A Little Paint Can Do Wonders

Boring, isn't it? Dated.  Not yawning yet?  Here take it all in...not exactly saying "WELCOME, come in! We're so glad you're here!"  Yea, not so much.

I'm not sure what is worse.  The plastic wreath hangar left over from Christmas, that has now turned yellow....or.....the mud dobber stuck to the top of the door frame...(don't ask to see a shot of the alcove above the door - there were 13 nests up there - GROSS)....or the 'victorian frosted glass'....wait I know....it's THIS....this is what the worst part was....

Where they changed the door hardware and decided that it didn't matter if they painted around it or not.  Nice, huh? And dirty...oh.my.word.  GRIME, people. So, first, a good cleaning was necessary - and I love this stuff...

Then the fun part started. Ok, really, i wasn't having fun.  It was 100 degrees with a heat index of 102 when i started this and it didn't exactly cool off as the day progressed.  Kind of the opposite actually.

So, being the bad documenter that I am (which blogger is telling me is NOT a word - go figure), I didn't take pictures of the front of the paint can.  I should have because thank goodness I listened to the paint lady at HD. This is Behr Ultra with primer - painting this red color would i think have taken the rest of my natural life.  We did this (mostly ) in an afternoon.

And then Vance installed new hardware.  LOVE IT.   Can I just say btw, that deciding on what hardware finish was harder than picking my wedding dress.  NotnotNOT an exaggeration. I picked my dress (3rd i tried on) in under 30 minutes.  Choosing between brushed nickel, ORB, or shiny brass (which i got told 3x in HD was making a comeback) about pushed me over the edge.  We actually got a little snippy with each other. ONE of us was losing patience with the other. I won't say who's who in this little exchange.

We still have more to do. Vance is ordering new windows since these are double pained and we can't scrape the frost off - and he thinking he wants to cut the middle bracket totally out and make one window per door.  Which i think is a great idea. If he can do it.  And i'm kind of scared of opening pandora's box on that one - but sometimes you gotta let a man be THE man, kwim?  So, i'm letting him run with it.  I'm sure it will be lovely.  

We also need a new doorbell, a new doormat and I really am ready to hang my Southern Living at Home flower tins on the doors. All in good time :)  While we wait, I can live with this. For awhile.  A few weeks.  A week.

Linking to Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch :)

Power of Paint Party Link Up!

It's my first link to Domestically Speaking's Power of Paint Party - yay! I sound way more excited than I really was. I needed the push. I've had this black, Pottery Barn shadow box sitting in my garage, well, honestly, TWO garages for the past 7 years.  That's right.  7 years i lugged that thing around.  Didn't really like it.  Didn't want to give it away.  I have a BFF that's doing the same thing with a boyfriend.  But, I digress.  Then this week I had my own Oprah AHA moment.  I decided what i didn't like about it (manly, modern, black) and what i did like about it (deep, sturdy, inside shelving, classic shape) and just decided it just needed to be feminized.  A cabinet sex-change if you will.

 Here it is before.  Obviously, it's dusty in my garage.  Not gonna do anything about that problem...

Swung by the hardware store and picked up these....

Please note - if you've never used spray adhesive before (i had not) they are not all created equal.  In fact, i learned that the one on the left is evil for projects...take a look...i sprayed and it dried cloudy.  Which i had to scrape off.  GRRRRR...i was so mad, and also afraid if i took too long to scrape it i would never get it off, so i didn't stop to grab the camera until i was working on the last bit of it left in the corners.

 and that's when i decided i need this...this is what we call redneck sangria.  No, i do not put ice in my red wine NORMALLY.  just in sangria. and, yes, i do realize this is an iced tea goblet....

And then i tried again. After i went to Michael's to pick up the adhesive on the right in the picture above...much better...

Looked good...on to spray painting it. I will not lie. I did not sand.  I did not prime.  I'm not really crafty and I'm impatient....but shout to the spray paint I used (above) LOVE.THE.TRIGGER. No pointer finger pain from holding the nozzle down.  Really good coverage too.

I would show it hung on the wall, but the man is out of town until today and he was saying something about waiting for him to do it, blah blah studs, and blah blah how much the thing weighed, and and and ...i got tired at some point and zoned out to DWTS on TV.   But this is where she'll go - just higher of course.  Look at the roll of TP gazing lovingly at it's new home. I think it will be happy there.