Lil O's Room

I've been meaning to post pics of Lil O's room for quite some time. I even had a post typed out, however, it didn't save! 

I wanted his room to transition easily from baby - toddler- and up. To me, that means nothing too cartoonish. Also, we wanted a nautical theme - sail boats, anchors, buoys, and fish.  

Here is a room that Sarah Richardson from HGTV did that I fell in love with. My most favorite part of the room is the wallpapered ceiling. I LOVE the way it looks. I haven't papered the ceiling yet, but I haven't ruled it out. 

My MIL painted the room a soft blue and then the hubby and I painted horizontal stripes on one wall for a fun accent. 

I found "pinspiration" of alphabet art that I loved on Pinterest. It's such a neat idea, and you can really make it to suite your color scheme and/or theme. Most of the work will come from finding letters in different fonts. Some of the letters I painted; others I found scrapbook paper, tissue paper and fabric to Mod Podge to to the letters.

 

The southern girl in me wanted a monogram, but wanted to make it fun and not so obvious. Here is what I came up with for his initials OWS. 

Octopus for O,

an anchor for the W

and, a rope in the shape of an S. 

These are done on canvas drop cloth. I sketched out the designs and used paints that I had on hand. The frames are from Ikea with an opening that is about 12"x12". 

Also from Ikea, we bought a dresser to act as double duty for a changing station and storage. We picked the grayish brown because it reminded us of drift wood - sticking to the nautical theme. 

HomeGoods and Marshall's are great places to find treasures for decorating. 

This was my MIL's find from HomeGoods. It helps to keep the toys rounded up! 

I loved the pattern on this lamp shade I found from HomeGoods. It goes great with the overall scheme. 

This piece I found at Marshall's. Yes it has a sail boat on it, but I just love the quote. 

This sail boat we found in a cute shop called, The Preppy Redneck, in St. Michael's, MD.  It is handmade from driftwood.  Fabric was used for the sails. I thought it was a great piece and loved supporting a local artist. 

My MIL gave us some buoys that she had used in my brother-in-law's childhood bedroom. I freshened them up with some paint, and they were ready to be hung up. Just another little nautical element. 

A sweet friend of mine found this at a shop in Charlotte, NC called Shower Me  with Love. This store has the sweetest baby things!  I love the patterns, colors, and of course the nautical theme. 

Lil O's room is probably my favorite room in our home. It feels complete and finished. We will be transitioning him soon to a big boy bed and we will be attempting to make his bed, so once that project is started I will post pics and maybe tutorials. 

Until then...

xoxo 

Amelia

Personal Stationary for Kiddos!

To say that I love stationary is an understatement. I'm not sure what makes me love it so much. Maybe its having pretty paper that has my own name, initials or monogram displayed beautifully, or all the fun ways you can design it to really make it personal.

 I decided to start making my own stationary when my little turned one. I wanted him to have cute Thank You cards to send out after the party. 

Since then, I've given personalized stationary as birthday gifts to a couple of friends. They loved it! Hopefully, I will get some repeat customers! :)

The stationary is a way to tie in the party theme or add a little more personality! Either way its a super cute way to send your thanks and love!

If you would like some of your own stationary - even a folded card style - let me know. I would be happy to work with you to create something personally yours!

XoXo,

Amelia 

Reused Pallet Boards for Bookshelf backing

Hi Ya'll!

I wanted to share a project that my sweet hubby helped me with.  I'm starting to think he doesn't like me using his power tools. ;)

We had a narrow Hemnes bookshelf from Ikea and I didn't like how cave like it seemed in the corner.  For Christmas last year I cut pieces of cardboard and covered them with wrapping paper and I liked how that looked, but I didn't want the red year round - especially with our wall color. 

Here is the before.

 

It's a good looking bookcase, and I don't really have any issues besides being bored with what I have.

I don't know how many upcycled pallet tutorials I have read, but I know that it has been many.  In none of what I read did they mention how incredibly hard it is to take apart a pallet to use the individual boards.  My husband took over this task due to him thinking it took me too long. He quickly found out why I was taking so long.  We had to use a crowbar wedged in between the base and the individual board and hammer the crowbar to pry the two apart. Holding a crowbar while hammering said crowbar will cause a lot of reverb in your hand - not very comfy!

Once we got the individual boards off and cut to size with a table saw we lightly spray painted them white and then sanded to distressed and smooth any rough spots.

Thankfully, the back of the bookshelf is only held on with short tiny nails; making it super easy to remove.  After removal we laid the boards on the back of the bookcase to be nailed.  The hubby used finishing brads and a nail gun to secure the boards to the shelf.

You can see in the picture below that 1) the brads are coming out the side of the shelf. Apparently he hit a metal piece that caused the nail to not go in straight. 2) the hubby likes to color coordinate to our paint color. hehe

 

You can see below that the boards are not super white.  I wanted a more worn/rustic look and I think that we achieved that and lighten up the little cave.

 

Any questions on the how-to just ask!

 

First Stages of our Kitchen updates!

This summer has been super busy filled with lots of projects and family travels.  One of the projects that I have begging to start has been our kitchen.  It is just a builders grade blah mess.  We looked into buying new cabinetry or even new fronts, but we didn't want to out price ourselves for our neighborhood. So, we chose to paint.  This is a very time consuming task and you need lots of patience. 

Here is our kitchen before we did anything.  We have not touched the kitchen other than to spackle holes and start buying new appliances since we moved in.  The previous owners left a pot rack over the sink, and another shelf - yep, they stayed in place until we were ready to paint.

Green is one of my most favorite colors, however, the green in this kitchen drove me batty!  I do not know why I detested it so - I just did. 

Gray is what I wanted to go with, but which gray?  There are entirely too many.  I knew that I didn't want to have one with a blue or green undertone.  Who knew that would be so hard to find!?!

Here was what I had gathered while trying to decide. I know that it can be hard to see just with the paint chips, but you see how some look greenish gray and maybe others with blue undertones? Still pretty colors just not what I wanted.

The color of the cabinets in the picture was exactly what I wanted for my own kitchen.  I tried to convince the hubby in Chelsea Gray from Benjamin Moore however, he couldn't envision it UNTIL...my Mother in Law found this pic!! He now understood what I wanted and that it can work. :)


INSPIRATION:

Here are some of my inspirations for the colors in the kitchen.  All of these were found on Pinterest and most of them did not have a follow up link.  **Beware of Tangent - Why on Earth is it so hard to Pin something from the correct source? I clicked on one and it wouldn't continue because it stated it may lead to porn!?!  Just a little pet peeve!

 Ok, so I know that all of these kitchens are way more gorgeous than what I am working with.  And yes, it does make me sad, however, gotta be happy with what we have. Always room for improvement!


So for my neutral colored  kitchen I decided on Benjamin Moore's Chelsea Gray for the cabinets and Gray Owl for the walls.



















PREP WORK!

A big part of painting kitchen cabinets is making sure to do all the necessary prep work and not to skip steps.  My hubby helped me with some of the prep work which was a great help.  The best part was that my Mother in Law volunteered to help me paint!!  This was a total life saver, and I am so grateful that she wanted to help!

This means that you need to remove ALL hardware, clean your cabinets to remove any dust, grease, etc. - You will be surprised how much gunk can collect on the top edge of your upper cabinets doors - well, at least I was! Make sure to use wood putty or spackle to touch up any places that may be nicked  or that you want to appear smoother.

After they are cleaned you will need to sand.  Most cabinets will have a glossy finish on them; the sanding will help rough up the finish so that the paint will adhere better. After you sand the cabinets and boxes they need to be wiped down again. You will need to make sure that they are free from any dust and debris.  Use a damp cloth first. Once they are dry wipe them again with a lint free cloth.

Now you are ready to prime!  This does not have to be a thick coat.  I try to make sure my brush strokes are neat and follow the grain of the wood. The base will determine how neat the end product is.  When priming/painting the cabinet doors start with the back of the doors first and make sure that they are elevated off the ground.  I used scrape wood 1X3's that we had laying around.  Let the primer dry per the instructions. It doesn't hurt to wait until the following day to begin with the paint.

Choose a good quality brush.  I like the brand Purdy.  These aren't the most expensive, but a great brush never the less.  When painting remember to follow the grain of the wood.  We did two coats of the Benjamin Moore Chelsea Gray waiting a full day in between coats.

 




















The doors are the most tedious of this whole project.  you have to paint the backside - wait for the appropriate drying time - then another coat.  Then wait some more - longer this time to make sure that the paint will not get nicked when you turn over for the fronts. 

After everything has dried for at least 24 hours you can start to put the hardware back on.  Even though we had hung up some of the doors we left them open.  It takes several days for the paint to cure and not stick.  Another thing that you can do is to add the tiny felt circles to the corners of the doors to help with this issue.

 

Here's the finished product - well, at least the cabinets are painted!

 

Ok!  Here's the work in progress with the walls painted.

 

 

 

There are still lots to do - finish updated appliances, hardware, counter top, backsplash, sink and lighting!

Baby steps - I know. :)

 

Check out this Sweet Potato Vine!!

Earlier this year I posted some pics of plants that I had planted. Lately, I've noticed my Sweet Potato Vine has been growing like crazy! I love the chartreuse color and how full it becomes!! 

 Here is the first picture I posted.

See how little it started off being.  

Now look!

Along with Miss Molly.

I'm glad the vine is doing well, however, I can't say much for my Geraniums.  The rain has pretty much beaten them down. Hopefully the remaining buds will bloom soon! 

Here is another planter that I've done. Initially, I had planted hot pink and white Petunias - they did not do well at all! So, here's the replacement.

This planter features Creeping Jenny, Coleus, Vinca, and Lemon Thyme. I just noticed there is one lonely Petunia left-haha!

I love the hot pink and green Coleus and the light pink Vinca with bright pink centers - makes me happy!

Love the dirt and planting!

xoxo

Amelia