Summer porch

I was so excited to get my new rockers and table yesterday.  When I ordered them they said they would probably be delivered by the end of the month.  So of course today I had to get them put together and take some pictures.  Later on I will be adding more things to the front porch.

It is a little bit hard to get good pictures on the front porch since I have brick columns in the way.

Now for the part of the front porch I don't want anyone to see.  I am working on getting some bushes taken out of the front bed and adding some flowers.  I don't think that I will be able to get it done this weekend so I am shooting for next weekend.

Once I get this done hang by flower pots in between the columns I will feel much better about the front porch area.  Now I need to work on the side and back porch.

Linking with
Life on Lakeshore Drive, Pink When, Rustic & Refined, Dwellings The Heart of Your Home, Julie's Lifestyle, Cozy Little House, Our Home Away From Home, Between Naps on the Porch, A Stroll Thru Life, Stone Gable, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, The Dedicated House, Savvy Southern Style, DIY by Design, The Happy Housie, Decor to Adore, A Delightsome Life, Have a Daily Cup of Mrs Olson, 21 Rosemary Lane, Katherine's Corner, Posed Perfection, Rooted in Thyme, Milas Little Things, French Country Cottage, Imparting Grace, Shabby Art Boutique, Craftberry Bush, Life with Lorelai, Scrapality, Pieced Pastimes

Updating the pantry

Today my hubby and I updated our pantry cabinet.  Now this pantry is a far cry from my previous one which was a walk in pantry.  I have learned to live with a smaller space now but I never liked the layout.  As you can see in the picture below that there are shelves on the doors but they really don't hold much.  I am lucky to get three cans on each shelf.  The shelves on the rotating area only hold six cans each.

And behind the rotating shelves are the stationary shelves. These shelves are 16 X 9.

So I decided I wanted some pull our drawers.  I figured they would hold much more items since I can use baskets to hold most of the stuff like I used in my walk in pantry.  So here is how the drawers turned out.

Now I just have to get everything back in.  I am going to have to find where I put all my black wire baskets.
My wicker rocking chairs were delivered yesterday and I got them put together this morning.  I will be posting those pictures later today.

How to paint a pot

I wanted to change the way that my large pots on the front porch look so I decided to paint them.  They turned out pretty nice and didn't take too much time to do.

Here is what I started with. It is ok but I wanted something more rustic.

I just took two colors of exterior paint that the previous owners had left.  They worked at perfect.

I didn't like they way the dripping turned out so I decided to age the pot with the dark brown on the lower half.

Now at this point I was going to put a gloss lacquer over it but it is under my covered porch so no elements effect it.  It looks great with the greenery that I added.

I am going to add some lanterns around it and maybe a bench on the wall next to it.  I also have a red pot on the other wall that I did a minor touch up to.

All I did was paint the top ring black and add some greenery.  It will look great next to the wicker rockers that I have on order.  They will go to the right of the pot by the windows.

Linking with
Life on Lakeshore Drive, Pink When, Dwellings The Heart of Your Home, Rustic & Refined, Julies Lifestyle, Between Naps on the Porch, Cozy Little House, Coastal Charm, Worthington Court, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, The Dedicated House, Our Home Away From Home, Savvy Southern Style, Beyond the Picket Fence, DIY by Design, The Bajan Texan, The Happy Housie, A Delightsome Life, Decor to Adore, Have a Daily Cup of Mrs Olson, 21 Rosemary Lane, Katherine's Corner, Rooted in Thyme, Imparting Grace, Shabby Art Boutique, DIY Vintage Chic, French Country Cottage, Life With Lorelai, Chic on a Shoestring, Scrapality

New house colors

I thought I would share the front of the house with the new colors.  Boy, what a difference the new color makes.  I never liked the old color.  At least I only had to live with it for about 8 months.

Here they are side by side.  I like the new colors much better.   The old color did not go with the roof color at all. 

I will be posting more pictures once the whole house gets painted. 

I'm dreaming of a front porch

Lately I seem to have about a million projects going on and not one of them is completed.  We finally had the painters show up today and get started on painting the second story.  I am hoping to get part of my porch done this weekend.  I have this big empty space on the front part that I would like to put some rockers in.

I am going to be doing something with paint and greenery to the big pot on the left corner.  Please ignore the dirt area in the next picture.  I am removing some of the bushes to make way for flowers.

I ordered two rockers and an end table to put in this space.  Of course it is going to take about 3 weeks to get them.   Here is what I picked out.  I can't wait until they arrive.  I have a wrap around porch so I will have to work on the other two sides for now.

 

I will be posting some more pictures this weekend (hopefully) of the porches.  I am also hoping that we can get the kitchen pantry cabinets done this weekend also.

Little update on what I have been doing

I know that I have been MIA for a while now but I just haven't had time to do any kind of decorating.  I have really been trying to paint the outside of our home on the weekends but the weather has not been cooperating.  The first weekend this month it snowed, the second weekend it rained and this weekend it was cold and windy and it only sprinkled a little on Sunday.  I am trying to save us some money by painting the lower part of your house (I am deathly afraid of heights) and have painters do the second story.  I have the back deck area done and all the window and doors on the lower level.  This weekend I was trying to finish the garage.  Here is what the garage looked like before. 

It is hard to tell but the garage doors were a dark reddish brown.  My new trim color is a dark brown and the base of the house is a light beige color.  Now here is the after.

 I didn't get the little peak done on the garage as the roof is a little to steep for me.  I will let the painters do it.

The roof color that the previous owners chose does not go with the brick color to me.  But I thought that these two colors coordinated with the roof color and the brick color. 

Besides the garage I have painted the back deck railings, the deck off of the study, all the windows on the main level (18), all the doors (7) and the balcony off the master bedroom.  I am still working on the ceiling area on the wrap around porch.  I still need to finish the kitchen island inside also.  Here is what I have got done so far.

We added the beadboard and the corbels.  The 2X4's under the corbels will be wrapped with some fluted trim. 

I still need to figure out the baseboard and once this is all done the island will be painted.    I think that I have too many projects going on.  I am still working on the powder room. I am hoping to get it done sometime this week.  Right now the inside of my home looks like a tornado hit it.  We are also  wanting to get the pantry cabinet updated by adding pull out drawers ( which they are all laying in my entry way).  I am so wanting to get all of this done so I can get back to decorating and I need to start getting flowers for the yard and my pots. 

Another snowy weekend

It is another snowy weekend here in Colorado.  I have been trying to get most of the outside house painted so I can concentrate on other projects but the weather is not cooperating lately.  Last weekend I was able to get some done but not all of it. 

We probably have about 4-6 inches of snow in our yard but a least it isn't sticking to the roads or our driveway.  So this weekend I decided to finish working on the powder room and start working on the kitchen island.

So my idea is to remove the trim, add beadboard and some corbels.  Once that is all done I will be painting the whole island white and antiquing it.  I am also redoing the cabinet bases.  The previous owners put new doors and drawer fronts on but only painted the bases.  The color did not match so I am getting some of that done this weekend.

Here is a before section of the cabinets.  Please ignore the bag inside.  I found it when I removed the drawers.  The kickboard is the same color as the doors.  It is hard to see the difference with this picture but the doors are more a reddish brown where the bases are a dark brown.

Here is a picture of the same area after I painted  and glazed it.

Now the bases match the kickboard.  I took another picture of the cabinet next to the drawer section.  Here you can see a existing panel on the right and the painting technique I used next to it.  I think that it matches pretty well.  Again please ignore my messy cabinets.

Now onto finishing the island and the bathroom.