Home Tour: Christmas Tree, Table, Mantle...sneak peek of new floor and kitchen

It's Christmas time in these parts and I hope to clean show you the rest of the Christmas decorations over the next week or so.  Plus, Mr. TSL and I (mainly me while he was at work) laid the floor in the kitchen and dining room over 3 days!  Pics of that in a sec.  We are hosting Christmas this year and I am super excited.  I almost alwasy do Thanksgiving and my sister in law does Christmas.  This year we switched!

I don't do "theme" stuff for Christmas.  Mainly because it would take entirely way too much planning on my part.  I often only buy Christmas stuff after Christmas, so I would essentially have to plan a year in advance. Not happening.  Plus, all the ornaments on our tree were mine and the mr's from childhood, or our kids picked them out.  We rock white and colored lights...I want white, mr and kids want colored lights. We hang both.  I am proud to say that other than picking up the brass candlesticks for the table ($10 for all of them on CL) I didn't buy anything for decorations!  I am planning to buy some napkins for dinner and maybe 3 disco balls to replace the silver ornaments on the table, but haven't done any of that yet.

As for now, here is our Christmas Dining Room tour.

Because we have so many stockings, we use a gold painted dowel rod hung with some Merry Christmas stocking holders.  This WILL NOT hold full stockings.  So, when Christmas comes Santa leaves the stockings filled on the floor!

I had been looking for a wool plaid blanket for a while to use as a tablecloth and had all but given up on finding one for cheap.  Then, I was helping my mom clean out some boxes and this was in one of them.  She told me to throw it away...I kept it.  

and that completes our Chistmas dining room tour....now on to some kitchen progress, new chairs, and new rugs.....

The pics are taken in really low light and the cabinets are more of an inky dark gray.  The pics are spot on for the fingerprints on the dishwasher though!

Pic of the newi-sh (I've had it for a while and not blogged about it) runner on the stairs.

 My new 8x10 Kilim Rug my friend was not diggin anymore, so we traded for a mirror I had from Hobby Lobby and a cake stand I hadn't used in forever!  I freakin' love it!  Thanks Erin! Plus, aren't those stools amazing....trash that Mr. TSL brought home for me.  He brought home 7 of them!  The Island is getting a makeover this weekend!

My new chairs I scored on Craigslist for $35 each.  The black one was originally bright yellow.  Couple coats of paint and the black is much better!  I originally thought they were Eames Chairs, but they are in fact vintage Krueger chairs and were advertised as "Fucky Little Chairs"  She meant funky, but now they are called fucky chairs.

xoxo

Linking to:

inspired by charm

SUNDAY: The DIY Showoff 

 MONDAY: Thrifty Decor Chick, Dittle Dattle,Between Naps On the Porch, Homemaker on a Dime
TUESDAY: Tip Junkie, Today's Creative Blog, Strictly Homemade
WEDNESDAY: Not Just A Housewife Sugar and Dots The Mommy Club  
THURSDAY:My Repurposed Life. House of Hepworths, Beyond The Picket Fence, The Shabby Chic Cottage, Somewhat Simple 
FRIDAY: Fingerprints on the Fridge, Miss Mustard Seed, Remodelaholic, Chic on a Shoestring,  Shabby Nest
SATURDAY: Funky Junk Interiors, Tatertots and Jello 

DIY: from ugly dresser hutch to fabulous mantel!!

I bought this dresser like forever ago for the girls bedroom.....yes I finished it like 6 months ago....no I haven't posted about it yet :(

Anyhow, it came with this fugly hutch that had a mirror on top.  Reminds me of those cheesy waterbed frames. Sorry, if I offended you about the waterbed.  I think they kind of, well, belong in porns.

It looked like this before:

Mr. TSL made wraparound sleeve thing for it and then it turned into this:

please note in this photo:  I do realize there is a vintage gas can in my fireplace, but that is a chalkboard and not real flames.  Generally, chalk doesn't cause house fires and the can has been empty for a number of years! :)

view of the back of the fireplace:

Okay, one more pic....it's my turtle.  He's my absolute fave!!

-Make your life beautiful!!

  SUNDAY:

The Girl Creative ,
The DIY Showoff,
Sisters of the Wild West,
The Tattered Tag,
Flamingo Toes,
Under the Table and Dreaming,
I Heart Nap Time

 MONDAY:

Skip To My Lou, 
Thrifty Decor Chick, 
C.R.A.F.T., 
Sew Can Do,
Dittle Dattle,
Between Naps On the Porch 
Homemaker on a Dime
Making the World Cuter

TUESDAY:

Tip Junkie,
Type A
A Bowl Full of Lemons
Today's Creative Blog
Funky Polkadot Giraffe 
Strictly Homemade
A Diamond in the Stuff
All Thingz Related
Handmade Tuesday

WEDNESDAY:

Blue Cricket Design
Not Just A Housewife
Someday CraftsHandy Man, Crafty Woman
Sew Much Ado
Organize Your Stuff Now 
Seven Thirty Three
Sugar and Dots 
The Mommy Club  

THURSDAY:

My Repurposed Life
Paisley Passions
House of Hepworths
Beyond The Picket Fence
Inspired by Charm
The Shabby Chic Cottage
Somewhat Simple 

FRIDAY:

Whipperberry

Fingerprints on the Fridge
Miss Mustard Seed
Remodelaholic 
Chic on a Shoestring
Shabby Nest
Tidy Mom
Little Lucy Lu
My Simple HomeLife

SATURDAY:

Funky Junk Interiors
Be Different Act Normal 
Tatertots and Jello 
Young and Crafty

Chalkboard doors and a flub up!

A while back I decided to paint my flat builders-grade pantry/laundry room doors with chalkboard paint.  I never did get around to doing it...mama's got a big list of to do's and a teething 7 month old!  I was commited to painting the stairs though!  I went to Wal-Mart to get some porch paint for the stairs. 

While I am at Wal-Mart I see Krylon Chalkboard Paint on clearance near the spray paint (yes, I have another project and I needed spray paint for it---don't judge me---...that will be a later post-when I eventually get to it!) !

I retails at Wal-Mart for around $9 and it was marked down to $5.  PURCHASED :)

This was my inspiration:

source

Love the pulls turned upside down to hold chalk!

This is what I started with:

Now they look like this:

Super cute and functional!!  I was going to write something inspirational or draw something fabulous, but this is what they will almost always look like.  I have kids and they are having fun with this :)



And now to my flub up!!  I wrote down the color for my paint choice for the stairs.  Went to Wal-Mart and apparently Benjamin Moore makes more than one color with that name in different shades of green...what the crazy?!?  So, I buckled and picked one.  As soon as he opened the can I knew it was wrong.  But, he said it should darken up when it dries.  I knew this was wrong, but I was going on no sleepy-teething baby and I just wanted to leave Wal-Mart.

That was DUMB!!!
The color was more like mint-gag adn almost matched the current paint in the dining room and kitchen.  Crap!  Back to Wal-Mart (BTW they take back paint if you don't like it!) I did however paint the steps and live with the old color for about 5 minutes before I vetoed it and drove right back to Wal-Mart.  20 minutes and gas is like a thousand dollars a gallon!! I color matched a green Army blanket Mr. TSL has and repainted when I got home.  I will show you them, when they are done!  For now, here's the ugly paint!

not a fan of this paint color!

 
Painting them is not a permanent fix, but rather a temporary/semi-don't-know-when-we're-going-to-get-to-it-fix.  Because of that reason, I am not priming the steps, I figure the porch paint will do. I was going to paint every other step, but I have little girls and I don't think they could remember/actually get up the stairs without a step between, so I am painting half then finishing them the next day!




-make your life beautiful!