Refrigerator Box

You may be wondering, "why on earth have we not heard from Ronda in ages?" Seems to be becoming the norm for me to go a long time between blog posts.

Ah, well, this time I have a really great reason!

VOILA!!

I wouldn't go so far as to say that this is the big kitchen reveal. Quite obviously not done...I won't draw your attention to those things that have yet to be changed.

But do let me draw your attention to the lovely braided rug that my hubby bought me for my birthday!

I spent the last week and a half working on the upper cabinets.

I designed, and my DH built the box above the fridge.  It wasn't there before.
Just a reminder...

Yeah, I know!!!! It's now so light and bright now!!  Love. IT. :)

Trying to decide what I want to put in the open box.  Decor?  ie...

Or some storage options?

These are just baskets I had in other places.  In fact, the burlap lined one has stuff in it, you just can't see it! Bonus! But I'm a big fan of the one on the left.  And I am actually leaning more towards this direction.  Just not sure what I would store up here because I wouldn't want just anything to show up there.

Thoughts?

Blessings, 

Ronda

Console Table

So, my sweet husband is something of a pack rat :)

He comes by it naturally, both his parents are too.  

But, I must confess, there are times when those pack rat tendencies come in quite handy.  

Like when I decided I wanted a console table behind my love seat so that I would have somewhere to set drinks, magazines, glasses, etc.  And since it is technically in my "office" area, I could throw a few office things on there, too!

So, I come up with a picture in my head of what I want, explain it to my hubby, via pics on the web, and voila! I have my console table! 

The wood we used had a couple of different looks to it, so we took advantage of that.  The wood on the top and on the shelf came from an old bunk bed that we took apart.  It had a dark finish already.  The rest of it was pine from inside the wall we removed.  

I wanted to try the recipe that I have seen with steel wool and vinegar to age the wood.  Didn't work quite like I had envisioned, or I did something wrong.  Because it turned the wood quite orangey. And there was a dusty orange film on it.  

So I rubbed it all down and started over.  This time I used a water down version of black milk  paint to just give it a wash of color.  Liking this much better!  I only painted the pine boards, not the ones that were already dark.  Then I gave it a coat of antiquing wax and it was done!

Well, maybe not quite that simple since I ran out of the wax I was using and was too impatient to wait until I could get some more, so created my own using clear wax and a bit of dark stain.  

I like the way it turned out!

Blessings, 

Ronda

Linking to:

4 Hours!!

This morning/afternoon I spent 4 hours sanding a cabinet door!  

It was certainly not how I would have chosen to spend this day.  But since starting this kitchen renovation, I have been trying very hard to make sure that everything that I do will be something that I can be happy with for a very long time.  

So after finishing my pantry (alright, not truly finished as we still don't have the crown molding on it), I realized that I much preferred the finish that I ended up with on that piece to the first cabinet that I had painted black. 

No pic of the other cabinet, but it was just too shiny and the distressing didn't show as much as I would like.  

Here's where my inexperience shows, since I thought that I would just lightly sand to take the shine off, then be able to put another coat of paint, distress again, and top coat like I did the pantry.  

BUT NO!!

I started sanding and the poly coating started to roll and ball up. GRRRR!

So, using a sanding block, I tediously sanded the poly coating off of a cabinet door.  I did it very cautiously to try to avoid over-distressing. I used tweezers to peel it out of the corners!!!  

And the whole 4 hours I was sitting outside in the blazing heat!

Actually it wasn't terrible in the shade. 

And when I was finished I was covered in black dust!

I don't have a pic of the finished product, but honestly, I am still trying to decide whether it is too distressed for my taste. 

In the mean time, note my new clock!

And me trying to be artistic...

Blessings,

Ronda

The Red Door

Happy Saturday to you all!

This was a rather unusual Saturday for me.  

I usually spend at least part of my day cleaning the house.  But today, I had projects that were calling to me...

Every time I walked by the front door...

Going THIS way...

...and THAT way...

I thought, "how terribly brown this area is!" 

(Please ignore the mess in the above pic.  That is, of course, my second project of the day.)

Anyone that had been to my house in the last few days had seen my little paint chips taped to the front door as I tried to decide on the perfect color.  This area was just BEGGING for a POP of RED!

Decision-making in general is not one of my strong suites, but when it comes to choosing the perfect shade of red...that was AGONIZING!!

Time will tell.  It changes throughout the day.  If I don't like it, it will only take another coat or 2 of paint.  

It's growing on me :)

The front entryway still needs something...

Definitely need to rid the area of the last vestiges of the orangey pine trim seen in the pic.  

Next up...

A Day of Rest :)

Have a blessed Sabbath!

Blessings, 

Ronda

Back Hallway and Hoosier Cabinet

I really thought that I might wow you all and put up two posts in as many days, but it just wasn't meant to be!

I did have a very enjoyable evening out last night with a bunch of other homeschool moms. Yes, we are still technically homeschoolers, even though Cammi is taking 2 classes at the high school this year.  

So one of the things that I have done along with the overall painting downstairs was paint a chalk board strip on my back hallway. 

This is what greets most people when they enter the house, since most use the back door. You can see, it is also where all of our "stuff" gets dropped when we come home.  I actually cleaned it up some for this shot! 

I knew that we had to have places to hang coats and such here, so when I started talking about what to use, DH remembered the coatracks that were in the old church.  So we contacted the new owners and sure enough there was still one there.  There were originally at least 4, but no idea what happened to the rest of them.  

I'm not great at fancy handwriting, but it's fun coming up with things to write on the chalkboard.

Part of the reason that we wanted to make the kitchen larger was to be able to move my Hoosier cabinet in there.  This originally belonged to my great-grandma.  

Since this is meant to be a kitchen piece, I thought that I would fill it with kitchen items.

The red recipe box was my grandma's and has her recipes still in it. 

Yes, the chocolate chips are a temptation. ;)

Love cookbooks!!

Blessings,

Ronda

Linking to:

A Good Way To Spend A Rainy Day...

Wondering what I have been up to lately?

Maybe a more appropriate question would be "what haven't I been up to?"

Things have really been hopping since the first of the month.  In fact, I can hardly believe this is the last day of July!  AAAAHHHH! Can summer almost be over?  I had so many projects lined up in my head that I KNEW that I would accomplish over the summer!

I know...unrealistic.  When will I ever learn?

But the good news is that the BIG ONE is nearing completion. 

This was my kitchen at the end of last week when my husband rigged up plastic booths to sand. He is so thoughtful!  This way I didn't have nearly the dusty mess!

Ah, this last pic tells me it was Saturday.  Note the bowl of pizza dough sitting on the stove!  Yes, I cooked through the mess! 

And my before pics of right before we started painting to show all the lovely red paint.  I liked it, but am SO over it!

 You can also see the blue that was in the original dining room.  

And of course my not-so-lovely blue countertops which I am over, but am helpless to do anything about right now since they are not at the top of the priority list. 

My beautiful daughter helped me with the painting to work off her trip to Holiday World.  Actually she says she was going to help anyway.  Either way, I was very grateful for her help as it was a very large job.  1 coat of primer and 2 of topcoat, all those cabinets, and lots of wall space!

So, that's what I have been up to!

I will get some more pics up once we have the base boards back down and stuff pushed back to the walls.  

Also, after 7+ months DH is about ready to put down the final boards on the floor!  YIPPEEEEE!!!

Blessings,

Ronda

Help With a Decision!

I realized today that I had yet to show off the cabinets that I painted in my tiny downstairs bathroom! 

I won't give you the complete reveal because the floor is not done and the trim is still off the doorway. 

But I want opinions, so please read to the end of the post!!

For a while now I had been contemplating painting some of my cabinets.  Every cabinet in the house originally looked like this--

So the logical place to try was this tiny downstairs bathroom where there was only one small upper cabinet and a vanity.  And I knew that white and distressed was the way to go for this primitive loving girl.  

I love them!  Just hoping they hold up for several years, even though it really wasn't too difficult.  

Now for the big question!!  As hubby works diligently to finish laying the wood floor in the kitchen, I can see that I REALLY don't like the floor against the cabinets.  This should have come as no surprise to me since that is why I am painting all my woodwork! 

Something must change!  

The cabinets are custom-built, solid oak cabinets.  I don't know that I can bring myself to paint them.  So I have though about a darker stain over the existing, but that would also darken the kitchen.  So the other option is white paint like I did in the bathroom.  Just maybe not quite as distressed.  

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE GIVE ME OPINIONS!!  

I'm not in a hurry to do it, but when I have a decision like this, it typically consumes my thoughts until I decide! Help put me out of my misery!

Blessings, 

Ronda

Linking to:

http://www.funkyjunkinteriors.net/2013/08/party-junk-200-grain-sack-projects.html

Tricycle Red Chair

Another chair has been completed for my dining room set!  This was another that originally had wood seat and the rest was white.  After my experience with the last one, I thought I would try a different route so that I wouldn't have the white showing through when I distressed.

So I spray painted the white parts with brown primer.  Primer, thinking that it would hold up better to a little sanding.  Then, once again (since I am a lazy painter) spray painting the whole thing black, followed by a bit of sanding.  

Hmmm....

The overall look, not bad.

BUT...

upon closer inspection...

 Not only did I do a poor job of spraying...

Yep, the white still showed through!  ARGH!

I even tried a little stain on the white spots, but the white paint didn't want to take the stain.  

So, spray it again, or do something a little different?

How about a little red milk paint?

 These were taken after one + a bit more coats of milk paint.  

And then another coat, some sanding, some more messing with paint after the white showed through again.  Still not thrilled...

So, a little dark wax...(and yes, I realize that I am using a lot of dot, dot, dot)

And...

I am actually quite happy with the finished result!

Sorry I didn't get more up close shots.  I tried, but they didn't turn out so great.  You'll just have to come by the house and see it in person!  

So now, I have 6 black chairs and one red!  One more to go to have a complete 8! 

Blessings,

Ronda