Ceilings

You know what I have been thinking about a lot lately?

Not Mary Poppins.

CEILINGS!

Don't ask me why.

Probably because I am snowed in and letting my mind wonder, while laying in bed, staring at, what else?  The CEILING.

Do you paint ceilings or not?

According to my mom, and this article, the ceiling is somewhere you can spice up a room.

I am not a hat wearer...but CEILINGS remind me of hats. 

Lady Gaga believes she'll go ahead and spice it up.

I have turned over a new leaf.   Over the past few days, I have gone back and painted ceilings in several rooms.  I like what I see.

You know who concurs?  Cher.  Nuff said.

Growing up I had glow-in-the-dark star stickers on my ceiling.  Last night, I woke up in the middle of the night with an epiphany...I wonder if you can purchase glow-in-the-dark paint?
One internet search later,

I ordered it!

I love the internet! 

 She wears a dead rodent on her head and makes it look classy.  Humph.

We are going to have so much fun with the kids ceilings!

Dentil Molding

We have a great deal of Dentil Molding.  Until I looked it up on the internet, I thought it was actually Dental Molding because it looks like teeth.

Yes, kind of like these teeth, but scarier.

According to a random architecture website the experts in the field,  "A dentil is one of a series of closely spaced, rectangular blocks that form a molding."

Dentil Molding from Ancient Greece.

Primed Dentil Molding from My Living Room

The thing about painting Dental Dentil Molding is all those little spaces.  It's kind of like trying to floss these.  Not that I have tried.

Sharks can have up to 3,000 teeth.  And apparently, monster case of gingivitis.

I never found a brush that worked well.

One of the FOUR different brushes I tried - in vain.

Several days and a monster crick in my neck later - I was beginning to feel a little overwhelmed! 

Just go ahead and put me out of my misery.

But I pressed forward and finished my project.  By finished, I mean "Almost Finished."  The Almost is always implied.

Needs new accessories and handle pulls.

Unfortunately, this was just the little shark.  The big shark still looms in the waters.  Da, da, da, da...

Just a small snippet of the thousands of dentils in my kitchen.

I had an epiphany this morning. I think I need a bigger boat.  (That was a Jaws reference for those of you under 30.)  Really, I just need a new tool.

The Wagner Control Spray Max Paint Sprayer is in my future.

Look out!

Paint Color - A love affair

Once, I went to ACE and came home with a purse full of paint swatches.  But only one caught my eye.

I think I love you.

I painted my bedroom Moonshine, and my bathroom Gray Horse.  That just left one color.

While watching Crossroads, teeth unbrushed at noon, I realized that one person could relate.  America's sweetheart.

One Britney Spears.

"With love, you should go ahead and take the risk of getting hurt... because love is an amazing feeling."

Let the wood painting begin.

I pushed aside my worries and purchased Storm Cloud Gray.   I was a little nervous about screwing up something important.

 "I'm rich, freakin' rich. It's crazy"

You know what, Brit?  I am not.  So I hope this commitment works out in my favor.

First, priming.

Now, there is no turning back.

Britney knows about stepping out of your comfort zone.

"The cool thing about being famous is traveling. I have always wanted to travel across seas, like to Canada and stuff."

I pressed forward, applying not only one coat, but two.

And I am pleased with my results.  

“There's no master plan! I'm just gonna be me and hope it all works out!”

Me, too, Brit.  Let's keep following our hearts!

Living Room

I read an article on Yahoo this week about people losing weight and blogging about it.  Their blogs kept them going when they wanted to quit.

I can relate.

I woke up inspired this morning!  Inspired to do something about my Woodsy Living Room.  And to have something new to blog about.

In what has to be the quickest paint choice process ever, I flipped open a Pottery Barn Bed and Bath catalogue, chose one of the Benjamin Moore colors in the centerfold, and ran to Ace to purchase the color.

I believe I like you.  Let's take it to the next level.

And I was able to paint the living room, with Carly's help (she has advanced to a new level - she can not only cut in the baseboards, she can also remove light switch and outlet covers) and also the help of a local Pizza Hut (Momma still has mouths to feed.)

Faux Finish Green Walls Before

When I look at these walls, the word that comes to mind is "RESPECT" cause you gotta respect whoever went to that much trouble to faux finish these walls.  Good job, You!  Whoever you are.  You did a great job.  Sorry it wasn't my style.  Know that this room was the last that I painted!  I not only tolerated it, I gotta say  it looked great with my holiday decor.

After

It just seems calmer and cleaner with the solid color!  It's official:  The living room ball is rolling!  Look out!  Lots of changes to come!

Mr. Food

Mr. Food's Cabinets -

Here they are from another angle.

Not really.  The second shot is my kitchen.
It looks like Mr. Food's kitchen.

Except his backsplash is cooler than mine.

That's right.

He gets all the ladies.  And the watermelon.

Add caption

He makes cute cookies.  I bet they are also delicious and high in fiber.

And he can not only rock a chartreuse shirt, but also throws a slammin' party.



Mr. Food ROCKS! 
(but I still don't like his cabinets.  Nor do I like mine.)

The heirloom painting continues

Grab your family heirlooms and put up gramma's china...cause I'm in an heirloom painting mood!

One of my grandmother's paintings, this is a canvas print.

I have never liked the gold on this frame, and it has kept me from hanging this lovely print of Notre Dame.  The original is hanging in my grandmother's sister's home (I guess that would be my great aunt's home) and I had admired it once.  In that sweet little way that grandma's do, she heard me and took it to heart, and had this made for me the year she passed away.  Which I treasured.  But just not feeling the frame.

So I did the fireplace special on it (you know what I am talking about if you have read my posts about painting brass fireplace frames.)

That's right, I spray painted it.

I am just now realizing how tacky that sounds.  Robert Earl Keene should write a song entitled, "I spray painted it."

Anyway, this is how it looks over the bed.

Again, it is really not that shiny in person.  

So happy to hang this treasure and share Granny Nelle's fabulous work of art with others, not to mention the warm feeling it gives me knowing what a gift this painting was and is.

Highboy

I finished the highboy dresser today.  

I am going to recap by hitting the high points.

First, preparation:

I cleaned all the dirt out from inside the dresser.

Strangely enough, I felt sentimental toward the dust, knowing that some of it had to be from the wheat fields of Hansford County, where I grew up.  Well, I didn't grow up IN the wheat fields, but still, a little sentimental.

Having already finished some of the other pieces in this collection, I "used my prior knowledge" (that is a Carly-ism.)  Finding two-pronged pulls the same width as the old ones would be impossible. I filled some of the holes with spackle.  There was probably a more appropriate substance for wood-patching.  Sue me.  I like spackle.

  Like I always say, "Goes on pink - dries white!"

Then I painted two coats of oil-based black paint directly on the wood, without priming or sanding.  The truth is, the wood was so old and basically already bare.  It was begging for paint.

Next, after purchasing pulls, I had to drill new holes for the two-prongers (that's the technical term, a-hem, I am sure.)

I used this here marks-a-lot.

I colored the prongs with the marker, then used it as a stamp onto the paper.

See the little marks?  Now I have a stencil.

I used this paper as a stencil to mark where I needed to drill.  Thanks to my expert drilling skills and extreme patience, this step was both easy and enjoyable.*
*Sidebar - I may or may not have accidentally drilled the holes cock-eyed on a drawer and had to re-patch and re-paint and re-drill so as not to have a slanted pull. 

It's not this shiny and lacquered up in person.

Here it is in the room.

And there you have it!*
*Sidebar 2- I may or may not have brought the dresser in too soon, which resulted in wet oil based black paint on the new carpet.  If said event did take place, you may rest assured that I did get the paint out of the carpet.