A Sunny Door & A Shiny Top

I've been working hard over the last week or two on a couple of projects. 1. Our kitchen pass-through counter top. 2. The outside of our front door.

Our kitchen pass-through window actually started off being framed by dark shutters. After a few weeks of staring at them once we got the keys, we took those suckers off.

Getting rid of those shutters makes the space look cleaner and more modern. It also makes the room look bigger. What was grossing me out was the poo-brown paint or stain that they previous owners used on the counter top. Over the last few months we thought about what to do about it. Do we paint it a dark charcoal color? Do we paint it white? I then decided that I wanted to strip it down and then paint a pattern over it so that you could see the wood grain next to the painted pattern. Then I decided to strip it, sand it, and stain it.

Before:

Hey guys, don't forget to wear protective gloves and eye-wear!!
I'm putting on the gunk that lifts old paint or stain. It definitely burned the inside of my nose - it's pretty toxic smelling.

Nudey shot:

After I put the stain on I slapped on some poly and called it a night. With only a few hours of absorption it looks a little red:

And here she is all normal brown and rustic-y looking! (The lighting wasn't too great when I took the photo. Trust me - it's loads better!

The next steps will be to paint the trim around the "window" a clean white and to slap a pattern on the counter top. We have one in mind and will most definitely post about it when it's complete - whenever that is!

Project # 2! I've been anxiously waiting for the day when I could paint our front door yellow. I'm sure some of you have heard me mindlessly blabbering on about it a few times before. My strong partner in crime, Jordan, unhinged the door for me and laid it out in our back room on some cinder blocks. There, I spent the whole day priming and painting. No joke, we put the door back on last after 10pm. I don't think it was fully dry. I definitely have a few touch ups to do.

For some reason I can't find a before photo that doesn't have our security door open. But I do have some shots of the poo-brown color the door was. I think the previous owners liked poo-brown a lot.

Primed:

Painted!!:

Oh yes, and decorated for Halloween. I got the idea from this blog right here: Hi Sugarplum! I thought they looked cute and simple and headed over to Michael's to grab some felt.

I'm hoping to tackle the inside of our front door soon. At that point we can remove the ugly doily that plagues the windows next to the front door. I won't even burn your eyes until I can do a proper before and after!

I just finished off my box of Raisinets, which means it's time to sign off. More soon!

Thanks for reading,
Ashley