With a little extra time on my hands — I’ve got a few fun things crossed off my to do list. Just small little home design changes that I have wanted to do – projects that don’t really take much time at all — or money.
Yesterday I painted the faux hearth that DIY made for me last fall. It was made from scrap lumber we had in the garage — which was formerly shelves from our first home. Which just goes to show you that sometimes saving old stuff comes in handy! One reason that kept me from moving forward on this little project was color. Should I paint the hearth black? White? Orange? Brown? A combination of colors or color and stain? The lower portion was bare wood, so stain was an option for that part. The top was already stained, and in rough shape.
I went with an off-white all over.
And a combination!
Who says you can’t have the best of both worlds?
We have a reversible hearth!
Another change I made was updating the ceiling fixture in our kitchen. I’m not a fan of these cheap-o brass ceiling fixtures.
So I removed the glass shade, slid some thicker paper between the ceiling and fixture and spray painted with an oil-rubbed bronze color spray paint.
then DIY Guy picked up a shorter threaded rod from the hardware store to replace the longer one for the former glass shade. Next we attached the drum shade from TJ Maxx ($14.99) and voila — a new light fixture! I might cover the bottom of the shade with fabric too — but for right now, this is SO much nicer than the old fixture! I’m pretty sure this would be a pretty spendy fixture at Pottery Barn!
The next project I took on was removing the door from our shallow and small linen closet in the bathroom. There are actually two linen closets in this bathroom, so this was a no-brainer to me.
I gave the interior a fresh coat of paint with leftover bathroom paint. Then removed the old 1970’s contact paper from the shelves, sanded them down, and gave them a fresh coat of white paint (leftover from trim).
I still have some door molding to remove from the frame so the shelves don’t look like I removed a door and look more like they’ve always been there. .. and a few other little things to fix too. Meanwhile, I’m lovin’ the open look of the shelves. I should have taken a picture of before — however, I’m not so sure I would have had the guts to actually post it. It was that bad.
Cost of this makeover: $0.00
Someday — I’m going to help others do these sort of changes in their homes … and get paid to do it! It’s on my bucket list.
