a weekend project

I love when I have some time to spare—which isn't that often—to attempt a weekend project. Most of my weekend projects involves color in some way and most often in paint. This past weekend was one of those rare moments when I was caught up with my design projects and paperwork so I decided to paint these two kitchen chairs [below].

Since they had a semi-gloss finish, I had to sand them first. This is what they looked like after sanding them by hand. I bought these chairs for $10 and they survived four years at college with my son and a house full of boys! I figured if they survived that, then they could survive anything so they went home with me when he was finished with college. As you can see, they went through many color variations through the years—from their original stain, to black and then gray and now to blue.

I chose blue mainly to pull out the blue in the new kitchen rug. I found the perfect match with a Behr paint called Restless Sea [UL230-23].

I love how they look with the rug, adding just enough color and balancing all the warm tones in the room.

Notice the sanded edges on the seat and back of the chair. I wanted to give them an aged look to complement my collection of antique accessories and crocks.

Our kitchen renovation is now completed. It only took two years and four months! Click here to view the before photos. It's amazing what a little paint can do!

down the gardening path — phase 2!

Remember when I posted about our new gardening shed and raised beds in May. This is how it looked one year ago when it first went in. [below]

We have now entered phase 2 and this is how it looks now. [below]

We finally finished landscaping around the shed, keeping it simple and informal and using rocks from our yard. 

The paths are completed around the raised beds and stepping stones were added in front of the flower bed on the side.   

Our raised beds did great this summer so we plan to add two more next spring. That means more veggies for us and moving onto phase 3!