DIY

Organizing the Kitchen

August 29, 2016

If you follow me on Facebook and Instagram you know I was having frenzied Saturday of kitchen organization. We all have a couple of drawers in our homes that act as a catch-all. Besides the obvious ‘junk drawer’ that we have, the drawer to the right of my stove and my spice shelf in the cabinet above it became quite a mess and I was starting to get twitchy about it. You know how every time you go to grab something and get so annoyed that it has become so out-of-hand-ridiculous? Well I have been giving that drawer and the spice shelf the side-eye for about six months now.

See what I mean? Not organized whatsoever. So…time to switch some things around! I would have taken a picture of the spice bomb zone but I was in a frenzy at that point and emptied it all out before I grabbed my camera.

Instead of putting the utensils back in, I found a new home for them. I turned this drawer into my herb and spice drawer instead!

This is already so much better. I’m so excited to be able to see everything at once when I cook now. I moved some things from the old utensil drawer into the drawer on the left of my stove. I turned the utensil organizer vertical instead of horizontal and moved my measuring cups and spoons over to this side. (How cute is my little vegetable scrubber?!) I put the rest of the spatulas and random utensils in their own designated drawer now. This drawer isn’t the most organized but at least everything is close to the same size and easy to grab!

So glad I finally organized these! It didn’t take nearly as long as I thought it would and I’m interested to see if this will make navigating around the kitchen a lot more pleasant now!

A Quick Lamp Facelift

August 1, 2016

I have had a mini project on my mind for a while that I decided to do this weekend. I’m still trying to get everything pulled together in the guest room and end table lamps are something on my list. I have been scouring our house looking through our boxes of stuff that we *still* haven’t fully unpacked.

It’s been almost 3 years.

Yikes.

Please tell me I’m not alone in this?

I digress. There was a pair of lamps that we used in our old house that we liked at first but…they just weren’t that great anymore. They felt out of style and stuffy so I figured I would at least try to coat them with some spray paint and see if that would work for the guest room so I don’t have to invest in lamps quite yet.

I ran into the hardware store and grabbed some silver paint by Rust-oleum. There is silver nailhead trim on the headboard in that room so I figured I would try to tie that in and see if it works with the big picture.

I taped off the electrical parts of the lamp and then got to work.

I have never used spray paint before, and this stuff was super easy to use! I put one coat on in about 2 minutes, waited about 5 or 10 minutes for it to dry down a bit and then did coat number two.

Not bad! The paint took really well and I’m happy with it. Are they going to work in the space? Not sure yet, I will have to add some white shades and go from there. If it doesn’t end up working out, I may paint them another color to see if that will work or I may use them in a different area. We’ll see! That’s half the fun of taking your old things and trying to make them new again!

4 Things I Learned While Painting Trim

July 18, 2016

I’ve painted rooms and trim before in small doses, but I never took on a whole level of a house until our upstairs. It was fun, tiring and tedious but it was so worth it. It’s pretty unbelievable how much character is revealed just by pulling out the trim work with a nice coat of white paint. Here are four things I learned along the way that will be my routine for the downstairs:

BRAD HOLES ARE STILL NOTICEABLE IF NOT FILLED IN

Even though nail guns shoot some pretty small holes into the trim, if they’re not filled in with wood putty, you can bet that gobs of paint will not make them go away. I tried this tactic out of sheer laziness but trust me, they don’t disappear. Get yourself a good wood filler that’s fast-drying and easy to sand. A little goes a long way for a lot of difference.

TACK CLOTHS ARE A MUST

A big thanks to my Dad for introducing me to these guys. After you’ve sanded down the wood putty, go over all the trim with a tack cloth (even the places you didn’t have to putty!) to remove all traces of debris, dust and cobwebs. This will help the paint glide on better and stop any particles from getting in your paint and being deposited in other areas along the trim.

THE FIRST COAT IS ALWAYS TERRIBLE

Even with the trim being painted already, there was a significant amount of drag that happened when applying the first coat. I was surprised by this, and very frustrated. I thought it would go on pretty smoothly since it had already been painted. Nope. Wrong. The second coat is way better and glides on much more easily.

INVEST IN PAINT WITH SELF-LEVELING PROPERTIES

The trim paint we chose was Sherwin-Williams’ Pro-Classic. It’s expensive but the paint technician told us it’s an Alkyd, which hides the paintbrush strokes by leveling itself out as it dries. Let me tell you, that $60/gallon was worth it at that point! Plus it’s extremely durable, so it’s perfect for high traffic areas (and for those times when I accidentally slam the vacuum into the wall).

I hope this helps your next painting project! Bring on the lower level, I’m ready for it!

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