How To Turn $1 Pumpkins Into Show Stoppers Using Chalk Paint

A few weekends back I had some fun painting pumpkins.

French Farmhouse DIY Kitchen Makeover

Well the time has come, I am finally revealing our French Farmhouse kitchen that we started making over back in the spring. I know, I know it took me awhile and I apologize but there were a lot of little projects that I wanted completed before I shared. I hope that you find it was worth the wait.

We started off with a very dark builder grade kitchen. The dark granite, dark cabinets, and the dark paint color made me feel like I was in a cave because the space is not very large. Our kitchen was my least favorite room in the house! I dreamed of a lighter and brighter kitchen. We thought that maybe changing out the granite would be the answer but after pricing it out we realized we needed to come up with a more budget friendly plan. That is when The Hubster finally gave in to the idea of me painting the cabinets and then that led to changing out the back splash which led to...well you get the idea. In the end we are both in love with how it turned out!

The original plan was to paint the top and the bottom cabinets but I decided to keep the bottom half as is. It is a happy medium because I love light colored cabinets and The Hubster loves wood. 

We choose a travertine subway tile as well as a travertine/glass tile for the accent. It was very easy to install.

We do NOT regret for one minute taking our huge microwave down from above the range. We knew as soon as we took it down it was not going back up. 

The corner here was always wasted space but makes the perfect spot for our new microwave. 

I added beautiful glass knobs to our top cabinets.

I also changed out our drawer pulls to ones that have similar coloring as the cabinets.

The island was my inspiration piece in the room. The Hubster and I transformed it a few years back and I was not wanting to paint over it nor was I wanting to get rid of it. 

If you wanna see what this island looked like beforehand click here.

Click Here to view Part 2. 
Thank you for stopping by to visit!

Sources:

Kitchen Cabinet Color- Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Old Ochre

Wall Color- Autumn Haze by Glidden

Glass Knobs- Hobby Lobby

 Drawer Pulls- Lowes

Travertine Tile- Floor & Decor 

Round Clock- HomeGoods

Bottle Drying Rack- Decor Steals

Corbels- Local Antique Shop

If you missed how I achieved my kitchen cabinet finish click here. To see Part 2 click here.

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Kitchen Update #4- Labeling

This is where I left y'all last week with our kitchen reno. The Hubster and The Papa had just finished putting up the pieces to the new custom hood we made. After that I took down the cabinet doors.
This past Saturday I spent all day painting and waxing away. It takes a long time to paint three coats of paint on each door and then apply three layers of wax. It is all well worth it though.

Here is where I am at today. The cabinets themselves are all painted, sanded and waxed. The hood is completed and as you can see I have already started playing around with decorating it. I just could not resist!;) So far this is what I have come up with. The display still needs a little tweaking but I think this may be the winning display at least for now.

I still have 7 cabinet doors to paint and wax. I plan on getting them completed this week so I can move on to the desk area. I can not wait to be done so I can finish painting the walls and making new curtains for the breakfast nook!

If you are thinking about painting your kitchen cabinets a tip that I am sure you have thought about is to label each door so you know exactly where they go. 

A tip from our lesson learned is to also label the hinges! The Hubster and I spent 30 minutes trying to get two of the doors to hang correctly after we put them back up. It finally dawned on us they were not working right because the hinges were not placed back on in the spot they came from. Now I am using a Sharpie to label all the hinges. A true time saver and sanity saver!

Kitchen Reno Part 1
Kitchen Reno Part 2
Kitchen Reno Part 3

Stay tuned for more updates! See ya back here tomorrow for the most viewed links from last weeks Treasure Hunt Thursday.

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$100 Laundry Room Makeover

Back in November I started getting the itch to change our laundry room up. With a tight budget ,holidays trips, broken washing machine, and more holiday festivities I was unable to make any head way. Over the past two weeks I kicked it into high gear though and I am excited to say that I have finally completed our laundry room makeover. The best part is that I only spent $100!

Welcome to our newly renovated laundry room. 

Sorry it is so bright but the lighting was a challenge. I could not turn the overhead lighting off and with it on it is really bright. I need to get lower watt bulbs. Let me start off by saying that I am NOT including our new washer and dryer in my renovation total. They were replaced on necessity and had no bearing on my decision to change things up in here.  After the new washer and dryer arrived the first thing I did was paint. To save money I picked out my color and then went to WalMart and had them color match it for me. I am the only one who uses this room so I did not feel the need for a $30 gallon of paint. Paint and supplies cost me about $20. The color is called Autumn Haze by Glidden. It is a great creamy neutral.

I was able to talk The Hubster into taking down our fluorescent light. I hunted high and low for a new light for in here to no avail. Nothing really jumped out at me. Last week I came across a french chandy and two matching sconces for just $86 for all three on the local yard sale site. What I ended up doing after bouncing ideas around and talking to my mama was to take down the chandy that was in our dining room and place it in here. To be fare I will say that it cost me $43 for a new light for in here. I just split the cost of the new chandy for the dining room and sconces in half. 

Back in December I won a $250 gift certificate to a local decor shop Laurie's. This architectural piece was one of the things that I purchased with it. I had no idea where I was going to put it but after I took down the vinyl saying I had on the wall up there this turned out to be the perfect spot for the piece. Cost to me free.

I painted our cabinets with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint that I already had on hand from other projects. I used Country Grey and Vintage White. Cost to paint cabinets nothing since I already had the paint. 

I changed out the cabinet knobs which I already on hand as well. Whenever HobbyLobby has 50% off knobs I always snag some for a rainy day. If I had not already had them it would have cost me less than $7 for all four.

I made my own chalk board labels with supplies on hand.

I have had this decorative self feeder for awhile now just waiting for a use. It dawned on me that it would be perfect to hold my fabric softener sheets. BEFORE anybody points it out YES I already see that I spelled softener wrong!;) I just didn't have time to correct it. Once I do I will replace the pic.

I took down two of the iron pieces I had up here and replaced them with mirrors I had bought back in July when antiquing with my mama. They were just laying around collecting dust.

I love the detail on them!

I put back up my drying racks. These originally came from HobLob.

I already had this french linen looking table runner and decided it looked perfect in here. I bought it a few weeks back at HomeGoods for just $12. I did not include it in my $100 total though because I already had it on hand. 

My mama had bought me this vintage baptism gown back in July. It use to hang on the back of the guest room door.

I spent $13 on lumber to create faux wood beams.

The old window use to hang in our master bath and I had all the supplies already on hand for the wreath.

I already shared how I transformed this vintage dresser into a retreat for our Little Lady's kennel. If you missed that post you can see it here.

Cost for that makeover was nothing since I already all of the supplies on hand again. These knobs are from HobLob and are my favorite!

I spent $25 on iron brackets from HobLob and lumber to create the new shelving.

Frame from my frame collection and flowers I have had since our first home back in 2002.

Rustic bird cage I bought back in the fall.

Vintage cow I bought back in the summer. Can you tell I love cows!;)

Little gold frames my mama gave me for Christmas.

Vintage scale I purchased back in July.

Old washboard that I had in here previously. I just turned it around because I liked the black writing on it instead of the red that is on the other side.

Note that my before pic here is really awful. I could not find one where I had the new accessories and stuff in there from the previous makeover in 2010 so trust me when I say it did look much better than that. You can see more pics of what the laundry room looked like before here.

 $100 later and lots of sweat equity I have the laundry room of my dreams and you can too! Just come up with a vision for your space by browsing places like blogs, FaceBook, HomeTalk, and Pinterest. After months of browsing inspirations my final inspiration came from the blog Faded Charm. I fell head over heels for Kathleen's laundry room. You can see it here. Next just look around your house for items you already have on hand and hunt down bargains for the items you do not. It may take a little longer but trust me it will be well worth it in the end!

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