Black Kitchen with a Striped Fridge

Everyone loves a good Before & After right?!  Especially one that doesn't cost a fortune to recreate!  I had a completely different plan in mind for this little dated kitchen going into the project.  All I knew, was that the wood had to go.  Now don't get me wrong.  I love a good wood (key word "good") cabinet as much as the next person, but I think I went into wood shock going into the original space.  EVERYTHING was the same shade of eh brown.  And the room felt eh.  

The original plan included an all white kitchen.  Light & Bright.  It needed it.

But then... I started painting the walls with Glidden's Almost Aqua (pretty mix of minty & aqua) & realized the wood was taking three coats to cover.  With Primer!  SO... I changed my mind & used my go to favorite door paint for the kitchen.  Rustoleum's Door Paint in Satin Black.  One Coat & DONE!  That is what I needed as I didn't have enough time to wait for three plus coats of paint on my timeline.

Once I added my new favorite pulls to the black cabinetry I knew I made the right decision. 

D Lawless Hardware was kind enough to donate all of the hardware for the project!!  But want to know the best news... If you love these pulls as much as me, they are only $0.99 a piece.  I know.  Crazy right?!

The counter was a bit of a no brainer for me.  I saw the boring scratched white laminate top & instantly thought of Danika's Countertops over at Gorgeous Shiny Things.  I had painted faux carrara marble before on our old coffee table & was really happy with the outcome, so I knew I could duplicate the look for next to nothing in this space.  I already had all the paint anyways....  Danika's tutorial is stellar!  So if you think you want to attempt a countertop overhaul you really must check her out.  Rockstar.

The kitchen was looking good, but it needed something... so I tried something... something I never thought I would have done before... I put Duct Tape on a fridge.  

In my defense, it was gold... so I was already a fan.  It also covered up some not so lovely stains on the fridge.  And if we are being honest... I literally could not paint one more thing in this place!  I was painted out!!  So I went at it.  Now do as I say & not as I do... because I didn't even measure these bad boys out.  I simply attacked it with the tape & was done in mere minutes.  It is a really fun (& non permanent!) solution for a fridge that is dated or worn.  This would be a great dorm room or renter's solution for sure.  

Shutterfly provided these adorable plates that I customized to fit the space & Park Designs donated the sweet towels from their Split P line of products.  The wooden spoons would be a simple DIY, but I nabbed them on One Kings Lane a few months ago...

Home Decorators Furniture donated the perfect chair for the space.  Their Garden Side Chair in Red was just the hit of industrial vintage the room needed.  The fact that it is metal provides another texture to the space too.  Not to mention this chair is super easy to clean.  I love how this brings a punch of red onto this side of the room.  It really ties the spaces together.

The last item added to the Kitchen Area was the light fixture... Bye Bye builder grade boring & say "hello" to the updated old foyer light.

It really fit the space well & when the light is turned on it casts some really killer faceted shadows.  Has anyone followed the easiest tutorial ever for this Goodwill find?!

Including the monetary value of the donated items the total cost for this space was under $175... The power of the right items & a little hard work.

Art anyone?! All the details tomorrow.

To read more about Room Service Atlanta & the United Methodist Children's Home please follow this link.

Spotted Headboard, Florals & oh the Bedding

This bedding combination might just be my favorite thing in the room.  Who said that playful can't be sophisticated too?! As I have mentioned before, I got a few yards of the Spotted Premiere Prints Togo fabric on Clearance a few months back.  I decided to hold onto it until the right project came up.  & this seemed to be it.

Since there was no budget for this project, not like the sky's the limit but like no funds to use, I went through my scrap material & found a large enough piece of MDF, extra foam & batting plus the fabric.  So voila... I was officially making a headboard... I'd done it before, so I could do it again!

I made this headboard exactly like our headboard in the Master Bedroom minus the nailhead trim.  I simply cut out my shape, layered on the foam & batting & stapled the heck out of the fabric pulling it tight in every direction.  Since it was a twin & there were no time consuming nailheads to line up & nail in, this went much faster than the last.  It was done within an hour.  

One of the biggest question asked about our last headboard was "how did you attach it?!"  Well, this one was so much easier because we had a wall to mount it on.  This time I used a French Cleat from Home Depot.

It is as simple as screwing one bar into the wall & another into the back of the headboard.  After they are attached you simply hook the headboard onto the wall.  Done.

Now it was time to dress the bed.  That's the fun part for me!  The gorgeous Duvet Cover & Sham were donated by the uber talented Jill Sorenson of LiveLikeYou & Marmalade Interiors.  She is one of those fearless designers that I aspire to be.  After launching her line of products I was immediately smitten.  Always having them in the back of my mind, I approached Jill about the RSA project & she sent over her Bang Bang Twin Duvet Cover & Sham in Turquoise.  And might I add... they are even more beautiful in person!  (& soft!!) 

The great thing about this project was the amount of people that contacted me personally to provide their own goods.  That is how I came to know Kimber from The House of Pemberley.  She provided the throw pillow that has become my number one obsession & has made multiple appearances on the blog this past month!  I still get questions, so here goes... This is the Orangerie Pattern from Designers Guild & it is everything.  As Razchel Zoe would say... I Die.

I'll be the first to admit that there are a lot of colors going on in this space, but once I brought in the Orangerie Pillow it all just made sense.

Luckily, through your generous monetary donations, I was able to finish the bed with the sheeting, skirt, bedframe & was thrilled when a friend donated the mattress & boxspring.  Y'all rock!

The little Mongolian Fur Stools I made from $5 Ikea chairs also float around the room.  They are small enough to move where needed.

Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams provided the killer brass task lamp.  I love the unexpected touch of a task lamp as a night stand light.  It sat atop of my little red nightstand I created.  My painting partner in crime was able to get a Carrara Marble Tile that I simply added to the top.  It really finished the piece off.  Who'd believe that was just a piece of junk from my basement.

That little "Odds & Ends" box is just about the cutest thing ever.  I couldn't find a link to it, but it is from Target.  I found it close to the Party Section... not the Home-goods Area.

The other nightstand started out looking like this...

Sexy right?!  We found this beauty on the side of the road & while I loved the hunter green pleated shade covered in dust & the faux wood look, I decided it would look much better cleaned up a bit.  Amazing what a little white paint & a new shade will do!

Plus, it was the perfect height to sit between the bed & my Contrast Welt Chair.  

Tomorrow we are talking Kitchen...& that striped fridge!!

Room Service Atlanta Room Reveal

Well, the time has come & my Room Service Atlanta room is finally DONE!  Working on this room has been extremely rewarding (& exhausting!)  Literally every item in this room has either been donated, modified from our hoard personal collection, or diy'ed in some form or function.  It's been a very long, project filled month.

As a visual "ugh" reminder... this is the paneling hell we started with.  Lovely, right?!?

Scratched paneling, off white trim, bad fluorescent lighting  & that old cafeteria floor... Now I am sure that the ladies who have lived in these walls have appreciated the room, but we could do better than this.

I tried to add some life into the space & some definite personality. I went for Fun & Fearless with a Kate Spade flair.  I mean who wouldn't want to live in one of those amazing boutiques in their late teens & early twenties?  I know I still would.

So I went for it.  Like REALLY went for it!  Here is the overall tour of the new & improved glammed up space.  I will be sharing all the sources, tutorials & gracious thank yous to all who participated throughout the week, so stay tuned & enjoy the room.  I know I did!

Want to move in?!  Yeah, me too.

None of this would have been possible without the beyond generous donations from the following (so show them some love!):

Mohawk Flooring

Shutterfly

LiveLikeYou | Jill Sorenson

Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams

House of Pemberley

Home Decorators Collection

D Lawless Hardware

The Home Depot

Stephanie Creekmur

Heidi Carlson Rogers

Elizabeth Mayville

Lucy Schwartz Design

Park Designs

Remember to come back this week as I breakdown all the info for the space.  Every last detail!!

Bedding & Nightstand Details

Kitchen Details

Painted Deck... The Tutorial

Finally!! Here are the ins & outs on how I created our stenciled floor for the Home Depot Patio Challenge this year.  There are probably a zillion different ways this could have been accomplished, but this is how I did it.

First things first... Why a painted pattern?!

We had a plain old run of the mill stained deck previously which was absolutely fine.  We had our stenciled area rug on top of that.  The rug held up like a champ!  But the only problem was, when it rained, the rug stayed wet for days.  And here in the south, during the summer, it typically showers once a day... you catching my problem.

I knew I wanted something on the floor do add some interest & once I saw this image I knew this was it!

source anyone?!  One of those pinned too many times to trace deals.

I tired being all original & creative to come up with my own pattern, but I just kept coming back to this pattern, so why reinvent the wheel right?!?

I laid out my patterns in CAD (I have it, so I used it!) this could also be done by sketching your pattern out on some graph paper.  This helped me determine the optimum size of the motifs as well as spacing them out so there would not be a lot of awkward cutoff areas.  It also worked out perfectly that we didn't have to paint around our Cinder Block Planter... because that puppy ain't moving!

Once I had my sizes determined (roughly 40"x40") I needed a large enough piece of cardboard to sketch the design on.  I ended up using a water heater box that conveniently died while this was going on.  I free handed the motifs on the cardboard as I liked the organic feel of the inspiration image.

Once my motifs were drawn I cut the pattern out using a box cutter.  Ta Da!

Starting with a clean deck (aka removing as much pollen as possible!) I traced each of the motifs in place using a pencil.  I then painstakingly filled in each of them by hand using an Oil Based Porch & Floor Paint in Gloss.  This can be found at any Home Improvement store.  (It doesn't require a primer btw!)  Due to the uneveness of the deck & all of the slats I decided this would be the way to go vs a traditional stencil... call me crazy!

Each of the motifs took two coats to get full coverage.  The second coat went on much faster than the first, but I did have to wait 24 hours between each coat... love & hate oil based paint.  Great durability! But also crazy stinky & takes forever to dry.

I literally did one or two motifs a day during nap time... So it took about two weeks to complete.  But if you have the time & better yet a partner this could easily be knocked out in a weekend.

Sealer... I actually haven't sealed it yet!  WHAT?!?!  I have been waiting for it to get a bit chippy first as that is the look I am going for.  Knowing full & well that paint on a deck is going to chip, I am letting it happen.   That being said, I am so impressed with how it has held up so far!  Through nasty rain, freezing & warm temps... so far so good.

For reference, our Deck was stained using Cabot Semi Solid Stain in Cordovan Brown & the Porch & Floor Paint was standard Gloss White... no special mixing or formula required!

Updating the Hall...(again)

We were recently gifted a large haul of amazing antique furniture.  Like shut your mouth amazing!  So I have been switching around some of our, well, not so amazing furniture to make room for the upgrades.  It was perfect timing as I was purging all of my hoard for the Room Service project.  So a few things had to go! 

Our hallway was the easiest place to start... I know, I liked it too.  It even ended up it Kelly Edwards "The Design Cookbook" next to a project by the amazing Tobi Fairley!  But the mirror was needed at the room, the garden stool doesn't really live there & the ladder had been knocked over one too many times by the Tasmanian devil, I mean my daughter.

So in it's place, I placed a vintage brass quilt rack to house our extra towels.  And I filled the walls with two large frames filled with the ever popular spotted fabric.  I had a yard leftover from the room's new headboard & thought these would make a really great graphic statement in our little space.   Y'all know how I love to mix a print!  Plus, ever since I saw this space in Lonny Mag I have been wanting to duplicate the look somewhere...

I think the hall was the perfect place for this in our home...

The large scale of the framed fabric actually makes the space feel larger & is a great solution for the wallet as well.  You'd be hard pressed to find art of that size for $7... just sayin.

Now here is the bad news... Everyone is looking for this fabric & I fear it may be discontinued as it has been sold out everywhere.  I got the last few yards from Fabric.com on clearance... not a good sign for it's return. But if you want to keep an eye out for it, it is Premiere Prints Togo.  

The fabulous Brittany from Brittany Makes has shared her favorite spotted fabrics for all less than $20 a yard, maybe one of these would work for your upcoming spotted project!

Leave a comment below if you have found it anywhere!

Bye Bye Brown Living Room!

If you have read my little corner of the web for some time, you know that I am not a fan of brown.  That being said, for some reason when we were furnishing our house 6 years ago I went brown crazy.  It was my first time living with a boy (the hubs) & kinda thought brown was the safe choice to make him happy too.  Brown sofa with the matching chaise (still banging my head about that one!), brown rug, brown drapes I even painted our dining room brown.  

Slowly by surely the brown is disappearing.  While the brown sofa will remain for a while, I think once some of the other elements are changed, the brown sofa might actually grow on me... This change will not be an overhaul, just a little freshening up... Here is what I am thinking:

The main change will be the rug...  I have been looking for a jute rug for a while now, and I am thinking something like this hand knotted one will be just the right one.  We are also swapping out our coffee table, again.  Our upholstered ottoman/cocktail table just doesn't work for our family, so I have already started a project with the table above as the inspiration.  To help bring the space to life, we will be adding some brightly covered pillows to join the menagerie of black & white pillows we already have.  If you are looking for an easy update... pillows are it!  There is also some artwork happening inspired by those killer Acrylic Prints I saw at the Antique store a few weeks ago thanks to a very sweet friend!  I cannot get them off my mind!  Mine however will not be $899! And lastly, I have an idea for some sconces... we'll see if that one pans out or not.

All of this will start happening after this next week... Room Service Atlanta is being INSTALLED!!!  Finally!!  This will be the last sneak peek people.

(Fun right?!?) Happy Monday!!