Greetings!  Welcome to any of you stopping by for a visit after my brief appearance on The Nate Berkus Show today !  You can read about my trip to the studio here.  To learn a bit more about me, visit my About Page, and if you want to catch a glimpse of some of the projects I’ve worked on over the past two years, browse my Project Gallery!   You can see all of the rooms in our home here as well. 

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My friends, after all that traveling in January, I returned home to realize my personal closet was a complete disaster.  Absolute chaos is no exaggeration.  I couldn’t see the floor, and anytime I moved something, I could see particles of dust floating through the air.  The time had come to end the madness, I needed to purge!  Shoes, clothes and anything else that was dated, damaged, or never worn at all went out the door.  

I found things in my closet I’m embarrassed to mention.  Things that haven’t been worn by any member of this household in years.   I’m talkin’ pantyhose, swim diapers, flared trousers, and *ashamed to admit* post pregnancy velvet lounge pants. 

By Saturday afternoon the closet was empty, the dust bunnies were gone, and I had rid myself of any embarrassing bad fashion.  Then I looked at those walls, and got a crazy (but typical!) idea.  I decided I was tired of the brown shelving and wanted to paint them gray.  Oh, and I also wanted the hint of perfect peony pink on the walls.  Completely and totally girl.

The Mister then told me I was crazy. 

So then I reminded him that he had his own closet with brown laminate shelving off our bedroom and he could keep his brown shelves, fondle them, caress them and sing sweet love songs to them.  As for me and my closet, we were going girly glam all the way. 

Here is the perfectly fine and totally acceptable space, and I’m sure that many of you will agree with my Mister, it’s a very nice spacious closet. 

I envisioned something completely feminine, more like a boutique!  So I painted the shelves and the walls, switched out the chandelier, and refinished the jewelry chest too.  Then I put only half my clothes back inside and I think I’ll just live that way forever.

Originally, I thought about this pink and gold wallpaper on the walls, but after considering the cost and the extensive and precise trimming required to install around all that shelving, plus the fact that I’d have to wait for a swatch then order and wait and wait and wait for the wallpaper to arrive while all my clothing was strewn everywhere, I took the simple route and opted for paint instead.  Off I went to Benjamin Moore.

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Oooooooh happy Friday friends.  Guess what?  I finally finished our staircase!  Let me tell you, with two little monkeys running around, I was forced to take this on late at night after they had gone to bed.  So for the last ten days, yours truly has been up late sanding, staining, priming and painting, plus polyurethaning (is that a word?) in order to get our staircase to look like this.

Hello gorgeous!

Remember the before from last year?  The blonde oak banister and the carpet?  Last year, you’ll recall we redid the banister and primed and painted the oak base white as a first step.  This year, we finally have wood steps at last!

I LOVE MY STAIRS!

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Kids have a way of springing things on you – it just comes with motherhood territory.  Friday, my daughter announced to me that she was expected at the social event of the season.  Okay, it was just another invitation to yet another kid’s birthday party, but it happened to be taking place that very afternoon.  Need gift, need it wrapped, pronto !

In the past, whenever these kinds of social events had arisen, I always found myself scrambling for wrapping paper and ribbon.  It drove me crazy.  I had no place to store wrap in my office and I didn’t want to store it under the bed.  Then I thought, hey, I’ll use the space behind my laundry room door.  Yeah, that’s what I’ll do.  Genius, I tell ya.

I searched around online for a quality organizer, and even considered buying one like this, but most of the consumer reviews said it was junk.  Then I had a light bulb moment.  Light bulb said, “Gurl, what the heck are you thinkin’ ?  Git yer beehind on down to Lowe’s and build yerself yer own, dagnabbit !”  So I did, lickety split.

This project took about two hours total from start to finish over the course of two days, but now I have this great little wrapping paper organizer and I’ve maximized storage in a place I wasn’t using before- behind the laundry room door !   Yeee haw !

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Over the course of our remodel, we hired a dear friend Mike to handle some of the larger painting projects.  Mike is a professional painter with 20 years experience, and a wealth of information when it comes to choosing paint products.  Mike has taught me a lot about painting, and is always available when I have questions about what products I should use.

So when I picked up a buffet and hutch back in August at the local St. Vincent de Paul thrift store, I knew I wanted to give it a fresh coat of white paint.  Most of the time, when I’m brushing or rolling paint on walls or furniture, I choose latex for its quick drying time and easy cleanup.  For this hutch, I wanted a paint job that was extremely durable with a very hard shell glossy finish.  Oil based primer and paint was the answer.

Here’s the Before and After:

When choosing primer, it’s easy to get lost in the sea of available products out there.  I’ve used most of them, oil and water based, and in both spray and brush application.

Choosing the right primer really depends on what you’re trying to accomplish.

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When we expanded our home three years ago, we added a small studio above our garage.  We wanted to add value by building a separate “granny” unit, and also provide a place for guests.  The studio was intended as a source of future income.  With its own small kitchen, it can be rented out to a tenant, or perhaps even turned into a vacation rental someday. 

For the first two years after our remodel, this space was completely unfinished.  Over the last year, we’ve slowly brought this space up to livability standards.  We even had my folks staying with us while their house was on the market. 

Since we are expecting a boatload of family and friends through the harvest season and holidays, it was high time I provided my guests with a comfortable space.  This weekend I focused on the media wall.  Formerly plain and sad, it is now organized and media friendly.  I built my own media center by repurposing some bookshelves and adding a custom display ledge. 

Here is the Before:

Here’s the After:

Here’s how I did it.

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