McKinley’s New Room

 It has been ages since I’ve blogged and I’ve missed it. I’ve missed sharing all the things we’re doing, which hasn’t been tons, but we’ve been active all the same. Mini golf now that the weather is warmer. Walking the neighborhood. Weekly tennis and drums lessons for McKinley, one in person the other virtual. We’ve been to Top Golf, Union Station for the dinosaur exhibit and model train layout. And ice skating several times during the winter months. We aren’t going out often, just trying to add some things to the mix from time to time, getting out of the house and going on a few adventures when we can. We love adventures!

When we aren’t getting out of the house, I’m making slight changes to the interior of it! When you’ve been home for over year now, okay one year and a few weeks, you see all the things that need improving or updating. With the help of my dad, we made some repairs to major cracks in our hallway and we will be doing some major improvements to our living/dining room. But the biggest transformation this past month was updating McKinley’s bedroom. He will be 10 next month! Double digits, as he likes to call it, and it was time to take his bedroom from the little boy room he was occupying to a room that will grow with him into his teenage years. His room isn’t big. None of our rooms are. So playing with the space he has, and giving him more, was key. I hit up Pinterest for some inspiration and found the perfect set up! Flanking his bed with bookcases and adding a shelf across the top to frame out the entire look was the winning inspo!

Getting his room to this point was no small task! It required cleaning out all of the stuff. All! The! Stuff! My son likes to “collect” things, and when I say collect, I mean hoard! So it was up to me to edit the choices he has made. Like throwing them in the trash! Now, I do my fair share of “keeping” things, so I edited myself as well. Art work that wasn’t that great, school work that seemed important from Kindergarten, and other less necessary artifacts where trashed. Not sure if he will ever know they are missing. We weeded out books that didn’t seem needed or liked anymore. Those will go to donation. And clothes! Oh my word, the clothes! He has outgrown everything! So we have a selling pile, a donation pile, and a pile that will go to friends far and wide! It felt really good to purge! 

McKinley made the difficult decision to sell his vintage wooden kitchen. He loved that kitchen, but he got it from Santa when he was two, and now at almost 10, he towered over it! We kept some of the food and pots and pans to take to Meme’s. He loves to cook in her kitchen when she’s cooking major meals. I told him that maybe it was time to start using the real kitchen with me and cooking up something together. We also sold his changing table that was in his closet. We used it for storage of clothes, but it needed to go. So did the armoire that was sitting on top of his dresser. The dresser is now in the closet, full of new clothes that will fit for maybe a year, and it freed up a lot of space that we needed within the room. I found a chest of drawers at a local antique store that I gave a facelift with white chalk paint and lined it with new drawer paper. It’s a great piece for the new room. 

The bookcases I found on Amazon. The shelf is a pre-painted board from Home Depot that we cut to size and bolted to the top of the bookcases. The cases themselves are also bolted to the wall. Don’t need anything falling in the middle of the night! And why is it always in the middle of the night? We filled the bookcases with all the important things in McKinley’s life. His favorite reading books, bird and insect books that he loves to search when he finds a new creature, a globe that he asked Santa for for Christmas this past year and we added some items from places we’ve visited. Signed bowling pins from two different birthday parties are finally getting showcased, the new amethyst crystal he got in Lawrence, and some very special gifts from Granddaddy. These antique toys were in his office and McKinley has played with them for years. Dad said that the wanted to give them to now and the special meaning wasn’t lost on McKinley. Lastly, we added his two pairs of Mickey ears, dad’s old tennis racket, since McKinley now plays, and several other trinkets. It’s McKinley in every since of the word! 

And when you create a space for a kid who’s turning 10, you get rid of the construction bedding and get something super cool! We scoured the Pottery Barn Teen website and he picked out this Mid Century Modern design. Kid after my own heart. We brought back the MCM chair from his nursery, it was hanging out at my parents, and changed out his old bookcase to display all of his beloved Nutcrackers. Remember, he’s a collector of things. I moved some of the smaller things around and this space couldn’t be any more McKinley. 

Upon its completion, McKinley has spent all of his free time in here. He’s watching YouTube videos on his bed, reading in his chair, and showing off his room during video chats with friends. If he had a TV and Alexa in there, I’m not sure we would ever see him again. We are considering the TV, but we haven’t taken that final leap. Maybe summer.

Is this not the perfect room for a boy turning 10? A room that he can grow into as he turns into a teenager? Sure, some of the things will change. Collectibles will probably be replaced. It won’t stay as clean, even a week from now. But in this moment, McKinley is settling in nicely, and he’s found a space in the house he can call his own. Happy Early Birthday, sweet boy! Enjoy the new digs!

XO,

Mama 

aka Andrea

Another Kitchen Update

 I’m not sure if it’s the fact that we’ve been home since mid March, or because I’m always in the need of change, but I made a few updates to my kitchen. Remember when I decided to paint my kitchen navy blue? Well I still love the color, but wanted to take a little more modern approach to the rest of the area. HGTV is my own worst enemy in that I want to take all the ideas and apply them to my own home. I have my limitation, however I can paint, change out hardware, and redecorate with accessories like rugs, lamps, and throw pillows.

For my newest kitchen update, paint and hardware were the name of the game. I love the look of contrasting cabinet colors and thought gray lowers and white uppers would be a nice compliment to the navy walls. I headed to Home Depot and picked all the grays I liked best. From there, I narrowed it down to four and taped them against the blue wall, the white cabinets, and our charcoal countertops. I wanted to make sure that the gray played well with all of those surfaces. The family weighed in and the clear winner was French Silver, a subtle light gray. 

When prepping for paint, it’s quite a process. Or at least it should be. I removed all the cabinet doors, one side of the kitchen at a time, and lined them up according to where they hung. I wanted to make sure they lined up when I re-hung them. I cleaned both sides with Simple Green, a great, non-toxic household cleaner, before I began painting. Cleaning prior to painting allows the paint to go on smoothly and you won’t brush in dust and particles along the surface of your project. I also sanded any imperfections, especially along the edges where wear and tear were the worst. Wipe away all debris. Now it’s painting time! I like to cut out along the edges before rolling on the paint. Rolling gives you a smoother look than a brush, I feel like you can see the brush strokes, but the cutting out gives you a nice edge. And always apply two coats for complete coverage. 

And guess what? This girl was going to totally cut corners and not repaint the uppers white. I was going to just leave the old paint that was applied 18 years ago!! But I guilted myself into doing it and so glad I did! It looks so bright and fresh. Word to the wise, don’t cut corners. If you’re going to paint one thing, paint it all! And clean! Good grief! Because my cabinets on the right side of the kitchen are open faced, they were filthy! Not anymore! 

The last change I made to the cabinets was new hardware. Originally, I thought I wanted to go the trendy route with brass. Brass is all the rage and it’s not your Mama’s 90s brass! However, I saw a kitchen remodel on Christina on the Coast where she did all black and I was hooked! Matte black to be exact. These new pulls are substantial too. Heavy and classic. I love it. The next thing I will add is a matte black faucet for the sink, but I can’t find one I want and I’m not going to settle. Also, I don’t really want to hire a plumber right now so that change will have to wait!

So, now I have these gorgeously painted cabinets with amazing new hardware. I have a fabulous kitchen table that’s black and dark brown in tone. And I have this dated brick curved fireplace in the kitchen. It’s red and shiny and doesn’t go at all. So, I had to paint that too. I had to paint it black!! My husband wasn’t terribly excited about it. He was pushing me toward a charcoal gray, but let’s be honest, charcoal gray wasn’t right. Black was what it needed!

 I did so much research! I pinned all the pins on Pinterest, read all the ways to go about painting a brick fireplace, and I found so many different pieces of advice. One was to use a liquid sander to help take the varnish off the brick. That didn’t work! At all! So, I talked to the paint guys at both Home Depot and Sherman Williams and they both said the same thing. Prime it first and then paint. So, I primed it first. I used Kilz, which I had the paint department tint to a dark gray, and applied. That worked in the place of sanding as it provided a matte finish to the brick, which is what I wanted before painting. 

After a very insightful discussion with the paint guy at Home Depot, I decided against using a matte finish  paint and went with eggshell. He said that if I applied a matte paint, the fireplace would look like a black hole in the wall because there wouldn’t be a sheen when light hit it. Always talk with your experts! That’s why they are the experts!

I am so happy with how the whole thing came together! My kitchen may be from the 1960s, but it doesn’t look that way anymore! The cabinet colors are perfect with the navy walls and charcoal countertops. The black fireplace looks like it’s been there the whole time. It’s modern without looking out of place. I never want to leave this kitchen!!

When it comes to home improvement projects, I am here to tell you that you just need to go for it! I was never worried about the gray lower cabinets, but was I was so leery of the black fireplace. Not sure why I ever doubted myself! It all turned out exactly like I had envisioned! Yours will too!

XO,

Andrea

From Bedroom to Craft Room

Eighteen years ago this coming May, we moved into our house. And for nearly seventeen of those years, we used one of our three rooms as a spare bedroom. And in those seventeen years, I think I can count on two hands the amount of times it was used it for guests. 

In August of 2018, I was asked by Better Kansas City if I would like to come on their daily morning show and share one of my current projects. I jumped at the opportunity. I went on the show and talked about my kitchen update and how I did it myself. And as fate would have it, I have been on every month for a full year talking about everything from front porch updates, DIY lighting, and craft projects for kids and adults! 

And as I result from this amazing experience, I found that I needed to create a space to call my own for working and finalizing projects. Up until then, I was using either our kitchen table or coffee table in the den, leaving behind a giant mess until the project was complete. Sometimes it would take a few days. Others weeks. Last year I took matters into my own hands, and decided to convert the spare bedroom that no one was using (except for a catch all of all the things) and turn it into my very own work space. I dubbed it, my craft room.

It all started with clearing the entire space out! Ridding ourselves of the iron bed, that's still for sale by the way, gifting the mattress and box springs, cleaning out the chest of drawers and donating/pitching its contents, and selling it to a family for their kids room. We were down to bare bones!

I had a few ideas of what I wanted the space to look like, but I wasn't exactly sure how to make it come to life. I wanted girly glam with pink walls, touches of golds and accents of black. But my husband was not buying into the pink. He kept giving his input on other colors that he thought I would like. Like yellow or lilac. Nope! Not colors I liked or wanted. I wanted pink. Not bubble gum pink. I wanted pale pink. Ballet slippers pink. A hint of pink.

So how I did I decide? I'm a huge fan of the SureSwatch product. It comes with four sheets that you paint with various shades of paint, allow them to dry after two coats, and then hang in the room you are looking to paint. Move them around the room, allowing different light to hit them throughout the day, so you know what shade works best in the space. And for me, it was Barely Blush! The small piece of paper attached to the swatch was a wallpaper I was thinking of using on the accent wall, but instead I went with all painted walls and would later add photos.

Because the room hadn't been touched in seventeen years, the ceiling needed a fresh coat of paint too. And before the paint was barely dry, I was working with my dad to install the antique wire egg basket we turned into a light for a DIY project for Better Kansas City! I had always wanted to create my own light fixture and this was the perfect time to do it! It's amazing what you can do with a light kit and a little imagination. I love this piece. It's probably my favorite DIY to date. And I especially love how the orangy rust patina plays off the pink walls around the room! It's stunning!

Finally, it was time to paint! However, when I applied the first coat, I felt a slight panic. The lighting from the overhead light cast odd shadows and bright highlights. But I continued with my quest. When I turned off the light, and allowed the natural light to flow in from the window, all was calm. All was the perfect shade of pink! This room was knocked it out in a weekend! Walls in a day! The trim, baseboards, and window were bright white and completed by Sunday!

If you remember, several years ago I took a small portion of our den and turned it into my office. I painted one wall grey to give it color. I used a small sofa table as my desk, an antique cabinet for storage, a tufted desk chair, and bright yellow rug for a little pop. For my “new room”, I knew it needed to be a dual purpose room. A craft room yes, but an office as well. So I took the existing desk, chair, and cabinet up to its new home and played around with placement. We ended up putting the desk by the window so that I could look out at the world while lost in what to type next. I placed my yellow cabinet along the "entry" wall, so that when you walked by, it was the first thing that caught your eye. I find it to be the sweetest little cabinet and I love the aged paint. And I added the cutest chair to the mix!! Who doesn't need a shaggy gray chair in the corner to provide a space for reading or just pondering what project to work on next! 

The art deco mirror came from the old office as well. And I finally had a place to hang my wedding bouquet that was under the spare bed for nearly seventeen years! The rug was found in my parents basement and how perfectly does that pink compliment the walls and the green the chair?!? Fate!! 

 

The kitchen island that my husband gave me for Christmas makes the perfect crafting table! It has amazing storage, the middle drawer pulls out on both sides, and the open shelving helps display pretty sequins, glitter, and other shiny objects! 

Some of the little things that helped the room take shape were the addition of bright prints in different shapes and material. The frames were originally a bleached wood, but after covering the glass with paper grocery bags and blue tape, I spray painted them all a glossy black. I dug out my "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" print from the basement and hung it on the wall above my desk. Again, the colors pair perfectly. And lastly, I painted the closet doors with chalkboard paint so that my son can doodle while hanging out with me! It's a craft room after all! 

What I love most about this room is that it’s perfectly me! No, I'm not typically a pink girl, but the color reflects the mood of the room. A calming space for creativity, relaxation, and escaping when I need a little me time! 

When creating a new space within an existing room of your home, it doesn’t have to be costly. Mine all came together with odds and ends of things that I already had around my house. Pieces that worked in a smaller space still work in a "larger" one. I shopped out of my parents basement, and around their home as the yellow cabinet was borrowed from the a long time ago, but purchased new when needed/wanted and I added my own touch to amp up the chicness. And now, when I step into this room, I finally have a space that is just for me.

XO,

Andrea

Bedroom Update Complete

Sixteen years ago this past weekend, Joel and I moved into this house. This was going to be a starter home, living here possibly five years, and then moving onto something bigger. That didn't happen! But that's okay. I love our house. There are many things I find annoying about this house. Like not having a two car garage. Super small closets. But, if those are my only list of faults, I guess the house is pretty good, right? 

When we moved in, this house needed major updates in every single room. We weren't into the 1980s decor. Wallpaper covered in flowers. Drapes that swagged. And carpet in the kitchen. We lived in our lower basement, watched Trading Spaces that we taped on our VCR, and updated a room at time before our wedding weekend in November of that same year. We wanted to invite our out of town guests over to see the new house in all its updated glory. And we did! Even our realtor couldn't believe it was the same house. Our blood, sweat, and tears are in this house. And the sweat just keeps coming.

I am a girl who is always looking to make updates. Adding a little something here and there. We've updated the kitchen three times since we moved in with the current color being navy. We've updated my bathroom three times with new tile in the shower, granite counter tops, and black and white stripe paint on the walls. We've updated Joel's bathroom once taking down the mauve tile and replacing it with gray paint, new tile in the shower, and granite counter tops as well. I've changed out bedding in all the bedrooms at least once and changed the paint color in McKinley's room when we found out we were having a baby. The living room got a new coat of paint years ago and it's next on the list of refresh! Lots of changes coming there! And lastly, and most recently, our bedroom! 

This is what our bedroom looked like when we finally moved from the basement. Super boring! A quilt I had in my bedroom in my apartment. Furniture that my parents gave me when I first moved to Kansas City 21 years ago. The bed was new, a gift from my aunt, and maybe a picture or two on the wall. That was it. Plus, we didn't want too much going on for when we moved five years down the road. 

So when that didn't happen, I went hog wild! My mom made us a quilt as a wedding gift and it replaced the quilt originally had. We had Roman shades made by Ethan Allen and I painted the walls the ever chic harvest gold that every Pottery Barn featured in the early 2000s. Throughout the years, I changed out the bedding and added curtains, but never changed the walls. I meant to paint them gray, but life happened, so things stayed the same. It was definitely time for a change!

I still had the idea of painting the room gray and I looked at so many different shades, comparing them to the curtains we had hanging in the room and the color of the walls in Joel's bathroom. I finally chose Benjamin Moore's Shaker Gray. I purchased new bedding almost a year ago, all white for a stark contrast from the walls, and I asked my dad if it was okay with him if I painted the furniture black. It was theirs, after all, and I didn't want to make changes if they didn't approve. He said go for it, so I did! With the wall color mixed, white trim paint purchased, I was set! And I started out with gusto. One week in, the walls were cutout and painted and the trim work was next. I was slowly losing steam. By the first weekend, the trim around the doors and window, the window panes themselves, and the baseboards had all been painted. Every muscle in my body hurt and I was pretty sure that I couldn't do another squat if my life depended on it. But, next up was the furniture. Man, I was tired!

I debated on how to go about painting the furniture. Originally, I was going to sand down the varnish and get to the wood. Mom purchased some paint for a table for the booth and it was the perfect black. But then I chatted with a friend who had recently painted a dresser in her office with chalk paint and it sounded like a dream. You didn't have to sand anything. You just painted. Full disclosure here, I used chalk paint last summer on a different table for the booth and hated it. It was gloopy and didn't go on very well. At the same time, it was cheap paint that I picked up for a quick turn around, so that might have been part of the problem. She had used Amy Howard Home paint and loved the result. Looked like I was going to go down the same road. And, it turns out another friend loves her paint so I was truly on the right road! I love it too! I didn't use the "brushes" that everyone uses with chalk paint. I used a regular bristle brush and painted. I applied a wax I found at Michael's and it worked just fine. Don't buy into all the tools they say you need. You just spend more money than you need!

I purchased new curtains for the windows and new pulls and knobs for the furniture. I tried spray painting our doorknobs for the closets and other doors in the room, but it just left paint on our hands, so I went with new knobs there too. I thought about getting a tufted headboard, thought about painting the existing bed black, or using a black iron bed of my parents, but decided to just keep the existing bed. It's nice to have something not black or gray in the room. And with the pillows, it just kind of fades away. It all truly came together and simply love it. Want to see it? Well, scroll down!

Little things that need to be done at this point are faceplates being added for the light switch and outlets. Joel needs to turn off the electricity for that and plans to do it while we're on the road to VA. I'm going to add a small family wall gallery to the large wall next to the chest of drawers. They are framed and ready to go, but I need to space them out and decide exactly how I want them. I'll share that later. And I want to put a photo, from a series that my dad shot during the 60s, on the wall leading out of the room. But all in all, it's done. It's calming, and in my personal opinion, so chic! A big update from it's previous state. Sometimes, your decor needs to change with you and that's exactly what happened here.

I wanted the room completed before summer and I achieved my goal. Now, it's time to plan the living room update, which won't take place until after McKinley goes back to school. In the meantime, I'm going to spruce up my front porch with pretty flowers and a new front door rug and get my patio up and running. Summer is meant for outdoor play and I can take refuge at night in my peaceful grownup bedroom!

XO,

Andrea

The New Kitchen Update

Oh my gosh, you guys! I finished up the kitchen update several weeks ago, but I'm just now getting around to taking photos and sharing them with you. Honestly, I knew we used our kitchen a lot, but I had no idea how much until I was trying to capture pictures! Our kitchen is never clean! And when I say clean, I mean washed dishes are still in the sink, the kitchen table is cluttered with mail and miscellaneous things, and the counter tops always have stuff on them. It's generally always a mess! But not this morning. It's clean and photo worthy!

As most of you know, I've been talking about changing the color of my kitchen for months. But let's take a journey back to the original. For years, I had wanted a red kitchen. When we moved in, almost 16 years ago, this house was going to be a starter home so we painted everything a pretty shade of beige. Move in ready for the next couple. Then, I tired of the beige and just went for it. Red it was! In 2012, after a car wreck while seven months pregnant in 2011, we were "awarded" pain and suffering funds and we got a new kitchen. And when I say new, we got granite counter tops, stainless steal appliances, and subway tile. It was the upgrade our space needed. 

But, like anything else in life, the red grew old and I needed a change. The kitchen needed a change. And the least expensive way to make a major change is paint! Here are the colors we were considering. The top is In the Navy and the bottom Rich Navy. We wanted to make sure it played well off the dark counter tops and the amazing windmill clock. After several days of looking at the colors, and asking friends on Facebook, we went with Rich Navy. 

After discussing with the paint experts at Home Depot, we purchased a gray primer to start the process. And I have to say, the gray spoke to me for about a minute. But after I put the first stroke of blue on the wall, I was sold!

After the blue was on the wall, it was down to the little details to make the kitchen look refreshed. Yes, we had the amazing clock, but what else could I do to make it look new without spending any additional money? Well, I moved some things around in my actual kitchen! I've collected aluminumware for years. I've been obsessed with Mid Century Modern design before it was popular and these industrial looking pieces were perfect. I added measuring cups and spoons to the nook inside my sink window. I love the pops of color and how well they play off the blue! I did purchase new lights for the space because I wanted more light coming through. We were worried that the navy might make the our small kitchen feel even smaller, which on the contrary it did now, but the extra light helps. I love the open glass! I also added texture with my striped rug. And lastly, my dad framed some of the still life photos he's been working on and they totally complete the space! 

So without further ado, here is our "new" kitchen!

I truly love how it turned out! It makes spending all that time in the kitchen a little more fun. I think it helped modernize our 1960s home as well. If you can't knock out walls, just paint them! And then add fun accents to make it appear new. You don't have to spend a lot of money either. Like I said, I used things that were already in my kitchen by giving them a new place to sit. And, we didn't break the bank on our lighting. The ceiling light is from Lowe's and the pendant is from Houzz. Both were under $75! The rug is from Home Goods and was less than $30. With the primer, paint, lighting, and rug, we spent less than $250 on our kitchen update. Best $250 spent!

Up next, the bedroom! I've picked out my paint color, purchased darling new side table lamps, and have the bedding all ready to put on the bed! I'm going to paint our existing furniture to help keep our cost down. I can't wait to share!

XO,

Andrea