Loving Paint With Grand Design

Lovelies! Here we are again with another fabulous line up of guest bloggers to entertain you all while I am busy cleaning our new house from top to bottom, grocery shopping, and all of the ever-important mani/pedi, spray tan, waxing, and hair appointments in preparation for the big HOMECOMING!! I am so glad I have all of these wonderful Lovelies stepping in for me so I can focus on the important things not to mention so I can be sure to take breathers in between my anxiety attacks. So please be sure to show all of my wonderful Lovelies lots of love because they deserve it. Today, I can't even tell you how stoked I am to have Nikki here. She's the BFF Forever I've mentioned before that I met while in Arizona. Her hubby is an officer in the Army National Guard who finished his first year tour in Iraq flying Black Hawks late last year. I also want to give a big fatty shout out to her hubby because he just got an incredible new position as a flight instructor!! She's a bagenius and an incredibly talented designer. Here's her take on making houses into homes when you move a lot. I also included pics of her own gorgeous house and be sure to check out her design blog. All of her projects are incredible.

I was completely stoked when my husband and I got the call that he had orders to go to flight school. I was so tired of Arizona and the stupid desert and wanted a new adventure. Not to mention I romanticized the South after watching movies like Gone with the Wind, The Notebook, and Sweet Home Alabama. So I loaded up all our stuff, my husband flew home from BOLC and two days later we were on our way to Fort Rucker.

When we got there I was in awe. Imagine my surprise to learn that grass, trees, and flowers could grow in the wild without constant drip lines! There was water everywhere we looked (although some of the lakes on post were inhabited by crocs and the like) and amazing historic homes. I loved to drive down main street in Ozark looking at old houses and fantasize about owning one of my own.

But that isn't where we lived. We lived in a house built some time in the 50's that was infested with mold and other critters (Alabama lingo for bugs). Animal control actually called themselves the "critter gitters". And even though the house was ugly as sin, smelled questionable, and made everything I hung on the walls look crooked, I LOVED it because for the first time in my life, I had a home that I could make look any way I wanted. With paint. And boy did I paint. I painted every wall in that place. 

I suppose that's where I developed my love for paint. Because it took my house on post from ridiculously hideous to a place I wanted to show off. Now that we have settled down and bought a house of our own, I have enjoyed painting the walls of my new house just as much as I did then. Its one of those things I don't think I'll ever get sick of. Being able to paint makes something gnarly into something beautiful and helps make a house into a home. Even though my husband isn't active duty, we have moved quite a bit and I'm one of those people who gets stir crazy after 2 years. Paint is one of those things that makes transitioning easier and I'm not going to complain about having a fresh canvas when we do move. Decorating a blank slate of a house is the best part about moving.

(Ingeniously painted wall. She used flat pain, a stencil, and clear acrylic spray paint.)

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(Her fabulous master bedroom)

(The baby's nursery/office/craft room.) 

(Her little girl's room. Best princess, girly room ever!)

You can tour her entire fabulous house HERE