Since I started off the week with wreaths, I thought I’d end it by showing you one I made.  I know, it’s not the natural variety but because I painted my walls off-white I was in need of some color.

Visit one of my earlier posts for an ornament wreath tutorial here.

Are you done with your christmas decorating? For those of you who aren’t here’s a little wreath inspiration courtesy of Southern Living. They’re surprisingly easy to make too. Visit Sunset here for a step by step tutorial.  I always have a Christmas wreath at my door and in the house.  Do you have a wreath in your home for the holidays? Did you make it?

This is my  rustic table. It was a new pine table with painted white legs.  I stripped the paint off the legs by using a chemical stripper. I wanted to have some of the white peeking through so I sanded the legs lightly. Once that’s done you can stain the wood.  You can find direction on how to strip paint from furniture here. And to stain wood, visit this site.

House Beautiful

Decor Pad

Country Living

Here’s the latest project. This little server needed a little oomph after the kitchen redo.

DH suggested I paint the body and leave the wood exposed on top. It turned out better than I expected. For painting over wood furniture, sand lightly with fine grit paper. Wipe dust off then paint. I used Behr Premium Plus Ultra Paint and Primer In One. It worked beautifully and I highly recommend this product. I’ve used this paint on my interior walls too and it sure does save you time!

By the way, I will be heading off to California tomorrow for a little R and R with family and friends. I’ll make sure to share my travels with you.

This is pretty much all the counter space I had to work with.

We removed this wall and what a difference!

See the window? That was closed off and the door we made into a window.

Beautiful formica!

This layout doesn’t even make sense.  The fridge was covering up counter space and cabinets. Even with this awkward kitchen we fell in love with this house and saw the diamond in the rough.

Dining room overlooking the living room. The wall between the dining room and living room was widened and the wall where you see the picture frame, removed.

AND AFTER:

This kitchen reflects our casual lifestyle and I was inspired by this room from La La Lovely, one of my fave blogs. I need to add accessories and put things up on the walls. I was thinking of shelves to the right of the sink. Any suggestions? I’m also getting rid of that family of chickens you see there on the small buffet.  I’m not really going for a country look.

This door was once a window

You get the gist. This reminds me that I once made topiaries for a craft fair out of dried eucalyptus branches and was amazed that they all sold.  If I was a savvy blogger, I’d have a tutorial of this ready for you right here and now.  Alackaday, I am  ill-prepared. I’ll have something for you next week.  This sounds like a weekend project for me and the kids! Happy weekend everyone.

photo credit 1stdibs.com