Salmon and Aqua Kitchen

This weekend was a really snowy one here in Colorado, so we stayed in and did some things around the house. Stefan changed out some outlets...and I painted the kitchen!

Lincoln Beauty-ful Makeover

I've had this Lincoln Beautyware dispenser for awhile now. It was something from my Granny's house that I always loved.

As I'm planning out our kitchen design, the one thing I know for sure is that the main color is going to be aqua. So far, all we've done is paint a few items Aqua and bought a vintage Frigidaire oven (more on that to come...) but then I stumbled upon this photo from a Retro Renovation post:

If you look straight back, you'll notice a Lincoln Beautyware dispenser. I loved the way that looked, so I thought I'd customize my own to match. (I love that whole kitchen BTW *drool*)


























I started by peeling off the only label that was loose. That would be easy to hot glue back on later.


























Then I put some painter's tape over the other labels and pushed them into the creases with my fingernail.


























After that, I carefully cut along the crease with an X-acto knife.


























The tape pulled away easily.


























I only wanted these two pieces to be aqua, so that meant I had to cover everything else in painter's tape too.


























Allow me to introduce you to my favorite spray paint: Valspar Color Radiance Paint + Primer (84508: Nautical). You can buy it at Lowe's. (Since this is my favorite color, I can also tell that you that if you are looking for this in a wall paint, Clark + Kensington has pretty much an exact match with 30C-4, Good Life.)


























Definitely don't skip out on buying a top coat as well, since this spray paint (as most do) will chip without it. (I know from experience!) I chose Rustoleum's Satin Clear Enamel, but depending on what type of finish you like, there are glossy and matte options as well.




The instructions recommend two thin coats, so that's what I did. Then I covered it in the top coat and now it's ready to go!

Home Sweet Home

My house was built around the 1920s, and later turned into a duplex. The house has great character, especially the doors and little idiosyncrasies here and there. It's been really fun to decorate; and I know I am enjoying it much more than a modern apartment, which basically is a plain white box. I like to blend a little of the vintage and a little of the modern, which ends up being my style. Below are some pictures of what I've done with my house. I think it's nice to share ideas, since that's how I came up with a lot of mine to begin with.

This is my living room. It's a pretty open space, so I put the bookshelf there to create a hallway where my front door opens up. My brother says I win the defective television contest every time. Sometimes the screen rolls and you just have to wait for it to finish. And other times everything is yellow but all you have to do then is pull a Fonzie on it and everything turns back to normal. But I love it (despite its defects and that it reminds me of a station wagon), and won't trade it for anything until it absolutely dies. I hung up vintage LIFE magazine ads for decoration on the old accordion door. A lot of this stuff is thrift store finds, but the couch and bookshelf were from IKEA.

This is to the right of my bookshelf in the living room; it's basically my front hallway, looking in from the door. 

Here is the view from about where my television sits. I love how open this place is, even though its pretty small. You can see all the way back to the kitchen. The pennants on the archway were the first decorations I hung up when I moved in. I see those on blogs everywhere. The only problem is mine are made of paper and the humidity here in the south is finally getting to them and making them curl. Eventually I'd like to make them out of fabric. 

This is my bedroom furniture. I love the style. Found it at a thrift store for a great deal, but the only catch was the thrift store was in Illinois. So after I moved down south, I ended up having to drive 12 hours (and that's just one way!) back to Illinois to get these little stinkers to my house. It was worth it though! But I might add, I am never doing that again! haha!

This is looking in to my kitchen from the archway by the bedroom. My diner table was the first piece of furniture I bought, and the color basically inspired everything else! The kitchen has been my favorite room to shop for just because of how colorful it is. 

This is another view of my kitchen of my stove, and the back door that leads out to my driveway. 

This is the entrance to my bathroom, basically looking forward from my bed. I used twine and mini clothespins to hang up old photos.

And finally, this is my bathroom. I have the original sink and clawfoot tub, but thank goodness, a modern toilet :P It's very tiny but quaint.