A Quick Change

Does anybody else just hate having to decorate that awkward space between the tops of the cabinets and the ceiling in your kitchen? Confession...this is what that space looked like in my kitchen for the first, oh, nine months we were in this house.


Yikes. It was a convenient place to store those nice, big mixing bowls that I only seem to use every year around the holidays. But I didn't LOVE the way it looked. So...my mom came to visit, took me to Hobby Lobby and we came up with this:


Much better!!!! The red vase on the left I already had in my basement, the key-shaped candleholder was on clearance at HobLob for 3 smack-a-roos, and the four plates are actually chargers that were less than 2 bucks a piece.

I have loved having something nice in the area where I spend a LOT of my time during the day! Lately, though, I've just been getting the itch to spray paint SOMETHING (you all know how that feels, right? Right???) and I just wasn't feeling the red of the plates. Too much color, maybe? (Sorry, mom.)

Considering they were $1.75 plastic chargers from Hobby Lobby, I thought "Why not?" and broke out the Rustoleum.



And I have to say, I LOVE the results!!!! Now it looks all white and creamy (much more my style lately) and like nice pieces of china. Extra credit for the Curious George white board on the fridge. Gotta love having toddlers in the house - they have their own decorating style, don't they????

What have you spray painted lately?

And.....we're back!

So sorry for the extended absence!!!! Did you miss me?? **crickets**

I'm sure all of you are going through the same end of August rush to get kids (or in my case, a husband!) back to school and get a new routine in place. Special thanks to those of you who kept faithfully checking in with nothing new to see! Thank you for sticking with me. I'm so excited about the next several posts to share with all of you. And I hope to get a few great home/recipe submissions from some of you!

Anyway, here's what's coming up this week:

A little spray paint:
And some fabric:


And maybe even a little of this:


So do your sit-ups (believe me, the caramel corn is WORTH it!), get your spray-paint trigger ready and meet me back here tomorrow!!!

Ode to Craigslist

The best bet for building your own home in progress is to look for home decor steals. Check out some of the blogs I have listed to the right for some inspiration. In honor of Thrifty Decor Chick's latest blog post on "de-crappifying" (her term, I LOVE it) her garage, I decided to show what happened when a Craigslist find met my frustration with my basement/playroom. My kids toys were kept in this bin storage set from Target for the past year. I love it, but the openness of it all was killing me.


Then, while browsing through Craigslist one night I found a great deal. A lady wanted to get rid of her pantry cabinet/armoire for $30! We picked it up the next day. It needs some new paint and shelve liners, for sure, but I was so anxious to get out with the old, in with the new we just brought her in as-is.




I love that it is a versatile piece that (hopefully) will be used for a while.

So, what are your favorite Craigslist/thrifty finds for your home in progress???

Pardon the Break.....

I'm here! I'm here! I'm in the middle of three-week road trip to visit dear friends and family out west while we have a break from school. So we've been having lots of this

and this.


But I'm also working on updating a dining room for less than $50, reaffirming my love for Craigslist, and loving checking all of your blogs for those of you who left comments or are new followers. I'm even starting to plan a giveaway to thank all of you for showing me some love! I hope all of you are enjoying the last few weeks of summer.

Stay tuned...I can't wait to show you all of the new projects!

And I can't wait to show everybody yours! If you have a recent project success (or disaster) or recipe that your family loved, I would LOVE to hear from you and post it. I've got some great readers that give fantastic feedback! (wink, wink)

Functional Meets...well, Functional

I first saw this idea on the fabulous blog (linked here for your stalking pleasure) How About Orange. I knew I needed a file cabinet - the one little Rubbermaid tote I had been using for all of our personal files/papers since we were a family of two was just not cutting it anymore.

First, I found a DEAL on Craigslist (how much do you love Craigslist? A post devoted to Craigslist/random thrifty finds is forthcoming) for a 4-drawer metal filing cabinet. **THRIFTY TIP ALERT**: A local University was getting rid of surplus office supply-type furniture and had a BUNCH of these cabinets for 10 BUCKS each. Score....

(Full disclosure: I didn't take a before shot of MY actual cabinet, but this is a pretty close idea of what it looked like.)

But it was too....metal. Office-y. So...I got to work.

First, I detached the hardware and sanded that sucker with my trusty hand sander.

Second, it got a nice coat of primer.

Because this filing cabinet would share space with the kids' playroom in the basement, I decided to go a little crazy. I painted the sides of the cabinet with, you guessed it, chalkboard paint.


And since the sides got chalkboard paint, why not do chalkboard labels on the drawers??? (LOVE it...it works perfectly!)


The top, front drawers and back of the cabinet got two nice coats of Rustoleum American Accents Heirloom White.
I also wanted to get rid of that shiny metal look that is standard with most office filing cabinets. I couldn't find the Krylon Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint that many of my blogging idols swear by, but I did like what I ended up using. It is Krylon Brushed Metallic spray paint and it worked like a charm.

(I was a little antsy to take the tape off around the hardware that couldn't be removed, so it's not perfect - but neither am I and a little touch of imperfection helps it fit right in at my house!)

I am so excited about how this turned out - it's totally functional for our family as a place to keep track of all of our important stuff and it's totally functional as a play piece for my kids as it resides in the basement with the rest of the toys.


Linked up to Kimba's DIY party at A Soft Place to Land. If you've never visited her, you must! And take a look at other great DIY projects!