Sexy casings.

Can casings be sexy you ask? I like to think so. Mine are looking rather fine these days. I've been puttering away this week, getting the kitchen casings and baseboards all painted up, in a purdy semi-gloss white. The filling and sanding, and re-filling and re-sanding (those were the putterings from last week) was the dull part of the job. But the paint, ah yes, the paint. Paint never ceases to amaze me with its instant ability to transform something. While primed mouldings are "white" to some folks, once you put it beside a painted moulding, primed white just never looks the same. Its dull, its drab. On a few occasions in this house, the previous owners didn't take the time to paint their primed mouldings. Tsk, is all I have to say about that.

I have some pictures, although I'm still cursing this camera. I really do miss my old camera, but the $80 for a new battery is just a bit much at the moment. So forgive the grainy pictures. I did the best with what I could.

This fat little fellow is Herman, the ledge lark. First of all, I adore his fatness. Second, I adore that he is basically the exact same yellow that I painted my kitchen. And third, I have set him on this ledge with the most important job of watching out for ledge devils. Yes, you know the ones. My husband is definitely a ledge devil. His roommate of many years graced him with this name, because if there was a ledge or a surface, somewhere, anywhere, Rob would have to put something on it. So Herman's purpose in life is to give Rob "the stare" if he dare put anything on my beautifully painted ledge. He looks cute and unassuming now...
This little rosette is our door stopper, and it also gives a nice idea of what the white mouldings and the yellow wall color look like together. So pretty.
Rob finally hung my barn star, which I LOVE. I'm not exactly a fan of the cheesy little hanging loop thing at the top, but I think the black contrast looks smashing.
*And I have to say, I was fairly convinced I was going to paint the hutch this summer, but now that the walls are yellow and no longer prison gray, I'm not entirely bothered by the light wood look. I still think a shabby chic blue paint job could be cute, but for now, I'm much happier with my little hutch. It also seems to pop more now that the paint color is brightened up. I've had a lot of people walk in the house lately (it is the first thing you see) and ask me when I got the hutch. That would be 7 years ago people!

I'm nearly ready to put together Mama's command centre in the kitchen. I've been slowly picking up items to make this little space more functional. Not having a lot of counter space, most of our mail and other random junk ends up on top of the dishwasher. So I've moved our black filing cabinet into the corner by the window, stuck a letter tray on top, and I plan to hang a bulletin board (the same one I used in my office space downstairs), as well as this little letter sorter thingy above that. I picked it up last weekend at a g-sale for 50 cents. It had a horrid ivy motif going on, but with some sand paper and white paint, voila! A cute little spot to stick outgoing mail, coupons, and whatever else. Last weekend, I also found a cube organizer at a garage sale. I literally had it on my to-do list for later that day, as Zellers had them on for $50 (regularly $70). So I picked the exact same one up for $25 at a garage sale. I proudly brought it home, stuck in in the closet, and much to my dismay, our closet was not square. My husband says closets are NEVER square. Sigh, so all my measuring and figuring was all for nothing.

That is until I remembered the carpenter factor, and promptly set the husband to work. He cut about 1.5" off the end of the cabinet, put the end back on, and voila, it fits like it was made for our front closet. Brilliant. That means we won't be able to put a cute little fabric basket in the end cubbies (on the right side), but its a great spot for cleaning products, garbage bags, etc. I was so thrilled with it, I ran out to Zellers and bought another to put on top! So Rob did the same thing to that one, and now I have a total of 18 little cubbies in my front closet! I am in cubby heaven.

We still have a lot of work to do in the front closet, as we removed the two shelves, as well as the rod. There is much hole patching to be done, as well as a coat of white paint to freshen things up. Due to the lack of rod, we will put up hooks for people to hang their jackets, and the kids will each get their own little coat hook, at little people height. Eventually we will each get our own little fabric bin too, but I plan to pick them up slowly over time, as they are $8 a pop! 12 times $8...eep!

Finally, this is another exciting addition to my front closet, but to the exterior of it. This closet was clearly an afterthought or something. So above the door, we have this giant, empty panel. I really wanted to find a grate or scroll piece to hang up there, but at $20, it was far too much. I even checked out a number of salvage places looking for old scroll work. Couldn't find anything, but I did get this old shutter for $6. Its cute, its cheap, and I think it might just do the trick. Still not entirely sure what I'm going to do with it. The closet is such a brilliant white now with the paint, I think no matter what I do, this little fellow will pop. Shutter love.

As you can see, I've been a busy little bee trying to finish up this kitchen makeover, bit by bit, piece by piece. With every new addition, or change, or upgrade, I'm loving the results. Now the back splash stands to be the final big change, but in the meantime, I'm doing what I can to make it a little more like home.