New {Iron} Stair Railing

We took the plunge and replaced our wooden stair banister and railing with a black iron one!  The result is beautiful...better than I imagined! 

Here is a before photo of our old wooden banister that we painted white:

It wasn't that the white didn't look good, it just didn't function well for our house.  It showed dirt terribly and got scuffed and scratched a lot.  I've been seeing a lot of metal railings on home makeovers and knew it was the perfect solution for us. 

In order to save about $600 we opted to do the demo and replace the base board ourselves.  We purchased a couple of 16', 1"x6" boards of primed of MDF since this material is harder than solid wood and won't dent as easily.  We purchased them from a local lumber supplier who delivered them for free. The fact that it was primed help cut the painting time in half too!

Here are a couple of photos from demo day:

Here is the new, painted base board that we installed ourselves:

 

Colorado got hit with a snow storm the day that they were supposed to install our new railing so it got delayed by a few days.  We had some dressers lining the upstairs so there were no accidents, thank goodness!

The installation only took an hour or so and everything went smooth as expected.  Here is what it looks like now:

I highly recommend Colorado Custom Iron Works if you're looking to replace your stair railing!

 

Grateful {Heart} Wooden Sign

Made this sign the other day.  I love of the little imperfections.  It makes it look old, worn and homemade.

I didn't take a before photo but I made this from a thrift store sign that had a painted checkerboard on it.  It was not my style so I painted the edges dark gray and the inside white.  In order for my words to be black I had to add black paint then paint white over it once I put down my saying in vinyl letters.  Before the paint dried I peeled the letters off.

Making signs this way is super easy to do.  I'm always on the hunt for vinyl letters in the clearance section of the craft stores.  What is your favorite way to make "saying" signs?

Spring Decor & {Layered} Area Rugs

I'm so happy that Spring has arrived.  It has inspired me to change up my décor here and there as well as bring in a new color palette of mint, blue and cream.  My normal colors generally include teal, aqua and turquoise so this is a big change in my world. 

Check out my spring décor on the buffet!  This is a good example of the new colors I'm using in my home:

Colors aren't the only change I made.  Area rugs have been replaced too!  I have been seeing so many natural material (jute/sisal/seagrass) rugs lately that I decided I needed one in my home because of their simple beauty!  I had the perfect place in mind so I began researching and decided on a jute rug from IKEA (the LOHALS rug) for it's low price and wonderful reviews.  The smaller rug that I purchased to put on top of the jute rug I discovered by chance on one of my favorite blogs, The Lettered Cottage.  I scooped it up from RUGSUSA as soon as it was back in stock and I'm soooo glad I did because it is as soft as velvet and as pretty as pretty can be!

I decided my new layered rugs would go perfect in our front sitting room.  Here is a BEFORE photo of the room that already had a striped gray and cream wool rug in it:

I took this photo before we replaced the chandelier with a much smaller, more industrial flush mount light.  The color of the room was terrible with the old light fixture and it was much too big for the room.  This photo was also taken at night so it doesn't show the natural light flooding into it through the open blinds during the day.

Here is the after with layered rug and new light fixture:

The lighting is still not perfect in these photos but hopefully you can see the difference these layered rugs made in the room.  It feels more natural and airy, like Spring feels!