home goals in twenty twelve.

I have a lot...
I sat down to make a list and didn't think it would be THAT long.. and it is THAT LONG. But I'm excited to see how much of it we can accomplish this year! Especially after looking back and seeing everything we were able to accomplish in 2011!


I've been dreaming of changing up the whole look of my cozy little home for quite a few years now... and back in the Fall of 2010 it started with paint. It only took me four tries to find the right color of paint I was looking for. You can read more about that here and here.

Our biggest project of 2011!!! The one I'd been waiting patiently to do for a really long time. Our kitchen remodel. It's pretty much finished, other than a few things here and there and I'm so in love with how it turned out! You can read more about the whole transformation with before and after pics here, here and here!!!

Second biggest project we conquered in 2011 was Sydnee's bedroom makeover! She wanted to move her room downstairs to one of the larger bedrooms so we repainted the walls in Martha Stewarts - Cement Gray (lightened by %50), we had the old trim removed and new wider trim installed all along the floor and around the door, window and closet. She didn't want to have closet doors so I had a scalloped edge awning built to hang over her closet where we hung some white ruffle curtains from instead of closet doors! We had my cherry wood bedroom set from when I was her age refinished. The night stand and armoire in white and the bed in yellow! She got all new bedding in white, grey and yellow for her birthday and we had a cute black desk with a hutch that we moved in there too! I'd had my eye on a really cute chandelier from Home Depot for the longest time and new I wanted it for her bedroom makeover but I didn't want to spend almost $100.00 for it. Luckily, I was at Home Depot helping my mom look for some things for her bathroom makeover when I went to check on the light like I had been for months and I saw that it was on clearance! All they had left was the floor model, they called around and found ONE left at a store up town and I drove all the way to get it that night!

After all that writing about her bedroom makeover, I realized that I only have one picture of the paint samples we were trying to decide between and I never took any pictures of it finished. We were kind of going through this project at the same time as the kitchen and I guess I just never got around to taking any photos of her room. I'll have to take some and do a post entirely devoted to her room makeover later! :) I really like how it turned out too.


And the third biggest project or home goal that we accomplished in 2011 was replacing our family room furniture with 3 Ikea chaises in white and the yellow floral and bird print chair from Target online that I've had my eye on for a good year already! 

***Here's My 2012 Home Goals***

• lighting for the kitchen & family room area
• have our wall built down and barn door hung as our new pantry door
• finish painting above kitchen cabinets & where we pulled out desk
• window coverings for kitchen
• paint mantle
• incorporate more family photos/snapshots through my decor 
• change up the design elements on the two big walls in my family room
• replace front door
• area rug for family room
• home office/craft room makeover
• paint master bedroom and have mom and dad's chandelier refurbished to replace the existing light with
• laundry room makeover
• repaint pantry and make it all sorts of gritty!
• transform the basement into a more useful space
• repaint the boys room
• figure out where and how I want to use the other two barn doors 
• finish painting the awning in Syd's room 
• work on master bath??
• make a garden space in the yard and successfully grow some yummy food and a pumpkin or two!!

I'm loving and enjoying everything we've been able to do so far and looking forward to doing even more this year! I love The Nesters advice, "it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful!" I believe in that %100! She's hosting her annual Home Goals Linky Party and I'm joining in on the fun!! You should too!

my almost finished vintage white kitchen

So here's my kitchen, and although it's still a little bit of a work in progress.. the bulk of what we planned on doing with the remodel is finished and I've been LOVING it, even with some of the old lights missing and the wires hanging out of the ceiling!!!

What still needs to be done to finish what we started:


*some electrical changes & install new lighting
*paint top portion of wall above cabinets
*order the scalloped edge pull down blinds for windows above sink and side bay windows
*frame in and dry wall a top section of the wall where the desk used to be to accomodate the sliding hardware system for the old barn pantry door
*sand over wall repairs where the desk used to be and repaint
*buy and install curtain rod above sliding door and hang curtain


That should wrap up phase one of the kitchen remodel but in order to look at the whole thing and say it's completely finished, I still have another phase of bigger projects that I want to have done (wood planked ceiling, painting my wood floor and replacing my sliding glass door with double dutch doors!!!) Even know that's only three more things, they're all pretty big things to have done in and of themselves so I'll just have to try and be patiently waiting while we save for and do them when we can!


Just for the fun, let's take a stroll over the years through some random photos of my kitchen..


This is what it looked like when we bought our house back in 1998. All oak cabinets with brass fixtures. YUK! Eewww.. and those ugly stools!

In 2002 I'd had it with all the oak, brass fixtures and white walls everywhere, so I jumped on the paint-everything-dark-band-wagon and painted the entire house in dark earthy colors, started adding lots of black furniture and in 2004 right after my youngest was born, I had our kitchen cabinets painted red, replaced the brass with oil rubbed bronze and painted a faux brick backsplash.

Then a few years ago I felt my style shifting in a big way and I found that turquoise tea kettle in the photo below and that's what started my planning of a white vintage farmhouse kitchen with turquoise and yellow and touches of red.

Slowly... I started weeding out existing decor and furniture, giving it away and selling it and using the money to replace what I'd sold with new things for my still un-remodeled kitchen. I'd been dreaming of lightening everything up for so long, but I knew we didn't have the money for a big kitchen remodel yet so last fall 2010 I repainted the walls in my family-kitchen-dining area and painted over that darn faux brick backsplash I'd grown to hate with a passion.. and between that and my new white dining table I'd gotten a few months before, it carried me through until we were able to start the big remodel this spring!

And now... I have my new almost finished white kitchen and I'm swooning over it everyday!

Here's some links to posts about the remodel:

post #1

post #2

*I'm linking up to Jennifer Rizzo, whose kitchen transformation was a big part of my inspiration!!! My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia's link party, love her blog too! And..

click here.

the longest post you'll ever read about paint.. or not.

The last couple of weeks has been super busy between all the normal stuff..  helping all the kids with homework, soccer games, volunteering at the school party for Sydnee's class, parent teacher conferences, helping the boys finish requirements for their scout awards etc.. you know how it goes plus planning for and hosting birthday parties and then the day before the boys party I get a wild hair and finally decide that I'm tired of "thinking about everything I want to do in my kitchen/family room area but not doing anything..." and suddenly choose a blue paint sample I've had for a few months, go buy a gallon of it and start painting! 


Let me back up a little bit.. below are a few before photos. I still really like this paint color, it's a Kwall Howells color called Oak Flats, but I'm just ready for a change.. a big change. We moved into our house almost thirteen years ago and everything was white. The walls, the doors, the trim, the fireplace.. everything! We lived with it that way for the first couple of years and then I was ready for the same kind of change, a big change! So... eight years ago I went through my house and painted practically every wall in dark, warm earthy tones and that's how it's been ever since. I was instantly in love with it and have been for the past six and half years, but then I started feeling my style shift and noticing all my home inspiration photos were leaning toward a lot of white.. mixed with still one of my favorite decorating colors red, plus newly added shades of turquoise for my kitchen/family room area. 

Blue paint in progress photos below...

I know! What was I thinking??? I mean, I'm glad I finally got going with something.. but that blue paint did not turn out to be the right blue for the area and I'd bought an entire gallon of it. Uugghhh! Needless to say, I was already doubting my choice of paint after the first few strokes and quit after painting the bay window area and down one wall in the kitchen. I was frustrated. I hate to start something and not be able to finish it within a reasonable amount of time. I was willing to stay up all night painting had I liked the blue paint.. just so I'd be done with at least the first coat by the next day (the boy's birthday) and could finish up with the second coat on Saturday and call it a done project! Now I had a half painted kitchen with a color I did not like and I didn't have time to fix it. I just had to forget about the way it looked for a day, so I went and took a nice long bubble bath and revisited some of my inspiration kitchen photos.


That's when I realized that I really only had one home within my inspiration files that had blue walls and the rest were either white or a very, very light neutral color. I narrowed it down to my top three choices. I only knew the color of paint used in one of them, which is Rice Grain from Sherwin Williams in the kitchen of Layla from Lettered Cottage. (Love her open shelving.. I'm thinking of doing that with the long row of cabinets down one wall in my kitchen). The other two I didn't know. From the photos of this one, I was pretty sure I'd be okay with this Rice Grain color so Saturday morning I went to S.W. and bought myself a gallon of Rice Grain paint, they were having a 40% off sale so I got a really good deal! I was so anxious to get that blue paint covered up and to continue on and finish the job. This time... it was instant gratification as I started and proceeded to cover up the blue and therefore I kept painting on further throughout the kitchen until later that night when I'd gotten to the point where I was going to have to move the fridge out and do a lot more taping if I was going to continue painting. At that point I looked around and decided to call it day.. I was hosting another birthday celebration the next day, it was late, I was tired and YES... I was AGAIN questioning my color selection. 

(Rice Grain by Sherwin Williams on the walls during the birthday dinner)

Sunday I took special note as to what the color looked like all throughout the day to see if I was still seeing the green undertone to it that was bugging me ever so slightly. The other thing that was kind of bugging me is that it still resembled the current color I have just lighter and I was wanting more of a difference from what I have had up on the walls the past eight years. I kept going back to the inspiration photos of my other two top choices and decided to email them and see if they would be kind enough to share their paint colors with me. Miss Blue never replied... I guess she thought it was weird that I told her I loved her house so much and wondered if she would be okay with sharing the name of the blue paint on her walls. The other one, Meg from Whatever gladly replied later that night! I love people who are happy and willing to share the goodness, whatever it might be. 


Oh my.. this is getting really long, who knew I could ramble on so much about paint. 


Monday I officially ruled out Rice Grain.. two strikes and two big gallons of paint to prove it! Luckily I really do like the Rice Grain color, it's a great neutral color.. just not exactly what I was looking for in my kitchen/family area. I'll probably use it to update the Laundry room and downstairs bath or the basement. As for the blue.. not sure yet. I considered using it on some furniture projects, but I think I'll see if I can have the color made into more of a gray-blue color for Sydnee's new room makeover that we've been meaning to do forever...


Back to the kitchen/family area...


At this point I decided I'd get some sample test paint mixed up in the color that Meg from Whatever sent me via email. Did you notice I said that I got a sample of the color, not a gallon.. I guess it took twice for me to learn my lesson there. This was last Thursday, I brought it home and immediately started painting little sections of the walls all throughout my kitchen/ family area so I could stand back and see it from all different angles and during all different times of the day. Hence the graffitied photos below. 

And finally... after all that, I can happily say that I'm now going to be painting my kitchen/family area with Navajo White by Benjamin Moore. Thanks to Meg over at one of my long time favorite blogs "Whatever!" I L-O-V-E her home.. it's an old home that they've restored. I've always loved her kitchen, it has pretty much all the elements that we are planning on implementing into ours.. white cabinets, black counter tops, white subway tile back splash, chandeliers, bright cheerful colors a.k.a. red, turquoise, yellows etc. Yummy! She also does crafts with her kids regularly and has the best ideas! Check out her blog.. you'll love it too!


This week I need to:


*get ANOTHER gallon of paint, only this time in the right color.. Navajo White!
*Rent or borrow a tall ladder.
*Get the dang kitchen/family area painted so I can finish decorating for my most favorite-ist time of the year, Halloween!!!
*Wish me luck, 3rd times a charm right?!?!!!

THE END!