spray painting crown molding

I knew when we bought our house that the natural wood trim that was everywhere would need to be addressed. The one part I was really not looking forward to was the the crown dental molding in the living/ dining area. I painted our fireplace mantel which had the dental molding and it took forever getting in all the tiny little spaces. I knew eventually it would just take me just getting fed up with looking at it and that day happened a couple of weeks ago. 

Here's what the living/dining area looked like when we first saw the house

My mom had come for lunch one day a while back and suggested spray painting it. I scoffed at the idea because I thought it sounded like a huge mess and I didn't know how good it would even turn out. But the more I thought about it {and after brush painting a 5 foot section that took 3 hours} the thought of spray paint was growing on me. I decided to google it to make sure I wasn't insane and it turns out others had tried it first and had success so I took the plunge. 

Since the moldings had been stained I decided to go with a white- oil based- low odor primer from Sherwin Williams. I taped off the area and added a strip of kraft paper underneath the tape to protect the wall. I also pushed the furniture away as I went and used drop cloths on the floor. I had the whole area done in about 3 hours including prep time. It was a breeze! 

 {btw- did you spy the new tolix chair knock offs from overstock? The verdict- they are an awesome steal for the price and I think they'll serve our family well with their durability. }

I'm so happy with the result and while I plan to add a topcoat someday this primer will do for now. It feels so much bigger with out the visual line confinement outlining the room and the fresh coat of paint on the walls helps too. 

A few $4 cans of spray paint who knew?

linking up to christina's adventures, my uncommon slice of suburbia, the shabby chic cottage, french country cottage, my romantic home, the shabby nest, designer garden, tatertots and jello, i heart nap time

pinning the day away

I don't know why but when it comes to the newest trend in technology I'm always stubborn about hopping on board. It took my mom getting a facebook account before I finally agreed too! Well late last week I finally decided to so what this Pinterest craze was all about. Now I see why bloggers especially love it! It's like eye candy crack for interior (and exterior) lovers like us! Now I can get rid of the ridiculous number of folders I have on my desktop because it's all sorted and pretty in my Pinterest account. The type A- o.c.d. in me is in LOVE. I could seriously spend all day looking through all the yumminess this site holds. 

Here are some of my latest pins!

If you want to check out the rest of my boards you can follow me here.

sources:

image 1, image2, image3, image 4, image 5

mini boden inspired tee DIY

I love the mini boden applique t-shirts like the one below! I have been a fan ever since I saw them at Nordstrom when I was pregnant with Lucy. They're just so sweet and colorful. 

What's a little scary though is the $30 price tag for a toddlers t-shirt. Last fall I made a Pear shirt and now that it's nice a warm outside I've been re-inspired to make another version. I went with a strawberry and I chronicled my easy steps below for you. Enjoy!

First settle on the image you want. I decided on a strawberry to I googled "strawberry graphic." Several options came up and I chose the best one and cut and pasted into a word document. 

Once it was there I adjusted the size of the image and printed it out on white card stock then cut out the pieces. 

Next I dove into my fabric pile and pulled out a pink piece for the berry and a green piece for the leaf. {I'm showing two of everything because I was also making one for my niece} 

*Optional I ironed on fusion paper to the back of the fabric before I traced my pattern on the back. The fusion paper will help hold it all in place for you and make it much easier to sew on later.

next cut out your pieces

I bought toddler t-shirts from Target. I like them because they wear well and come in many colors.

If you used the iron on fusion paper next you'll want to peel off the paper backing from your cut outs and place them on your shirt exactly where you want them.

After the design is in place lay a spare piece of fabric or a towel over the top and press your iron over the design for about 20 seconds. Check it to see make sure you didn't miss any spots and do touch-ups where needed. 

Now you'll have something that looks like this!

Lastly using my sewing machine I stitched around the border of the strawberry and leaf to secure it. 

And Ta-Da!

a sweet summer time tee! 

linking up to:

my uncommon slice of suburbia, christina's adventures, tatertots and jello, i heart nap time

good enough ♥

Hellooooooooo!!! Hope everyone enjoyed a beautiful holiday weekend. Ours got off to an unexpected rocky start but quickly recovered. I don't know what it was about the past few days but we've really started to slow down around here and just be really thankful for what's right in front of us. We didn't work on big projects or plan new ones. We just "maintained" and enjoyed the beauty that spring brought us. We played outside, hosted a little cookout for the neighbors, went swimming, took a little day trip to giant antique center and an outlet mall. It has honestly felt like a mini vacation. I think we'll be behaving like this more often. What we have is good enough- it's actually better than good it's great and I'm so thankful. I've been on this self imposed house tweaking treadmill long enough and I'm just ready to enjoy. We're looking forward to our side yard fence going in this weekend (we've been on the wait list for 6 weeks!) so we can be outside even more in the coming months. 

I snapped a few photos at dusk last night of our sun room. It's so pretty that time of day. The shabby pink peonies (my absolute favorite!) were one of the many welcome surprises to pop in the yard in the past couple of weeks. 

and for good measure a photo of sweet Lucy. the official Memorial Day 2011 Corn Hole Champ!

I hope you found a little slice of peace and happiness this past weekend too. ♥

tolix chair inspiration

The chairs to go with the new table are on their way. In the end durability and budget won out. While I love a good louis chair that seems pretty impractical at this stage in life. I just loved the look of the Tolix chair and so did Nick. Loved the chair but not the price tag. But after some research I found what I hope to be a steal of a deal from OverStock.com. Four chairs for $169 TOTAL people (no tax and free shipping). They got great reviews as well so I'm just hoping I really like them and for that price I figured would could give them a spin. I bought them in white and I plan on keeping the table's dark mink stain for now. I think it would provide for a fresh contrast so we'll see. I'll let you know when they get here what the final verdict is. Below are some of my inspiration photos.

 Below are the chairs we bought. Can't wait to get them!

stay tuned because I did something amazing with spray paint that i can't wait to share!