Some Before and Afters

For those of you who don't know, my sister-in-law Natalie is really amazing.  She's amazing in a lot of ways.  She is kind and fun and a great friend to me.  She's an awesome mom.  She also started a business to help out with the family finances and she has become an amazing success as a "Mompreneur!  Check out her blog here:  Natty by Design 
or here: http://nattybydesign.blogspot.com/


Natalie knew that I'd been having a rough summer and that I had a lot of projects that I just didn't have the energy to finish.  Her specialty is painting old things and making them look new and beautiful!  My kitchen cabinet doors had been sitting in the garage since we moved in.  I had a table with no chairs.  I had an awesome dresser for Lila but hadn't painted it yet...so Natalie (with the help and support of my brother-in-law Zac, of course) flew out to our house for a quick weekend.  She worked her tail off and helped me get things done!  She had to leave before everything was dry so she didn't get to see the rewards of her labor.   Here are some before and after pics:

First Before:  The cabinets were more honey colored than they appear here.  We did not like them.

 

Second Before:  I worked my tail off before we moved in and got the skeleton done but we spent over 2 months with no doors or drawer fronts.  It was lovely:

 First After:

I wrote "first after" because I love my cabiets now! I think they look amazing!  However, the cream walls don't do much for the kitchen with everything else white.  We've been planning to paint the kitchen and is one of my next projects...for sometime in the next month...or...year.

Before:  I found some really nice, sturdy, wood chairs on Craigs List for really cheap!  But they needed some obvious help.

I chose a teal green color for them.  Jason was not sure about my bright color choice at first but now he is getting used to them and I think he even likes the fun color in an otherwise very neutral area.  The 4 black chairs ($5/each) had been refinished many times and looked super trashed but they were still very sturdy and I'm glad we have some extra chairs to bring out so we can eventually start inviting families over to eat with us.

Here is Natalie hard at work, getting everything ready to paint.  It was REALLY hot!  I don't have an after photo of the dresser yet but it is darling.  Thank you so much, Nat, for your generosity!