What Ana Does

Our kitchen is a bit old and dated. The cabinets are dark and not in perfect shape. The oven is a disaster. I'm pretty sure the stove heats unevenly and the floor looks perpetually dingy.  Mostly, there's not much I can do about that. We'll likely remodel, but not for at least a year, possibly two. So I have to find little things I can do to make micro-improvements.  Enter the competing backsplash vs. counters.  The backsplash is a tumbled stone/travertine tile that's pink, salmon, orange, beige. And the counters are salmon, pink, beige marbled maybe-stone (?). Possibly granite circa early 1990? I can see how maybe someone thought they'd compliment but in reality they just fight for attention. In today's design, you usually pattern up one or the other. NOT BOTH.  Here's what we're working with...  I watched a number of quick youtube videos from DIYs are how SIMPLE it is to paint a backsplash. And cheap. Counters are less simple and cheap. So I went with ...

Extra! Extra! The green wall is gone! And The Wall of Restraint will need a new name, as it's now getting all decked out. And I'm OK with it. To summarize, this wall is near the garage entrance to the house. And it's a very visible wall, as you can see it from several parts of the house. I've been congratulating myself for not stuffing it with art/pictures, etc. since we moved in. It was the wall I was not going to install hooks on and keep it as a calm focal point. Thus, the Wall of Restraint. But, after four years, I got pretty tried of the moss green color and not having anything to rest my eye on when I gaze in this direction. So, I've been slowing changing it. First came the board to divide up the wall (which is 12 feet high) and then paint color -- white to match the neighboring walls. Ta da! BEFORE! Green Monster! AFTER! White and Bright! I've been home since October, so it's a bit surprising how long its taken me to paint a wall. I l...

Before: Old Buffet Furniture gets moved around in my house. Quite often, in fact. It's a hobby. But sometimes, moving things around makes me feel like a decorating GENIUS. And I do a cartwheel. So, I bought a new shelf from Crate & Barrel (doesn't it always start with that...). It was 50% off, so I HAD to buy it. I had been crushing on it in the catalog for months, so there was no choice. Click! I wasn't exactly sure where I'd want it. I had three spots in mind when I clicked "purchase" and was just going to see what it looked like when it arrived. Dave built it on the day before Father's Day, because he's really awesome. It's HEAVY, just so you know. But we tried it in two spots and the second spot is where is now lives. (See, I didn't even ask him to haul it up the stairs, which was a possibility, because I'm a kind wifey.) Pushing the old buffet out of the dining room was the key. The height and open shelving adds more ...

It took the painters two days and some really tall ladders to get the family room out of beige and into the LIGHT! Wow what a difference it has made to this space.  Before - Beige and Beige The painters also painted the baseboards and trim. There was some concern about the blue wall, but they handled it beautifully. (Ugh, that fireplace looks even more terrible.)  White Goes On! The Navy Wall Now POPs with Drama! The Behr paint was low-odor, so I didn't need to worry about all of us living in the terrible smell. Since it is February, I couldn't leave the windows open all day.  After - The Corner All Spiffed Up I even got to vacuum the accordion shades while they were down and you would not believe how WHITE they look now. I really thought they were beige, too! Now, they look more ivory. It's some kind of decor miracle. One more thing about the curtains: the top curtains run on batteries to roll up and down. Those batteries have been dead since...

As part of the painter's project this week, they're painting out the two-story entryway from the awful beige (I think that was the actual color name: awful) to our Polar Bear White. They even cleaned up my board and batten! (See the start of that project here. ) Before - White Below, Beige All the Way Up After - All White and Looking GOOD I mean ... worth. every. penny. Looks so much better! Related posts: The entryway board and batten project start Getting the boards up The board and batten is done! All the Entryway posts

Hours after getting home from our relaxing winter break trip, I decided I absolutely needed a paint brush in my hand. I mean, it's been weeks since I painted any walls -- and I get a little crazy when I can't improve my surroundings. Don't you? Anyway, I looked at my laundry room and decided that it was a bite-sized project I could easily tackle in our last weekend of winter break. Before the Paint. And Look at Those Messy Shelves. The Horror.  So, first, I finished the aqua paint around the window. Next, we removed the collapsable drying rack -- why? Because it's collapsable and that's what it kept doing; Collapsing. Tres annoying. We found wall-mounted drying racks at the Container Store and installed those. Last, I shuffled, moved and ordered the supplies on all the shelves so they're better organized and used. There's nothing I hate more than good shelving going to waste. At the End of Day 1. Note the Collapsable Drying Rack. No! I w...

Three coats of white semigloss paint and four hooks later, the mythic Board and Batten Project is now complete. The crowd goes wild! AFTER: With Hooks!  Now begins the positioning of random pieces of furniture until I hit on the right ones. This might lead to a trip to the flea market for a super cool, long, rustic bench.  AFTER: With Stuff! Related posts: All the Entryway posts

Bobbi helped put a coat of white trim paint on before she left for home. (Thank you!) Then I applied the second coat later this afternoon. I also couldn't help to start the trim around the door. What do you think? It's a White Wash! Related posts: The entryway board and batten project start Getting the boards up The board and batten is done! All the Entryway posts

The trim is biege. I dislike biege. Especially in trim. Plus, they needed a new coat of paint after 15 years and two owners. Hence, the Trim Project of 2014! I declared open season on painting last weekend, so the work begins!  There is miles and miles of baseboards and doors to do in this house, so I'm expecting this to go well into the summer months.  Little by little -- we'll just chip away at it.  P.S. Benny says Hi. 

Today I decree that painting season is officially open! First day of spring was this week. And, hey, it's the first Saturday all year that it's above freezing (a balmy 43*) and not snowing. So I packed my crew into the car and headed off to Home Depot for supplies. Painting the foyer white is Step 1 in my framing/molding project . I taped to the top of the current framing schematics and laid down the base coat of glorious white. (And got rid of that awful blue-green sample I didn't like one bit.) BEFORE: The Foyer Prepped for Paint ... And, while I had the white paint out, I said "why not paint the arch and wall that leads to the back hallway..."   The Back Hallway: The Arch was Soooo Dirty From Hauling Stuff in From the Garage But, once we got started, it was impossible to stop -- and we went around the corner and across to the basement stairs. I kept thinking, the more we do ourselves, the less the professional painters (who we'll need ...