Love The Home You Have-kitchen/dining room re-do!

        I know most of my writing recently has been "heavy" so I thought it would be fun to write about and share pictures of a "lighter" subject...home decorating.   For the past several years I haven't really cared at all about decorating.  We moved into our 1,000 sq. ft. condo almost 10 years ago, painted and attempted to decorate when we first moved in.....and then haven't really done much since as far as stylish decor...mostly because we added 5 more children during that time.  And also because I guess I didn't really have a lot of motivation when in the back of mind I was thinking Hopefully we will be moving to a bigger house at some point.  But a couple months ago I decided that I really needed to face the fact that we will not be moving for probably a long time so I really wanted to just try to make better use out of what we do have.  It started with de-cluttering, just getting rid of things we don't need or use anymore...when you have 8 people in a small place things can feel cramped quickly.  Week after week I was (and still am) bagging up things for  Goodwill.  It feels good to get rid of things, and it helps us enjoy more what we have.  I wanted to do more than just get rid of things to make more room though, I wanted to love the home I have.

 After reading the book Love the Home You Have by Melissa Michaels I was inspired to look around and identify some areas I would really like to work on or improve in our home. Whether its improving the functionality to accommodate a growing family, or to just improve the overall "look" of an area, basically I want to smile when I walk around and look at my house!
        The kitchen was #1 on my list.  After purging things from cabinets and drawers, having my mom give us some colorful dishes that replaced boring ones, and pulling some things off the walls that I just didn't like anymore and that had been hanging there for almost a decade (!) I was motivated to repaint the whole thing and go with a whole new look.   So a couple weeks ago we took a Saturday to transform the space, its amazing how different it looks! I spent the week after shopping for little accessories, getting ideas of what kind of look I wanted with my wall art, painting pictures, etc.  After literally years of not putting much thought into the house aside from cleaning & organizing it was so fun to go out and buy something for the house just because I thought it was pretty.  And having an excuse to paint new pictures always makes me happy!

Getting Pinterest inspired while making ART!

Painted the outer and inner edge of this chalkboard to go with the walls

I used chalk paint to paint over an old canvas I had to make a chalkboard for the kids or to write quotes on, I did the burlap strip on it just to make it not so boring and to tie it in with some things in the rest of the room

My wall art gallery, consists of things I recently painted, a family picture, the painting in the small pink frame is one I painted years ago that was in a different frame in the basement. In the frame that still needs something in it will do a picture of Brian and I that should be coming in the mail soon, I had forgotten to order in when we did our family pictures recently.

I really like how these turned out and I like mixing the different styles.

of course when the kids saw me painting they wanted to paint pictures for the walls too, theirs are hanging in the hall by the entryway.

Instead of having the kids use "kid dishes" they use "real" dishes, yes they may get broken, but washing pretty dishes just makes me happier. And when I have to wash as many dishes as I do everyday, every meal, it is worth it!

Some of the kids everyday dishes

I found this metal sign for 5 bucks at Hobby Lobby, not only did it coordinate with my colors but I love what it says,  I even have "Dream On" tattooed on my foot,  this was a fun find!

I had been searching for some kind of a valence for the windows in the dining area, aside from the blinds that were hanging when we moved in, we have never had any window treatment for those windows, I always meant to put some kind of curtains up but things like having babies kept me distracted and buying curtains moved to the bottom of the list :)  After we painted, I decided I really wanted to finish the look with some kind of window treatment, I came across a curtain panel that I really liked the fabric of, but it was long (length-wise) and I needed something to go across the top.  A lady working at Home Depot suggested making a cornice and doing the fabric over it.

Brian built it and I wrapped the fabric around it using a staple gun.

We are happy with the result!

Here are some more pictures of our kitchen/dining area....I love how everything turned out and I am even more inspired to go through the rest of the house, see what changes can be made and make it the best I can with what we have.  When we first moved in we only had one child and had no idea that several more were in our future. There are times when having a small house and a large family gets frustrating but for the most part it really does work for us, and making some changes will help us love the home we have more and also make our home more functional for the growing children!  Next on the list....better shoe storage for entry, repainting a small bathroom, and getting the boys bunkbeds!

 

I should have taken some actual before pictures but here is one taken on mothers day the week before we painted that shows the wall color "before".

"before"