How I Spent My Winter: A Theme

Okay.  Not so much a theme, but for some reason I thought of the Christmas Story and the Theme that Ralphie wrote on "What I Want for Christmas".  It just seemed appropriate. 

Ahem.

I spent my winter months searching the DI for items that needed to be brought home, painted, loved and made into something that makes me happy.  I also gave some make-overs to stuff I already had.  So... a series of before and after photos should do the trick.

A DI find that I wasn't sure what to do with but could not pass it up.  Loved the handles.

The finished product now hangs in the "hallway" between the kitchen and the bathroom.  I love it. And it reminds me of my goal for the year.  To keep things simple.  Let's see if I can actually follow through on that one!

Having spent a lot of time in the bathtub, I became increasingly aware of just how much I hated, absolutely hated my bathroom cabinets.  You can't tell from the picture but the paint job was really quite terrible. It was spotty and see through in places and I hated looking at it.  So I painted them!

I did a layer of brown spray paint and then did acrylic black over the top so it's kind of streaky looking.  I then distressed the edges and I really like the way it warmed up the bathroom.  I wish that I had finished the edges in black though.  I'm sure it will drive me nuts soon enough, but until then I find the view much more to my liking.

This used to have small picture frames hanging from it, but I decided it needed a change.  However, the color scheme just wasn't making me happy anymore.  I wanted it to pop a little more and not be so country rustic.



So I painted the hearts blue and green and did a little "dictionary art" on the chalkboard.  I'm quite pleased with the way it turned out. 



I found this quilt rack at the DI.  It was a pine color.  So I painted it black, distressed the edges, and hung it in Benjamin's room.  I plan on putting some pictures in between the stuffed animals.  But that's for another day.

Close up of the distressing. 

A few more DI items.  I have a plan for the rolling pin and small wood dishes, but it's not finished yet.  I did fall in love with the square shelves though.  Hate the sign, but all I really wanted was the wood.  I paid $1.00 for the sign.  Just can't beat that.

Here's the finished of the sign and the shelves.  I painted them black to cover up the brown, distressed the edges, and hung them above my oven.  The vases fit perfectly, and were also only $1.00.  I think I totally scored big with the green vase.  I scraped off the vinyl from the purple sign, painted it black, covered it with scrapbook paper and ribbon.  I was originally going to do some kind of saying, but I liked the paper better.  So I broke it up with ribbon and hung it!

There are some other works in progress, but they may not get finished until next year!  Seems to be some other project taking all of my time.