whoops!

I am so new to this blogging that when I want to post a picture, it takes forever to figure that out and then my hand just randomly hits the enter key and the picture post before I have even typed the words. So read this and then scroll down to the picture of the black door. That was a screen door thrown out for Large Trash Pick-Up one Sunday evening. I backed up my suburban, put it in the back and brought it home. Chuck cut a board the size of the door. I painted the board with black chalkboard paint. After I painted the screen door with black enamel paint, I nailed the board to the back. We hung it in place of the utility room door and we now have a great door that we can use for messages, holiday decorations or grocery lists. This is definitely one of my favorite finds. When I found it, I had thought it would fit my pantry door, but it was too wide. It fits the other doorway perfectly.

Just a note to those who are reading this who don't know my husband. Chuck and I will celebrate our 24th anniversary this October 22. He is a great guy and a wonderful husband. But.....he still says, "It can't be done." when I ask him to help me with these decorating projects. We exchange words....usually, I get really loud....and then we end up doing the project. So while reading this, just remember that somewhere between the idea and the finished product is a lot of heated discussion! You would think he would learn by now.

Trash to treasure....

Paint it black...

The huge selling point of this house 8 years ago was the kitchen. All white cabinets made it look even bigger. I still have the white cabinets but almost everything else has changed. Over the last 8 years we have changed the flooring, wallpaper, backsplash, island top, island paint color (red) and knobs. It now looks more like us.

I have been tempted so many times to start painting the cabinets black just because I am tired of the white cabinets and they are beginning to chip in areas. The only thing preventing me from doing this is the thought of what a huge job/mess it would be. So on a whim one Sunday, I decided I would paint just the desk black. Chuck said no, I said yes.

An hour later and a trip to Home Depot and we started this little project. It required sawing into the molding at the top of the cabinets so we could put a trim up to make the desk look like a separate piece of furniture. Then we added a leg and painted the whole thing black. The finishing touch was covering a thin piece of wood with a black and white toile fabric to back the upper shelves.

And 6 months later, I painted the fireplace surround and mantel black. This time Chuck didn't even say no. But, I didn't ask either.