Vintage Mantle

Our house was built in 2004.  Our kitchen cupboards are knotty alder as is our mantle.  I have developed a love affair with chippy, shabby white and I wanted my fireplace, the focus of my family room, to reflect my new love.  Here is what it looked like before:

It was very pretty, very earthy.

I painted the stone with Behr Ultra

Ultra White, and boy did it take

a long time!

Then I used Caromal Colours textured

basecoat in Peppercorn.  Because this is

simply the color I want showing through

when I sand, it was not crucial to

cover the entire mantle.

And, believe it or not, I don't have the final pic

on my camera and I need to wait until tomorrow

for better lighting to take a pic.

I know for some, painting beautiful wood like this is

a cardinal sin, but I wanted this fireplace

to reflect my style at this moment (which, of course,

will change again, and again, and again).

Another Coat of Paint. . . .

In the 7 years since we have lived in our house, the walls have been 5 different colors.  What can we say, we like change.  Here is what it looked like before we painted:

We were over this color combination and

ready for something more calming.

We used Behr Ultra from Home Depot.

Because it is paint primer-in-one it

covers so much better.

The color is French Silver.

Bye, Bye bold colors!  Hello serenity.

In the pic below we still have to finish below

the chair rail.

We have big plans for the fireplace.

We are going to paint all the stone white

and distress the mantle using Peppercorn

basecoat with Wisteria top coat using

Caromal Colours textured basecoat.

We haven't tackled that one yet.

It goes on the list of future projects,

but near future at that.

I had seen this wall treatment done on

Vintage Revivals and I loved it.

We just got 1 x 3 boards and voila!

We are thinking of making this a wall of clocks since

we have a good start.

I love how it all turned out!  My husband is

such a fast painter and does all

the hard work like the trim and the tall

ceilings or I might never tackle such a project.

I'm Getting A Makeover!

I can hardly wait. . . my blog is getting a makeover soon. . . and I can hardly wait for the reveal!  My makeover will be complete by the end of this week (hopefully, fingers crossed)!  I am like a kid at Christmas!  It's all I think about.  I wonder if Diana from Custom Blog Designs will get the vision I have, or will it be even better than I imagined!  Keep checking back with me to see my beautiful new blog. 

Update on a few of my pieces:  The antique drop-leaf table sold, as did my old wood school desk from Kansas, my yellow metal rolling cart, my "Vacancy" sign, as well as my all-time favorite piece, the white armoire "Kennedy."Until then, happy junking!