home improvement | girl & grey

DIY, Home Improvement, one room challenge, Renovating

one room challenge: week 5 – wainscoting

October 31, 2018 17 Comments

It’s week Five of the One Room Challenge! This is also the week where I realize there is only one week left to finish up – everything! Well, you know what they say, time really does fly when you’re having fun…errrrrr renovating a bathroom. Last week, for Week Four, we finished the wallpaper but we still don’t have ya know, a toilet, a sink or anything else that makes this space a proper bathroom. And just in case you need to do some catching up, here are links to Week Three, Week Two, and Week One. Also, here is my mood board that has been serving as a blue print and as sort of my inspiration for the space.

And now that we’re on the subject of the moodboard, I have made a few modifications since we are so close to finishing this thing up! The first change is small but the light that I originally had picked was actually more of a bronze in color and after I saw the black, black faucet and some other finishes in person, I knew it needed to be black. So the new one is black and just a single light, instead of the double that is pictured above. The other change is the rug. I had been eyeing a vintage rug for weeks and I finally went ahead and pulled the trigger. I am so excited to show you guys but I think I am going to save it for the reveal. Gotta have a couple surprises, right? And the third and final change is the mirror. I started feeling like the space needed some warmth in all that matte black so I changed my mind and went with a wood mirror. Again, you’re gonna have to wait to see that until next week!

Ok – now back to business. This week we focused on the wainscoting! Remember the inspiration photo I showed you all a couple weeks ago?

We’ve made a few modifications to the design, mostly just with the angles of the wood and a few pieces of trim that we added. I’m really proud of this wainscoting and really think it’s going to give the space some serious pizzazz.

My husband and I both thought that this process was going to be a lot more difficult than it actually was. We found this material at Lowe’s and we love it! We are going to be using it for another project in the future, I’m just not sure what, yet.

The first thing we decided on was how high we wanted the wainscoting to go up the wall. For us, we wanted it a bit higher than traditional wainscoting and opted for 54″ from the floor. We snapped a horizontal chalk line around the room at that 54″ mark. Next, we snapped a vertical chalk line at the mid-point of each wall. This would mark where we wanted the planking to meet. After those two things were done, we had another decision to make: at what angle do we want the planks? Once we held a few pieces up on the wall so that I could visually see the angles (cause I’m a visual person and that’s what makes it easiest for me to make decisions) we pretty quickly landed on a good ol’45 degree angle for the win! And then it’s slow and steady progress from there…plank by plank and cut by cut.

Since the wainscoting was going up, this meant that it was time for us to make the plumbing modifications for our new wall mount faucet. But, we are the luckiest people around because our neighbor happens to be a plumber! I know, I know, don’t be jealous. So, he was nice enough to donate his time and showed my husband the ropes and they got that new faucet installed and looking GOOD. Thank you, Phil!!

The wainscoting is almost completely done and that means that I’m going to be filling ALL those nail holes and then painting it. I can’t wait to see this all painted! Here’s a progress shot so you can see exactly just how many nail holes are in the planks. Holy moly…there’s a lot.

Also, I found a paint color and here’s a sneak peak for ya!

So that’s our progress report for this week! Can you believe we only have one week left??? I’m so excited to finish this project and I’m also giddy to see some of the other makeovers. I’ve been poking around on some other blogs to see how the progress is coming along and it’s looking like some pretty fabulous projects are in the works. Can’t wait!

Oh and here’s my final to-do list so I can finish this baby up:

trim out wainscoting
fill all nail holes and caulk and sand wainscoting
paint wainscoting
install toilet
install sink
clean the whole space – all that construction dust and mess
accessory time – install mirror, toilet paper holder, and towel hook. Hang art!

So much to do in so little time! Think I can do it???

DIY, Home Improvement, Installing wood floors, Renovating

Carpet’s out, wood’s in

May 10, 2018 4 Comments

Hi guys! It’s been a million years since I’ve posted on here! Lately, it just seems more convenient to keep everybody updated with all of our house projects on Instagram versus writing out a long blog post. But I’ve been feeling guilty about ignoring my blog because it’s such a great, creative outlet for me and I love documenting our house projects. So I’m going to do a better job. The good news is that we have endless amounts of projects going on around the house which equals tons of content. House projects have been plentiful, blog posts not so much.

It would make sense for me to start with giving you guys a full house tour so you can see where we are at in terms of progress. And I will do that, but for now, we are just gonna skip ahead to the most exciting project ever! Wood floors! If you follow me on Instagram, then you already know that we started installing our new floors. We started upstairs, and the plan is to divide the house into three sections because we are doing the install ourselves and tackling one section at a time feels less daunting. So upstairs goes first, next is the stairs and its two landings, and lastly, the main level.

In our last house, we had our wood floors installed and that was great. But there is something to be said for doing the work yourselves and the most obvious bonus of all is that you don’t have to shell out the extra money to pay for the labor, which we learned was the most expensive part of replacing flooring. If you have been following along since we did our Texas renovation, we loved our wood floors from that house so much that we went ahead and ordered the same ones for this house. I know, I know, we like to live on the edge.

Even though this is a big project and tons of work, the work itself isn’t terribly complicated. So I’m confident saying that, if we can figure this out, anybody can do this! Isn’t that so exciting?

My brother and his family came to help for the weekend along with my mom and dad. We were so grateful for the help and are all set to return the favor and spend a weekend at my brothers house when his wood floors are ready to go down. Thank you Aaron and Audra! Thank you mom and dad! Like I said above, we started upstairs and first thing we did was remove the baseboards and then out came the old, nasty, dirty, shag carpet. YUCK. I got the heebeejeebee’s when we started rolling up the old carpet and I could see just how dirty it was. I won’t go into details but there were some suspect looking stains that I would like to never think about again. K – moving on.

We ordered the flooring way back in November and had moved it upstairs in March so we didn’t have to worry about it acclimating but I think the rule is that the boxes of flooring should live in the space prior to installation for three to five days. Next up was rolling out some underlayment, which acts as a vapor barrier and prevents the squeaking of wood flooring against the plywood subfloor under it.

The first row is the most crucial row as it will ensure that you have a straight line going forward. Also, the wood needed to start with a 1/2” gap from the wall since that is the thickness of our wood planks. This gap allows the wood to expand and contract with changes in temperature and humidity. But once those two things were done and right, we picked up the pace and even started to find a rhythm.

This is the biggest room upstairs so I’m so happy to have this beast of a room checked off the list. Moving forward, Nate and I will be doing piece by piece(see what I did there?) as time allows so we are hoping to be done with the upstairs sometime in the year 2021…just kidding…kind of.

Now that the new floors are going down, I started thinking about rug pads for my area rugs. I’m bad about choosing the pretty and forgoing the things that are practical, but aren’t seen. In the past, I tried those cheap waffle-like pads with a chemical smell and my rugs still slide around. So when RugPadUSA asked if I wanted to partner up, I was so excited! If my new floors could thank them, I think they would.

I chose their Contour Lock style because it’s well-suited to flat-woven rugs and my vintage rugs with a low pile. If you love vintage rugs like I do, then you know that they almost always come in an unusual, wonky size. RugPadUSA cuts their pads to fit any rug size, so no size is too weird!

I love how they make our rugs feel so cushy and comfortable now. The pads are thick and feel soft underfoot. As a mom with a baby who just learned how to walk, I appreciate the extra cushion.

RugPadUSA uses recycled felt and a natural rubber to make their pads so there is no toxic smell and that makes me feel good about bringing it into our home with our kids. On the reverse side is a natural rubber bottom that keep your rugs in place and they seriously do not budge, even with rowdy kids and toddling babies. I love these pads and am going to need more in the future! A big thanks to RugPadUSA for introducing me to these. I’m hooked.

This post is sponsored by RugPadUSA Opinions expressed are 100% my own

Decorating, DIY, Home Improvement, Renovating

Our DIY Entryway Bench

November 4, 2017 6 Comments

We built a bench in our entryway and it feels so good. Hehe, I just sort of jumped right in without any pleasantries or warning. I’m a tad excited about this project, can you tell? Behold, our refreshed entryway:

It feels like a whole new space. Ah, the power of diy.

As you can see, we weren’t using this space in a functional way. Besides not being functional, it was so boring. Major snooze factor. There wasn’t any storage, no hooks for coats, and no mirror to check your hair when you leave. Doesn’t everyone do that? I knew it needed all these components, but I wasn’t sure how to implement them.

Via

So a couple weeks ago, I was on instagram one evening and came across this image from a favorite blogger of mine. Gorgeous, no? That floating, simple bench would be perfect for my blah entryway! This is why I love a good diy blog – so much good content to be shared for others to use. She had a link to her blog with a genius set of instructions. I showed them to Nate and he thought we could handle the bench portion of the project – no problem.

We followed the instructions she provided without any problems. Her instructions were thorough and easy to follow. So, because I documented our steps and took photos along the way, I will include our step by step process. This is a great project that could be modified to fit a number of different spaces and homes.

First, we picked up some project boards and had them cut to size right at Lowe’s. We also grabbed some stain, poly, a couple 2×4’s, and two brackets. For staining the boards, I followed the instructions from brepurposed.com and she swears that the perfect stain recipe is two coats of special walnut with one coat of golden oak in between. I don’t have very much experience with staining, so I thought I would give it a whirl. I stained the boards outside with a lint-free rag and let them dry overnight. After they were dry, I applied a couple coats of poly.

To decide how high we wanted the bench to be, we measured our dining table bench from West Elm. It seemed to be a good height and even moved it over in the entryway space to have a visual aid to help.

Next up, attaching the 2×4’s to studs in the wall for the framing of the bench.

Then we attached a piece of the project board to the top of the framing.

To make sure that the bench was sturdy and extra strong, our next step was adding two 2×4’s across the top of the project board.

Finally, the top went on and we attached the brackets that the front piece would be screwed into.

We screwed in the last piece from the back so there aren’t any visible screws from the front. After this step, we got the nail gun out and used finishing nails to secure the piece all the way across. After that, done!

To make the bench even more of a work horse for us, I added three baskets underneath, one for each kiddo. I have room for a fourth basket but for now, I left some space for some taller boots. The baskets have been a life saver to corral coats, backpacks and shoes. The hooks were a cheap amazon find and help to finish off the space. I bought a mirror from Target a while back and hung it up above the hooks.

We love how this project turned out. Maybe love isn’t a strong enough word, maybe obsessed is more accurate. Now, we have the itch to get started on some other diy’s around here, so stay tuned!

Renovating

Knock me down…

July 18, 2016 4 Comments

So, I know that I said that I would be back to update the progress on the ceiling texturing. And nothing…well, the only excuse I can come up is that texturing your ceilings is hard. Hard and time consuming. The good news is, we are done. At this point, I only have a few rooms painted because after the super hard part is done and you have brand new texture, the last step is painting them. That’s your reward for your hard work. You’re welcome.

Right after we moved in, I started scraping the popcorn that covered every inch of our ceilings, even the ceilings in the closets. Oh, I was so enthusiastic about starting this project. I told Nate we could get this done over the course of a couple weekends. Now that we are nearing the actual end of the project with only painting left to do, I underestimated by about a month. Ha! Oops. Here is what we started with.

We did a lot of research about which new texture to go with and after asking our realtor what she sees in most houses in our area, we decided we would go with the knock down method. It’s pretty simple but after you spray on the texture with a hopper, you basically take a flat edge and knock down the peaks that leaves you with a smooth surface with little (and some not so little) islands, as we started calling them. After scraping the whole house, patching with joint compound, sanding, patching a second time, sanding a second time, spraying on the new texture with a hopper, and knocking the texture down, this is what we are left with.

Once it is painted, it basically looks the same, but has a more finished or polished look.

For all of that work and for such a long process, I wish it was more exciting than that. But, it is making a big difference in the house and I swear everything feels brighter and less dark. I think it will be one of those things that will make a overall big difference once we start updating some of the cosmetics in the house, like wood flooring, painting our trim white, and painting the walls. Popcorn ceilings are no joke people.

There have been lots of other smaller updates going on around here too. Since the ceilings are wrapping up, I have the luxury of focusing on some prettier things. Like lighting! Nate hung the fixture in the kids’ room yesterday and it looks so good. For the last month, there has been a vacant hole in the ceiling with wires hanging out so this is a big improvement.

I scored this guy at Anthropologie a few years ago when I was wandering through the home section (you mean they actually have clothes???? What?!) and noticed this light fixture that someone had ordered online and returned it to the store so they marked it down like 3000%. It casts a very warm light that feels super cozy and Grey told Nate it was his “party light.” Five year old minds are the best.

In other parts of the house I have a little experiment with spray paint happening. You see, the hardware on our doors is just ugly. On a scale of 1 to 10 in ugliness, 1 being beautiful, and 10 being the worst of the worst – ours are a 10. So, since it looks like we will making a little investment in door hardware, (which I have come to learn is NOT cheap) I thought I would try and give it a coat of paint to see if it holds up. If it doesn’t, we haven’t lost anything because we are planning on replacing them anyways. I have seen other bloggers use Oil Rubbed Bronze on door hardware before with a top coat with positive results so I thought I would give this a whirl and see how it goes. This is our hardware before paint and top coat.

Geesh. After a couple of coats of paint and top coat, they are looking more like this. I probably should have also mentioned that I started painting all of the doors and trim around the house too. I know, I have a million things going at the same time. F.O.C.U.S. I have been feeling good lately with lots of energy so I am taking advantage of this momentum before baby boy comes in November. Too much to do, too little time. But the doorknobs are looking better, no? I will keep you posted if the paint holds up through every day use.

Here are a few more shots of the trim around the house that needs to be painted. I believe they used a very deep chocolate brown and just painted the trim. From far away, it appears to just be a very dark, stained wood. But it is not. It’s shiny too and reminds me of milk chocolate if you melted it on the stove top. Yum. On our trim though, yuck.

And once again, white paint for the win.

The last update that we made to the house this last week isn’t diy related but I thought I would mention it because Nate is in love and it is a house update. We bought a new range for the kitchen! This was a fun one because it’s functional and looks so pretty. The range that came with the house worked just fine but we are eventually going to upgrade all of the appliances to stainless steel so we thought the range was as good of a place to start as any. We listed it on Craiglist and it sold the next day so we were even able to recoup some of our investment.

IMG_0529 - Edited

And here is the new one.

IMG_0531 - Edited

So, I think that about wraps up everything going on around our house for the week. Sorry about the brain dump but we’ve been busy. Really busy.

Ps. I updated my house tour with some progress pictures so you can see where we started when we moved in and where we are at today. It’s starting to look better…I hope!

Decorating

Details, details, details

July 8, 2016 No Comments

Happy happy Friday! This week flew by after having Monday off for a holiday. But I wanted to do a quick update on the fireplace since I am loving my new little additions. I have been having too much fun trying out new art and decor on the mantel but I also had some birch logs arrive from Wisconsin that I am loving. They are so pretty I just want to pet them. Some people would call this a problem…I don’t.

IMG_0525 - Edited

On another (less weird) note, I am hoping that I will have pictures on Monday of our ceilings done! Or at least, a good chunk of them done. We are renting a hopper tomorrow morning and getting this project buttoned up once and for all. Also, we are going to sneak in a trip to the movies to see Finding Dory. Should be a fun weekend. Wish us luck! We are going to need it!

DIY

Fireplace facelift

July 5, 2016 1 Comment

IMG_0487 (1) - Edited

Whew! This weekend we celebrated the 4th of July and attended a parade, a fireworks show and two different BBQ’s. It was kind of a whirlwind but we all had fun. The parade was one of the best I have seen and shouldn’t have been surprised that Texans know how to do a parade right. The kiddos scored major in the candy department and we all nearly died in the almost 100 degree heat.

In between all of the festivities over the weekend, we were able to get a project done at home. Yes! Am I talking about our ceilings that still need texture and paint? No! I swear though, it is happening this weekend. Seriously.

I think I mentioned previously that I was going to try my hand at white washing the brick fireplace. I have been looking at tons of inspo pics of white washed brick and I love the way it looks. My favorite thing about white washing is how it leaves the differences in the individual bricks behind and doesn’t completely cover them in an opaque finish the way a latex paint would. So the overall impression is a much less polished look which I think is appropriate for brick because it’s not meant to be perfect. Here is our fireplace.

Usually, I love unpainted brick because I am always partial to rustic finishes, but this particular brick was related to the brick that was used on the outside of the house and most definitely had some pink undertones. Pink brick = not a good look. So, let the white washing begin already!

In addition to white washing the brick, I knew the existing mantel needed to be altered. Some ideas included starting a fire in our fireplace, ripping it off with sledge hammers and throwing the mantel in the fire. But, instead of going down this road, I found some pictures online of some simple chunky mantels that people built themselves. I showed these pictures to Nate and asked him if he thought he could do the same. After quite the pep talk, he reluctantly agreed and was nice enough to give it a try to see what he could come up with.

The white washing part of the project was FUN! I already had some white, flat paint and just mixed equal parts water and paint and painted it on with a brush. It went much faster than traditional painting and the bricks do all the work for you. After you apply the wash, the bricks soak up the water and paint that leaves the uneven, white washed effect.

Please ignore my sun burnt arms, I went outside for three minutes and only used a sun block with spf 1000. Also, please ignore our ceilings. Seriously, we are going to get them done this weekend.

After Nate had taken down the old mantel, only the supports were left. Nolan and I decided that it would be fun to write a message in a bottle and hide in the frame before Nate attached the new mantel. We had so much fun dreaming up scenarios where/when someone would find our letter. Her ideas were too cute.

After our letter was hidden away, there were a few, last minute jobs that needed to be done in order to check this project off our list. There were some very visible cracks that became even more visible once the bricks were white washed. It was a pretty simple task but I had to mix some mortar cement and patch all the gaps and cracks. We also used some black, high-heat spray paint and sprayed the inside of the fireplace so the brick inside looked new again with a fresh coat of black paint. And, finally, Nate finished the mantel and attached it to the existing frame. I am so proud of him. Not too shabby for his first try at building something, right?

IMG_0512 - Edited

IMG_0507 - Edited

He made the mantel out of cedar planks and I haven’t decided if I should seal and/or stain it. This was a really fun project and being able to include Nate and Nolan made it even more fun. And because I already had the paint for the white washing, the grand total for lumber, mortar mix and a can of spray paint only made a $32 dent in our pockets. Big impact for a small amount of cash! Everybody wins.

Decorating

Kings and Queens

June 29, 2016 No Comments

I just googled how long you are supposed to sleep on the same mattress and it sounds like you should be replacing your mattress every five to seven years. Uh oh. Our mattress is old. Like, really old. I bought this mattress from one of those horrible mattress stores when my sister and I got our first apartment together and I was in my third year of college. That was in 2004. When Nate and I got married in 2007 (I totally just texted him at work to confirm that date too – I’m blaming baby brain), we started sleeping on this same bed and never stopped. I’ll let you do the math…

I’m embarrassed to say that this is that SAME bed while we were moving into our current house last month. The mattress had begun to sag and every night I would spend a good amount of time trying to climb out of the hole that was the middle of the bed. As this baby gets bigger and so do I, I finally convinced Nate to consider a new mattress. After some shopping, we found a super good deal on a king size set at Costco. Done and Done!

It’s so nice sleeping on a king size bed. I think the few times I slept on a king was when we stayed at hotels on vacation. Nate is 6’3″ and I am 5’10” so this extra space is so much sweeter for two tall people and the occasional cute five year old boy who sneaks in for snuggles with us at 3am.

Finding pretty bedding for a king bed at a good price though, proved challenging. I have been so inspired by the African mud cloth throw blankets and I wanted to score one for the new bed. But, all the ones that I loved were in the $120 range. I could already hear Nate asking me why I spent $120 on a blanket for the end of the bed. So, I passed and decided I would come up with a different look. Okay, I guess I could spend some more time hunting for beautiful bedding online…sigh.

africanmudcloth

Image via

Beautiful, no? The good news is, I ended up finding some shams at Target for $15 a piece that almost mimicked the over-dyed blue look of the mud cloth. Paired with a Turkish pillow that I found on Etsy, ummm, yes, please.

Our room still has a long way to go but a bed seems like a good place to start. I have yet to hang curtains, paint the walls, and add some art. Also, we still have a gold ceiling fan above our heads that desperately needs to go. Until those things are done, at least we’ll be sleeping soundly!

DIY

Mellow Yellow

June 27, 2016 2 Comments

I painted the front door over the course of the weekend. What a difference such a small change can make! I’ve said this before, like when we painted our mailbox a few weeks ago. It’s fun to complete some smaller scale projects when there are such big ones looming…ahem…texturing the ceilings. I’m starting to think that we might be living with naked drywall above our heads forever! Nate and I were supposed to be working on said ceilings this weekend but instead, we found ourselves doing other things like playing Foot Golf (Nate, not me) and painting the front door yellow (Me, not Nate).

Back to the front door though. Here is what we were working with before paint.

The door is actually new and looks as if it was installed in the last few years. Other than the fact it makes me want to take a nap every time I look at it, it’s a nice front door. Even the way I describe it is boring, “nice front door.” We have definitely decided that the window in the front door has to go. It’s not our style. I’m thinking about something a little less ornate and a little more modern. Or maybe even just a plain, glass window would do the trick. My parents are coming down for a visit in August and my dad is going to help us make this change. He is our resident window expert:-)

When I started looking for inspo pictures for ideas for this project, I immediately ruled out any colors on the darker side of the spectrum. Our house itself is very dark so the front door needed to serve as a pop of color. There are so many cute options though, I liked everything. And I was really drawn to the pinks and lavenders because it seemed like such an unusual option, I mean, who would be brave enough to paint their front door pink!? Well, not me because I ended up going with a cheery yellow. But, I am going to file this away for a possibility for the future. I do like to change things up. I kept going back to this one particular image.

54c1566dad361_-_06-hbx-yellow-front-door-0611-s2

Image via

I loved the way the yellow looked against the navy exterior. Our house isn’t navy but it is dark and even has the white trim that this color pallet is paired with. Sold!

It was a relatively easy process except this yellow paint surprised me with just how many coats the door took to get the proper coverage. 27 coats! I’m exaggerating but it did feel like that when I was painting. I suppose it was mostly because I was covering a dark door with such a light color. So now you are warned, if you want to paint something yellow, be prepared for multiple coats.

Ta da!

IMG_0459 - Edited

I moved my lemon tree from our screened porch in the back of the house to the front entrance because I couldn’t resist putting our lemon tree next to our new yellow front door. I have also been worried he isn’t getting enough sunlight. So, I fertilized him and gave him a new spot. Maybe the yellow door and his new yellow pot will inspire him to produce lots of lemons?

I am so happy with the color. It’s so happy and welcoming. If our door could talk, it might say, “come on in! Happy people are inside!”

Home Improvement

#housegoals

June 23, 2016 2 Comments

Have you ever watched an episode of House Hunters? Well, I have. More times than not, a couple goes through a property and they start saying things like, “we would need all new floors, the bathrooms need to be gutted and everything in the kitchen needs to go.” Nate and I were just as guilty as these folks when we looked at our house. We actually said those things! These “simple cosmetic swaps” mean major work which also means major money.

So Nate and I have been discussing which projects are realistic for us as we plan on doing most of these ourselves. We also flip flop back and forth as to which improvements would make the most impact for resale value and which ones we have to get done for our own sanity (like our beautiful pink exterior before we painted last weekend). Ideally, we are hoping that most of our updating will fall into both categories. But, I think we have come up with a list. Not a to-do list because I don’t even like to read my own to-do lists but more of a list of goals we want to accomplish during our time here. Here we go!

New floors – this is going to be the biggest and most expensive project that we tackle here. Currently, our house has brownish, beige, gray carpet in the bedrooms and living room while the entry, kitchen, dining room and hallway has cream colored tile. Tile seems to be very popular here in Texas and I can understand why. It is a very durable, hard surface that also stays very cool to the foot which is a bonus with the warm climate. For us, tile doesn’t seem to be a very livable surface with little kids and clumsy adults. Everything that is dropped on tile, undoubtedly breaks. Toys, dishes, phones, iPads and dog dishes don’t stand a chance if they are dropped on tile. Also, I have to close my eyes and hold my breath if I see a dripping wet kiddo hop out of the bath and run down the hallway. Yes, we have had quite a few slips and head bumps. But I have big dreams of wood floors and wood floors that span everywhere in the house. Kitchen, dining room, living room, bedrooms…basically everywhere except the two bathrooms. Since Nate and I both have zero experience installing floors of any kind, we will hire this job out and leave it to the pros. So let the saving begin! And while we squirrel away our pennies to get these floors done, I’ll be daydreaming about oak…hickory…engineered wood…bamboo. Wouldn’t something like this just be a game changer? I think so…

floors

Painting the Exterior – we are mostly done with this baby! Some touching up and trim work still needs to be done but I think we can call this one done.
Landscaping front and back yards – the house is kind of a blank slate as far as landscaping goes. The flower beds around the house need to be filled with…something. I’m just not sure what yet. One of our neighbors has this whole landscaping thing figured out. I am hoping our flower beds can be as beautiful as this house.

Adding a patio to the backyard – I would like to put some kind of material down in the screened porch on the floors and extend this flooring out onto some kind of a patio so there is a place to spend time in the backyard outside of the screened porch.
Scraping the popcorn ceilings and texturing/painting – the scraping part is done. The texturing and painting of the ceiling still has to be done. This job actually might kill me…the jury is still out. I’ll keep updating as I go.
Painting trim and doors inside house – the trim is currently stained an almost black color. I want to lighten this place up and paint everything white.
Whitewash the fireplace brick – in my quest to lighten and brighten, the fireplace needs a dose of white paint too. I’m going to try my hand at whitewashing.
New appliances for the kitchen – our current appliances are old and white but are functioning fine, for now.
New counter tops for the bathrooms – the plan is to keep the current vanities with some updating with paint and hardware. But, counters are a must.
Paint the front door – I can’t decide if it needs to be replaced or if paint will be enough. I’m debating between these two colors right now. Thoughts?

Valspar-Full-Sun-EB1-1 Valspar-Wasabi-W35010A

So these are our goals as of right now. I’m sure we will change our minds about some of these but for right now, this is what we are planning. There’s definitely no shortage of things to do but I love a good challenge and these projects are definitely going to challenge us.

DIY

Fjalkinge to the rescue!

June 20, 2016 3 Comments

When I decided that the kids would be sharing a room at this new house, I didn’t give much thought about the combining of the toys and books that each of them would be bringing from their respective bedrooms. Even though we have a “less is more” theory with toys, there still seem to be quite a lot of them floating around. If a kiddo hasn’t played with something in a while, out it goes. Nolan just started collecting Shopkins which I think is perfect because they are so small. Nate and I had to Google what Shopkins were…and we still have no idea. Grey likes cars, trucks, trains and just about anything with wheels. But I do try very hard to make sure that the toys don’t take over the whole house. Nate and I definitely don’t want to be living in a big play room.

I have been hunting for some toy storage solutions and found lots of ideas that I liked, but sadly, were not in the budget. I was especially in love with some open shelving from Serena and Lily. I am loving the wood+white look and always find myself attracted to the rustic/modern look in homes and furniture. The space in their room would have called for two of the taller shelves to take up the better portion of a wall. So this little purchase would have set me back $2,390 before taxes and shipping charges. Ummm…yikes. lark_white

Somehow, I ended up at Ikea…again. But found the perfect shelf! I could buy two of them and they would easily fit into the space I had in mind. A couple of ideas popped into my head to modify them to satisfy my wood+white obsession. Meet Ikea’s Fjalkinge shelving unit.

fjalkinge-shelf-unit-white__0194033_PE359398_S4

Nate and I ran to Lowe’s and grabbed two pieces of plywood and some dark walnut stain. We had a friendly fellow cut our pieces down to the size of each individual shelf right in the store for us so we didn’t have to rip any of the boards ourselves, which Nate loved. So all that was left to do was stain the wood and let it dry outside for a couple days. As far as Ikea assembly goes, (and we have had a lot of practice) these shelves were super simple. Once the plywood pieces were all dry and no longer smelly, we just slid right into place on top of the white shelf insert. My dad always says, measure twice, cut once. Well, we might have measured seven times, but no mistakes were made and the boards were just the right size.

I also scored a little night stand and a rug too! Notice the wood and white theme? Points for consistency, no?

The best part is the kids toys look so super cute out on display on their new shelves. I kind of did a Grey side and a Nolan side, although there was no way his cars and trucks weren’t going to spill over onto her side. I will probably tweak the arrangement of everything as I add some better looking baskets and move everything around. I can’t help myself. Nate always laughs at me because objects are always moved, furniture is rearranged and nothing really stays the same in our house for very long.

The room is starting to really come together in such a fun way. I thought it was going to be really tough to decorate for a boy and a girl in the same space but as it turns out, I’m kind of a neutral kinda lady. Who knew?

1 2 Next »