Friday, March 21, 2014

Easiest change in a room...painting furniture

We have been working on our game room these past few weeks. I have to say that my favorite part of any room is picking out and painting the color.  I chose a soft yellow butter color for my walls, my furniture is red, and I needed to pick a third pop of color to really ground the room.  I found this console well over a year ago at the DI for not much money at all.  I knew I needed a place to put the TV on and this was just the piece I needed for the room.
This is a classic example of an old seventies piece of furniture that most people would walk by and ignore. Not me.  I love to look at old pieces and re imagine them.  The knobs were broken, the stain was chipped, but I knew that with a little color this piece would be fabulous!
We decided to pick a bright turquoise for the paint color and I went to work painting it.
As usual I started with wiping it down with my liquid sand product, then I just used a satin turquoise wall paint. It took two coats to cover. I let it dry and distressed it a little.

It seriously didn't look like the same piece anymore. I added some fun knobs to give it a little character. I actually used outdoor gate pulls for the drawer pulls and found these fun crystal knobs at Hobby Lobby.  I love adding fun knobs to my projects. It adds a lot of personality. For not a lot of money and not too much work, I had a great piece of fun furniture for my room.  It pays to really look at the things you may have and re think them in other ways. It may be just the thing your room needs to add a little wow to it. Pin It

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Fun and games

It is starting to feel a little like spring around here, and sunshine and longer days always make me feel like a project. We have moved on to our game room. It is a large room above our garage that I want to make into a cozy, bright, and fun hang out for the kids.
Here is what it looked like before.
It had tons of potential, and I loved that angles on the walls.  The very first thing to go was that awful window air conditioner.
The next thing we did in this room was build this closet. The original closet was turned into our laundry room, so I needed somewhere to store games and toys.
Then we took down the fan and the awful ceiling treatment above it.  We took off the molding and re textured the ceiling and we can't even tell it was there. We actually purchased a texture gun for that.
Next big change for the room was giving it a new color and some wainscoting on the walls.  I chose my favorite shade of yellow.  It is a valspar signature color and is called butter. It is one of the most pleasing yellows I have found.
Then we went to work on the wainscoting to add some dimension and interest to the room. My hubby backed the walls with thin pieces of backer board, then measured and ripped MDF strips of wood to size on his table saw.  Just a white coat of paint, and it will be ready to go. Pin It

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Buttercream

Making progress on the bathroom and I am almost done. Just waiting on some finishing trim, and hanging some mirrors we bought, and this bathroom reno is done. The before...So so so awful!

Photo: Wouldn't be Christmas break without a little demo!

Now the after.

I got the vanity painted, the counter top in, and new pulls on the cabinet. I love how it turned out.  I painted the cabinet a valspar color called butter, and the walls school boy blue. We found the chandeliers at Ikea. We are still installing molding around the mirror, and found some cool black girly oval mirrors to install on top of the large mirror. The color choices were my daughters, but I love the softness of them and how girly it looks. Perfect for two girls sharing a bathroom.  Here are a few more pictures of the vanity.




The softer color in these pictures is a little more accurate than the first picture. I love how just a quart of paint transformed this vanity and made such a huge impact on this small space. I can't wait to get the molding and finish this whole bathroom! Pin It

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Holy Bathroom Batman

The hall bathroom. Seriously the worst room of my entire home. I don't know where to begin, from the dark brown tiles to the forest green paint on the walls...all of it is so horrible!  
The tile on the floor was uneven and you had to step up on the tile to get into the shower room.  So dark...and it was a bathroom for two girls. Not girly at all. 
Oh my gosh, when we got these walls painted, the room felt totally transformed.  We put the same black and white basket weave tile that we put in our basement bathroom and painted the walls a light gray blue color. 
The vanity is next. My oldest daughter wanted blue and yellow in the bathroom, and I loved the idea.  I am going to paint the vanity a pretty butter cream yellow and add some new knobs. We installed V board on the bottom portion of the walls to give the room a more airy feel.  It isn't done, but looks a lot better so far! Can't wait to show the rest of the room as it comes together. 
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Thursday, March 6, 2014

Throw back Thursday

My twelve year old daughter went to school today wearing leg warmers, ratted hair, purple eyeshadow, and everything else that entails dressing in the eighties.  It was throw back Thursday at her school today.  She was so excited, and it got me thinking about all the fun things I have worked on in all the other houses I have lived in.  Some of my favorite things to do when I move into a house is to add color.  As I am re doing this house, I love to see all the different rooms and color that I added to other places I have lived in.
This was one of my favorite views  in the entry as you walked into our home.  The whole main level was open and I painted it a yellow color.  I wanted to add some interest by adding a red accent wall.  I also painted my living room a soft green color on the walls, and almost a blue green on the ceiling.  Yes, I love painting ceilings a color, and often times a different color then the rooms.  I think it adds so much interest to a room. We added a lot of wainscotting in that house  I love how the white popped against the color. 
Here is just the yellow color looking down from our second floor.  I took the red and added a touch of it in my decor.  I also painted the stair rail.  It was oak, along with every piece of trim in that house.  It was very easy to paint, and stayed nice.  I always use a liquid sand product on my wood before I paint it and it helps it not to chip.
I love looking at all my pictures and seeing the projects I have done and the personality we have added to a home. I love color.  I haven't chosen as much color for this home, and I am thinking that I want to maybe add a little more touch of color to it.  It really is an easy and relatively inexpensive way to add your style and fun to any home.
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