I'm a sucker for natural sunlight.  Our house doesnt have so much. 

Bear with me while I reminisce about the past. 

I dont have many memories of when I was a small child, living in a grand house (although we slept in the horrifying basement) that belonged to my paternal Grandmother.  My memories of that house are of the gorgeous carved fireplace, the amazing grand spiral staircase and what we lovingly called 'the gully' in the backyard.  My Great-Grandfather even had a small summer cottage in 'the gully' that we loved to play in.  Although I was positive Big Foot lived down there and was going to come and take me away... we had a blast there. 

My Grandmother passed away when I was in 1st grade.  It was then that our family moved to 'the country'.  There were very few houses and fewer kids to play with.  We could see bats flying around at night and we spent hours and hours playing in the open fields. 

I have mentioned that I got my fear of decorating from my Mother.  Now that I'm older, I realize that she wanted so much to have a beautiful home, and for awhile... it was.  My parents had 6 children... and a house full of priceless antiques that were inherited from my Grandmother.  Who in their right mind would think that 6 children would/could appreciate these things?   Let me say... we were brutal!  If my Mom were still alive, I would apologize for that and ask her what she was thinking?!?  So many beautiful things... we destroyed.  We were kids. 

When my Mom passed away in October 2010, there wasnt anything that I wanted to remind me of that time.  But, that is another story for another day!  When we cleaned out her apartment I noticed the console table that graced the front room of her house for as long as I can remember.  It was in horrible shape.  Nobody wanted it... so it ended up in my house.  It's been moved from room to room in the past 6 months, begging for some love and attention. 

I finally decided to make that table my own. 

I did some research on the interwebs and decided to try painting and glazing the old lady.  I actually loved the weathering on the top of the table so, that was going to stay.  I papered & taped over the top:

Paint me!!

Since this baby was covered in who knows how many coats of paint/stain and I wanted to paint it white.  A very good primer was in order. 


 I said a little prayer and sprayed away.  The secret to getting a nice even coat with spray paint is short, controlled sprays.  Several light coats is better than 1 drippy coat.  If you get drips, either wipe off and respray or sand when dry and respray.   Here she is all ready to be painted:

Already looking better eh?

Since I'm going for a cottage look in our house, I decided to paint her one of the all time best white's evah... 'Heirloom White'.  A soft, warm white.  I painted 2 light coats and left her to dry while I tried to figure out my glaze.  My research on the interwebs taught me that you must tint your own glaze.  Which is good since I could only find a quart and really didnt need that much. More for later projects!  If you want brown, use brown paint to tint.  If you want black, use black.  I'm sure you get it.  The distressed with black thing is  a little 'goth' for me so I went with Burnt Umber in my glaze.  I used a damp cloth to lightly wipe the glaze on and then wiped it right back off.  I didn't want it too heavy. 

And... WA LA!:

Isnt she BEAUTIFUL?!?   Look at these gorgeous details:

I figured I should give you all a house tour, as it stands today.  It will be constantly changing and evolving.  And let me apologize for the cell phone pics.  We will be doing our best to use 'the precious' camera for future pics.

Welcome... to the house of Card's (pun intended):

As you walk in the front door, our main level is one B I G open space. 

Out of view to the left is the staircase and door to the basement.  I'm not thrilled with this paint color either.  What you dont see in the pic is the purple tone of it.  Drives me nuts, but this was the 3rd paint color in a single week and I was DONE painting.  Of course it will change. 

To the right:

This area needs some serious help.  I need slipcovers for my $25 craigslist chairs but cant bring myself to pay upwards of $100 each.  Any ideas?  Help a girl out huh??  :-)  And the art needs to be changed.  Big walls + Big art = BIG monies!

Straight ahead:


Please disregard the basket overflowing with cat toys (this is real life people) and the junk on my cheap beautiful side table. 

Turn to your left you will see the lovely archway looking into the kitchen:


Then, we head into the TV room (is it really a room if it's still part of the same space?  I think not...) and please notice the cheap beautiful ikea coffee table again.  I'm searching for a nice, big, chunky replacement.


We just got a flat panel wall mount, cant wait to get that installed.  Then I will be giving the buffet/entertainment center a facelift (YAY PAINT!!).  We have this funky space behind the love seat that I have no idea what to do with:



Turn to the left again... and into the dining room:


I have a ceiling medallion for the chandelier that we havent gotten around to installing yet and I think the shelves are looking too cluttered/fussy.  Thoughts?

Turn to your left again (feel like you are going in circles yet??) and into the kitchen, my favorite part of the house! 


Through the door is the pantry/mudroom and door to the garage.  I will show pics of that area when it's tidier.  :-)

And that, my lovies, is the main floor of our house.  I cant even bring myself to post pics of the upstairs yet... it's just so cluttered and un-done.  Ugh. 

And just to prove that my house isnt spotless *sob* here is a pic of the schtuff I threw out of the camera view:

First let me say... I love my kitchen.  It's honestly what sold me on our house.  That and all the s p a c e.  Yes, there are things I would do differently about our house.  Our next house will be smaller, have nicer finishes and be completely landscaped.  Not to mention the in-law suite for Merry.  Having been apartment/townhouse dwellers all our married life, I flipped over the 3400 finished square feet of our house.  Do we need that much?  Heavens no. 

For the past 2 1/2 years I keep saying 'I would like to change this... and that... and that...", you get me, right?  There was never enough lighting in our kitchen to see what you were preparing, let alone trying to get it totally clean.  So, the first project we did was have more lighting installed.


This is our kitchen before.  Dont you love the plastic cloud light?  You can also see my failed attempt to add counter lighting.  I've always thought pendants should be over the island and we needed far more recessed cans.  So, we hired an electrician and he went to work.



Our electrcian Corey hard at work.

And here is the final result... let there be light!!



I am still planning on having under cabinet lighting done, but geez... what a difference!! Huh??  I'm not super thrilled with the paint choice.  I'm sure it will get changed soon... back to a light neutral color.  Some other projects in the kitchen planned are: a new faucet, beadboard added to the island and backsplash... and update the appliances.  But for now... I'm thrilled with it! 

What do you think??  :-)

Our bedroom does not look like this.  hehe  Couldn't you spend all day in this bed? And the lovely storage underneath?  Actually, that would turn into cat storage (my kids would burrow into the mattress and never come out).  Still beautiful. 

It wont happen overnight... but I will do my best to make our space comfortable and a place we love to be. 

Welcome!  Have a seat and stay awhile! 

I have always had a love of beautiful spaces, even when I was a little girl.  My Mother instilled a fear of change.  White walls, brown cupboards and green carpet.  I remember she finally decided to replace the carpet in our childhood home, she replaced the bright green with dark green.  The sad thing is, I adore the color green but am scared to saturate our home with it in fear of making it 'My Mother's home'.  That being said.  I hope to break through all of my decorating fears and do it on a budget.  I will ruin and break things, and hopefully in the end they will be beautiful, comfortable spaces... the kind I've always dreamed of.