Cottage Studio Ceiling Makeover Completed

First I'd like to thank all of you who stopped in and supported my blog sale last week! Your items have either already arrived or are due to arrive any day now. You may not realize it, but you've helped me take another step in accomplishing my business goals. Thank you so much!

Now, about that studio... We've actually been finished with the ceiling and walls for a little while now. We painted the walls a nice robin's egg blue and added additional trimwork to the steps. I still have a bunch of junk that I need to move out of the space before I can get some good photos of the entire studio so far, but I did snap a few shots of the ceiling. If you remember, we once had old skylights that were removed when we replaced our roof. This left four ugly plywood holes in the ceiling and I wasn't sure how I could make them look attractive until we could afford to redo the entire ceiling someday down the road. We also had a very ugly (and dusty!) ceiling fan and a couple of equally ugly lights that needed to be addressed. Replacing them was not an option because as usual, our budget is so tiny it's practically nonexistent:)

So here is the studio ceilng "BEFORE"....






And here it is "AFTER"....

(Click photos below to enlarge)






Despite the challenges and limitations, I think the ceiling makeover turned out pretty well! Hubs did a great job turning those plywood holes into "windows", didn't he? I painted a subtle sky background and used a stencil to add my sparrow. As for the light and fan makeover, thank goodness for my trusty brown camouflage paint! With a matte clear coat, they look like oil rubbed bronze fixtures! I did another fan makeover in my living room about three years ago with a different type of oil based paint, and let me tell you, what I used this time around was MUCH easier and faster! (I have a little bird - my Ginger - on my shoulder right now or else I'd go to the garage and check the spray can, but I believe it's either Rustoleum or Krylon brown camouflage paint. I got mine at Wal-Mart.)

Hubs has already built one of my craft tables. It just needs a few pieces of trim and it's ready to paint. It's got a tongue and groove pine top and is very farmhouse in style. Here is a shot of the table top before he put it all together. He cut the "tongue" part off and will add trim around the perimeter side edge of the tabletop. I thought about some kind of rope moulding but I think I'll probably just stick with plain, flat trim to keep the look simple. I have a glass top to go right on top for easy cleanup as I'm a very messy crafter. I look forward to being able to see our dining room table again because that's where all of my stuff has been for weeks!



I hope everyone is staying warm! We started using our fireplace this week and it's never been more welcomed!

Tuesday's Kitchen

I'm preparing for my cake decorating class tonight, which involves baking a cake (I made chocolate) and about nine cups of frosting. Seriously, my waistline has expanded since starting these classes. What's a girl to do? Is it really possible to *not* eat cake?



Studio work continues. Yesterday I primed and painted the window trim for the "faux" skylights and still need to add another coat of paint. I also worked on the headboard and filled in the nail holes in the steps and also in the trim work hubs added to the studio a few days ago.

This coming weekend, I hope to get the ceiling painted and the fan and ceiling lights installed after their makeovers. I went to get the paint yesterday for the fan and the one light I have left to do and it was all gone - and was still out of stock today. It is Krylon Brown Camouflage spray paint. Yes, I know...that is quite the choice for paint but I've used this particular paint and color for so many applications and absolutely love it. It is a matte finish and sprays on so easily - and looks very much like oil rubbed bronze. You can add a clear coat as well for protection and sheen. I always hate to run out of it as it is my first choice for anything that I need painted brown. Try it out and see if you like it! (See the topiary in the photos above? The container was a terra cotta color but I painted it with the camouflage paint!)


If you haven't yet, please put your guess in for my studio remodel guessing contest. You all have come up with a lot of great and creative ideas for that antique headboard already! Thanks for playing!

Red Cottage / Farmhouse Style Kitchen Progress Photos and Details- Almost There!

(Edited to add: Check out the article featuring my kitchen at Cottage Magpie - written by our dear and very talented Angela... thank you so much, Angela!)

Also, I'll be updating my blog link list soon! I've found so many great cottage, decorating, and remodeling blogs as of late and would love to add them all to my list! If you would like to be added, please email me your blog link... thank you!

(Scroll down to view all photos) Well, I keep calling it the "RED" cottage kitchen, but I guess it's only the cabinets that are red! But I can tell that red will be running accent color in our cottage, so why not?!

In one of my last entries, I mentioned that I had changed my mind about having green walls in the kitchen. For the last couple of years, they have been primed green in expectation of a soft green sagey color. Instead, I decided to go with an even lighter and softer look. I searched high and low for just the right shade of warm, off-white and I think I found it in a shade called "Malted Milk" (eggshell finish) from Valspar paints (at Lowes). I wanted something that would compliment my bisque appliances while also looking great with the pure white trim and ceiling color. The trim and ceiling color is called "Anthem White" (semi-gloss finish), also from Valspar at Lowes. For those of you that may be interested, the cabinet color is called "Cherry" (satin finish)from the Waverly collection at Lowes. Someone emailed me and said that there are lots of "cherry something" paint shades from Waverly, but this one is just plain "Cherry". I'll try to find the paint color code and post it. If you have more questions about the cabinets and finish, you may want to take a look at my FAQ page - and of course, feel free to email me with your questions, too!

The lighting is from the House Beautiful collection from Kichler. I ordered the lights online a couple of years ago and unfortunately, I don't remember from which lighting site. I have checked all over to see if I can find this particular style again and I haven't been able to find it - I think it may be discontinued. BUT, you may be able to find it on Ebay...I have found my island light on EBAY for much less than what I paid for it. In fact, here is one on Ebay right now.

The undercabinet lights are little puck /disk lights that have been hardwired...we can turn them on and off by a switch. We used Xenon bulbs that have a nice warm glow to them.

The faucet is from the Kingston Brass "Restoration Collection" and the cabinet pulls are from the Adagio collection at Berenson Hardware. Thank you, Kelli for donating our cabinet pulls to us! I never mentioned that before because I wasn't sure if she wanted me, too, but I think she deserves a giant public THANK YOU for such a kind and unexpected act!

The countertops are laminate (from Lowes). I don't remember the name of this particular pattern, but it has a stone look to it with various shades of tan and brown with a little cream here and there. When we bought our countertops a couple of years ago, it was a standard pattern that they had available to buy right from the store without special ordering. We did have to order ours, though, because we needed a longer piece than what they had available. Something like soapstone would have been WONDERFUL, but we were, and ARE, on a very tight budget. If we ever sold our house, I don't know if we'd get a return on something higher end anyway because we live in a very modest neighborhood home prices are in the $120 - 160 (we live in TN). BUT, if it was ever in the budget, I'd probably go for it anyway!

The backsplash was created using brick pavers, also bought at Lowes. I painted them "Anthem White" but then aged and toned them down with a brown translucent glaze (burnt umber, I believe?). The sink is from American standard and is the color bisque. The appliances are all bisque as well.

The shelfpaper used inside the cabinets is actually wallpaper. I applied it the same as you would apply wallpaper, but then I applied 2-4 coats of clear polyeurothane for heavy duty protection. It's held up great so far! At some point, I'd like to add sweet little lace trimmings to the edge of the shelves. Wouldn't that be lovely?

The curtains in the dining room are actually queen sized sheets. I really need to hem them, but for a quick fix, I just folded the extra length over at the top and added clip on curtain rings. The curtains rings and rods are from Wal-Mart. The "curtains" above the sink are actually pillowcases I found at Goodwill! (If one really wanted to sleep in the kitchen, I suppose they really could with all the bedding I've put in there, ha!)

The flooring is actually just our subflooring painted white. If this was to be our permanent flooring choice, I would have done this project quite differently. Because we are ripping up and replacing all our subflooring this spring, I just chose to use a couple of coats of cheap semi-gloss paint. I needed a way to be able to sweep and mop our floor and have it look relatively clean until we replace it. (I'm so tired of remodeling grunge!) BUT, if I were going for a more long term flooring solution, I would have primed the subflooring a couple of times, then I would have used a good heavy duty floor paint that was scuff resistant. Additionally, I would have painted a brown diamond pattern over the white with mabybe a few coats of good polyeurothane for durability. Just so ya know:)

The ceiling is made up of individual 5 inch wide tongue and groove pine planks bought at Lumber Liquidators. I think it was about $1.60 a square foot - maybe even less than that. The beams are box beams (hollow inside):)

The flooring that we will be installing is solid oak hardwood from Bruce, in the Marsh finish. It's a color similar to our island top and table top.

Our dining table and kitchen island were made by Fuzzot Furniture. They make all their furniture using old house parts. Pretty nifty, huh?! They are out of GA, I believe, and also sell at a few flea markets in the southeastern part of the US.

The Twice Remembered sweets and treats under the glass dome were made by yours truly. Yes, someday I'll get my faux candy and treat business off the ground. I have to work a lot in the garage to make these sweets and I'm finding that this just isn't possible for me during the colder months. Also, I'm finding that when folks buy my candy, they like to buy several boxes at a time, which is GREAT! But my inventory disappears quickly and it's hard for me to stay stocked. I guess a nice problem to have, though! But I'm working on other crafts and items to sell until I can work in the garage again in the spring.

Most of the other accessories came from Goodwill, Ebay, or Old Time Pottery. I hardly ever by new, but when I do, I make sure it's not pricey!

Speaking of accessories, I'm looking forward to warming up the kitchen with other pieces as time goes by. We still have the flooring to put in, the beadboard (halfway up the wall) and doortrim to install, and after that point, I'll be able to better see what else I want to do. There are a couple of really blank walls that need attention, for sure! A work in progress! I know that after our doortrim is intalled, above the frenchdoors I want to install a long shelf supported by a couple of white wrought iron brackets. That door needs a little more presence, I believe.

Well, I hope this has answered a few questions! Let me know if you have more:) I wanted to also mention - and not for the purposes of bragging but for the sake of encouragement, that hubs and I did all the work so far ourselves with the exception of installing the brick pavers. I mention this because if we can do it, anyone can! We knew nothing of home renovation when we moved into our house 4 1/2 years ago and while it takes us forever to complete our projects (through lots of trial and error), it has saved us a ton of money. While it can be frustrating to have projects drag on so long, if that's the only choice you have besides not doing anything at all, then I say go for it! (Ok, that's what I say right now...yesterday I was saying something different, hehe!) But seriously, you can do it, little by little!

Now on to the photos! In no particluar order:

Kitchen BEFORE Photos (as it looked when we first moved in and shortly before our remodel began)






Kitchen AFTER (or almost After as we aren't finished yet!)



Dining area BEFORE



Dining area AFTER



Ceiling BEFORE



Ceiling AFTER



Now for a several general AFTER Photos...


This is where the whole thing started...with the cabinets!
















This sweet treat platter was made using a cheese board dome. The bottom part is just a round mirror covered with a vintage doily:)






This is hard to see, but it's a stencil relief that I put all the way around the entryways to and from the kitchen and living room. I created it using a large stencil and drywall mud.





The pears are fake and are from Wal-mart... .99 each!








Feel free to share with me more decorating ideas! Thanks for stopping by! And thanks to all of you who have stopped by my Rate My Space page at HGTV and have given me a few stars... I appreciate that so much!

~Kim

My Red Cottage Kitchen Photos on Rate My Space

First of all, thank you all so much for the warm welcomes back to the blogging world. It's been too long! I am so sorry that I'm so far behind on my emails and I *will* get to them all. We had such a blast at the end of December hanging out with our friends and eating, eating, and eating...it's taken me a few days to recoup, and I'm *still* eating leftovers! I made a 28 pound turkey, so you can only imagine how many "fixin's" went along with it!

I will be uploading photos of our kitchen progress here soon, but for now I want to just direct you to my updated photos that I've posted on Rate My Space at HGTV. That way you won't have to wait for me to post them here! Here is the link...let me know what you think! When I post the photos here on my blog, I'll provide more details, but feel free to ask my questions if you have them.

My Rate My Space page has about 20 something photos. Hope you enjoy them!

One Coat of Paint to Go and Cottage Ceiling Will Be Finished!

Hubs has done a great job with the ceiling. I've worked on a little, too, but not nearly as much as he has. If there is anything that I've learned from this ceiling project, it's this: Before you move a ladder from one place to another, make sure you remove the caulking gun from the top of it first. Yes, I have quite a bump on the old noggin today! But that aside, here are a few photos. I haven't yet re-installed my photo-editing program and have been using an online editor, so the photos are a little funky. Plus, most of the pictures came out dark although I took them during a very sunny part of the day. The kitchen was so bright with sunlight, but I think having the recessed lighting on affected the photos and made them dark. I brightened them, but they still aren't quite right.

The walls have been primed and the french doors are ready to be painted. After we get the last coat on the ceiling, we can paint the walls...Yay!

I edited these photos in no particular order and then realized that some were the "primed ceiling" photos and some where the "first coat of paint" photos...so in no particular order (I think the last couple of photos are the "primed ceiling" photos), here they are:)







First coat!