White and Fresh

In trying to make our home a restful, peaceful space (as 'peaceful' gets with two little boys), I decided to say goodbye to our green-blue walls (I can never remember what the actual paint colour is) and give our living room and dining room a nice fresh coat of white paint. I loved the previous paint colour, but it was feeling a bit too dark for the space.

I chose Benjamin Moore's "Fresh Cream" and I think it is a perfect creamy white. I could not be happier with this fresh space! 

In the dining room, I hung up a vintage world map that I found at a yard sale. Best find ever. And it wasn't $10, but it was less then $80. I know. I am crazy, but it was something that I have been looking for, for a very long time. I kept looking online on Kijiji (similar to Craigslist) and Ebay, but Kijiji had nothing and the ones on Ebay are in the high $200s. I wanted a map, but not that much. So when this map came up, I jumped at it. I love the colour that it brings to the whole room. 

Here's a before and after so you can see the difference a coat of white paint gives to the space: 

It is amazing what a coat of paint can do! 

Side Table Makeover

This project is one of the ones that I started before I had Troy. I was sitting on my couch in the living room, trying not to melt in this heat and I was looking at my side tables. They were boring white.

I got the tables second-hand and when I first got them, they were a dark wood tone. Not bad, but really not my style and it didn't match with anything. So I painted them white.

Not bad, just not interesting.

I picked up some spray paint with primer built right in (awesome stuff!) in a mustard yellow colour and got to work. First I cleaned off all the fingerprints and stains that had accumulated. Even though all the prep work isn't very exciting, it will leave you with a nicer product at the end.

Unfortunately, one of the cans that I picked up decided it was the exploding kind and proceeded to pour huge amounts of paint all over my hands any time I pressed on the nozzle. And let me tell you, spray paint is not easy to get off!

I was originally going to give the table two days to sit and cure but I went into labour instead and it ended up curing for a week. The tables only took two coats of spray paint.

And here is the finished product:

I love how it brightens everything up in the room. 

Eventually I want to change the wall colour to Benjamin Moore Nimbus, but the will be a massive job since it's basically painting half our house... with two toddlers and a newborn to watch at the same time. I'm trying to decide if I'm  crazy enough. In the meantime, I'll look at my "new" side tables and smile.

Have you been up to any painting projects lately? What colours are you loving? 

Ta-Da!

Now that I've dragged out the suspense of my yellow dresser makeover, here are the official "before and after" pictures: 

I've been finding myself just opening up my craft room door and just smiling because this dresser makes me so happy! Is that weird? 

I wish I could give you the colour name of the paint, but I have no idea what it is. I bought the paint last April when I was getting Gavin's room ready. But I never used it, which I'm glad for! 

I gave the original wooden knobs a coat of Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint, which was leftover from our dining room light makeover. 

My scrapbooking books and albums went in the wire basket on top of the dresser. I stuck my paintbrushes in a little ceramic jug that I had. In the far wire basket (which is barely showing) are my sewing supplies.

I have fabric, stamps, scrapbooking supplies, extra decorating items, staple guns, and whole bunch of other crafting goodies in the drawers. I love having everything organized!  

So that's the story of the yellow dresser! Who knows...maybe I'll get some scrapbooking done now in my nice clean, organized space. I feel like I have said that before though...

Happy weekend! And Happy Mother's Day!