From Richmond to Alexandria

Apparently waiting on big change (kitchen redo #3) makes me want to do lots of little changes in the meantime!

We painted our oddly shaped fireplace Benjamin Moore's Richmond Gold to contrast against the Dunmore Cream we used on all the walls in our very open floor plan. And it stayed that way for 8 years.

Now I'm a Tennessee Vols fan through and through. The Clemson Tigers are 2nd dearest to my heart during football season. I bleed orange. But when it come to my home, it is high time the oranges go! The orange oak cabinets in our kitchen will not be missed. And neither will the orange (Richmond Gold) fireplace.

I really wanted to go lighter then the Dunmore Cream walls. I'm in the mood to lighten everything around here! But my hubby--and the color expert at Benjamin Moore--talked me out of that. Instead we went with Alexandria Beige.

And I love it! It's a much calmer color and I actually feel more relaxed in our living room now. I changed out the orange floral accents in the basket weave vase to lunaria/silver dollars.

Confession:
The orange oak on the handrail (see it in the left hand corner) is now bothering me a bit. And I have a feeling that all the oak rails are going to bother me once the cabinets are white. But I HATE painting, especially detailed stuff like railing! What color are your banisters/railings/etc?

Distressed Walnut Ink Cutting Board

First things first, yes, it's been a long time. No one told me how very much life would change by adding another kid to the mix! Seriously ladies (and gents if you are reading), any of you who have more than two kids get my utmost respect. I love having two, but everything takes twice as much time.

Now that my youngest is almost 15 months old I feel like we are coming out the haze and are back to our "to-do" list for our home.We are slowly making progress and marking off items on our list. Everything from finally painting trim work and baseboards that needed to be painted years ago (yes, YEARS ago) to our 3rd semi-reno on our builder grade kitchen. We have some major painting scheduled for our kitchen at the end of the month! Lots of prep work ahead of me.

In the meantime, I'm trying to do little things here and there to get me back into the saddle and to hold me over until the bigger projects come into play.

First up, a plain cutting board that has spent more time in the bottom of a kitchen drawer than on the countertop:

I wanted to use it on our island more as decor than its intended purpose. But the light color of it didn't contrast enough with the countertop surface. Plus, it had a red wine stain on it.

So I turned to two trusty standbys:

I started by rubbing the distress ink pad over the board. I then sprayed the walnut ink onto a paper towel and wiped it into the grooves and did a final wipe down over the entire board with it as well.

And the end result:

I'm sure I need to add some sort of a protective sealant, but as I said, this cutting board doesn't see much cutting action. I am sure I will seal it at some point, but for now I am enjoying it as a decor piece.

(See those orange oak cabinets? Take a double look while you can...those bad boys are outta here very soon and I won't miss them one tiny bit!)

So, how have all of you been in my absence?
What are some of your favorite "tide over" decor projects to do when the bigger projects are on standby?