Recipes, projects & products that don’t suck.

Several months ago, I decided to paint our entryway. Guess what color? Yup. Valspar Summer Cottage. Same color as the front door, the back of the hutch shelves and the pop of color on the living room wall. Now the entryway is bright and cheery (unlike the former dark olive green color). The only problem was that our entry table (a light blue dry sink cabinet) now blended in with the wall. Oops. Didn’t really think that through. At first, I considered painting it white. But it had never been a perfect fit anyway. It was too deep and not long enough to make efficient use of the space. I had a vision for something better. So I measured the space and drew what I…

This floor lamp has been begging for a makeover for years now. When I first got it, I painted the rusty metal base ivory to match the shade. It’s been that way for over ten years now. If you’ve been following along, you know I have a slight obsession with a paint color by Valspar called Summer Cottage. I used it on my front door, my wall and my hutch. At the risk of overdosing on Summer Cottage, I decided to paint the lamp shade this color, too. And the base got a fresh coat of bright white paint. Here we have the “before” shot… I taped off the sockets and cord before applying a couple of coats of Rust-Oleum Painter’s Touch Semi-Gloss White. The…

On Friday, I gave you a little sneak peek of this project on Facebook. I’ve had quite a bit of red in my decor for some time now, and I’m ready for a change. Slowly but surely, I’ve been swapping out my red pieces for fresh, light colors. We’ve had a red hutch in our dining room for about eight years. I considered painting it white. But, believe it or not, I already had a white hutch in another room (talk about shopping the house!). It was being used as a bookshelf/office storage in Hubs’ office. I never really liked it in that room – too big for the space. So, the white hutch took the place of the red one, the red one was…

Our front door was neglected and had so much room for improvement. I’ve been trying to decide on a new paint color for a couple of months. First, I was sure it should be navy. Then black. Hubs wanted red (um, no). Then I was inspired by this amazing house. Can I please live there?! I chose Valspar’s “Summer Cottage” (you may recall my use of this same color for the pop of wall color). We actually used it on the door first, and I liked it so much that I bought a gallon of interior paint. I might use it for our bedroom. Or the bathroom. Or both. Painting the front doors (there are two) sounded like such a simple, easy, quick thing to do. But…

As I’m blogging tonight, I’m also watching the Olympics opening ceremony. I LOVE watching the Olympics. The athletes always astound me. My sense of pride in my country swells. Shoot, my sense of pride in my STATE swells a bit, too. Michigan Olympians to watch include the 17-year-old female boxer from Flint, Claressa Shields (this girl is no joke!). Gymnasts Jordyn Wieber, Sam Mikulak and Rebecca Bross all have Michigan connections. And of course, there’s Michael Phelps, who trained at U of M. And the list goes on. I’ll be cheering them on from my couch as they shock the world with their supernatural abilities. I have no clever transition. These two topics are completely unrelated. So, I’ve been toying with ways to add color to…