Yay! Smelling good furniture polish!

Rant.
I'm tired of lemon smelling furniture polish. That's all.

I found a site with a recipe to make my own and I love it and had to share :D

1 part olive oil (or other oil...I love coconut oil for everything, but that's a whole other story lol)
1 part lemon juice
A few drops of vanilla extract

Rub on with a lint free cloth.

TADA !

Some After shots!

Thought I'd post pictures of the pretty bakers rack, and a few before and afters.
Probably more before pics, as I haven't taken all of the afters, but I promise I will get them up.

Before and after for my 10yr old's room. The purple was killing me. She needed an update and badly. She wanted pink, brown and peace signs.
I did it while she was at her dad's this summer and surprised her when she got home. She lovvved it.
I didn't have the curtains or the bed curtains up yet, but they're a sheer pink that match the bedding.
SOOOOO much better.

The dining room I sort of finished today.
The sage green walls were killing me. I've ordered new blinds and the curtains will be going away.
It just looks cleaner, less stuffy and everything matches.
Amazing.

The bakers rack I finished last night. You can't really see the details of the antiquing on it, but trust me when I say it looks a lot better. :)












And now, for the scariest parts.
These before pictures are how the rooms looked when we bought the house. They've since been updated a bit, but I don't have current pictures. So I figure any before picture is better than none. lol

The master bedroom when we moved in.
Yuck. The yellow just....takes a piece of my soul away. It's since been painted, and I will post pictures soon.

Yup. There really were fish. Everywhere.
This has also been updated a bit since then, but I have plans for this room, so you'll see the after when I'm complete :D It's scheduled for after the kitchen.

My 8yr old son's room when we moved in.
It was painted shortly after.
I'll post pics later.

Laundry room when we moved in.
Yellow! Again!
I've since painted it and put up a fancy wall decal.
Will post a pic soon.







So there you have it.
In a nut shell, a lot has been done, but there is SOOOO much more to do.

Grand plans!

Finished the top coat on the cupboards today and ordered the new hinges.
I was lazy *gasp*, and decided to paint over them and have since decided they look like crap.
Sooooo, I found some pretty oil rubbed bronze hinges on ebay for cheap cheap and they're on the way.
Yes, that means more work when they get here with making sure the paint all matches up, but it will be worth it to have NEW HINGES.

I have a confession to make.....
I'm highly addicted to oil rubbed bronze spray paint. Scary hm? It's the most fantastic thing since peanut butter.

So, while I waited for my top coat to paint tonight, I started on a new project. Hell, I know. What the french, toast? What project? A few actually lol.
I painted my backers rack. The metal got a few coats of...you guessed it, oil rubbed bronze spray paint. The wood was sanded, primed and painted to match my cabinets. It looks all antique-ish and very chic. Loving it.
I also painted my dining room. I must say, it looks fantastic. Oh, and I finished the 2nd coat in the hall way. See! Finishing projects too!

Tomorrow after work, I'll work on finishing the trim around the house, and put a 2nd coat in the dining room and then? All of my current projects will be done until my cabinets get here. And do you know what that means? That means I get to start on the wall demolition in the kitchen!

See that wall right there? Yup, the one with my awesome home made cork organizer/picture hangy thing. That wall is going to have a huge hole in it by this time next month. lol
I'm cutting a hole in the middle and installing a breakfast bar. This will mean keeping my kitchen cleaner than normal, because you'll be able to see into the kitchen from the living room.
But, the idea of having a breakfast bar? It's totally worth it.
The question lies now....what the crap am I going to do with my awesome Mom Organizer there?
I'm going to have to get creative and figure out where to put the fun family photos people send and my calendar which tells the kids what their chores are for the day as well as telling them when I'm going to be out of town for work, what they have planned that day after school and what not. It's definitely a must have for this crazy family.

And THOSE are my grand plans.
Oh....and my hands hurt from painting and antiquing all night. *pouts*

The kitchen....

Thought I'd post a few pics of the progress. As you can see, the old cabinets were RED. Really really red. I've lived with these for 5 years and finally decided I just couldn't do it anymore. 

After looking at the costs of replacing them, I decided I'd try to paint them. Egads. It was scary. :D 

I primed them first, then used a cabinet and trim paint. The color was PebbleStone by Bher. 

 Here is a sort of after picture. With the red gone, and all my pretty green tape up still. I've discovered how many RED things I've collected over the years because my kitchen was red. Ick. I need to start collecting teal now, as I think it may look a little bland now without the color I'm use to smacking me in the face every morning before my 'Hello Day' cup of coffee. 

I really like these better, but I just thought 'It's really missing something' After looking through some of my favorite blogs...I found an amazingly easy tutorial for antiquing your kitchen cabinets. I read and re-read the tutorial thinking 'This is so EASY! I can totally do this!' Famous last words right? Wrong.

Check out this tutorial if you're thinking about adding a glaze to your cabinets. I was simply amazed and how easy this was, and how quick. 

Antique your cabinets in 1 day! (click there!)

The outcome?

I still need to add a clear coat to keep the glaze from wearing/wiping off, but they look amazing! 

So go ahead, click on the link and save yourself some money. Do it yourself. If I can, you can too. lol

Aha.

I've decided I'm going to go ahead and document this whole house fixing journey.

A few things about me. I love journeys :D
And, I love documenting those journeys.

This house needs serious help.
It all started this summer and I've been going non-step ever since. We bought the house over 5 years ago with grand plans of fixing everything. However, we didn't fix anything lol.
Now I feel like I need to fix it all at once. Which leaves for many started projects that never seem finished hehe!

What projects have you started but not finished, you ask?
-Master bedroom
Painted...almost. A few finishing touches are needed.

-Whole house re-paint
-Pretty much done, with the exception of 2nd coat in the hallway, the dining room, the largest wall in the hall that lives in the living room and the dining room.

-The kitchen.
Oh hell, this is the biggest chore yet.
So far I have repainted the walls, the kitchen cabinets and then antiqued the kitchen cabinets.
The plans? To cut a hole in the wall that connects the kitchen to the living room and build a breakfast bar.
Hah! Seems easy, right? Totally ;)

So there you have it.
I have grand plans to redo the bathroom, the entry way, all the floors in the house, my sons room, everything exterior and someday the basement.
We'll see how that goes....for now, enjoy the mess. I know I am :)