Butcher Block Counter

Remember when I told you about my ikea trip to pick up a chunk of butcher block? I've wanted to instal some butcher blockin my kitchen for a while after seeing some juicy insipration photos around the web. So I got to it, and have now completed one side of the kitchen, the small side.

First I had to cut about 5" off the length to make it fit in my space.

Then I sanded the original finish all the way down to the raw wood. I mixed my own stain, because the "Special Walnut" was too light, and the "Dark Walnut" was way too dark. Sooo.... I got a quart of Special Walnut and added one of those tiny little cans of Dark Walnut to it. I shook it up real good, and wa-la the perfect color. If you decide to mix stains make sure you wear gloves!!! I didn't and had stain all over my hands for about 2 days.

I did two coats of stain, letting each coat sit for about 15 minutes, then rubbing the excess off. I let it completely dry for about 4 days. 

 Above, how it looked with one coat. Below, working on the second coat. 

I used Waterlox Original Satin to protect it. I almost broke down and used a regular old oil finish from Home Depot, but decided I should do it right. I heard that Waterlox was the best, and I am so glad I listened. It was hard to find, as no body seems to carry it around here. I had to order a quart from their website. 

In the following photo you can see how the water just beads up. It is super easy to keep clean and dry. I love my new counter! I can't wait to do the rest of the kitchen. 

My kitchen was looking very cold, with the white cabinets, blue paint, tin backsplash, and stainless steel appliances. The warmth of the wood gives it a perfect contrast I think. It really makes the kitchen look more homey, warm and livable. 

And just to refresh your memory, this is what the kitchen looked like about a year ago.

Reader Revamp: Kitchen Transformation

Thank you to those who sent in your Before and Afters. Keep them coming!!! I hope I get more from you guys, I enjoy them so much. If you haven't sent your projects in yet, make sure you email them to me.  You do not have to have a blog in order to be featured. I just want to see all the creativeness out there.


Our first Reader Revamp is by Angie over at All My Treasures. Angie is a loyal follower of Rocky Bella, and I always enjoy reading her great comments. Thanks for sending your terrific Before & After my way Angie!

Here is what Angie wrote to me...

"The house was built in the 20's. The owner had updated most of the home but had left the kitchen as is. The funniest part is he was a single gay man living with a duck motif in his kitchen. This didn't suit him at all. Cracked me up!"
"I did this kitchen for a friend about 4 years ago and the total cost for transformation was $10,000.00.
That was for cabinets, granite counters, plumbing, lighting, drywall, painting AND a couple new appliances."

BEFORE

AFTER

This is the view from the dinning room into the kitchen. The contractors removed a total of 8 inches. 6 in one direction and 2 in the other and then rounded out the opening.

 

BEFORE

 

AFTER

BEFORE

 

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

There were once two pantries in the laundry room behind the fridge wall, but who needs two pantries? One was knocked out so the fridge could be recessed a bit.  The extra couple of inches along with the wider entrance into the kitchen and getting rid of the ceiling fan makes it feel 300 square feet larger.

BEFORE

AFTER

The once dead space is now several extra cabinets and makes his once lonely wine fridge look like a built in. It gave him an extra 6 feet of counter space and added a small flat screen to watch cooking shows on.

 

BEFORE

 When you squeezed through the door you weren't sure if the fridge was going to attack you or if you were going to get decapitated by the low hanging ceiling fan!

 AFTER

 Do you have a Before & After you would like to share? It doesn't have to be an entire kitchen like this. I want to see all that you guys are up to! Email me your photos and description of what you have done.

Before & After: Frame turned Memo Board

While flipping through the Wisteria Catalog, I saw this bad boy and thought, "So Easy To Make!". Instead of spending $39 on a little one, I made my own.

When we moved into the house, there was a few old frames left in the garage (along with a lot of other random things). I used on of the largest frames for this.

It was super dusty and gross, so I cleaned it up then taped it off. There is a cream stripe through the middle of the frame, and I wanted to keep that, so I did two seperate "tapings" so I could spray paint from both sides of the stripe.

 

  

 Once the paint was completely dry, I brought it inside, turned on the hot glue gun and grabbed my 99 cent store twine.

  

  I cut up five pieces of twine.I glued one end of each piece to one side of the back of the frame.

Once the left side was all dry, I glued each opposite end of twine to the right side of the back of the frame. I did it this way for a reason. I was able to keep the twine much more taunt when one end was already glued into place. I could pull it tight while the glue dried. If it is not taunt enough it will droop when you hang things to it.

 

 Then I just put a bunch of clothes pins to it, and hung it in my kitchen. It holds a few photos and lots of "inspiration images".

I also hung my home-made apron that I sewed a couple years ago. I love it, and it matches my kitchen actaully. It is usually hidden away in a drawer, but now I have a place to hang it. 

 

 

  

 

While I was taking these photos, I was also in the middle of emptying my dishwasher. I left the door of it open, and forgot. I had my eye in the camera, and backed up right over it. I fell over backwards, lost my slippers, dropped the camera, and landed on a pile of knifes. Luckily I, as well as my dishwasher & camera was not hurt. I was lying on the ground cracking up at my clumbsiness.

 

  

 

What's Black & White and READ all over?

Answer:  My new diy book wreaths!

Okay, bad joke. 

Click here for an update to this post. I have altered my wreaths a bit!!! Much better now. 

  

I have been eying these book wreaths all over the net. They are made out of book pages. They feel like they would be a display in Anthrpologie, so of course I loved them. Once I realized how easy they are to make, I was on it like white on rice. The two I loved the most were from The Shabby Nest and My Pink Life

 

The Shabby Nest

My Pink Life

After completing (not one, not two, but THREE wreaths) I still like their's better. Mine came out too round. Okay, that sounds crazy that a wreath is round and I don't like it that way, but look back at the photos above. They are not a perfect circle, I see a bit of jaggedness. That non- perfect circle is what drew me in. Maybe I will make some new ones and give mine away. Anyways, enough of my blabbering. Here is how I made my wreaths:

I started with a regular ol' book. Wait... let me back up a minute and tell a quick story. I kind of got in trouble with this book. See, I have this pile of books that I am giving away to Goodwill. Well Ryan must not have known that this was a "give-a-way" pile because he came home with some books that our friends gave him. (Sorry Matt & Sam, but that means you.) He set them in this pile. So naturally I went to get a book out of my "getting rid of pile". There was a book about the symbolism of a dollar bill. The pages looked really cool, there was some black and white images and a cool boarder aorund each page. I thought it would be great for a wreath. Since it was in the no longer being used pile, I tore it up and used it. When I finished it, he asked what book this wreath was made from. Whooops... I guess that one was suppose to be a keeper. He gave me a little bit of a hard time until I told him I would go check it out from the Library for him. Problem solved. 

Moral of the Story: make sure you definitely have a book that can be torn up, and then double check!

I painted the edges with some brown paint. I read to do that somewhere, but I don't think this step is nessasary at all! I only did this to my first wreath and skipped the paint for the others.

  

 Then I tore out a bunch of pages as close to the spine as I could. I rolled them in cone shapes, and put a bit of hot glue on each.

 

 For my first wreath I purchased a wooden wreath base from Michaels for $1.99. For my other two I just cut out a circle with a hole in the middle of it. I used thick craft paper that I had around, and traced the circles with a dinner plate, and a salad plate.

  

 Wine was an important step in this process! Sip, glue, sip glue, glue glue, sip, sip. It goes much better this way.

Above, you can see another wreath that I was working on that night. I'll show you that soon. 

Once I had the base of paper cones, I just kept on glueing them on to fill any holes. I did about 3 layers. 

Here is my first wreath (my favorite because of the images, and boarders on the pages). I hung it on my kitchen door. The door that has still not been painted white, just primed (over really old oil based paint). 

  

  

  

  

Since my other two were going to be be near each other I used the same book, a book with more pages. I had two copies of Pride & Prejudice, so there was my answer. Jane Austin became a wreath, or two. I added some purple ribbon and hung them from two old windows that came from my parents rental property when they had new windows put in. I hung the windows on each side of the fireplace a while ago, but they just looked so plain. I think this is exactly what they needed.

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