Surprise!
We’re blogging about something
other than gluten-free food, Atlanta, or our weekend plans…well sort of.
A couple of weekends ago, Chris
and I decided that after a year of some serious living in our sweet little
house, it was time to do some major deep cleaning.
After two days of intense
cleaning, dumping, and rearranging, we learned one major lesson: we’re NOT
waiting another year to do it again. We swept and scrubbed that place from top
to bottom. It was embarrassingly filthy. Enough said.
The best thing we did for our
house and our sanity was to de-clutter. Our keeping room, or front room in our
house had turned into a dumping ground over the past year. We walk in the door,
and throw stuff down in there with every intention to move it. Well, that never
happens. Here’s what the room looked like before.
Absolute mess.
Here’s what we did:
Threw out a bunch of junk. Stupid
stuff you don’t actually need, but maybe you think you’ll want to save it at
the time or in the moment. Nope, just becomes junk.
Got rid of the desk. We’re not in
school anymore, and it’s a breeding ground for mess.
Put a bunch of stuff in the
crawlspace that was supposed to end up there a long time ago, but we’re scared
of the crawlspace. We got Jfal to handle that part.
Moved some things around! We eat
our meals in our living room since its right off of the kitchen and by the
T.V., but we didn’t have room for a table in there…or so we thought. There was
a table in the keeping room in a corner just collecting junk and not being used
to its full kitchen table capacity. So, we moved two chairs out of the living
room (that were getting too much use/getting dirty) into the keeping room, and
then moved the table and its two chairs into the living room. Boom. Table for
two. We love it!
Lastly, we had a little spray-painting
adventure to top it all off. Danny gave us a couple of white rocking chairs
from his Nana’s house, so we wanted to spruce them up a bit – bring Nana into
2012. Then Chris found the perfect little cabinet for her room, but it was a
not-so-perfect color, and I got an old trunk from Stacey that was in need of a makeover.
I don’t know if we went about this
in the most efficient or effective way, but it worked for us, so here it goes:
First, we cleaned everything. We just
used an all-purpose cleaner, and sprayed and wiped everything down. The chairs
especially needed it.
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| BEFORE |
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Next, we used spray paint primer
for the two darker colored pieces. We were not sure whether or not we’d even
need primer, but we figured it wouldn’t hurt. In the end, I think it was for
the best. Chris’s cabinet was pretty much eating the primer.
Then, we went spray crazy until
our furniture was totally covered. We ended up going back to Lowe’s twice to
get more paint.
Next time, I think we’ll let the
paint dry longer outside, and we’ll anticipate more paint!
And for the grand finale…I found
this amazing little coffee table at a flea market, and fell in love with its
potential. I love that it’s round, and smaller than our last one.
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| The way I found it... |
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| Progress... |
I plan on sanding and re-finishing
it, but I’m not sure exactly what I want to do yet. Ain’t it cute?!
We’re really happy with all of our
projects, but it’s still a work in progress. We still need to:
1.
Hang pictures
2.
Get placemats
3.
Organize bookshelves
4.
Make a fake mudroom like this.
Eventually…
1.
A new couch for the Living Room
2.
A little couch for the Keeping Room
3.
More art for the walls
4.
New rugs
Woo hoo!!
