Hi!  Thanks for visiting!

I'm excited to share that I've started a new blog website.  Come check out my new posts at www.changingchaney.com.   I won't be updating here anymore.

I'd love to hear what you think about the layout of the new site.  Feel free to leave a comment on a post over there!

Thanks so much for reading,

Kacie

One man's trash...

My nunnie used to always tell us a story about a brass umbrella holder she kept by her door. It was scratched at the bottom from years of use.  When she couldn't revive it, she brought it to the local thriftstore-- cast off with the other unwanted items left for sale. 

Weeks later, she was out shopping at a nearby  pricey antique store.  She spotted a similar umbrella holder-- same size, same shape, same color.  When she looked more closely, it had the same scratches inside-- the exact same ones which caused her to give it the boot.  There was her old umbrella holder, same scratches and imperfections, for sale with a hefty price tag.  One man's trash...another's treasure,...another's profit. 

As someone who frequents thrift stores often, I'm all too familiar with the feeling of complete joy I get from snagging up someone else's unwanted and cast off items.  Reviving them, bringing them back to life, sharing the story of the hunt with visitors and friends.  

So, imagine my shock while on my weekly thrifting trip, I spotted a fireplace screen that I bought years ago for the first apartment Josh and I lived in. It was a well loved piece in our apartment-- it held votive candles which we often lit. After years of use, some of those votive holders fell off. When we moved, I donated it to a local Goodwill. 

At first, I figured it couldn't be ours.  I donated mine to Goodwill, and I was in a Value Village. When I looked closely, though, I noticed it was missing the exact same votive holders.  It was ours alright-- it had seen Christmas parties, pizza nights, and the first years of a couple living together.  And here it was cast off and selling for a few bucks at Value Village.

I was still skeptical that it was our same screen until I looked across the aisle to see a mug with a beaver on it from Fort Lauderdale.  It was solidified-- the mug was ours as well.  We bought it at a little dive bar on a vacation to Fort Lauderdale a few years back.  This was no coincidence.  Those were my cast offs, full of memories, for sale for someone else.

I thought about buying them back for the fun of it.  For some reason, seeing them for sale made me a little nostalgic. Probably not nostalgic for the things themselves, but the memories they represent.  I decided against it-- maybe they'll bring someone else some joy in a new and different way.  Maybe they'll tell their friends about finding them in the thrift store-- cast off by someone else.

It's funny how life comes full circle sometimes. 

And I did walk away with some new-to-me treasures....but this has been a long post, so I'll save them for next Thrift Score Thursday.

Ft. Lauderdale dive bar

On the shelves at the thrift store 

Fireplace screen at our apartment 

There it is at value village

Spare room plans

I took an interior design class at a local community college this past fall.  One of my favorite parts of the class was laying out our design boards.  I loved pulling together different fabrics, finishes and paint colors to create a cohesive room.  It was amazing to see how switching out a rug or a piece of artwork could totally change the direction and feeling of a room.

When I found this amazing queen bed at the thrift store, I couldn't wait to start planning for the design in our spare room.  This room which has received no love in our nine months at Chaney, despite quite a few overnight guests.

While I'm committed to going dark on the walls to contrast with the light wood of the bed, I'm a little nervous to go to this dark slate color.  I went dark in the dining room, and it is my favorite room in the house, so I know it can work.  At the end of the day, it's just paint. Laying out a design board ahead of times definitely helps me feel more confident in the choice.

I can't wait to get started on the room (and convincing Josh that a pink rug is a good idea).  Has anyone reading ever painted a bedroom this dark? Any tips?

Thrift Score Thursday

Some of you may have seen this score of the century on Instagram.  I literally gasped when I saw it-- which happens in thrift stores more than I would like to admit. It's a raw wood, Drexel Heritage, wingback bed, and it's perfect, and it's huge-- but more on that later.

In general, I have three rules/ guidelines when it comes to thrifting. The first is that the more frequently I go, the better my odds.  I try to hit up my normal spots once a week.  The vast majority of the time, I walk out empty handed, but going more often definitely yields more finds.   My second rule is that, if it looks decent in the store, it will look great in the house.  This bed, for example, was surrounded by ratty rugs, socks, mattresses, and general thrift store chaos.  I can pretty easily see past the clutter and imagine the object in my house.  Lastly, I can't go thrifting with a certain object in mind-- because I'll never find it.  I have an ongoing list of things I need for the house, and I keep all of my measurements in my phone in case I need to check on the size, but generally, I go thrifting not looking for anything in particular.  It's beyond frustrating to be looking for a dresser and find anything but.

That's the thing with thrifting-- you have to enjoy the hunt. For me, the story behind many of the objects in our house is what I take pride in. Sure, I could go to HomeGoods and buy what I need (and trust me, I definitely LOVE me some HomeGoods), but I know my best and most interesting pieces are the ones that are collected and have a story.

This bed is a great example.  After having weekend visitors, our upstairs spare room bed broke!  So, when I saw this bed, with all of its beautiful wood grain beauty, I knew I had to have it.  One problem--it was gigantic, wouldn't fit in my SUV, my husband was out of town, and our best friends with a truck were on vacation.  I knew if I didn't snag it up right away, I would be out of luck.  With a $200 price tag, this beauty wasn't lasting long.

So, I did what any desperate normal person would do-- I walked around the parking lot until I found someone with a truck and offered him $30 to drive it to my house. Duh.

I'm still alive and typing this.  All good.

So, with a beautiful new bed, I'm getting ready to tackle our guest bedroom.  Right now, it's a horrible sage green, but I'm excited to roll my sleeves up and get to work.  I'm thinking dark slate wall to contrast with the light wood. The image below is my inspiration right now.   I've got the most important part, so the rest is just the fun stuff!

Client Project: Painted Bamboo Entry Table

Sorry for the delay in posting!  Spring is such a busy time!

I thought I would share a project I just finished up for a client who connected with me through a yard sale website on facebook (side bar: do you all do the yard sale websites on facebook? They are THE BEST!)

Bamboo furniture is trendy right now.  I have two pieces and I get tons of compliments on them. Rebecca's piece had amazing details, but was definitely stuck in the 70's with its beige and black speckled finish.

Love the bamboo details-- not so much the beige!

Rebecca had an awesome inspiration photo, which let us work from a common shared vision:

Love this style!

So, after we aligned on what Rebecca wanted, I picked up the piece from her house.  I did a standard painting procedure-- sanded down the whole piece, primed, sanded again, painted with Design Master's Raspberry paint and applied a shiny coat of poly to seal it off.  I used this method from one of my favorite bloggers to strip the hardware-- the handles were painted with the same paint as the piece.  I put the hardware in a crockpot over night and the paint just fell off, revealing the original, amazing bronze.  We decided to finish them off with a gold spray paint to give them that extra shine.

Here is the finished product styled up at my house

It was a blast to work with Rebecca and help her achieve her vision for the piece.  I can't wait to see it styled up at her house!

Gardening with a chance of drinking

First, I have to start off with expressing deep gratitude for all of the support I've gotten over the past few posts.  I've realized in this process how important it is to have a "tribe" of folks nearby who fiercely support, and challenge, you.  The texts, emails, calls, and love I've gotten since starting just a few months ago has been incredible and I'm so grateful. Thank you.

(I'm fresh off reading "A Year of Yes" by Shonda Rhimes, so I'm all about female empowerment, self-love and genuine relationships right now, if you can't tell.  It was an excellent read.)

I've been holding off on this post until we were certain that everything would stay alive-- we planted around 4/5 weeks ago, were away in Mexico this past week (SO wonderful!), and everything is still alive and actually thriving so I think I'm safe to post! This is definitely a departure from the work on the interior of the house, but I'm in the middle of a few different projects and will post on them soon.

A few years ago, I couldn't keep a false plant alive.  I've had a lot better luck in the past year with several indoor plants-- I've managed to keep several orchids alive and blossoming and my fiddle fig tree is pretty much my child.  Do you ever have moments when you feel really, really old?  Yeah, just had one of those....

Anyways.  Josh and I have been talking about planting a garden for a long time.  We've had several beautiful weekends in NC, so we gave it a shot.  We started with herbs (both as a test run, but also because it was a bit too early to plant veggies).  If you live in NC and are thinking of starting a garden, I would recommend checking out The NC Department of Agriculture.  You can mail in a sample of your soil and get a whole report back about what types of crops will grow in your soil and when to plant. Pretty amazing!

Here is my boombox and my beers

We decided to go with a raised bed-- I liked the aesthetic of it, and Josh liked that it would keep everything contained.  We'll go with the same process for our veggies this weekend.  I would have liked the beds to be deeper, but because our natural soil was really good, we went with a more shallow  bed so that the herbs could take root in our own soil (as opposed to potting/top soil).


The most important step in this whole process is to have a cold beer(S) and some good jams  nearby.  Some of our projects seem so high stress (painting expensive cabinets, ripping out floors) that we welcomed the chance to work on something that was low stakes and high reward.  I was definitely feeling good by the end of this project and we had a lot of fun and laughter in the process.





The first step was to level out the soil for good drainage and dig out any big roots.  We put the garden in the back of our yard because it was where we got the best light and was the most level.

Then, we built the frame (just making  simple square with the edges and screwing with decking screws).  There are tons of tutorials online that you can tweak to your specifications.  You can also buy these boxes pre-made, but it is SO much cheaper to build your own.  One really important note is that the wood should be cedar or untreated.  If you use wood with a stain, it can kill the plants.  Next, we added in the potting soil.  Having a math teacher husband is so helpful here because we has able to do the math to know how much a bag of potting soil would cover.  Smart guy I married :) 

There's my beer

After that, we just followed the instructions for planting the different herbs. We planted dill, flat leaf Italian parsley, Italian oregano, Greek oregano, and Rosemarry.  We have since added basil, which is doing great, but it was too early to plant it with the initial planting so you won't see a picture of it below.  We will also add in cilantro, but again, was a bit too early. 

I definitely need to put some updated pictures in because the herbs have gotten huge compared to these pictures. I really like how the garden breaks up our backyard and it makes the whole yard smell amazing.   It's so nice to have the fresh herbs on hand for cooking and using in cocktails (a gin and tonic with lemon and rosemary is a delight).  We've used them almost every night-- so much cheaper than buying from the grocery store and a great little hobby we're enjoying together (there's that "I'm so old" feeling creeping in again!)

Have a great week! I'm taking a blogging class on Wednesday, so hoping to have some new tricks soon.  

Paint It White: The Kitchen

The footprint of the kitchen was a major selling point for us.  As many of you know, I come from a long line of amazing Italian cooks and I find myself happiest in the kitchen.  Josh is also a great cook and it's one of the activities we really value doing together.

Before

On our budget, we were so excited with the size of the kitchen, where it was located in the house, and the overall potential of the space. In a lot of the other houses we looked at in our price range, I was already thinking of how we would have to renovate to make the kitchen more conducive to our lives. Chaney was different-- there was definitely elbow grease needed, but the potential was there. Our real estate agents were just the best-- they knew exactly what to show us to fit our lifestyle, our budget and our non-negotiables (like a kitchen we could cook and entertain in).

The kitchen is a room in the house where our DIY skills have been put to the test.  The first project was to rip out the light wood laminate, exposing the vinyl tile underneath (it's sort of like a fun treasure hunt!).  Maybe I'll have J do a guest post on the floor laying process, because I really can't do justice to all his hard work in words....

We painted the walls above the chair rail Gray Screen by Sherwin Williams and below we painted Alabaster to flow from the dining room.  I painted the kitchen cabinets in Alabaster White as well and updated the hardware with these modern brass pulls.


Painting the cabinets was a huge, long, tedious process. I took all the cabinet faces off and saved the hardware and then taped off all the areas I wasn't going to paint.   After, I scrubbed all the surfaces with TSP to remove any grease from the previous owners.  Then I sanded down all of the cabinets to remove the finish.  I brought the cabinet faces outside and made a makeshift painting booth.  I used a Wagner spray gun to get a stroke-free finish. I put the cabinets up on makeshift stands that I made out of pushpins so I could have both sides drying at the same time.  I think I put 4 coats on each side of cabinet?  Overall it was close to a 2 week project (with at least 3 serious mental breakdowns in the process.  No one ever tells you about that step).

We got help from both of our dad's on the kitchen as well.  Eric, Josh's Dad, is an electrician so he helped us replace the light fixture above the table and helped wire a spot for the fixture above the sink.  SO much more light!  My dad helped reconfigure the direction of some of the pulls and helped do some touch up painting to the parts of the cabinet I missed.

The most recent project was the built in breakfast nook.  I knew I wanted a built in-- it would make the kitchen feel bigger and would give us more seating. As much as I would have used some storage space under the bench, I knew that keeping it open would keep the room feeling light and open, which was important to me.

Our wonderful friend Doug helped us with the bench (and by helped, I mean directed the whole project) and I painted and sanded the piece down.  I love how this simple Ikea table is elevated with these awesome ghost chairs at a killer price point.  The rug under the built in is thrifted and I love the colors.  I got the slab of marble from a junk yard and added gold leaf to the edges. I love keeping it on the table for hot plates etc.

There are still a few things I want to do in the space including: having custom cushions sewn for the bench, artwork above the bench (I'm painting an abstract that I think is going to work perfectly!) switching out the light above the sink for something brass (I am thrifting hard for it, but can't find it yet!), adding subway tile backsplash and switching to stainless steel appliances (please let us get a good tax return).  All in time!

We are loving the new, bright space and have had quite a few game nights around the table (with 4 boys sitting on the bench, so we know it's sturdy! Go Doug!) I have also realized that with 3 different entrances into the kitchen, it makes for a great space to entertain in.

Enjoy the pics!

Forgive the pics being blurry.  Still learning some photog skills!

I totally set the table like this for J every morning for breakfast. Average day at the Johnson house ;) 

Not a bad before and after:

Dining Room Progress

I'm really happy with how the dining room is coming together.  I had a pretty clear vision for where I wanted to take the room and I've been lucky to find some great pieces to finish off the space (for now).

When we bought the house, the dining room was painted a harsh red, was carpeted, and was where the previous owners kept their dogs. It wasn't my style at all and needed some serious updating.  We both love to cook and entertain, so I knew this room would be working hard.

Before 

The room got a total makeover.  Josh laid a new floating floor throughout the first floor (which deserves a whole post of its own!).  We painted a deep navy blue (Naval by Sherwin Williams) above the chair rail and Alabaster (Sherwin Williams) below.  I was initially worried that the blue might be too dark, but the deep moodiness really works, plus the room gets a lot of natural light during the day.

We switched out the light fixture for a mid-mod sputnik replica with eddison bulbs.  This thing gives off major light and heat.  We installed our own lucite curtain rods using acrylic rods I ordered from a plastics company and brass ballet bar standoffs!

The table and chairs were hand-me-down from a family friend. I reupholstered the chairs and refinished the table myself.  The bench was a thrift store find that I covered in the same fabric to give us more seating and give me the eclectic look I like.  The buffet piece was also thrifted.  It's a bamboo, hollywood regency piece and a gasped when I saw it and desperately jammed it in the back of my car before someone else could snag it up!  The marble lamps are incredibly heavy and were a yardsale score for only $5.  

Lastly, the plate wall was a labor  of love.  I spent months collecting blue/white plates from thrift stores and places like Marshalls and TJ Max.  Once I had a good collection, I used these plate holders to attach them to the wall.  I'll write more on that process later.
Overall, I'm really please with the room and think it's mostly done (for now!)