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Beachside Church Charmer

by The Soulful House on April 28, 2013

Since my own renovations are coming along at a painfully slow pace (ack!), thought I’d feature a stunning little church renovation we spotted yesterday in Colonial Beach, VA. This church is St. Elizabeth’s of Hungary, attended by my husband’s family for eons.

This is the original church built in 1906.

And this is how the church looked from 1963 – 2012 after its first remodel.

Now, after a 5-month renovation completed in 2012, the church looks like this.

Exquisite, right? It’s back to the charm of the original historic structure, with beautiful white brick against gray trim, a mahagony door, rose window and illuminated cupola.

Here’s a comparison of the old structure and then the new from the side.

Here’s a shot from the rear of the new church. I couldn’t find a comparison photo of the old church from the rear.

I wish I knew the architects who designed this. The job is stunning. You can read details of the church from this link where I got most of the pictures. and this description of the work:

A new black 24 gauge metal roof replaced the old shingle roof, the fading brick exterior was painted a charming country white, the crumbling modernist bell tower was taken down and a lovely cupola with bells placed atop the church itself, with a gold cross crowning it all. Most importantly, the facade was completely remodeled and expanded, featuring African mahogany doors, a stunning rose window and gothic sidelights.

There are two other buildings owned by the church that were included in the renovation.

Old Church Office

Newly remodeled Church Office

Old Meeting House

Updated Meeting House

So if you ever find yourself in the Northern Neck of Virginia, make a point to stop in the St. Elizabeth’s of Hungary Church!

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“Color Styling” the Bookshelf

by The Soulful House on February 8, 2013

This little bookshelf sits in my living room.

A lover of books, I like having the classics nearby even if I only manage a once-yearly trek through the beauty of Jane Austen.

But this bookshelf wasn’t doing it for me.

It’s a low, dark shadowy spot in an otherwise colorful and lifting room.

NOW, please prepare yourself for the easiest, quickest and cheapest bookshelf transformation of all time.

Do you remember how we used to cover our textbooks in grade school? Well I found some paper and some fabric in the colors of my living room (navy, yellow and gray) and just wrapped the books, holding them secure on the inside flaps with painter’s tape which won’t ruin the books if I ever remove it.

I left the Austen and Grimm’s books uncovered. One, because they’re navy blue and match the color scheme. Two, because this is a house of children (fairy tales) and the aforementioned lover of Jane Austen.

The yellow and white stripes are single sheets of specialty paper from A.C.Moore and the blue/white quartrefoil was remnant fabric for $4 a yard at JoAnn’s that I’d bought for another project.

These little gourds echo the white/yellow striping.

Well, it was SO cheap and SO easy that I couldn’t just stop there. I wrapped a few more books in the entryway…

It adds a nice punch of color and pattern for, oh, pocket change…

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Make Your Own Spice Jars: A DIY Quick & Cheap

by The Soulful House on January 20, 2013

This was the straw that broke the camel’s back:

Four baskets randomly crammed with cooking spices.

It was my breaking point and the moment that I finally HAD to do something.

Looking around the kitchen I found these:

Hmm…small, compact, stackable, and I have tons of them from all the baby food we’ve been buying. (Right….because my reality doesn’t include puree-ing food the homemade way.)

The lids are more secure than some other brands (I tested them) and they could fall out of the cupboard without the top popping off. That was pretty much the only credential that really mattered.

So I grabbed a roll of painter’s tape, a pen, and went to work. Two hours later I had this:

Interestingly, one full bottle of a spice fit perfectly into these little tubs. If you want a prettier look there are all kinds of lovely templates out there for spice labels which are nicer look at, but these spices are hiding in my cabinet and the system just needed to happen fast and be functional. For me, this DIY cheapie does the trick.

You can see that these go 3 deep, so there are 5 rows stacked 3 high and 3 deep. That’s 45 total spice tubs with 9 in each row.

Here’s the view of the entire cabinet.

Now those 4 baskets of chaos have turned into only one small shelf in a cabinet. When I made gingerbread cookies the day after this spice organization project, it only took me about 20 seconds to find all the spices for the recipe. That was a first for me!

Cost for the whole thing was $20 that I already spend for baby food. So it was actually a free up-cycle project!

Ahh…makes me all kinds of happy to have even this tiny space of my house completely organized.

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How To Make Designer Window Panels with a Cake Stand

by The Soulful House on October 17, 2012

Soooo, my master bedroom is undergoing a makeover that resulted in a need for new window panels.

Having no inclination or budget for $100+ apiece designer panels, I went shopping in my house for something that could work.

I found a ceramic pie plate, a glass 10-inch pedestal cake stand, a sample-size of Sherwin-Williams “Socialite” plum paint, and two white queen flat sheets.

Yes, that IS a pacifier. It’s a multi-purpose life people.

After filling the pie plate with paint and turning the cake stand upside down in it, the work began.

It took multiple sessions and a fan blowing on each section of the fabric for hours at a time until everything was complete. (My 3-year-old is still trying to figure out why he was cast off to the picnic table outside for days on end.)

After many many MANY circle-stamps with the cake stand, the finished product is now my favorite DIY of all time.

First, here’s the only “Before” photo of the room I could find, taken when we’d first moved in.

And NOW, here it is.

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If you look closely, you can see variations in the line width and paint coverage. That’s what I love about these. They’re obviously not machine-made, and the dribbles, dots and imperfections lend a truly artistic quality.