More After Pics

Kitchen Before & After

Badly in need of a makeover, my kitchen went under attack last fall.  I painted the lower cabinets a dark brown a few years ago (to match the grout in the tile countertop and backsplash) and loved it…..for a couple of months until every little nick and scratch showed up instantly.  Live and learn.

Last time I still had a toddler at home, so whipped the paint on during nap times.  This time I decided to do it right.  I took the cabinet doors off and sanded them down, primed and gave them two coats of a No VOC paint.  I cannot tell you how much I love working with No VOC paint.  Not only is it better for the environment, but the fumes and the horrible way they made me feel, was the reason I never wanted to paint.  After the paint had a good 24 hours to dry completely I added a coat of wipe-on polyurethane.  Ya, I know, not so environmentally friendly, but it should mean I won’t have to repaint them so soon, which means less paint used, right??

With the lower cabinets back to their original cream color I chose (at the suggestion of a very color wise friend) a light brown (the color of “coffee with too much cream”) for the walls and painted a very visible section to see if 1) I liked it and 2) it went well with my gold dining room.  Yes and yes!  I could not be happier with the color, it really modern-ed up my kitchen and goes great with my black appliances.

Next came my favorite part, accessorizing.  I put away alot of what had been hanging on the walls and went for a new look.  You can always get it out again another time.  Refridgerators are going to be a bit busy by nature, so I just went with it (kind of trying to color coordinate) but stuck to just a couple colors for the wall and opposing counter space.  The big clock used to hang in our living room over some photos, the stainless photo board is from pottery barn a few years back and a favorite of mine.  Scanning and changing all of the photos to sepia and black & white really toned it down and made it look less chaotic. 

After trying for the better part of three days (seriously!) at creating silhouettes of my children it seems my (three) graphics managers are not capable of this, or I just couldn’t figure it out.  The glossiness of a digital silhouette is so striking and the silhouette itself is so old school, I just love them.  But for now, I turned profile pics into embossed sepia toned silhouettes that I think look cool up there.  (Sorry about that glare)

Reading tons of home design blogs, magazines and books not only gave me lots of ideas but I noticed how much you really can do on your very own.  And for not alot of money.  I love my new kitchen and it really didn’t even take me that long.  Stay tuned for before and afters of the office area to come.

Have you redone an area of your house yourself?  Please share!

Calendars: Wall, Virtual & Otherwise

Since I spend much of my time writing about green beauty, as much as I love it, I feel compelled to write about something else for a while. 

One of my passions is home design blogs.  I could literally skip through them all afternoon. 

So………. For a while I may post photos, snippets and ideas from some of my fave blogs here on OBStoo.  Hopefully, this will serve as another creative outlet for me.  And you too.  We can share and learn together. 

Holly Becker of Decor8 has posted on calendars this week (a timely post at that) which got me thinking about them.

There is a super charming wall collage calendar titled Perpetual Calendar by Nichole at Little Brown Pen that would look super on my new coffee ice cream colored kitchen walls.  I, like everyone else on planet earth, live by my calendar. 

But here’s the thing……… I got a new phone for Christmas from the hubby and kids.  Yes, I have retired my old flip phone and (finally) stepped into the high-tech world.  I really love it and thought that maybe this year would be my foray into a computerized calendar.  A little scary, right?  But my husband swears by it. 

Then there is the syncing up of your calendar with other people’s calendars, which I have been asked to do and haven’t quite gotten the hang of yet.

My daughter made me a very cute calendar at school that she is so proud of and which I proudly hung over my workspace.   So darling I hate to write on it.

So what is your calendar of choice?  Wall?  Desk?  Google?  Sticky notes?

Friday, Friday

Here is what’s shakin’ in my hood this week.  Hope you had a great one and have an even better weekend!

Image credit: r ♥ c e y t ♥ y at Flickr.com, Creative Commons license.