Top FIVE posts of 2014

2014 was a busy year for me. It started with a move into our new home which was so nice. We had sold our house last the spring prior and lived with family, in two different locations, in the interim. We were so thankful for our family, but it was nice to have our home ready for us! Then I found out I was pregnant and life slowed way down for me. I had our third son in October and am slowly getting my groove back!

Today I will share my top five posts of 2014. Thank you for reading my blog, and following along with me. If you are new here, I hope you find something that you like, and stay a bit to explore.

#5

Planked wall in our half bath.

This was the second planking project that I did in 2014 and I love it. It is in a little half bath on our first floor. I timed it to happen when the toilet and sink were removed when the floors had to be redone. It made it so much easier to plank the wall without the sink and toilet in the way!

Planked wall in half bath


#4

A storage shelf I built for our bathroom wall.

I built this following plans from Ana White.

DIY shelf for bathroom storage.


#3

The redo of a lazy susan using french typography.

I had a blond wood lazy susan that was plain ugly. I stained it and used one of The Graphic Fairy's graphics on the surface. I used a Black Sharpie to do this!

Stain and French Typography make a Lazy Susan Pretty.


#2

Billy Built in Unit.

Like a lot of people in blog land, I used an IKEA Billy Unit as the base for a built in around the TV and for storage in our family room. I customized it by having the center stick out a few inches and adding a dark stained shelf in the middle. I also added crown and rope molding to the top.

Billy Built In Unit.


#1 post of 2014

Planking a wall in my kitchen.

This is the first wall I planked in my home and it is in my kitchen. Since this post I have added a gallery shelf to the wall and painted the top part and it all looks much better. You can check out the gallery shelf here.

Planking a wall

Thank you for being a part of my blog. I love to do projects and love to share what I have done and I thank you for reading!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Black Door

How was your Christmas? I hope everyone had a great day celebrating with family. We had a perfect day, and had a great Christmas, the first in our new home!

My post today is about painting a door. I actually did this about 2 weeks ago, in the midst of getting ready for Christmas, Christmas decorating and shopping. I missed my old black door when we moved to this house. I don't know what it is, but there is just something so awesome about painting your door a color. I chose black, but any color would look better than boring plain white. So one day I just decided today was the day and started painting. It took me no time at all and only 2 coats of paint.

Looking back at my front door, with the unpainted walls, the boring (non-wainscoted) entry wall, and the white door was too much for me. It was too much BLAH. The quickest thing I could do to fix that was grab my paint brush and paint. I have been wanting to do this since moving in, and it was finally the day.....

I was so excited to paint I almost forgot to snap a picture.

Here is a different shot looking back from the kitchen.

I used a brush because I love using a brush, and am comfortable painting with both my left and my right hand. I used my FREE sample size Benjamin Moore can in Black Iron. It took me 2 days (I gave plenty of dry time) and 2 coats of paint. Ta da. Done.

Here it is after only one coat. I was so excited because it looked so great, the paint is still wet when I took this picture.

Here are a few more pictures. Now maybe I can get to painting the walls and adding wainscot in the hallway and then it will be AWESOME!

Doesn't it look so much warmer? Even my husband loves it, and he doesn't always notice that sort of thing (or at least he doesn't comment on it)!

One last time:

BEFORE

AFTER

Hope you keep enjoying your holiday break! I am getting ready to go back to work next week. I will be crying all day missing my sweet little one. I have to get moving because I have things to get done before then.

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Between Naps on the Porch,

Christmas Decorating in the Foyer

Can you believe that there are only 10 more days until Christmas!?!? Well, 9 days of shopping...... Yikes. I better get a move on. I am not a shopper and with an infant I am finding that I have no time to shop. I will have to leave all the fun presents to Santa. I totally trust that he will bring what my boy's asked for.

Today I am sharing my entry table and how it is decorated for christmas. I did a little decorating in several areas of our home this year. We moved in last February, so this is my first time decorating this home.

Lets start at the front door. I always decorated above the door in our last home, and I did the same here. I just used some faux garland, added ribbons and some little sprigs of this and that. I love how it cozies up that cold window area.

Oh - did you notice the door is black?! That happened this week and I. LOVE. IT. !!!! A LOT!! I will show a before and after soon.

The reindeer on the table are new, bought on sale after Christmas 2 years ago. The blocks were a project several years ago. They have all the numbers to make the countdown starting Dec 1st! My boys love changing them daily to reflect the shrinking number of days until Christmas Day.

The frame initially had a chalk bunny silhouette, but I change it and this is what is says today. I could have gotten fancier with the lettering, but did not have the time!

Hope your days are merry and bright and that you are slowing down to enjoy the magic of the season!

Blessings and thank you for visiting!