Project begets project: DIY Kitchen Table

Sometimes the goal is quite simple.  But the path is ridiculously complicated.  For example:

I have mentioned that my kitchen leaves a bit to be desired.  But before I jump the gun on cabinets, counter tops, flooring and paint I want to know how this room wants to be used.  It doesn't have excellent communication skills, kind of like my Fireplace Room.  In fact, at times I think the two spaces have ganged up against me.

Here's the problem.  The "eat-in" part of our kitchen is just fine for our 3 person family suppers, for play date snacks, for lunch with a friend.  It is not fine for having several families over for dinner.  There's just not enough room.  But there has to be a solution.  Since we don't need room for more than 3 people on a daily basis, we'll move the bigger table and find a smaller table for the kitchen.  I had an idea where and how to use the bigger table, but finding a reasonable kitchen table was tricky.

There were several lovely and reasonable options.

IKEA

West Elm:

But call me crazy (no really, it doesn't phase me in the least!)...I felt like Goldilocks trying to find a table size that was big enough for three place settings, but compact enough to keep my kitchen workable.  IKEA's 41.5 inch table was just a bit too large.  West Elm's 30 inch table was too small.  Plus, since I don't really quite know my end goal for the kitchen as a whole, I hated to put money into a new piece of furniture that may be a short-lived member of the family.


At this point, it's time to squint at what existing pieces are in the house, the attic, the garage.  Or the backyard.  Yes, the backyard!  An extra patio table.  With a piece of plywood affixed to the wrought iron, we could make the table whatever size we wanted.  Basically for free!  With plenty of pretty table linens (vintage, anyone?!), I didn't have to worry about having a perfect piece of furniture.  Just a perfect size to see how the kitchen would evolve.  Check it out (first some before photos...so excited to have a new place to use my bigger table):

This is the table that was too tight of a fit...especially if you want to pull it out for a larger crowd.  PS I can't wait to redo this kitchen!

"New" DIY table!

It's not much, but thinking outside the retail box is awfully helpful sometimes...

With a tablecloth, we have a perfect fit for now.

With vintage linens on hand, it's actually fun finding an "outfit" for our table :)

Next up...finish the playroom and finally give the Fireplace Room some purpose.  It's been such a lazy team player so far...

Room Swap: The Our Room Edition

Ready for more room swap fun?  Time to relocate the master bedroom.  Like I mentioned in a previous post, it started to make more sense to simplify and take a smaller room as our "master".  We don't have tv's, or work spaces, or reading nooks in any of our bedrooms.  Ha, if I had a reading nook or chair of any kind in a bedroom, I'd never hang up another piece of clothing.  At least I know this about myself. 

The most beneficial thing about moving our room is the ongoing reinvention of its overall feel.  The bigger room had more than it's share of poison arrows that made it impossible to decorate.  To me, decorating is so much more than finding a color and fabrics that create a cohesive and interesting room.  "Decorating" to me is using things I love to create spaces that envelope you with a nice feeling; walls that live and breathe the aura of my family.  If you can't look at a room in my house and either smile or squint, saying "Is that another flying pig? Huh...she's an odd lady!" then I've not done what I set out to do.

Take a look at our first bedroom in "as good as I can get it" mode.  Note:  These pictures were an afterthought and done right before we started moving it...messy and bad light.  Sorry!

Eh, it was okay, but there was the struggle between the very traditional matchy hand-me-downs I had, and the way I actually wanted to decorate a bedroom.  Just. Wasn't. Working.  Especially since the door to the wonky bathroom that leads to the ONLY back door of our house is located just outside the left edge of the picture.  Weird.

Then there's this.

Again, that stack of prints didn't usually stay there, but this corner made me crazy.  Plus it was the one visible from the hallway.  I have a thing about how a room looks from a hallway.  Clutter and confusion doesn't scream "welcome to my home".  So now we change it all.

Ready, set, room swap!























My new idea for our room was a bit more homespun and bohemian than what we'd had in the past.  Mixing textures, words, images, to make a restful and happy little place to land at the end of the day.  Follow my board on Pinterest to see the ideas I've got in mind for this room. 

The snippets you'll see here are still a room in progress.  The curtains aren't finished how I want them to be.  The walls aren't showcasing everything I want them to.  The light fixture is still very...meh.  I like to take decorating and creating a space rather slowly.  Especially when I don't have a job :)  

I'll show you what we have done though.  No matter what, I can attest that I sleep way better in this little cocoon of a room.  We even overslept this morning.  Oops.  It's just that peaceful already.

I did prioritize the view from the hallway.  So far I like it. 

What do you think?

Final curtain idea in the works; walls waiting for a little texture and interest.

Gallery wall started, certainly not finished

I opted to use clothing storage as a bedside table.  It works.  The ceramic feather agrees.  So does Emily Post.

This guy.  I love my newspaper RCA dog.  Santa gave him to me last year.  Why have I not named him?!

His grandmother's, my grandmother's. Vintage family awesomeness.  Elephants and purse.  They co-exist peaceably with some favorite books of mine.

While we have a ways to go before it's how I want it, it's perfectly lovely.  It's not a grand master suite, but it's all I've ever wanted in a bedroom.  Cool and comfy.  Full of homespun love.

Grab a book, snug up under the covers, sleep well. There are rooms to finish swapping!

Meal Plan Monday--Summer Edition

 

I've talked about the joys of making a plan and the elation of making a list.  But I have to admit, summer meal plans are tricky for me, even though concocting a weekly meal plan is usually one of my favorite games!  In general, I think that it's beneficial and makes sense to take an inventory of your pantry and freezer towards the end of a week, make a general plan, and have the supplies and plan ready to go by Sunday or Monday.

But summer is so hot.  And normal routines and schedules are put on the back burner (where my mashed potatoes should be!).  There are baseball games to go to and pools to stay in until sunset.  Who wants to call everyone away from the fun at 5:30 to pull a meal together?

Despite the heat and lack of motivation, there are some wonderful things about summer eating that we need to focus on:  fresh produce and grills!  So to stay on task and inspired, I've given myself a rough outline of what a week's worth of meals should look like in the summer:

1.  Serious grilling.

2. A form of taco.

3. A form of pizza.

4. Silly grilling.

5. A form of breakfast.

6. A meal that uses up ingredients (most likely from Serious Grilling day).

A quick breakdown:

Serious grilling will most likely involve a wonderful cut of meat you've found on sale: rack of ribs, pork loin, london broil, or whole chicken.  Just add two sides or so. The beauty of this meal is that not only are you feeding the family some high quality delicious food, you will most likely have leftovers.

Taco dinner can change every week, but it gives you a jumping off point.  Traditional beef tacos, carnitas, fish tacos, shrimp quesadillas...there are so many variations on this simple theme to keep dinners interesting without spending a ton of time or money.

Pizza dinner works in very much the same way.  The possibilities are endless.  I keep a pizza dough from Trader Joe's in the freezer most of the time, and when we have random ingredients in the fridge you've got your pizza theme.  Bacon cheeseburger pizza, spinach and mushroom pizza.  Plus you can change it up by grilling pizza one night, making mini English muffin pizzas, or a French bread pizza.

Silly grilling is not really silly at all!  But it is a safe and easy bet, if not the healthiest choice.  Think burgers, hot dogs, kielbasa, grilled chicken for sandwiches or salads.  Less hands on than Serious Grilling, usually faster to hit the table as well.  Pair with a pasta salad and fresh tomato slices, and you're done.

A form of breakfast.  In the winter, so many cozy meals can be served as "breakfast for dinner".  In the summer, it is just too hot for breakfast casseroles and such.  But poached eggs over asparagus...wonderful!  A quiche with local produce is a fast and easy meal too.  Pioneer Woman's Migas recipe will make use of the corn tortillas left over from Some Form of Taco night.  Ah, I love it when a meal plan comes together!

Finally, Make Use of Ingredients night.  Just a few examples:  if you serve a Beer Butt Chicken on Sunday, then you can debone the chicken and make Chicken Divan or Chicken Salad.  It's so much tastier with grilled or smoked meat.  If you serve a pork loin over the weekend, then make Cuban sandwiches with the leftover slices.  A perfectly cooked flat-iron steak makes great steak sandwiches or a version of a black-and-bleu salad later in the week.  You get the idea...

I only outlined 6 of my "form of..." meals since I figured you may be able to reinvent your leftovers more than once, you may get to eat out one evening, or maybe you take turns collaborating meals with family and friends.  This week's meal plan in the Vortex turned out pretty well.  It looks like this:

Skirt steak, baked rice with mushrooms and onions, roasted parmesan asparagus. (Serious grilling)

Meatballs subs (I made this recipe and served it over vermicelli a couple of weeks ago.  The rest went in the freezer to have subs.  Homemade meatball subs make me so happy.  It's almost too hot for a hot sandwich, but I'll sacrifice just this once.  I guess this qualifies as "Make Use of Ingredients" night.)

Traditional tacos.  I'm taking the easy uninteresting way out this week.  I'll get fancy next week.

Steak sandwiches with a spinach salad to use up the rest of the sub rolls and that gorgeous steak from last night. (Another Make Use of Ingredients night).

Spinach and bacon quiche. (Form of breakfast).

Nacho night!  This should be a form of pizza night, and usually Fridays are. But when we have traditional ol' regular tacos, I usually have enough left over to make a tray of loaded nachos (or a taco salad if you want to take a healthier route. I choose nachos.)
. 

I still have Form of Pizza and Silly Grilling to consider for my 7th night!  Oh, it does feel good to not have to think about dinner anymore this week.

Happy heat of the summer cooking!

Decorate-A-Doormat

Sometimes things around this house just need a "well, that's better!" moment. 

I'm all about adding a little quirky and fun into whatever real grown-up living is supposed to be about.  This isn't rocket science or creative brilliance, necessarily.  It's just taking a fun idea and actually doing it.  Or displaying Nanoblox on the piano.  Or decorating with flying pigs.  We'll get to some of those things later, I promise.

Today, we're just working with a typical doormat.  A two dollar plain grass-woven doormat from IKEA.  In five minutes, you can personalize it however you want. I just wanted something very understated, small, and sweet.  Grab a permanent marker; it's all you'll need!

I will say that writing on these mats is not totally easy.  First of all, it's permanent.  That's what has kept me from pulling the trigger on this quick project.  Sure, I can go get another $2 doormat, but IKEA is an hour and a half from here, and I can't find the same type mat locally (mostly due to my inner agoraphobia, aka I don't like to shop.  I'm sure a similar mat is out there somewhere in my town...).

After getting over the "I might mess up!" anxiety, I just grabbed the marker and gave Homey the camera.  I had a quick plan for "I might mess up!" and decided I'd just create some sort of border with the marker to cover up a mistake. Having an "I might mess up!" plan might just light the fire to actually try a project you're hesitant about.  Trust me.

Here's the quick and simple info:

Decide what to write.  I decided on something genius like "hello".  That's awesome, right?

Space it out on the mat.  I used the "air writing" method, very similar to air guitar to those that are familiar.  If a stencil feels easier, then by all means, give it a try.

Ok, just do it.  Write the word already.  Like I said, it's not super easy to just flow over the grass matting, but go slow and steady.  Go back and fill in.  Sink the marker down as needed to get low spots.  That's all!

Photo creds to my homey Homey.

Front Porchin' It

The porch.

 To me, both of my porches are more of a living room than my actual living room ever will be.  I don't sit on my own couch very often.  Usually I am on one of my porches. I've even actually managed to turn the word porch into a verb somehow.  I do weird things like that sometimes.

It's why we ended up here, in our perfectly weird house.  Upon driving up to see yet another house with our realtor, I remember saying enthusiastically "Can we buy it?!  Can I have it?!" before even walking inside.  The front porch just spoke to me.

This brings us to right this second, seven years later, when I'm still sitting on the front porch, typing.  Because it's just my favorite place here. 

Here's why I need to be on the porch. It gives me sunshine and fresh air. I can therapeutically sweat out the cares of the day in the late afternoon sun here.  It affords me both the ability to be at home and interact with the outside world.  New neighbors, old neighbors.  If it's not between November and February here, we're all out for one reason or another.  Yards to weed, bikes to ride, cartwheels to turn, neighborhood blocks to be run (do I really have to run today??).  There's a chance to catch up with someone a few doors down, return a dish from a recipe someone shared, or just throw a hand up to wave at someone passing by.

Since I spend so much time here, on my trusty porch, I finally felt like it really needed to be treated like a room instead of an afterthought.

The bare bones version is this:  my awesome porch swing and my vintage bouncy chair.

It's okay like this.  The swing itself is freakin' fantastic.  It has cup holders!  But the space as a whole was just deserving a little more love considering how much we use it.

Like the rest of this house...the front porch is wonky.  It's not symmetrical, nothing quite fits where you want it to.  But regardless...we'll just figure it out!  Ready? Let's go.

So much better!  I anchored the sitting area with a $30 outdoor rug from Target.  It defines the space, and adds the first layer of softness and texture to the hard brick and wood of the porch.  I also added some pillows, almost for free!  The middle pillow is an Etsy find, and I made the other two out of a $7 drop cloth (with tons of fabric to spare).  I hand painted our house number and a graphic ginko leaf to add a little personality.  They actually wash pretty well!

For form and function purposes, I added an existing white melamine tray to the end table.  It adds contrast in texture and color, plus it adds a great sturdy surface for drinks and snacks.

Also "free-ish" is the throw on the back on the swing.  It's actually a swim suit cover from Old Navy.  I'll just grab it when I need it but leave it here in the meantime.  Makes a great picnic or play blanket for all the time we spend in the yard!

The other end of the looks way more alive and lovely with some container plants and a vintage plant stand.  I'm not allowed to touch the plants, as they'll die upon contact.  But I really do enjoy them as long as someone else is taking care of them.  Thanks JMom!  I love that we planted out the old mailbox.  Since they discontinued mail delivery to the door a few years ago, I figured it would make a great repurposed planter.

Now, it's time to go porch it and see what's going on in the Vortex. 

Show your work!

There's something about a chalkboard.  As a child, I remember both the fear and trepidation of working out a math problem or diagramming a sentence and the triumphant success of doing it correctly.  All in front of the whole class.

There are also memories of banging erasers after school or washing the chalkboard.  I liked being helpful!

As of late, I've developed a new affinity for chalkboards.  I've even told my inner circle to watch for overuse of chalk surfaces since I'm so enamored by the flexibility of the chalkboard.  I'd hate for half of my house to be a chalkboard surface.  I'd never sleep at night thinking about all the things I could write, draw, and erase.  It would be a problem

I can start an idea, mess up, and erase it.  I can start again.  I can do it again and again until I get it the way I like it.  This constant reinvention makes it the perfect project for a home that's a constant reinvention for us. 

There are so many ways to use a chalkboard finish (I've been using them in a lot of different ways lately!).  The first one is the pantry door.  The interior doors in this house are not all that pretty.  Some we'll replace, and some we'll, well, reinvent.  The pantry door was a perfect candidate.

Depending on the project you have in mind, there is a chalkboard paint that will work.  For the door, I got a quart of chalkboard paint and a little roller.  A couple of coats does the trick.  Once it's good and dry, the chalkboard needs to be primed.  Just take a piece of chalk sideways over the whole surface then erase.

A touch of whimsy never hurt anybody either...

As a new feature, kiddos are automatically attracted to it and want their own go at some creativity. So as a word to the wise, give 'em the bottom of the door for a little bit of fun.

Especially when the first thing on the board is "The best people are Mommy and Daddy YAY!"

A chalkboard door is the perfect way to start a countdown to a birthday or any event or holiday.

I find myself wondering what to write on the door next.  There are so many things I could draw, so many words to celebrate and showcase.  I have ideas for my next chalk-scape, but let me know if there's something you think would be awesome on this door!  Between song lyrics, iconic quotes, and limitless graphics it's so hard to nail down the next pantry door feature...

The hall--another "room" checked off the list

It's hard to make something like a hallway priority when making DIY plans for the house.  However, it's hard to have a hallway as ridiculously bad as ours was.  Since the fix was purely cosmetic, I'm rather shocked that it good me this long to get it done.

 

 

This poor hallway didn't have a lot going for it.  Blue paneling with a wallpaper border (I tried to see if I could get the border off to avoid having to buy new wainscoting...no such luck). 

 

 

 

Plastic wood-look trim that was so carefully cut out to accomodate various thermostats and ornate switch plates.

 

 

 

 

 

 A wall of vents (baseboard and wall!) that didn't actually work anymore (not pictured). I wish I had a photo since those awful vents were the first thing you saw from the front door.  Ugh. 

This is better:

 

 New paneling, new trim, new paint!  New light fixture (not pictured)...no more weird shadows thrown all over the place.

 

 

A place for photos and miscellany.

 

It's not perfect...we still need to get 4 new doors.  And we won't even talk about the floors.  We'll have to leave that fiasco for later and just be glad for two new runners to help cover them :).

It's amazing what a little updating can do to really liven up a hallway...I love it! 

Off to say goodbye to the last of the mauve carpet...stay tuned!

I'm so ready for Spring! Like Julie, I can't wait for bright, sunny colors to surround me. I'm adding my 2 cents for what I'm loving this season. This pillow from Urban Outfitters puts a smile on my face. It's so retro and fun!
Since my current color obsession is Robins egg blue and chartreuse, this is my vintage dress.

It even has pockets. Is there anything more perfect than a dress with pockets!?

Here's more adorableness. This time its for the kitchen. These dishtowels are so cheery. It almost makes doing the dishes a little more enjoyable (almost).
I honestly can't stand how cute this butter dish is from Anthropologie!

More to come.