weekend happenings

This is how my weekend started - looks exciting, huh?

 

I know, I know - you're jealous of my life ;)  Eric left town for business on Thursday afternoon, and I thought I'd try to paint the back shelves of my pantry like the pinterest picture I posted here.  I was going for a creamy yellow look, something that would brighten up the sadness that was my white pantry.  I chose a yellow by Martha Stewart at Home Depot and hurried home to get painting so I could surprise Eric.

After a few hours of prepping and painting (and a bit of stenciling- trying something new!), I had this...

 
Holy burned corneas!  I could hardly stand to look at it, it was so YELLOW!  Ugh.  I gave up and admitted my color-choice defeat.  I headed to Sherwin Williams on Friday morning (after giving blood-more on this later) for some advice from a professional.  A very nice young man who noticed that I was unmarried (forgot my wedding ring after painting all Thursday!) and then got very embarrassed when I told him that I was taken, advised my choice of "Cottage Cream."  He said that if I only wanted to do one coat and let the crazy yellow shine through a bit that it might have the effect I originally intended.  So, I started repainting...

Muuuuuuch better.  I like its softness and how it doesn't attract too much attention.  It just adds a little something extra to the space.  I'm satisfied.  Oh!  I mentioned I gave blood earlier that day... DO NOT give blood, forget to eat or drink anything for a few hours and then attempt to paint a pantry.  Especially if your pantry painting involves you having to wedge yourself into tight, humid spaces.  It is almost certainly a recipe for passing out.  I made it out unharmed, luckily -I'm just dumb like that sometimes  =)

Eric was pleasantly surprised when I showed him the pantry - he liked my re-thought color choice and was only mildly annoyed that I'd paid for crazy yellow paint I can't use in the foreseeable future.

Only a slight difference, but one I like.  So, what did all of you do with your weekends?  I'm hoping to get some serious projects done this week.  Namely hemming my drapes, and sewing my pillows.  You also might notice that I've added a "to do" list of sorts to the left sidebar of my little bloggity blog.  I'm hoping it helps keep me focused on things I need to get done around here.  They're somewhat arranged in order of importance, but it's a "loose" organization.

I can't wait to read about all of your weekends.  I'm listening to the rain here (finally, monsoon season turns into something!), and LOVING it.  I know I'll pay for it tomorrow with the humidity, but it's worth it to hear the tapping of the rain on our roof.  *sigh*  Happy Monday, friends!

Friday Oops

First of all, thank you all for the love on my feature yesterday at Decor and the Dog.  I was honored to be a part of Michelle's favorite project series!  And since i've been a bit on a project roll, I decided to tackle painting the pantry last night!  This was my inspiration picture via Pinterest....

 Gorgeous right?  And mine turned out.... TERRIBLY.  Oh my goodness, sometimes you make a choice that is the absolute WRONG one.  And this was one of these.  The color is waaaaaay too intense for my small space.  And consequently I'm feeling turned off o the whole "yellow" thing altogether.  Ugh.  I'm trying to fix it (i.e. prime and start over), and we'll see what comes of it.  Anyone else ever make exactly the wrong choice when it comes to decorating?  Please share so I don't feel like such a doof!  Not to mention this means my whole pantry is scattered throughout my kitchen and driving me batty.  The price I'm willing to pay for a cute house, I tell ya! ;p

At any rate, I took a nap yesterday (I'm on summer break - be jealous!) and when I opened my eyes, this is what I saw...

Holy cuteness attack!  What a face - why he loves to have his head on a pillow like a human, I'll never know, but it makes for cheerful wake ups!  Sorry for the bad pic quality, but I had to capture it with my phone so as to not miss the moment.  Here he is again, just because I'm melting of cuteness and I wanted to share...

 

What a doll.  It looks like he was enjoying the heck out of that nap!

What are you up to this weekend?  I'm going to be fixing the mess that is my kitchen/pantry.  And I'm thinking of going a nice neutral cream color - safe, but it won't burn my corneas, so that's a plus.  And don't worry, I'll document the whole thing on Monday (and yes, I did get pictures of the yucky color, I'm just holding you in suspense, muahaha!).  Have an absolutely wonderful weekend, friends, and happy Friday! 

Guest posting at Decor and the Dog

Hello friends!  Today I am honored to be guest posting over at Michelle's blog, Decor and the Dog.  Michelle is an avid DIY-er (check out her addition of bead board to her kitchen island, or her West Elm headboard knock-off) and pharmacist who, along with her husband (of course) and her sweet dog, Ike, has built not one but TWO homes!  Head on over to see my post on my favorite project, my kitchen remodel.  Speaking of which, I was on Zillow last night and happened to find a picture of our kitchen and how it looked on the day that we moved in...

W-O-W, wow.  It certainly has changed since then!  Head on over to Decor and the Dog to see just how much!   And while you're there, check out the rest of her blog.  She's talented, funny, and Ike is about as cute as can be.  Enjoy!  And happy Thursday, friends!

Laundry room re-vamp

As we've been clearing out the house, it feels like one room is always the dumping ground for the little things that have no permanent "home."  It used to be our office, but we've cleared out every room except two... our bedroom (total DISASTER! It will improve soon), and the laundry room.  Since our garage entry is through the laundry room, I found myself getting annoyed every time I came in.  Does anyone else ever feel antsy or annoyed when things are dirty or cluttered?  I hope I'm not alone in my neurosis!

My laundry room started out looking like this...

You can see it's basically a dumping ground where things go to die be forgotten until they're covered in dust.  It was actually even worse a few moments before this, because part of our improvement was to hang those shelves.  Imagine everything on the shelves piled onto the floor.  Blech.  

(Did you catch the glimpse of my Lazy Susan as it was drying?  I guess my laundry room is good for something...)

We were obviously going to need a storage solution, and I wanted something that would match and be inexpensive. *Cue Jeopardy music* And... Enter IKEA.  I have a love/hate relationship with IKEA.  It makes so many of my projects possible, but it's also the cause for many of my projects.  I can afford the IKEA price point but I don't love how generic everything looks.  I end up doing projects to fix the things I buy from IKEA to make them look more custom, most recently my Lazy Susan (I feel like you should be playing a drinking game here and taking a shot every time I mention IKEA - that's five, people!)

I came home with this (post assembly, obviously)...

Let me tell you - those large boxes are a pain in the TUSH to assemble.  Ugh.  But don't they look nicer than random bags and bins?  Of course, Ted helped assemble in his own special way, as he always does...

(Anyone want to buy that couch - despite the fact that the picture makes it look terrible since the slip cover is untucked?  PLEASE get it out of my house, I'm begging you!)

After several arrangements of boxes on shelves, a few decisions as to what should go where, and a SERIOUS lint wipe down (how does that stuff get out of control so quickly?!  It's like a tiny army of lint soldiers!), we had this...

 

Not bad, eh?  I mean I'm not going to win any design awards here, but it looks a heck of a lot better than it did before!  I'm using the boxes on the lower unit to store laundry supplies...

...since my husband's tools have taken over what used to be my laundry cabinets (can't complain though, it means he does a lot more handy things around the house!)  Do you love the cinder block on the floor?  Me neither, but it's weighing down a piece of our old cafeteria style tile that's being glued back onto the floor.  Don't you just LOVE 1970's homes?  The flooring will hopefully change someday.  Anyway, my old magazines are being stored in the black holders on the top row of the shelving, along with spare bits of hardware and smaller household tools.   And things that need easy and regular access are in the buckets.  Things like...

I made (read: I got to color and stamp for a real project! wahoo!) that little sign - I think it's fun and a little whimsical.  If only I could find all of my patterned scissors to give the edges a bit of spice.

I know the room is not complete. I want to paint the walls something fun, maybe do a stencil like Elizabeth over at The Mustard Ceiling? But it's MUCH more functional for now.  So, instead of showing you a "before and after," I'll show you a...

We're not done, but we've made progress.  It still feels good!  How about you all - do you pile all your junk into one secret holding place?  Does it make you antsy to see it lying about?  Do you feel the same way I do about IKEA (that's 6 shots, people! Maybe you should wait to comment until you can produce coherent thoughts)?  Happy Wednesday, friends!

Lazy Susan makeover & chevron stipe tutorial

Remember how I told you I'm addicted to projects?  Well, once I started this one, I just couldn't stop!  We went camping this past weekend, and the moment I got home I started taping and measuring my Lazy Susan.  I'm sick, I tell you. S-I-C-K sick.

This Lazy Susan began its' life as a $7 IKEA piece...

And after seeing so many amazing chevron patterns all over the blog-o-shpere, I wanted a little piece of the lovely in my home.  I decided on lime green and white chevron stripes, so I began by spray painting the entire piece with Rust-oleum Painters Touch in Glossy Key Lime...

 
My college calculus work makes an appearance again on my ghetto outdoor project table.

Once I had spray painted the whole thing green, I had to leave on vacation =( At least I had something to look forward to when I got home!

Once I got home, the hard part began.  I know there are a million tutorials out there on how to make the perfect chevron stripe, but somehow, they all still seemed super complicated.  So I tried my own idea.  Maybe it will be helpful for you too?

First I taped a succession of paralell lines with my painters tape all about an inch apart, since my painter's tape was one inch wide.  I eyeballed the distance, and made sure to leave myself plenty of spare tape to wrap over the curved edges of the Lazy Susan.

You can see that once I had taped all of my pieces going one direction, I decided on an angle for my chevron peaks (around 110 degrees, just a bit larger than a right angle - can you tell I love math??) and started taping yet another set of equidistant parallel lines...

Until it looked like a pie out of a Dr. Suess book.  From here, I chose one "path" to be my first chevron, and started peeling back the tape...

I was careful to make sure the edges were VERY crisp, and the tape was taped down TIGHT, so as to avoid and  the bleeding and fuzziness, as there can sometimes be with some spray paint jobs.  I continued peeling back every other "path" until I was left with nice, clean chevrons...

 (excuse my crap all over the table, I'm a project fiend and I can't be bothered with cleaning up my table/I am lazy)

When you're done, fold the edges of the tape under the Lazy Susan and make sure they are tight!  Mine looked like this...

Once I was all taped and ready, I needed a few coats of this...

After pulling up the tape while the paint was still tacky (pretty much immediately after I finished spraying it), getting paint all OVER my hands, and letting it dry for 24 hours, I had this beauty...

Yes I did take a picture of it on my floor.  It looked better in the picture than the table top.  Feel free to judge me. =) 

 

I love how it looks on our table - it adds a great pop of color, not to mention a ton of fun to our dinners.  And the stripes came out perfectly crisp!

 

I can't have imagined it coming out better.  Wouldn't you say this Lazy Susan went from drab to fab? (<-can't BELIEVE I just said that!)

Spray painting win!!  I'm so excited, I LOVE how it looks!  Have you attempted any spray painting this summer?  Are you liking your results?  I know I love mine.  Stay tuned tomorrow for my laundry room re-organization. I'm a woman on a project mission, people!  Happy Tuesday, friends! =)

Linking to Home Stories A to Z, and here:

Young House Love

Pantry Overhaul

Today we're going to play a game.  It's called, "I Spy In April's Pantry."  Here's the picture you start with...

To amuse yourself, try to find the following:

• 3 different bottles of vanilla extract
• 2 bottles of balsamic vinegar
• 6 cans of tuna fish
• 7 types of pasta
• innumerable bottles of "adult juice"
• 3 different coffeemakers (used daily! We need them all, I swear!)
• 2 full jars of salt
• 3 saran wraps
• 4 boxes of onion soup mix
• 7 types of nuts
• no less than 24 different spices (in addition to my space cabinet - I have an addiction)

Tired yet?  So, needless to say, my pantry was EXPLODING! 

The Backstory (if you read this blog for the pictures, skip this bit =))
My husband bought this home a year or so before I came along and rented rooms out to 5 of his college buddies... So, they payed the mortgage but filthified (<- new word!) the house.  Eric and I were married on June 13 of 2009, and the last renter moved his final things out on June 8.  OUTRAGEOUS!  But, I won't start down that rabbit trail.  This left me the last few days before our wedding to move in and clean.  This is NOT what you want to be doing the precious few days before your wedding when your family is in town.  So I didn't.  I paid a professional to come an and deep clean and I left the pantry as it was.  After we returned from our honeymoon, I only had about 4 days before heading back to school for the year, so I just added my new things to the pantry, threw out the obviously rotting grossness (how can boys LIVE like this?!), and decided I'd take care of it later.  And while I NEVER let it get "hoarders-esqe," I certainly needed to re-think its' organization and give the shelves a good soap down.

In case you can't quite see the crazy level of stashing and stuffing going on, here's a close up at a few of the shelves.  **Disclaimer** I am NOT the only person stuffing and stashing here! But, I will admit to being most of the problem ;)

Cue the embarrassment and the I-cant-believe-I'm-actually-sharing-this-with-the-internet feelings of regret...

Something had to be done, so I gathered a good friend and we rolled up our sleeves.  We cleared evrything out and organized it into piles.... 

This was when I started to panic that I would never finish.  I can't STAND clutter, so I just wanted it done!  We wiped down the shelves, and decided how to best organize things so that similar items were grouped.  For example: grains, spices, sauces and marinades, adult beverages, containers, etc.  And after all of the washing, sorting, pitching, organizing and re-setting... we had this:

 So organized!!

Can you see how everything is all contained and matched with it's pantry friends?  I'm in heaven now when I look at it!  Even the nasty bottom shelf got a little less crazy.  And it only look 2 hours!  It seems like a long time, but not as long as it could have been, I guess.  Ted helped too:

 

 Who would watch over his bone and squeaky bear if he didn't, huh? 

Here's a look at the before and after...

Can you tell a difference?  I know I definitely can!  It may not look like much to the casual observer, but my mind is a lot clearer now - weird how organization can do that!  I wish I had had enough time to paint the backs of the shelves or even stencil them, but that will have to wait until another day, I guess.  For now, I feel like I have a grocery store in my home, it's so organized. =) And in case you're wondering what the orange paper thing is, it's a post-it left there by my husband, and it reads: "I love you, April!!" What an amazing man I have!  Have you undertaken any hefty organization projects this summer?  Please share!  Have a happy and productive Monday, friends!

P.S. Remember this project I told you about last week?  He's almost done!  Look for his reveal and a full tutorial tomorrow!

amazing before & after

Here's my boy before....

And after!

What a transformation, huh?  It was definitely time for Summer Shave Down 2011.  Happy Friday, folks!