A Drum Roll Please!

Ta Da!

I'm showing you my latest BIG REVEAL tonight!

This is what my kitchen looked like a few weeks ago....

Note that I had already started adding wooden embellishments. I forgot to take a real "before" picture. Sorry!

And this is what it looks like tonight!....

Looks like it came out of the pages of a magazine =D

This project barely made a dent in our pocketbook! If you tune in tomorrow, I'll go in depth on how I did this project, and give you pointers how you can turn your own kitchen into something glamorous with very little money and a whole lot of patience (and time....and labor....hehe)

Landing Reveal

Woohoo! I'm finally posting my BIG REVEAL!

I warned you that I was probably going to be late!

It would be a laundry list if I gave you reasons for my absence. BUT I found a bit of time between catching the football game and doing my schoolwork. So here it is!!

I have this landing at the top of my staircase. As you can see from the picture below, it was in desperate need of some TLC. (Don't make fun of me for the flowers in the vases. I stole most of the flowers for another project, so that's why they look so.....awkward.)

The inspiration for this makeover came from a trip to Goodwill. I saw a bench for only $2.99. The only problem was that it didn't come with a top. That's okay! For that price, I'll make one! Bonus: it's a storage bench.

So I gathered my supplies: plywood cut to size, two sheets of 1 inch foam (cut to the size of the plywood), scissors, a staple gun, and my trusty companion.

I placed the batting on the floor, put the foam on top of that, then put the plywood on top of it all. Wrap the batting around the plywood, pull taut, and staple in place, going all the way around the plywood.
Then I ironed my fabric, placed that on the floor (print side down), wrapped that around the plywood and stapled it in place.
And this is what I got:

I wasn't completely satisfied, so I glued on a wooden accent, painted it black, then lightly sanded it (plus some edges of the bench)

I needed some mirrors, and fortunately I found some mirrors left over from my wedding that I didn't use. They were primed with a tinted red, but that's okay. It just needed a bit of paint!

I wanted a stand to put a plant on. I found this guy in my basement:

And I turned it into this:

Such a difference!! Let's see, I added twine to my planter, accessorized with some candlesticks and yarn, then added some pictures that I took off the wall from my staircase redo.

And remember that I hit a roadblock while doing this? I was trying to figure out how I was going to do my kids' profiles. This what I came up with:

Here's a closeup of my son, John's, profile. I made tags from Photoshop and construction paper. I made the profiles by selecting pictures of my kids that had a side shot of them. I blew it up to 8x10 and printed it out. I cut around their profiles then laid the cut image on top of black construction paper. I traced around the image, then cut my tracings out of the black construction paper. Glue that on white paper, glue the tag below, add some ribbon to the top, and hang!

Since I tiered the photos on the wall, I felt that the space on the wall below my eldest looked blank, so I bought a vase from Walmart, added some branches I had in the yard (bonus: cleaning the yard)...

...and put it by the wall.

And an overall shot of that wall....

We can see a little peek of the rest of the landing in that photo. So let's take a look what's there.

I kept the original side tables, just turning them outwards instead of diagonal. Then I added some twine to the handles as a temporary fix until I decide what kind of hardware I want.

Then I added some accessories. I placed a mirror above each side table.

On one table I have a monkey and a sentimental photo in the cubby....

...and two candlesticks on top (one is the one my mom gave me)

I added twine bows to the tapers to give it a little more personal touch.

On the other table I accessorized with a fun votive holder, a lamp that I made, and a twine ball on a scroll stand.

The lamp was about $1 at Goodwill. It was brown and didn't have a lampshade. I spray-painted it black, bought a lampshade, and added a fun black bow.

You can just start to see the accessories on the bench in that last picture, so let's start on them.

I had a blue round box that held votives in it. I pretty much emptied that box from that 6-candle votive thing, I didn't need it anymore. But it was too cute to toss away. It sort of reminded me of old hat boxes. So I spray-painted the box white, then added some black decals that I found in the craft section of Walmart. Then I punched a hole on each side and threaded some ribbon through to make a handle. And my hat box was done!

Then I grabbed a white throw pillow and a brown bear to add to the other side.

Here's how that wall turned out:

Here's a wider shot of the whole landing:

And here's the landing at night with the lamp on. It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling =)

Younkers just got done with their Community Day sale, and I came out with some goodies. Stick around to see what I've done with them!

Staircase Reveal

Better late than never, they say, right? Well, I know that I'm a day late on this one, but at least you'll have a great read for a lazy Sunday afternoon, right?

Anyways, as promised, you get to see my staircase walls redone.

Here's a picture of the stairs before the project began:

Here's my sad, blank wall (note the awesome drywall seam the previous owners left me):
I decided that I wanted two black floating shelves on this wall to give it a contemporary feel. Most hardware stores carry them, but I didn't feel like paying $50.
So I put on my workshop (i.e. husband's) shoes and started sifting through my scrap lumber:

I made a tool for my table saw so that I could get a uniform cut through my lumber. I took a strip of 1/2x3/4 trim and nailed a block to it the distance from the blade that I was going for:
I sent the 2x4s through the blade, and this is what it should look like afterwards:

To attach these to your walls, screw some L-brackets into the studs of your wall. MAKE SURE IT'S LEVEL! Then press your the mounted L-brackets through the slits of the shelves. Screw in place.
Now, of course the ends will still have that slit showing, so just close it up with some wood putty. Let dry and sand

Now comes the fun part!

The shelves were painted black in a high gloss.

The stairs were my favorite part to do. The faces were painted white, then I nailed black house numbers to the front of each step:

I hung up the wreath that I made:

I bought some wooden letters and painted those black:
My favorite accessory: a chess/checkers set that I got at Younkers for only $15. It was on sale for $30, but I used a $10 off coupon, plus my discount. Nice, right? The best part: it's squares are made to put little pictures in! I love it!
The kids aren't allowed to play with this one unless their dad or myself is present to supervise.

Anyways, what do you do with all those checkers/chess pieces? Put them in jars!

The bow was added to the jar to give a little punch. The sister to that bow is hiding in my BIG REVEAL =)

The rest of the pieces that wouldn't fit in the jars were scattered around the self to give an eclectic feel.

Then I found this awesome big wooden star at Goodwill. I didn't want to change a thing on that. It has a big whole in the center. It reminded me of this 4th of July napkin ring that we had on Yellow Dot at Younkers. I bought it for only 75 cents (hate me, haha) and painted it black. I stuck the little one in the big one:

I found some accessories at Goodwill that I really liked:
Then I hung some photos up:
And then I was done!

Here are a few shots of the overall look:


From the top:

From the bottom:

I stuck pretty close to my plans.

So do you like it?

Anyways, the big reveal is coming up. I'll let you in on a little secret: the big reveal is the landing at the top of these stairs. A little forgotten nook. Remodeling that space has made such a huge difference. I can't wait to show you!

Coming up: My Heart Attack Find at an Auction, Etiquette for Gift Giving, and more sneak peeks!