Kitchen Cabinets

Another project finished! This one wouldn't have taken so long if I hadn't kept changing my mind! The only thing our old house had that our new house doesn't is a huge kitchen. Not only is our new kitchen small, it is very dark.

So of course I had to check out Pinterest for some ideas! I loved the look of chalk paint but knew absolutely nothing about it. So I found an Annie Sloan stockiest near the new house and took a quick class. Four hours later and I was ready to paint some kitchen cabinets! Now I'm really not a dumb woman, I know I should have painted a few small pieces before starting on such a huge project, I just hated those dark cabinets. So Tam cleaned the cabinets for me, we took the doors off and I was ready to paint! Quick tip, if you take your doors off (you don't have too) number your doors, hinges, and handles. Trust me it's worth the time.

I painted the backs of the doors first. I really wanted the backs to be different from the front of the doors. I mixed some colors that I thought I was going to use on the front of the doors (that didn't happen.) By the way, this was my first time mixing paint and AS paint makes it so easy! I mixed Pure White and English Yellow. I then mixed Pure White, Antibes Green and Chateau Grey.

I also used Duck Egg and Old White. I was going for the look of those wood boards that have almost splotches of pale color. It's not to everyone's taste but I like it! To finish off the backs I did a light wash of Pure White and then clear wax.

Now I had big plans for the front of the doors! However when I got to a certain place in painting them Tam and I both loved them so there they stayed. A few years down the road I might add to them. This was such a simple paint job but they look amazing. I painted the outside of the boxes and the edges of the doors in Pure White.

I then painted the drawer facings, the inside of the open cabinet and the inside front of the doors in Florence; I really love this color.

I painted over the Florence in the inside of the door fronts with Artisan Enhancements Crackle Tex.

This stuff is amazing!!! After that dried I added a thick coat of Pure White over the Crackle Tex. As the Pure White dries magic starts to happen!

I can not tell you how much we love this look! It's hard to tell in the pictures, but that Florence peeking through the cracks in the Pure White is beautiful! There were plans to do more to the front of the doors but we just wanted to enjoy them at this stage for a while. So they were hung back up, waxed with clear wax and had new handles added! They are perfect!!!

So if you are thinking about painting your cabinets and you really like the look of chalk paint I say go for it! The hardest part is deciding what colors to use...and when to stop.

Fireplace

I bet you thought I forgot you. No, life is just crazy when you move 16 years of stuff to a new house. We've done a few things around the house and got most of the boxes unpacked so I thought I'd show you one of the things we have finished.

I was so excited to have a fireplace in the new house. Unfortunately we hated the red brick! Now we all know that those of us who are Pinterest addicts head there when we want to redo something in our home; so that's what I did.  Oh those beautiful airy white washed fireplaces steal your breath. So airy, breath stealing fireplace it was! My friends, it was just as easy as it sounds. If you are into light and airy then this is a perfectly easy way for you to redo your fireplace. Paint on your watered down paint with one hand and keep a rag (to wipe down) in the other hand. The only thing is to make sure you wipe off any runs immediately. This is so easy anyone can do it. This is ours after one coat. It definitely needs another coat, but that's so easy to do.

Now those of you who know me are already saying, "I can't believe YOU have a white fireplace!" You know me so well. I still believe white washed fireplaces are beautiful, they're just not for me. Rather than put on another coat of white wash we decided to try the same thing, but with a color instead of white. We picked out the most beautiful golden olive color (Organic Garden), however, it was horrible on our fireplace! Now don't get me wrong, it was so easy to do and with another color it would probably have been beautiful, but this color was not it!

Third time is the charm. We are so in love with this color (Intense Teal) that we decided to paint the brick for a vibrant pop of color. This was so easy and we couldn't be happier with how it turned out.

Now most people would say painting your fireplace three times is a bit much, but this is our home and we want it to be perfect for us. Besides, now you know it's no big deal to repaint something until it makes you happy and you never know if it will make you happy if you don't try.

The House

We bought a house! Okay, we bought the house; the house we fell in love with the first time we saw it. We really hope that this is our forever home so I want to do all those things to it that I've dreamed of (or saw on Pinterest.) When we bought our first house 16 years ago there was no Pinterest and the only people who had blogs were famous or professionals. I am neither, but I do love Pinterest. :) So this blog is by someone just like most of you, that wants to do all those amazing things to their house, and has no clue where or how to start. So let's take this journey together. Here's to the mistakes, the accomplishments, and all the beautiful things we learn.