Staircase re-do

        I do not have an elegant staircase.  It's abit narrow and quite dark.  The color was too muddy although it was from the cheap "oops" paint at the depot.  About 10 years ago, I decided to fill it with family photos.  I loved the look.  I had a ton of frames and sprayed them all black.  I then spent a few weekends scanning photos and printing them out in black and white.  I loved looking at the photos when I 'd run up and down the staircase.  As you enter my house, there is a tiny vestibule that leads directly into a horizontal hallway.  The staircase is also horizontal to the hallway so when you stop as you enter, you have a great view of a good majority of the pics!

     Fast forward -10YEARS- the last photo I framed was of my nephew.  He turned 10 in November.  You might ask, so what's wrong with that?  Well, nothing, except that since then, I have been lucky enough to have 4 more nephews and 3 more nieces.  Life gets busy but come on!!  So, I've decided I need a change.

     I'm heading back to the depot and I'll give you a hint.  When it's done, I'm hoping for a big bright  new look!! Haha-not quite the Wikipedia pictured here but.....

Image via Wikipedia

                      More like this staircase with the great mouldings!

This is my inspiration pics from DecorChick blog!  Mine will never be this intricate and involved because it will only be me working on this project.  Also, her staircase is wider and more open- let's face it- I want it to look like this-if it gets to resemble this from a far away distance -I'll be very happy!! So, I'm off and hope for some more snow days in the next few weeks so I can get a move on this project!! Gotta fly-Claire

Ugly ugly ugly doors

Frames

So a  few posts back I talked about molding.  I love me some molding.  I board and battened(?) my front hallway and absolutely love it.  It has lightened and brightened my entry and makes me happy and lighthearted as I enter and exit!  But, it's not enough.  I have UGLY doors  throughout my house.  The typical cheapo hollow doors builder's used back in the 60's.  Stained dark brown and hollow-ping ding -hate them.  So, I went to the depot to buy more molding-the picture frame type, little and delicate.  I want doors that look like they have substance instead of pingy-dingy!  I measured and cut with the big ole' saw in the basement but no matter what I did, no two corners matched up.I really think the saw was too powerful for this molding but I kept trying but to no avail.  I was sooo disappointed. What was I gonna do? I looked around my house and started looking at frames.  All the frame corners met perfectly.  So I collected a bunch, took them outside, and spray painted them until my finger was so pinched it was stuck! But, guess what?  I got some perfect looking picture framed box molding and I gorilla glued it to those UGLY doors.   I painted the molding and the door and I love them!!!!!  I felt like the Sandra Lee of home decor!!  If you can't make it from scratch-improvise!! Take care-Gotta fly! Claire

Molding cut over and over



and never was quite right!

2 doors+4 frames=LOVE



Molding Rocks!

I have a new obsession-Thrifty Decor Chick was really the one to get me started-her moldings are fab-I didn't know where to begin-I wanted the board and batten kind, I wanted my hollow doors covered in picture frame molding, I wanted big wide molding in my living room and dining room-whoa-not soo fast-Although molding doesn't have to be expensive-let's face it-it's not free. So, I needed to take baby steps.  I have stalked every blog I could find with any mention of molding-LOVE IT!  My next "problem" was the whole power tool thing.  We had a saw  but it was very scary looking and really loud! As you read this attempt at my direction giving, you may notice that it's abit scattered but being it's my very first tutorial on just about anything, forgive my choppy instructions! So my first step was to buy molding. I bought two 8 foot pieces of chair rail molding. I think they were just under $6 each. Then I got verrry cheap-I found 8 foot lattice strips for $1.28-I do love a bargain!! I bought 15 of these.  The total molding bill was about $32-not bad!  I decided I was going to not waste these 8 foot strips and cut them in half (with the big scary saw-yikes!).  Then I added the chair rail on top of these strips.  It was pretty easy, and it was a great way to cheat on the board and batten look I so dearly loved.  First though, I had to paint my front hall, it was due for an overhaul-two colors that were separated by some old stenciling.  I painted the bottom 4 feet white-Behr's pure white primer and paint and the top half was called Behr's real cream primer and paint in one.The Behr paint and primer in one can is kind of expensive, about $30 but it definitely saves you some steps. I found I needed two coats of this versus one of primer and one of paint separately. Then I started nailing up the strips of lattice wood.  I am not the most accurate when I am hot into a project, so I basically eye-balled the strips and their distance from each other. Slapped a few finishing nails into the slats and was off to the next one.  That was the quick part.  I then nailed the chair rail along the top of these strips-I forgot to mention I have an old house, nothing is even, nothing is level, so although the level I used said it was "perfect", there were some strips that didn't quite reach the chair rail-so what's a girl to do?  Fill it is with spackle of all sorts.  It worked-kind of.  You'll see once it's been painted. I do love it and I'm off to the next molding project-Gotta fly! Claire

Happy Labor Day!

The weather is magnificent-no humity-cool breezes-Just the kind of weather to think out home improvement projects-and do I have plenty! My new love affair with molding-I'll be posting some pics of the front hall although I don't think the before pics are gonna appear since no card in my camera-oops--no pics-dang-but I have some awful pretty after pics of the nest! The good ole' hollow doors are next and then I'm a creepin'up the staircase-Thrifty Decor Chick gives me so much inspiration I could explode! Well, not exactly, but you get my point- so with Labor Day right around the corner,I'll be heading to the depot for some cheapy molding and hopefully get started on my nesting projects sooner than later!! Have a great one. Gotta fly, Claire