I loved ^^ this photo I took at the 2018 Parade of Homes and used it as a starting point. I wanted to go lighter and brighter in the basement because it doesn't have the most light down there and the carpet is darker.

I had remembered seeing these brick panels at Lowe's and thought they might be good to use behind the floating shelves we're having installed next to the fireplace. I've also seen them at Home Depot.

This is a close up of the faux brick detail on the panel:


and what one 4X8 foot panel looks like --they are only around $30!! I could fit the panels in my Toyota Sienna minivan with the seats folded down but the panel came right to my head -- it was pretty tight.


Something you need to keep in mind is that they can only be installed this way (4ft side on top on bottom, 8ft on the sides) if you want the brick to go in the normal horizontal stacked pattern. We have almost 9 ft ceilings in the basement so we placed them on top of the baseboard and decided to add a moulding at the top so we didn't have to try to fill in a small section at the top. We just attached them with a nail gun in the "mortar" parts that lined up with the studs in the wall.


The TRICKY thing is lining the panels up. You need to make sure that if the half brick row is on the bottom then to put the half brick row on the bottom on the panel next to it.  The problem is that they are not exactly even on the bottom -- see the difference of the thickness of the black mortar at the bottom of both of these.




So I used my trusty palm sander and went to town with a coarse grit sandpaper on the bottom of the panel until it was more even and the brick lined up when I put it next to the other panel on the wall:




Then, we caulked the seam and then made some other spotches around with caulk to make it seem more like it was intended to not be perfect.



I didn't have a fancy saw to cut out the outlet and light switches so I improvised and just measured and drew the outline of the outlet with chalk on the panel and drilled a bunch of holes around the outline with the drill. Not ideal, but it worked!! Just remember when you measure to take in account of the baseboard if you are going on top of it. I measured from the ground up and ruined one whole panel!!






Then, we just primed with 2 coats of Kilz primer and then I used Sherwin-Williams Alabaster to paint over that. It's such a great white and went really well with the existing trim that was painted Benjamin Moore White Dove. We also used Alabaster in Hailey's room.  Here is what it looks like so far! I think you have to look pretty hard to find the seam. It's darker downstairs so these pictures aren't great but I wanted to give you an idea of what it looks like.


Then we caulked along the panel at the top and the edges which took some time

Hello! Utah finally decided to have winter, now that it is March. I know you eastern and southern folks are sick of hearing winter so let's talk about something else. 

Waaaaayyyy back in Texas in 2009 I found these 2 cool airplane prints for $1 each at a yard sale. I loved them so I studied the signature in the corner and thought it said Biederman, so searched for the artist. It turns out that Jerome Biederman painted World War 2 planes and cars and I happened to find a calendar from 1981 that was full of his paintings on Ebay and bought it. And then saved it for 5 years!!

Most of our leftover paint is in big, 5-gallon buckets which is a big pain if you just want a little for a touch-up. We’ve been cleaning out the garage, and when we brought the paint in, I poured some of each color into a mason jar.

 

I live near a Sherwin-Williams now (hurray!) and I want to tell you why they are *my* paint store now. I’ve loved their colors (hello, kilim beige here and here, pavestone here and ivoire here) but I figured they were an expensive, custom paint store that maybe wasn’t for people like me. When we moved here and began building our home, I started going in to the Provo, Utah store to look at paint colors I had seen online and I began to change my mind. Here’s what I love:

* they have a little play place for my boys so I can actually peruse and look and ask questions without being rushed or worried they would wander over into power tools. And hot cider and a table for me to sit at. ♥

The “foyer” sounds a bit formal to me, I prefer entryway, but I probably have half a dozen blog posts from previous homes with that title so we’ll go with foyer, okay?

I wanted a fun, fresh green table - I don’t know why. Maybe because the family room, dining, and kitchen all run together so I’m trying to coordinate those colors but wanted to brighten things up a bit in this area as you first come in?? The table  is painted with Sherwin-Williams 6445 Garden Grove in ProClassic latex paint . It reminds me of a 40’s jadeite green and brings some life to the space. I found the table on Joss & Main -- it is called the Safavieh Abram Console.

(this is coming out from the office – if you want to see the floorplan it is here.)

I found 2 of these dressers at a local thrift store for $25 each. I loved them because they were lower for my 2 youngest boys to reach, they were solid wood with dovetail drawers,  and they were matching—there were 2!

The prep always seems to take longest but is the most important step – taking out the drawers, removing hardware, wiping them down, and sanding rough edges.

I have talked about a favorite paint website, colorcharts.org that is no longer in service. I was so sad when I couldn’t go there any longer to match colors from one brand to another. I have found something else though, almost as good! I have no relationship with them, I was just thrilled to find it and share it with you:

It’s called Color-swatches.com and here an example of how it works:

Look at this beautiful door painted in Farrow & Ball Downpipe

Since Farrow & Ball is based in England, I’m not going to have a store near me. So, I can go to color-swatches.com and go to their search feature. (under Our Services) and then type whatever paint brand I love into the “convert to another brand” section:

I’ve had the itch to paint this dresser that I got back in Virginia . And because it has some lovely detailing and nooks and grooves that would be harder to get with a brush, I opted for spray paint. I chose the rustoleum painter’s touch in dark gray. (I bought at Home Depot, but I’ve seen this brand popping up at other stores too)

This is how I spray paint a dresser:

This one did not have a high gloss finish on it, so it was a great candidate for spray paint without a lot of sanding. If your piece has a really high gloss finish, you’ll want to sand or use a liquid sandpaper/de-glosser.

Hello there! It is snowing and beautiful outside, so it completely put me in the mood to put on some Nat King Cole and add some holiday cheer around here.

Isn’t it just a delicious color?? We used Miss Mustard Seed’s milk paint in the kitchen scale color. I’ll give you the lowdown:

Hello, friends! We are back from vacation and Haven 2012. Well, kind of back. My body is here, brain is catching up. So much to share with you, but for right now I’m going to show you one of the next projects on our list: Hailey’s room. Because for some reason, it’s easier for me to share a quick little project than to try to put the past few weeks into words. Does that even make sense?

Here is a $5 chandelier from a yard sale I shared with you over a YEAR ago. We move quickly around here, don’t we?

Thanks for your encouraging and understanding words yesterday~it’s amazing what a good night’s sleep can do for the soul! And thank goodness not every day is like that, right?? It’s hard to know the right balance of whining and complaining on the blog, but trying to keep it real, so thank you.

Let’s move more into my comfort zone: dressers!

I found this one at the thrift store and loved it, but it was $150.  Oh c’mon, you know I can’t stomach paying that for a thrift store dresser! I asked the cashier if they had any 50% off furniture days coming up and she thought maybe the next Friday. Oh please, please, please let it be here when I come back…

It was! Believe me, there are plenty of pieces I would have loved that didn’t make it to the 50% day, but this one was mean to be.

Goodness gracious this is going to be long, so let’s go!

Set your time you’re going to do it. There will never be a perfect time with nothing going on, you’ve just got to block it off the calendar and GO! We chose to do it in the spring when my husband could give me 2 full days when he had some time off for spring break.

Then, you’ve got to set up shop. Cover any surfaces you don’t want to get paint on. Most of our work was done in the garage, and we used the kitchen counter as well.

First up: remove all doors and hardware and let your handy, super strong assistant separate them into bags.

First of all, I need to say thank you for your lovely, heartfelt (and some funny!) comments on yesterday’s post. I’ve read and appreciated every one and you have me thinking in a whole new way and I’m more excited than ever for this holiday season.

Now, we need to get down to business with the kitchen and the list I made. We’re tackling the door first!

Why do they make the grids yellow on these doors? I was looking at it and thinking of how I could just pop the grid off and spray paint it, but then I remembered Sarah’s debacle (you have to read it..she is so funny!) 

and decided to go for the taping it off and painting it with a regular old brush. A tip for the taping off~you need two sizes for the tops and bottoms of the rectangles, so just leave them on your counter so you know what size to cut them all to.

Okay, let’s take one more look at the before:  

1. Pick out your paint: the color I chose is Olivewood by Glidden.