#THECOATSHOME : PAINTING OUR KITCHEN

If you remember from our home tour, when we first moved in our kitchen had awful wallpaper in the kitchen. Matthew and I were not fans of it at all and both agreed it needed to come down asap. Well one afternoon a couple of months after we moved in we decided to start taking it down. Thankfully, it came down very easily, unlike our dining room. We had all the wallpaper down in about 30 minutes and a couple of days later we had the first coat of gray on it. 

When looking at paint colors for our home, Matthew and I both decided that we wanted to paint every room, with an exception of a few guest rooms and guest bathroom, in Agreeable Gray by Sherwin Williams. We wanted a light and neutral color so that we could add color with decor pieces and not have to change the paint color every few years to go along with new decor pieces that we found and liked.

Fast forward a couple of weeks, I was too busy to get the second coat of gray on the kitchen, but we went over to our neighbors house for something and we were in their kitchen and they had it painted the prettiest color. I loved it. but didn't think Matthew would like it so I didn't say anything. Well Matthew loved the color and said he thought we should paint our kitchen that color or something very similar, and I was 100% on board with his plan, or so I thought. When it came time to pick out the color for our kitchen I kept having second thoughts on the color. I was afraid it was too bold for a kitchen or that I would get tired of it, since we are literally in there everyday. So we went to Sherwin Williams and got two samples. One sample was Sea Salt and the other was Waterscape. I put both on the wall and let it dry and stared at it for a good hour, and eventually told Matthew that I liked both but he was going to have to make the final decision on which color we painted the kitchen, and he chose Waterscape! The Sea Salt was a beautiful color, but it was just a few shades different from the gray we already had and we wanted something a little more than that. So back to Sherwin Williams we went to buy a gallon of Waterscape, and the rest is history. Enjoy the before and after pictures of our kitchen below :) 

Before

After

Before

After

And a couple of more pictures of our kitchen...

(Ignore the painters tape in the hallway ;) I'm hoping to take care of that soon. It will be Agreeable Gray)

We are so happy to have another room checked off our "house project list"! The only thing left to do in the kitchen is to add new flooring and light fixtures, but we aren't even going to think about those two things until later next year. We love the paint, and it really does make a huge difference. We also plan on using this color in one of the guest bedrooms and guest bathroom.

To see other posts in #TheCoatsHome series click, HERE.

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#THECOATSHOME : PAINTING OUR KITCHEN

#THECOATSHOME : PAINTING OUR FRONT DOOR

When we moved into our home back in January we both agreed we didn't really care for the front door color. It was a dark gray but has faded over the years and there were scratches on it. It wasn't top priority but we knew it was something we wanted to complete sooner rather than later.

We thought about different colors over the past few months but never nailed anything down. I didn't really think Matthew would want to go for a bright or bold color, and I didn't really want anything too crazy either. We both wanted something simple and classy. I threw out the option of painting our door black. I looked at tons of black front doors and loved the simplicity of the color, and most wreaths would go with the color black...gotta think about these kinds of things! ;) Well Matthew wasn't too keen on the color black and knew that I liked some other colors as well so we kept looking at colors. Well when Blair posted the color that they painted their front door I loved it. Pretty, bright and classy! I casually showed Matthew the color one night after dinner, not thinking too much of it, and he loved it, and said that was the color for our front door. I'll admit, I was a little shocked, but excited he liked the color too and that we both agreed on it, so that was our color! We decided to paint our door over Labor Day Weekend.

We knew that taking our front door off would let in a lot of heat, obviously, so we started around 8 that morning in an attempt to try and beat the heat. Thankfully it was very sunny that morning so I painted in the open sun to dry the door quickly, and it worked! We decided to paint both sides of our door, and we are SO happy with it. We love being able to see the color on the inside as well. That pop of color in our entryway is so fun. After painting both sides, in total, we probably had our front door off for about 2 hours, not too bad!

Last year on Labor Day Weekend we gave our dining room table a makeover and this year we painted our front door...my inner Joanna Gaines is liking this tradition ;)

Before I stared painting I wiped down the entire door, both sides, with a damp rag. After it dried I sanded both sides lightly. I used a sanding sponge similar to these. I then wiped off both sides with a damp rag again, and then let it dry completely before I started painting.

I was very nervous for some reason when it came time to paint our door, I guess because I knew if I messed it up and it didn't turn out well then it would be the first thing everyone saw until we got a new front door...so just a little pressure! I looked up a ton of tutorials and YouTube videos, but really it wasn't hard at all. Once I got to painting it just kinda flowed and worked out great.

 I will say, one thing I learned, is to use a small roller on the detailed areas. I started out using a brush, but decided the small roller worked better. I used a small roller from Lowe's like this one. I used a regular sized roller on the rest of the door, and I think that helped with making sure it was all even and smooth looking! I did two coats on each side and I think that was plenty. 

I painted all sides of the door, except the top, since no one will see that area anyways! I used the small roller for the sides as well. Worked like a charm!

I know you can tape off your hardware (door handles) and such but since I despise taping anything we just took off our door handles until the paint was completely dry. It didn't take long and I didn't have to be extra careful in those area.

Our front door color is Benjamin Moore Wythe Blue, and we could not be happier with it!

To see other posts in #TheCoatsHome series click HERE.

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#THECOATSHOME : PAINTING OUR FRONT DOOR

Weekend recap: Girls night and home!

Friday night was our first girls night of the semester for the SOC, and the first girls night I was in charge of. I was a little stressed out but we ended up having a great turnout! A couple of weekends ago I went on a ladies retreat with our home congregation and we had a little class and painted this:

So, since I knew how to do it already I decided that's the painting they could do Friday night!

It was so fun seeing everyone add their own personal touches to their painting, I loved it!!

 

Matthew and I drove home late Friday night so that I could make it to my sister's last soccer game the next morning, bright and early at 8:00am :) Love watching them play sports!

 

Saturday afternoon Matthew and I drove to Nashville to meet the rest of the SOC at Sky High and dinner! We went there a couple of times earlier this year and love it! It was definitely crowded but we got some good cardio jumping in :)

It was a BUSY weekend but we had a good time with everyone!

 

Please look at this road and tell me it's not GORGEOUS?!

 I can't wait to drive back down it in a couple of weeks when the leave are changing ;)

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Weekend recap: Girls night and home!

Tiffany & Co. inspired birthday party

Well my weekend started on Saturday at 1:15...when I got off from one of the craziest Saturday's I have ever worked. Ever. I came straight home and went into full decorating mode. We were throwing my younger sister a surprise sweet sixteen birthday party.  Her original birthday was back in April but with Proms, her sorority activities and graduations going on this was the first weekend we were able to have it...crazy busy. Her best friend invited her over Friday night and took her shopping Saturday morning, so we could set everything up on our back patio. The theme of her party was Madison & Co.  y'all get ready for an overload of pictures.... She was definitely surprised!

If you are following me on Instagram then you have already seen some of these!

The candy and cake table

The candy holders...are from Dollar Tree

I got bowls and wine/martini glasses and just glued them together and then spray painted them!

Three tier candy stand...also from Dollar Tree

plates and candle stands glued together

 The food table 

I found paper mache boxes at Hobby Lobby and painted and added white satin ribbon to them

Absolutely IN love with these straws

The centerpieces

Balloons lining the drive way

and the cake...

oh.

my.

goooooodness.

not only was it absolutely adorable but it was absolutely delicious.

My mom's friend recently started her own business and we were so thrilled when she said she would make it for us.

Wendy over at Million Dollar Desserts, out did herself on this one! Go look at all her other adorable cakes!

I have been DYING to share all these decoration ideas with y'all and I am so excited I can now!

I will be doing different posts on certain items we used for her party and the "how to" so don't miss it!

I have definitely been

 staying crafty my friends ;)

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Tiffany & Co. inspired birthday party

Saw it. Pinned it. Did it. -Painting

This is one of my FAVORITE link ups! 
I Love to paint and I mean LOVE. I even have a Pinterest board named I LOVE to paint.
So today I am sharing with you one of my favorite paintings I have done so far. Now of course I found it on Pinterest first. Here is the original one I found on Pinterest

and here is the one that I painted...

The lighting is bad so please excuse that! I have painted a lot of other things but I will just save those and show all you pretties later!
Do any of you like to paint? I would love to see what you have painted if you do!!
Linking up with Steph and Katie

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Saw it. Pinned it. Did it. -Painting

Valentine's Day decor

I love all holidays and I love to decorate for each one. I can't wait to own a house one day so that I can decorate it the way that I want to. For now I'll stick to decorating my parents house for the holidays.

Valentine's Day is in 14 days and I put up the decorations this morning before I have to head off to work.

I went to Hobby Lobby and bought these cute little wooden hearts and I just painted them

 

 

I also painted a canvas last year and I am using it again this year to decorate!

 

On Pinterest I found this awesome blog that had a printiable banner...I was very excited!

Here is the link

http://www.shanty-2-chic.com/2012/10/free-printable-whole-alphabet-banner.html

So I printed off "Be Mine" with a heart in the middle and I printed off "Love"

Here they are..
 

 

I am SO pleased with how they turned out!!

 

I just cut the triangles out and taped them to construction paper.

I used pink, red and purple (Valentine's Day colors of course!)

 

Then I hung them on the mantel...we have two. Which I LOVE!

 

 

That's all I have for Valentine's Day so far. I'm sure I'll add more.

 

 

On another note I am way too excited to give Matthew his Valentine's Day present!! I went on my day off last week and bought everything and came straight home and put it together.

We usually wait until the end of the night to exchange our gifts but I am not sure I'll be able to make it throught dinner and a movie (our Valentine's Day tradition).

 

What are your Valentine's Day traditions? I'd love to hear about them!

 

 

 

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Valentine's Day decor