DIY Projects, Gardening

Making a Mini Greenhouse

Happy weekend, everyone! Over the past couple of weekends, my husband, aka Mr. Ethereal, has been noodling how to make a mini greenhouse for me to protect our summer and winter veggies growing out in the south garden. Winter is coming soon and I hope to grow some vegetables into the wintertime…

This year I have finally had a bumper crop of tomatoes! The roses grew well as did these guys with the super high temps, so I with the milder fall weather, I am hoping to get these little cherry and Big Boy tomatoes to ripen before winter really sets in around North Texas.

***On a side note, sorry about no SYS this week! I had a dentist appointment on Wednesday afternoon late after work, and by the time I was done, I was beat. I’m back painting in the early mornings before school, getting the powder room done while Hubby is gone on a business trip.

Room for more planters!

How to make your own mini greenhouse

  • Mr. Ethereal started with putting four rebar rods into the four corners surrounding an area about 8′ square near our little shed which houses the lawn mower and all of the “stinky” equipment. 🙂
  • Next, he picked up four 10′, 1/2″ PVC plastic pipes from the big box store. He had to figure out long the curves needed to be. He cut each pipe down to 8′, I believe, and used a 1/2″ connector in the middle of each arch to connect each section. He plans on getting two more pipes to add a third arch in the middle soon.
  • From there, Mr. E draped heavy plastic over the top weighted down with 4’x4′ posts holding down the extra plastic.
  • Lastly, we gathered the Harbor Freight clips, used with netting over the citrus trees this spring (2/$1.00 on sale), to secure the plastic to the bent pole arches.
  • He plans of adding more plastic at the back and a slip overlapped piece for the front for a “door.”

I totally love this improvised mini greenhouse!!! Right now, there is room to house the garden cart, which is awesome. 🙂

The southern fence here helps protect all the plantings set there. I hope to create a microclimate underneath this little greenhouse where we can grow more plants to sustain us throughout the year. Kale grows well in winter as does broccoli and cauliflower. Carrots and potatoes can be planted in late winter, and garlic needs to sit throughout the cold winter months to help them set. That’s something I need to still get from the local hardware/farm store!

The wild tomatoes in July.

Peppers and tomatoes do well in the spring, summer and here into the fall. I have baby asparagus growing, too! Asparagus takes three years to mature, so its a long haul with them. 🙂 The asparagus growing in the back planter here above was older to begin with.

The other asparagus I have in another round planter will be three years old next year. I need to pick up one more oval planter and

Planters instead of inground

I love in-ground planters and had two at our last home in California. Here, though, we have nasty fire ants! Those mean little buggers bite me all of the time so to help prevent getting bit and then having to eradicate them while growing veg (possibly making ourselves sick), I thought raised beds would help. So far, so good! They have stayed out of the planters.

Each planter is raised on bricks and I drilled holes in the bottoms of each planter for drainage. I didn’t do that the first year but fixed that last year which has made a big difference in the health of all of the plants growing in each metal planter. 🙂

And that’s our little greenhouse! Mr. Ethereal is thinking of making a little two shelf bench for me to keep terra cotta pots on here to the left built out of scrap lumber. But that’s another project… 😉

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Happy fall gardening, friends!

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DIY Projects

Painting Our Hallway – A Quick How-To

Happy fall, y’all! With cooler temps finally here, I’ve finished painting our little hallway, what I started calling our Hall of Mirrors. Let’s talk about painting your hallway and small spaces…

We have been living with coffee-colored walls throughout the whole house, including each ceiling, for the past 4 1/2 years. The paint was fresh when we moved in, but it turns out this is the original coloring of this house. Our neighbors across the court have a lighter version of this paint color on their walls and ceilings, which I would have loved!…

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Begin with your ceilings

Always begin by painting the ceiling in any room. Once it is done, you won’t have to redo it for YEARS! 🙂 With wall color, you can change that whenever you like. It seems that walls get painted every few years anyway compared to ceilings as our styles change or we want to refresh a room’s look as walls get scuffed and have lots of little fingerprints and dirt on them.

Buy scrubbable paint – In bathrooms and high-humidity areas, it used to be recommended to use gloss paint for its durability and ability to handle humidity without peeling.

I like eggshell or low-sheen paint for walls, and satin paint for ceilings and mouldings. I like a light shine on my ceilings to bounce light into our rooms, but you may not like any sheen on your ceilings. It can highlight any flaws in your ceiling’s plaster or wallboard.

Use an angled paint brush – A sash brush has a beveled edge with angled bristles ~ perfect for cutting-in around mouldings and for edging. This type of brush is able to create a finer painted line underneath ceiling moulding and around door frames, etc.

The idea of painting a ceiling first sounds so simple but it is best! It keeps paint from dripping onto freshly painted walls so paint those ceilings! Even if you hate painting ceilings; get ‘er done. 😉

As you paint, cut in around the mouldings and ceiling either first or last, then paint with a roller. I like to do the cutting in work first then roll paint right afterwards. Roll in even strokes with a light enough amound of paint on the roller so it doesn’t drip. Even though manufacturers tout that you can paint with just one coat, do two.

It covers better and won’t leave small vits of the previous color showing through the new paint. If the paint color you are trying to cover is very dark, use a primer like Kilz first then two coats of the new paint. The primer seals in the previous darker color so only the new color will show.

Protect your flooring and furniture – Always put down plastic to protect your flooring and drape sheets of plastic over any furniture or items left in a room as you paint. In a pinch, kitchen and garden waste black trash bags work well spread over a floor when you don’t have sheet roll plastic.

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Beginning to paint the hallway

The usual way for painting a hallway ceiling and walls is to begin painting at one end then working your way along to the other end. In our case, I began in the middle right where you see the ceiling partially done at this hallway turn.

I began painting at this corner as I wished to paint the wall below it straight away. I was trying to get the wall below this area done in order to rehang the mirror which is usually hangs there.

So, start painting your room’s ceiling wherever you want. 🙂

When a couple of coats of paint and a few touch-ups spots are painted and dried, the ceiling will look just as good as if you began at one end and painted straight to the other end. Just marry up the edges and go over any lightly coated areas with extra paint to blend it together.

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Why do small areas seem to take so long?

The final room I have to paint is our small secondary bathroom and it does seem to take just as long to paint as a much larger room. This is due to all the things in the way which cannot be removed ~ like the built-in sink, the combination shower/tub, the toilet.

Having to work around these things moving a ladder at odd angles makes the job a little tougher.

Enjoy the process as you will love the results!

Our hallway ceiling and walls turned out great! I am still painting the doorway mouldings, baseboards (my least favorite things to do) and eventually all of the doors. I am really happy with how the ceiling and walls turned out!

What do you think? Yea or nay?

Are you working on any painting projects in your home? Soooo glad to be on the home stretch with all this painting. The house feels so much lighter now. It’ll be nice to have all of the rooms feel brighter in wintertime when we have less sunlight, especially in our living and family rooms.

Let me know what you think of our hallway’s new look,

crafts, DIY Projects, Fashion, Home Decor

Share Your Style #401

Welcome to this week’s Share Your Style #401, dear friends! Last week, of course, I was at the Dodge dealer picking up our new Ram Longhorn truck. It’s a beauty and will be what we take into retirement in a number of years. 🙂

I am Barbara Chapman and I’d love it if you’d follow me here on my blog and on any of my other social media sites, too.  Thank you!💜 

French Ethereal: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest

No posts for me this week again. Our daughter Amy was here and we spent the weekend hanging out with her and my mother-in-law. For the first time in two months, we had a day in the low 90’s so it was nice to cook in the kitchen, then sit down and have a family meal together. 🙂 And we went out to dinner one of the other nights Amy was here! Wish she lived closer…

I do want to put together some fall posts, it’s just getting them done. 😉 Let’s look at what you’ve done, now…

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And here are this week’s featured posts…

First up this week we have Penny of Penny’s Treasures who shares her beautiful hallway here in this post ~ My First Fall Floral Design Features Pink Sunflowers. Lovely!
How to Decorate a Glass Vase with Twine
Carol from Bluesky at Home shared this easy tutorial on How to Decorate a Glass Vase with Twine. Super cute for fall!!
butterfly-bee-theme-wreath-close-up
I love this sweet wreath from Debbee of Debbee’s Buzz! Easy Refurbished Butterfly & Bee Themed Wreath. Fresh fun for the season!!
bookcase makeover
Robin from Junk is My LIfe brings us this awesome furniture redo ~ Bookcase Makeover. Love it!!!
trinny woodall advice
Newcomer Nicole from Mom Fever shares this funny fashion forward post ~
Houston, We Have a No Waist Situation! Love Nicole’s outfit tucked in and out!!
Welcome, Nicole!
101 in 1001
And something yummy for our upcoming fall baking season, Debra from Gma’s Photo shares this post ~ Bake a Treat for Neighbors. Wonderful blessing!!!

Thank You so much to everyone who linked up this past week. A special thank you to everyone for always promoting Share Your Style on your blog and on your social media channels! I do see it when I stop by and I appreciate the love. 💜

If you’d like to follow my Share Your Style board on Pinterest I’d appreciate it, thank you! I do post all of the featured posts from each week’s SYS there plus usually other photos from those posts to my boards. 💜  Thanks so much!!! If you are new to French Ethereal, I hope you will think about subscribing to my blog.

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Enjoy the party,

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DIY Projects, Fashion, Holidays, Home Decor

Share Your Style #399

Welcome to this week’s Share Your Style #399, friends! No posts for me this week as Mr. Ethereal and I just enjoyed a weekend of yardwork and some time to rest. He has been going gang-busters at work and then working in the yards on the weekend, so he needed time to recover from being sick. 🙂 We had fun watching Bruce Willis in REDs and REDs 2…

I am Barbara Chapman and I’d love it if you’d follow me here on my blog and on any of my other social media sites, too.  Thank you!💜 

French Ethereal: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest

Has it been super hot where you live? Here in North Texas we have been over 100 degrees for the past month now. This week we really heat up to 108 and 109 degrees with the heat index even higher!

I am sooooo ready for fall… How about you? Our plants have been suffering but most of them seem like they are making it. 😀

But besides that, we have a bunch of great posts to share ~ some DIY, a little fashion and much friendship! Worth being a little hot… 😉

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And here are this week’s featured posts…

This week we start off with a little trip to Michigan with Jeanie from The Marmelade Gypsy who shared Postcards from the Lake: Welcome, Dear Friend!
Newcomer Tanya from Twelve O Eight shared these adorable Ruffled Linen DIY Stool Slipcovers + A New Hutch. Love the slips!!! And a hearty welcome to you, Tanya!!
Christmas Home Tour
Carol from Bluesky at Home brings us this fun Christmas in July post sharing her lovely home ~ Merry & Bright Christmas Home Tour. Perfect to cool us all off and to inspire us for the season to come!
It’s been a minute since Kelli from 3 Boys and a Dog stopped by, but I’m so glad she has as this Soothing Lavender Oatmeal Soap Recipe is wonderful!! Love lavender soap…
Inspired By Frida Kahlo - July's Thrifty Six, Mexican top, handmade flower headband, Vivaia pink mules
Another new friend Emma from Style-Splash wears her super fun outfit ~
Inspired by Frida Kahlo – July’s Thrifty Six.
close up photo of wooden bench after staining and painting
Natalie & Taylor from A Ray of Sunlight brings us this DIY post ~ How to Paint a Wooden Bench.

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Thank You so much to everyone who linked up this past week. A special thank you to everyone for always promoting Share Your Style on your blog and on your social media channels! I do see it when I stop by and I appreciate the love. 💜

If you’d like to follow my Share Your Style board on Pinterest I’d appreciate it, thank you! I do post all of the featured posts from each week’s SYS there plus usually other photos from those posts to my boards. 💜  Thanks so much!!! If you are new to French Ethereal, I hope you will think about subscribing to my blog.

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Enjoy the party,

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
DIY Projects, Home Decor

Share Your Style #391

Welcome, friends, to this week’s Share Your Style #391! Thank you for waiting an extra day for this post. With Flag Day just yesterday, Wednesday, June 14th, I have a whole host of patriotic post for you!

I am Barbara Chapman and I’d love it if you’d follow me here on my blog and on any of my other social media sites, too.  Thank you!💜 

French Ethereal: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest

I personally have a number of posts to share with you this time (to make up for the many I haven’t shared in the past).

Happy Belated Flag Day!!! Time to bring out the patriotic decor and get some bbq on…

Let’s get to it…

Here’s what I shared this past week at French Ethereal…

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It has been a week of highs and lows, as you can surmise with Yoda’s illness and then taking him to the vet… He was a good boy… 💜 Flag Day was also a day I had scheduled a tea at our house so I’ll share that post next week…

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And here are this week’s featured posts…

Make a Gorgeous Patriotic Flag – Perfect for Farmhouse Decor ~ First up this week, Niky from Life as a Leo Wife celebrates our nations patriotic holidays with this star-spangled post!
Debbie from Debbie-Dabble Blog shares her patriotic decor in this post ~
Celebrating Our Country’s Birthday, 2023. Love it!!!
Chicken Parm Sandwich
Estelle over at Homemade on a Weeknight shared this yummy recipe for a
Chicken Parmesan Sandwich. Perfect for summer sandwiches celebrating our nation’s holidays. I am soooo there! ;)’
Loving Debra from Common Ground‘s post ~ Patriotic Colors on the Front Porch. Really pretty! Love the hydrangeas and those beautiful pillows!!!
bled
Newcomer Victoria from World Travel shares a photographic essay on
Lake Bled – Bledsko Jezero, Slovenia. Gorgeous scenery! A bucket list destination for a future vacation.
Portmeirion-botanic-garden-place-setting
Debbee from Debbee’s Buzz brings us this beautiful tablescape post ~
Botanic Garden Dishes: Floral & Butterfly Summer Table. Love the garden theme!
Style Imitating Art selection
Sally from Within a World of My Own shares Style Imitates Art: Mixing Prints and Shades of Blue for SIA: Taking in the Laundry. Wait until you see her fun skirt!
Patriotic Blog Hop
Our final post this week is from Wendy at WM Design House who shares
7 Free Dinner Party Printables; 4th of July Ideas. Fun!!!

Thank You so much to everyone who linked up this past week. A special thank you to everyone for always promoting Share Your Style on your blog and on your social media channels! I do see it when I stop by and I appreciate the love. 💜

If you’d like to follow my Share Your Style board on Pinterest I’d appreciate it, thank you! I do post all of the featured posts from each week’s SYS there plus usually other photos from those posts to my boards. 💜  Thanks so much!!! If you are new to French Ethereal, I hope you will think about subscribing to my blog.

Thank you for your thoughts, prayers and condolences,

Barb 💜

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crafts, DIY Projects, Fashion, Home Decor

Share Your Style #389

Happy Wednesday, y’all! Welcome to this week’s Share Your Style #389!! We have many great features to share with you…

I am Barbara Chapman and I’d love it if you’d follow me here on my blog and on any of my other social media sites, too.  Thank you!💜 

French Ethereal: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest

No features again for me this week. I’ve worked in the yard and we’ve been doing things with my mother-in-law now that she is back from California. Seven more days of school and I can spend more time here! 🙂

Let’s see what all you’ve shared…

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And here are this week’s featured posts…

bee decor vignette
First up this week is this fun post ~ Queen Bee Decor Vignette in the Vegetable Garden ~ shared by MaryJo from Master”Pieces” of My Life.
Linda from Paper Seedlings shared her wonderful artwork ~ #365birds March 2023. Incredible!!!
Printed Skirt and Silk Blouse
Jennifer from Curated by Jennifer wears this lovely summery outfit in her post ~
Printed Skirt and Silk Blouse. Lovely!!!

Stephanie from Crazy Little Love Birds brings us a great project to kick off summertime ~ an Easy DIY Painted Wood Riser Decoration. Love it!!!

rustic DIY Wine Cork Flag
Niky from The House on Silverado brings us this great idea to make with Memorial Day and Independence Day coming soon ~ DIY Wine Cork Flag. Sooo making this!!!
How to Decoupage a Glass Platter
Carol from Bluesky at Home shares How to Decoupage a Glass Platter. Lovely!!!
Debra from Common Ground brings us this lovely table in her post ~
Cottage Review: Garden Wheelbarrow Tablescape. Love this so much!!!
purple cactus dahlia
Wendy at WM Design House shares The Best Soil for Dahlias; How to Grow Beautiful Flowers. Great tips!!!
High-Quality Cookware for Your Kitchen
Kathryn from The Dedicated House shares about High Quality Cookware for Your Kitchen. Beautiful…

Thank You so much to everyone who linked up this past week. A special thank you to everyone for always promoting Share Your Style on your blog and on your social media channels! I do see it when I stop by and I appreciate the love. 💜

If you’d like to follow my Share Your Style board on Pinterest I’d appreciate it, thank you! I do post all of the featured posts from each week’s SYS there plus usually other photos from those posts to my boards. 💜  Thanks so much!!! If you are new to French Ethereal, I hope you will think about subscribing to my blog.

Have a great rest of your week,

Barb 🙂

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Click here to enter
crafts, DIY Projects, Fashion, Gardening, Home Decor, Recipes

Share Your Style #380

Welcome back, friends! This week’s Share Your Style #380 is back after a two week hiatus. The first week I can’t even remember why I missed (exhaustion?), and last Wednesday I was recovering from eye surgery in the morning. So, instead of my usual photo I am sharing “Pirate Barb” with the eye patch I had to wear the first day ~ all day and night. Then I only had to wear it at nighttime. 😉

I am Barbara Chapman and I’d love it if you’d follow me here on my blog and on any of my other social media sites, too.  Thank you!💜 

French Ethereal: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest

I apologize for not letting you all know I’d be off last week. I thought I’d feel good and be able to post that evening. I was home early enough from the surgery center, but I didn’t think about the effects of anesthesia on the body. I was sleeping pretty much all afternoon and evening as soon as I got home.

So, again, I apologize for not having SYS these past two weeks, but sometimes I just need some time off. 😉 And this evening, I was out planting veg in the garden and then critter-proofing the bin with lots of hardware cloth, chickenwire until 8:00p.m.

Better late than never! Let’s get this party started!! 🙂

Here’s what I shared this past week at French Ethereal…

Let’s Sew! Making a Balloon Curtain for the Kitchen ~ I’m back sewing for a bit! Feels good to get back to my roots. I’ll be back painting in the family and living rooms soon.

And here are this week’s featured posts…

First up this week is this beautiful tray post from Debra of Common Ground ~
Early Spring Garden Tray with Paperwhites. Love it!!!
leprechaun-centerpiece-supplies
Can you believe it’s already St. Patrick’s Day? OH! And Happy Ides of March today… 😉 Wasn’t a good day for Caesar, though… Debbee from Debbee’s Buzz shared this fun post ~
Quick and Easy Lucky Leprechaun Centerpiece. Soooo cute!
Ann from Apple Street Cottage brings us this pretty vignette of
Birdcages and Candles.Lovely…
Jennifer from Curated by Jennifer wears this fun outfit proudly in this post
It’s My Birthday!!!
IKEA shelving hack black and white dishes
Karin from Karin’s Cottage created this great shelf in her post ~ Ikea Shelving Hack. Great job!!!
Meagan from Decorative Inspirations shared this springtime post ~
The Best Spring Cleaning Practices for the Gardens, Yards and Patios. Great tips!!
MaryJo from Master”Pieces” of My Life shared this gorgeous tablescape in this post ~
Forced Spring Bulbs Tablescape. Love the green and pewter coloring!!!
DeeDee from Clover House shared Simple Spring Vignettes. Adorable!!
A DIY Dutch tulip crate filled with assorted Spring decor. A large bunny, wood beads, a wooden Easter egg in a clay pot, and a large vintage jug holding greenery.
Lastly for this week, we welcome Leanna from Pretty DIY Home who shared this sweet post ~
How to Make a Dutch Tulip Crate for Spring. Adorable bunny and look at those large plaid carrots!
So glad you made it over, Leanna. 🙂

Thank You so much to everyone who linked up this past week. A special thank you to everyone for always promoting Share Your Style on your blog and on your social media channels! I do see it when I stop by and I appreciate the love. 💜

If you’d like to follow my Share Your Style board on Pinterest I’d appreciate it, thank you! I do post all of the featured posts from each week’s SYS there plus usually other photos from those posts to my boards. 💜  Thanks so much!!! If you are new to French Ethereal, I hope you will think about subscribing to my blog.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day and Ides of March, everyone!

Barb 🙂

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Thank You so much to everyone who linked up this past week. A special thank you to everyone for always promoting Share Your Style on your blog and on your social media channels! I do see it when I stop by and I appreciate the love. 💜

If you’d like to follow my Share Your Style board on Pinterest I’d appreciate it, thank you! I do post all of the featured posts from each week’s SYS there plus usually other photos from those posts to my boards. 💜  Thanks so much!!! If you are new to French Ethereal, I hope you will think about subscribing to my blog.

Happy spring, y’all! Enjoy the party,

Barb 🙂

crafts, DIY Projects, Tablescapes

Share Your Style #377

Welcome to this week’s Share Your Style #377, dear friends!! Oh my goodness! There are so many ideas for sharing with family & friends for Valentine’s Day… Let’s take a look!

This link party is for home decor, DIY, crafts, recipes and the like, but you are more than welcome to share any of your family-friendly posts with us all. Please feel free to share this post too and join my small but loyal band of friends. I appreciate you! I appreciate your subscribing, also. As always, I am glad that you are here… 💜

I am Barbara Chapman and I’d love it if you’d follow me here on my blog and on any of my other social media sites, too.  Thank you!💜 

French Ethereal: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest

As I finish up painting in our dining room, I wanted to thank all of you who shared your thoughts on how I should paint the lower wall and picture moulding below our chair rail. In the end, after going back and looking at pics from Versailles, I decided I really did love the Comet Dust grey wall color, so I carried it down below and used off-the-shelf Valspar Ultra-White on the mouldings. It’s looking good!

Since then, I’ve been dealing with sick dog… Lots of mopping in the kitchen and laundry room, carpet cleaning & laundry. He has had multiple baths, too. I think the extreme fluctuation in temps didn’t do him any good since he has to go outside to use the restroom. Plus I was painting indoors, where he is close to during the day… So, maybe that whole combination was the issue. He seems better now but I’ve held off finishing painting until later in the week, and only in small amounts. 🙂

So let’s look at this week’s features! I hope you will stop by and visit a few people while you are here. Everyone works soooo hard! 💜 

Have a great week!

Here’s what I shared this past week at French Ethereal…

An Inspiration Challenge ~ Styling a Vintage Valentine’s Cloche ~ This is a link party if you’d like to come aboard and add ONLY CLOCHE posts with VALENTINE’S DAY DECOR IN THE CLOCHE.
I’ve had to removed several posts which didn’t read the link up through. Thanks!!! 💜 

And here are this week’s featured posts…

How to style pink velvet pants multiple ways- Karins Kottage
Karin from Karin’s Cottage shared a blast-to-the-past with her post ~
How Do You Style Velvet Pants? Yep, I had a whole pantsuit outfit. 😉
Lynne of Thrifting Wonderland has us sighing over her entryway in Two Flower Vignettes. Love the sweet petals dripped along the table runner!
Dining Room Paint Refresh
Kathryn from The Dedicated House shared her Dining Room Paint Refresh.
Looks great! 💜 Been there AND still painting ours. 💜 
Sandy from Come to Dinner at Eight shares her beautiful table set ~ Greetings – The Birds of Winter. Love this pattern!!!
Debra of Common Ground shares this How to Make a Moss Covered Heart.
So pretty!!!
Lynn from Living Large in a Small House brings us her It’s Time to Start to Planning a Garden. Here is a sunflower from a previous garden year. Beautiful!!
DIY Valentines Mailbox-Painted Wood Mailbox with Letters-The Crowned Goat
CoCo from The Crowned Goat shared this fun DIY project ~
DIY Valentine’s Mailbox. Adorable!!!

Thank You so much to everyone who linked up this past week. A special thank you to everyone for always promoting Share Your Style on your blog and on your social media channels! I do see it when I stop by and I appreciate the love. 💜

If you’d like to follow my Share Your Style board on Pinterest I’d appreciate it, thank you! I do post all of the featured posts from each week’s SYS there plus usually other photos from those posts to my boards. 💜  Thanks so much!!! If you are new to French Ethereal, I hope you will think about subscribing to my blog.

Happy Valentine’s month,

Barb 💜

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
DIY Projects

Our Laundry Room Paint Refresh

Good morning, dear friends! We have had two back-to-back snow days with an Arctic freeze welcoming in the month of February 2023!! The second for us this winter. Since I had the time and some paint left, I finished the baseboard moulding around the floor of the laundry area, so now that room is completely done!

But let’s take a look at where we started…

As some of y’all may know, when we bought this house here in North Texas in 2019, the whole thing was painted this taupe color. Even the ceilings were painted this color! I was happy to not have to paint upon moving in, but it’s too contemporary for me. Slowly, I have been going room by room and painting all of the rooms into a softer grey color, more of what I like.

The last home I lived in with my parents (1976-1987) was built with pecky cedar stacked logs. These logs were squared off, 8″ thick, and all of the walls inside that house were a dark rich reddish brown and when it was freshly oiled it was lovely!

I was okay with brown then because most of our rooms as my bedroom had big windows which let in a lot of light. I also didn’t know that I was affected by seasonal affective disorder (winter depression from lack of sunlight, for anyone who isn’t familiar with this term). I was always an outdoorsy kid, so it wasn’t a problem growing up. We were either at the beach on weekends (the four years in Hawaii during the 1970’s), I was cycling everywhere on weekends, plus I raised goats for milk so I was out milking them and soaking up sunshine daily. California is blessed with over 300 days of sunny skies each year, too. Great for keeping away the blues!

Just a little white paint (Valspar Ultra White 773957) straight off the shelf brightens the ceilings and the whole room!

Here in our Texas home

We are surrounded by four oak trees and a fruitless pear, so it is fairly dark indoors most of the year. In winter, we have a lot of light because the leaves are down, but come spring, the leaves will magically appear and it’ll become a cave indoors.

Okay, and also my eyes and hair are brown (well… now silver and brown, lol!). And, I used to wear a lot of brown, but I am SO OVER brown. I wear a lot of color to combat the brown look. 😉

Repainting all of these walls to something lighter was a necessity for me. I have been painting with Valspar “Comet Dust,” which is a color I last used when we renovated the kids’ bathroom upstairs at our last home. We opened up the area between the vanity and the rest of the bathroom. You can find those two posts here and here.

“Comet Dust” is a pretty silvery grey with blue undertones, depending upon the light. It sparkles in the sunlight! I painted these walls in eggshell (Valspar 773956 eggshell here in Texas rooms; satin in California).

Our master bedroom/bath paint refresh

Here is our bedroom in progress. I pulled out our 12′ ladder to paint the ceilings then switched to a long broom handle and painted from the floor for the last of three coats of paint. The ceiling was sooo dry that it needed three coats to really cover the taupe and to get rid of any streaks in my painting skills. 😉

Painting the Skylight Chimney

This next photograph will show you the ladder I used to get up into this chimney area. Thank goodness this ladder Mr. Ethereal picked up a year ago at a Black Friday sale is super sturdy as I sat on its top to paint this small area’s insides. It is designed so you can do that, too, btw.

This ladder was also great for standing on and turning around as needed to scrape the old paint off the skylight. Those paint marks drove me crazy whenever I’d look up! Sorry, I am a perfectionist that way. 🙂

A little scraping, Windex and some paper towels took care of that. I just needed to have the right ladder to get it done. 😉

Werner Multi-Position Pro 375 lb. Ladder

This ladder is one of those ladders where you can extend it, you can use it as an A-frame (pictured here) or as an extension ladder all one length. It can shorten. It can bend into a 3-sided “box,” if you will, so you can stand on it. Also, you can put two of them near each other and run a board across to use as a scaffold. It is really multi-functional! WORTH the money. (*not sponsored, just like the product a lot.)

Lowe’s isn’t carrying the exact model anymore but I found this one and it close. Ours is made of aluminum and this type linked is made with fiberglass. Maybe there were problems with our model (?), but so far Hubby has used it fully extended to fix a light on the upper roofline of his mom’s new home (while she was gone over Christmas; I held the bottom but didn’t really need to), and we had no problems. Once locked in, it’s solid. I felt perfectly safe sitting on top of it. It didn’t wiggle at all, like our six-foot A-frame ladder does.

Overall, it took three weekends to paint the whole area, minus the doors which I will hopefully remove this spring and paint all of them outdoors with a sprayer.

You’d think a smaller area would take less time to paint? You’d be wrong on that thought. It takes the same amount of time to paint this as a larger box room because of either having to move things around or just maneuvering in tight spaces.

We didn’t move the washer or dryer out because the gas and water lines were fully hooked up and it’s a pain to re-install them. Especially the gas line! Just didn’t want to cause an issue or get sick from low-lying propane not getting out of the house.

I was really careful stepping around that yellow gas line and obviously when moving the ladder legs around it. 🙂

Our surprise score!

When my mother-in-law and I went thrift shopping for items for the Odd Fellows Poker Tournament gift baskets towards the end of November or early December, I found this hanging rack! Coincidentally, I found the exact same one at Lowe’s this past weekend for $25.99. Great score!!

Originally I thought about using it in our bedroom closet so hubby could hang all up all of his baseball caps, but then I realized I loved it for the laundry room. It is larger (wider) than the cheap metal one the previous owners left up and ever prettier. The other was more like a broom hanging rack, like you’d put up in your garage. Gag…

This one is a little more modern and it really pops against the light grey walls. I love it!!!

And yes it is brown. 😉

We are really happy with how the laundry room turned out. Just after I had painted the ceiling, Hubby commented how much brighter the whole room looked even then.

It really looks nice now!

And here is our laundry room all put back together. I love its fresh new look and its ethereal French paint job!

Thanks for stopping by today! Leave me a comment about how you liked this post, if you would. SYS will be up later today in our Double-Header Wednesday.

Now it’s game-on to the dining room!

Barb 🙂