My Christmas Kitchen

 Yep I still need to add pictures to the snowflake frames. I plan on using one of our Christmas cards that has a few smaller pictures.

 It's kinda a snow theme...

 Handmade crochet snowflakes made by my grandmother years ago. Love them!

 Can't forget the kids...

 Yep Tacky window stickers, but if it keeps the kids entertained while I'm throwing dinner together then so be it. But the fresh blanket of snow is pretty.

 My little Snowmen family on top of my fridge. See tutorial here. So cute and easy!

A little more unique Christmas front porch with an antique sled and iceskates.

$5 goodwill sled, functional and pretty. I had to fight my mom for her old skates, but worth it ;)

Beadboard Picture Wall

Wah lah here is my beadboard picture wall in my kitchen. I just love the way this turned out!!! So much brightness and a personal touch that can't be beat. I absolutely love looking at my cuties everyday.
And I just love my kiddie table and chairs.

Here is the before. Ugh so plain. Sorry to pain your eyes.


Now just for eye candy after that horrible before picture, here is a beautiful sunflower that we grew. Yumm just love it, and I can see it out of my kitchen window. Makes doing dishes a little better. :)

The custest little thing ever!

I love the way this turned out!! And it was so easy. It is so bright and fresh now!! What a difference paint makes.
First I scrubbed the grime off the old table and chairs then painted on 2 coats of primer. My daughter loved helping me with this.
This is what the table and wall looked like before.

I used spray paint for the chairs. Krylon is rolled back at Walmart for only $2.67 a can now. ;) The yellow is called Bright Idea.
Cherry Red for this one.
I used my lovely turquoise blue for the table and polyied over everything!
My girls love it just as much as I do! It's like she's hugging the table. :)

We are in the process of finishing up the bead board behind here. I also plan to put a picture/gallery wall above the bead board.

A Table That Will Last

I finally refinished my kitchen table! What I thought would take a Memorial day weekend ended up taking a week. Mostly because I took extra care to make sure it would be durable. It was worth it though cuz it is beautiful and I am so happy with it now!

Here is my table before. Not too bad and pretty flowers but too much brown for me.

And with 7 good years this is what it looked like close up. Eww!

This is my kitchen and I thought a cream color table would stand out from the floor and the brown leather couches on the other side and brown drapes on the other side. The cream would also tie into the island bead board, bar stools and ceramic accents.


Creamy goodness close ups.
As you can see I sanded and lightly glazed for the antique look. And with this high traffic table the antiquing will hide any nicks and scrapes the kiddies might make.
Here are the steps I took to make sure this table will stand the test of time.
1. Sand off the polyurethane (shiny finish). The primer will stick better. You can also use a deglosser product.
After I sanded I rolled on 2 coats of Kilz primer (brushed the bottom).
After the primer rolled on 2 coats of Creamy Cottage by Behr.
Then I sanded the edges with my power sander.
Next is glaze. I like Ralph Lauren glaze. It is thicker than most which is better for furniture. Most are thinner which is better for walls. But sadly Home Depot is clearing it out and replacing it with a Martha Stewart line.
Before
During- I wipe on with a brush and wipe off with a damp rag.
After- gets in the grooves for antique beauty. Allow to dry completely.
Then I polyed 3 coats for an extra tough protective finish. Brush on and wait 2 hours between each coat and 24 hours to fully dry after that. For a cream or white table you have to use water based poly. Which is called polycrylic because regular polyurethane will yellow over time.

Now I have to do all that all over again for my chairs. Wish me luck! After that I hope to tackle the kiddie table and chairs and make them different fun colors.



UPDATE:
I used a flat finish paint. This way the glaze and poly adhere better to it. Because the paint is a flat finish I didn't see the need to sand between coats like some do.

The glaze I used was Lowe's asphaultum antiquing glaze. I only recommend using this if you are putting a poly over it. It is thinner and doesn't seem to dry 100%.

If you use Ralph Lauren Glaze, the Home Depot guys can tint it for you. But warning it is being discontinued! You choose the color tint you want. I prefer a brown tint.

The Heart of Our Home

So here it is- our Kitchen. I am not completely done but I like it so far. :) It's a little romantic/shabby/country, a bit traditional, with a touch of fun and quirky.

I started decorating with the things I already had, which was white ceramics. I also love a kitchen with lots of white, it is "so fresh and so clean clean."

I added the chair pads to the chairs to tie the lighter color over in this area and soften the look and the bum :). I normally have a white bowl full of green apples here when I don't have fresh flowers. I will make a fun little table runner for here too.

Curtains, Ahh. I can't count the number of times I changed them in this room, so important but so hard. I decided on these because it ties the brown of the cabinets around the room and they went with the red ones in our family room, which are right next to these. Our family room is completely open to our kitchen. Light colored ones looked nice but were out of place next to our family room. Plus these ones were thermal and only $15 a panel.

The wall color I chose is Home Depot Cypress Grass. Yes this wall needs work. Thinking of putting vinyl above pictures or making a gallery wall with lots of pictures. I also plan on painting the kiddy table. I love that my kitchen has room for this, it is so easy to feed my girls snacks and breakfast here.

Keepin it real with all the art still on the fridge. Chandlier $40 from Craigslist.

The Little Things

Love my Scentsy & it's ribbon wrap, the cute little calendar blocks my MIL made me, and the white and blue tile. It came from Germany from my baroness grandmother's estate. Love having meaningful stuff like this in every room. I made the table runner. It's a great pop of color, especially for Spring.

I made this little flower wrap and to match the table runner on our island. Continues the punch of color around the room. I plan on making and covering a cookbook in this material. You know cuz every thing has to be in 3's or 5 or just more than 2. :)

I got his birdcage about 6 years ago on clearance at Tar'gae. It used to be black but I painted it white to give it some contrast against the cabinets and sanded it down to give it that antique look. MMMM LURVE IT.


My grandmother gave me these bar stools. It took me 3 tries but I finally got these right. First black, then brown,(cuz that what I had on hand) finally the beautiful antique white that they are. I used Ace hardware's spray paint. So easy and pretty fast. I had to do multiple coats, but each chair only took about 1 can or $3.50. I think they look great with the bead board. They kinda have a fresh beachy feel now. Oh and one more bar stool is on it's way.

Got to have a little vinyl somewhere right? I got this plate stand for $5 and turned it into my fruit/onion :) holder. cuteness.

I just love my new little pot scrubber. It makes doing dishes kinda fun! really. $5 at TJ Maxxers.

So if you read all of this thanks. I found some time and did it all. What do you think? Any suggestions for the kiddie table/ wall?