A Long time love...

I've had a long time love for Checkered floors. I always knew I wanted them in my house somewhere.  I didn't think it would be now but  I was looking at Pinterest one night and we both fell in love with one we saw.  It was actually a yellow one I showed him and we decided to do it the next day.  We had recently changed the layout of our kitchen and had to piece some flooring back in so it was a perfect time. He bought the maple colored planks and him and Luke pieced it in.

 

Once that was done, we hand sanded the entire floor to scuff the surface.  Jason read that the best paint to use when doing painting inside flooring is Porch Paint.  We knew we wanted an off white and now was the time to decide what the 2nd color was going to be.  I picked a muted Navy because it went with our color scheme.  It wasn't too harsh, too bright, or too light like some of the other's we saw.  It was just right!  Here's the off-white base going on...

We did a couple coats of that and then Jason started measuring out 24" squares turned on diagonal.  We really loved the diagonal look verses just a basic squared off look.  I regret that we don't have a good picture of the taped off floor but here is what we do have of the finished floor.

 

One thing we loved about the painted floors we had seen was that they had such a warn, weathered look.  That seemed perfect for the style of our house (coastal cottage I like to call it). We knew with having two kids it would never stay scratch free anyway!





A Surprise Gift

We were given a china cabinet and decided we didn't have enough room in our home to keep it.  Our good friends had just bought their first home together so we thought it'd make a great gift for them.  I loved the pretty oak finish but decided we wanted to paint it black.  And of course, make it look more warn and handed down.  Here's the before...

 

We decided to take the top decorative piece off.  We removed that and the doors to start priming.  I don't have a picture of the primed piece before we started painting.  It was tough to remove the hardware and hinges but Here it is ready to paint....

 

We used a glossy black paint that we had and it went on really nice.  I did two coats of black over the one coat of primer.  These two pictures show some of the distressing.   

 

 

I wanted the hardware to stand out a bit so I decided to spray paint it a cream color.  It turned out so nice and still had a little of the brass showing through.  Just how we like it!

We used two coats of poly to seal the entire piece from chipping. 

 

Here it is in all it's glory in their home! 

 

We did a surprise delivery when they were out of town and boy was that fun! They were surprised to see their new cabinet when they walked in the kitchen.  It's such fun to bless those who have blessed you in your life:)  



Mother's Day Treasures

On mother's day, my mom and I had a date for lunch and while we were waiting for our table we went to an Antique shop to kill time.  We stopped into the Village Antiques and Consignment shop at Market Square.  It was such a delightful experience.  It wasn't too cramped which is usually the experience when going to an Antique store.  They had a wide variety of different items.  I am partial to painted furniture and they have some great pieces.  Not to mention, great prices. I spotted this yellow lantern  and had to have it!  It was only $12, what a steal!! 

 

I've collected quite a few lanterns from different antique store's across the country and needed a bright yellow one (one of my favorite colors) to go with the collection.  This one is particularly rusted and well used.  There's so much character to it and I can only imagine where it's been along the way!

 

 

Another item I've been searching for is a Ship's Wheel.  Most of the time when I've found them they're too expensive and not good quality.  This is solid wood and the best I've seen in my search.  It was only $29. 

I'm still shocked and I almost asked if they miss priced it but didn't want to hear the answer, in case I was right:)  If you haven't checked out this cute Antique/consignment shop, do yourself a favor and give them a visit.  You won't be sorry!

 



Shutter Love!

My husband recently was blessed with this Old Shutter that was in a client's attic.  He knew I'd fall in love and would want for our home.  It was the perfect length and width for our lack of wall space.  Our home has a very rustic coastal cottage feel so this was going to fit in perfect.  The Shutter was a dull maroon color on the front and the back was dull scuffed up wood.  You can see the back, which is the side I chose to paint, in this picture but it has some of the New Green I decided to paint it.

 

I mixed some colors we had at home to come up with this soothing green which went well with our decor.  I sanded the wood by hand lightly to ruff it up a bit and make it able to grab the paint.  I wiped it down really well to get rid of all dust and dirt(it was really dirty).  I started with the main color, not a primer, because I wanted some of this natural wood to shine through once I started distressing it. 

 

I did two coats of green and then sanded the edges lightly with sandpaper.  We love very distressed pieces in our home with lots of character so I started with the edges and middle section. 

 

 

 

Next, I wanted to add our initial to this rustic shutter.  I decided on this blue at first and added starfish to the larger side of the letter.  I painted two coats of blue and I used a glue gun to glue the starfish on.





 

I wasn't happy with this blue after I hung it from the burlap on the shutter.  It needed more pop and this just wasn't it.  So I went with my first instinct when thinking of the color for the A.  It was a burnt orange that had originally been on my mind.  So, I went to walmart and bought a can of spray paint in burnt orange.  I sprayed it all and sprayed the left over starfish I had in a cream color.  I overlayed the cream colored starfish on the orginal ones which were now orange. That gave me a pop of white on the orange which was more of what I was looking for.  Here it is now....

 

The only thing left to do is to possibly add a skinny ribbon in another color going along the burlap.  I feel like there needs to be another pop in there of color and fabric.  Other than that, we are very happy with this Shutter project! 

New addition, burlap ribbon.....