Outdoor lighting

As we were looking for new doors I decided that I wanted to needed to replace the outdoor lighting as well. Our current lights are literally the absolute cheapest outdoor light fixture you can buy at Lowe’s (trust me, we did a little research!) So I started looking for something we could hang both by the front door and by the garage doors. Doesn’t sound tricky but we have some measurement issues/ height restrictions which made it hard to find something big enough that wasn’t too tall. Cue Lighting Direct for a bevy of beautiful options (including our choice)

                              

source

Which is perfect because the bulk of the light fixture is below the base piece so the height wasn’t even an issue! Thanks mom and dad! What a GREAT birthday present. You’re the best! Yes, I got these two months ago, and YES I feel like a dumb dumb for just now getting them installed. . . well, a month and a half later if we are counting to when they were actually installed!

And more of a big picture/ full view shot:

And by the garage:

Checkout the before shot:

You can't even barely see the old fixture it was so small and dinky!

I think they fit in beautifully with the new wood door! And I’m not sad at all to see those $12 Lowes fixtures go, not one bit!!!

Front door finale

As typically happens around here, the door stain/ install was a bit of a process but it is DONE (two weeks later) and looking WONDERFUL!! Check out the difference a little wood can make!

I am so pleased with the finished product it’s not even worth discussing all the mishaps it took to get here . . . at least not in detail. Let’s just admire

We decided because the wood was so pretty to stain the door on the inside as well, instead of just painting it white and I'm SO pleased with the look. It's so warm and inviting (as is being able to see out the windows)

No big picture shots just yet- don't want to ruin the next surprise!

Bedside table

Another project I’ve been thinking about/ on the lookout for for a LONG time now is my bedside table. The one I’ve been using is great but it just looks so dinky and tiny next to our king size bed taking up only about HALF of the space it could. But I’m cheap and didn’t want to spend a ton of money nor did I want something out of the box, I was looking for something a little more special. After months of searching craigslist, antique stores, goodwill and on and on, I finally found my winner. For $30 this little gem was mine:

Solid wood Drexel chest of drawers from the 1950’s. YAY! Super pumped at this moment that I went out and bought what I thought was the right color, sanded that baby down and painted a drawer . . . only to decide it was too blue and not grey enough! So a few more samples later I landed on Gauntlet grey by Sherwin Williams. Grey with hints of blue and a little smigde of green. Perfect! I was so excited that I literally went home on my lunch break every day of the week to finish the sucker. Thank goodness I live close! Sanded down, two coats of paint, two coats of poly and a little oil rubbed bronze spray paint on the hardward done by Thursday so that it could dry and be in use before the weekend even started! SAWEEET!

So the best part of this is that now I’ve got a bigger bedside table space to put stuff on and my folded clothes (all but my t-shirts) right next to the bed on my side for when I roll out of bed. AND that has freed up space in the big chest so P can use those drawers so we can get the white shelving unit out of his closet and he can have his lower rack of the closet back to actually HANG things! AMAZING!

So here is the chest in all her glory:

no making fun of my p'jammer alarm clock from about..... 1986. It's the best thing ever and it's still going!

And my old bedside table in the guest room:

And the old guestroom bedside table (really just a bookshelf) now in the office being a bookshelf!

OH and the old shelving unit from P’s closet in the garage providing some much needed storage there!

YAY for the circle of furniture life!

Master paint color

Well, as I alluded to in my previous post, we have FINALLY painted the master bedroom. It’s something I’ve wanted to do since we moved in. And it’s something I’ve planned on doing since about February. No real reason for the wait other than trying to make a decision. Blues can be so tricky. The current blue sometimes doesn’t look so bad online but it was very “baby boy blue” in real life, you know? So I was hesitant to slap up the first color I found. I realize it’s just paint but sometimes, having to paint over a freshly painted wall is not all that fun so I wanted to get the color JUST right, you know?

I decided on the color, probably around the end of march after staring at my paint swatches for months

From  March

SW Misty (the top right one in the above pic)

Only to decide the room was too big and there was just too much furniture to move and I wanted to hire someone to do it. It took some time to find the right person who didn’t want to charge an arm and a leg, but we did and it’s done and I’m so pleased. . . .

Its kind of hard to see the difference up close

but when you look at an old pic it is noticeable for sure!

Oh and now I want to paint the master bathroom too!

Something darker grey/ blue to contrast more with the white wainscoting! Sorry P J