DIY Bistro Awning

So I've been asked to share how I made this little awning over my kitchen window.  It was pretty simple really. I got lucky and found the vinyl material from Hobby Lobby.  It was a fabric remnant so I got it for $1.50 per yard.  What a deal! They only had two yards so I bought all of it.  I would guess you could use pretty much any fabric you want.  It should probably be water proof though.

I used two curtain rods that I had sitting around and bought a couple of plant hangers that would stick out from the house.  I attached the top rod to the house with the brackets that came with the rod and set the second rod in the plant hangers.  It is pretty windy here at our house so we shall see if this stand the test of time.

For the awning, I simply measured the size I needed and allowed for two hems.  I sewed the hems and slid the rod through.  My sewing job was a bit hurried so I bought some ribbon to hide my ugly sewing job.  I just glued that on.  

I had some left over fabric so I simply used it as a table cloth.  

There you have it.  Easy peasy. 

Patio Updates

We have been working hard so far this year.  This will be our third summer here. Here are just a few updates we've made lately. Here are some before and after shots.

Updates to the butterfly garden.  

I have been looking for a little iron bistro set for a very long time. 

 I found this one at a thrift store.

Raisin had to get in on the photo shoot.

Go Ahead...Paint Those Cabinets! (Step by step tutorial)

I belong to several DIY/home improvement/decorating groups and I see questions all the time about painting kitchen cabinets.  So I thought I would share my process and lessons learned (good and bad).

Back splash before

Kitchen in the new house -before

I have owned two homes and painted the kitchen cabinets in both. In addition, I have painted cabinets in various other rooms.  The first time I did it, it was a great lesson in what NOT to do and the second time was a much better experience.

In the first house, I took all of the doors off and then I went to put them back on…NOTHING FIT and I had to re-drill all of the holes.  Lesson learned: Number the doors and hinges.

While painting them, I laid them all out on my patio to dry and lo and behold the neighbor came by with his weed eater just in time to spray dirt all over them.  They had to be re-sanded and painted again.

Lesson learned: Find a nice draft free place INSIDE to paint/dry the cabinet doors.

Finished cabinets in the old house. 

Eventually, this was the result. Unfortunately, I didn't take any before pictures but trust me, the cupboards in this house were hideous.




On to the new house #2…

Supplies you will need:
Oil based primer, latex paint in the color of your choice (satin finish)

·         Paint supplies (brushes, fine nap rollers, drop cloth etc.)

·         Electric sander

·         Fine sand paper

·         Screwdriver (maybe a drill)

·         Lots of space

·         A lot of patience

Be prepared to do a lot of sanding.  The key to a nice smooth finish is to sand between each coat.   Be patient, this is not a weekend project.  It takes a bit of time.

Step 1: Remove all doors and hardware.  Number the doors/hinges if you plan to re-use them. They won't match up if you don't.  If you want to install new hardware, fill the screw holes with nail filler.
Step 2: Clean cabinets and doors, inside and out. You can use vinegar and water or if they are really soiled with grease (mine were), use Krud Kutter.  I love this stuff!  Make sure they are clean and dry.

Step 3: Sand the cabinets and doors, wipe clean. I like to use a mouse sander for this. 

Step 4: Paint with an oil based primer.  This helps to seal the wood and allows the paint to stick better.

Step 5: Lightly sand the doors/cabinets again. Wipe clean of dust. 

Step 6: Paint the first coat of paint in a dust free zone.  Every hair and dust particle will show up.

Step 7: Sand again/wipe clean.  This time, I like to use a very fine grain of sand paper and I sand them by hand.  Wipe clean.

Step 8: Paint the final coat of paint.  

Step 9: Attach the doors too the cabinets and install new hardware.  We also added a narrow trim to ours to dress them up. 

Note; I do not coat with polyurethane or anything because that has a tendency to yellow. 

Enjoy!

Finished product!

We also painted our mud room cabinets.

And added a new light fixture.

Lighting Issues

Kitchen Mason Jar Light












Problem: Ugly fluorescent lighting fixture covering a 12x12 hole.

Solution: Add a beautiful Mason Jar light from Lowe's and put 3” trim around the base to hide the hole. 

Yeah, this was easier said than done.  The light itself was a nightmare.  The cords were really long (like 6 feet).  They were adjustable but pulling them through left a lot of cord and the mounting brace of the light wouldn’t fit on the base.  In order to avoid splicing all of those wires, we stuffed all of the wires up into that large electrical box.  I guess we were grateful for that 12x12 box after all. 

The light was designed to be held up by dangling it from 2 screws.  I could just see this thing crashing down to the ground so the Roomie simply drilled through it and attached it to the ceiling.

After hours of frustration and a trip to TWO local hardware stores, she came up with a brilliant idea…adding trim around the rectangular base to hide the open box. 

It looks great don’t you think? 

This is definitely Pinterest worthy!

The kitchen is done!!!!!

Mudroom Makeover Madness

OK, so I have been a neglectful blogger.  I guess I've been pretty busy with other things. However, Spring is nearly here (only one month away) so the projects have begun.  We need to complete this mudroom quickly so we can get some things done outside.

Sooooo....our mudroom is an old laundry room and it is the main entrance into the house.  No one really uses our front door since everyone parks in the back of the house.  The entrance to our home needs to be much more inviting.

The room was decorated with some lovely faux wood wallpaper with a clothesline border. Needless to say, that had to go.



Our goal is to have clean lines with warm, inviting, country flair.

This wall will be done in barn wood with a gray bench.

We found the bench online and plan to update it with a little chalk paint. 

Progress!  So far, we have completed some of the painting and will be finishing up the details in the coming weeks.

Cindy worked on the crown
molding while I worked on the bench. 

The barn wood wall going up. Covering the ugly wall. Yaaay!

I found this guy at Meijer.  He is pretty cool. 

I love these pretty knobs!

 
I can't believe we actually finished it this weekend!
One of my favorite things is to see side by side transformation.  The photos may not be at exactly the same angle, but they are close.

Here is some of the decor.

We found this little basket at a local antique store and made a light. 

A different kind of coat rack made from a piece
of barn wood from the former owner's church barn. 

I'm so glad this project is finished!  

It is a much more welcoming entrance to our home now.