The seven-year itch

Last month my kitchen looked like this.

 And now that same view looks like this.

And my living room that used to look like this is undergoing its own facelift too.  The living room is much lighter in person--kind of a pearly white with green undertones.

I think I’ve mentioned a few times that we’ve been doing some redecorating around here.  When we got home from Utah earlier this summer, I had so much energy and somehow the 2 weeks away from my house made me realize that I was ready for a serious change (probably my sister’s gorgeous new home had something to do with that!).  We've been living here for seven years and we painted everything the first few months that we lived here--I've been looking at these colors for a long time.

So I started sewing and painting up a storm.

Here’s the deal:  I really loved my old color scheme.  Red has always been one of my very favorite colors and I just loved it.  But I didn’t feel like it would be as easy to sell with the red tones, and I also felt like I was ready for something a little more soothing—because there’s lots of crazy in this house.  And I’m starting to really love neutrals.  (And I always hated the oak cabinetry and the brown trim—it was just the idea of changing it that was overwhelming.)

So this is what my house looks like right now.  I know, these aren’t very comprehensive shots and that’s because a) I don’t really feel like styling everything at 11 PM and b) I’m still in the process of styling everything, period.  I like the blues and the whites that I’m bringing in, but let’s be honest—I had been doing reds for 10 years and so it was much more carefully curated.  A couple of months isn’t going to replace all of that (plus I’m not planning on changing the furniture, which is what I REALLY want to change, until after we graduate).  Long story short:  I like the colors more now, but I feel like it's not as cohesive and finished as it used to feel. I still need to do things like lighting and draperies.

Anyway.  Major changes we’ve made around here lately include…

•          Painting the kitchen cabinets & trim
•      Replacing all the kitchen hardware (I ended up ordering most of it online and became very educated about hinges in the process)
•          Painting the kitchen walls
•          Painting the living room & foyer walls & trim
•          Painting bathroom & kids’ hallway walls, trim, & doors
•          Sewing a bazillion new covers for throw pillows (and then freezer paper stenciling them, and embroidering them, and embellishing them pretty much every way I could think of)
•          Carefully painting EVERY formerly red accent in my living room (believe it or not, I even peeled up the vinyl lettering on our last name + family is forever sign so I could change that color too)
•          Giving the kids a giant canvas and letting them go crazy painting it to create a big piece of “art”
•          Making those flower puffball thingies (which I'm really not liking in these photos--maybe I should go back to the cream-colored candlesticks as the bases--I used to have a candlestick collection up there so it just looks weird and bare to me now.  It needs a lot more layers and textures).
•       Painting the fabric papasans (yes, really)--twice because first I painted them gray and hated it.  The blue is still too light but it's okay for now since I would love to light them on fire when we move (I really do not like those chairs at all.  Although painting them means that now they're more grippy and don't slide off the frames every 10 seconds).  If you decide to paint fabric furniture like this, it worked surprisingly well--just make sure you sand it with a very fine-grit sandpaper and then it will feel like leather instead of scratchy craziness.
•         Painting my kitchen floor mat (twice—the first time I didn’t use poly and boy was that a mistake
•     I've done a lot of other projects—mostly things for the walls—but I am tired and it’s time to go to bed.  Another day.  Oh, I did make these really awesome flower pillows for the girls' beds that I thought would be SO darling.  Luke promptly commandeered both of them and insists on sleeping with them every night.  Go figure.
•      And just to be clear, I still have to paint about 1,000 miles of trim/walls.