Stairway to Heaven (AKA I FINALLY painted the ugly stairs!!)

We just celebrated our 1st anniversary of owning our house!  When we purchased the house, it had been divided into a duplex by walling up the stairs and breaking up the natural flow between floors. Creating a 3 bedroom apartment upstairs and a 2 bedroom apartment downstairs.

When I realized this, just after I had finished painting the fireplace, and saw light coming through from an unfinished part of the wall, I called Sean excitedly and said, "I'm going through that wall!!"

This is where I noticed the light coming through and I took this pic the moment I decided I was going through it!

This is when we went through the wall finally. Glad I waited for some help! 

After we took the wall down, it really opened up the space and suddenly the whole house floor plan made sense.  Re-opening that staircase really married the two stories and gave us one cohesive house instead of two separate apartments.  I was thrilled!  But I was not thrilled with the state of the stairs.  They had been hidden behind a narrow passageway, with no electricity for who knows how many years.  (I actually installed the lights and the switch myself after taking a Home Depot class).  So once it was opened up and there was light on it, it was clear how severely they needed a coat of paint.

I spent an evening painting the stairwell and even priming the stairs, but with kids and pets and a million other things needing to be done, the stair makeover ended at that point.  So for a year, the stairs have just been covered in primer, and being a high traffic area, turned a very nasty shade of dirty, no matter how much I swept and vacuumed them.

I had a house with no kids for a few hours today and decided I would just go for it, and finally get these things done!  I could not be more pleased with the results!

I chose a really high quality deck/patio paint in this color:

I painted both sides of the stairs in the same color as the walls, then I taped off the part that I was going to paint the Ocean Swell color.  I liked how it creates a runner look.  Initially I was going to do the entire stair a color, but after a lot of research I feel this was a more finished/polished look.

Here are my before/after shots:

I took the finished photo at nearly 1AM, and did not want to disturb the wet paint, that is why my paint rag is still at the bottom of the stairs. 

Before/After

My next project is to cover that gross tile at the bottom of the stairs with something amazing!! Stay tuned!

Happy Birthday to me!

I got the best and sweetest birthday gift ever this year!
A new baby that my son promptly name Yo-Kai Kitty!

Here he is investigating a sunflower from my garden:

OMG he is the cutest!

My DIY Vintage Dream Kitchen Remodel

In August (on my actual birthday) we purchased a lovely new house!!  It was built in 1954 and has so much Mid Century charm!  We are having the best DIY time remodeling it by ourselves.

Since it is a pretty big house, at some point over the years it was split into a duplex with a 2 bedroom downstairs and a 3 bedroom upstairs.  This means the house has TWO KITCHENS!! Yes, you heard me right.  TWO!!

With my darling husband being a master chef in the making and me being the queen of all things baked goods, we decided that we were going to keep both and have His and Hers kitchens.  The upstairs became my husbands modern dream kitchen with all of the new appliances and things to make all of his culinary dreams a reality.  My downstairs kitchen has become my vintage daydream, pet project, and pretty much favorite place to be. (My girlfriends say it looks like a kids playhouse, but everything works.)

This post is about my sweet little kitchen makeover from start to finish.

I will start with the initial before and after, because WOW! 

BEFORE

AFTER!! 

  The first thing I did was get rid of all of the old appliances and prime everything.

Before Primer

After Primer

At the same time I was searching all over Craigslist to find the perfect vintage stove.  It did not take me too long to find this beauty, that works perfectly and has been sitting in a lovely ladies storage for 20 some years.  Got if for a steal at $300!!

My new stove, sitting in storage waiting for me to take her home. 

Once I had the stove, I knew what my colors were going to be.  I was going to build the entire kitchen around the Aqua beauty!  I picked Teal, Pink and Yellow as the colors.

Teal, Pink and Yellow, with fancy silver drawer pulls!

I'm also using the same teal as an accent color through the downstairs and the connecting shelf.

Before and after shelf divider at kitchen entrance. Pretty new paint and cute *disco knobs.
(*Not really disco, but that is what I call them) 

At the entrance to the kitchen I wanted my own menu board, so I painted the side of this cupboard with chalkboard paint, and I turned a cute drawer pull upside-down to create a chalk holder.  Now Mamachelle's kitchen has a cool place to display all of the deliciousness being baked in there! 

After all of the painting was done, I pulled up the old beat up floor and installed a brand new one all on my own!  It was a process, but I feel like it was not too terribly hard.

My new floor!! 

Then I added some sweet details, and displayed my vintage collection of stuff and things.

Teeny Wonder Woman!! Eep!

Mr Chester Crumbs

Searched forever to find the perfect mini fridge to keep my milk and eggs.  I needed it to be the right color, but not cost a million dollars. Found this online for less than $200!

And here is the big after!  LOVE my kitchen!!