More projects finished...YAAAAY!

This week, in between work and life...I have completed a few projects....and I am so excited about them!

Remember the dilemma we were having about keeping the door...not keeping the door in the living room? Well, it is a beautiful door but my house is little! and wall space is a premium in this hut! Much more valuable than that door...to me...the Honey wasn't so thrilled about removing it...it was real wood...that I had not touched with a paint brush...and well, men? they...for some reason are really attached to wood "things"...whether they go with your decor or not...

I had to pull out the Hoooonaaay! Hat and beg but that door is gone...it still has a home here but that is a a surprise! (well, and one of the reasons I didn't have to throw a tantrum...hee hee!)

As you all know, I had selected all the things I wanted for the living room and stuck them in there....I have been thinking really hard about this room...I wanted soft...warm...a little bit of elegance thrown in with the rustic and I really, really...really! wanted English Cottage charm...

I love red...I bet you all are rolling your eyes about now...yes, Lisa...WE KNOW! LOL! and I have started the rug for the living room ...and its center medallion is red...and I really want red in the living room since the kitchen and this room are so close together...but I also want individuality...and I love blue...I started looking at several blogs...Google images on red and blue rooms...most were fun...and bright....retro...until I came across

www.houseofturquoise.com Her name is Erin and she loves everything Turquoise! Her blog is so fun and just jam packed with information and decorating pictures...anyways, I put" red and blue rooms" in her search box and it gave me several pictures...one of them was a reference to a blue paint...Wythe Blue...it is from Benjamin Moore's Historical collection...http://www.benjaminmoore.com/bmpsweb/portals/bmps.portal?_nfpb=true&_br=1&_pageLabel=fh_home&np=colors/HC-143

Every room, piece of furniture...every review...just gushed about how beautiful it was! and tons of pictures of room painted this color had at least one RED accent and it just blended beautifully...yep, this was the blue for me...I live in a prehistoric state...not one store sells Benjamin Moore paint...I had to go to Wisconsin to get it...I was so excited when I got home the first thing I did was open it and paint a picture frame...hmmmm...it's green...figures....I went back an hour later? Here was the most gorgeous aqua blue paint color I had ever seen...it wasn't loud...beachy...bright...it was so soft...pretty...I am in LUH HUV with this color! With paint brush in hand...I selected my first victim...

Remember this? with it's multi coats of barfy apple green paint? Well, the paint was cute actually...just not my kind of cute...so I, in all my infinite wisdom...(that is my sardonic reference to my lack of sense) decided to take ALL the paint off and see what was underneath it...Oh! did I mention I bought a can of Turquoise? and that is when I decided Erin loves it! Lisa does not!

This cabinet was stained green...but now, at least, I had a clean slate with no drips or marks...and I had a place for it...by just removing the door!

I spent all of today painting that cabinet...just so I could get out all of my free, repurposed, found, recycled pretties to put in it! All those road side plates and little baubles...free...I think it will really look amazing sitting next to my new french doors... and this is how it ended for the night...

Pressed flowers

vintage silver lid bottles

And this is how I am ending my night....

Did I mention how much I love my wood cookstove? and my chickens?

Red...it's what makes me happy!

Ok...so does blue...BUT...Red is the color I chose for my accent in my kitchen!  and, after having to rip out the moulding to the stairway and desecrate my almost finished kitchen...the only real room in my house...I needed some consolation!

Remember in the last post that I told you I commandeered my upstairs for several projects? Well, my linen closet was on the top of my list of to do's...I was so tired of removing the door upstairs, fetching a light to shine in there...and ducking and hunching to get to the tote that held the clean sheets...dragging the tote out of the pitiful and dark cave and then having to put it all back...sooo...last fall, my Sweet School Teacher friend...who loves me...(the one that let's out the UUUUUGGHHHH! as big as her whole body? like when I try and scrounge old bath rugs...) came by and told me her brother was cleaning out her Mama's garage and basement and would I like to come over and see if there was anything I would like? UH...YES!

Her Mama has a very large basement...and there are 10 kids...and those kids were loading trailers...yes, whole trailers full of stuff...stuff I couldn't get to fast enough before they were driving away to the dump! However, during one of my frantic perusings of said trailers...I found this..

It's an old metal pharmacy cabinet...with doors...and the old metal caged glass...which I promptly broke..:(

This cabinet sat in my yard for a couple of months before my Honey had pity on me and carried it upstairs last week so I could paint it...I tried to get the old paint off...what did they paint these things with anyways? It didn't come off and I was so tired of scraping and brushing...phooey...I just primed over it finally! 

Then the spray painting began...6 cans of dollar spray paint..."several thin coats are better than one thick one"...what EVER! This cabinet can't get enough spray paint on it! Painting indoors with a window open in 12 degree weather...with a mask on your face and plastic on everything?  Um...I will never do it again...my ankles STILL have a red ring on them from the crocks and footies I was wearing while painting and my nostrils were glued shut for 3 days! 

I finally gave up...I will have to put more on in the summer when I can do it outside!  Well, my Muffin carried it down the stairs....and put it in it's new home...

All that time sanding...scraping...painting...wow...it looked terrible! almost like it was way to small for the wall...and...well...naked....I taped the curtain  in the window...I still need to get a curtain rod to hang it..it won't look so square...then...I think? Hopefully it will add some softness to it!

And when my Honey came home? he said nothing...he never does that any more...he always comments! Well, that says something along the lines of "if you can't say something nice...." after grilling him for 10 minutes on how it looked and him dancing around the subject...I made him help me  dress it up with all the things I have been collecting for it...he seemed to think that it was too much red and that all that red would look ridiculous...BUT...

It just started getting better and better!

I am really loving the 3D wall art...

My sweet Muffin Man did an awesome job dressing up this naked space! He promised to cut the backs for the picture frames this weekend and help me find two tiny rods to hang the curtain right...and  fix the moulding I destroyed, the wall upstairs, the banister...attach the moulding to the stair treads, put in a rod in my new closet...can you believe this guy still loves me? He has not one moment of peace....I, however, have stopped knocking on the bathroom door with questions...

Not too shabby for $10 bucks...and no more digging in the cave closet!

Cabinets...to paint or not to paint?

Gun Cabinet

As you all know I have this cabinet...it was my Honey's gun cabinet he made in high school...I have always loved it...just not the gun part or the 1980's finish on it! Well...keeping everything in storage for so long, it got mildew damage on most of it...I bleached it, I washed it...I even sanded it a little trying to get the mildew off. Nothing worked...so I ended up priming it with Kilz Primer trying to stop the damage...and that is how it sat for the better part of a year...

Primered repurposed Gun Cabinet

 I put on my best Honnaaay Hat and begged for repurposing this cabinet...well, being the generous, loving sort my Honey is? He gave it to me to do what I would...
I took it apart and took out the "gun racks"...and put in two shelves from the wood I had taken off the wall upstairs...the planks are fabulous! They are 1/2" thick cedar with beveled tongue and groove. They have remnants of this house on them...paint, paper and knicks...rough on one side, smooth on the other...loads of character!  I was at a loss as to what kind of finish to use to incorporate it into my house...I wanted white but I didn't want everything to be matched...I like the crackle finishes but my patience level is low...I could paint the whole thing bright white, cream...but then we are back to picking paint.....uh uh...that is the worst thing someone could go thru while trying to redo their house! I love the time worn finishes..chipping paint...worn corners...but it is hard to achieve the affects of time and have it look like it is authentic...
In my internet travels, I have saved pictures of various cabinets and display units...I have had this picture for the whole year I have been here:

I just love it...it's old..worn...beautiful! and it suits my aesthetics and my plan for furnishing my English/Cottage style living room...

As I have referenced before...I have a heat gun...they are the most wonderful things! They zip paint, varnish, any kind of finish off anything...they make nice, neat little paint chips to vacuum up or sweep into a bag...and they also burn your fingers...:) I am a testament to that...you really have to pay attention to what you are doing...Anyways...I decided to go with the above cabinet...it has everything...wood...white...old...worn...character!

Shabby Chic paint job

And this is what I ended up doing...taking the paint off...

repurposed weathered wood cabinet

White shabby cabinet

reused weathered cabinet

I am going to ask Santa for a palm sander...so I can finish sanding it down to bare wood with only flecks of white like my inspiration cabinet....my poor lil arms are tuckered out! I also think it needs a beadboard backing or a color inside?  My Honey LOVES it...


http://www.countryliving.com/homes/makeovers/room-makeovers-vote