FRAMED!

Remember how I’m a big fan of buying napkins at Pier 1 for their patterns/colors? And then they sit in my crafting stash and I never find a use for them?

Well, I finally did something with one of them.

The frames were on sale at Wally World for 75 cents and they were white. I painted them black (because I’m painting everything black… just wait) and moved the glass frame around on the flatware print napkin to find what section would fit perfectly. I framed up the sections with double stick tape and voila! Fresh framed art for the kitchen!

Napkin Before:

Napkin After:

I haven’t hung it up yet but as soon as I do, I’ll get this post updated with a pic. We are looking at a house tonight and then we are off to the ball park this evening for softball league (not me, it’s the beau)… hopefully the weather is nice where you are this Tuesday!

P.S. Please excuse the awesome pics of the frames… I always think my iPhone is taking great pics until I put it up against a photo taken with an actual camera.

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A House Tour… Part One

If you’ll remember, I moved (yes, again) into the bungalow my boyfriend was living in. This 1915 gem has a wide front porch complete with porch swing and is full of character. It’s also full of nasty carpet and windows painted shut. But we love it. I took these photos before and after Christmas decor went up and the fireplace was painted, so don’t be confused. After I show you the new digs, I plan to highlight in other blog posts more details and what our plans are.

Upon walking in the front door, you are greeted by our main room. This main room serves as a living room and dining room, and provides access to the kitchen, two bedrooms and the bathroom.

This room also a fireplace. The fireplace used to look like this:

After some wine encouragement, it looks like this (more details to follow):

The living/dining room is long and narrow. I think this picture really showcases that.

Straight back from the front door is our kitchen. The small, lack-of-counter-space, CARPETED kitchen. But it’s cute! That counts for something, right?

It does have glass front cabinets, my dream.

There’s also no dishwasher… unless I can name my dishwasher “Justin”.

Behind the accordion doors in the kitchen is our laundry room.

It has a built in pantry, which is a MESS right now. Amazing how such a little place needs so much work.

After seeing these pictures, I’m sure YOUR mind is already running through a list of projects to be taken on. In Part 2 of the house tour, I’ll show you the other half of the house. And look for up coming posts detailing the projects we plan to take on in each room.

Let me know what you think!

Looking Back

Sometimes, I like to look back at design choices I’ve made before and lived with. I think it helps to see what you liked, what you didn’t like, and what you’re missing. I was going through pictures on my laptop and found these of the old house. Our real estate agent commented that she appreciated the touches of red I carried throughout the house. I think my red is what I’m missing now.

Before Living Room

After Living Room

This is the view from the front door hall. We painted to warm the space up and I love the red curtains. These curtains were also in the dining room and kitchen valance. Please excuse the cover on the back of the couch… Daisy like to chew when she was a puppy.

Before Kitchen

After Kitchen

My kitchen table was a birthday gift from my parents. I mismatched the chairs from cheap-os given to me by a friend to family hand-me-downs. I spent a lot of time at that stove… and my dogs spent a lot of time begging there.

Before Back Deck

After Back Deck

I can’t take credit for this, I only provided some free labor to my boyfriend. This yard was a nightmare when we moved in. And by nightmare, I am SERIOUS. Check it:

You know what that is? Yeah…. we didn’t either. It was a koi pond. Complete with buried extension cord to the back deck. And those are thorn bushes creating a protective barrier over the pond. And rhubarb. Because who doesn’t grow their thorn bushes next to their rhubarb?

Fun trip down memory lane. I had a red bathroom in this house and a chocolate brown bedroom. I can’t paint now, because I’m renting, but I definitely need those colors back in my life. Stat.