Saturday, October 30, 2010

Signs

Funky Junk's themed link party this week features "signs".  I like signs around my house and thought I link up a couple.  As I walked around the house to get pictures, I realized I had more than a couple.  Most of my signs have some sort of meaning for our family while others are here just because I liked them.  Here are a few:

Lots of "3"s around the house.




A little welcome sign on the front porch.


A few signs that I made...




The sign off the downtown Dallas door of my Dad's jewelry company.

Old top of a barrel hung as a sign.

I got this sign from a shop.

This little metal sign highlights my mother's family name.

So there you have some of my signs.  You know what?  I think I want some more!  Can one have too many signs around the house?  

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Mom Cave: No boys allowed

Kate over at Centsational Girl and Susan over at Between Naps On The Porch are having a Mom's Cave contest.  Since I spent so much time recently finishing up my "mom's cave", I thought I would play along.  Being the only girl in my family of three, it might be more appropriately called "My Escape from the Boys."  Let's take a quick tour.

These awesome french doors lead into the room.

My mom's cave is my recently made-over sunroom in the back of the house.

 Come on in.
It's a combo of the styles and things I love.

There's plenty of storage in this old jeweler's cabinet which was an inherited piece.

Old window is my new memo board.



Plenty of places to sit with my friends.

Oh yeah, more storage.

Here's my project table on wheels so I can move out of the way to work on a bigger project on the floor.

This old chip clip holds idea pictures.

yep, more storage.

There's a fireplace in the room (and more storage).




Little shots of red; my favorite color.






There you have it.  My mom cave.  No boys allowed.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Chippy white paint can be bad...

I haven't been in the mood to decorate our front porch for Halloween or fall.  It's usually done by now but with warmer temperatures and some problems with the porch, I just wasn't inspired to get it done.  So, we decided to tackle the problems and get the porch ready for fall.

Let's start with the problems:
We have a ceiling fan on the porch which is great.  However, the fan used to be white but now has become tinged with yellow and really rusted.  It's an outdoor fan but the amount of rust it has would make you think otherwise.  I figured I could give this a fresh coat of paint and it would be fine.

The ceiling on the porch is white and shows a lot of dirt.  I've always wanted a pale blue ceiling on the front porch so our plan is to paint this.

If you've followed my blog, you know I love some chippy white paint.  However, chippy white paint on the front porch looks like we just don't take care of our house.  It also allows the wood to rot.  So, this piece of wood trim will get replaced and we will repaint.

Every speck of trim needs to be sanded and repainted.

These are our columns on the front porch.  Houses in our neighborhood that have columns are all painted in two different colors.  There is the base color that's on the rest of the house (the siding areas) and there's the trim. You can see my next door neighbor's house and their two-toned columns.

I have never liked these columns painted two colors and over the years have grown to hate them.  I've always wanted all white columns.

So, let's get to work and make some changes.  First up, take down the fan and paint it white.
As my husband carried the fan to the backyard for painting, he accidentally hit the blades against something and broke a couple. 
That could be bad...OR it could give me reason to buy a new fan!

Machine Age Galvanized Ceiling Fan

I've been eyeing this galvanized metal fan.  Maybe I could get this instead.  Well, no not exactly.  With a $350. price tag, I'm just going to have to admire it from afar.

So, here we are with no fan.  It's so sad.

On a brighter note, here we are with all white columns.  Woo hoo!

These look so much better and fresher and make the columns more prominent.

We're painting the ceiling a pale grayish-blue.  The color is "Ozone" by Behr's vintage collection.
Now, about that ceiling fan.  We bought a package of replacement fan blades and a couple of cans of aluminum spray paint.  For about $30. bucks, we made our own galvanized metal fan.

There it is...the pale gray-blue ceiling and galvanized fan.

This looks sooooo much better.

Pretty cool, huh?  and so much cheaper.

From the front: blue ceiling, metal fan, fresh white trim and white columns.

Pale blue porch ceilings are a southern thing.  It's supposed to help keep flying insects away.

Does it work? My husband dodged two wasps while he re-hung the fan.  Oh well, at least the porch looks prettier and has inspired me to get on with decorating for fall.  

spray paint party

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