A New Kitchen Hutch!

A few weeks ago I gave you a Sneak Peak at a big project I have been working on and today I'm finally going to show you what it is!

A new hutch for our kitchen! Anyone guess right? I had been searching craigslist for quite some time, searching for the perfect kitchen hutch and I kept having issues. It would be too far away or too expensive or not quite the right look I was going for. Or I would be too slow to jump on it and someone else would swipe it away from me! NO!!! And I have to say, people are way too exuberant in their pricing on craigslist! Like so high, they are never going to get rid of it. Ever. It's pretty ridiculous. Sometimes I'll look at a used piece of furniture someone has listed and just think, "Now why wouldn't I just pay an extra $50 to get a brand new one?" It's crazy. Anyway. Sometimes, you can luck out, but it's hard work. I had to bargain hard for this one and I almost lost it to two other sellers. I even tried trading Sounders tickets to this guy! (Don't worry, I asked permission first) Well finally, he caved (I think because he just wanted it out of his garage already) and let me have it for the price I wanted. I had a budget and I was sticking to it! All I had to do from there was get it to my house (which was an adventure to say the least) and then figure out how I was going to make it look pretty. I painted it with Martha Stewart's Vintage Decor Chalk Paint in the color Smoke and then added a few coats of clear wax to protect it. I was originally thinking I wanted to paint it white, but after seeing a few gorgeous light grey hutch re-dos online, I decided to go with that. I'm really happy that I chose grey. It fits in very well in our kitchen and it is a little unexpected. It is also nice to have it that color because now all of my white plates and dishes stand out more! I replaced the glass windows with chicken wire and I have to say, it is one of my favorite features of this piece. Finding pretty knobs was a little bit of a hassle. Home Depot failed utterly, and what Lowes had was just so-so. Finally I found a Builder's Hardware store and ordered some specially through them. Obviously it cost more than just getting some basic one's at Lowes, but this way the whole piece is more unique and fitted to my taste. Anyway, enough talking. Here it is!!!

BEFORE:

I apologise, I had to photograph the top and bottom separately because we brought the bottom piece in the house first so that I could paint it before we set the top on it and I wasn't going to have my husband bring the top in just for a few photos only to have it hauled back to the garage....so consequently the before and afters won't be as great. But you will still get the idea.

This is the bottom of the hutch.

And here is the top of the hutch.

DURING:

Here I was testing out the paint colors to see if I wanted grey or white. I can't even tell which one is which! I told you they were close!

Painting the whole thing took awhile and I ran out of paint twice, but it was actually a really fun piece to work on.

As you can see the previous owners drilled 3 holes (!) in the two drawers and so we had to fill them in. But you can hardly tell now. 

AFTER:

This lil' Peanut thought that I was taking pictures of her and I wasn't about to say I wasn't. Look at that sweet face.

The best part about having this new piece of furniture is that finally, after 5 years of marriage, I can finally, FINALLY move my china INTO the house! It has been packed away in boxes all of these years because we simply did not have space for it and now it finally has a place to call home! Which means, we can use the china for Thanksgiving! And aside from that, it is going to be such a fun place to decorate for holidays and parties. I love it so much.

I was a little nervous after I ordered to knobs because I wasn't 100% sure that they were the right size or that they would go with the color of paint, but they ended up being perfect.

And this old girl I found at HomeGoods. Right when I saw her I knew she was coming home with me and I had the perfect perch for her. 

And some more Before and Afters for effect....

BEFORE:

AFTER:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

That's all for today. Hope you enjoyed seeing my latest big project and hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Finishing Touch to our Farmhouse Table

Last month I showed you our new Rustic Farmhouse Table that my husband and I made for our dining room, which we absolutely love! But there was something missing. Something that somehow both my husband and I thought of to add to it. Obviously I probably found the idea on Pinterest, but where did he come up with it? It's a mystery. Anyway, we both thought it would be cool to carve (or actually burn) our initials onto the table. It will be a piece that I am sure we will keep for years and it adds a special unique-ness to it. So after quite a few practice runs on some old boards (there's no going back on this one!) he carved our initials onto our table with a tool called a "Creative Versa-tool". It's like an engraving tool that literally burns the wood to make stamps and letters, etc. Pretty cool. And he just happened to have it. But I am sure you can buy one either at a hardware store or a craft store.

Without further ado, here it is!

2009 is the year we were married.

See you!

November Mantel and New Give Thanks Sign

Halloween is always fun and I am always excited to pull those giant orange and black bins down out of the garage. But I am always just as excited when Halloween is over and I can take it all down and decorate for Thanksgiving! It was perfect that the day after Halloween fell on a Saturday this year, so that there was no excuse to not pull everything down and put it away. I have so many projects and ideas I want to do for Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, that I was kind of in a hurry to be rid of the orange and black. And now onto the next holiday, Thanksgiving! Last year I made a "Give Thanks" sign which you can see here. But I have been really into decorating with neutral colors lately (it makes life so much easier and it's always pretty) and so I decided to make a new banner this year to go along with my new style. It's very simple and very easy to make.

All you need:
Ribbon
Burlap
White paint and paint brush
Sewing materials
Stencils (The ones I used are 3 inch)

Step 1. Cut out 10 rectangles (to spell out "give thanks") approx. 4.5 X 5.5 inches.

Step 2. Fold each in half lengthwise and cut the bottom at an angle to make the cute-sy flag look.

Step 3. Using your stencil, paint one letter onto each rectangle to spell out "give thanks". I didn't tape the stencil down, because I was in a rush, but you can if you want.

Step 4. Sew the letters onto ribbon. I used the zig-zag stitch as burlap tends to fray and make sure to use the reverse too! Like the last "give thanks" banner, I did the "give" on one length of ribbon and the "thanks" on another one, so that one could hang below the other and it wasn't just one long banner.

And done. Wasn't that easy?

 Here is my mantel decorated for November.

I spy with my little eye, my "Eat" sign! You can find the tutorial for that sign here.

Have a wonderful day!

Halloween Pictures

Hello! Hope everyone had a fun Halloween!
Looking back over my photos, I was kind of sad, because I didn't get very many or very good ones. The girls just got too anxious to get started and then I felt rushed to get going....ugh. We didn't even get any good ones with us and the girls. Why does that always happen? Lesson learned I guess. Don't let yourself be rushed so you can get some decent pictures! The girls had a fun night though. Although Princess (who had been talking about Halloween all month) was done after about 8 houses and wanted to go home and take off her dress! It was Peanut who wanted to keep going. Go figure. She was too cute. She just walked down the sidewalk chanting, "Trick or TrEAT! HallowEEN!" It was just precious. And then we would get to someone's door and she wouldn't say anything. Princess was a southern belle (which she picked out herself) and Peanut was Van Gogh. We decided it was a perfect costume for Peanut as she is our little artist. I started having doubts about her costume, thinking maybe I should have picked something girlier or something. But I'm so glad I stuck to it, because it turned out so cute. Everyone seemed to know who she was too which was cool. I was impressed that she held onto her painters pallet the whole time too. It was a very nice Halloween as the girls got to trick or treat with some of their cousins and Grandma and Grandpa joined us too! Here are a few pictures of the evening.

This was pre-beard for little miss Van Gogh. I forgot about it, but luckily got it on her before we headed out for the night.

Our southern belle was totally in character. It suited her personality well.

They were being so difficult for pictures that we had to bribe them with candy to even get them to look at the camera! Little stinkers.

Here's the beard. I love it.

Digging through looking for the perfect piece of candy to end the night with.

That's the one!

So ladylike.