Saturday, May 17, 2014

How I Refinished Our Wood Kitchen Island Top

I recently shared our spring front porch where I had freshened up our front door with stain. I received several inquiries about how I did it so I thought that I would share the steps I take to refinish it. Now I do not have another door to refinish but I do have the custom wood top to our kitchen island.
from my front porch to yours- kitchen island
Mr. Front Porch and I made over our kitchen island three years ago. You can read all about that here.
from my front porch to yours- kitchen island stain project
After three years of wear and tear this is what the top looked like. This top sees a TON of traffic from my paint projects to sitting hot pans on it. I figured it was way past due for some fresh stain!;)
from my front porch to yours- kitchen island stain project
I took the island top outside and used medium grit sand paper to hand sand the top down. I hand sand because I do not like the little squiggle lines my orbital sander always leaves behind. 
from my front porch to yours- kitchen island stain project
I do not sand the entire thing down to bare wood. I sand just enough to take off the old poly. I prefer things to look aged and I like the different depths this gives to the wood. After sanding I wiped the top down with some wet paper towels. This not only cleans all the sanding residue off but also opens the grain of the wood up to accept the stain better.
from my front porch to yours- kitchen island stain project
Next I use a clean white rag to apply the stain. My preferred choice is Dark Walnut by Minwax. It is a beautiful color.
from my front porch to yours- kitchen island stain project
You can choose how much stain you want to apply. The lighter the coat the lighter the stain. I applied it on a little thicker to deepen the color and wiped off the excess. You do not want to leave the excess on or your piece will NEVER dry. It will always be sticky/tacky to the touch.
from my front porch to yours- kitchen island stain project
After a few hours in the sun it was time to add the protective top coat. For things such as front doors which will be exposed to the elements or kitchen island tops which take a lot of abuse my choice is Minwax Helmsman Sparuthane. It is specially made to endure the elements such as rain and what not. I use a sponge applicator for this to eliminate brush strokes. 
from my front porch to yours- kitchen island stain project
I applied two coats of Sparuthane to the island top. In between coats I took some steel wool and lightly went over the top and then made sure to dust it off well with a clean cloth to remove any tiny particles of wool. You do not want to trap those with the second coat.
from my front porch to yours- kitchen island stain project
The Sparuthane dried fairly quickly and within two hours the kitchen island top was back on the island and ready to use. The Sparuthane is a tad shiny and in most cases I prefer things not to be shiny but since the island top receives so much abuse I felt it was best to use the strongest protective coat.

Please keep in mind I am NOT a professional. This is just how I accomplish my staining projects. Before completing any project it is always best to do some research and decide on the best method for yourself.

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Treasure Hunt Thursday #155 & Highlights

From My Front Porch To Yours- Treasure Hunt Thursday
It is that time of week again to share our treasures and what not. Before we go to highlights from last weeks party be sure to stop on by and see what is up with our master bedroom! Big changes I tell ya! You can even enter to win a $50 Sherwin Williams gift card to makeover your own room!:) CLICK HERE to find out all about it.

Also what do you all think about making party time at 7 pm Central instead of 4? I am thinking we may get a few more party goers if we have a later start time but its y'alls party so let me know your thoughts.
Here are the highlights from last weeks party.
From My Front Porch To Yours- Treasure Hunt Thursday-Pink Postcard
Pink Postcard- Vintage Bed Crown
From My Front Porch To Yours- Treasure Hunt Thursday-DIY Beautify
DIY beautify- DIY Tiered Stand
From My Front Porch To Yours- Treasure Hunt Thursday-An Extraoridinary Day
An Extraoridinary Day- Birds Nest Table Setting
From My Front Porch To Yours- Treasure Hunt Thursday-A Delightsome Life
A Delightsome Life- Classic Oatmeal Cookies
Thank you so much for coming out to party every week! Please if you would like to Pin go to the blog directly and Pin from there!:)



Let's get this party started shall we!?


Common Courtesies

1. Please only link up new links that you have not shared before. 

 

2. Please link up only 3 times. If you have more you would like to share save the share till the next THT so it will be just as awesome.

 

3. Please do not link up items you are trying to sell or other linky parties.

 

4. Please be sure to link back to THT. Hint hint I will only feature those who have the link back. 

 

5. Disable Word Verification to encourage more comments from your visitors!:)


 

I would love to have you follow along with me if you do not already!

 

Can't wait to see what you have to share this week.

Monday, May 12, 2014

Master Bedroom Makeover: SHERWIN-WILLIAMS HARMONY® PAINT


***This post is brought to you by Sherwin-Williams & BlogHer.***


 I can not tell you how excited I was a few weeks back to learn that I had been chosen by BlogHer & Sherwin-Williams to participate along with 17 other bloggers in making over a space in our home! The decision of what space to transform was a very easy one for me since I had already been brain storming on ideas for our master bedroom.

If you are anything like me it takes you forever to decide on a paint color for a room. 
From My Front Porch To Yours Master Bedroom Makeover Before:Sherwin-Williams Harmony Paint
About four years ago after painting more than several swatches of color on our master bedroom walls, I finally decided on a color for this space. 
I only ended up deciding on it because I found it in the Oops section at our local hardware store.
From My Front Porch To Yours Master Bedroom Makeover Before:Sherwin-Williams Harmony Paint
I have no idea what the color was even called. As you can see it was a very neutral color, so neutral in fact that Mr. Front Porch asked me why I even bothered.
Unfortunately, I never fully completed painting our master bedroom. I had to stop and wait for Mr. Front Porch to come home from work since some areas were far too high to do on my own.
Since then Mr. Front Porch and I have gotten side tracked by other projects around the house and time just has just flown by. Here we are four years later with half-painted walls and my desire to change the entire look of the space. The first task at hand for this makeover was to choose a new paint color.
Sherwin-Williams has various color selection tools on their site to utilize in helping you with your paint color selections. I chose to use their Color Visualizer where you can picture it before you paint it. The powerful Color Visualizer will turn your computer into a virtual design studio.
With the Color Visualizer you are able to download your own picture or pick from one of their many scenes.
Since I want to redo our bedroom I picked one of their bedroom scenes to play around with. After you select your scene you can then choose what paint colors you would like to paint with. 
The first selection I made was SW 0031 Dutch Tile Blue for the walls. Looks good, but I decided I wanted to see what the ceiling would look like painted even though I have always been a white ceiling kind of gal.
For the ceiling I chose SW 6164 Svelte Sage, which I have used in our home already and love. What a difference a painted ceiling makes! It totally adds the wow factor to this space.
You can spend hours playing around with the Color Visualizer tool, but I needed to get down to business. I downloaded a pic of our actual master bedroom and plugged in some of the colors I was considering using.

First up was SW 7651 Front Porch. I was looking for a color outside my norm and well, Front Porch just called out my name! ;) Not quite what I am looking for though.
Next up I decided to be a bit more bold with my selection and tried out SW 0038 Library Pewter. Awesome color, but I am not brave enough to go that dark. After several more color options I was having a hard time picking out a color knowing that I was changing out our bedding. The hunt was on for our new bedding in hopes it would make my wall color selection easier.
 
Here is what I have come up with for our space! I love anything that has to do with buffalo check and toile, so the bedding selection was fairly easy. I ordered the new bedskirt plus a white quilt. I am having some euro shams made from the toile fabric by one of my blogging pals, Sonya.The buffalo check fabric will either come in as curtains or maybe as a duvet at the end of the bed.
 Now with the fabric choices made I was ready to make my paint selection and instead of painting a ton of swatches on the walls like I normally do, I turned to the Color Visualizer once again and punched in a color I already have used in our home on our fireplace, SW 6211 Rainwashed. 
SW 6211 Rainwashed it is. Sherwin-Williams asked me to try out their Harmony® Interior Acrylic Latex Paint for this project. I was very pleased to learn the many benefits of the Harmony® Paint line. It is a zero VOC formula that helps reduce common indoor odors like those from your pets, cooking and smoke to help rooms stay fresher, longer. And Harmony contains formaldehyde-eliminating technology that helps reduce VOCs from potential sources like carpet insulation and fabrics. It also gives your walls a washable, durable finish. This acrylic paint is GreenGuard Indoor Air Quality Certified® and GreenGuard Certified for Children and Schools.
I can hardly wait to get our entire space painted and share it with you all!
Now how would you like to win a $50 Sherwin-Williams gift card to help in your space makeover? All you have to do is leave a comment on this post telling me what room you would like to redo if you were to win. It is that easy!
To stay up to date with Sherwin-Williams promotions, like their amazing 30% off coupons they have from time to time, be sure to Like them on FaceBook and follow along on Pinterest.


Sweepstakes Rules:

No duplicate comments.

You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:
1.     Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post
2.     Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: “#SweepstakesEntry”; and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post
3.     Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post
4.     For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.
This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. The notification email will come directly from BlogHer via the sweeps@blogher email address. You will have 72 hours to respond; otherwise a new winner will be selected.

The Official Rules are available here.

This sweepstakes runs from 5/12/2014-6/1/2014.

Be sure to visit the Sherwin-Williams brand page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ posts!

Sunday, May 11, 2014

How I Found My Style Sundays- A Pocketful of Blue

From My Front Porch To Yours- How I Found My Style Sundays

Hi Everyone,
I'm JoAnne from A Pocketful of Blue and today I'm sharing
 with you how I found my decorating style.
 Well, the truth is I haven't actually found my style yet, not completely anyway.

From My Front Porch To Yours- How I Found my Style Sundays- A Pocketful of Blue

I would describe my style as primarily cottage but that can mean
 a lot of different things.  For me it means cozy spaces, soft colors,
 charming time worn accessories, and just an overall comfortable feel.
  But I have to say my style changes and evolves
 little by little all the time.

From My Front Porch To Yours- How I Found my Style Sundays- A Pocketful of Blue

I have incorporated a little bit of farmhouse, vintage, shabby chic 
and country french into my version of cottage style.

From My Front Porch To Yours- How I Found my Style Sundays- A Pocketful of Blue

From My Front Porch To Yours- How I Found my Style Sundays- A Pocketful of Blue

Another element you will see a lot of in my house is the color blue. It's my very 
favorite color although the shades of blue that I love have evolved over the years.
Back in the eighties, I loved the very popular country blue complete with the duck
 motifs and little wooden shelves with the heart cutouts ~ remember those?  (cringe)
Then I thought I wanted to move on to something different, so I tried decorating
with other colors like green and red but I kept yearning for my favorite blue.

From My Front Porch To Yours- How I Found my Style Sundays- A Pocketful of Blue

Today I love the soft blue/green shades of blue and you will see
 a lot of that in my home.

From My Front Porch To Yours- How I Found my Style Sundays- A Pocketful of Blue

So finding the colors and style I love has taken much trial and error
and it still changes bit by bit all the time.

From My Front Porch To Yours- How I Found my Style Sundays- A Pocketful of Blue

I have taken so much inspiration from all of the wonderful decorating 
blogs we have today and of course, Pinterest.
I love creating vignettes and one of the things I have picked up on 
is layering accessories.  In the photo above, you can see how I have layered
the dishes, bowls, teapot, etc. and in the photo below, I added the little burlap bag to
the old cupboard door ~ so much more interesting than just a single item by itself.
  It sounds simple really, but not something I would have thought of on my own.

From My Front Porch To Yours- How I Found my Style Sundays- A Pocketful of Blue

Some of the things I like to decorate with are:

baskets and flowers
From My Front Porch To Yours- How I Found my Style Sundays- A Pocketful of Blue
mason jars
From My Front Porch To Yours- How I Found my Style Sundays- A Pocketful of Blue
 old books
From My Front Porch To Yours- How I Found my Style Sundays- A Pocketful of Blue
pitchers
From My Front Porch To Yours- How I Found my Style Sundays- A Pocketful of Blue
and pretty plates especially as wall decor.
From My Front Porch To Yours- How I Found my Style Sundays- A Pocketful of Blue

I also like to change things around often for a fresh look and I try to use
 or repurpose what I already have.  I recently freshened up this wreath
 by removing all of the old dusty dried flowers and adding a few
 simple sprays of delicate flowers along with a blue burlap bow.

From My Front Porch To Yours- How I Found my Style Sundays- A Pocketful of Blue

Another look I love is pairing rustic items with things that are more soft or
delicate like this old brick with the little creamer and sprig of berries.
  Such a wonderful contrast.

From My Front Porch To Yours- How I Found my Style Sundays- A Pocketful of Blue

I'm really trying to think hard about any new purchases to keep from having too
 much "stuff" in my home and spending too much money as well.
However, I do love to got to flea markets, antique stores, and barn sales
looking for that special treasure to bring home.
One of my favorite finds is this little table I found at an antique mall.
Doesn't it have the sweetest little curves and details?

From My Front Porch To Yours- How I Found my Style Sundays- A Pocketful of Blue

For anyone still trying to find their style, I would suggest looking at lots of pictures
and eventually you will discover what you are the the most drawn towards.  I used
to worry a lot about what others would think and I made lots of mistakes that way.
Believe me, I still make mistakes but by going with my gut feelings and
doing what makes me happy, I make a lot less of them.
If you decorate with what you truly love,
 you will be happy with it for a long time.

Thank you so much Pamela for including me in

"How I Found My Style Sundays".
I always enjoy reading about other bloggers' decorating journeys
and I appreciate the opportunity to write about mine ~ so fun.

I also want to wish everyone a very

Happy Mother's Day!
♡ ♡ ♡

~ JoAnne

JoAnne thank you so very much for visiting with us today! You have a beautiful home and I just love the blue.