Garage Door Revamp

The door that leads into the garage from our house was just like every other white door you've ever seen. Then one fourth of July my dogs decided to chew, bite and scratch it to pieces in reaction to the fireworks. I park my car in the garage, so this is the main door I use coming and going from my home. Once I found these two toned doors on Pinterest I knew this was the route I wanted to go. Something fun that said welcome home every time I used it. 

Source

Source

Source

The door is located at the end of a dark hallway so I wanted to keep half of it white to avoid making the space darker. After removal of the hardware, I repaired the dog damage with a patch and paint spackling paste. Once that was dry, I started painting the top half Olympic Base White. After the two coats had dried, I created the angle I wanted with painters tape. 

This next step is crucial if you want a perfect, straight line, without bleeding. I painted over the painters tape with white. The white paint will seep into the areas where the tape is not secure. 

For the second color, I decided on Olympic Volcanic Ash. (This is the same color I have on the lower cabinets in my kitchen.) After the second coat I removed the tape to a flawless straight line.

I found some vinyl decals I liked at Vinyl Concepts on Etsy. 

BEFORE:

AFTER HALLWAY VIEW:

AFTER GARAGE VIEW:

I loved the way it turned out and I love being welcomed home by my house! Have you painted any doors lately? Its such a fast, easy way to make a statement. Have a great day! 

Amber

Cane Back Office Chair

Today, I am sharing a chair revamp I did for our office. I found this chair at a thrift store for $25.00. It literally sat in our garage for two+ years as I procrastinated my intentions for it. I dropped the ball and didn't take a before picture. (Sorry) Just imagine a brown wooden cane back chair with a dirty white seat cushion.

Spray paint seemed the easiest way to bring this back to life. Regular paint would have been a drippy mess because of the cane back and notched leg/arm detail. I used Rustoleum Auto Primer and Rustoleum Lagoon in a satin finish. I picked this color because I wanted the chair to match my office bench that I refinished back in 2014. If you missed that you can find it HERE. 

After the the primer dried, I sanded lightly with a low grit sandpaper before I applied the paint. I used three, light, even coats of both primer and paint. A local upholstery company made a new cushion cover out of some left over fabric I had laying around. 

In the process of painting.

Here is the finished product. It was hard to capture the true color of this paint. the last picture is more accurate. It is more on the teal side. 

Now I can say that my office is complete! I will be doing an office reveal soon. So keep your eyes pealed for that. Have a fantastic day!

Amber

Concrete Jungle

What is up? Its been a long time since my last post. After we finished the kitchen we took a break from projects. I wanted to enjoy our house and what we had done to it, without picking it apart or planning the next project. The truth is, it will always need SOMETHING, so I'm not stressing about it. Its funny how buying a house causes you to go temporarily insane. Can you believe that I never aloud my family to throw us a housewarming party because I wanted the house to be "finished" before people came over.

This November we will have been living here six years. In those six years I have learned to slow down and get out of that crazy mind set of "everything has to be done asap" or "I cant let anyone see it until the house projects are done". It was exhausting to think like that and it killed my productivity.

We have been working on some projects that we wanted to have done for summer. Mostly outside projects, like having the house painted, concrete laid, rain gutters installed, a new patio cover, a/c and heater. Today I am sharing the concrete we had laid. 

The left side of our driveway was dirt when we moved in. There is a giant Edison manhole and an ancient, green tv box sticking two feet out of the ground. It was really a useless area. Its a small area and the tv box makes parking there impossible unless you drive in at an angle. (excuse the bad google earth image)

This is the side of the house where we keep our trash cans. It was always a pain to drag them through the dirt especially on rainy days when the dirt would become mud and flow out all over our drive way. We considered planting fruit trees here and that idea lasted as long as the avocado tree I planted. (I have a black thumb) So concrete it was.

We built a new side gate to replace the old rotten one that wouldn't open. We also connected the new front slab to the existing side walkway that went to the back yard. 

There was a planter area in our backyard that we cleaned up. We added plants, mulch and paver stones. It was wonderful until our dogs started digging it up. The more we tried to repair it, the more they destroyed it. So that received some concrete as well. 

After our hard work

After concrete

It connects the side walk way and the patio. I miss having plants there but it is nice not to have the mess. I want to add some big potted plants, a bench and find a way to cover that A/C unit. 

We have another planter on the opposite side of the patio. It sits next to the rock area that surrounds our Jacuzzi. We had some wooden boarders retaining the rocks and mulch but we decided to have the wood removed and curbs laid in their place. 

So that's one of the improvements we have been working on. Ill try to post a few more in the next following weeks. Have a wonderful day!

Amber

Kitchen Reveal

The day has finally arrived. The last update I did on the kitchen progress was in March. Yikes! If you missed it, you can find it here. If you want a recap of our kitchen plans, they can be found here. The counter top installation here and our kitchen picks/sources here. Now that you are all caught up, lets get on with it. 

The day we moved in:

After some bright red paint:

How it looks today:

It is my favorite room in the whole house! I don't like to cook but I have found myself making more of an effort just so I can spend time in here. I love how bright, clean and airy it feels. It's a small kitchen, but it feels so much larger. We ended up hiring out for the tile installation and I'm happy we did. He did a better job than we ever could. Eventually we want to upgrade our fridge and dishwasher to match the stove and microwave. 

It feels incredible to see your plans transform your home. It makes the blood, sweat and tears all worth it. It has taken us five long years to turn this house into our sanctuary. Next up, we will be preparing our house for the crazy storms that are supposed to hit the West coast this winter. That means rain gutters and hopefully a new patio cover. Ill leave you with another before & after shot, so you don't have to scroll back up.  

Have a wonderful day
Amber