Painting and De-cluttering

When we first moved into our home (11 years ago) I said that I wanted new carpet and I hated the wallpaper boarder in the kitchen (it was of baskets). When we moved in we painted all of the living areas country white (off-white) but it is time for a change - actually LONG past time. However, I am such a procrastinator. All of the moons have to be alligned just right for me to start a project as big as painting the whole house! Not Darren... he just jumped right in and... 11 years later Darren decided to tear that wallpaper down and he painted. I went to Peoria one day to visit my sister and came home to find everything in my kitchen torn out and the walls were being scrubbed, primed and painted. The mess was a little more than I had hoped for. I think I would have at least done the dishes in the sink first. However - it IS done and I have my lovely hubby to thank for all of his hard work. We used a dark red color in the entire kitchen, dining room area and around the fireplace. He also painted the doors to our school cupboard. Now he is working on the living room. He is painting that a golden tan color. I think the color is Boston Tea Party!

I didn't paint but boy did I clean and de-clutter. Meaghan and I went through all of the kitchen cupboards (exept for 1 - I promise to get to it soon!). We threw away tons of stuff. I also moved the hideous plastic organizer that was in my dining room into my bedroom. I hated it when I put it there but I just didn't have another spot at the time so there it sat ALL those years! I also went through all of my other piles upon piles. I must tell you. It is so liberating and refreshing to have all of the piles GONE! Although I must admit, I mainly moved and shoved everything into the garage which will need to be tackled next.

Here are some before and after photos of what has been done so far. Now I need some decorating help! I want to take the ugly kitchen light down too and replace it with something more modern.

BEFORE I didn't really take a photo of my kitchen or fireplace area before but you can see quite enough in the background of this photo. Note the "clutter" all over and the ugly border!




DURING




AFTER