Sneak Peek Photo of My Kitchen Transformation!

 Here's a little sneak peek of my kitchen while it was decked out with bridal shower goodies:

And a reminder of how it used to look:

More photos and details to come as soon as life slows a down a little! I will have another crazy week next week and then I should be able to get back into some more regular blogging. This summer has just been so full of projects and events that I haven't been able to make time to fit in some much needed blogging updates of all the changes.

Kitchen Projects-Part 1

So for awhile I've been trying to be patient and not do anything to my kitchen cabinets until we replace the countertops. We are planning to do that sometime this year. I wanted to wait until we had the new countertops installed before going ahead with painting my orangey-oakey-boringey-me-no-likey cabinets. That way, I would have the counters to match different paint colors chips to and select the right tone and shade of paint. This is important because I'm probably going to be brave and paint the upper cabinets and lower cabinets two different colors.

However, I was off work the other day and I just couldn't take it anymore. My plain, unadorned cabinets needed something, anything to spruce them up. So I made a trip to Home Depot and $50 later I came home with some oil-rubbed bronze knobs and pulls for my cabinets. (One good thing about having a small kitchen, buying knobs is cheap when you don't need very many.)

After a couple hours of drilling and going back to Home Depot for longer screws, here is a peek at my cabinets now. These knobs were cheapies at $1.50 each.

The pulls were a bit pricier at almost $4 each. Good thing I only have four drawers in my kitchen. Well, it's only a good thing because it saved me money in this instance.

Mr.Delightful Dwelling came home from work just as I was finishing up. There was wood dust everywhere because I had to drill all the holes for the hardware since our cabinets never had any. He asked "What in the world did you do to make such a mess?!" He was totally oblivious to the new cabinet knobs, he just noticed all the dust everywhere. Men. As long as he lets me do what I want to the kitchen, I can't complain too much when he doesn't notice what I've done.

I can't show off the whole kitchen just yet without revealing my next mini-makeover project. I have a new wide angle camera lens ordered and on its way. Then I can get some good shots of the whole room to share.

Mirror Makeover

Ok, first off I'm sorry that I disappeared for a gazillion years in blogging time. If you are reading this, thanks for not totally forgetting about me! I have so many projects to share and some major changes planned for the upcoming months.

Let's start out with a super easy makeover. I found this gold mirror at a thrift store. I love the scrollwork of the frame, but wasn't so thrilled with the gold color.

Enter spraypaint of course. I used a black metallic Rustoleum paint. I sprayed on a light coat so some of the gold pops through. The scrolled edges of the frame made it a pain to tape paper over the mirror. I managed to only get a bit of paint to seep through which I was able to scrape off using a fingernail. Here is how she looks with her new paint job.

I decided the perfect place for the mirror was by our front door. I'm keeping an eye out for a small console type table to put under the mirror. Or I could add a shelf instead. I have a big project planned for this wall though that will have to come first before I make a final decision. (Hint, think board-and-batten.)

Laminate Bookcase Makeover-Part 1

I'm sorry that I haven't posted in almost two weeks. I was fighting a terrible cold so blogging and home projects were just not happening for awhile. I am finally back in action with several finished projects to share.

The main project I have been working on is to update my craft room. I posted the crazy "before" photos showing the cluttered mess the room had become. After giving the room a coat of the same paint color as our hall bath (Behr Rain Washed), I turned my attention to conquering the clutter problem. One major problem I wanted to tackle was to create a prettier storage area using one of the existing laminate bookcases I had. The bookcase needed to hold a hodge podge of mismatched photo albums, magazines, and books. Somehow I needed to figure out a way to make everything look more coordinated. I saw this photo on the BHG site and knew right away it would serve as my inspiration.

Here's how my version turned out.

And a reminder on how the bookcase started out. You can see it on the very left of the photo below. It was a super cheap laminate bookcase in a pale oak color that we purchased five years ago. We also had a shorter version of the same bookcase shown in the right of the photo. Both of these bookcases have been completely transformed. I will show the breakdown on how I gave the tall bookcase a makeover in this post. I will have another post later to reveal what the smaller bookcase looks like.

When I did some research online to find out if paint would even stick to laminate, I came across a very helpful post on the subject on the blog Living with Lindsay. I mostly followed her instructions which really ended up being the same steps I used when I painted the bathroom vanity cabinets in both our hall bath and master bathroom. Sand, prime, paint, and be very careful not to scratch anything!

1. First step, sanding. I used our power sander to sand every surface except the inside backing which I planned on covering up. I used a fairly high grit sandpaper. You just want to lightly scratch the surface without going all the way through. You should see little white flecks of laminate coming off.

2. Trim it out. This step is optional, but gives the piece a more finished look. If you have a bookcase that is totally plain on the top like mine were, you can add some moulding to give it more substance. We used a miter saw and a strip of moulding to quickly add some trim pieces around the top edge. Of course I used my wonderful nail gun to secure the trim. Here's the bookcase all trimmed out and sanded down.

3. Prime time. I used Kilz water-based primer for the large bookcase and oil-based for the small bookcase. I prefer oil based because of the extra durability and stickiness, but I went ahead and used up the last of the water based primer that I already had left before purchasing another quart of oil based primer. I let the primer dry overnight before moving on to the painting step.

4. Time for paint. I used cream Behr laytex semi-gloss paint that I have used on several different projects. Both bookcases were given the same paint color.  I let both bookcases dry for five days before putting anything on top of them. This is very important. If  you don't let the paint totally dry and cure for several days, you could end up with things sticking to the paint or the paint chipping more easily.

5. Prettify the inside. Just like in my inspiration BHG photo, I wanted to add something to the inside back of each bookcase. I found a roll of wrapping paper on clearance at Target for $1.74. The colors just happened to be perfect for the room. You could also use wallpaper or even fabric.

I used the shelves from the bookcase as my guide for how wide to cut the paper. Both bookcases had adjustable height shelves.

Then I just used double stick tape to adhere the paper to the back of the bookcase. A craft knife came in handy to trim the paper tight to the edges of the sides, top, and bottom.

6. Use a curtain to hide clutter. I picked up a simple tension rod at Old Time Pottery for $1.99 to hold the curtain and fit between the bookcase sides. The blue and white fabric was a $4 purchase at Joanns Fabrics. Since I don't sew, I used some iron on tape to hem each side and the bottom. Now I can hide the mismatched books and albums behind lovely and inexpensive fabric.

7. Add accessories, then step back and enjoy your bookcase's new look! I shopped the house for decorative touches to fill the top two shelves and also picked up a few more items while out shopping. The mason jars I found at a thrift store for $1. The silver globe on top if from Home Goods. The white bird and topiary are from Michael's. (Free for me with a giftcard!)  The sleeping white ceramic cat was a Dollar Tree find. Inexpensive storage boxes from IKEA help corrall my endless supply of magazines and some general crafting goodies.

I am very happy with how my bookcase turned out. It makes me smile. =) I did scratch the paint in a few places while putting the shelves back in. Otherwise the paint seems to be sticking well to the laminate.

I will be back to post later on how the smaller bookcase is looking these days. It has been moved to a different room.

My Craftroom-The Scary "Before" Photos

One major project I have been working on lately is to clean up this disaster of a room. The room currently serves as my scrapbook/craft/Bowflex/storage/catch all room. It's become such a catch all space that I can hardly walk in there and I certainly don't feel very inspired to do much crafting.

The two bookshelves and the closet are stuffed to the brim with games, scrapbooking supplies, knick knacks, memorabilia, and more.

About the only thing that is going to remain the same is the desk. I do love my desk. It was a $99 online find from Target several years ago. It even had free shipping. Pretty much everything else in this room will be moved around, painted over, and organized.

The room is currently halfway through its makeover. Stay tuned for a new paint color on the walls, a different furniture arrangement, and even a tutorial on making over those cheap, laminate bookcases. (Yes, they are paintable!)

Hiding an Ugly Laundry Room

Our laundry room is also known as the kitty potty. We can't' close the door to the room because the cats have to get in there. So for the past 5 years, I've had a curtain covering the doorway opening to the laundry room. The room itself is in need of some major help in the decorating department, but I'm holding off until the day our 15 year old washer and 20+ year old dryer finally stop spinning and I can gut the room and start from scratch. I was using the plain curtain below dividing the space from the kitchen. I wasn't really happy with the curtain. It was a pain to slide over when we needed to do laundry and the color wasn't quite right.

Then I found this shower curtain on clearance at Kohl's for 80% off. My mom bought it for me and although it is a tad too short, I love the colors and the design.

Since it is attached with shower curtain rings instead of a rod pocket like the former curtain, it is super easy to slide back and forth for carrying all those baskets of clothes into the laundry area.

I love the simple changes that make me smile.

New Bathroom Vanity Knobs

We completed a makeover of our hall bath over six months ago. Part of the makeover including painting the boring and orangey oak vanity to a sleek, glossy brown finish. I loved how the deep brown looked with the oil-rubbed bronze fixtures and how it contrasted against the white vanity top.

However, while at Hobby Lobby the other day, I was admiring their amazing selection of drawer pulls and knobs. They were having a sale so all the knobs were 50% off. I spied these beautiful white knobs and had to grab a couple since they were only $1.50 each. I thought the white would really pop against the dark brown and I was right. A couple minutes of drilling and on they went.

They make the perfect finishing touch. I'm hoping Hobby Lobby has another sale soon, because there were so many gorgeous knobs that I might have to see where else I can add or replace some knobs.

Creating Metal Monogram Art

I wasn't sure what to title this project. It all started out with the metal wall art thing over the bed shown here. I purchased it several years, but it just didn't seem to stand out against the wall. I was also tired of the flower design that was in the middle. I mean my bedroom is already a bit too much on the feminine side for Mr. Delightful without having another flower in the room. One day, while drying my hair in the bathroom adjoining the bedroom and staring at the metal thing on the wall, I had an idea on just how to give it a makeover.

First I took it off the wall and had Mr. Delightful cut out the metal flower design from the middle. It took him all of 20 seconds to cut it out with a grinder (I think that's what the tool with the spinning thing that shoots out sparks when it cuts metal is called.). Than I used spray paint to give it a nice coat of glossy white paint. It was looking better already. Next it was time to raid my fabric stash. I decided to use this neutral fabric that had a pretty texture to it. I picked up this clearance fabric awhile back for $1.50 for 3/4 of a yard.

I traced around the middle oval and cut out the fabric to slightly smaller as the outside of the oval opening. Then it was time to break out the glue gun for some hot glue action to secure the fabric to the metal. I worked around the opening slowly to make sure the glue didn't dry on the metal before I attached the fabric.

When I had hairdrying breakthrough moment, I decided that a monogram in the middle would look perfect. I located this perfect little letter at Hobby Lobby. They have quite an extensive selection of unfinished wood letters. I thought the curly letter style gave it a bit of whimsy. The "L" was painted with the same paint as the metal art and then added to the fabric with hot glue. Now the metal art is ready for its close up.

And the full effect.

Yep, I'm really loving it. So much better and such an easy makeover. It's amazing how different my bedroom looked just a year ago.

And how it looks now. (Ignore the wrinkled comforter, I had just washed it!) 

Ahhhhh, so much more relaxing. I'm ready for a nap now.

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