:: DIY - beadboard wallpaper and homemade baseboards

One thing I do love about holidays and family coming into town

is that things on my "honey-do" list actually get done!

We've had this beadboard wallpaper and these baseboards my husband made, up for awhile.

They just were never painted.

And it looks so much better now.

{I posted this two years ago . . . things get done slowly around our place.  :) }

Now on to the rest of the baseboards in our house . . . 

And please excuse our very messy kitchen . . .

So, here is the finished product . . . finally.

I love the beadboard look.

The only thing is, since it is where little feet are it gets scuffed very easily.

But that's life with kids, right?

Can't have everything perfect.

We found these iron corbels years ago at Tai Pan.

We took out the standard wooden ones that came with the house.

And then we spray painted these rusty looking corbels 

so they'd match the knobs and pulls that we placed on our cupboards.

I'm so pleased with how it looks.

And when we finally put up lights, I'll show you the finished kitchen with all the details.

DIY kitchen: beadboard wallpaper

I can't wait to show you what I've been working on. Beadboard Wallpaper. Did you know that even existed? I found this out maybe a year ago through blogland.

So, I finally decided to give it a try. I used the Graham & Brown Beadboard Wallpaper bought through Bed Bath & Beyond. Used it in our kitchen around the island. Amazing. Love it. And it looks exactly like the real thing.

I'll show pictures soon!

DIY Obsession: Kitchen Floors

I know, I know. It seems like it's taking forever to finish this kitchen. But, it's almost there!!!

So, earlier last week we finished painting and took all of the plastic off. It looked amazing. Not that our kitchen before was terrible, but this definitely just brightens everything up. It looks great!

And then the hubby started on the floors. (We'd started half of the flooring in our house in December of 2009 and you can see that post here.)

We had the cheap linoleum in the kitchen area that was scuffed up and ripped in some areas. We definitely wanted to get rid of that. Also, we didn't like how the bar stool area had no room to back up. The carpet was in the way (as shown in the pic below). By the way, the hubby had no experience with putting hardwood floors in (before putting them in our house) and it looks great! He's done an awesome job. This just goes to show that you can do it! You can learn. Don't pay someone thousands of dollars when it's something manageable (although you may need to if you have a strict timetable and you can't finish it in a few days).

Can I just say how amazing our kitchen looks with this dark hardwood flooring up against the white kitchen?

I'll show some finished pics soon. Still working on a few minor details.

With a big project like this, it can lead to a little bit of stress. But like little Ava often shows me, don't forget to have a lot of fun!

Just to answer a few of the questions I had from the previous post:

1. The paint sprayer we used was the Graco Spray Station 2900USG Sprayer that we bought from Lowe's

2. We are buying the pulls and knobs from esbsupply on ebay

Hope this helps!

DIY Obsession: kitchen update

So . . . last Friday we removed everything from the cupboards.

Then this was our Monday night activity . . . I have a new respect for painters. It was such a pain to put up the plastic! It was not a fun job. Not at all! I think we finished all the pre-stuff by 10 p.m.

And then we wanted to get the first coat of paint up before going to bed, but the huge paint sprayer that we borrowed from my hubby's uncle wasn't working. Bummer!

So, Tuesday morning, we did a little research on paint sprayers and went to Lowes. Instead of renting one for $75 for one day (are you serious?), we just bought one that was a little more than that (that we'll have for a long time - - and now I can finish all of my other projects that are piling up).

So this is what it looks like right now. We seriously have been living on peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwiches and cereal. We just finished the second coat and now need to paint the cupboards.

Also, found a great deal on ebay for the hardware. Just need to order it.

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DIY Obsession: kitchen cupboards

So . . . the hubby is home for the summer (thank goodness for school breaks) and so we're trying to get all that needs to get done with the house before he starts school in August.

So we have a list.

A crazy list.

Here's our list of things to finish by the middle of August. . . wish us luck. we'll need it.

1. strip and paint kitchen cabinets

2. finish painting kitchen

3. place hardwood floor in kitchen

4. place new carpet in livingroom area and remove weird looking fireplace mantel

5. finish painting master bedroom and bathroom

6. place hardwood floor in master bedroom and bathroom

7. cut and paint baseboards

8. put up baseboards

oohhh. that's a little daunting.
after finishing this, we start on the backyard.

Here's what the kitchen looked like last week. Right now all the cupboards are off and being worked on. Little Ava has been loving it and has found some new toys and snacks. hmmm.

Check back in a month to see the final reveal . . . of the kitchen, that is.