Black interior doors!

Ok, FINALLY!  Here they are!

Before: Builder Boring

 After: Sleek and Sexy!

The down and dirty:

The main blog I found this on used a roller for the doors.  This would have taken forever, not to mention you would have seen roller marks because our doors have ZERO texture.  So, after rolling one door, we quickly gave up on that idea.  (We also would have had to do AT LEAST 2 coats per side (read: twice as much paint) and when you add drying time, in the winter...times 15 doors...this would have been the project that took like waaaaaay too much time.)

My neighbor let me borrow her paint sprayer and that is what saved the day.  We managed to spray each side with ONE coat and my husband put about a 18" thin board screwed into the top of the door which held it away from the wall.  Then he was able to easily spray, then turn the door and spray the other side without touching the door.

Because of the sprayer, we were able to spray a WHITE door BLACK with ONE coat, and 15 doors in 3 days, with only 2.5 gallons of paint.  We did originally buy primer because the guy at Lowe's swore we would need it, because we would have to thin the black paint which would mean more coats...we did prime one door but it did not matter because the coverage the black gave us was enough in one coat, and we did NOT have to thin it.  So, I wish we didn't even bother buying primer.

So, it basically only cost $34 a gallon times 3 gallons, plus a borrowed sprayer, a few canvases nailed to the wall that we already had, and a rockstar husband.  

I wish I could say I helped but I did not.  He removed all the doors, removed all the hardware, took them to the garage and sprayed them, then once dry, did the reverse.  I really couldn't help at all.  And if you want to try and roll the doors while they are still attached...good luck with that...a drip of black paint on your white trim or brand new carpet would really suck.  Such is why I did not attempt this in my usual way...

Happy with the outcome but I hope this doesn't go out of style any time soon because this was one of those annoying projects that I wouldn't want to repeat for a really long time!  LOL!

Entering in the garage...entering in the front door (that black door leads to a closet under the stairs).  Gotta love the sexy black doors that greet you both places!!

Laundry/Mudroom Transformation

Here is the only before picture I could find.  This room was just NOT.WORKING.  No matter how we arranged it, it always became a cluttered mess and we were stepping over shoes trying to get to things. 

Here is what the shape of it is, per the floor plan (ok you will have to get creative.  We don't have the big black space, that is for people with a basement.  So if you take away the black space, that's what we have which is the angled wall):

So the weekend gets started with us wanting to paint our doors black and somehow changes into us refinishing our mud room.  :)

So we were browsing through the aisles at Lowe's and saw these wood shelves, originally $49, on sale for $17.50.  With our military discount (my hubs is a veteran), we got these for around $15!  We decided to buy 5, along with some brackets, and other materials in order to do this right.  *Disclaimer: I married a woodworking rockstar.  It only works because he is awesome.  :)

And as we were about to check out, I decided we had better paint first.  I haven't seen any nail pops or areas that needed repair in the mudroom so I figured, why not.  This was the hard part, picking a color.  I knew I wanted a green so I literally picked the first card I saw and it happened to be this pretty Plantation Moss by Olympic paint.  Not too green but a hint of green.  And we live in South Carolina.  And I love plantations and spanish moss.  So, that's how that went.  LOL.  The color was so light at first but once it dried, it was perfect.  I have enough left that I may paint the powder room this color too!

And now onto the transformation. (**Disclaimer--this room is the hardest to photograph because of the shape!  I did the best I could but I don't have a super wide angle lens...sorry!)

Looking in from the kitchen.  He took 3 of the shelves, and cut them into this!  

I knew I wanted some space at the top for our rain boots, and a few other items.  I'm glad he left some space at the left side to put coupons and things as we are running out the door, as well as a hook for my purse and the dog leash.

I wasn't sure about the hamper at first but that was part of the problem of this room.  I will often get my son dressed downstairs in the morning and was throwing his pajamas into a hamper that sat behind the door.  It was always falling over or in the way.  So this seemed like the perfect solution.  It pulls out and even detaches.  This is where rockstar husband truly wins, since these were just simple shelves, he had to build a few extra pieces to hold the bracket properly.  But he never fails.  He is MacGyver!

I love my son's little area.  I wanted a place where he could come in, hang his backpack and coat and even put a little rug down so he could sit and take his shoes off.  

 On the little short wall, I put my command center.  I wanted to keep a bulletin board with some of his latest projects from school, as well as a magnetic strip to keep upcoming events that span farther than the calendar month.

 Again he far exceeded my expectations!

I want to pick up some bins and some more wicker or regular cubes to re-organize everything a bit but overall I am so thrilled with how it all turned out.  The whole project cost about $250 and that includes the paint.  Crazy to think the shelves would have cost that much if they weren't on sale!

Cutest conversation chair!

So I'm at target because my cable and internet were down for a few hours.

Bad idea!  But yet oh so good!

I just couldn't stop staring at this chair.  And the price.  Marked down from $179 to $135.  And then I got greedy...so I scanned it with my cartwheel app...and boom!  Another 15% off!  And then my target debit card, 5% more!  Got the chair for $116!  Added a cute little side table, and a new lampshade.  Now my room is done!

Oh and we finally finished the trim on the desk and I painted it black last night.

Stay tuned for my black doors post,  and a transformation of our mud room!

Project 1 complete {updated}

We got the black paint for the interior doors but the first thing on my list was to paint the top of the entertainment center.  I LOVE it!!!  It really brings a cohesive look to it and bookcase doesn't look so much like it doesn't belong. 

Stay tuned for the black doors.  And FYI its not as fun or as easy as you might think.  We borrowed a sprayer from a neighbor.  

UPDATED

Here is the first door!  Love it!!  Don't mind the mess!

Living room adjustments

So we got our stairs fixed.   They nailed and glued them and they are completely silent.   Wahoo!  No more 80 year old stairs!

Cabinet People came and surprise,  they didn't have the right parts so they have to come back on the 23rd.  My hubs was able to screw the dishwasher back in temporarily so I can load and unload normally thank goodness. 

So I had been wanting to change up my living room a bit and add some color.   I switched up some throw pillows with some ones I had upstairs.  But I had really been wanting to bring in some coral (you can see I'm wearing a coral dress in our family pics on the wall-and I love it).   Throw pillows are not cheap and I couldn't find the right color anyway.

Over Christmas I hung a pine wreath on the mirror on my fireplace and I really liked it.   It made it not so obvious that it reflected the ceiling fan.   So I knew I wanted to hang a wreath back up there.  Yesterday I picked up a wire wreath frame $3.99, a roll of burlap $5, and some fabric $4, and made a new wreath for the mirror.   What do you think? 

I also changed up the guest room a bit.  It desperately needs a headboard and some paint.

Stay tuned, we are painting the interior doors black this weekend!

DiY Front door wreath

I love lazy saturdays, don't you?

$6 worth of fake flowers from walmart plus hot glue and a wood wreath I already had and my front door is beautiful!

I was hoping to do something that worked well year round and this came out looking very spring time but I love it.  It is big enough to surround my cool door knocker.

Looking forward to redoing my porch with new pots and colorful flowers in the spring.  I have not yet been successful to keep 1 thing alive :(

Would this irritate you?

So the house next to me has been going up and yesterday it got siding and shutters.

The first pic is coming down the street.  My house is barely visible in between.

The one to the left of me is a Rome and the one to the right is a Milan but they have the same level of elevation meaning plain and no porch so they look so similar!

I don't care about that but why are they allowed to have the same siding and shutter combo??

Nothing like making the street look "cookie cutter".

I'm sure nothing can be done but I am going to ask the sales office anyways.  At least for any future homes that go in our cul de sac.

Blinds

Remember my post on my living room/office space?

Well, those coffee colored blinds just really made me a little giddy.  I never really thought I'd like dark blinds, but they really tie in with my dark floors, and the stair banister.

So, while I do have curtains in the rest of the house, I decided I really wanted them on all my windows (except the morning room, which I like with nothing at all).

Bali 2" embossed vinyl blinds - faux wood

And the best part is, with coupons and using Ebates, I managed to get 10 for my entire house for $140!  Not too shabby!!

And I got my fabulous door knocker onto my door (my hubs needs to saw the screw off at the bottom, it was a bit too long!)!  But now I need a new wreath (without an R on it).  I want to make a big burlap wreath with a few flowers on it.

So now that Christmas is over, I have a laundry list of projects I want to do.  Stay tuned for those awesome black doors, that is first on my list.  I have 13 interior doors so that will be quite the job!

Here is a great tutorial I found!

http://homehappyhome.blogspot.com/2013/03/black-painted-interior-doors.html