Mother Knows Best

Our kitchen has managed to have a couple of paint jobs already.

Hello. My name is Hannah, I am indecisive and I like to paint.

The two combined make for some pretty entertaining conversations around our house.

"I think I am going to paint the kitchen green."

Blake: "OK."

"I really hate the back splash, let's take that off and then I'll just paint the wall."

Blake: "OK."

"Actually. I am going to repaint the kitchen floor."

Blake: "That is going to be a lot of work."

"Now that I have painted the floor, I don't really like the grey with the green. I think I am going to paint the walls white."

Blake: "Really? White? OK."

"I didn't really like the white, I think I am going to paint the kitchen grey instead."

Blake: "If you think you will like it..."

So do I like it?

So far...yes.

I need to be able to find some things to go on the walls but in the meantime I am happy with it. 

I painted above the cabinets white which seems to draw less attention to their oddness.

The grey feels a bit more soothing, and a little less...in your face.

After we got back from our cruise my Mom stopped by real quick on her way back to Washington. She hadn't seen the house in person yet, so I gave her a quick tour. When we were in the kitchen I showed her our "fridge nook" that had no fridge in it. We had opted to use our bigger fridge upstairs, and take the fridge that came with the house downstairs.

My mom asked me, why if I had two fridges, why it mattered if we had the smaller one in the kitchen?

Ummmm. I didn't have an answer for that.

After searching high and low for a picture of that corner of the kitchen I found only a few to show you.

This is where our fridge was.

Here is the fridge nook where I had put a shelf that could act as a pantry for us.

If this is helpful...I don't know. But, this is where the nook is.

Got it? Maybe?
Let's just pretend that you do.
So my Mom posed a very interesting point. I truly didn't know why it mattered what fridge I had upstairs.

So I made Blake move them.
Downstairs fridge upstairs, upstairs fridge downstairs.
Now all of the sudden I have oodles of room. Plus, I am not blocking the window.

The spacing in the kitchen is a little odd but I am not sure there is a way to fix that. Although, I think curtains may help.

After a good scrubbing of the smaller fridge,

and adding some of my favorite pen holders. The smaller fridge was ready.

Two things are evident.
1. Dance party in the kitchen is going to happen. There is totally room.

and

 2. You are never to old to listen to your mom.

A Little Bit Fun, A Little Bit Function

I wouldn't say that I have a certain style, although if colorful was one...that would probably fit best. 

Buying what I like, and finding a place to put it, seem to be what works for me. Sometimes I don't even know that I want to change something...until I find just the right thing. When I was on the look out for knobs for the downstairs bathroom vanity, I happened to go into Hobby Lobby. They also happened to be having a 50% off all knobs sale. So, I grouped some together and sent a picture to Blake to see what he liked best.

Ultimately we ended up going with the second one from the top, although the first and third were big contenders.

The knobs (although they don't look like it in the photos) are crystal looking with only a hint of blue.

They are probably a little more fancy then what I would normally go with, but I really love them on the vanity now.

The problem is...I really loved the third ones down but couldn't figure out a reason to have them.

Then...my reason came.

Truth be told, this cabinet didn't really need new knobs but once they were on...there was no going back. 

They made the vanity seem a little less...I don't know...sad? Plus, I think the size helped too.

Wouldn't you know, a new shower curtain also helped out the bathroom situation.

In all honesty, finding things for our home is a long process. I typically start thinking that I want one thing and end up with something completely different. I tend to lean towards things that are vintage because it can give you a unique look....but not all vintage is good, and not all things "unique" end up working either. Take for example my chairs.

I bought the metal ones off of a local site, and the striped one I painted myself. I loved them. But...they just didn't work. No matter how much I willed myself to keep them, for the sake of loving them, I couldn't. In the end, I ended up selling the chairs and going back to our wood ones, and putting the striped chair in the kids Secret Laboratory.

Sure the chairs were cool, and very in style, they just weren't my style.

I have said it before and I will say it again, some things that are done in jest around our house end up sticking.

The wall in our dining room is off set from the other wall so it makes it hard to hang things on it. I had decided to do a gallery wall opposite the mirror in hopes that it wouldn't make it feel lopsided.

I laid out all of the frames that I had, and moved them around until I got a general shape that I liked.

All of the frames are ones that I had painted the same color as the wall, and I had planned to do the same with the horse print frame.

I figured that when the weather got warm I would paint it and fill it with a different picture.

Then night after night, as we ate dinner our kids would play "I spy." Without fail, there would normally be one of them saying, "I spy...something golden." To which someone would reply after a few guesses..."the horses?"

Unintentionally the horses have stayed. Sure, I get a couple "What is up with the horses?!" but I just shrug and normally tell the story and end with "They have grown on us. We kind of dig 'em."

Another frame got filled simply because this hook

reminded me of Tick-Tock from Return to Oz.

I figure at some point all of the frames will be filled, but I am not in a rush. Filling them is half the fun.

Luckily there are more shelves to fill and spaces to decorate, so it seems that the fun is never ending.

It happens to be especially gratifying when you start with a blank slate and it evolves into something unexpected.

As soon as we started on the bathroom I knew that I was going to put my antique bottles in there. They have moved places and been rearranged about a gazillion times, and I am sure that will continue.

If given the option of going with something normal or something a little fun, I will almost always choose fun. It is just a added bonus if it has some kind of function.

Insert our Hand hooks. Literal hands holding stuff. 

Sure, this hand is giving you a nice finger gun...

But you know what else it can do?! Hold your towel.

Winning!

Somethings that are purely for purpose can be cute too.

When it comes right down to it, changing things around happens to be my biggest hobby. It some how makes our house seem different with out really changing much.

A picture in the spare room that looked perfectly fine there,

ends up on top of the piano.

And a felt, string owl ends up in its place.

It is ever evolving. The owl may not be like that for long, but at least I got you caught up...for now. 

Different

I have had a lot of people say a lot of things about our house. Most of them are very complimentary. There is one thing that I learned very long ago, I like things just a little different then everyone else.
That is OK.

I am OK with it.

Most of the things that are permanent, like tile for example, we try to be conservative about. When it comes to paint we kind of have a "no-holds-barred" approach. The wonderful thing about paint on walls is that if it turns out bad, or you grow tired of it you can just cover it up. Viola! Clean slate.

Before leaving on our cruise, I was determined to finish the stairs. I had done the stairs going up but had not done the ones going down.

After ripping up the carpet, sanding, and priming the stairs we were ready. I basically used the same process with the bottom stairs, the only difference was this time when doing the lines I would "seal" them with the contrasting paint. Doing this took extra time but it made all of my lines crisp and straight...no need to touch up later.

Typically people ask how I paint with kids around. On any given day my kids will avoid where I am painting, so there have been very few kid caused accidents. Blake on the other hand, he likes to mess stuff up. Not on purpose, mind you, he just does. Not 5 minutes after finishing painting the stairs...who would barrel down them at full speed? Blake.

(I told him to stay where he was on the floor so I could take a shame picture.)

He marked up 4 stairs before realizing that the paint was wet.

Luckily, I had just finished, so I took some paint thinner and just smoothed over those spots.

Another thing I painted, was the wall behind the door.

One day while going through Pinterest I came across a photo. It made me laugh. Then jokingly I showed it to Blake and told him I was going to paint it on the wall. He said "that would be awesome." I looked at the picture a couple more times and every time I would, I would giggle.

It was then and there that I decided, if you can't have a sense of humor about your home...it probably won't be a very fun place to live.

I had Blake print out the letters for me, then I patiently cut out each one. I placed the letters on the wall with a small bit of tape

and started to trace around them with a pencil.

Then with a little craft brush I began to paint in the letters using the same black paint I had used for the stars.

When I was done, I all of the sudden had any geeks paradise.

Our entry has inadvertently turned into a spacey paradise.

With stars,

and black holes...

 then I went and added a moon poster to the mix. How could I not?!

Most, are probably confused by my choice in painting a giant circle on our wall. Us? It makes us giggle...and that is what life is about.

Making choices that make you happy, but stump everyone else.