Ask most educators and they will tell you that they have something they typically only do in the summer when they aren’t working.  The school year tends to be so focused on school that there often isn’t time for hobbies and outside interests (sad, but true).  Most teachers I know enjoy reading, working out more, photography, sewing.  Me?  I like to paint in the summer.  Not in the way you would think though; I like to paint stuff.   Mostly walls and furniture.  These kinds of DIY/house projects typically get only get done when I’m not working.  Halfway through most of these projects I realized that I should take pictures of them for the blog.  Hence, why I’m not a DIY blogger.  I never remember the process pictures, and when I do they’re blurry iPhone photos.  Hopefully you’ll forgive me and take a look at some of my accomplishments anyway.

Shortly after we moved into our house we let the girls pick the colors they would want for their rooms.  Lovey chose Cotton Candy pink and Kitten chose Tasty Apple green, both by Benjamin Moore.  I painted Lovey’s room last summer because she told me the old blue color made her nervous.  Unfortunately I never got around to painting Kitten’s room until this summer.  She has a big room so it took three days.  In addition to the walls I painted the wood trim white.  Super annoying and time-consuming, but so worth it!  If I was a real DIY blogger I wouldn’t bother to tell you that outside of this shot is a typical 3 year olds room covered in toys, dolls, and clothes.  (just keeping it real folks)

I’ve wanted to paint a dresser we got from Honey’s dad for years now.  It was actually a dresser used in his nursery!  It had great bones, but the color had to go!  I wasn’t sure what I would use it for but I needed some drawers for over flow clothes in my room and my bedside table was looking a little frumpy.  Enter old dresser.  Lovey and I worked on this project together in one day.  The color is Kendall Charcoal by Benjamin Moore, color matched at Lowe’s because we had a gift card.   I updated the drawer pulls with an old sample jar of Silver Satin also by Benjamin Moore. Total price for the project $6.  I’ll take it.

The last project I worked on was planters for our front stoop.  I have wanted planters since we first moved in but never found anything I liked.  Or I would see what I liked but it cost $10, 000.  I kid.  Ideally I wanted something for under $50 total.  No easy feat.  Enter Joann Fabric.  I went in for something else and discovered that the entire floral department was on sale for 70% + 20% off AND I could stack a 25% off total purchase coupon.  SCORE!  I got two planters and a can of spray paint for $28!  Original price for the two planters: $120.  I call this an epic win, even though I feel like the planters need another coat of spray paint.  For now they’ll do.  Just gotta actually put some plants in there!

So that’s it.  What fun and exciting projects have you been up to this summer?

All photos credit C. Fuss.