finishing touches

Now that my laundry room is done, I have had a lot of fun finding some fun pieces and putting all the finishing touches together for the room. I knew I needed a folding table for that room and we toyed around with a lot of different possibilities.  We thought about putting lower cabinets in and making a table on top of them, or making a table out of wood and glass.  So we were out shopping at Fred Meyer one day, and came across a stool height table/counter for less money than we could make one.  It had the glass top that I wanted to make the room feel large, and room underneath for laundry baskets.

 It really works perfectly in there and I love the pop of black that ties into the black on the floor.  I found these fun laundry baskets at Walmart of all places.  They are perfect for storing all our clothes in.

 I also had this ironing board cabinet already in the laundry room downstairs. It was oak, and with a little gray paint and a crystal knob of course, I gave it new life.

I put a cabinet next to my dryer.  We needed a top and decided that instead of buying a counter top, we would make one out of wood.  We took wood pieces, glued them together and painted them gray.  I love the way it turned out.  I bought containers and cut out some labels with my vinyl cutter.  Just in case I need to know what I have in them.  :)

 Speaking of vinyl, I saw this quote on pinterest and it totally made me laugh.  I knew I had to cut it out and put it in my laundry room.  So so true at our house!
I love my new room...it makes me smile every time I go in it. If you know me, you know that I usually don't have a smile on my face while doing laundry.  If you have to do that chore, it might as well be in a space you like right! Pin It

Re locating the laundry

I can't believe it has been since October since I have last posted. I have missed blogging and taking pictures of our projects.  Life has been busy...work, school,play, Christmas...you name it.
I am excited to show one of more recent projects, my laundry room.  When we bought the home, the laundry was located on the main floor next to the kitchen and I wanted to eventually use that space for a mud room.  There was a large walk in closet in the upper level of our house I wasn't using. We thought about it and drew it up and decided to convert the closet into a laundry room.  I was so excited to finally have a dedicated space just for the laundry. No more sharing the laundry space with coats and backpacks.
We went to work tearing out the wall between the closet and the hall linen closet so we could enter the room from the hall.

We took out the shelves from the closet and worked on patching the walls.  Next we picked out a color and tile.  I wanted a calm color...something that looked clean and inviting so I chose a light green color.  We chose black and white octagonal tile for the floor. I wanted something classic, something you might find in an older home.

The floor just said laundry room to me. We finished up and put in the washer and dryer and came up with a fun laundry room and perfect space to do laundry in.  If you have to do laundry, it might as well be in a cute room.

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A flashback of color

I was looking through old pictures of my previous home, and I came across this one.

I soon decided that I seriously miss this wall and the dose of color that it gave to this space.  This square wall was one of the funnest painting projects I have ever done.  It was not hard at all, and it gave the wall pattern and dimension without having to hang wallpaper. The trick to it was to use a laser level and draw the squares out with a pencil.  Then instead of taping the squares, I just painted the outline with a painter's brush, and filled in the rest with a larger brush.  There was no touch up from pulling the tape and all my lines were clean.  Really, not that hard, I kind of found it relaxing.  Crazy, I know, but that is what painting does to me. This is a really fun, and easy project if you are looking for a way to add some personality to any room! Pin It

A touch of brick

Life has been crazy around here. It has been a while since my last post. We have been busy adding a little bit of exposed brick to our home. There is a landing in my stairs between my middle level and my basement level that I wanted to dress up for a long time.

There was this shelf that came out from the wall. I wanted to put brick on the top and wainscoting on the bottom.

We started by putting up some backer board, and went to work adding the brick. It is the thin brick perfect for walls.

We were nervous about bricking a wall, but it actually was so easy. A lot easier than tile in fact.

I was excited to get the brick done, and move on to the wainscoting.

We nailed on 1/4 inch plywood and a piece of wood for the shelf and went to work on the detail.

We measured and ripped MDF on the table saw to create the detail of the wainscoting.

Then I went to work painting it white.

And adding some fall decorations to it.

I love the way it turned out. Just enough detail to really add some personality to the stairway. Finally, my whole lower level of my home is finished. Now moving on to another room! Pin It

My basement bathroom make over

I can't believe so many days have passed since I last posted. I haven't found a minute since the start of school to sit down and blog. Last year we decided to renovate and completely gut our basement.  The very first project we did down there was the bathroom.  This room seriously needed a face lift. It started out just your typical basement bathroom. Nothing fancy.

This is the before, right after we moved in.  It functioned fine, and served it's purpose but it just wasn't great to look at.  So we got to work gutting it out.  First we got rid of everything including the tub.

Yea, everything was out and we were ready to put things back together. I wanted to use a black and white checkered floor tile with white subway tile for the shower.  My son chose an apple green color for the walls and we installed V board and painted it white to break up the color.

I purchased a vanity from Lowes that I decided to paint a light gray color.  I got out the Prinzzer primer and painted a few coats, painted the gray color, then put new knobs on it, and it looked like a totally custom vanity.

Here is the finished product. Let me just tell you, small bathrooms are hard to photograph!

It was hard work, but I love how this space turned out! Pin It

The story of my console

Life has been so busy with the end of summer fun, school shopping, and school starting. I am finally happy that I have time to post on my most favorite topic. Re-finishing furniture. Now that my theater room is done, I have decided that the console I painted is one of my most favorite pieces I have done in a long time.  This piece of furniture was such a lucky find.  We knew that we wanted a built in unit for the television but didn't know if we were going to go totally built in or find a cool piece to go in the middle.  We were walking around the DI one Saturday looking for white elephant gifts, and stumbled upon this piece of furniture.

The models were not included. :) This was your typical seventies piece of furniture.  We seriously walked past it twice.  We measured it, took a good look, and decided to bring it home with us.  I love how well furniture of that era was built. This thing is solid! I decided at once that I would paint it white and spray those fun chunky knobs dark gray.
Once the room was primed and the shelves next to it were built, I went to work painting it.  I always start my paint projects with this product.

Best product ever. It cleans and sands your furniture all at once. Just wet a rag with the product, wipe it on the furniture, and start painting. It totally bonds your paint to the furniture.  Just a side note, this works on all woods, but if you are painting something like laminate you need to use zinsser primer first. I just painted with the same paint I paint my trim with and sprayed the knobs with rustoleum spray paint.

I am so glad that we had vision for this piece of furniture. When you paint old furniture you save so much money, and you have a one of a kind piece that no one else has. Pin It

Theater room - the finished product!

I am loving the new paint color of my theater room. I can't believe how much the room has transformed from the dark blue room we moved into, to a more calming gray. I seriously thought there was no hope for this room when we moved into the house.

Here is the before. A dark blue dungeon.

Here it is after. I found a gray couch to match the walls and put two chairs on the upper step. We recently went to London, and I knew I wanted a London themed  room somewhere in my house. I figured this was the perfect room to do it since it was somewhere fun we all liked to hang out in.

I wanted to keep the room classic, clean, but fun at the same time. I found this big stop watch clock at Hobby Lobby and knew the circle shape would be perfect for the room since everything in it is so linear. I hung pictures of our trip in the frames on the walls to remind me of all the fun we had there.

My husband built the shelves, and I love how most of the electronic equipment is hidden. It was a lot of work, and I during the process I thought we'd never finish, but in the end it turned out great and we have a fun new space to spend time as a family in. Pin It