopes that it would bind everything together.  I slipped the whole cake into the refrigerator to keep cool until the next morning.  I believe this was the key to keeping this cake upright.  The weight of the first layer of frosting was already bringing the cake down and pulling it away from the top edge of the inner tube by morning.  I was able to use the second layer of frosting to smooth out the imperfections and cover the exposed tube. 

Using the pieces of cake that had been carved away I created a beach around the volcano base, which I then sprinkled with crushed graham crackers to look like sand.  The night before I also attempted to make a huge pan of Jello Jigglers in a deep blue green to use as water around the island volcano, however the pan jelled up very quickly and I was not able to get the wave effect I was going for.  Rather than toss it all out I decided to use it any way and the chunks of blue green Jello did give the look of water after all.  Just before guests arrived I took a tube of red Betty Crocker icing and warmed it a bit in a cup of hot water.  After just a few minutes warming and then a little kneading of the tube I squirted it around the top edge of the volcano and down one side.  After adding the paper cut outs the volcano really took shape.  The Little Guy had been begging to eat it from the moment the first angel food cake came out of the oven, so he was anxious to see the smoke and dig in.

We waited until time to cut the cake to perform the smoke eruption because my big 5 pound block of dry ice had dwindled to almost nothing by morning despite the reassurance of the dry ice company pamphlet that it would last for days in a cooler.  Liars!  I was just happy that we had enough to get a couple of good smoke eruptions before calling it a day. 

Last, but not least, we wanted to send each child off with some kind of small gift.  I had hoped that the beach towels would go on sale soon enough to fall into our price range (two summers ago I scored a really nice, big one from Target for $2.75) so that I could roll them up and then add a beachy raffia bow.  Perfect for an island theme, right?  Well, no luck.  At the last minute I decided to grab some bottles of bubbles (always a hit with this age), snacks and stickers. 

I looked all over for stickers with an island sort of theme, but only came across some fruit shapes.  I figured that was fine since all they want to do is pull them off the backing anyway.  Again, I used another tiki with surfboard image from my Google search for the name tag background.  After printing the images I cut them out and added each child’s name with foam stickers.  We filled paper lunch sacks (I figured the brown was sort of beachy), folded over the tops and added the name tags with a bit of tape.  Wholla!  Party Finneet-O!

Now, for the breakdown of how we pulled this all together for under the $50.00 mark:

Activities:

Already-owned kiddie pool and indoor toys     Free

Music – Reggae Channel                               Free

Beach Ball (bought on sale at Target)            $.97

Décor:

Already-owned wooden tikis & floral cloth       Free

Streamers in orange and yellow                     $1.98

Balloons in multi shapes and sizes                  $3.98

12 Ruffled Plastic Leis (on sale)                      $1.78

White Poster Board for Photos & Boat Sail       $.50

Already-owned Flower Bowls & Plates              Free

Already-owned Solo drinking cups                   Free

Dry Ice for cake eruption                                $1.98

Food:

24 pack of Hotdogs                                        $4.98

1 pack of 16 ct Buns                                      $2.28

Already owned Condiments                             Free

1/2 Bag of Regular Potato Chips (on sale)        $.99

1/3 bag of Veggie Straws                               $1.43

Fruit Salad                                                    $8.29

Jell-o for Jigglers cake decor                           $2.12

Red icing for lava (on sale)                             $1.49

40 Eggs for cake                                            $4.86

1/2 box of “Cake” flour                                   $2.50

2 - 2 Liter Bottles of Soda (on sale)                 $3.78

Pitchers of Tea & Water                                  Free

Party Favor Bags:

4 Paper lunch bags                                        $.10

4 bottles of bubbles                                       $1.50

4 sheets of fruity stickers                               $.66

4 Bags of Animal Crackers                              $1.33

All the paper items:

Already-owned cardstock                                Free

Grand Total:                                                  $48.49  *

*Please Note: This number reflects actual usage.  In other words, some of the items were purchased in larger quantities than what was actually used.  If I add up the actual cost of everything, including what we did not use, or eat, the grand total is in the neighborhood of $68.00.  Still not bad for a gathering of about 20 people.

It was a lot of work, but a definite labor of love.  Happy 2nd Birthday my sweet William!

Kitsch Krafts

This is a project that has been in progress since we moved to Richmond, VA back in July 2009.  I say it has been in the works for that long because I actually painted the walls just days before our new washer and dryer arrived.  Then, shortly after, I installed the shelves and hanging bars.  A few days later I cleaned and papered the shelves in the bank of cupboards opposite the washing area.  Whew!  Remembering what it took to make all of that happen while about 8 months pregnant makes me dizzy.  But, I was determined to have a decent laundry area since I new heaps of it was in my very near future.  Plus, this is what we were working with on move-in day.

(The right side of the galley laundry area as you enter from the garage door.)

(Here is a shot looking back toward the garage door from where the washing machine now sits.)

(Looking back into the galley laundry area from the back hallway to the family room and opposite the garage door.)

(The left side of the room from the garage entry with a sunny window to the back yard.)

(The scene just below the window on the back wall.  Lots of dings and dirt to clean and cover with paint before the new machines arrive.)

(One last shot of the dirty mayhem.)

It was all white, white and white with lots of dirt and grime mixed in.  Since settling in I have dreamt of the many ways I could remake the space for much better flow, but because that requires knocking down a wall, adding another and some plumbing and electrical work, I don’t see it happening any time soon.  Oh well.  In the meantime I decided to try to cutify (yes, I made that up) this area to make my time there a little less sad and stressed.  Sad, because it was a drab space and stressed because it’s a galley with the back entry from our dirty old garage.  So, I am constantly combating dirt and gunk in the same place I am trying to clean our clothing- yuck!  The first step was to paint the walls.  To save money I just mixed the white and brown paint I had used in the nursery to create a nice taupe.  Then I used some of the leftover glossy white paint from that same project to give the grimy cream colored trim a nice new, bright color.  The window and doors got the glossy white treatment, but the baseboards were coated in the same dark chocolate brown as the nursery.  The floor in this room is a dull creamy white linoleum with a simple square tile design.  The “grout” lines appear to be a mauve color, but it could just be that they have faded over time.  Either way, the light floor shows dirt before you can even walk across it and the mauve wasn’t doing anything for us.  So, I bought some inexpensive chocolate brown rag rugs from Target to cover this eyesore.  They are easy to shake out and then they can be tossed into the washer and dryer to really get the dirt out.  I also moved our cream colored shag door mat from the front entryway into this space, not only because I bought a new rug for the entry (as seen here), but because we really needed another spot to wipe our shoes before coming any further into the house.  This was all stage one in the laundry room makeover and we lived with just these changes until earlier this year.

Several months ago I decided to use some of my vintage fabrics and finds to make the space a little more inviting.  First, I attacked the big, VERY useful, but super ugly washtub.  I wanted to skirt it and had this idea that I could just whip up something tiered and slightly ruffled, slap it on and be done.  And, the project pretty much went just like that.  ;o) 

I scrounged up some complimentary fabrics and with a little measuring stitched them together.  Then I added some heavy-duty hook and loop tape (which I found out they make in set lengths specifically for skirting tables and such!) to the tub, and then the top band of the skirt.   Done!  Now, the tub looks a bit nicer and I can hide a bin of cleaning supplies out of sight (and out of the way from the floor of the adjacent closet-yeah!).

Next, I decided to use a vintage laundry bag with neat hand embroidery to create a café curtain for the really sunny window.  I actually enjoy how sunny this space usually is, but sometimes when I am working in there it’s blinding.  As with most of the rooms in our house, we still employ the lovely accordion-style, builder’s blinds to keep the sun out.  In order to hide that fact, I also added a coordinating valance that just covers the stack of blinds when they are pulled to the tippy top. 

(Sorry, bright day = bright spot shots.  But, you guys get the drift.)

It’s attached with vintage clothes pins to a clothesline stretched between the shelf brackets on either side of the window.  I enjoy seeing this little treasure I picked up years ago every day, but when the sun moves across the yard and it’s possible to open things up, I just pull back a corner and use one of the pins to hold the curtain open.  To learn more about this project click here.

Speaking of clothes pins, although I don’t hang clothing up on a line, I do use clothespins to keep things on the hangers while they dry.  So, I used some of the same vintage fabrics from the tub skirt to create a hanging bag to hold my supply. 

This handy little bag is attached to a vintage hangar that, again, I have had for years.  I think it’s pretty perfect for our laundry space!

The last vintage item I pulled together for the laundry nook is a magnetic message board made from an old scrub board. 

This piece had been left in our last home we owned back in Nashville, TN.  Rather than tossing it out I had used it for my laundry inspired craft fair displays and it managed to make the trip here to Richmond, VA. 

The only other thing I added to the area are a couple of baskets from Target that we already owned and covered storage boxes for the shelves above the hanging bars.  They are used to hold seasonal things, like our beach and pool gear.  Here is the post about how those came together.  As far as the shelves and hanging bars, I just bought wood and dowels, cut them to fit the spaces on either side of the window, painted them glossy white, and hung them up on closet brackets.  I added small wooden finials to the ends of the hanging bars just for fun and to give them a more polished, less homemade look.

Some big plans are in the works for the counter and cupboard area directly across from the washer and dryer, but that is for another time.  You know, after I tackle the million other things I have on the list!

How do you guys brighten the drudgery of laundry day?

Kitsch Krafts

PS- Stayed tuned for more detailed info on how I created the magnet board, the clothespin bag, the storage boxes, the curtains and the sink tub skirt.  It’s sure to rock your world….at least a little, or maybe not.  :0)

In an effort to keep the Little Guy occupied (and out of my lap) while I work at my desk, I installed an office area just for him.  For a long time I had been plotting ways to incorporate magnetic paint into some key spots around our home.  There is a nice spot for a magnet board in the kitchen, one near the back door (for notes and reminders on the way out) and the wall space of the Little guy’s office.  Since we are far from completing the office space and one side (I won’t name, names regarding which side) is in total chaotic half-unpacked shambles I am only sharing the little area that I completed for our wee one.  I started by using blue painter’s tape by Scotch to mask off a rectangle that used to be behind The Mister’s desk and is just under our white board.  I painted that space with the magnetic paint first.

This is just he basic stuff from Rust-oleum you can get from the home improvement store.  I could only find the kind that was intended as primer for under a chalkboard top coat.  I would have loved to have added the chalkboard coating too, but since this space is shared with our computers we figured the addition of chalk dust would be a bad idea.  If I ever get around to painting the spot in the kitchen that I have in mind, I will probably add the chalkboard top coat for a bonus!

It took three light coats, as the packaging suggested and it smelled to high Hades!  In fact, this space is just down a small hallway from our master bedroom and at one point The Mister asked if we were going to die in our sleep.  I never imagined painting such a small area, with all the windows open and a nice breeze coming through, would leave us with such a stench.  This is all to say, “Warning!  Do this with lots of ventilation!”.  When planning this project, months before actually getting my hands dirty, I had intended to just cover the magnet board area with the same paint as the wall color.  But, since we are no where near finishing this room right now, I just topped the big black rectangle with leftover blue paint from the nursery.  That calmed down the visual abyss and made for a smoother finish.

Once everything dried and we got the bird out.  Yeah, we ended up with a bird in the house during the drying time.  It’s a funny story actually.  I was showering while the Little Guy was watching Sesame Street and as I was finishing up I heard him walk into the bathroom and say something that sounded like “bird”.  As I turned to ask him, “what did you say?”, a bird swooped down and flew right over his head.  He looked at me and said, “Bird!”, clear as day.  That’s what we get for not putting our screens up yet!

For a fun addition, I put up a couple of those hooks from Command, that have the sticky stuff that won’t ruin the walls during removal and tied a doubled up clothesline to them.  This created a place to hang his alphabet cards and has been a big hit so far.  Shortly after I finished the painting I found a chair and table set from IKEA on Craigslist for $30.00.  It was nearly new and he really has enjoyed using it to color, play and make look really old, really fast.  I can’t seem to get him to understand that coloring is supposed to happen on paper, not the tabletop.  Oh well….at least he isn’t going to town on the walls…yet…  Actually, once he gets the destructive coloring out of his system I hope to paint the set to give it a nicer finish.

Sorry for the blurry shot.  I could barely catch him standing still long enough to even get him in the picture.  The magnets he is currently using were created many years ago by affixing funny magazine cut-outs to sticky backed magnet paper.  These were for covering ugly rental property refrigerators when I first moved out on my own.  He has enjoyed them, but we really need to move on to something a bit more interesting to him.  I know we will find the right thing sooner or later.  We even have a mini laptop that he likes to play kid games on while I type away at my desk.  Babysmash is his long time favorite if you want to check it out.  Also, it’s pretty clear he gets his organizational skills from his dad’s side.  As you can see in the shot above, he has thrown stuff every where around his desk.  I think it makes him feel more at home with the rest of our disaster zone office.  Oh well, I am working on organizing my space too, maybe I can get him to tag along.  ??

Kitsch Krafts

As I continue working on small decorating projects around here I have been reminiscing about some of the improvements we had made at our old house in Nashville, TN.  Mostly I have been remembering how much easier completing a project seemed to be in a smaller home.  Actually what has been happening is that I have become fixated on a cheaper than solid surface solution to my gross white countertops and I just can’t find anything that seems right.  While thinking about the countertop change here I was fondly remembering the funky countertops in the Nashville kitchen.  Don’t laugh, they were one of the main driving forces behind my wanting to buy this house.  I LOVED them!  The color was a dark aqua with little gold flecks.  Yep, straight outta’ 1962!

Before:

(They even had a matching rotary phone when we moved in!)

I know, yuck is what most of you are thinking.  But, we thought they were really fun, kind of cool and that curve on the end of the peninsula had us sold!  We liked the color so much, that we were considering keeping it when the dulled-over-time surface had us thinking it was time for an upgrade.  In the end, we were not able to change the countertops before The Mister’s company relocated us to Richmond, VA.  However, during our time in house we did make some other changes to help bring the dark, dated space into the new millennium.  Well, sort of.

In the shot above you can see the new fridge we had to buy six months after moving in.  I came down to the kitchen for breakfast one morning and found that our 1982 Frigidaire had turned into a giant 2004 Igloo cooler.  A trip to a couple of appliance stores and the Sears Scratch and Dent later and we had our new stainless steel monster that we still love today.  You can also see the lovely tongue and groove paneling that graced three rooms of our old house.  While this was not my favorite wall covering, I always found it a bit heartbreaking when I saw people paint over it. 

For the longest time we were convinced that was the way to go in this room so that we could get some light in the space.  Then my dear old mom brought up a great point.  She mentioned that the cabinets took up, at least visually, more space than the tongue and groove and they were not made of very good wood.  She was right!  Painting the cabinets would make more of a difference and we would not be destroying the nicer wood aspect of the space.  The shot above also gives a clear view of the hideous linoleum flooring.  The kitchen was about 15 feet by 25 feet, so this was a lot of harvest gold and cream along with all that wood!

(Another favorite item in this house was that cool light above the kitchen table.  It had a glass panel, light diffuser on the bottom until one fateful morning when I tried to put in a new light bulb.  It slipped right out of my hands, dented the tabletop and smashed into a pile of pieces.  wah-wah…  It hung there without a cover until we moved.)

Once we decided to make a change in this space we went for it.  The first and easiest fix was putting down new flooring.  I ended up using a self-adhesive tile that looked like dark gray slate.  It came in 18” by 18” sheets that even had grout lines.  The tops were textured like slate and the grout lines were dented in to look and feel like the real thing.  Honestly, they looked pretty real at first glance and the whole kitchen was really transformed with just that one change.  (BTW- they still sell these tiles at Lowe’s.)

Next came the paint job of all paint jobs.  I took on the cabinets.  I did it all by the books…drew up a map of the cabinets, numbered the doors, cleaned, sanded, scraped, cleaned some more.  It took weeks of primer, paint and acrylic top coats before I was finished and my marriage was almost over.  Just kidding!  But, this was probably one of the worst projects to live through with a husband that hates house projects.  We decided on a very light gray for the top cabinets and one two shades darker for the bottom cabinets.  It looked almost like a white kitchen, but then the light hit the cabinets and you could tell there was a hint of bluish gray to the paint.  It turned out quite nice in the end.  Plus, our old 1960’s range fit right in and the old white dishwasher blended away.  We also sprayed the bronze colored range hood white to create a more cohesive look.

After:

(Photo courtesy of Zeitlin Realty, Nashville, TN)

The only structural change we made to the space was to remove the wrought iron hand rail to the den stairs because it was bronze and pretty unattractive, and to remove the curly-q apron across the light above the sink.  We replaced the apron with a nice simple arch and the handrail with a plain wooden version.

(Photo courtesy of Zeitlin Realty, Nashville, TN)

(Photo courtesy of Zeitlin Realty, Nashville, TN)

(Photo courtesy of Zeitlin Realty, Nashville, TN)

I searched and searched, but never found a replacement part for the original kitchen nook ceiling light.  In the end we opted to put in something simple and right off the shelf from Home Depot.  If we had stayed I believe we would have found something a bit more fun and funky, but this is what it takes sometimes to get a place sold, right?  We also added a basic track light in white to the main kitchen area where the old, and very ugly, ceiling fan had been.  That was one of those projects we wished we had done first since it added so much more light to both the cooking space and the staircase to the den. 

(Photo courtesy of Zeitlin Realty, Nashville, TN)

As you can see from the shot above we did leave the tongue and groove paneling untouched in the rest of the space, but the impact of changing the cabinets was still pretty amazing.  Am I right?  Can I get a Hallelujah? 

(Photo courtesy of Zeitlin Realty, Nashville, TN)

Of course, we added new hardware in brushed nickel.  The handles had a nice curve that felt just right in your hand.  Originally I had some cute retro style red patio chairs around the black painted wood table and the kitchen colors included, gray, brown, red, and aqua.  For the sale, we switched out the patio chairs for the Windsor style chairs that went with our old dining table and amped up the brown and aqua color combo to bring this kitchen even more up to date.  We added aqua drapes with dark brown bands along the bottom to the sliding patio doors and I sewed cute curtains and valances for the eating nook and sink windows.  It was so coordinated that it felt out of place for us, but we liked it all the same.

(Photo courtesy of Zeitlin Realty, Nashville, TN)

We just hope the new owners are loving it as much as we are missing that cozy old kitchen.

Kitsch Krafts

Just kidding.  No more babies for now.  I am talking about my new furniture baby, though.  Finally, after years of searching I found the perfect dining room table and chair set.  Right before I met The Mister I acquired the teak dining room hutch that you all have seen in many of our recently DIY’d dining room pictures. 

During all these years together, I have been on a search for a Danish Modern dining set to match…even though we have never had a dining room in any place we have ever lived.  I know, I’m crazy.  I just knew that one day I wanted a dining room and I thought it would be nice to have all the pieces in a similar style.

Well flash forward about 13 years and I find myself window shopping with a friend at the beginning of January.  This is not a time that I spend money.  In fact, I always try to plan out our Christmas spending so well that we can hit the sales at the beginning of the next year, but things have yet to go my way in that area of organization.  So here we were just taking some mom time, alone, to check out a few of the consignment shops around our area, when we stumbled upon it.  “It” being the perfect little round table with cute corded chairs.  They had it set up as a little reading area, but the split down the middle of the table caught my eye.  I realized this table potentially had matching leaves and it could be “the one”. 

Sure enough, the table had not just one, but two leaves, opened to eight feet and had six chairs!  There is definitely a lot of restoration work that needs to take place before this new furniture baby is brought back to its former glory and we will need to find two end chairs to have decent seating for eight.  Also, several of the chair seats have seen better days, but I could not pass up the cheap price.  I found this set, which ended up having a seventh chair hiding in the warehouse, for $400 bones!  That’s right, my entire dining room furniture set (table and chairs, refurbished bar and vintage hutch) comes in at a whopping, wait for it…..$545.00!  Yeah, that’s right!  It’s high five time for the budget!

I definitely have some work to do and I have been surfing the web and sending out emails to different Danish furniture sites for help with the best way to refinish everything.  So far it sounds like a cheap and easy fix with just a lot of elbow grease involved.  The only thing I am sort of fearing at the moment is reworking the cords on a couple of the chair seats.  Several have just a broken string or two (See Below) and I know with a little patience I can fix those, but one in particular looks like it was hit with a weedwacker.  I may have to breakdown and pay for it to be made whole.  I don’t know yet.

This room is finally coming together in a way that makes all of us very happy.  The Mister likes that we have a functioning space, the Little Guy loves running circles around the dining set and I am happy my search is finally over.  Whew!

Kitsch Krafts