Front Porch Updates

The exterior of my house has been last on the list of to-dos but I definitely knew I wanted to add some pop to the front door with a fun blue color but had a hard time deciding on the perfect shade. I ultimately decided on Benjamin Moore Calypso Blue. Here are some before and after photos!

The front porch was drab with all that white, the door, which is super cute, fades into the background.

Picking out shades.

    

One coat into the door painting. Already looks great!

Added some finishing touches. I bought this ceramic kitty sign in Italy while I studied abroad and I can finally put it outside…on my house!

    

I patched all the flaked paint around the door and walls in addition to adding a cute doormat and large contemporary planters. It looks a million times better!

What’s your favorite color pop to accessorize with?

Have a bright day!

Chelsea

Kitchen Updates!

Well I am WAAAY behind on posts, specifically house remodeling projects. It’s been a crazy fall and winter season. Lots of traveling and working! So whenever I haven’t been doing either of those things I’ve been doing stuff around the house aaaannnd let’s be honest watching Netflix. It’s cold! But I’ve been doing mostly the other three things. So now that a new year has started it’s time to catch up on the blog. If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter you’ve been keeping updated but I still have lots of blogs-ta-write. So here we go!

As a reminder: This is what the kitchen looked like before I bought the house. Pretty much unchanged in 50 years. It was in serious need of some cleaning and cheering up. Since it was the most in need of help it’s the last room I worked on.

    

    

The first thing I did when I started working on the kitchen was I took off the old drawer pulls which were pretty rusty (I had to saw off at least one) and painted the bottom cabinets Benjamin Moore White Dove. I then replaced the knobs with really cute new contemporary pulls.

Probably 3 months passed before I did anything else which was having a friend help me take down the upper cabinets. I patched the holes and primed over the yucky walls. I’m planning to put up open shelves.

   

It already looks so much brighter and bigger with the cabinets down!

I bought this cute skinny blue shelf at a store that was going out of business. I’m planning to put it in the kitchen in the small hallway to use for pantry items.

I decided to paint the ceiling Benjamin Moore Cat’s Meow pink!

Annnnd I finally got the beadboard paper put up! It’s so cute! I painted the walls Benjamin Moore White Dove, the same color as the trim and cabinets. In a few months I’ll have the shelving up. I can’t wait!

 

Say goodbye to the old stove! I finally got a stove right before Thanksgiving!

    

    

    

Officially used my oven for the first time to make brownies for Crème de menthe brownies. Yummo!

It is so hard to believe this is the same room and how much was done in a few months. I can’t wait to see how it looks in a few more months as things progressively get completed. Stay tuned!

Have a bright day!

Chelsea

So I bought a house

So there is a very good reason I’ve been a delinquent writer as of late. I bought my first house 4 weeks ago.  Over the last few years I’ve definitely considered buying a house or condo, with the current economy and number of houses for sale and/or in foreclosure there certainly is a lot available, but even still I simply haven’t had money stored up to buy. Buying this house was a very spur of the moment thing, I was driving around with my mom and aunt one day, we saw the house, called about it, went to see it the next day, and within 10 days I had an offer on it. It is the first house I ever looked at. The price was amazing, the location is within a good neighborhood, and it’s just enough of a fixer upper that I could handle on my own over time. There is so much potential! I’m so incredibly grateful to my family for helping make this happen and I can’t wait to host plenty of family and friends for parties and holidays!

So with that being said buying a home is one of the most incredibly stressful, frustrating, and exhausting things you’ll do in your life. I’m so glad the paperwork side of everything is done and I’m able to get over there and work. I’m definitely going to be keeping everyone posted on my DIY and decorating updates. Pinterest has been both my friend and enemy over the last few months (too many ideas + looking at Pinterest when you don’t know if your house deal is going to go through is very depressing!) Check out my feed for future updates (Pinterest has so many fun ideas I’m using as inspiration and my Instagram feed often has instant updates.)

Here is a quick photo summary of what I’ve been up to!

 

My nice big backyard! I’ve got lots of ideas on what to do back here. It’s going to look awesome with a patio, bbq, and picnic table at some point down the road.

The house was built in 1952 I believe and it’s pretty much original in every way. Needs basic updates like painting and floors refinished but the house is in very good condition for it’s age. The same family has lived here since 1956 and you can tell it’s been well cared for.

Living room/dining room. I’m planning on repurposing the toile curtains as shower curtains in the bathroom.

Vintage Atlanta Traffic & Safety Council poster in the vintage bathroom. Not sure the doctor is going to make it “in case of emergency.”

 

Vintage kitchen leads to a large sunroom. Awesome space which I’m sure the kitties will love!

The sunroom was filled with trash within a few days of closing. Lots of cleaning and demo was done the first weekend. All that old carpet had to go!

Before & After. No more carpet! Original hardwoods are in good condition!

All the walls needed major putty work. Lots of cracks and holes in the original plaster walls. The walls look a bit poxy.

I must say the doorbell was a clincher in really loving the house. It’s an antique English doorbell the owners brought back from a trip abroad years ago. I took a break from patching holes to bring the brass doorbell back to life. Thank you Brasso!

Before and after polishing. So much brighter and shinier!

 

  

Getting ready to paint the ceilings and testing out wall colors.

I was planning on replacing this light fixture immediately but once I realized it was, in fact, white and not beige I kind of like it. I’m pretty sure it’s original to the house, three other bedrooms have the same style and there are two extras in the attic, one is even pink! All that beige is grease and dirt. Yuck! Cleaned up pretty nice!

Making progress. View of the dining room. The ceilings have been painted Benjamin Moore Palladian Blue. Testing out colors for the walls. I’m using the picture below as my inspiration for wall colors, found on Pinterest, original link is on Houzz.

  

Before and after pictures. The clock is no more. This is how long it’s been since the house has been painted. You can see outlines of everything! Can you see the outline of the banjo clock?

The living/dining room is pretty much completed now. The ceiling is Benjamin Moore Palladian Blue. Walls are Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter. The trim and doors have since been painted White Dove. We’re getting somewhere but lots more to do. Hopefully I can get all the painting done in the next two weeks and then get the floors refinished. After that I can actually start moving furniture in.

In between cleaning/painting/patching/etc. I’ve managed to find a few treasures in closets and outbuildings. I found this awesome vintage garden gate and matching fencing buried in ivy behind an old shed. I’d love to make a little garden outside with these materials or incorporate them into an actual fence and garden entrance. These vintage garden tools have already come in very handy. Found several awesome vintage tea canisters full of old nuts and bolts. Definitely have some ideas brewing on how to reuse these. Found this old luster ware creamer/mini pitcher in a paper bag on top of a shelf in a closet. There was a flyer from 1990 in there(so it’s been in that bag a while) and a map of the shops on Marietta square, one of which was the store owned at the time by the woman who built the house we live in now. Full circle surprise. Also a really cool find was a Super Surfer skateboard from the 1960s, buried under trash and dirt in an old shed. I figure someone got into trouble and as a consequence the skateboard disappeared. Well I think it’s awesome and I plan on cleaning it up and displaying it.

 

I didn’t do any work this weekend, too much other stuff to catch up on. I did plant flowers in my brand new mailbox yesterday though. Can’t wait to see how they look in a few weeks and flourish now that the weather is warming up ever so slowly. For now we’re taking a little respite.

Wish me luck as I go through this adventure and I’ll continue to share as I go!

Have a bright day!

Chelsea aka Bright Girl