Brand New-ish Handrails!!!!

I felt like the announcer on the Price is Right when I wrote the title of this post.  "SUSIE SILLYPANTS SMITH, come on down.... What do we have for her today Drew????  Why... It's a BRAAAAANNNNNND Newish.... Handrail!!!!"  (insert canned applause and a lady jumping up and down in pure joy)

We have two handrails on our main floor that keeps us from falling from level to other level in our house...  they were functional... not really the most attractive, and our daughter can stick her entire body thru the handrails and so can our dog (he's not a manly dog by any means, but he LOVES me!).  SOOOOO someday this could become a safety issue. 

We priced out several different options...it was going to be around $2,000 for the replacement of 2 new handrails... um.... maybe not today... thanks...

I would really like something like this...

I found this photo on the House of Turquoise Blog.  She has a TON of great photos over there, be sure to check her stuff out!  A Def must check!

http://www.houseofturquoise.com/

 I love the mix of traditional and industrial, the straight lines of both the cabling and the ballisters.  I would like to have a runner something like this someday down the road...

However.... I digress into the deep depths of my imagination.... 

Back to reality...

This is what we started with...

view from the front door

view from our kitchen



view from our living room

 

Here are a couple of other websites that were part of my inspiration for our handrails... we debated between staining and painting... we went with paint...

Traditional Staircase - color/stain
Stain/Paint color for stairwell

Steps for the project....
Sanding the varnish off each railing, spindle, and balusters

Clean up dust
Clean up the sanded railings, spindles and balusters
Paint primer onto all railing, spindles and balusterss - 2 coats

Sand to make smooth
Paint Black Latex Epoxy from Sherwin Williams onto the tops of the handrails, and balusters - 2x
Paint White Latex paint on spindles and bottom trim - 2x
Touch up with itty bitty paint brush

Final photos montage...

Seems like it should take like 2 minutes to whip this all together huh???  HA!  This paint project took my hubby and I the majority of 2 weekends and every evening for 2 weeks.... 

But we are super pleased with the end results!  Amazing what a little paint can do in updating! 

Are you planning any painting updates in the near future?

Teal & Orange ARE the new black... 2013 Fall Decor

For those of you who are "Orange is the New Black" lurvers..... a little play on words... still need to get my hands on the full Netflix season to download those badboys....  I so adore Laura Prepon...

oh... so I was going to type and share something with you all.... OOOOOOH yes...  some quick snaps of my fall decor around the house.   

This year's color combo was a fun and festive one, teal, aqua, orange, and chocolate brown.   - Get your color glasses on... its about to get crazy fun in here! 

DISCLAIMER:  nothing in my house is matchy matchy - however I try to incorporate the same things through out the house - either in prints, colors, ribbons, textures etc.   Somehow or another it comes together... - I haven't figured this out yet either...

 Inspiration for the color combo came from this photo/print I found online...

 

I loved these two prints together, the chevron and the polka dot... super fun... super crazy, !  I found these fabrics in the clearance section of our local Wal-Mart - I think I purchased both sets for around $8.00
  

For those of you just tuning in or checking back... here is a link to my entryway and a free fall printable that I designed...Fall Entryway Decor & Free Fall Printable


So now that we have that out of the way....  lets take a jaunt thru the ole house, shall we?

Starting with our front steps -  I pinned the fabric to our summer, outdoor pillows from Grandinroad.  I just tied some wired ribbon in contrasting blue that I had on hand from The Dollar Tree - $1.00

In our entryway...
I made up a bunting with the lettering of Fall, I painted the burlap in the blue polka dots, and used orange ribbon and orange lettering for the font.  I used my Cricut to cut out the letters.  "Cherry Limeade" was the cartridge font name.

and the lower part of the entryway... complete with some squirrels, owls, and various painted pumpkins that I picked up from The Dollar Tree.   I spray painted the blue pumpkins, two different tones of blue, one a deep teal and the other a calypso blue color by Rustoleum.  I wrapped my 2 blue candles from Summer in the orange ribbon and filled a couple of vases with mini pumpkins.  I also found some fun fall pics and printed them off and framed them up for a layered look. 

 

In our dining room I added a few things ....

 

A burlap table runner - NOTE: I do not typically like to work with burlap - it is VERY messy and dusty... and tends to frey alot... but its fall, and I thought it would be a cute thing to have in the room...

So I cut the length I was going for, and then stamped blue polka dots on the runner using a foam sponge -

 

 

Using the same chevron fabric from the outdoor pillows I actually sewed on ruffles... yes folks... this girl does actually know how to sew.... Please don't let my mother or my husband know though.... I have a reputation to maintain...

 

 

 I covered the seams with the same gross grain orange ribbon for a finished look. 

Here is the overall table view...

I really need to get something in that lantern... lots of candles?  Lots of pumpkins, I dunno.. that thing is HONKIN' huge though... so it will take alot of whatevers to fill that bad boy up...

This frame - easy - downloaded some free printables from Pinterest here:

Free Printable Backgrounds

Found the print I liked in orange, traced a leaf pattern out on teal paper and cut it out, taped it to the  orange printed paper, put it in white frame... viola!  Framed Fall Art!

 

In the ole family hutch I printed out the same downloadable background print - only this time in the teal, onto  11x17 paper - and taped it to the back of our hutch - for a wallpaper look - I used 2 pieces per shelf.  Also added in some of those pumpkins.  You can see - glittery orange, teal, and aqua.

 

Just a little last one... in our living room - I have a few items for fall, framed photos of my daughter in a teal and brown dress, along with a coordinating framed photo of pumpkins.

 

   I have these candlesticks and candles which I wrapped the same gross grain ribbon around...  Simple...

 

 

(these small glitter pumpkins were from The Dollar Tree - on the other side is a Jack O Lantern face, that I turned around for Halloween - dual purpose decorating!!!!)

 What did you guys do this year for fall?  Did you have a theme?  A fun color combinations that you would like to share with us?

Thanksgiving Printables - My favorite pins

I thought I would take a moment to share with you my favorite pins on Pinterest for Thanksgiving Printable's - who doesnt like a free printable?  FREE DECOR????  um... hello.....?!?!?!?!?

My first and formost ultra fav is this - 50 BEST Thanksgiving Printables from I Heart Naptime!  Great selection - she even has table placemats for your kiddos that will be attending.  - seriously adorable....    I'm an adult.... but a total kid at heart... so I would even be down for this place mat... now all I need is a good set of crayola's and I would be good to go!!!!

I think I found something for everyone's decorating style, dining style, from formal to colorful and contemporary.  Very nice selection! 

50-best-thanksgiving-printables 

This is my favorite from her site... #48 - I just love the banners/bunting look, along with the great Grandpa's sweater vibe I get from the textures of this gem.

Another favorite is a fun filled list with various treats... from blogger Curbly -

Free Thanksgiving Printables - from Curbly

How stinking cute is this sweet silverware holder????  Your guests can just write down what they are thankful for right there while dining!  I think all that would be needed to complete this look would be a pen.  = Practical and Adorable!!!!  double whammy - more bang for your buck!

And last but not least... who doesn't love a good silly laugh with family and friends?
I am a huge fan of photo booth props,  it's a chance to pretend with those around you and take away a memory for your scrapbook/photo album.

Thanksgiving Photo Booth Props

Happy Thanksgiving Planning to all of you!  Hats off to those who created these fun printables for our families and guests to enjoy. 

What are you doing for Thanksgiving to make your time with family and friends memorable?

All tied up... scarf storage/organization

Scarves, Glorious Scarves.... (I am seeing myself laying on the bed throwing my scarves in the air as I say that...)

Great accessory.... Difficult to organize....
See exhibit A.)

Now these have not sat on the bench at the foot of our bed forever... in fact... they laid behind our bedroom door for at least 1 month before making it over to the bench...  actually... let's take a brief tour of their storage in the past....

1.) entryway closet... all hung up on a plastic hanger... until that broke... purely from the weight of the glorious fabric.
2.) I put 2 command hooks on the back of our bedroom door... and then placed a curtain rod across the two... hung the scarves on that bad boy for quite some time.... until the command hooks just fell off the back of the door...
3.) the floor behind the door...
4.) the bench at the foot of our bed.....

And we are back!

so while the theory behind #2 was great... the expectation of the hooks...  was just too high...

I don't have a huge closet... (which pains me greatly...)
I have a truckload of scarves....
I am tired of seeing them out and about....
I obviously enjoy the placement of them behind our bedroom door...

So.....

 

two curtain rods for $1.00 a piece... a kind hubby to hang these on the wall for me.. and then I just hung them all up where I can see them.... right next to my jewelry so I can get all accessorized in the same location!

In case any of you were wondering... I found 3 hangers, 2 belts, 1 pillowcase, and 2 dress shirts in the pile of scarves, while I was in the midst of hanging them up.

Ya, I was pretty pleased... not only by having my scarves in their obvious home... behind the door... but also the discovery of all my lost items, as well as the re-claiming of the bench at the foot of the bed..... JOY!