Okay, it’s true, I so love autumn, but recently, as in the last few years, I’m loving Halloween too.  Only because in my world, all the kids around me live to dress up in their costumes and I can’t help but get excited along with them.  Costume choice is already the hot topic at school.  "What are you going to be?"  "I’m going to be Bat Girl!"  "I’m going to be Luke Skywalker!"

I’ve never liked the the gory side of Halloween.  I really don’t care for for anything extremely bloody or too disturbing.  Unlike the teenagers, I steer clear of haunted houses.  But I do love the dressing up in costumes, carving jack-o-lanterns, and trick-or-treating side of Halloween.  And I like the playful, whimsical, spooky side filled with spiders, witches, ghosts and goblins.

This year, we’re entertaining friends for a pumpkin carving party, so I thought I’d get a head start.  Martha’s been making beverage labels for a few years now, and when I spied hers in the latest Living Magazine, I was inspired to create some of my own.

Boo!

These beer bottle labels are perfect for the spooky ales we will serve.

Here’s a few poisonous potions I concocted for a Halloween vignette.

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This isn’t one of those ‘ooooh pretty pictures’ posts.  Nope.  This is one of those ‘get down and dirty by starting a big DIY project’ post.  It’s been years that I’ve been wanting, no needing, to do this, and the time has finally come.  Over the weekend we said bye bye to the carpet on the stairs in the foyer.  Good riddance, if you ask me. 

As I mentioned in part two of last year’s banister revamp, the carpet was there mostly for the safety of our little tykes, but I’ve never been a fan.  For a long time, I have yearned for the gorgeousness that is a hardwood staircase, especially since it’s the first thing you see when you enter our home.

You’ll recall our staircase came halfway last year with the darkening of the banister:

We also painted the oak base white and added a Graham & Brown wallpaper treatment, you can read all about it here. 

Well, this year, since the kids are finally old enough to get the whole ‘no running down the stairs’ idea, we’re finally adding those wood steps I’ve been dreaming of all this time. 

So long carpet!

Yeeeeee haaaaaw.

Underneath is a solid plywood staircase, but we were left with plenty of these to remove . . .

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I was tra la la-ing my way through my local Habitat for Humanity ReStore a few weeks back, admiring all the great salvage and scheming of ways to put some of it to good use.  I was there because I had spotted a few cool cabinets on Diggers List and wanted to investigate further. 

As I chatted it up with one of the managers, I couldn’t help but notice the sign just behind him. 

Do you love the exclamation point for added emphasis?  Like rejected brass light fixtures are something to get excited about?  Well actually, I kinda do get excited about them.  A lot. 

I actually like antique  brass fixtures, just not these super shiny leftovers from the early 90s.  So with a fixture like this, one that just happens to have a completely fantastic shape, I see no reason why it shouldn’t be spray painted.  White.  Pronto! 

Hello gorgeous.  Don’t you just fit right in ? 

Aaaaaand, she was free.  Fah-reeee. 

Yep.  Free.

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I’m making my way around my four year old boy’s room, slooooowly attempting to spruce it up and give it some real style.   One day when it’s all done, I’ll show you the blah before and you’ll see just how drab it was.  His room, like all kids rooms, was in serious, and I mean serious, need of storage ~  I was stepping on all those Legos in the middle of the night.  For four, he’s usually pretty good at putting those toys away, but since he had no real storage, I really couldn’t get too upset.  But something had to be done ! 

Yet again, I shopped my house for the perfect solution.  We had a tall tower made up of stackable cabinets (purchased here five years ago) that used to sit in the playroom, but since I now want to find a desk in there for homework and art projects, I decided to repurpose these honey wood cabinets for the lad’s room instead. 

Their size couldn’t be more perfect ~ they now sit right next to his closet on a narrow patch of wall space.  Problem ?   They were all scuffed up and I couldn’t visualize the the honey stain look in his room.  And if I don’t get to paint something at least once a month, I start to twitch.   

Some primer, paint, and crown molding transformed these cabinets in a weekend, and gave his room the splash of color it needed, plus the tower provides fantastic storage for all those toys, books, and collected treasures.

Before & After:

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