spring simplicity

spring has definitely sprung around south carolina.



in my house that means a couple things.

1. we are all taking claritin.

and

2. the mantel gets tweaked again.

in keeping with my quest for simplicity around here

the mantel was really scaled back this year.

here's what she looked like last spring, just to give you a comparison.

you can check out more of it here. if you do,

you'll notice we have also painted the brick

surround and removed the big black door insert since

last spring.

this year, i moved some of my favorite prints (from here) from our den

 and placed them over the fireplace.

the branches are from a dogwood tree in our backyard.

aaand, that's pretty much it! boring?

 

not to me. not this year. i'm loving

the minimal feel of it. maybe it's the chaos that

swallows the rest of our little house that is 

causing me crave clear spaces right now.

i also removed the screen and all our firepoking tools and

 gave the interior of the fireplace a fresh coat

 of heat proof black paint.

for the summer a fern has replaced the fire grate.

also, those aren't specks on the black paint. i just need to sweep! :)

if you are looking for spring mantel inspiration go check out Layla's

mantel at the lettered cottage, where inspiration abounds, and all

the folks linking up today in honor of the first day of spring!

~ stacy ~

long overdue kitchen update

what's that saying about time flying?

fun or no fun it sure is moving swiftly these days.

we've been busy around here with projects.

some fun, some not so fun.

some diy, some hio (hire it out!)

thought i'd catch up on the kitchen today. we've been working on our

little kitchen (on and off and as we have the funds) since we moved

in september of 2010.

here's how she looked when we looked at the house

in august of 2010 (still occupied by previous owners).

it's a small galley kitchen. this is the view from one end, where they had

a table and chairs. just beyond the counter on the right is a swing door leading

into the dining room. behind the bi-fold door is the washer/dryer and pantry.

and a window that looks into the front yard. light!!

and the view from the bi-fold door. on the other side of the fridge is a

door leading to the side of the house and driveway. on the left,

just beyond the counter is a doorway leading into the living area.

since we moved in we have ripped out upper cabs and put in open shelves,

replaced formica counter tops with butcher block, replaced the shallow

stainless sink with a deep white porcelain sink and new faucet,

replaced some lighting, replaced fridge, painted lower cabs, removed bifold door to

laundry room letting so much more light in and added shelves in the

pantry/laundry room for additional storage and organization.

you can read about some of that here and here and here.

there were two items on our list for the kitchen that we have been

waiting on. replacing the nasty floor and building a banquette where

the previous owners had the table.

because we needed the space we used the breakfast nook for storage until

we had the money to do those projects and could figure out the best way for our

family to function in a space four times smaller than our previous kitchen.

this is what that end of  the kitchen looked like until last month. i sold the dresser-turned-island

and the china cabinet to offset the cost of the next phase.

after a month of research we decided to go with lowes to install our floor.

with a coupon and doing some of the prep work ourselves

(like moving appliances out, removing baseboards, etc.) they

were $1,000 less than any other quote we got.

we went with black and white checkerboard tile set on the diagonal.

love it.

here's the view toward the pantry.

for the banquette, our neighbor and his buddy did the work for us.

here is the finished product. with two hinged lids the amount of storage it

provides is fantastic!

there are still a few things to do at this end, like make bench cushions, find just the right light,

and decide what to do with wall space to the left and right. 

 when i finish up i'll fill you in on some of the details of these projects.

until then, this is where i'll be.

my new favorite spot to run our household.

~ stacy ~

christmas 2011 tour

i've never been one to go over the top with

christmas decor. i'm not that drawn to the idea of

transforming every room and every surface for the holiday's.

maybe it's because i feel  perpetually tired as a mom

to three boys and wife of a church planting pastor.

tired in a good way, but still, TIRED.

also, our home is small and our living space is open so a little bit

goes a long way!

this year i pulled some greens from the yard to make

 a swag for the front door. i see in this picture the holly is starting to curl up so it

may be time to cut some more. :)

our tree is a little guy and this year we opted to block

our back door for the month. we have a side door around

the corner that also leads to the back yard and our wood pile

so it's worked out pretty well.

brown wrapping, a red locker basket to hold some gifts for

out-of-towners, and some red lanterns hang around the tree which sits in a galvanized

bucket and is wrapped in burlap.

the mantle is a mix of silver, natural elements and red and white accents.

the stockings are held up with a bit of twine.

the boys come downstairs each morning to see how many days

remain before christmas.

the above chalkboard, by the way, has had many lives. it was

originally a silver framed mirror.

a simple grouping of candles and a couple of deer on the buffet.



and on the table a few decorative balls and some greenery from the yard.



otherwise, i've just tucked some greenery from the yard around the house.

y'all go check out all the great house tours over at the nester's

tour of homes and thanks for stopping by!

~ stacy ~

wall makeovers (& a lot of pictures)

i think someone spiked my chai tea latte's with some

red bull this weekend.

after 14 months in our current home our to-do list is still

pretty long. some big projects and some small.

saturday i was determined to cross off some of the

small projects i'd been dragging my feet on.

namely, dressing up some walls.

i've been working on the boy's room's upstairs as i'm able to get materials.

the stairwell leading up to their space is dark, has poor lighting, and up to now

has had nothing on the walls. bOrInG!

i knew i wanted to deck it out with color and with stuff  that would be

fun for the boys. i want them to love their rooms, and the walk up!

everything on the wall came from around the house. i didn't spend a dime.

the above print is hanging on an old barn door which is leaning in the corner

on the landing at the bottom of the stairs.

most of the frames received a fresh look with

either spray or craft paint or both.

five keys representing the five of us.

an 8x10 print from my friend jessie. hopefully she won't

mind i cut it up to achieve a different look.

the boys' artwork. . .

the excerpt above is from a book "the clowns of god" talking

about children with down syndrome, challenging the things on which most

people place value.

there are three framed numbers on the wall. a 3, 5, and 7, the ages of the boys

when we moved into quinby cottage.



i can't remember where i got this print. it was years ago. it was on etsy.

that's all i know.

i have just a few spots to fill in and i'm sure

it will be ever changing as the boys grow.

next up is the wall on the other side of the staircase. it looked like this for a

long time. . .

one of our problems in this house has been lack of space for

bookshelves. after tripping over books stacked in wire baskets

and even an old antique wash tub i'd had enough and decided to

throw up a couple shelves on this wall.

(please ignore the different color trim. still working on painting it all out.)

i bought a few scrolly brackets and two 1 x 6 x 6 boards, stained them

and slapped 'em up there.

it really warms up that wall.

looking at this side of the room is totally different now. i love it.

so, that's what i did on saturday.



oh, one other thing got changed. i wanted to use the little mirrors from

our front room in the stairwell.

and the 'w' and the chalkboard which i spray painted red. so i had to

 re-do this wall.

here it is now. prints from jones design company.

whew!

love checking things off my list!

~ stacy ~

sick day equals progress upstairs

i had other plans today.

plans to hang out with a friend

and help her with a project.

but when tank wandered into my room at 4.30am

with a high fever i knew plans were a changin'.

after dropping spinner and bean at school and getting tank settled on the sofa with some blankets and cartoons

i decided to knock out one

of the 150 things on my to-do list.

the boys' room's have been under a slow over-haul

for a good month or more.

so far i have painted various walls in both rooms

and planked the hall landing at the

top of the stairs that connects their rooms.

today was all about planking a small bit of wall behind

bean's bed.



there is so little light upstairs (as it is nestled in the trees) so pics

are nearly impossible to take. what i'm saying is, forgive the grain!

before i started i realized i needed to slap some

dark paint on that wall because i wanted the

gaps between my wood to be large and

haphazard (and i didn't want butter yellow showing through).

i used 1 x 4's and 1 x 6's cut at varying lengths.

i layed it out on the patio as i cut so that

the seams were where i wanted them.

the rest was pretty easy. i just used my nail gun to put the

cut wood up, starting on the right side to make

sure the wood was flush with the wall's edge.

i did have to extend the outlet.



i use these little plastic doohickeys. they work

great and are super easy.

once extended i finished up and put on the new outlet cover.

like i said, i wanted it to look haphazard and piecemeal with

random gaps and spacing. this picture really shows the gray

wall  through the cracks put in the room the spaces just

look dark, which is what i was hoping for.



i'm pretty pleased with it. i love the natural color

and will just top it off with a coat or two of

wipe-on polyurethane.

now i need to find a swing arm, plug in, wall lamp to put

in the upper right quarter so my little guy can

read in bed.

next step for their rooms is beadboard for the rest of the half-walls.

fingers crossed i have this all done before thanksgiving.

and when i do, i'll give you the full reveal.

~ stacy ~