Five on Friday

Happy Friday!

-one-

If you saw my post yesterday, I'm doing a follow up today! I really appreciate all of the comments and the comments are still open! Please let me know your opinion, whether you like the idea or not! 

I did some research and it seems that painting the window frame is kind of a trend right now, and for good reason! Check it out:

-two-

I met my friend Macie for dinner at one of my favorite places last night. She is notoriously late so I passed the time by purchasing these below. Oops! :)

-three-

Texas weather. That's all I'm going to say:

-four-

I'm so proud of my hair growth....I sent this "selfie" to Emily yesterday and she was in pure shock that my hair was this long. My hair has a story of its own...I cut it three years ago into a bob (at my then-boyfriend/now husband's request) and I have mourned my long locks ever since. I still have a long way to go (thanks slowest growing hair EVER) but I'm finally happy with the length!

-five-

This isn't our house, but it will hopefully have something in common with it after this weekend...a ripped out backsplash!!! I'm crossing my fingers we get this far tomorrow so when we start the process after Thanksgiving, it will go quickly! 

Share your five things and link up with my favorite Red Raider blogger Darci! 

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury...

People of the Internet: I need your input!

I pinned this image about 5 months ago when we were closing on our home:

I LOVE how this looks and since then I've thought about painting my own window frame. I know there are a lot of orange haters out there, but I actually like the orange. I would be open to more reddish-oranges or maybe even coral. I could explore other color options, but let's get over the first hurdle...

Here are two vantage points of my kitchen (these are the listing images):

If you notice, you can't really see the window unless you are IN the kitchen. That way, my fear of a color being 'too much' would be lessened. 

I mentioned here that Mark and I purchased counters, tile, and a sink for our upcoming remodel (scheduled to start next week!!!) so here is what the new scheme will be:

floor tile as-is

cabinets and cabinet hardware as-is

sink hardware as-is

counter top (not exact color but close) : 

back splash tile (also to go on 'dead end' from back splash level to floor):

sink (similar):

light above sink:

As seen here in our 'after' photos, the walls are Behr: Dolphin Fin (grey) and "dead end" wall is chalkboard paint. 

So, as you see, I have a lot of flexibility to add color.

Second point, and most difficult to master: The window is semi-new, replaced by the previous owners. It is metal and does not have the mullions like the inspiration image. Therefore, it would be very difficult to go back to simple white metal for a future owner or if we didn't like it. We would either have to strip off the paint, which could still damage the white paint on the metal underneath, or we would have to paint over it.

Now that I've presented all of the evidence, I need you as my jury to help me decide! (although my husband gets the last word) 

yes or no?

p.s. how do you like our scheme so far? I'm FREAKING OUT and can't wait to see the finished product!!! :)

Trim progress

One thing I love about a low-key weekend is how much I'm able to get accomplished if I put my mind to it. One thing that I've had on my list for the last 4 months was to paint the shutters at the front of the house. 

I had planned on doing this over the last month or so, but every chance I had was foiled by rain or humidity. On Sunday, I made good use of the beautiful weather, grabbed my paint can and headed for the front.

Like I mentioned in this post, the previous owners painted the exterior trim and doors prior to putting the house on the market. From day one of seeing the house I've wanted to change the trim color. Like the trim around the garage, these shutters started out a dull, horrible brown color. 

I'll call this my "Touched by an Angel" photo...hehe

This is an accurate photo showing the color of the shutters.

They aren't operable and the owners did a good job of covering up the screws, so I opted to paint them while they were still on the house.

As you can see, I went with the same jet black as I did for the front door, back door, and garage trim. (Don't mind the paint on the brick, I wiped that off!). The photo above is showing one coat of paint on the left shutter and the original brown on the right shutter.

It only took me about 30 minutes to slap some paint on those bad boys, and here is the result!

I am loving the change!

If you're not from Texas, this is what November 3rd looks like...68 degrees, sunny, and green grass and leaves still on the trees!

I'm so glad to have all of the trim transformed in the front of the house. What do you think?

Hocus Pocus - a story of decor

It's Friday and I'm ready to share my Fall decorating, so it's a good day all around!

Over the years I've come to really enjoy Fall and Halloween. I don't remember Halloween ever being a favorite holiday, but I've never been a fan of scary, gory, horrifying things, so that makes sense. Over the last couple of years, though, I've found myself getting giddy over the thought of Halloween. That being said, I've started my own collection of decorations. 

This year I didn't buy anything since our house isn't 100% set up yet. I don't really decorate private areas of the house and I scatter just a few things around the kitchen, so there is only so much decor that can fit in these small 1200 square feet. 

First off, here is our entry. 

(edit: I was looking back on old posts and found this guy below. Look at what a difference about 2 months, some black paint, and decor makes!)

I'm so glad I got the black door and trim painted before this holiday. I cannot imagine this looking good with a maroon door!

All of the orange pumpkins are real pumpkins that Mark and I picked up at Home Depot last weekend. The white one is a fake I got a few years ago. I don't remember buying that galvanized witch thing...Kelly, is that yours? If not, I probably picked it up at HomeGoods.

I found the skull and the black jack-o-lantern at Target and we picked up those mums at Home Depot when we got the pumpkins.

I had an extra strand of leaf garland (snagged at Joann's or Hobby Lobby on sale one year) that I couldn't place anywhere in the house, so I literally just rolled it up and stuck it in the middle of my burlap wreath (seen here). Also, that "B" came from the wreaths I made for our wedding and it fell off in the move.

(there's the original B's location at our old apartment)

It was just lying in our front closet so I grabbed it and stuck it right in with the leaves! So, yeah, DIY cheat, none of that is actually being held in place. Less work for me! :)

I ended up moving this scrolled side table into the entryway to serve as a semi-entry table when we got the new couch. I'm still working things out as far as layout, since the space is a little odd! I have the same cheery books (Blink and The Happiness Project) all together with a glow-in-the-dark skull, purple glitter "EEK!" and a Yankee Candle Company "Autumn Festival" candle. I highly recommend this candle, by the way! Plus, I LOVE the spooky shadow it casts on the "EEK!" sign! 

I have a never-ending assortment of pumpkins, so these are just scattered around the living room. My favorite is still the wicker pumpkin and its slight chevron pattern. :)

Kelly calls this orange and black pillow my 'Halloween pillow" and while I have it out all year, it definitely gets moved to the front in October. Also, I picked up that pillow at the very back from Target a few years ago. On one side it has black and white stripes and on the other it has words like "spooky" and "scary". It's a favorite! As you can see, I laid my other leaf garland here on the windowsill.

I re purposed the $20 TV stand I bought at Wal-Mart a couple years ago into a lonnnngggg end table by the sofa, and I really like it there so far! Mark has a war plane book entitled Ghosts and it works perfectly with book 7 of the Harry Potter series to give a spooky backdrop. I throw in a mushy photo, a glitter pumpkin, two fake baby pumpkins, and a raven and we've got ourselves a vignette! 

I'm a sucker for seasonal candy (even though you can't tell - that sunlight in the back made for a washed out photo!) so I always fill glasses and vases with seasonal M&M's. They don't tempt me much (I'm more of a cookie/cake type of girl) but Mark already warned me that they would be gone soon. I think they are about half of that now. Also, I scored this SWEET little vulture baby at Joann's a couple years ago. It sits appropriately by another glitter sign, "BEWARE". I got it and the "EEK!" sign in the dollar section at Target when I first moved to Dallas.

So, that's my decor for this year! I'm proud of myself for not buying any new items and just working with what I've got! Does anyone else LOVE Halloween out there? Do you decorate your house to the max, or just here and there? I'd love to hear!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

One more thing - I still haven't done anything with this mirror but I'm hoping to use my weekend to get something done. I'm taking votes! Should I paint it? Leave it natural? Distress it? Give it a wash? Give me your thoughts!

Have a happy weekend!

Black is the new brown

Over the weekend, I took full advantage of my open schedule and the BEAUTIFUL weather so I broke out a can of black exterior paint and continued to transform the house.

One of my favorite things about the house are these double french doors. The previous owners left a sliding screen door, so it was easy to open the door, close the screen, and have some fresh air coming through without all of the bugs. You'll notice, however, that I had to put up a baby gate, as animals aren't so good at seeing the screen door and we almost had a dog-shaped outline in it. 

So first things first, I got out the Lysol and paper towels and I scrubbed the door. There was mud, dog slobber, bugs, and cobwebs all over it so it was a very important step. I then laid out my 'drop cloth' (an old towel) underneath for any stray drops. I didn't bother taping off the door knobs since I still have one to paint and I'm careful enough to go around the other. 

I didn't tape off the glass either because 1-that's a lot of tape and 2-it is easy enough to go around with a razor blade and scrape the paint off the glass. The photo above was after my first coat. I did a pretty thin coat just to get some coverage and let it dry for about 30 minutes (exterior paint dries really fast).

As you can see, I didn't worry about covering all of the red with the first coat.

The second coat had the door looking glossy and very black. (If you're wondering, I used a semi-gloss finish)

See? Messy paint on all the glass. It took me about 30-45 minutes to go back and scrape all of the paint off. Then I wiped it down again to get any fingerprints and stray paint off of the door.

I stepped back, and here we go! I didn't paint the second door yet, but I'll post a photo as soon as I do! This photo was taken in mid-afternoon and I like the light.

I like the contrast with the cream trim and tan brick much better now.

I think Mark's response was "wow, that looks a lot better!". Mission accomplished! (this photo was almost at dusk)

You can see the old red door in this shot.

I had planned to start winding down at this point, as it was about 5:30 and the sun is setting around 7. I just couldn't sit still though, so I took my paint and brush (and Lysol) out to the front and painted the trim that surrounds the garage doors. 

The trim on the left is painted (first coat) and the trim on the right isn't. It's hard to tell but it was a drab brown color.

You can see a sliver of the old brown here. I'm really confused as to why they painted this brown, and the doors red, but I can't judge someone for their bad decisions...but really. I'm pretty sure they painted the doors and trim before they put the house on the market, because an old Zillow photo shows the trim unpainted. They must have been in a rush considering there was no correlation in their color choices. Maroon doors and brown trim. Odd!

Here is our beautiful house after a little face lift. All that is left to paint are the shutters off the master bedroom and that lingering red back door. Plus you get a sneak peek at our Fall decor! (the alarm sign is not part of the decor)

I like how the black also makes the lantern finish pop more. It ties it all together!

(ignore my bad but essential editing)

So, what do you think about the black updates? Is it too dark for you? Or do you think it works with the house? Would you do a different color or keep it neutral?