Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Kitchen Chalkboard

Well friends, after a week of Springlike weather, Winter came roaring back with a vengeance. No, we don't have the snow and ice others are getting, but it's cold and cloudy. Sigh. Winter, I'm so over you.


Poor trees thought it was Spring and started leafing out:

They'll be all withered by the end of the week.

These thought it was Spring too, so I cut them and brought them inside to enjoy:



Pretty, pretty irises. They were my Mom's favorite flower.

One thing this weather is good for is to work on some projects. Besides the portrait I'm painting, I've been working on my chalkboard for my city house kitchen. I so love my chalkboard wall at the farm, I wanted to have something similar here also. My walls though have too uneven of a texture for chalkboard paint so I came up with a different solution - a large frame that has been sitting in the garage.

I had Bruce cut a piece of plywood to fit then I painted the frame in red (I love red accents!) and the plywood with chalkboard paint,


Hung it on the breakfast nook wall,


and wrote a saying on it.


I hope Winter gets the message!


Have you seen any promises of Spring where you're are? 


Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Master Bedroom and Headboard Painted!


We had a great weekend at the farm. It was extra long as we went up on Friday and left Monday evening. We had near perfect weather - it was warm and sunny for most of it. The rain and cold didn't return until the wee hours of Monday morning. It made for getting a lot done!

Friday afternoon, I started painting the bedroom walls. Here's how it started out - white walls, green headboard:
heh, you can see my spots where I was trying out paint colors. :o)

It's always a bit scary to put color on a white wall...it looks so dark!


But I know to stick with it and trust the color is going to look right.

I also worked on the door we use as a headboard. I wanted to paint it white and add tin ceiling tiles to the panels.
Door headboard before
 I noticed the backside of the door was already white so instead of painting over the green, I painted a fresh coat on the white side and finished with dark wax.

I also had Bruce add a ledge on the top just to make it look more "headboard-y".


Ledge detail
Then I tried adding my tin tiles. They were too big and no matter how I tried, I couldn't get them to work. And if I cut them to fit, I would lose too much of the detail. Rats! Then I remembered I had a decorative piece of iron scrollwork. I laid it on the headboard and decided it worked!




I'd still like to have tin for those panels but the ironwork adds enough for now.




Love, love, love the color of the room. Revere Pewter is definitely a good color! Now my white curtains show up instead of blending in.

Tried out the bench under the window...not bad



And what about the sliding barn door for the closet, you ask? Well, as you can see, it's still the old closet door:



But Bruce told me he'd build me one. I just need to come up with a design and draw out a plan for him! He's the best!

In the meantime, I'm ordering my rug from Ballard Design. I found out it's on sale right now! Perfect! As for the bookshelves, that is a project for way down the road. For now, having the room painted and a barn door in the works is enough. I hope to share that in a couple of weeks!

Hope your week is going well!
Hugs,
Cecilia

Saturday, February 7, 2015

Master Bedroom Makeover Planning

When I was painting all the rooms at the farm, the one room I didn't touch was the Master Bedroom. It was the one room that looked like it had a fairly fresh coat of paint and wasn't awful. So I left it alone.
Master Bedroom currently

But now that I've lived with it for 3 years, I'm ready to refresh the look of the room. Here's my plan:


1. To start with, I want to repaint the door headboard off-white and add tin ceiling tiles to it, along with a ledge on top similar to this one:

source

2. Someday I want to add bookcases around the window and put my bench in between.

source

bookcases like these perhaps? source

My pew bench under the window? (see the redo here)
3. I am in love with this rug from Ballard Design. It would be nice to have something to walk on besides the tile. It is cold in the winter!
Source
I like this silver color. I think it will go with the bedspread I have and the other colors in the room.

4. I am planning on painting the walls in Benjamin Moore's Revere Pewter. I have a long weekend coming up so I'm hoping this step will be done by the end of it.
I love this color! It is a nice warm grey. I think it will be very soothing.

5. Last but not least, I want a sliding barn door to replace the closet door. It will take up much less space than the door now, not to mention it is perfect for a farmhouse.

If I'm really lucky, I'll be able to talk Bruce into doing this next weekend too.

Hopefully I will get the the headboard repainted and embellished, the walls painted, and fingers crossed, the barn door to replace the closet door, all done next weekend. I hope the weather will cooperate!

If I can get those items crossed off my list, then I will check to see what size of rug I need and either try to find one similar or order the Ballard Design one. The bookshelves will have to wait but at least I have the idea there.

I'll be sure to share my progress with you. Have a wonderful weekend.
:o)
Cecilia

Linking up here:
The Dedicated House Make It Pretty Monday

Springtime Projects 3: Have A Seat!

It might still be Spring, but here in Texas, things are starting to heat up and feel like Summer. I knew I needed to get the last of my Spri...