Happy Fall

It's hard to believe that fall has arrived.  It seems like July 4th was just a few weeks ago.

But I will say I really enjoyed summer.   My job is requiring a lot more of my time and

attention and something really needed to give.  I took a vacation from the house even I

didn't  take a vacation away from home.  I appreciate all of you who left comments or sent

e-mails wondering where I was and how I am.  You're all the best!

Backing up a few months I was experimenting with stains to match my old bin drawers.

I thought a good match was somewhere between golden oak and golden pecan.

So a couple of weeks ago, I mixed up a 50/50 mix of golden oak and golden pecan

and just went at it.  This was right after I had stained one of the little

floating shelves.  And I was pretty happy with the outcome.

And then on to the upper cabinet next to the fridge.

This is the before...

...and this is after.

I didn't want the wood to end up too shiny so I decided to finish

off with just a coat of wax.  I've done the little shelf on the left

which you might notice ended up just a little darker than the cabinet

from the wax finish.  In the end, I'm happy with it,

Having the upper cabinet stained may seem a little unusual but I

think it's necessary to balance the bin drawers on the other side

of the kitchen.  And it's unexpected which I like.

You might also notice that I painted the panels around the fridge

the same color--BM Chelsea Gray--as the lower cabinets.

I really like how this turned out.

I have this constant internal battle between wanting

everything to be edited and spare on one had, and wanting

to display all my collections on the other hand.

Right now, edited is winning.

Next I'll be moving on to the shelves that flank the stove.

And I need to paint the windows.  There's plenty of time

to be indoors though coming in the next several months.