My French Provincial Makeovers

 Okay, so I'm finally getting a post up for you.  I finished three of the four pieces of furniture and even though the fourth is only partially done, I really needed to post something.  Right?

So here's the story...two of the four pieces, I already had.  They were cream in color with some antiquing glaze on them as well.  While they were pretty as is, I really wanted to incorporate some French grey color into the room.

The other two were recently found treasures that begged to be made over and used in my craft room.

More on those in a bit...

So here is what I did on the first of the three...it's a night stand.

I painted the top of it in Alaskan Husky by Benjamin Moore {I had this color left over from our bedroom makeover so I decided to use it up} Then I painted the sides, front and drawers too. 

I painted the hardware white and left the top edge white as well.

and here you have it, an old nightstand turned end table.  I love the contrast between the grey and the white.

Alright, now on to the other two fabulous pieces of furniture. 

 Here they are (well one of them anyway, they're exactly the same) in my garage waiting to be painted.

Here are the drawers all lined up.  You know that old French Provincial style furniture that is white with those gold accents everywhere?  Well, I'm not a fan of all the gold so I decided to give them a fresh coat of white.  These are being used in my craft room where the walls are painted Light French Grey by Behr so I went with white.

Here they are and they've got all kinds of scrapbooking supplies, tags, note cards and other goodies tucked neatly inside.  I love how they turned out!

I've got one on each side of a bookcase that will soon be painted white as well.

One of these days, I will get the fourth piece of furniture painted and the bookcase too - but that will have to be for another post.

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On another note, I received requests for a tutorial on the window awning that I did recently.  To answer your requests?  Absolutely!  I would be thrilled to share it with you.  I was actually hoping to have a tutorial post ready for you this week but it's been a hectic week and as you can see, I don't have it yet.  If you'll hang in there with me, I'll get it ready very soon - I promise.

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Okay, I'm off now...we've got a hurricane to go and prepare for.  Yep you read that right...a hurricane and that's just a follow up to the earthquake we had the day before yesterday.  Uh...yeah...that's a whole other post.  Really, I smile as I write this.  It's been quite the adventurous week but we are blessed :)

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Have a wonderful day everyone and enjoy your weekend!

xo and God Bless,

Kathleen

French Provincial Love...Almost Finished!

Just wanted to let you know that I haven't forgotten about showing you my finished furniture.  I'm almost done.  Bare with me!  Thank you for your nice comments about the french grey piece two posts back.

Have a wonderful day!

xo and God Bless,

Kathleen

Color Me Red...

I have decorating issues and they're driving me NUTS!! While I simply love Nordic French/Swedish styles and desperately want that look, I just cannot seem to make it work in our home. It always seems slightly off to me. I keep trying~tweaking things here, rearranging there but it's just not workin' for me. I swoon over these images in magazines, blogs, and books but I can't get comfortable with it in my own house. What's up with that? The funny thing is, no matter how much I love it, I continue to be attracted to bold reds and soft blues! I know, crazy right? I don't get it. So I picked up my copy of French General the other day and loved everything in it so much that I decided to just go with it. Rather than fight my color urges to stay within an all white/grey color scheme throughout the whole house, I've decided to go more French Country/Provincial in the kitchen and adjoining family room. I'll stick with the grey/blue-grey/white color scheme in the bedroom and in my craft room {It works in those rooms and I love it there} I've just decided to mix it up a bit, throw all the decor rules out the window. I still love my grain sacks and my burlap and they look great with my splashes of red and {gasp} black!

So I've redone things a bit. Added some old clay pots in a basket by the french doors awaiting spring

added a red book to the mantel vignette

put some of my favorite books in a galvanized french tub

{notice French General front and center}

made some pillow covers with oversized red checks

black and white toile

and pom pom fringe {seriously fun}

except Abigail keeps trying to bite them off!

Then, I painted some of my frames black and threw them in for good measure!

It feels better in there now. Don't worry, I still love me some burlap and grain sacks and my new {old} bench is right there in the mix too. This is just working better for now.

Have a great day everyone.

xo and God Bless,

Kathleen

What Am I Up To??

Aside from constantly changing my blog design around, (am i driving you nuts with that?) here's a sneak peak at what I've been up to. Hint, hint...I found something fabulous at a yard sale last Saturday. I've been working on it and it's just about complete.

I'll let you in on it shortly. Until then...

xo and God Bless,

Kathleen