If it ain't broke.....

Fix it anyway!! Lol


Happy Tuesday everyone. I hope you all had a nice long weekend. We had really beautiful weather here in SoCal so we had a beachy, picnicky weekend. Birds chirped. Leaves blew in the breeze. My cheeks got rosy in the sun. It was wonderful.

Life really is beautiful.

That leads me to my project for the day. A few years ago, my sister bought me this awesome painting from Pier1. I just loved it so so much and since she loves me so so much, she bought it for me. awwww. My sis is the best!

 

It has been hanging over the "brown beast" aka our guest bed in the den that sits in the center of our home. I walk by it a zillion times a day. I often notice it hanging there, but sometimes I don't. It's just a part of our house. I love it. It means a lot to me. It makes me happy.

 

Well, today, I walked past it and noticed it. Only, not for the awesomenss that I usually do. I noticed that hanging over the brown beast, the plum/gold/brown hue looked kinda muddy and dark. I never saw it that way, but all the sudden I did. Instantly I new what to do....

If you have been reading this blog for a while, you know that nothing is safe from my aqua paint. I used my Martha Stewart craft paint (color: Surf) and simply painted over the background color with a foam brush.

Two coats later and poof!

 

Lighter and brighter and very much more "me."

I may end up moving it into my bedroom. It would look really pretty hanging over my bed now that it's so bright and happy. I didn't factor in that the new aqua color may clash a bit with the icy blue color of the highboy dresser. That's what happens when you are impulsive I guess. haha!

 

It wasn't super perfectly painted to begin with...kinda free form and splotchy. This made it so I didn't have to be super careful when I was painting over it (which works out nicely for me - lol).

 



I like it so much better now :)

 I looooved it before, but now it just pops more and fits in with the rest of our decor. The brown beast with all ways be beasty. Some day I see an awesome murphy bed or caned day bed or some other less unsightly guest bed solution. For now, the beast is brightened up with some aqua love. Sigh. I love you aqua!

Happy day to you :)

Aqua {LOVE}

Hello everyone, happy almost Friday!!! It is still hot hot hot over here in SoCal but I am dying for it to feel like Fall. Arg!

I wanted to share with you a little house update that has my heart goin' pitter patter. It's no secret to many of you who have been reading this blog that I loooooove me some aqua. It is my go to accent color always, and I use for pretty much every holiday. After bugging my husband for quite some time, he finally broke down and got to work (my nagging can feel like Chinese water torture, I'm told - lol). I could have attempted this project myself, but I tend to defer to the hubby when it is a major feature in our home. I get a tad......sloppy-ish when I paint, so it is best if the things that require precision and care get thrown his way.

Here is the before shot of our front door:

(sorry for the half-in-the-sun pics).
It's not a bad color by any means, but cranberry just isn't really "me."

Ready for the after shot!!??

Isn't it just the happiest front door ever!!?

I love it sooooooooooooooo much!!!

A special thanks to my sweet hubby for doing all the hard work (and doing it oh so well).
Life is {Aqua} and sweet!!!

Chandelier {LOVE}

(Get ready for LOTS of pictures people).

I love chandeliers. I personally think every room should have one. Now, that is not practical nor affordable, I know. I have a chandelier. It's in my kitchen above my sink. I bought it with some wedding gift cards about 9 years ago when we bought our first condo. Wanna see it?

Close-up.

When we first bought it from Lowes I was in love with it. It was replacing a hideous ceiling fan in our tiny condo and I was thrilled. After we moved in to our current house 3 years ago, we hung it up over the sink and called it a day.

Once I started diy'ing the heck out of this house, I knew I wanted to change it. It just felt kind of blah and I knew it could use some freshening up. So, she came down.

My first step was to remove those clear beads that ran along the body of the chandelier. I also removed all of the amber drops (If I'm being honest, those were never my fave).

I gave her a thorough cleaning and then hung her from the tree in the backyard to get sprayed.

And then I had a panic attack because my spray paint freaked out. Ahhhhhhhh!
Look....

Every once in a while, My spray paint goes on all frothy and lumpy. I got a damp paper towel and gently smoothed it out as best as I could, and then continued.

Ready for picture-mania of the "after?"

Here's a closer look...

I found the antique lucite aqua prisms on etsy and they are perfection (if I do say so myself)!!

Here's a wide shot...

We also took down the black valance that we had over the window. We initially took it down to wash it, but it let so much more light in once we took it down so we're keeping it off.

{In LOVE}

It just looks so much more fresh and clean and I-just-love-it! Haha, Can you tell I love it!?
Thanks for enduring picture-mania. I hope you like this makeover :)
Happy Thursday!

Roadkill Rescue - Hubby files

Hello all, I hope you are having a nice week so far. I finally, finally tackled a diy project. It-has-been-a-while. haha! This Summer has been a busy one so far so I'm having a hard time keeping it all together. School routine will be here before we know it, so I'm taking advantage of lazy beach days and being a blob :)

Remember back when I showed you the mirror that my hubby found with a "free" sign on it??

As I mentioned previously, I was SUPER shocked when he actually brought a piece of "junk" into the house rather than out. I instantly fell in love with this mirror and knew it had to go somewhere special. I also knew I wanted to paint it.....hmmm....what to do?

First - I had to tape it.

UGH! It was a total pain to tape. Took forever.

Finally!! haha! NO fun.

I decided the guest/kid bathroom would be the best spot for it. It doesn't exactly "go" with the fixtures in there really, but those will all change eventually so I thought I would try it out. Here is a before pic of the boring bathroom.

Not terrible, but definitely not fabulous either. This bathroom doesn't get any natural light at all which is a total bummer. Hopefully the new mirror helps brighten things up a bit in there :)

Here's the after shot for ya :)

I stayed in my comfort zone and went with my go-to favorite color aqua. I like the way it looks with the yellow accents that I already had in there. That awesome wooden sign is from my friend Pamela at PBJStories. She's super talented and I was lucky to win the first giveaway ever on her blog. I was sooooo excited when I found out I won!

The mirror had some old hardware on it and I decided to leave it on there. I want to remember that this was a piece that was used somewhere else in it's past life, and now it lives with us :)

From what I could tell, it looks like it was attached to a dresser.
Along with the light distressing I gave it, there were also some fun chippy patches that I left alone. I wanted to let the mirror show it's age and character a bit.

All in all I think it looks pretty cute in there.

("Hayden - look in the mirror and smile for Mommy.")
fail #1.

fail #2

She's just so cooperative, huh!?

I hope you like this mini makeover/roadkill rescue project. I am still so proud of my sweet husband for dragging it home! He must reeaalllly love me ;)

Have a great day!