Time for a change

I am ready for a decorating change in my house. We bought our green couch and red chair after we moved into our first house back in 1999 (if I'm remembering right). We are on our 3rd house now and we are still decorating around that green couch and red chair. The furniture has held up very nicely. They are slipcovered by Rowe and the covers are a little faded but that is it. But, I'm just tired of them. We have used red, green, khaki and yellow as our color scheme for a very long time now. It's just time to change. I really want to go lighter and brighter. I'd really like to paint everything white and light blue/turquoise. I've been looking at a blog (www.houseofturquoise.com ) and it has really inspired me to go in a different direction. Well, decorating takes money. Yes, you can do it "cheap" but even "cheap" takes a little money. So, it will happen in baby steps, over time. The most costly project is to change the couch and chair and curtains. Since they are slipcovers, I will have someone from Rockport who is incredibly reasonable, make new slipcovers for me in white/off white. I know that sounds crazy, but, they are slipcovers. I can take them off and wash them! With bleach! That will have to wait until I save up some babysitting money and I start getting a preschool paycheck again. So, the cheapest thing I can do is spray paint. Last week while the girls were at my parents' I decided to repaint my bench and kitchen chairs. I painted them black a couple of years ago and have always wished I hadn't. It's just a lot of black. So, I refinished them. I tried to distress them too. Let me say, it was a huge job! I sanded with an electric sander for 3-4 hours straight! In the sun! I had sweat dripping from everywhere! I was covered in black dust! Then it took several coats of paint to cover it all. Then, a coat of stain which was immediately wiped off. Then, more sanding. Then, a coat of Tung Oil to seal it all. Whew! After all that, the girls' response was...
Girls: "is it supposed to look like that?"
Me: "yes, it's supposed to look antique"
Girls: "what's antique?"
Me: "when something is really old"
Girls: "why would you want it to look old?"
Me: "nevermind, go play"

Then Eric's response was..."do you think you sanded it too much right here?"
My response to Eric was..."don't say anything negative about it because I'm not starting over whether we like it this way or not" (or something like that)

At first, it did seem like too much distressing and staining to me too. But, the more I walk past it the more it is growing on me. It does make the kitchen a little brighter, which pleases me. So, it will stay for now. Mainly because I don't want to redo it for at least another 2 years!

Now, the next project will be to paint the walls! I asked Eric what he thought about repainting and he said "does it really matter what I think?" ha ha ha He knows me too well! I'm blessed to have a husband that will cooperate with my crazy ideas.

Here are the before and after pictures of the bench and chairs...by the way, this bench came from my hometown church in Rockport, IN.