Decorating

It’s a line I hear all the time – ‘It all just snowballed!’ You start with one thing in your home, sprucing it up and then the next thing you know, you have plans to re-paint every room and buy new furniture for three.  I know the effects of it.  In fact, quite often, I’m the cause of it!! { I do love my job!! }

My current snowball all started with organizing one small closet that is part of kitchen cabinetry.  You can read about the long, drawn out process HERE.  But what happened was that once I started thinking about how things functioned and what we actually use where, then I wanted to do more and more!!

As I mentioned, I moved some things into my new shelves which meant I had the chance to re-work the shelves out above the laundry area.  And frankly, all that did was make me realize how much I don’t enjoy that space.  It’s always cluttery and it is the first thing you see walking into the house.  We can’t even put a door on it, because then it would be pretty chilly back there and the last thing we want are frozen pipes!!

As you can see, the back door is right there that leads to the back porch and I’m standing in the front entry, taking the picture!  What you can’t see, is just to the right is the pocket door into the bathroom and the sink is actually just beside the back door.  So this space is very visible, well-used and gets a ton of traffic.

And, I do believe, this is the last remaining original wall colour in the house.  Everything else has been painted but this lonely, hard-working area.  Even the ceiling is begging not to be glossy paint anymore!  Crisp white trim alone would freshen it up.

But I have a plan!  Of course – lol!!  I did what any modern soul would do – start a Pinterest board!! I want two upper cabinets with shelving between.  It would be functional and pretty!  Then fresh paint everywhere.  And maybe shiplap on the wall behind the washer and dryer…or beadboard…I’m undecided.  I think a pretty slim budget and some elbow grease could make this space look and feel a whole lot better than it does now.  I have a light fixture to change out the bare bulb situation happening there, too.

So, that’s one thing I want to do.  There’s something else.  Surprised?  No, I didn’t think you would be!  I want to add shelves to either side of the window above the sink.  I’m debating whether to do chunky live edge shelves, or simple white curved shelves.  I think more plants in that area would be in order, don’t you??  Lol!!!  All the places for all the plants, please!! And of course, another new Pinterest board started…

But, then that train of thought snowballed!!  Yes, shelves….but I was thinking of using those peel-n-stick tiles on the back splash until we get to re-do the kitchen properly.  Then I saw them actually installed and thought otherwise.  My goal is to cover up the pink and gold arborite!! Beadboard would be easy enough to do and would be a great nod to the country roots of this house.  But if I go to the extent of doing beadboard, then I want to upgrade the countertop first.  If you give a mouse a cookie, right?

So I started thinking about those changes to the kitchen.  Of course, then I would give the upper cabinets a fresh coat of white and at that time, spray paint the hardware to match what I did when I painted the island HERE.  I would also love to pull off a set of the high upper doors to have a little bit of open display but the cupboards aren’t balanced and the set that would really work have the light built into them over the sink.  Insert eye roll – I really want to break up allllllll those cupboards!

And I’d love to change the ceiling but then that leads to the fact that our upstairs bathroom needs to be redone and there’s no point in doing the ceiling now, until we’re ready to change that bathroom….see? It really does snowball!!!  I will however, get the light fixtures changed out to the awesome old school house style that I added to the studio during the One Room Challenge all those years ago, which you can see HERE.

I think my next actual project will be painting the interior doors a colour….turquoise I believe!! 🙂 But I would like to change all the door knobs then….lol!!!!  And the light switches and outlets to white….oy – does it ever stop???

I have some things to do around here.  The big, huge projects will have to wait.  But there are a lot of smaller jobs I can do now that will make our house feel a little better and continue on the journey of making it ours.  Ideally, I will be here until I’m a little old lady so I have lots of time. 😉

Do you have a list of small jobs around your home? What few, small jobs can you do to make your home a better reflection of your family?

Colourfully yours,

Lori

Do you have something in your home that just isn’t functioning to the best that it could? So frustrating, eh? We had ‘that closet’ in our kitchen.  And finally, 4 + years later, I fixed it!!

Our kitchen has a broom closet worked into the end of the cabinetry, beside the pantry cupboard.  It stored the central vac hose.  And the broom, swiffer, some cleaning supplies, the potatoes and the bag of flour.  And stored none of it well.  It wasted so much space, meanwhile other cupboards were overflowing and things I used regularly were a pain to access.

Brace yourself for crappy ‘Before’ pictures!

I had drawn up plans probably at least a year ago, if not longer.  I knew what I wanted to do.  Leave the top shelf, divide the lower portion in half, keep the hose and broom, swiffer, etc on the one side and then add shelves to the other half for more dedicated storage of small appliances, cleaning supplies,  potatoes and flour with worrying about the dirt falling off the broom into the flour bin.  It just needed to function better for me.

I also wanted to paint it all white.  It was old paneling and  a wooden shelf.  I mapped out my plan, bought the wood.  Then I primed it all way back in November…  And then progress came to a grinding halt.  I did nothing.  Well, I complained about wanting to do the closet over, I complained about how useless the space was and I moved those boards around my studio, out of my way, multiple times.

Then I listened to a podcast that made me think about the way I was storing things.  Of course, it came in January, with all the tidying rage that took place…not at my house but in general.  Every time I wanted the crockpot, I had to get the stool, climb up to the top cupboard, get it down and do the reverse when it was time to put it away.  And with the oven being broken { long story, long wait } we used the crockpot more than usual which meant up and down a whole bunch more, too.

After listening to that podcast, I put the last coats of paint on the boards and the inside of the closet.  I was on a roll! Annnnnnd, then nothing. Grinding halt. Again.

But then yesterday I reached that point where enough was enough.  I have lots of other things I want to do around the house but I wouldn’t let myself start anything new until I finally. Got. That. Closet. Done.  So, after supper, I took my final measurements, my little drawing and I went out to the garage.  Safety glasses on, the handsome Mr. Byrne to guide me on using our lovely new compounding mitre saw so I didn’t lose any fingers….I cut that wood into the exact sizes I needed and pre-drilled the holes!!  And I still have my fingers, so there’s that, as well!  All the wood and the tools I needed went into the kitchen and I got to work.

Guys, 4 plus years of wanting this closet changed and it took me maybe 3 hours altogether between painting and putting that darn thing together.  It isn’t pretty.  I mean, it’s shelving inside a closet.  But, boy, does it look good to me!!! Also, this closet is so hard to photograph, the stove is in the way, the lighting sucks, but here’s the best I could do!

Having this shelving meant I got to organize a few others spaces, too, as stuff that made more sense in this closet moved in.  It means the girls can reach the towels to have a shower without having to grab a stool or an adult.  Seriously.  4 plus years!

I hope if you have those annoying projects you want to get down around your house, this motivates you to just go and do it!!!  Stop putting it off!  You’ll be so thankful you did.  Granted, it might mean that once you finish that one, there may be 10 other jobs to be done, but, trust me, it’s worth it!!

Well, this isn’t the best post I ever posted, but I’m excited to share this bit of progress with you.  Closets are tricky to photograph!

Colourfully yours,

Lori