Hi Friends! I'm sorry I missed you last week, I was on a little mini vacation on the Washington coast. We went clam digging in Moclips.  It was a really nice 3 day weekend. Felt good to get out of town for a little bit.  
I was debating if I wanted to wait to post about our kitchen project until everything was done, but I thought it might be fun to take you guys along for the ride! Our kitchen needs a face lift. I love our home, but we really lack natural light. My goal with this reno is to lighten it up in there and to give it a brighter, airier feel.  So, here is a before pic. 

Hi Again Friends! Hard to believe a week has gone by again! Here I am, going through my backlog of projects again. This one was 90% completed. I wanted to get this tutorial out there, so I decided I could post on it today. Besides, looking at it, I'm hopeful you don't know what the last 10% even is! Not to worry, I will get to that part!

This project started with a pretty gross old frame. These pics are after I cleaned it up. I got this at a barn sale and it was covered in dirt and grime.  I went with my old go to, Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. You can use whatever paint you like. I like ASCP because it's a very forgiving and easy to use. Not much prep involved.  After I painted it, I used clear wax to have a nice satiny finish. 

Happy Easter Friends! I hope you are all having a great day with family and friends. Since it is a family day, I am just going to  do a super quick post about a little table I did today. 

Hi Again Friends! Welcome back - I hope you have all had a great week! We have been super busy. Hubby's mom and dad flew in to the west coast from Iowa to take care of their granddaughters, so we made a quick trip to Redding, California. We were only able to spend a couple of days down there, but luckily, they were able to come up for a quick visit here. While they were up, I managed to talk hubs and his dad, Mike, in to hanging a screen door for me!   They did an amazing job at our last house, so I was pretty excited to have them do it again. As a matter of fact, I told Mike that if we moved again, we would love him to hang a third! The look on his face was priceless!  Seriously, though, I was SUPER grateful for his help. He was not to pleased with me being a paparazzi through the whole process, but he finally just ignored me. 

Hi Friends! This week I'm back with our recent powder room "remodel". This is a project that I have been thinking about for more than a year. I finally started figuring out what I really wanted to do in there and decided a plank wood counter-top would be really cool. I also knew I wanted to do wainscoting.  This is going to be kind of a lengthy post, so if you are just here to see the pictures, scroll on down!

One problem we inherited with our house is the poor tile work. The grout is falling apart and the tiles are actually falling off the counters. The water would always pool up behind the sink and I really didn't like the sink or the faucet.

The first step was getting the tiles off the counter. I barely touched the ones on the front and the entire row of bull-nose tiles fell right off.  Since that was a piece of cake, I figured the others would pop right off without a lot of work. I was wrong. Really, really wrong. They were there for the long run.  Oh well, that's what hammers and chisels are made for!

I'm still digging in to my backlog of projects to post on. This week it's the plank wall we completed last Summer.  I don't know if you've seen the show Fixer Upper, but it seems like a ton of the older houses in that show have shiplap.  I REALLY love that look! Our house was built in 2004, so alas, no shiplap for me. Not to worry, I can fix that!

First I started doing research about what kind of product I should use. I knew it needed to be very thin. I found just what I was looking for at our local Lowes. It came in 8 foot sheets and at the time, I didn't have much in the way of saws, so a little bit of "woe is me" went a long way. The nice kid at the store took pity on me and ripped the sheets in to 6" strips for me! 

We put the first strip up on the wall and followed a pretty simple pattern. We just moved the second board, one foot to the left, then the third board was set one foot further to the left, kind of like stairs. You can see it in the picture above. In a few hours we had the entire wall done.  

It's worth noting that you can use something flat, like a paint stick, to keep your spacing between boards even.  I have to admit, though, I used my eyeballs! Also, If you don't already have a nail gun, it is definitely worth your money for a project like this. Either that or borrow one from your friendly neighbor!

Hi Friends! I hope you have had a great week! I have been sick as a dog, but am on the mend, so all is good! Today I have been going through my backlog of project pics and have decided to post about a fairly quick and easy project Hubs and I did last Spring.  The area we updated had not even crossed my mind until I stumbled on to a home blog about a new build. One of the pics showed some workers putting tongue and groove up on the porch ceiling. So, of course, my next step was to walk out on to my porch and take a look. I did not like what I saw! Not even a little. Mind you, we've been here for nearly 10 years and I've looked at the porch ceiling many times, but I guess I didn't really "see" just how builder grade blah it was. 

And apparently very rusty, haha! I had a posting here, but it didn't save properly. Basically it said that after a long hiatus, I have decided to start the blog up again. Hubs and I have been working on a lot of projects, so I have a backlog of some great stuff that I am excited to share with you.  

Anyone who has looked through my blog can probably see that I really like  ASCP Emperor Red with dark wax.  I did my first big furniture project, the  Red Card Catalog, in the same color scheme.  When hubs and I first moved in to our house 9 years ago, we bought this little table to put in our breakfast nook. Over the years, she took quite a beating. We had the dog bowls on the bottom shelf, which really messed up the finish and a really nice ring on the top from an oil diffuser.

So, you know if you read my last post, that I should have a lot more upholstery posts! As usual, time has gotten away from me.  Mom, hubs and I have completed our first round of classes and have yet to complete our pieces.  To say that upholstering a chair is a big undertaking would be a big understatement! I knew it would be a lot of work, but I honestly had NO idea just how involved it is.  This is how far I am at this point - apologies for the less than stellar photo!

Even though her makeover isn't complete, she's come a long way from this:

If you are seriously interested in upholstering, you have to take a class. If at all possible, take a class with a professional upholsterer. I would not recommend taking one at a community college or anywhere else that has more than 4 or 5 students per teacher.    We will be taking classes from Bill again in the Spring. I am going to finish this chair up and hopefully complete a 2nd chair at that time.

Rather than posting a bunch of instruction/tutorials, I'm just going to put a slideshow and gallery below, so you can actually see some of what happened along the way.  If you have specific questions about anything, please feel free to contact me and I'll do my best to answer!

When we start up in the Spring again, I will post a before and after shot of all 3 projects, so you can see what us newbs managed to complete!