I am in Manhattan for Blogfest 2012 and spent the most lovely weekend with my dear friends who gave me the most amazing tour of the Hampton's, Montauk, more shingled estates than I can count, and my favorite, Mabley Handler Interior Design's studio. 

Besting them all? Sleeping here:

::SWOON::

I am so excited for the next three days. Between finally meeting Erin of House of Turquoise,  Sarah Elizabeth and sharing company with my absolute favorite interior designers, I am quite liable to freak out and maybe even squeal a bit. 

Not like, out loud or anything...at least, not in front of people.

I hope.

I need this kitchen so I'm making it...

...kind of.

So this winter I'm doing a teensy-weensy renovation to my kitchen. We're talking low, low, low budget stuff here. Of course this means a special Pinboard for the project, but also that I need to track down some things.

My inspiration:

image via House of Turquoise 

My formula is pretty simple:

• Replace my stove and dishwasher with gently used "newish" ones from The Habitat From Humanity ReStore (this will involve a tiny bit of planning), 
• Paint all of my cabinets white (taking huge ques from Marion aka Miss Mustard Seed)
• Cover my counter tops with a stainless steel laminate that a friend is hooking me up with
• Add the hardware you see above
•  Replace my sink with a bib sink (if I can find one with a lip on it) 
• Swap out some cupboards for open shelving
• Add subway tile backsplash 
• Paint my current fridge chalk board paint black because I've wanted to do it ever since I saw this by Lauren Leiss of Pure Style Home
  

image via Pure Style Home

(I wish the open-rafter ceilings were an option, but any noise from upstairs would sound thunderous if I tried to do that so no dice)

Most importantly:

FIND THESE TINS. 

Halp!

In the meantime, I'm doing this:

But, I think we can agree it's not nearly the awesomesauce that it could be. 

I'd love to do this for my countertops, but I doubt I can afford it and I'm trying to keep the elbow grease to a dull roar. But aren't they pretty?

image via Stillwater Story

I usually hate dark wood, but I love just about anything paired with white

I really want THIS sink, but have been told by my pseudo-contractor that I have to have a lip on my sink or it won't work with my pre-existing cabinets

image via Pinterest 

(and the pinner hit my pet-peeve: they didn't pin from the website but from the opened image. Grr)

So I guess now I'm looking for this:

image via House of Turquoise

I love the open shelving from this kitchen so that's on the list. 

I really hope to start this Winter. It depends on a lot, and I have a very, very tiny budget. We'll see how it goes. 

In the mean time, I need to find that sink. And those TINS.

Creating A Cottage On A Hill Project: The Bathroom

So. I had some big plans for this post.

Oh, who am I kidding, they were only mediocre. There was going to be some photos of my favorite "rooms for more than just soap" and inspiration images for my current bathroom renovation  re-do (renovation implies walls being knocked out and that I'm replacing my shower with the cast iron tub of my dreams. Which totally isn't happening). And yes, you read that right, even as I'm posting this now, I am working on changing my bathroom yet again. I blame House of Turquoise and Austin Handler for constantly filling my head with more awesome than I can tolerate. Maybe if they'd just cut it out I could be happy with what I got. But no.

So yeah, big plans. I had them. And fireworks. But now I'm feeling lazy and distracted by American Idol. Which is funny, because I haven't watched a season since Kelly Clarkston kicked all that booty. And yeah, let's be honest, I totally didn't have any fireworks.

I guess you'll just have to settle for some lame ol' B&A's.

First, I had to suit up in the "uniform". Now, don't knock the Ralph Lauren shirt from 1999. I got that sucker at Bloomingdales on my first trip to NYC. It was on the clearance rack and at $11.00 was the only thing I could afford. The overalls bear the paint color of just about every room I've ever done. I love being able to just wipe my hands on my pant legs.

See what I mean?

before:

Note: they had not 1, but 2 wallpaper borders up(!)

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

I really don't feel like I did that much. Just pretty much just undid all the awful that had been done, cleaned like my life depended  on it, painted from floor to ceiling, and added towels and a shower curtain.

So what's next? Thanks to (again) my darling, Erin from House of Turquoise, I saw this shower curtain and had to have it. And not only did I have to have it, but I had to re-do the entire bathroom to welcome it properly:

But, it needs some friends.

I love this light, I'd love it more in a polished silver or aluminum:

via Shades of Light

What I really want though, is 2 of these hung as sconces:

via Shades of Light

So far I can only find them in outdoor lighting.
Is there any reason I can't use it indoors?

I really would love a mirror like this one, but it's not big enough. 

I found one at Home Goods that I like though that is only $29 so I think I'll get that one.

via Brass Binnacle
(It's only $69!)

 Since I've still got you here, how about I share some goals?

I'm aiming for something that kind of looks like this:

and if I COULD knock out a wall?

This would be on like Donkey Kong:

And what the heck, you guys have stuck it out this whole blog sitting through my rambling,
I'll give you some fireworks after all:

Bathroom by Mabley Handler Interior Design

Can you say yum?!

A Lovely Little Batch of B&A's

I seem to have misplaced a rather ginormous pile of Before & After photos of projects that I've done. I kept meaning to post them but you know what they say about the best laid intentions? Well, I'm hoping you do so you can tell me - because the only thing I know is that I can't find those darn photos.

So while you're waiting for me to find my brain where it seems to be nestled next to a plate of no-no brownies (which it totally isn't since my diet doesn't even presently allow brownies), I thought at the very least I could slap up some pictures of what I have just hanging out on my laptop.

Don't get too excited, it's not that awesome.


I got this lovely sewing table from our neighbor's garage sale for $7.00. I had wanted one SO bad that I had been praying for weeks (and I mean literally PRAYING, like on bended knee stuff, people) for one to pretty much just fall in my lap. I had also been praying to find a cheap dog crate for my Lills and she threw that baby in for free. Voila! See, things like this are proof that Jesus likes me and wants me to be happy. That, or I'm just a spoiled brat.

Just look at that thing. It's in mint condition, it came with all of it's parts AND it stood up quite wonderfully to turquoise Painters Touch. Win.

So this poor damn table. It is among the many things that I just couldn't make up my mind about (more on that subject later). I can't find it's original photo at the moment, but trust me when I say it was ugly-as-shit-brown. Like, not even close to not being atrocious. I paid $10 for it at The Habitat For Humanity Restore...or was it $5.00? Either way, it didn't cost enough to make me feel guilty for repainting it more than once to appease myself.

annnd now (ignore the non-matchy pillow situ)

Oh, and lookie, I found the yuck factor
(see, told you it was ugly)

This is a bedside table that I bought to be this unmatched matched set.When I was in my (brief) aqua and yellow stage, I painted it. Since then it's been painted again (turquoise this time) and for it's final presentation it's going white. Stay tuned. Oh yeah, Habitat for Humanity, $5.00.

PS. Eventually I WILL learn that if I just paint everything white, or aqua to begin with, I can save myself a lot of freaking hassle, not to mention time and paint, if I stop painting stuff on a whimsy mood swing. I swear I'll never learn.

I got the other-side-of-the-bed's table at a garage for...free. I was looking at it and the home owner hollers over, "If you want it, take it, I just want it gone". I didn't bother telling her that I was only staring at it because my family (and I'm sure most of yours) had the same matching set to it when I was growing up. But what the hell, I'll just spray paint it. Easy peasy.

Ta-Da

Do I ever loves me some glass knobs and pulls. And Milk Glass.


And hey, I'll throw in my "goofy lamp experiment" for good measure.

 It's for sale. But the shade is crap. Note to self: Mod Podging a lampshade doesn't work. Spray mount or bust. Man, I was SO into yellow that month, sheesh.

Alrighty peeps, I'm outta here. I have to go track down photos of things that I didn't paint yellow. I'll leave you with a photo of my pretty, pretty princess, Lilly. She matches, what, with her yellow and turquoise and all. it'd be a shame to leave her out.

Accidental wins and fails

Much of the time I arrive at serious win for myself purely by accident.

I get excited about something I see, most often online, on Etsy, a design blog...and out of my excitement I get a bit giddy, turn into a twelve year old, email someone, tell all my friends, make new ones and before long I find myself alone in my office giggling like a school girl at all of the unintentional awesome in my world. It's just how my awesome seems to roll, in giant waves of win.

Many of you know by now that I have a serious love affair with hardwood floors, and even more so, aqua and turquoise painted hardwood floors. And ceilings. But, mostly floors. I dream of someday having a little cottage with white painted open rafters and bead board ceilings and aqua floors (with maybe some chocolately brown ones thrown in for good measure).

Kind of like these ones:

image via Coastal Living

image via The Working Woman's Guide to Domestic Success

images via House of Turquoise

(you get the idea)

Many of you also know that I rent. I may love my little loft like space on the side of a hill, but it's not my own cottage, there has to be some rules. My landlord(s) are about the most tolerant people I've ever met. I pick up free furniture from CL just about every day and they never complain or threaten to kick me out if I bring any more pieces home (or if my porch sometimes looks like this):

So asking if I could paint my porch turquoise seemed pretty audacious of a request, so I really didn't want to ask it. Even though, I really, really wanted to do it. Like, kinda bad.

I guess Kaya heard my internal plea, because Saturday as we were leaving to go to the lake for the afternoon, we walked out to find her standing next to a tipped over bucket of turquoise paint:

(and crap! That reminds me I forgot to jot the color down prior to pitching the can. Doh!). She looked so proud, "Wook what I did Cwisty! I twied to fwinish but my paws are twu small". 

She dumped so much paint the only option was to paint the porch with it. Which, was kind of awesome. Of course, this solved my having to ask permission or potentially being disappointed when I am told, "Hell no, you can't paint your porch turquoise". Yay. Thanks, Kaya.

"Yowr welcome, Cwisty"

My porch before Kaya's awesome metaphoric bucket of win dumped on it:

And now:

I still have a lot of work to do, but that's for next Summer.

Now, as you'd expect, I can't just be awesome and have accidentally awesome things happen to me all of the time. I screw up, sometimes pretty bad, and sometimes pretty often. Usually though, I don't mess up anything that I can't fix with some Dry Dex or Painter's Touch, but other times...

Yeah. About that.

Pretty much anyone who has been around since Stuff Chrissa Loves is incredibly aware of my recent obsession with yellow doors and my insane need to have one of my own. I blame Tobi Fairley.

Just LOOK at this door. It'd make anyone want a yellow door. Heck, it'd make anyone want a barn door.

image via Tobi Fairley

Soooo...I decided to paint my own door yellow. I had a gallon leftover from this dandy lil' project of mine:

Now before we get too very judgy, I have to admit a few things:

1. I didn't prime first. I know, I know, I know.

2. The door wasn't dry by the time I had to rush off to see my aunt at the hospital. And then it rained.

3. I used latex paint. And. I didn't prime first. Or sand. I know, I know, I know.

 I know, I know, I know.

Guess what I'm doing this weekend ;)

What are your biggest accidental wins and fails? I'd love for you to share them so I don't feel like such a doofus.

xo, Chrissa