A Slight Change with ChalkPaint

I am new at the chalk paint trend. But I am finding it is wonderful! Lose the prime, paint, paint, protect, etc.

I wanted some decor items beside the china hutch in the dining room. Definitely not the candle sconces I have used in the past. So...a trip to Hobby Lobby in search for the perfect pair. I walked. I searched. I meandered. Nothing seemed right. It was the wrong color or the wrong size (or maybe the wrong price for my "slight change".

I finally found what I thought would work but the aged green did NOT suit me. I was looking for dark.

The center was just about perfect. I laid our my tarp and picked up the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Graphite that I had used for my kitchen project.

I did use two coats to cover the places I missed on the first coat. (I am an impatient painter).

The before of the dining area:

And the after:

The shadows it creates on the wall behind makes it look distorted!

Mr. Spouse just noticed them last night. HUMMM--they have been up for a couple of months. I guess that means that they don't look absolutely terrible!

Favorite Projects 2014

2014 has been a busy year at A Whole Latte Home. We have had a whole latte projects. I retired this year from my teaching profession.  Mr. Spouse and I decided that it was time to "fix up" our 30 year old split foyer into something we could "not worry about" and also in order to sale. Not that we plan on selling in the near, near future but update it enough to bring prospective buyers to see the joys of our house.

We began in January with an update to the living room furniture. A new sofa and loveseat was enough to send me to the new drapes, sewing a few pillow covers time! I was still working until June so this project required no hard labor!

February brought a decision I was SO excited about. I had wanted to change our kitchen countertops. for. a. long. time! I was just hoping to get a laminate that was a lighter color than the dark green I had chosen 15 years ago. Also, the kitchen doesn't get much light. The island was a bit big for our kitchen because of the overhang. A simple make the island top smaller required no demolition so we were on to choosing. We had a local craftsman give us an estimate and Mr. Spouse said let's just go with granite!  What a difference in the space and light in the kitchen!

Our next improvement was outdoors! We were surrounded by tall, towering pine trees. This required heavy duty machinery to cut and move these.

What a mess this left in our yard. We lived with the stumps for a couple of months before we had those ground up. Some of the roots that stretched into the yard were also ground. This left us a lot of scraps to rack up and move. I have worked many hours this past year with a shovel and wheel barrow. I am still trying to get grass to grow in some spots.

I seemed to live with a paint brush in my hand from June to November. Our trim had yellowed and really needed a touch of clean white paint. I repainted the family room, master bath, and doors. We also replaced all the door hinges with oil brushed ones. We will begin replacing all the door knobs with oil brushed ones.

And the last two major projects were updating our bathrooms. One was just to demo the small shower and closet and install a larger tile shower. The main bath was gutted and renovated with the existing layout. The small closet was deleted in order to make a larger closet.

It has been a busy and productive year!