Kitchen art

I have a slight obsession with chalkboards and chalkboard paint... it seems to be infiltrating my home and the kitchen is no exception! I had some 'artwork' in our breakfast nook that I wanted to update, so I grabbed my chalkboard paint and chalk and went to work.

Front yard updates

Now that we've had our trees pruned, the rest of the yard needed work. So much so that our HOA sent me a notice... *hangs head in shame* To be fair, the weather has been all over the place, so it has been hard to get out there and clean things up. But with the lovely weather we had yesterday, I knew I had to do something!

I (again) recruited my wonderful mother and we got to work.

Here are some before pictures...

Trees, trees, and more trees

There once was a house,
Covered with trees,
The owners would cringe,
At even the slightest breeze.

Concerned and hoping,
That limbs wouldn't crash down,
On their own house,
And others all around.

*Hold for applause or snaps*

Quick change

What to do with half a quart of leftover chalk paint? Find other things to paint!

These stools (from Target) needed something to help them pop a bit more. Jon and I don't use them very often, but they reside in our main living room, so I wanted to jazz them up a bit.

Spring green

In my never ending pursuit to find more projects to fill my time (so I don't have to do the baseboards), I added one more to the list. Our formal dining (right off the front entrance) was filled with my Grandma and Great Grandma's furniture. Good solid pieces, but they were all wood finished in the same honey tone. The room needed some color!

I recruited my mom and we got to it!

We decided to chalk paint my Grandma's hutch (with her approval of course!). If you aren't familiar with chalk paint, it is a great choice if you don't want to spend time sanding and priming. You can simply clean your piece and paint away! The only extra step is finishing it off with polyurethane or wax to seal in the paint.

Here is the hutch before, during the prep process...

Stripes!

After I finished the baseboards in the laundry room, I decided to add more to my list of things to do in that room! I've wanted to try to paint stripes but didn't want to commit to doing it in one of the more populated rooms. Since I'm the one who mainly uses this room, if I messed it up, I'd be the only one to really care!

Brand new shoes!

Well, not those kind of shoes... the molding type of shoe! Exciting, right? Right?!

Anyways, I am thrilled to finally start the process of adding finishing molding to our baseboards. Ever since we had our floors done (last May!) they've looked unfinished because there wasn't any quarter round or shoe molding. Most people probably wouldn't notice, but anywhere I look, I see too much space below the baseboards and it is starting to really bother me.