Summer Updates in the Livingroom and Kitchen.

Not much has changed really in our home, we did upgrade the free sofa to a Craigslist IKEA sectional. I have re-arranged some of the wall decor and chairs. Added some beachy/summer stuff to the mantel.

 

 

 My slipcover does fit better on the sofa it was meant for. It came with the ottoman, and I haven't decided to keep the black, or buy a different cover.

 Mantel is filled with rocks, shells, drift wood and sea glass my boys found on the beach, along with a couple of large shells from my childhood in Mexico.

 Changes to the dining room include the chairs I bought off craigslist for $50. I painted them with Duck Egg blue AS Chalk Paint. They are a smaller scale and I can fit two on one side without table leaves. I think they are cute, but I have kept the originals, I'm not sure these will be kept if we move the table later.

Touches of fresh flowers from the yard. I put them all over the house to enjoy.

White Wash Brick Fireplace Makeover

Decided to breakdown and try a paint wash on the fireplace brick. The brick has a vintage/rustic feel to it.. like the used reclaimed brick, and the mantel was bespoke made local. Here is a "before" photo, it shows the fireplace insert before I gave it a paint makeover. You can see that HERE.

The orange finish on the fur mantel combined with the dirty brownness of the brick was not doing much for me. I had to think long and hard about putting paint on the brick, as you really can't go back once it is done. I decided to use some of my Country Chic chalk paint in "French Linen" It's a very light gray.. I diluted it to about 40/60 paint and water. Chalk paint dries fast, and I wanted it to go on light.

I painted the wash on with a regular paint brush, then used  an old damp towel to blot the excess off. Work in sections and if you take too much off, just put more on and dab again.


Now you can really see some progress.. all that is left is the right side, and the bottom hearth. It really brightend up the brick, but it still looks like brick.

The last step was to put on a few coats of glossy trim paint on the mantel.. and it sure looks like a different fireplace. The gray cast to the brick has more of a "stone" look. You can still see some of the rustic tones of the brick though it.

The room feels lighter and brighter already with just this small change. 

Chalk Painted Wooden Trunk

My husband has a wooden trunk his dad built for him to take all his gear to scout camp. It has lived in various ways around our homes and for awhile lived in the garage. Here I needed a table for our living room and decided to try it out. It seems to fit the space fairly well and is actually tall enough to serve as a table.

It's stained wood with brass latches, 

and silver metal handles. 

It was kinda a chilly morning, good day to light a fire and get to work. 

First step was two coats of Anne Sloan Olive. Yep, the same color as my Union Jack dresser behind. 

I could have stopped there, but I didn't want this piece to be the same as the dresser.

So I got out a can of Country Chic paint that I had used on my dining room table and slathered some on. This part was just slopping some white over the olive, I'm going to rub it in, so no need to be as careful.

Messy looking, right? 

Then comes the next step, getting an old towel and getting it damp. Be sure to squeeze out the excess, you don't want it dripping wet. I fold the towel and wipe lightly back and forth, pressing down harder in the areas I want more wear. I use a couple fingers wrapped in the towel to really rub across the wood trim, distressing those areas down until a bit of wood shows. 

Difference between the white washed side, and just the olive.

This side slopped with paint. I painted the hardware too.. they didn't match anyhow. I can always rub some off after.

I worked in sections, paint a side, then wipe-wipe-wipe. I folded and refolded the towel to expose clean damp sides and wiped against the grain of the wood first and then with the grain to smooth. 

After wet distressing.

Now most sane people would stop there... but I wanted a touch of a third color. I had a can of this Anne Sloan from another project. I rinsed my towel and grabbed a dry paint brush.

Using the brush to dab a bit of blue on my damp towel. I then rubbed a bit of blue on the corners and trim and here and there on the surfaces, not all over. My thought was, If this is an old shipping trunk, it would have paint transfer from rubbing on other trunks in the cargo hold. So why not add a bit of rubbed color on areas that would have been touching?

Corners and edges are good places for this. After I used a clean side of my towel and rubbed it into the other colors. 

I also rubbed on the hardware so the metal shines through a bit.

The next step is wax.

 I decided to use the Country Chic Natural Wax. It looks like a tiny container...but you just rub the brush around on the top, brush across the wood and it actually goes on very thin. You can just see a slight shine to the areas you wax. I then use a scrap of flannel to buff. I waxed the dining room set and this trunk and have just a slight indention on the wax. 

And here it is, all done and back in it's place. I changed up the decor on top. Going with a wood bowl of pumpkins, a white milk bottle with some hydrangeas from the yard and a candle. 

Before and After

Linking up to:

Miss Mustard Seed

Chalk Painted Windsor Dining Room Table and Chairs

Our house has a dining space between the kitchen and living room. Basically the breakfast nook, though right now it's our only dining space. We had a formal dining room in our previous home, and it was used for meals probably once a year. This home also has a room intended as a formal dining, it's a pretty nice room with good windows. But as we downsized homes, I needed a space for my sewing room and office. So for now, our breakfast nook is our dining room, and homework hub. Our dining furniture is around 10 years old, we bought it before kids. It's seen quite a bit of abuse from them, there are marker stains and some dings and gouges, and frankly I'm just ready to have a new look.


 In my quest to lighten and brighten this house in the woods, I decided to simply paint it white. I did consider more Duck Egg or even Provence. However I needed to actually pick up some paint for this project, not having enough on hand. I ended up buying a new brand of Chalk paint to try out.

Country Chic chalk paint. They have a ton of really cute colors.. including a more "pink" pink (Annie Sloan has a more salmon pink) They also do seasonal "limited edition" colors. They tend to run about $10 cheaper a can, locally, than AS paint. They are made in Canada.

I started with my chairs. I painted two in one day. I wiped down the chairs and scrubbed off any sticky bits. I didn't sand or prep. I usually don't with AS, and I wanted to see how this paint would preform. I found that I had to wait a bit longer between coats with this paint. It has a different feel, it's a bit thinner and kind of slippery. I ended up putting on three coats to get a sold covering, however the paint has a much smoother feel and look than AS. You could almost go without sanding if like. I wanted to distress a bit to allow some black through.. this is were there is a big difference between this paint and AS. I usually lightly sand AS before wax, and it turns to powder and distresses easy with a sanding block. I tried the same on this paint and I really had to put elbow grease into it to get it to show any black at all. So the You Tube tutorials say to use a wet cloth.. well I wet a cloth and the strangest thing about this paint is when you get it wet it kind of turns back into paint... so it kinda jells up after wetting but still wasn't easy to just rub off. I ended up wetting my foam sanding block and then scrubbing quite hard.. it would distress...but it was hard to predict how it would react. Some places I hardly wet and I would get a mass of paint removed, others I scrubbed forever and hardly any came off. In the end I actually ended up with a very "chippy" look. It looks good...however I usually go for more of a "rubbed" effect. 

Here is a painted -vs- unpainted shot.

I decided to leave the cherry top and seats, for now. The wood color compliments the kitchen.

I't took me two days for the chairs. I would do one set a day. I wanted to make sure they were ready to go by the time the kids got home and needed to use them. I put two coats on the table the first day and a another coat the second day and then used the Country Chic wax to protect the paint. I'm a bit worried on how they will hold up around food and drinks, being that they re-liquefy when wet... but hopefully the wax will be a good hardener. The wax, by the way, is natural and non-petrol based. It has no smell at all and though it's a solid, you rub your brush around on it... then work it into the wood. You can see it go on with a nice sheen and I buffed with a bit of scrap flannel. It feels silky smooth.

Here it is all finished. I do love the white in this space, much more cheery and happy.

Linking up to:

The Cottage Market
Miss Mustard Seed