A Weekend in the Garden

I've gotten to the point in my life where I actually have to schedule time at home. If I don't, I'll end up committing myself to a million different things and I won't ever get anything done. So, this weekend was scheduled time at home to work on my house.

Projects to be tackled - the front yard & the yoga room closet


The more fun of the two happened most of the time, the garden. I'll do another post on the closet.

Because no one had lived in our house for a while before we bought it, and even the people living in it before didn't really do much to the yard, so I don't think it had been touched for at least 4 years. Azaleas were bunched up in the corner, a japanese maple was too close to the house, a crepe myrtle was in an odd location and there were some wild vines that had grown throughout the flower beds. So a lot of time was spent on clean up. Luckily, after the major mess was done, we were able to plant a new cherry tree, a butterfly bush, two hydrangeas, and two random bushes. We were able to salvage 4 azaleas, a hydrangea and some random bush. I also redid the flower boxes on the windows.

Before - the random bunch of azaleas 

After - a bright green bush, a hydrangea, a darker bush and a butterfly bush

Before - our oddly placed Japanese Maple

Stargazer lillies, hydrangeas, and a cute little frog

It pained us both to cut down the Japanese maple but there was not really a good way to salvage it. So sad. 

Before - randomness

After - just a few bush changes, but I think it makes a difference once you see it all together

Before - dead flower boxes

After - lots of color!

Before - not bad, but just kind of bland

After - salvaged azaleas

Before - bland

After - new life in an empty yard!

It will obviously get better as the bushes/tree grows, but I feel better already. Whew!

Namaste

What I learned about painting furniture

If you read my post about blueberry pancakes, you also noticed I was painting our China Cabinet. One thing I've noticed about furniture is that it's expensive and a lot of it kind of looks like crap. I'm not a HUGE fan of China Cabinets, especially the big ones that look fancy. Bleh. Not my style. So I've decided I'm going to paint furniture pretty colors and make my house BRIGHT!!

To review -

This is where we started. 

Lesson #1 - sanding is hard. You don't necessarily need to sand the furniture, but I went ahead and did a light sanding all over. It took me forever and was my least favorite part of it. Next time, I might just try not doing it because a lot of design bloggers say they don't (I'll mention my favs in a minute) 

Lesson #2 - if you're thinking about getting rid of your hardware and buying new hardware, KEEP IT JUST IN CASE. I couldn't find any good looking hardware so I'm so glad we ended up keeping what we have. It was wwwwaaaaayyyyyy better looking than what I found in the store. You can always paint it, although I liked the antique bronze my hardware is. 

I've read that you should try the Krylon brand spray paint but I couldn't find it, so I went with this. It didn't seem to do as well and it took us about 5 blue cans to paint the whole thing. Next time, I'll try the Krylon just to see, although this was a big piece of furniture. 

Lesson #3 - priming. My husband came home and I had used an entire can of primer on just the doors. He was like, really... an entire can... on just the doors? Evidently, I was a little heavy handed. He told me that I only need a light coating as the primer was mainly to help the color stick. So note to self. 

Lesson #4 - do this in a well ventilated area. We painted it in an open garage, with a mask and it was still a lot. 

Lesson #5 - it needs to be at least 50 degrees - we were okay with this but I just wanted to make sure I put that in here. 

The finished product was awesome. I went to World Market and bought some cute pulls. 

Lesson #6 - Don't be afraid to be eclectic. You don't have to match everything! I just make sure to be in the same color family. 

These are the pulls for the top - i love them

the bottom - they are red which pulls out the red in the top pulls and in my rug 

the finished product. It still had some wet paint, so once I get it in the kitchen with the china, I will show you. 

I'm so excited to have done our first home project (well, I did the pillows and James painted this. After the primer incident, he said he was taking over). I have found that decorating our house is so fun and it doesn't have to be super expensive!!

My First Project = Complete

If you've been reading my decor posts, you know I'm making pillows for the house. I finally completed all of the ones for the couch and the yoga room.

I have two like this which are different fabrics for each side. They took the longest because we had to 1) monogram them and 2) sew the zipper. These are the only ones we did like this. They are 20 inch pillows, sewed on 3 sides and a zipper being on the last side. 

These are the matching pillows for the couch. They are the same fabric on each side and have a fold over in the back. One is 16 x 16, one is 18 x 18 and one is 12 x 18. 

Placed on the couch. The flower fabric actually has a color guide, so I'm going to use that to pick the paint for the walls. I still have to paint the living room, finish decorating the mantle, choose artwork and the right side of the room will be done. I'll have to buy a chair, table and some type of desk for the other side. That will be the reading area. 

Pillows for the yoga room. This is all I have done in there. I have a LOT more to do. The backs gap a little but I think it has more to do with the pillow. I think as they flatten out, they'll be okay. 

I'm pretty excited about my new pillows. It took some time, but I think as I get better at sewing, it won't be as time consuming. The whole project only cost me about $60. 

Next on my list - curtains. I have already bought the fabric.