I’m going to veer from my usual posts to mention something that is a big deal in this household. November is National Adoption months and tomorrow is National Adoption Day. All three of my children were adopted as newborns so this day has special meaning for us. You might be an adoptive family like ours, you might be waiting to bring your adopted child home or you still might be contemplating building your family through adoption. To put it simply it is the best thing since sliced bread. I had a difficult road to motherhood after my first daughter passed away two days after I had given birth. I wouldn’t have a busy house full of three children right now if it weren’t for adoption. You can visit National Adoption Day for more resources. If you are thinking about adoption and want to chat with someone who has “been there” you…
Read MoreI’ve been known to gut closets, paint floors, and finish basements. While all that gives me a feeling of accomplishment it is sometimes the tiny little things that make me the happiest. Take my kitchen for example, or more importantly my kitchen drawers. They are original drawers with no drawer slide and they are horrible. They have to be yanked out and then shoved back in every time you need a fork. One day I will redo my kitchen but for now I will deal with them. I’d like to paint the insides but that is for another day as well. Today is just about the little changes you can do that make you happy. And for those of you who think my drawers are sloppy, this is what it looks like when your four year old gets to pick which part of the dishwasher he is going to empty…
Read MoreI’ve been seeing this project in my head for a while and I finally got around to doing it. I painted one wall in my mudroom with stripes. Pretty painless but it makes a big difference in this room. I was putting it off for so long because my contractor had some more work to do first. We had exposed pipes that needed to be covered with soffits before I could do any measuring, painting and finishing. That work was finally done and I get to complete my mudroom. I started off by priming over my original paint color and then painting it with two layers of Benjamin Moore Marscapone. It is easier to add a darker color over a lighter one. I was going to be using Benjamin Moore Beacon Gray for the contrasting stripe, which is the color of the rest of the mudroom. Once that was done I measured my…
Read MoreHalf bath, guest bathroom, powder room, the loo. Whatever you call it, we have one. This bathroom is on the same level as our guest room, mudroom and garage. Just six steps down from the front hall. When I first laid eyes on it all I could think of were the bathrooms in my elementary school. See for yourself… The sink was the kind that hang off the walls and needed to be replaced. There was no toilet paper holder or towel bar. No storage and very sterile. It just needed a touch of pretty. I still have work to do in that room but to get it to where it is now here is what I did. 1. The entire floor of ugly brown tile was covered with Allure Trafficmaster. It warmed up the whole space and gave me a clean slate to work…
Read MoreSometime, somewhere, somehow, this lamp will be in my home. It is the Eldridge Pendant from Ballard Designs, available in various sizes and finishes. I’ve been eyeing it for a while now. I actually have the somewhere part all figured out, it is the other two that need work. I see this over my kitchen table, once I’ve made a few changes to the entire eat-in kitchen area of course. Here are some more images of the Eldrige Pendant from Ballard Designs’ site and from some others as well… via Ballard Designs via Ballard Designs via Ballard Designs via Ballard Designs via Anythingology via Caitlin Creer via our fifth house via deranchification via Caitlin Creer via young house love
Read MoreOur current kitchen is original to our 1950’s home. The drawers have to be straightened and then shut manually. They don’t glide in all by themselves and shut soundlessly. They are slammed shut. The cabinets are all odd sizes with extremely large doors and no division between cabinets. The entire wall of cabinets above my counter is actually one continuous cabinet and extremely difficult to keep organized. The doors shut but don’t always stay shut. They pop out and make it look like the entire kitchen has been ransacked. There are a lot of cabinets and drawers compared to my last kitchen. It is a good size and basically has a good layout. One day I have plans to replace the cabinets, get a better stove and cook top and add an island. Until then this works. Except for one thing. The kitchen was missing a pantry. I had a…
Read MoreIt is time for another House Tour installment. I’m finishing off the main floor with a tour of my dining room. It is located at the back of the house with a huge window, making it extremely bright and cheery. Here is what it looked like before I got my hands on the room. I did three things once we moved in. I utilized the chair rail already there and painted the section below the chair rail white to match all the moldings and framework. The section above the chair rail I painted Benjamin Moore’s Bleeker Beige. I then installed the light fixture I brought with me from my previous home. The last things I did was install wall to wall window treatments. You can see more about that project here. The furniture are all pieces that my father made. The upholstery on the chairs took forever to find. Off course…
Read MoreNot every home has a dedicated home office. Today I’m over at the Hooker Furniture blog sharing my solutions for the lack of an office in my home. With some organization and a couple key pieces I’ve made it work for me. See you there.
Read MoreWe have a winner! Congratulations to Vicki, the winner of the Lucends giveaway! Thank you to everyone who entered and to Lucends for this fantastic giveaway!
Read MoreIt is no secret that I love stripes. On any given day I’m wearing stripes. My children probably are too. Any assortment of pillows that I have on a sofa or bed has stripes in the mix. Kids sheets, you guessed it stripes. Throw blankets? Stripes again. I even painted my porch floor with stripes. In an effort to continue the tradition I plan on bringing stripes to my mudroom. I already have a rug for that space though. The mudroom bench is not the pillow type. I’m looking at the walls this time! The room is already painted in Benjamin Moore’s Beacon Gray, the same color I painted my son’s shared bedroom. It is my go-to shade of blue that works well for any space. I don’t feel the need to repaint the room so I’ve decided to paint one wall with stripes. I’ll basically be painting a white…
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