Drab to Fab My DIY Kitchen Makeover

I keep bumping into my kitchen island, which sometimes feels like an obstacle course to get around.  I am reminded of my old kitchen that I loved, which wasn't huge, but well space planned.  It had a great big peninsula, and makes me wish I could remodel my entire kitchen.   (I love islands, but it is annoying to me in my particular floor plan.) I decided to revisit my old house's kitchen makeover and reminisce about making cookies on the 4' wide peninsula.

BEFORE:

   This before photo was taken before we bought the house.  I LOVED the peninsula and am sad at my new house I have to keep my black bar stools in the basement... maybe they can come out someday... Anyhoo, here's the "before" and "after" kitchen pics of our house in Utah.

AFTER:

This kitchen desperately needed help, and we did it on a pretty small budget. The cabinets were OK,  and new ones weren't in the budget, the old laminate counter top had lots of bubbles and cracks in it.   I kept things pretty neutral since I knew we wouldn't be staying too long and wanted to make it buyer friendly.  Enter granite tile, travertine trim for the edges, and tumbled travertine for the back splash, and a  new light fixture for the dining area.  After a lot of hard work, washing dishes in the bathroom, and eating a lot of take out, it was finally done.

We also got new hardware for the cabinets, a new faucet and stainless appliances to match the dishwasher, new light fixtures in the kitchen and dining. Hopefully the next owner is appreciating our hard work:-)

We got a new gas stove and refrigerator at the scratch'n'dent store, (you can't even tell) to match our stainless dishwasher.  The appliances stayed when we moved, especially after we completely squeezed the fridge in there, there's no way it was coming out- I miss you stainless appliances-- and penny the peninsula!!!

Roman Shades from Big Blinds

My dining room transformation is moving a long.  My latest project was making these roman shades using my blinds.   I have to admit, when I first started cutting the strings for this I was worried!! Once you start there is no turning back.  I felt the pressure of getting it done before my husband came home and saw everything dismantled:)

****Edited to add: The fabric I used was Windsor from Lewis and Sheron Textiles.

Here's the window BEFORE: excuse the crummy pic of the ghetto room!

AFTER:

I followed this tutorial for shades our of mini blinds, but used my larger blinds.

First I removed my blinds from the window.  I cut all the little slits and took off the bottom, and removed the extra slats that I didn't need.  (leaving intact the pull string--don't cut that one!)

 Second, I rethreaded the slats that I needed.  I put one about every 8-9 inches.

Then I lined up my fabric, left 3" on each side of the slats, then glued each slat down on the fabric with a little bead of FabriTac glue from Micheals.  Then I folded the edges over and glued them onto the slats.

After I put it up on the window, I decided to add some lining to the shade.

So I cut out lining pieces and glued the rectangles onto the fabric in between the slats.  It would be better to do this first, before you glued any slats on.  Oh well.

I also left about 6 inches on the bottom of the shade, and then I just hemmed it by folding it over and gluing it into place.  

Then I hung it back up into the existing hardware. 

Drumroll please....!

(please ignore the wall color--that will be attacked shortly:))

Woila!

And it goes up and down just like the blinds did.  I love it.

Thanks for stopping by!

Update:  On my second shade I glued the slats to the lining first, and then laid that on top of my fabric and glued the lining to the fabric in the same place the slats were laying.   I think it turned out even nicer:-)

Bust out the Bikini Bottoms!

I showed the hubby my latest project, and he says "It looks like you hung bikini bottoms on the chalkboard, why don't you take it down and then the room will look good."  HA!!!

(Especially since I don't even own a bikini!)

I grabbed some fabrics from JoAnn's.

Followed this tutorial,  and cut out my triangles, they were 8"high and 6" across.

The two triangles on the right were sewn on the edges with a zig zag stitch, they are double sided.

 After sewing all of them,  I sewed them to a grosgrain ribbon I had and hung them up.

I ended up needing 11 triangles for about 60 inches of chalkboard.

I could iron them, but I kinda like them curvy.

This only took about 2 hours, super easy and cute, I might use it outside sometime for kids parties too.

Stencil it up (DIY Laundry Room)

 Countless hours and many nap times and bedtimes later, I finally finished painting my laundry room!

BEFORE: missing pizazz

AFTER:

All stenciled and framed the chalkboard.

  I didn't want to spend $40 on a stencil, so I got some tag board from the dollar store, and used items around the house to create my own stencil.  

To get a nice curve I traced a bowl (then decided on a cup since the bowl was too large).

I folded my tagboard in half first, so that when I cut it the sides would be identical.

 I opened it up and then folded it in half width wise to get the bottom to mirror the top.

With the red stencil, you can see the level horizontal line I drew and overlapped the stencil by 1 1/2" inches to create the pattern.

I tried using the outer part, thinking I would tape it to the wall and paint inside it, but the paint totally got under the stencil, so I ended up tracing the stencil where I wanted it, and using my level and ruler, and traced it out on the whole wall.  (then I had to erase a bit after painting)

Then came the painting.....  each one took about 3 coats of paint, using a small brush.

On all the walls for the background I used Sherwin Williams' Watery.  (I first tried out SW "Rainwashed," but it was too gray under the fluorescent lights).

I was going to use the next color up on the paint chip, Tidewater, and I wanted a little bit more of a contrast, so for the stencil shape I used a custom color (I hate it when bloggers do that:)

  which was just a bit lighter than Tidewater, but not as light as the next shade up.  So the SW clerk entered in a Manual Tidewater color.

I'm so glad the painting is finally done, now I get to decorate the walls and work on the other side of the laundry room.

Linking up to:
Strut Your Stuff Saturday at  Six Sister's Stuff
Modern Country Style Paint Party

Fireplace "Tile"

Say what?! I'm blogging? I know, unbelievable and about freaking time. My summer got away from me, I've been having a great time vacationing but I also have been working a ton as well so needless to say it's been hard to finish projects! I currently have 2 half re-upholstered chairs sitting in the dining area that have been sorely neglected! I'm hoping though to get those done by next weekend...
And I greatly appreciate Lauren picking up my slack!

Now onto the a project!

Isn't this tile so pretty?

Well, it's wasn't always that way. Here it is, and it's not that bad, but as I've said in the past I am a tile snob (because I work at a tile store helping people design their kitchens and baths and pools and whatever else fun stuff they need) and I was having a hard time decorating because the peachy color of  this tile always threw everything off.

BUT I don't own this house so I can't just tear it out or tile over or even paint over. I had to do something non-permanent.....

Well I've seen people put sayings on tile with vinyl so why not graphics?

So using my Sihouette I cut out these damask decals, if you will, to a little less then the size of the tile.
And Applied!

Turned out great! People who have seen it before asked if we re-tiled, when I tell them "NO, it's vinyl" They're shocked! So, I guess you'd say that's a success!

{Frugal} Front Porch Fun

I've never really done anything exciting with my front porch so I thought I'd give it a go this year.



Using inexpensive Terracotta Pots I knew I could spray paint them and add my own little touches without breaking the bank.
Here I spray painted the small ones Green Apple from Rust-oleum

p.s. This what your picture looks like when you take it late at night.

Mod Podged with paper and then sprayed with a Clear coat of lacquer. Hopefully, to at least make somewhat water proof.
I had these metal alphabets letters and I took paper clips and unfolded them to make hooks!


This one I put vinyl stickers on.
On the bigger pots I spray painted Lagoon, also from Rust-oleum ( I love teal) and also Mod Podged. This one I added that cute little seed packet to the front!

To make these "rulers" I took the little label cards that come in the flowers from the store and Mod Podged this cute ruler paper over it! Now maybe I will know how my Garden Grows!



FYI. Terracotta pots make excellent chalkboards and even if you spray paint them a color you can still write on them with chalk!


The big pot that I added the "Bloom" too with metal letters is also home to a vintage ruler I had laying around my office.
The number one way to frugal-ize (I'm sure that's a word ;) your space is to use things around the house. I took scrapbook paper and some frames, easy-pesy.




I added this cute frame to this pot by tying the ribbons to the handles.



A bird cages from the thrift store to hold a pot.

Another frame laying the house that finally has a home!


Well, I think I need a new picture but there you go.

Petal Lamp Shade Tutorial

I realized I never shared my tutorial on how I made this Petal lampshade.

So here it goes!

I started with this lamp that has an accordion lampshade.

And would you know the accordion part pulls right off!

It was looking yellow underneath, but covered up fine with some white fabric.

I cut strips of white fabric about 2-3" inches wide. The longer you cut your strips the better.

Then I folded it up like paper dolls, and cut a petal shape.

It will look like this when you un-fold it.

I used hot glue and began glueing them on, I would pinch in the middle of the petals to give it some dimension.

Keep going...and going....

And going more the next day when it's daylight:-)

And finally, you're finished! It actually looks great on the original base too, but sometimes I like it on my thrifty spray painted lamp base.

This was so easy and a fun way to makeover an old lamp. I'd love to hear about any lamp redos you've taken on! Thanks for stopping by!!