Monday, March 28, 2011

Laundry Room Reveal: Cleaning up a dirty little secret!

Hello world, it's time to "come clean" with one of my "dirty little secrets". I have a few others; at least this one is making it's debut. I have a great space in my laundry room; right off the kitchen and the entrance to the garage, but it's been a semi-mess since we've lived here. I hated the color (a blah dirty yellow) and since last November when I painted the kitchen walls and cabinets, well, it seemed worse than ever!




"Where is the before picture?",  you may be asking. I purposefully DIDN'T take one, because honestly, I didn't think I could get it "blogworthy". Think dirty yellow wall color, cat litter strewn floors, bulletin board (not cute), and mismatched attempt at wall decor...got a mental picture?



 This is a photo from last fall before I painted the kitchen, and it's the closest you would have seen of the mess. Below is another shot after the paint, but the doors on the right are hiding all the yuck.


I knew I wanted it brightened up since it has an east facing window which brings in a lot of the morning sun. And also since the wood floors extend into the laundry, it needed to be a continuation of the kitchen. Let's face it, the doors are always open since it's "kitty central" in there besides the laundry.




Ta Da!!


I'd thought about painting the doors and cabinets
 the same color as my kitchen cabinets,  but I've decided not to.
 I actually like the contrast out here with the wall color.
 The woodwork is white, so it all works for me.



LOVE my new washer and dryer.
 It has the same technology that the big front loaders have,
but at almost half the price.


I even added some vintage wall thingies to make it more fun to be out here.


All the decor in here was "shopped" from my garage stash,
of flea market and thrift finds.
Stuff that had been hanging around
just waiting for a spot.






I've had the piece of tin for several years,
No where to put it until now.
It DID get a good scrubbing and a coat of antique white paint,



And this was the fun part,
 coming up with a vintage feel for my "view" from the kitchen.




A small Eastlake shelf,
Nantucket basket with hydrangeas,
odds and ends sugars, creamers, and gravy boat,
and a favorite English Cottage print.



Then a couple of 40's bird prints
brought in the feel I was going for...
cozy cottage.




Last week I showed you my trunk find with bird decals
that I'm using for a kitty chow container.






And here are a couple of little cross stitch pieces I did in the early 90's.
They are reminders of God's faithful promises.




It's not a big room as you can see,
and not easy to get a good shot of the whole thing.
(I spared you the trash basket and kitty littler box)

I also found a great little brown floral Waverly valance
 and faux wood vinyl shades at Lowes.
They help finish it all off.


As you can see we "love" our new space.
So much easier to keep clean,
and now it's actually a place I can enjoy being in.

Miss Jenkins agrees!


I'm linking up with these great parties:














Hope to see you Thursday afternoon for



Have a great week!
love you all,
Debra

Friday, March 25, 2011

Vintage Inspiration Friday #30: "Cloche" at Hand

A few weeks ago, after visiting
 Leola's Vintage Home and Garden's Spring Open house
I was filled with all sorts of inspiration for Spring.





One of my favorite spaces was created by Judy, one of the owners.
I spent so much time ooohing and aaahing over her moss covered garden and cloches.



Anything "Vintage Garden" always stops me in my tracks!

I've not tried African Violets before,
but I couldn't resist this little punch of color for one of my cloches.




Tiered cake plates covered in faux moss are the base for this Springtime tribute.
The milk glass one on the bottom was my mom's.



And I brought out my nativity lambs in honor of Easter.









These pics were taken while I was waiting for the paint to dry
 on my Eastlake dresser in the entry hall.
Sorry for the glare of the glass,
 I tried these in several spots, just couldn't get away from the glare.


 Here's Judy's space again,


She found these delicate ferns and moss on her gorgeous country property.






Oh how I love these chippy white shutters!



Thank you Judy, for some wonderful Spring time ideas!

I really appreciate each one of you that links up for the Party!
You all make it so hard to choose just four to feature.
I love seeing all your great vintage inspiration,
so remember, anything vintage or "vintage inspired".

Here's some great inspiration from last week:

from the V-Spot.



at A Rosy Note




No Minimalist Here



at the DIY Design Fanatic



If you've been featured please grab the "featured" button,
and I'd love for you to show the VIF button on your sidebar or post.
I always try to take the time to show off all the great parties,
people are much more apt to visit if the cute button is there.



So if you have time, come by and visit these other great parties that I'm linking to!











Hopefully, I'm finishing up the Laundry Room this weekend.
Actually, it turned out better than I thought.
"The Reveal" (lol!!), next week!

Have a great weekend
lots of love,
Debra









Monday, March 21, 2011

My ADD Weekend


Seems like there's a lot going on around here.
Painted and cleaned the laundry/kitty room.
Appliances that were finally delivered and installed last Friday,
Great new washer and dryer that sound like alien spacecraft are landing.
(the cats are spooked and peek around the corner)
and a new dishwasher that only made it through one cycle before it broke.
arrrrrrgh...

So I can't finish my painting in the laundry until the new dishwasher appears.
But hey, I'm sharing my Birthday pillow from my sweet sis.



She recently bought a Silhouette machine
and has been creating to her heart's content.
I was able to choose my design, so I went with my initials.
LOVE the burlap, and so do the kitties.


She also made the darling little fabric flower that's attached.
LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!


And then as part of the laundry room re-do,
 I wanted someplace to hide the multiple bags of cat food,
and other sundry cat supplies.




So we found this great box/trunk thingy with rope handles.
But the selling point was that it has bird decals on it.



It was super duper brown and homely,
so I gave it a little whitewash,
keeping the bird decals showing.
(not perfect, but better than it was)

AND THEN...
(oh yes, you know I love me some birdies!)


I had wanted to do another bird window,
so this one is backed by vintage sheet music.


I did another one on vintage magazine paper,
but I forgot to snap a photo before I took it to Relics.




Lets see...I'm painting my Eastlake dresser in the entry hall white.
Putting up new curtains,
 and needing to make a run for some white faux wood shades
 for the laundy room.

Not to mention doing dishes...lots of dishes.

I'm linking up with these great parties:












 
catch ya on Thursday for
 Vintage Inspiration Friday!
love ya,
Debra