A Fresh Start to the New Year

So, what's been going on at your house this week?

We're well into January, so at our house we jumped into a long-planned (four or five months,) long awaited (almost eight years!) project: painting the living room.

Well, not only the living room. Our house is a split foyer, open floor plan house built in the early 2000's. If you know anything about house styles, you can picture what I mean.

(Please excuse the poor photos...)

These pictures are from the day we first looked at the house. Open, yes. Light? During the day!

If you can see it, most of the walls were painted a light brown. And then there were the accent walls that were painted a dark brown (except this one in the foyer - a greenish color.)

I don't really like brown walls, and as time has gone on the paint has dulled and become even more...well...blah.

So, knowing we had a long weekend coming up, we made plans, bought the paint, packed up books, moved the furniture, and removed the switch plates and outlet covers.

And wall by wall, we transformed dull, drab, brownish-something...

...into a smooth, creamy/buttery yellow/white.

Yes, we still have more work to do. The kitchen and stairway both need a second coat. And then there's the clean up to do and the furniture to put back where it belongs. We're working on that today.

A photo bomb from Wynter! She's still with
us at 14 years old!

But even in the late afternoon, the walls are bright, the rooms are filled with light, and everything is clean and fresh!

And like we always do when we get to this point in a project, we're asking each other why we didn't do this years ago. LOL!

Do you have projects that you've waited for years to complete?

What would be your incentive to get them done?

Our incentive is that we hope to find our retirement home in the Hills to move to this year or next, and will be putting our house on the market when/if that happens.

If we don't find the place in the Hills? Well, we'll enjoy our freshly painted house for a while longer!

Jan Drexler lives in the Black Hills of South Dakota with her husband and growing family. When she isn't writing, she loves hiking in the Hills or satisfying her cross stitch addiction.

You can find Jan on Facebook, Jan Drexler, author, or her website, Jan Drexler.com.

What's in Your Dining Room? A Pinterest Adventure

When I promised ManO we would eat in the dining room more often, I didn't realize the ripple effect it would have on my meals, our conversation, and most especially the decor!  One month and I figured we'd be tired of it and I'd get to turn the room I never used into my dream library.

But a funny thing happened. We liked talking to each other and guests without the distraction of the television or dirty dishes (I'm a use all the dishes, spread the mess around kinda cook). There's a reason restaurants are so popular! No television unless we're in a pub and then ManO sneaks looks at the scores. No dirty dishes. Except we have "seat them by the kitchen" faces. We did an informal study once and realized 90-99% of the time, that's where the host leads us unless we say ASAP, "we want to be FAR, FAR, FAR away from the kitchen." I keep hoping it's because that's where a lot of restaurants seat families with children and we look like we're young parents or, at the very least, tolerant grandparent types.

So why didn't we eat in the dining room before now?  It's simple.We'd started referring to it as
"the museum." The dining room was the last decluttering domain, a reminder of times and people past. Last year, we still couldn't bring ourselves to go through all the formal  stuff we'd inherited.

But after our challenging 2014, 2015 needed to start fresh!  This month's experiment proved we liked eating in the dining room. We just needed to make it our own, keep a few valued heirlooms and antiques then mix them with our favorite things. ManO wanted to keep our newlywed furniture (he's sentimental and it's solid wood) but he wouldn't let me paint that maple no matter what Pinterest said!

My $50 budget also kept me under control because Pinterest can tempt you to do things you never thought you'd do.  We wanted an Ameri-Parisien feel to the room. Plenty of ideas on the boards. Faux French linen placemats were a much less expensive touch than the real thing. 

I had a huge grill-front tavern plate rack of my mom's above my buffet. I wish I had a picture. My sisters and I've called it the "pigeon coop" since we were little, if that gives you an idea. It overwhelmed and darkened the room.  Off the wall it went. Wow, a more serene space already.

My favorite antique from my childhood bedroom is the four drawer apothecary chest.

 

I'd spent $17 on four placemats and $20 on wall paint/patch supplies so my personalized art pieces had to be cheap.

 A frame borrowed from another part of the house and an 8x10 print for $3.99 added another dash of  Paris.  ManO looks quite, um, dashing on this bridge over the Seine.

Pinterest helped again when I looked for ways to update our decor.  I love the sign trend out now but that's what it is, a trend. So I went shopping in my house for another frame. I thought about my favorite quotes en Francais and consulted Belle Calhoune  who loves all things French. She also has ten years of French lessons to my seven.

The French have such beautiful words like etoile for star and amour for love. What to choose? But the beauty of making my own "quote art" is I can switch it out. For now I settled on a Matisse quote reflecting my philosophy of life, "There are always flowers for those who wish to see them." It's about finding beauty in the world (see Jan Drexler's Monday post, ) and gratitude in the dark times.

I hope Monet forgives me for using a Matisse quote overlaying a picture we took in his garden. 

By this point my library idea was toast. But no Paris apartment would be without books. Out when all the things that made the hutch look like my grandma's and in came my favorite books and pottery collection.

Best Pinterest book/bookshelf styling tip: No need to buy books by the yard. Use books that you have and love. My flower arranging, spiritual writing and reading, and our travel books look great together without the dust jackets. Bonus, they lighten up the brown hutch I wasn't allowed to paint!

Not everyone can or wants to have a Paris inspired dining room but I leave you with one of the most wonderful spice blends from Penzeys Spices,  Sunny Paris. Such a wonderful blend of purple shallots, chives, green peppercorns, tarragon, and more. I use it on plain chicken and fish to dress it up, in salad dressing, over asparagus and in breakfast dishes. Yummy and so easy to use!

So, if you could have a dining room anywhere in the world, where would it be?  Are you decluttering this winter? Do you have a favorite spice that makes you think of far away lands? PS. Have you visited the Yankee Belle folks' boards on Pinterest? Such fun.