A step back in time

Yes, I'm ready for a change. I haven't clued my husband in yet but I think it's time to do some painting. We bought our home about 2 1/2 years ago. It was in dire need of some transformations. It's 30 years old and well... you make up your own mind. Here are the before pictures.

This is what we saw when we first looked at the house. And no, I'm no kidding.

We look back at these pictures and think "What in the world did we see in this place? Because it sure isn't in these pictures!!" I forgot how horrible it was! What's with the formica on the front of the cabinets?!

This next one was taken after closing and I was able to get in to begin cleaning.

Okay, since our home is 30+ years old we had several generations of wallpaper to deal with. Here is our first attempt at ridding the kitchen of the horror.

Still in progress. Hubby didn't want me doing anything with the lovely formica on the backsplash- not because he was in love with it but because he didn't want to have to deal with it at them moment. Sorry, babe- it slipped!!:) Formica came off!!

Because of the slip (wink, wink), we spent many, many hours installing beadboard as a backsplash (you can barely see it unpainted in the next pic). Not only did it give the kitchen some character, but it was inexpensive. A huge plus!

After it was all said and done, we came out spending very few pennies- just paint and new hardware. We worked and worked removing wallpaper, adding some beadboard and painting. I used the same color paint on the cabinets and backsplash so that I could add and change accessories and such as I pleased and wouldn't have to stick with one color. I still have the ugly stove and dishwasher, but they work and I am thankful.

And here's the dining area. All we really did was tear down 4 layers- do you hear me, 4 layers!!!!- of wallpaper. We then removed the molding and added something a little prettier about 2/3 of the way up the wall. One wall was actually the back of the kitchen cabinets but who cares?! We added the molding there, too, and pretended it was a "real" wall.

Okay, notice this lovely room. This was in progress- removing all that wallpaper. Notice the molding at chair rail height? That was the stuff we removed. We just bought something we liked better and added it higher up the wall. It has a nice "shelf" on the top- not too noticeable in the picture.

Okay, the new change. I'd love to paint our main living areas. Mainly the dining room and family room. I've had this yellowyish color in my past 2 houses and would like something different. I'm thinking cream (the exact color of the trim- no, it's not white as it looks) on the entire bottom part of the walls in the dining and a khaki/brown on the top. Hmmm.... I'm also going to finally take down that light from the dining room and paint it. I have been saying I am going to do it for over 2 years now- no time like the present. It will be much cheaper than a new one and no one will ever know.

Then, to talk to sweet hubby about painting. Do you think I can just slip and "accidentally" paint a blob on the wall somehow? I love you, honey!

In Him,

E