After several coats of black chalkboard paint (I like to use Rustoleum’s Chalkboard Paint-you can find it in quarts at Home Depot)…

(yes, those are the still-surviving glitter pumpkins from Halloween!)

Three days of curing,  then priming with chalk…

The finished product…

I am very happy with the new chalkboard. I used to hang my plain, boring calendar in this spot. I now have a custom calendar plus extra space for notes & doodles.

My house is 100 yrs. old this year! Look for upcoming posts featuring before and after photos of my entire house.

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

Next on the to-do list: painting the floor. That will have to wait for warmer weather as the backyard is a muddy mess and I have a daily routine of cleaning puppy paw prints off the floors.

So glad the kitchen is completed. Now, time for bed. Good night!

I had lived with my outdated kitchen for the past 12 years so it was time for a change. The kitchen lacked counter space and storage so I took the one available wall (where we used to have our kitchen table and stove) and made use of that by adding base cabinets, a new stove and open shelving above.

Here is what the kitchen looked like BEFORE:

West wall with sink

Not terrible, by any means, but the green flecked laminate countertops were a bit outdated and stained…

East wall with original cabinets and red counter

And then we have one red counter top. Not sure why…seeing as the rest was white/green. I love the old, original cabinets – they are staying.

Crowded countertop soon to become breakfast bar

No room for anything…

South wall with table and stove

Our kitchen table which we rarely ate at. Full of crafts and miscellaneous overflow. I love the table – not only because it has an enamel top but because it was my grandparents. Now I have to find a place for it elsewhere in the house.

This area was just a massive waste of space. I loved that I had the long open shelf for my Ironstone but it will look better on the new shelving…just wait and see!

The first project was taking the doors off the two upper cupboards and adding crown molding:

BEFORE

AFTER:

Open cupboard. I was so anxious to get it filled I didn't patch the holes where the door was!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

That was the easy part.

Next step, adding the upper shelving on the south wall:

…adding new base cabinets and a new stove…

I’m thrilled with the results, thus far.

Stay tuned for more kitchen remodel updates.

As a professional painter I have the luxury of seeing a plethora of colors in each house I”m working in. That makes it so much easier for me to pick and choose colors for my own rooms. I get to spend several days with the new color of someone else’s walls and even though colors look very different in different settings I can get a ‘feel’ for the color I’m working with. I was working in a friend’s house and she chose a lovely shade for her den and kitchen- Benjamin Moore’s Texas Leather (also a featured color in the Pottery Barn catalog). I never would have picked this particular color for my own house, but the more I was around that color, the more I fell in love with it. So, my dining room is now that color! My apologies for the barren walls…I still don’t have my dining room properly put together yet:

In my house the color has more of a green hue. In my friend’s house it had more of a brown hue. I love the white trim and my antique white cupboard against the lush walls.

I also fell in love with another Pottery Barn color (Pine Cone Brown) and decided to paint my bedroom walls. My bedroom has had white walls for 12 years! It was a big change for me but I am so glad I did it. I’m in love with this color. It makes the room so restful and cozy.

I painted the dresser I purchased at an estate sale (for $18!!) white

And one more big change…a kitchen remodel. It’s only a partial kitchen remodel. I have a mishmash of different cupboards in my kitchen – the old built in ones that go from floor to ceiling (which I love) and the newer not-so-great ones that I will have to live with until I win the lottery. I’m adding another set of base cabinets and shelving on one end of the kitchen, getting new countetops, a new sink, and a new stove. I’ll be posting before and after pictures of the progress. It’s going slowly but it will be well worth it when it’s done!

I also added a piece of chalk tied to a string so it’s easily accessible for writing grocery lists.

Since we’re on the subject of chalkboards, another fun find was this Chautauqua Desk:

I found this piece at an auction for $3.00. It was in pretty rough shape and missing many parts. I was interested in the chalkboard and managed to salvage it. I put a hanger on the back and this lovely piece now hangs on my porch wall to welcome guests.

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