One, two, three art caddy

Well HELLO! Hope you had a fantastic weekend! We finished up marching band season (for the most part – more on that soon!) and I am SO PROUD of my hubby, the staff and those kids. They are so crazy talented and they work their tails off all summer and fall.

But I am glad to have my hubby back – for a few weeks anyway. ;)

Over the past few weeks I’ve been working like a mad woman trying to get the office redo completed.

YEAH. That one. The one I started (early) last year. I’m so incredibly efficient, it’s just shocking. :)

My to-do list is dwindling though, and this project was so easy and fast! I just love how it turned out – couldn’t wait to show you!

It all started with my sister, and the Pottery Barn gift card she gave me for my birthday. She knows just what I love! (OK, she asked where I wanted a gift card and I told her Pottery Barn, but still. She’s awesome.)

I went to spend my free moolah (the best kind!) and of course…couldn’t find a THING. Gah – that is so frustrating! You walk in with a gift card and find nothing, and the next time you have two cents to your name and find EVERYTHING.

Can I get an AMEN?

:)

I went to another store at the fancy mall, then went back to PB – I was determined. I walked around so long the staff was giving me the stink eye.

Finally I found something I thought I could use:

It was filled with towels and I loved that, but we don’t have a great spot for it in our bathroom and besides that, I wanted to have it out where it would be seen.

The nice little surprise was that it ran up on major sale – I think I paid $30-something for it? Rock. on.

Anyhoo, I came up with a great use for it in the office! But the wood tone, although lovely, wasn’t doing much for it.

So I painted it. :) Oh yes. I did.

I started by spray priming it in my workshop spray paint station on a sheet on the floor in the garage:

At least I covered the snow blower. ;)

Then I finished it up with a coat of Rustoleum flat white:

 

Remember when spray painting:  shake the can really well before and during, use a mask or spray outside (or both!), and use small, short bursts – not big long ones. (DRIPS!) Oh, and numerous light coats are better than fewer thick coats!

I didn’t even sand it down, because the outside of it really won’t get much wear and tear. I did, however, use my sanding block to distress the edges up a bit:

I just sanded down parts that would show wear…if there was going to be wear. Which there won’t. But whatever:

I planned to use the caddy for the Bub’s markers and crayons and stuff, so I wanted to dress up the front with something kinda cute and fun.

I got the Silhouette machine out and cut number stencils out of vinyl and put them on the front of each shelf:

If you’re real good you’ll measure them out and place them just right. I just eyeballed it and was real lucky they weren’t wonky. :)

I used the extra blue green color I had leftover from the book nook to paint in the letters, (I believe it’s called Lake from Valspar?) then took off the vinyl.

I LOVE how it turned out!:

I loved the wood, but the white pops against the floors and the black dresser!:

    

And dang…it’s CUTE!!

The top shelf holds crayons, the middle is markers and the bottom is filled with paints:

It’s super easy for the Bub to get to everything and super easy for him to put everything away. (Ding! Ding! Ding!)

I love that blue color – it’s a perfect match to the Target lamps on the Craigslist dresser:

And the whole thing was free (for me) – I used paint and spray paint I already had. Love when that happens!

One more project down – WHOOHOO!

The next time you see this room, it will be D.O.N.E. Geez Louise, that took forever. Anyone else taken 18 months do redo a space? No? Just me? :)

Above the cabinets

Hello all! How was your Easter weekend? I hope it was wonderful. :)

We had a great one – as you can tell by the tuckered out Bub and dog:

:) Adorable.

I get asked a lot how to decorate one spot in particular – and it’s a toughie. High spaces in particular (plant ledges, above armoires) are hard, in my opinion. And the kitchen cabinets are no exception.

Our cabs aren’t super tall – we went with the basic height – so we have a ton of space above them. I tried leaving them nekked, but it just looks so unfinished and bare. And I love having a little somethin’ up there to add some personality and color to the kitchen.

I know some don’t like the decorating over the cabinets idea, and that’s cool. I really don’t need to know. Really…it’s OK.  :)

Last week I finished up another item on my kitchen to-do list…and it was a LONG time coming. I started our mini kitchen redo last May, and the looming one year “anniversary” is kind of kicking my booty in gear. I’d love to have everything checked off my list by the year mark.

You can see in this old pic that I had stenciled sayings above the cabinets:

I had a Tuscan theme going in the room and I chose words like “Family and Friends” and “Wine and Food” in Italian.

But a beadboard backsplash doesn’t exactly scream Tuscan, so I’ve wanted to get rid of those words foreva now.

So I started priming:

And I figured it would be an easy project, but like pretty much ALWAYS, one thing turned into another. That is how I roll.

Two coats of primer and two coats of paint later, and you could see where I had touched up the paint:

I was hoping that wasn’t going to happen, but it did so I rolled with it. :) I repainted the area above the cabinets with a quick coat of the lovely Sisal color from Ralph Lauren (Home Depot can still mix it for you!)

LOVE this color.

And then I moved onto another project I’ve been wanting to address for some time now – updating and rearranging the accessories on top of the cabs. And I wanted to get it done without leaving the house. (Or spending any cash!)

I started with Goodwill frame I’ve had for ages:

Brand new baby!

I found a Target placemat a couple of months ago that I loved, and knew just what I was going to do with it:

It’s plastic and was only $1.99.

I cut it to fit the frame, and ended up with this:

So cute!!

You can see my little secret for propping up stuff up there:

Our little-used NYC book and my old AP Stylebook have a use again!

I only use old paperbacks, but on occasion Hubs will ask where a book is and I’ll answer, “Did you check above the cabinets honey?”

No lie. :)

That’s what it’s like living with me. He loves me so. (He must.)

:)

Anyhoo, next I focused on the blinding green tray I spray painted back here:

It. was. BRIGHT. Sheesh. Pretty much as soon as I did it, I wanted to change it.

I pulled it down and sprayed it with some yellow instead, but that pesky “S” was still showing through. So I thunk and I thunk, and came up with a (free!) fix to cover it.

I took some poster board, cut it to the size of the inside of the tray and then used a stencil to dress it up a bit:

It is SO not perfect – but remember it’s up high! And it was FREE. Me likey. 

I may get a piece of plexiglass cut to fit over it eventually, but it’s not going to be used so for now it stays as is.

I had to keep at least ONE word up there – the Italian was gone, but I had to add one more that’s near and dear to my heart:

Yes, I love to eat. I needed to proclaim my love, loud and clear.

These are cardboard letters from Joann’s and they’ve been sitting up there unfinished for months. First I tried covering them with fabric, then paper, and then realized they were way too busy.

You can’t go wrong with good old black. :)

I saw this cage at Stein Mart a few weeks ago and couldn’t resist it!:

It was $20 and they had a smaller size too. LOVE!!

I also picked up this cutie little stool a few months ago (for $12) at TJ Maxx:

UGH, I love it! It matches the blue tray I used in the living room. I love how it pulls out the blue in the little cafe curtains I made a couple of weeks ago.

Some of the pieces I’ve had for a long time – the pear art used to be a wrapped canvas:

I cut it out and framed it in an IKEA frame.

Last year I picked up the round platter from IKEA as well:

And the herb crate was a little DIY project from last summer. I adore that little crate!

I learned while working in the decorating biz that your eye should travel up and down when looking at accessories, and I try to apply that above our cabinets:

One tall thing, one shorter thing, one tall thing…you get it. ;)

Because we have so much space above our cabinets, I try to go with larger pieces to fill it:

And like any hard-to-decorate space, I always say to be PATIENT. Areas like this can’t be forced – it’s the kind of thing you fill as you go, when you find items you love, that are the right size, that apply to the space. (Trays, baskets and platters for a kitchen.)

You may notice one more little change…the ball started rolling and I couldn’t stop it.

I resisted, but it always wins out. :)

I FINALLY installed the crown molding in this space:

And I’ll tell you more about that when I finish the other half of the room (the family room).

I’m SO glad to have this done! Or at least up. “Done” is a bit of a stretch. :)

I may add a little detail to the bottom to chunk it up a bit, but for now, I’ll be happy if I don’t see our ladder again for a very, VERY long time. :)

So that, my dears, is how I decorate above our cabinets! If our cabs were taller, I’d do a lot less – probably wider, fatter items. But I love it and will probably not touch it for another year or five. And my kitchen list to-do is dwindling – WHOO!

How do you deal with up high spaces? Do tell!

The squares on my walls.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend! We had a great one -- full of marching band. ;) I swear I feel like I have 300 more children every weekend, I am so proud when I watch them perform. Sniff.

Today I'm not feeling so great -- no fever thank goodness, just general crap. Hopefully I can sleep it off tonight. I cannot stand being down and out. Gives me hives!!

So yes, this is yet another post about molding. I swear after this I won't mention it again for a whole WEEK! OK, maybe a month. Grumble. I got so many questions about determining the size of the boxes, so I thought I would answer that, and while I'm at it, show you the various ways I've used molding around our home...

The family room I worked on just weeks after the Bub was born. I was itching to get back to "normal" -- doesn't everyone feel like that? So a home improvement project was in order to scratch that itch. :) The Bub was in his bouncy seat the whole time I did this room -- and he slept through the whole thing!:

I used the foam molding in this room, and many of you who have seen pictures of our family room have asked about these boxes. I used a large stencil (I get mine from Hobby Lobby) to make the design inside the boxes. I wanted it to be really light and barely noticeable, so I used my faux iridescent paint only for the stencil.

I have loved it for years, but every once and a while I want to get rid of the swirls. They are fun and very subtle, but now I have a new look in mind. I'm thinking I'm going to paint the insides of those boxes with a color slightly darker than the walls. Stay tuned for that one!

In our chocolate powder room, I used real wood for the chair rail (I wanted it real thick and chunky) and the foam stuff for the boxes:

I never even painted them!:

Love that stuff!

The million dollar question -- how big do you make your boxes? It's a bit of math (ewwww!!) and some trial and error. First, you'll need to measure the wall. Then, decide how many inches you want between all of your boxes. I do a standard three inches all the way around:

Say your wall is 14 feet. (They are rarely a perfect number like that, for explanation purposes, let's go easy.) Fourteen feet is 168 inches. So maybe you want six boxes on that wall -- take out the three inches next to each box and figure out the final number. If we did six boxes, there would be seven three inch sections equalling 21 inches. Take 21 from 168 -- the number you have to work with is 147 inches.

Like this:

3" (box) 3" (box) 3" (box) 3" (box) 3" (box) 3" (box) 3"

Take the remaining 147 inches and divide it by six boxes -- each box will be 24.5 inches wide. Does that make sense? If you want to vary the sizes of the boxes (I do this often) -- decide on the larger size first and then figure out what you have to work with to determine the smaller sized boxes.

I highly suggest starting at each end of the wall, and working in. So if any are slightly off, it will be the middle box on the wall. If it's off just a bit, it will look like it's supposed to be, since it's in the center. This has saved me a couple of times. ;)

I also use molding to highlight parts of our home -- the columns between our living room and dining room:

Our super duper tall staircase:
And the half wall in our loft:

This molding was from Home Depot and is plastic! Can you believe it? It's in the molding area, but down at the outdoor trim area. It's got a great shape:
They cut like butta with a miter box and saw. Awesome.

Oooo, I almost for got our master bathroom!:

Told you I need a support group for this stuff. Don't worry, there are plenty of rooms in this house that don't have it. Darn it.

So I hope that helps! Did I make sense? Remember, you do not need a nail gun to do this in your home. It just makes it a heckuva lot more fun. ;) If you do it with a hammer and nails, you'll want long finishing nails and a drill bit to match. Drill into your wood first, then put the nail in and hang the molding. If you pound a nail in without a hole first, it will most likely split the wood.

Let me know if you decide to do it!! I'd love to see. You'll be hooked, watch out. Serious.