bar makeover

Having a wet bar is one of my favorite features of our house. One, because I love the vino. And two, because we can keep the liquor of the gods away from tiny, grabby hands that roam our kitchen.

Our bar was pretty lack-luster when we moved in. We painted the walls and installed some shelves to get my vintage barware collection on display, and then pretty much stopped. I had high hopes (but low motivation) for this room.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago. The home renovation and reorganization bug always hits me in January, and I thought this bar mini-makeover (not to be confused with a mini-bar makeover, which would be totally different) would be a great project to tackle. You know, since it had been on my to-do list since last summer.

Some before photos. Old wood cabinets. Lovely baby gate. Beige walls. Ugly tile floor. Spoiler alert - 1/2 of those will still be there in the "after" photos, because I wanted to keep this entire makeover under $100.

Oh hey, swiper. This is exactly why we have a baby gate. But babies in footsie jammies can do no wrong.

Here was my makeover to-do list:

• Paint ugly 70s cabinets
• Refresh cabinet hardware
• Install child proof cabinet locks so we can be rid of the ugly baby gate
• Paint baseboards
• Paint underside of bar flipper counter thingy (technical term)
• Add artwork or wall decor of some sort
• Do something to make the floor look less ugly
• Relocate laundry basket somewhere more hidden

This took an entire month. Painting takes SO much prep work, you guys.

I removed the cabinet doors and drawer fronts, sanded everything down, cleaned it up, added a coat of primer, and then two finish coats of paint, sanding down any drips that inevitably happen and re-painting those, and rehung the doors. That took 8 days. EIGHT DAYS. You have to wait 24 hours after you prime one side of the doors to flip it over and do the other side. Tick, tock, tick, tock.

At this point I went ahead and painted the underside of our bar counter flipper thingy. It's a fun little feature when you're having a party with a hired bar tender - which let me tell you, we do practically every weekend because we are socialites - but most of the time it's flipped up because we're going in and out and clearing the baby gate like an Olympic hurdler. Looking at the ugly underside of it was wearing on me. A little black craft paint and 15 minutes and that was dealt with. BOOM.

Oh, the iron? Don't you do all of your ironing in your wet bar? No? Me neither.

Onto the hardware. It was so perfectly 70's that I couldn't part with it. My bedroom set growing up had almost the exact same hardware, so it gave me all the feelings. Instead of replacing it and spending $8-12 per pull, I used some antique gold and antique bronze craft paint that I had lying around, brushed it VERY lightly on the highest surfaces of the hardware (leaving the nooks and crannies the original dark bronze), let it sit for about 2 minutes, and then wiped the excess off with a dry paper towel. The result was an antique brass/bronze look that contrasts nicely with the cabinets.

This is most successful if you use an old baby shower plate as a paint palette.

Now for some art. This is a small space, and I always like to try something bold in a small space (like the navy wall in our teeny tiny powder room). Despite what most people think, small spaces can handle a big statement. I had thought about painting an accent wall or something, but I didn't want to make this space any darker. It's seriously lacking in natural daylight as it is. I kind of wanted to paint something colorful on a large canvas, but inspiration wasn't coming to me.

This is exactly why the room has sat like this for nearly 2 years. I was crippled by indecision. And laziness.

As luck would have it, the folks over at Wise Decor sent me an email after stumbling on my house tour posts on the blog. They wondered if any of their wall decal products might be a good fit for our place. I immediately thought of this bar art conundrum and - light bulb - this was totally the right solution. They have lots of standard product offerings, but you guys know me, I like custom. They were super sweet and worked with me to create a custom wall decal with my wording, size, font, and color to use in the bar. Total enablers, and I love it. Here's the link to the CHEERS design we collaborated on.

It only took about 20 minutes to install. The decal is sandwiched between sheets of paper. You line it up on the wall with some painter's tape,  use this special tool that it comes with to rub the letters and transfer the decal to the wall, and then peel the paper off. Voila.

My husband was kind enough to take some photos of me doing this. Yes, I'm in my bathrobe and have wicked bed head. No, I'm not wearing makeup. I hope you still like me.

The big lettering is clearly a bold choice, but I think the tone-on-tone color choice keeps it from being too crazy. And if I ever decide that I want to do something different, it just peels off. Less commitment than even painting the wall.

Here's the final product. The painting was so tedious, but man, it was worth it. In case you're interested, the color is Benjamin Moore Chelsea Grey. It is bar none my favorite grey color for cabinetry. Not too cool, not too warm. Just right.

As far as dealing with the ugly floor, I wasn't quite brave enough to rip up the tile and install hardwood - even though I have enough of the matching wood floor in my garage to do the job. One day. I decided instead to repurpose a rug that used to be in our entryway but had been demoted to a storage shelf in the garage. Why did I not have this rug here forever?!

I still want to find a wine rack to hang up on the small side wall and replace the light fixture. And replace the counters. And the sink. And the faucet. And the floor. But other than that super-long list, the bar is done.

So glad to have this refresh done. In a perfect world I would have finished it before New Years in time for our little party, but LIFE. I suppose I need to throw a Valentine's party to make up for it. Our bartender will be so thrilled.

MAY I INTEREST YOU IN…

house tour: part 1

house tour: part 2

sidney's downtown loft tour

fall flip-flop: refreshed house tour

meal planning the easy way

Do you have any routines in your life that are so ingrained that you're totally blown away when you find out everyone else doesn't do it? That's how I feel about meal planning. I've been doing it for about 4 years now, and I nearly shudder when I think back to the times when I didn't. Aimlessly wandering about the grocery store multiple times a week like a lost puppy, darting between the aisles for forgotten ingredients. Oh, the humanity.

If you've never tried meal planning, or tried it and got sick of it and gave up, I'm going to try to convince you to give it a go. There are 3 huge reasons why meal planning is the best thing ever.

1. It saves you money. A LOT of money, actually. No more forgetting needed ingredients and making extra trips to the store, and impulse buying a bunch of junk you don't need while you're there. End cap display of Doritos, I'm looking at you. I talk a lot about couponing and saving money at the grocery store here and here if you're interested in learning more about that topic.
2. It saves you time. I go to the store exactly once a week. The same day, every week. Barring some strange unforeseen circumstance (oh, family is coming in town this weekend, you say?) I don't have to make extra trips to the store to pick up the eggs I forgot, or that one random spice, or whatever.
3. It saves your sanity. We have enough stress in our lives without that panicked feeling at 5:30 that we have NO idea what we're making for dinner. Kids hangry-crying at your feet in the kitchen as you dig through the pantry trying to put these random ingredients together to make something that resembles a meal. There's only so many times you can eat cheerios for dinner before you start to hate yourself.

Convinced yet? I promise it's not that hard to pull off and you'll thank yourself for it a thousand times over. This is how I approach meal planning. Find a way that works for you if this doesn't feel quite right. Run a little "meal planning" search on Pinterest and you'll find a lot of resources to help you.

On Sunday evening (or, if I'm running behind, Monday morning) I bust out my calendar for the week. When I worked full time, I did this all electronically. Now that I'm home full time, I find it more convenient to use a paper calendar posted on the fridge. Just do what works for you.

You'll need something detailed that gives you some space to write. I use the Intentional Home Printables because it breaks each day up into 3 categories: Things I need to do, things I want to do if there's extra time, and what's for dinner.

Here's why that's important. Fill out your commitments for the week first, and then you will realistically see what days you'll have time to prepare a nice meal and what days you'll need to have leftovers or something really fast. My calendar is almost always overflowing Monday - Wednesday, and then starts to taper off towards the weekend. I typically plan quick dinners for Monday - Wednesday and leave the more complicated or time consuming ones for later in the week when I can actually spend the time to enjoy making them. I like to cook. You might not. If you need fast and easy ever night, then go for it! Make it your own.

The one big issue people seem to have with meal planning is that when it comes time to decide what to make for the week, you suddenly get amnesia and have no idea what you even like to eat. Like you couldn't name two meals that you know how to make if your life depended on it. So you head to Pinterest and give up 4 minutes later because you're completely overwhelmed.  I have two strategies to overcome that.

First, keep a list of all of your family's favorite recipes. I know that sounds dumb because people have kept recipe boxes for hundreds of years, but most of us don't take the time anymore to hand write recipe cards out.

I use the Paperless App for iPhone and iPad. It allows you to make a list of anything really, and you select a fun icon for your list (and who doesn't love a good icon), and it's all in one place. I have a list for warm weather dinners and cold weather dinners. Each list holds all of my favorite recipes that fit that season. I may have the details of the recipe typed out, or it might just be a link to something on Pinterest or a blog. Either way, it's there.

Here's where it gets really useful. I also keep my grocery list here in the app, so I can review my recipes, make my grocery list, and keep it all in the same place. And because I'm so list-crazy, I also copy the recipes I want for the week into ANOTHER list called "dinners this week." Once I've settled on what we will eat that week, I transfer those meals onto my calendar so I have it on the wall. The iPad comes with me to the store in case I need to check my meal list for ingredients or something.

My other strategy for coming up with what to make this week is to give each day a theme. You absolutely don't have to be rigid about it, but it will help get the juices flowing. Here's what that looks like for us. Each night of the week we will have one of the following:

• Soup/salad/panini - some combination of these or all 3. I do this the day I grocery shop because I'm usually beat after an hour in the store and this takes little to no effort.
• Mexican night
• Italian/pasta night
• Asian night
• Classic American night - meat, potato, vegetable. Or burgers. Or some kind of comfort food.
• Something new - a Pinterest recipe or something from a friend I've been meaning to try
• Leftover night - because give yourself a break.

Knowing I have these categories or themes helps me to quickly fill out my meal plan for the week. If we want a break from Asian food one week, I skip it. If there's 2 new recipes I want to try, I do that. It's not meant to be limiting, but only to help the process move faster.

That's how I do it. It takes around 15 minutes or less a week and is worth every second. Once I do the meal plan, I typically make my grocery list and go through my coupons in the same sitting (if possible). Really savvy couponers will review the coupons and sales first and then make the meal plan based on the best deals for the week. You can totally take that approach as well. The times we've been really hard up for money, that's what I've done. It takes a bit more commitment to plan meals based on what's on sale rather than what you really want to eat, so I only do this occasionally or if there's a deal that's too good to pass up. You can read more about that couponing strategy here.

Anyone else out there swear by meal planning? Or do you have some meal planning obstacle that you could use some advice on? Do share!

MAY I INTEREST YOU IN…

saving BIG on your grocery bill: part 1

saving BIG on your grocery bill: part 2

fab freebie: printable coupon binder index

the down and dirty guide to cleaning bathrooms FAST

we bought a zoo! (membership)

We are busy plowing through our summer bucket list at the Lenney house. This weekend we loaded up the fam, along with sister Meredith and Mr. Kendall, and headed to the Dallas Zoo. I'm a little embarrassed to say that even though we live in Dallas, we had never taken the boys here. In fact, the Hubs and I hadn't been in almost ten years. Whoops. Being TCU graduates and all, we are Fort Worth Zoo snobs because, well, it's awesome.

If you live near the area and haven't been in awhile, I highly recommend that you check it out. They've made some major improvements. We had a great time checking out the exhibits, splashing in the kids area, riding the monorail and carousel, touching a snake, and best of all, Henry got to feed a giraffe. Have you ever seen one up close? Their heads are ginormous.

brilliant zoo tip: dress your kid in bright colors and stripes to very quickly locate him in the crowd.
it also seems to attract animal attention, which was awesome.

swinging between the two suckers, I mean, willing participants.

he was totally brave, as long as I touched it first.
sidebar- I know you're not reading this blog for fashion advice,
but check the related links below for info on my minty dream fossil watch and shorts!
the mint glasses are from Target

that face

riding high

watching momma and baby apes

I can relate, momma.

I love all the statue photo ops

best part of the trip

deep thoughts with gorillas

chomp

holy crap, a family photo where nobody is screaming!

momma, we're going faaaaaster!

this kid

This post was mostly an excuse to show cute pictures of Henry. Max was just happy to be outside, rolling along in the stroller.

We just happened to get a coupon in the mail for a discounted family membership, so it will pay for itself in 2 visits. Just $89 for a full year, including parking. Score. I love a good deal.

What are you guys up to this summer? Any good zoos in your hometown?


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fab freebie: printable coupon binder index

Sometimes I like to pretend that I'm a graphic designer, and today is one of those days. As a follow up to Part 1 and Part 2 posts on saving boat laods of money at the grocery store, you can download this free PDF coupon binder index here.

saving BIG on your grocery bill: part 2

Last week I shared my basic tips on how to cut down your weekly spend on groceries. Did you try anything out? Are you hooked? More importantly, are you ready for more?

This week I'll share some advanced moves on grocery store savings. I'll be the first to admit that I don't do all of these every week. The "part one" stuff I can do week in and week out, but some of the tips below take a bit more time and commitment. Sprinkled in with the basics, though, they will really shoot up your savings.

Let's jump in.

saving BIG on your grocery bill: part 1

Of all of the things that people ask my advice on, this is way up there, because we only spend $100 per week on groceries for our little family of 4.

Seriously. It's true. Our grocery bill is just $100 a week. For all of us. And that's not just food. That includes toiletries, pet food, and even diapers. At this point, only 3 of us eat actual food (since Max is just shy of 4 months old). So that leaves 3 adults x 3 meals a day x 7 days = 63 meals. Our $100 bill includes things like shampoo and cat litter and other non-edibles, so it's more like $80 of food per week. That means each meal we eat only costs $1.27. And we eat well. Lots of fresh foods and tasty meals. No Ramen or Hamburger Helper on our menu. Oh, and that includes beer and wine. Remember how we have 2 small children?

And you can totally do it too. 

If you think this isn't for you because you only eat fresh produce and meat and you don't eat processed foods, to you I say:

B O L O G N A 

Even the crunchiest among you probably use at least some of these things: deodorant, soap, razor blades, rice, pasta, milk, flour, cereal, oatmeal, diapers, and, um, feminine hygiene products...just to name a few. And if you're paying full price for these, you are getting gouged.

Every single week, I save a minimum of 30% off my grocery bill. Usually up to about 50%. That means I'm walking away with between 1/3 and 1/2 of my groceries FOR FREE. If you compare out current food spend to what we used to spend before we started trying to save in this area, it's probably closer to 75% or more. I'm not joking. This is real money - an extra TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS (or more) a year - in our pockets.