A Fabulous Foyer

When you walk into a home you want to feel like ..."I have arrived!"  Well, for years our foyer was more like "yeap your here."   No excitement, no glitz... Just brown walls, the stairs, some furniture that didn't go anywhere else and a seriously old out dated brass light fixture hanging on a chain.  It was time for a change.  Initially I was going to paint the room back a lighter shade of khaki but honestly, every room in this house at some point was khaki and we are just burned out on khaki. We decided to go with a nice green and I'm so glad we did.  It's bright, it's cheerful and it looks fab.  Lesson learned:  Don't be afraid of color, embrace it. We also replaced the light fixture that hung down with a crystal one that is against the ceiling.  It makes the foyer seem much larger and the light is so much brighter.  We love it.    Here are a few photos so you can see the transformation. 

Dining Room DIY

The dining room project has been a long time coming.  While we love our home, we have never loved the interior paint colors.  The dining room was this orange red from ceiling to the floor.  It had all brass fixtures.   It had no molding below the chair rail and it seemed so cramped.   This project took approximately 1 month from beginning to end. It's important to note, Kevin and I both have real 8-5:30pm jobs, 2 kids, 2 dogs, 2 cats, a rabbit and a gaga in our charge.  Needless to say, this project was not done non-stop.  We had to take breaks for real life and work.  Thankfully the ceiling in this room did not have popcorn on it so it did not have to be removed.  We did have to kiltz the walls to kill the red and keep it from bleeding through.  We painted the trim and below the chair rail a creamy white.  Above the chair rail we went with Sky Blue.  Kevin built the boxes below the chair rail.  This was a rather complicated process but he says the smartest thing he did was purchase a nail gun and borrow a miter saw from a friend.  Eventually, I want to replace the light fixture in the room with an antique crystal one but since I have not found one I like yet, my friend Josh Summerford came over and helped me take the brass light fixture down.  I took it outside and spray painted it with looking glass spray paint.  It looks beautiful.    I also spray painted the curtain rods and a mirror I was using in the room.   The most drastic thing we did was turn the room around.  We moved all of the furnishings and the rugs over 1 wall.   This simple change makes the room seem bigger and more spacious. We are loving our new dining room!