Projects

A few days ago, my friend Andrew sent me a text letting me know he would be on Spring Break this week and wanted to know if he could take the girls to give me a "day-cation." My girls love Andrew and Ashleigh (and Jack, their dog), so I knew they would love a fun out of the ordinary day. Today was that day. I dropped off Cora at school and then took Magnolia to Andrew's house, installed car seats in his car, gave him a quick rundown of carpool for when he picked up Cora, and left still unsure of how I was going to spend my day. On the way home, I decided I was going to paint the vanity in our bathroom. I needed some stir sticks, so I went to Ace, and of course I spent some sweet time gushing over the Benjamin Moore paint colors.

I got home and gathered everything I would need for the vanity and got to work. Between coats of paint, I looked up "painted floors" on pinterest, and was filled with inspiration. I discovered the magic of painting vinyl floor tutorials not too long ago. And while at Ace, I was really looking at what color I could paint our kitchen floor, but in my pinteresting today, I saw this:

I think it's a fabulous temporary floor facelift for the bathroom. Yay for stencils. And yay for people just as sick of their vinyl floors as I am who are brave enough to forge the way in making them better and taking pictures to show everyone else how to do it.  

I painted the vanity the same color as our lower cabinets in the kitchen, so I was also running back and forth to do some touch up work. The same hardwoods in the rest of Dot are also under the vinyl flooring in the kitchen and laundry room. I've known this since we moved in, but I also knew I didn't really want to rip up vinyl floor without knowing the condition of the wood floors underneath. That changed today. The change came also while pinteresting. See these:

When I saw the first one, I loved how old and worn the wood floors looked, and the lovely pop of white the paint offered. Then I saw the second picture and read the story that went along with it. The home owner uncovered the wood floors in her kitchen, but didn't have enough money to completely redo them, so she strategically painted over the extra super worn spots.

I was sold. 

And this is what my kitchen looks like tonight...

So far, the wood floor seems to be in pretty good condition. If nothing is too bad, and we can stain it to match it to the rest of our floors, I think I'll forgo the paint. I've never been so happy to have a small kitchen. Just this little bit, and I can feel a little blister starting on my thumb. It feels good to get things done. 

Today, I  also decided to go see a movie, and Oz was the one I chose. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't very good either. It could have been much better. My favorite part was the opening sequence, you know, the credits at the beginning. It was visually stunning, but the story could have easily had a greater depth that would have made it much more interesting to follow instead of just look at. When I left the theatre, I wished I would have spend the last 2.5 hours of my life at Lowe's getting lattice and returning home to install it around the bottom of our side deck. Live and learn. ;) The biggest part of making changes is just getting started. My little break today was the perfect jumpstart. 

PS: I just saw this post, and it made me smile: Heaven

Leave a Comment