Where I’ve Been…

Is it bad to say “In the bathroom?” Well, not for the reason you’d think. We’ve gotten into remodeling again. It seems like it’ll never end. But we are one step closer to having gutted every room in the house. This one was a challenge. We weren’t planning on re-doing the bathroom. But then we discovered a leak from the bottom of the toilet. We thought, “okay, we’ll replace the wax ring and be done.”

I don’t think either of us really believed that.

Sure enough once we pulled up the toilet, we saw that not only was the wax ring disintegrating, the sub floor under the carpet (yes, carpet) was rotted to the touch.

Cue the stress. Suddenly this little job became HUGE. We could replace the floor and stop there, but if we’re going to take everything out, which we need to, why not fix the walls? If we’re going to fix the walls, we might as well get a new vanity, and chuck the old one. And so on, and so forth. Until at last, this:

 

turned into this:

and resulted in this:

Yes, I made the last picture bigger than the rest.

I’m kind of over the moon about it. I’ve never gone into designing a room without some sort of plan, or inspiration piece. Until this. I had to figure out SOMETHING to cover up those walls. I didn’t want tile again, and I couldn’t afford to re-drywall. So we went with beadboard. I absolutely love how it looks. We ended up running it vertically for the bottom 36” and horizontally for the top 16”. Why our bathroom was tiled up to 52 1/2” I will never know, But we found a way to fix it, and that’s what matters.

I won’t go into all the dirty details, but I’m so so happy to share the end results!

Those shadowboxes are the drawers from our old vanity. I painted them, cut down the glass shelf from our old medicine cabinet to fit inside, and backed it with the same fabric I used for the curtain. Which was, in fact a shower curtain that I cut down. I’m not a great seamstress, so I used the loops that were already done on the shower curtain for my rod. Then I just sewed weights into the bottom hem, and sewed up the side. The artwork are just some inexpensive frames from Wal-Mart and then scrapbook paper and letters I had.

I’m so glad it’s over. And now I won’t be embarrassed to let my guests use the restroom!

And one day, I will get on a regular blogging schedule again. Until then, thanks for hanging around and being patient with me. Congrats to all those writers out there who are getting good news too! Agents, and book deals, and cover reveals, oh my! You all are an inspiration.

I think I’m finally getting back to a place, mentally where I can write again. I’m even flirting with the idea of NaNo this year. I have another idea…

Hope all is well in the blogosphere! Happy Tuesday!

Interior Tuesday: Transforming a Toy Closet

Our home is full of closets. As in, we have 3 real bedrooms and 10 closets throughout the whole house. It’s nice to have so much storage, especially when we decided to convert our basement office into E’s bedroom. This room has a huge under-the-stairs closet that had seen better days. For example:

This is what it looked like when we first toured the house. It pretty much stayed that way when we moved in except we had less board games and more…junk in there. Office paper, luggage, air mattress, etc. It wasn’t pretty, but it was space that got filled.

Well, when planning out how to do the new bedroom, there was one obvious transformation to me and it was to take this dingy, scary basement closet and brighten it up so my girl could read and play and laugh and enjoy herself in there. Who, as a kid, didn’t want a place to hide and pretend?

So once the room was finally cleared out and we found new homes in our other nine closets for our miscellaneous junk, I began the arduous process of painting this cavern-like space. At 6-months pregnant BTW. I don’t think it helped my hip in the least. Nonetheless, it needed to be done and I had a vision.

Unfortunately at the time I did not have a camera, so my vision is shared with you courtesy of my iPhone camera. Not great. But you get the idea.

First, I cleaned the beast out and prepped it for painting.

Second, I ripped off the old shelf liner and practiced adding the new liner on the top shelf. I actually found this cute green striped pattern at Wal Mart for $5 a roll. I used just under two rolls total.  It went on pretty smooth, but I didn’t want to get paint on it, so I held off doing the rest of the shelves until it was painted. I proceeded to prime all the walls with white primer and then a coat of white paint.

I knew I wanted to add some kind of visual interest to the back of the closet as well, so I taped off a lattice-like pattern on the top three shelves. The bottom was too low for me and I knew it’d be covered up anyway, so I didn’t bother. Also, you can tell, I didn’t measure these angles. They’re a little wonky in places, but oh well.

I painted over the top of the tape with yellow and before it dried all the way I ripped off the tape. Now this is not normal drywall, it’s some kind of horrible wallboard that isn’t smooth or straight, so there are some obvious deficiencies. But we work with what we got, right?

After that, I finished lining all the shelves and started to move stuff in. And Voila! It turned into:

Toy Heaven! I used our leftover carpet remnant to cover the concrete floor and threw some pillows in there for her to sit and play comfortably on.

I also used her drapes from her old bedroom and a staple gun to make a sort of fabric ceiling to cover up the ugly underside of the stairs. It softens the whole area and adds some interest. Also it didn’t cost me a dime, which was awesome.

And just to add one more dimension of fun, I painted the outside of the doors with more chalkboard paint:

It added a pop to the big white wall that I was missing, and provides her with yet another opportunity to be creative, which I’m all about.

And there you have it! She gets a private place to play and I get all her toys out of my living room, which totally rocks. So far it’s been a hit with her and any other kid that comes over. Is it bad that I’m a little jealous that I never had this when I was a kid? Ce la vie. At least I got to design it for her.

Hope all is well in the blogosphere and have a Happy Tuesday!

IKEA Hackers

So my little bookcase project was on the IKEA Hackers website today! Go check it out here! Pretty cool huh?

I don’t really have more to say. I’m just counting minutes of every hour of every day until I have this baby. 3 weeks to go by Dr.’s timeline, but I’m praying for her to make her debut sooner than that. Either way, her nursery will be making its debut soon enough, as I get the bedding on Monday and other than that it’s done! Yahoo!

Happy Three Day Weekend!

Pinterest Project: Button Monogram

Yes, yes we’re all on Pinterest. It’s amazing. It’s been such a great tool for my work, and for inspiration and for smart ideas. I finally buckled down and tackled one of these smart ideas and made my own Button Monogram for Baby Girl’s new nursery.

Here’s the inspiration:

This project was originally posted here and I fell in love with the idea. So I started collecting buttons in the color scheme I knew I wanted to do for the nursery. I previously did not have a random button box like my mom seems to have had since before I was born, so it took some time to get a good collection. Luckily she was kind enough to let me go through said button box, so I got some unique cool buttons in addition to the store-bought basic ones.

And here’s what we ended up with:

I’m a little bit in love. She lists her process in her blog, but there were a few things I did differently. First I used simple scotch double-stick tape to cover the inside of the “A” before placing my large buttons. This allowed me to reposition and move things around if I wanted. Next, I layered most of the buttons using a hot glue gun. I had to clean off all the glue strings, but it gave me a really good hold that I’m not worried about hanging up. And last, when I started cleaning it up with brads, I used my seam ripper to poke holes in the paper first. This helped me stop from bending my paper by trying to force a brad through double-stick tape. I’m sure they have more sophisticated tools for that, but the sharp, small point of my seam ripper worked great. And last but not least, I used a shadowbox frame to allow for the depth. This baby is like three layers deep in some places, and I wanted to be able to put the glass on it to protect it.

While I was doing this project (in my new craft area to be shown next Tuesday) my wonderful daughter saw all the buttons and was naturally curious. So I drew her an “E”, put some dots of Elmer’s glue all around and let her go to town. Here’s what she ended up with:

I’m not sure we’ll be hanging it up, but she had fun all the same.

Have you found any projects on Pinterest that you’ve tried? Or are there any you’re wanting to attempt? Do share!

Happy Friday!

Interior Tuesday: IKEA Expedit Hack Part 2

When we last left our little bookshelf it was all plywood-clad and pretty rough. Here’s a reminder:

So we have our pretty fabric now serving as the back of the bookcase on my side, which I love. But we have to do something about this beast. After a lot of sketching, measuring and planning, I decided to turn this into a multi-use activity center, with a chalk board, a couple magnet boards and a flannel board. The magnet boards were from IKEA so they were a set size that I had to work around. From their measurements I created the size of the other boards, and used 5 1/4” moulding to trim it all out. After many cuts at Home Depot again, we were ready to assemble.

Enter the hubby again, and a LOT of panel and moulding adhesive. Ready for another collage?

Okay so there are a few steps in here I didn’t illustrate too well, but I’ll explain as I go.

NOT SHOWN:  I made the chalkboard out of a piece of 2 x 4 Hardboard from Home Depot. It was like six bucks. I bought a can of chalkboard paint and had them tint it pea green, then painted the hardboard with two coats of the chalkboard paint.

1) We measured 5 1/4” in from each side of the bookcase to know where to place the chalkboard. We used small tack nails to nail it in at each corner and in the middle.

2) We placed the rest of our components to make sure they looked like they were going to fit. The purchased magnet boards would be flanking the flannel board on bottom.

NOT SHOWN: I made the flannel board out of some plywood I had cut to size. I attached one layer of batting to the plywood using spray adhesive, and then covered it with some fleece I purchased at JoAnn on sale for $2.99 a yard. I only needed 1/3 yard so it was pretty inexpensive.

3) After ensuring our measurements were correct, we placed the flannel board centered on the bottom of the bookcase and drilled more pilot holes in each corner.

4) Using 1 1/2” wood screws again, we screwed the flannel board into the plywood backing.

5) We used an all-purpose adhesive in our caulking gun to attach the magnet boards. They have a nice lip on either side on the back, so this worked perfectly.

6) After the boards were all attached it was time to trim it out. We used panel and moulding adhesive for all the trim pieces.

7) With the side pieces attached, we attached the middle divider. This was a 3 1/2” piece of casing. I wanted to divide the boards up, and it served as a cover-up for those ugly tack nails in the chalk board.

8) This was an accident.  I bought the same trim for the sides and the top of the bookcase. However, I didn’t realize the chalkboard would protrude into the space we were supposed to attach the top trim to. But it turned out we needed some extra depth there because of how the corner joints were lining up. We had some extra hardboard, so we cut a few blocking pieces, screwed them into the plywood and then…

9) …screwed the top trim piece into those blocks. It worked out perfectly. I wish I could say I had planned it.

10) Almost done! So this required another trip to Home Depot, because I hadn’t thought about the ugly ugly side of this bookcase when planning the back of it. We now had fabric showing out the side, as well as the unfinished side of the top moulding. I went and bought three pieces of pre-finished shoe moulding that was the perfect size to cover up those unsightly seams.

11) I used my trusty panel adhesive, as well as a few finish nails this time and applied the shoe mould to the sides of the bookcase.

12) I also had a little gap at the top of the bookcase, only about  1/2” but I didn’t like the top moulding not being flush with the top of the bookcase. I used the same shoe mould to finish this off.

13) As you can see, my caulking skills are lacking, but luckily it dries clear. This made the whole manufactured back of my bookcase the exact same finished height as the actual bookcase.

AND AFTER ALL THAT, THE MOMENT YOU’VE BEEN WAITING FOR:

MY FINISHED BOOKCASE!

Having never done anything like this before, I can’t express how happy I am with it! I still see all the imperfections, but I think it turned out pretty clean. And the best part?

It works! She loves it! I had her cousin over to test it too, and they played on that chalkboard forever! I also got her magnetic princess dress-up dolls, so that helps keep her busy. Now I just need to get some flannel board stories and we can do story time here too.

I can’t wait to see how the functionality of it evolves as she gets bigger. For now, it’s the perfect solution to getting her away from the TV and getting us into a crafting space closer together.

So one more time, just to recap:

Next week, I’ll show whole finished craft area, including (dun-dun-duuun) the other side of the bookcase, where all my scrapbook and sewing supplies are! Stay tuned!

Happy Tuesday!

Interior Tuesday: How to Paint Stripes

I’ve had a couple requests to share how I painted the horizontal stripes in my daughter’s nursery, so I thought I’d share my tips and tricks today! (Say that five times fast). I’m so sorry that I didn’t take pictures throughout the process, that was before my blogging days and I just wanted to get it done! So don’t hesitate to ask a question if anything confuses you!

First of all, I had a very clear vision of what colors I wanted and what width I wanted. We had to buy a couple of paint testers though, to make sure I got the colors exactly right. These testers are great!

I bought several of them and finally settled on the two colors I wanted (FYI the light pink is Glidden Pink Ballet Slipper and the darker pink is Glidden Pink Flamingo). After the wall was stripped of wallpaper…and stripped of more wallpaper…and finally primed over the last layer of wallpaper that had become part of the drywall  (that’s a whole different story), I painted the entire wall with the light pink. Then I had to be patient and wait for it to dry all the way. That was the hardest part…

Here’s the wallpaper that was impossible to remove:

Isn’t it gorgeous? Don’t get me started on the blue carpet either.

Once that dried I measured up from the base of the floor and put a mark every 12”, since this was how wide I wanted my stripes. After I made those marks I used the most incredible tool $15 can buy you; a laser level. THIS laser level to be exact:

It uses a command strip to adhere to the wall so it doesn’t leave any marks. So you stick this baby next to your mark, turn on the laser, make sure it’s level and apply your tape. This part can be tricky because you have to make sure you put the tape on the OUTER edges of the stripe you want to paint. So you can’t just put it above the line or below the line every time. you have to outline the stripe.

Another thing that saved my life was using the right tape. I HIGHLY recommend Frog Tape:

The edges lock so well on this stuff, it’s like magic. I had absolutely NO bleeding under my tape so my lines turned out crisp and clean. There’s also Scotch Blue Tape, but I found this worked a lot better for this particular application.

Once my stripes were taped off, I started painting. And here’s my favorite tool that $3 can buy you, a paint edger:

These are meant for edges of walls and corners, which is why they have wheels, but I found that they just hold on to the paint SO well that I could dip it once and run it along the entire length of the wall, and not have any loss of color. These things are amazing. I used them to paint my dressers, and even my doors. They just give such a nice distribution of paint, and they’re easier to control than a roller when you’re going horizontally.

Once I painted the darker pink using my fabulous edger, I waited for about a half hour before peeling off the tape. I didn’t want to wait for the paint to dry all the way, because then the tape can get stuck to the wall, and it’s REALLY hard to pull off in a nice long strip. So when the paint was a little tacky still, I pulled off my frog tape. THEN I let it dry all the way before moving furniture in or hanging pictures.

And just in case you haven’t seen it enough, here’s the finished product:

The whole thing took less than a couple hours. What took the longest was waiting for the paint to dry. But other than that, it was actually WAY easier than I thought it would be. So there you have it; stripes done right.

Now go stripe your walls! Or ceiling! Or whatever you want! And good luck!

Happy Tuesday!