A bit of progress in the kitchen

 This past week we finally painted our kitchen walls (dark grey) and the paneling (creamy white). It got me excited to start hanging some of the projects that I've been working on for the kitchen. Today, I hung this wood cabinet that my Grandma got for my this year for my birthday. It's right beside the stove so I think I'll use it as a spice cupboard.

 

 

I also finally hung the chicken wire photo board that I wrote about here.

 

It's nice to finally see some things getting finished in the kitchen. I'll post a few more things that I've hung in the kitchen shortly. I hope everyone had a nice weekend!

Early Kitchen Pictures

We are currently renovating our kitchen and it's taking a lot longer than I ever thought it would. We decided to try and save some money by working with the cabinets that we already have. We added a few more cabinets and painted them all in creamy white. Here are a few pictures of our kitchen in the early stages of renovation. Prepare yourself for this because it's pretty bad...

Mason Jars in the Bathroom

This is just a quick post to show you one of my favourite ways to store things like q-tips, cotton balls, and extra soap. I keep them on a small floating shelf over the toilet in our main floor bathroom. I love the look of mason jars and I am probably going to find a way to use them for something in every room of my house! Here are a couple more pictures...

Vintage Hanging Rack

I honestly thought that this would be a quick easy project but a few surprises along the way slowed me down. In the end, I am very happy with this new hanging rack for my main floor bathroom.

Magnetic Board

I recently attached magnets to the back of scrabble letters and I was using them on my fridge. It's been a lot of fun to have an on going scrabble game, but I prefer the look of a completely clear fridge. I decided to make a separate board to hang on the wall in the kitchen so we can continue our scrabble games and my fridge stays clear. Here's what it looks like...

We made our own save the dates

My parents are throwing us an engagement party tomorrow afternoon and I'm really looking forward to it. We'll get a chance to hand out our save the date magnets to the people who can make it to the party. We didn't want to spend a lot of money on save the dates so we decided to make them ourselves. It was very easy and I think they turned out pretty well.

 

Christmas table runner

I had some left over Christmas fabric from last year and from making the advent calendar so I decided to make a Christmas table runner for my mom. Last year I made a table runner for her kitchen table and so I wanted her to have one for her dining table as well. Here's how it turned out...

New bay window look

We have a bay window in our front living room. I really like the space but I am not sure of the best way to decorate it. I have moved a few things around and here is what it looks like right now (please ignore the paint colour, we haven't had a chance to update this room yet).

Picture frame advent calendar

It might be a bit early to start actually decorating for Christmas, but that doesn't stop me from thinking about it. I made this advent calendar to give to my sister this year. I sewed little bags, one for each day in December leading up to Christmas. I made similar bags for myself last year that I hang on my garland going up the stairs in my front hallway. They were a big hit so I thought I would make some for my sister too. She doesn't have an area to hang garland going up her stairs, so I thought the empty frame was a good solution. This way she can hang it on the wall, or set it on a table and lean it against the wall.

Fall in the front hall

In my earlier post about my front hall, I mentioned that I didn't really like how my coat shelf was decorated. I have since changed that and here are the results. It's nothing too crazy but I think that it looks 100% better. I made the vintage Give Thanks sign myself.

Vintage Give Thanks Sign

Here's the Give Thanks sign I made for my front entryway this fall...

And here's exactly how I made it.

Dresser turned TV stand

Here's a project that I finished this past winter. I added shelves and some paint to an old dresser to make it our new TV stand. I really love how this project turned out.

old window picture frame

We recently replaced our kitchen window and I decided to find a use for the old wood window. I used hot glue to attach pieces of trim to separate each half of the window into three sections. Next I painted  all of the wood creamy white.

I lightly sanded the frame and then used a mix of walnut stain and glaze the give the wood a more aged look. I didn't like how new it looked after I painted it white. I used some pictures from a vacation we took and of the magnolia tree in our backyard. Now we have some inexpensive artwork for our living room.

chicken wire photo board

Here's another project that I have recently finished. It used to be a mirror and the wood frame was painted grey with stenciled flowers on it. I took the mirror off the back and sanded almost all of the grey paint off. I stained the wood dark walnut. The little bit of grey paint left after sanding didn't absorb the stain as well as the wood did which gave it sort of a weathered look. I stapled some chicken wire to the back and now it's the perfect picture board for my kitchen (which is a work in progress that I will show soon).

I used these mini clothespins to hang the pictures. I got them for less than $2 at Len's Mill Store. I plan on using them for a Christmas project that I'm working on right now.

Front Entryway

As promised, I'm going to start showing you some projects that I have already finished in my home. I'll start with the front entryway. I couldn't find a "before" picture but the walls were a peach colour and the stairs were covered in a dark green carpet. We removed the carpet, scraped of the glue, then sanded and stained the stairs dark walnut. We painted the risers the same colour that we are painting the trim throughout the house ( Behr W-D-710 Creamy White). We painted the walls a dark grey (CIL Dulux 30YY 22/059 Grey Tweed). I'm really happy with how it turned out.

To fill the wall space going up the stairs, I decided to do a gallery wall of black and white family photos. I found all of the picture frames at the dollar store and spray painted them all the same colour.



To the left of the stairway we have a small area that leads to the door to my craft room. Since we don't have a front hall closet, I added a shelf with hooks for hanging coats. Underneath this there is a bench that opens for storage. I added a mirror and wreath to the craft room door. It's the first thing you see when you open the front door and eventually I'd like to change it to a nicer door. I also made a welcome sign to fill the space above the door. I am currently playing around with some fall decorations to put on top of the coat shelf (I'm not really happy with what's up there right now). I'll post pictures of what I end up doing there. Hope everyone is enjoying their week so far.

Blogging Begins

I have officially started my blog! The design and layout are still a work in progress but I'm having fun playing around with it. I plan on posting pictures of some projects that I have already completed later this week.