Sprucing Up The Bathroom

It's amazing what a couple coats of paint and some decorative upgrades can do to make a room look 100% better. It may not be perfect, but it'll still be better!

This is what our bathroom looked like when we first moved in a year ago this past July ~ very bland, complete with a bright white toilet seat on a dark maroon toilet, and a way beyond dirty tub with an equally disgustingly dirty set of sliding shower doors. At least this picture was taken after a thorough cleaning and floor mopping!

Fortunately, we were able to get a gently used, "new" replacement for our tub and wall surround, and got rid of any sort of shower doors! While the dark maroon toilet and sink are not at all what I would have picked, they're in great condition, so I'm making do with their color and worked that fact into my paint choice for the walls.

Over the last year, I've been able to put together items toward my bathroom theme, which is a kind of an Antique Rose best I can figure. Not everything matches perfectly, but most everything is quite similar....

This theme, together with the sink and toilet color, played the biggest part in why I chose Pink Whisper for the paint color on our walls.

Kitchen Splendor

I've never been so thrilled with a room in my house as I am with my newly painted and decorated kitchen!!

For the longest time, I've wanted a yellow kitchen, and more recently, a Tuscan feeling kitchen. The shades of yellow have varied, but once I got the feeling of this house, and more specifically, the kitchen, I decided my choice of yellow had to be one with warmth and personality. Dean so graciously poured over paint samples with me until we settled on a color that we both liked.

For him, the dilemma was having a yellow that didn't seem too "industrial" - in other words, it can't look like the color of a piece of machinery, he told me! For me, I simply couldn't have a shade of yellow that felt on the cooler side. I wanted it to have some depth and a welcoming feeling, much like the colors of Tuscany. Additionally, one of the first things I noticed about my lovely, old fashioned, front kitchen was that it was quite lacking in natural light! (And I was surprised to discover this, because I have a rather large window over the sink, in addition to a smaller one on an adjacent wall.)

Anyways, this past week, Dean literally transformed our kitchen into something I didn't think could possibly be mine ~ but it was! And it looked so beautiful that I couldn't stop smiling the more it came together. We absolutely love the warm glow of the walls, the way the color changes depending on the light source, and the way some of our old things now "popped" against the new "Honey Locust" painted walls. (Fluorescent lighting tends to make it look the least desirable, and most like Crayola crayon yellow, however, in the daylight, and in the evening with our floor lamp, it simply glows like golden honey!)  SIGH......The transformation is amazing! So, without further adieu, here are some before, during and after pictures of my now fabulously warm and inviting Tuscan kitchen!!

 SOME BEFORE:

A FEW DURING:

AFTER:

These last 2 pictures actually show more of the golden glow that we see most often, as we rarely use our extremely bright, fluorescent ceiling light, which Dean had to use while painting.

Yesterday we had a fun shopping trip to pick up some new pictures, floor rugs and a cute little accent piece, which is the lantern to the left of the stove. Dean first spotted it, and, after seeing it, I could  hardly resist adding the adorable lantern as a finishing touch to our now absolutely lovely, full of personality, Tuscan kitchen!! And I'm still smiling........

☺

Moonlight Stroll

What a beautiful painting!

“Stroll in the Moonlight” by Art Frahm c. 1940’s

Look , My Child

Jesus, a child and a butterfly

A Lady In Pink

By Patrick William Adam - 1899

What a lovely picture!

Dressing Up The Fence

Fences can be a good way to get some vertical color and design in an outdoor space.

 This picture shows one of my favorite ways to do that!

 Using old mirrors like these, or even ones without a frame, would be a great way to get some visual interest going.

 Using an old window and a planter box gives the fence a "homey" feel.

painted window

 Painting pictures or an entire scene on the glass is a nice way to get a waterproof picture gallery outdoors.

This is a wonderful idea that gives more visual interest than just plain plant hooks. It allows you to have a variety of differently shaped and sized plants on display, too.