{Re} Painted Stairs

When we first moved in our stairs looked like this:

After I ripped the carpet off the stairs, I painted them:

They were starting to look a little shabby, so I decided to paint them again.  Don't be mad at me....I painted them months ago, like before Oliver was even born!!

When we built the barn door baby gate, the little stairs looked even worse.

The whole front edge had rubbed off.  blah.


I decided to paint them gray...only problem is that it is just slightly off of the wall color.  Making the dining room and kitchen look a little drab.  Floor and wall matching is a no no for me.
I painted it anyway and just went with it :)  Which means once again, I will be changing it up again!

Here are the pics before I change it again!! :)

A clue on the new changes.....brown paint, this rug from urban outfitters,

and inspiration from this picture.

Did you figure out what I'm doing?!?  Didya, huh?

xoxo

 SUNDAY:

The Girl Creative ,
The DIY Showoff,
Sisters of the Wild West,
The Tattered Tag,
Flamingo Toes,
Under the Table and Dreaming,
I Heart Nap Time

 MONDAY:

Skip To My Lou, 
Thrifty Decor Chick, 
C.R.A.F.T., 
Sew Can Do,
Dittle Dattle,
Between Naps On the Porch 
Homemaker on a Dime
Making the World Cuter

TUESDAY:

Tip Junkie,
Type A
A Bowl Full of Lemons
Today's Creative Blog
Funky Polkadot Giraffe 
Strictly Homemade
A Diamond in the Stuff
All Thingz Related
Handmade Tuesday

WEDNESDAY:

Blue Cricket Design
Not Just A Housewife
Someday CraftsHandy Man, Crafty Woman
Sew Much Ado
Organize Your Stuff Now 
Seven Thirty Three
Sugar and Dots 
The Mommy Club  

THURSDAY:

My Repurposed Life
Paisley Passions
House of Hepworths
Beyond The Picket Fence
Inspired by Charm
The Shabby Chic Cottage
Somewhat Simple 

FRIDAY:

Whipperberry

Fingerprints on the Fridge
Miss Mustard Seed
Remodelaholic 
Chic on a Shoestring
Shabby Nest
Tidy Mom
Little Lucy Lu
My Simple HomeLife

SATURDAY:

Funky Junk Interiors
Be Different Act Normal 
Tatertots and Jello 
Young and Crafty

Updated Children's Art Gallery

I rearranged some of the girls art and added some from this school year.  I rehung it at the top of the stairs and up the wall in the stairwell.   I actually had most of the wall done like a week ago, but some of the thrift store frames still had price tags on them and had to be painted black.

Hey, I've been distracted with the bathroom.  :)

Meanwhile in the bathroom:  the floor is being prepped for slate tile!

and my dining room looks like this...........seriously.

well the sink and top are gone now, but I have to refinish the vanity....
maybe I'll start that tonight!  maybe.


-Make your life beautiful!

SUNDAY:

The Girl Creative , The DIY Showoff, Sisters of the Wild West,  The Tattered Tag, Flamingo Toes, Under the Table and Dreaming, I Heart Nap Time

 MONDAY:

Skip To My Lou, Thrifty Decor Chick, C.R.A.F.T., Sew Can Do, Dittle Dattle, Between Naps On the Porch, Homemaker on a Dime, Making the World Cuter

TUESDAY:

Tip Junkie, Type A, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Today's Creative Blog, Funky Polkadot Giraffe,  Strictly Homemade, A Diamond in the Stuff, All Thingz Related, 

Handmade Tuesday

WEDNESDAY:

Blue Cricket Design, Not Just A Housewife, Someday Crafts, Handy Man, Crafty Woman, Sew Much Ado, Organize Your Stuff Now, Seven Thirty Three,
Sugar and Dots, The Mommy Club  

THURSDAY:

My Repurposed Life, Paisley Passions, House of Hepworths, Beyond The Picket Fence, Inspired by Charm, The Shabby Chic Cottage,  Somewhat Simple 

FRIDAY:

Whipperberry, Fingerprints on the Fridge, Miss Mustard Seed Remodelaholic, Chic on a Shoestring Shabby Nest Tidy Mom Little Lucy Lu My Simple HomeLife

SATURDAY:

Funky Junk Interiors, Be Different Act Normal,  Tatertots and Jello, Young and Crafty 

Gettin' to it!

Today is the first day of summer for me!!  I am done babysitting for the summer!  Which means I can get after some projects I have been planning!

Today, I will move the kids art gallery wall up to the top of the stairs.  hopefully, I can get all this done before Audrey goes down for a nap this afternoon....so I'll show you later.

Here is what the wall looked like in the dining room:

Our dining room is extremely narrow, so the pictures get bumped a lot!  Good thing they are movin'!

And up the stairs before:

However, the girls brought in a whole slew of new artwork!  So, we have outgrown the space!



-Make your life beautiful!!

barn door baby gate

i know, i have been m.i.a for a while....but, i'm back baby!!  i have so much to blog about :)

first, on the block today is our knew barn door baby gate. our stairs are extremely wide, so a baby gate wouldn't fit...it did, however, when placed next to an empty pampers box.  classy, i know.  wish i had pics of that...not.  i know, i just went all 1996 on you with the not.  that's how i roll.

i designed, well more like told mr. tsl what i wanted, and he made it at school.

here were the stairs before:

and after the new barn door baby gate:

total for the barn door baby gate:  $5 for hardware.  the door itself is made of old pallet wood!

 now for a fun little new baby gate story.....

audrey likes to play in the dog food and water.  she use to run to it grab a handful of dog food and immediately throw it into the water before she got in trouble.  for the most part now she leaves it alone, with the exception of when you say wash your hands it's dinner time.  she washes her hands in it and then wipes her wet hands on my pants.  she does this every night.  every night, i say "no...that's so gross," and then wash her hands in the sink.  yes, i could grab her before i say wash your hands, but i am usually finishing up dinner.  plus, it's kind of funny and i have to wash her hands anyway. :)

back to the dog food. harley, our border collie, would jump over the classy pampers box to get to her food when the baby gate/pampers blockade was in place.  mr. tsl put the new gate up which is lower on the baby gate side, but a few inches higher on the pampers part side.

here is a pic to illustrate that:

the first day the barn door baby gate is up, harley decides to eat.  now, i didn't see this happen, but i sure heard it.  harley went to her usual side and attempted to jump over the gate....she did not clear it. not even a little.  which makes me snort laugh even thinking about it!!  anyhow, she then walked back to lay down by the front door very slowly with her head hung in shame, or pain...not sure which.  i opened the baby gate for her and she still didn't feel like going up there.  she just laid in front of the door for a while.

i can only equate her embarrassment/pain to my own.  i have many a time hurt myself and just sat back down.  once, i was attempting to flip off our diving board at my childhood home and took, well for-freakin-ever.  i finally get the balls to flip and smack right onto my back. this was uber embarrassing and extremely painful i just sat in the pool by the ladder for quite a while....this was all caught on tape. awesome.

so harley, i feel your pain, but will continue to laugh when people/pets do stupid things!

-make your life beautiful!!

  SUNDAY:

The Girl Creative ,
The DIY Showoff,
Sisters of the Wild West,
The Tattered Tag,
Flamingo Toes,
Under the Table and Dreaming,
I Heart Nap Time

 MONDAY:

Skip To My Lou, 
Thrifty Decor Chick, 
C.R.A.F.T., 
Sew Can Do,
Dittle Dattle,
Between Naps On the Porch 
Homemaker on a Dime
Making the World Cuter

TUESDAY:

Tip Junkie,
Type A
A Bowl Full of Lemons
Today's Creative Blog
Funky Polkadot Giraffe 
Strictly Homemade
A Diamond in the Stuff
All Thingz Related
Handmade Tuesday

WEDNESDAY:

Blue Cricket Design
Not Just A Housewife
Someday CraftsHandy Man, Crafty Woman
Sew Much Ado
Organize Your Stuff Now 
Seven Thirty Three
Sugar and Dots 
The Mommy Club  

THURSDAY:

My Repurposed Life
Paisley Passions
House of Hepworths
Beyond The Picket Fence
Inspired by Charm
The Shabby Chic Cottage
Somewhat Simple 

FRIDAY:

Whipperberry

Fingerprints on the Fridge
Miss Mustard Seed
Remodelaholic 
Chic on a Shoestring
Shabby Nest
Tidy Mom
Little Lucy Lu
My Simple HomeLife

SATURDAY:

Funky Junk Interiors
Be Different Act Normal 
Tatertots and Jello 
Young and Crafty

Featured over at Domestically Speaking! Love it :)

I was spotlighted over at Domestically Speaking's Power of Paint Party for my painted stairs!!!

So exciting!!

-Make your life beautiful!

Painted Stairs- The BIG REVEAL!!!

 I love them!  I keep walking by them and smiling!  The walls haven't been painted up the stairs yet, that's on Friday's TO DO List!  My parents are coming over on their day off to help Mr. TSL and I redo the bathroom and paint the vaulted stairwell-I am super afraid of heights...... and roller coasters, well any carnival-type ride really.

If you will recall the little stairs looked like this to begin:

This is the BEFORE WE MOVED IN picture!

This is after I tore the carpet off-I love the Harley, our border collie's feet at the top!

After thinking I could stand them like this for a long long time, it took about 2 weeks and I needed to do something with them.  So, I decided to paint them with porch paint!  I looked for lots of inspiration. I decided that I am keeping the palette of our house in Ralph Lauren Cobblestone, black, white, and shades of green.  I decided the stairs should be green-I found a fabulous shade of green, but flubbed that up!

Then they looked like this----GAG!!

 I rushed back to Wal-Mart and exchanged the color for a fabulous shade of Army Green!

Here are the little stairs redone-please disregard the kilz primer on the wall-it will be painted over soon!

And now for the big stairs!!

They looked like this:

After much inspiration and quite a few back aches, I am proud to present my new stairs!!

So, what do you think?  Do you love them?!?

Cost- $19.97 for porch paint (I only used 1/2 gallon, still have 1/2 gallon-what to do?:) )


-Make your life beautiful!!

The glass is half full!

Er, I mean the stairs are half painted!!  I am painting another coat over the first one today and then hopefully they will be totally done by Saturday!

I am so excited, they look spectacular :)  I have also decided to paint all the trim in the house white, it will look so much cleaner and crisp when this gets done.  Notice I said when.....  I am going to start priming them hopefully today (not all of it, just the dining room)  The dining room is getting repainted to match the living room and since it doesn't matter if I get primer and paint on the old wall paint, I can just go to town.

However, because I have already painted: the living room, the master bathroom, and the master bedroom, I am going to have to be careful doing the trim.  In steps my ingenuous mom, she said just take the trim off label it with numbers and paint it with a roller!

Awe to the Some!!  So, I will be recruiting her for said task and also to paint the vaulted stair well.  I am super scared of heights and am not EVER going to get on the ladder to paint it!  Unfortunately, this may not happen for a while.  This weekend she is babysitting my super cute nephews on Friday and Saturday.  Not thinking she wants to do it on Sunday--probably that's a grandma recoup day!  Then next weekend is Easter. However, she does have some days off from work and weather permitting, I bet she'll go for it :) 
Love you mom!

Since, I will be painting the stairs and fixing my office area (I put together the vintage table of my mother-in-laws for our desk!) I am not ready to reveal...boo :( 

Just realized I have been writing and no pictures, nobody reads blogs for the content..jk, so here are some inspirational pics!

I got a new entertainment center-actually it's a dresser, but I love it! I used the paint tool to draw some inspirational decorating on it (I just learned how to use paint on top of a photo-LOVE!)

Like the wonky lamps?  :)

Please note: the bottom drawers were being glued, but I couldn't wait to take a pic of it.  They are now in place!

I fake painted the trim white with the paint tool too!  I am thinking I like the black and white curtains!
Like these amazing curtains:

The Yellow Cape Cod

Decor Pad

Also for curtain inspiration is how, Michael over at Inspired by Charm did his curtains.

I love this idea!  He is a creative genius! 

I am painting my curtains, like Meredith over at Welcome to Heardmont did with her shower curtain!

Off to paint my stairs!

-Make your life beautiful!

Chalkboard doors and a flub up!

A while back I decided to paint my flat builders-grade pantry/laundry room doors with chalkboard paint.  I never did get around to doing it...mama's got a big list of to do's and a teething 7 month old!  I was commited to painting the stairs though!  I went to Wal-Mart to get some porch paint for the stairs. 

While I am at Wal-Mart I see Krylon Chalkboard Paint on clearance near the spray paint (yes, I have another project and I needed spray paint for it---don't judge me---...that will be a later post-when I eventually get to it!) !

I retails at Wal-Mart for around $9 and it was marked down to $5.  PURCHASED :)

This was my inspiration:

source

Love the pulls turned upside down to hold chalk!

This is what I started with:

Now they look like this:

Super cute and functional!!  I was going to write something inspirational or draw something fabulous, but this is what they will almost always look like.  I have kids and they are having fun with this :)



And now to my flub up!!  I wrote down the color for my paint choice for the stairs.  Went to Wal-Mart and apparently Benjamin Moore makes more than one color with that name in different shades of green...what the crazy?!?  So, I buckled and picked one.  As soon as he opened the can I knew it was wrong.  But, he said it should darken up when it dries.  I knew this was wrong, but I was going on no sleepy-teething baby and I just wanted to leave Wal-Mart.

That was DUMB!!!
The color was more like mint-gag adn almost matched the current paint in the dining room and kitchen.  Crap!  Back to Wal-Mart (BTW they take back paint if you don't like it!) I did however paint the steps and live with the old color for about 5 minutes before I vetoed it and drove right back to Wal-Mart.  20 minutes and gas is like a thousand dollars a gallon!! I color matched a green Army blanket Mr. TSL has and repainted when I got home.  I will show you them, when they are done!  For now, here's the ugly paint!

not a fan of this paint color!

 
Painting them is not a permanent fix, but rather a temporary/semi-don't-know-when-we're-going-to-get-to-it-fix.  Because of that reason, I am not priming the steps, I figure the porch paint will do. I was going to paint every other step, but I have little girls and I don't think they could remember/actually get up the stairs without a step between, so I am painting half then finishing them the next day!




-make your life beautiful!