Ottoman Makeover

A couple years ago, I picked up two of the most basic of ottomans from IKEA.  With hopes and dreams of making amazing covers for them, I did manage to make a somewhat decent cover for one, while the other was left to rest naked in the basement.

 

 

In February, Cru spent a night very sick with temperatures of over 100 degrees.  That was the night the second ottoman got a second chance.  I ended up sleeping in that chair that night so I asked my husband to bring it up from the basement for me.   I loved it so much, it stayed.  However, it needed some love.

I spent a while mulling over what color/pattern I wanted to cover it in.  Crus room is already so bright with lots of different patterns and textures, I wanted to be careful not to choose something that would compete.  On the easy side, his room also allows for the use of any color.  So that left my pallet with lots of options. I get overwhelmed in fabric stores so I was thrilled to find this fitted sheet in the kids section of IKEA.  The green color is a solid so I knew it wouldn't compete with all the patterns in the space and the green color would pull out the green in some of the art in the room and pull your eye off of the blue and red which has a heavy presence in his room!  For $6 I had my ottoman cover!

 

 

If I wanted to spend the time (which I didn't) I could have cut and sewn it to the perfect size and create an attachment system so I can remove and wash as needed.  Instead I pulled out my staple gun, flipped the thing over, pulled it tight and stapled away!  I was prepared to cut away the extra fabric underneath but was able to just staple it out of sight.  Kind of a ghetto method, but it worked for me and what the eye can see looks great!

 

Here she is!

 

 

I really love the way it looks in Cru's room.  It pulls from the greens in the Vintage Disney attraction posters behind the chair and on his desk.  Easy peasy! 

 

 

Sticky Steps

 

The stairway by our garage and basement doors were disgusting.  The previous owner had put in a light colored sticky tile linoleum that showed every scratch, piece of dirt... well, everything!

I failed to get a before picture, but we decided to rip up the old and start over in what is the beginning of my "Mud Hall" Mini Makeover...

We started the process by ripping up all the old stick tile, metal corner strip and quarter round that framed the side of the steps.

After that, we measured and leveled the stick tile and set it in place.  We used the level to make sure our cuts were even and straight.  As you can see, I stood on the level to make sure it didn't move.

Teamwork makes the dream work...

 

 

Justin moved along pretty quickly after we got the first step done and we weren't too concerned with the edges since we knew we would be covering them up.

 

Our sweet boys watched us from the hallway. =]

 

 

Here are the steps all finished up without the metal corner strips and quarter round. 

 

 

The next step was to get all the edges covered.  I was torn on what color to choose for the metal strips and wasn't sure if silver or gold would be a better bet.  I thought those two colors were my only options but was super excited to see in store the third option of pewter! I has the perfect bronzy finish that matches the brown in the tiles perfectly!

 

 

After adding white quarter round to the edges, this project is D O N E.  It looks so good and didn't cost much at all. This was about a $50 project and so worth it.  It hides the dust and dirt  and matches our style so much better than the old stuff.

 

 

Like I mentioned earlier, this is the first step for my "Mud Hall" Mini Makeover.  I will give you the deets on the rest of my plans later this week!

 

Project Insulation

In effort to make our home warmer in the winter months and cooler in the summer months and to keep our PSE bill in check, we have been filling in our attic space and upstairs crawlspaces with wonderful, new, thick insulation.  We have a total of 5 attic access holes that we need to fill with insulation and create access doors to. 

 

This one at the top of the stairs...

 

This one in the ceiling of the master bedroom...

 

This one in the hall closet...

 

and two more in the blue room which will be part two of this wonderful fiberglass filled adventure.

 

Last week we purchased 5 rolls of unfaced insulation and some closet stuff (more on that later) and started to fill in the empty spaces of our attic and crawl spaces. 

 

 

Here is what it looks like now, a wonderfully soft looking insulated area that will keep us warmer this winter!

 

 

So now that we have all the insulation in place, we have started creating doors to cover the access areas.  We have to leave them accessible but need to close them off.

 

We have leftover drywall that we are going to use to tackle this project.  We also have leftover spray texture and paint so this portion of the project is Free.99, the best price ever!

 

 

What we did have to purchase was some moulding to trim out the spaces and hide the ugly that happens between the hole and the Sheetrock. 

 

So far, Justin has laid all the insulation, cut and nailed on two sides of the frame for the attic access in our room and has cut the Sheetrock to fit in the center. 

 

 

We need to purchase another strip of trim for this door to finish off the ends, spray texture and paint all of the sheet rock doors we created, and install all the doors so they look nice and pretty.

 

 

This project isn't nearly over but I thought I would update you guys on the process.  Stay tuned for part 2 and more of our insulation project!

Paint it White!

YAY! A house related blog post instead of a bunch of pictures!

We spent today painting upstairs and besides a touch up here and there, we can check painting off of the list!  I decided to go with white. 

Yes, white.  I've been digging the white rooms lately on Pinterest and it's such and easy neutral color, I can add interest with the furniture and accessories. 

I purchased a 5-gallon bucket of Glidden's Pillar White in a satin finish.  Since it is Memorial Day weekend, there was a $20 rebate so that's pretty nifty!

Here it is!

Before the walls were all patched gross looking!

It didn't really take us long to do the upstairs, just a few hours.  We've been putting it off so I'm really happy it didn't take very long. =]

Now the master bedroom, bath and hallway are all painted a nice crisp white!

We also did the ceiling in the blue room and have left over to do any needed touch ups and paint the new moulding we will get a little later.

Our goal is to tile the bathroom tomorrow! Wish us luck!!

Texture Masters

We have finally textured the walls upstairs and are ready to paint! 

We borrowed a texture tool that hooks onto our air compressor that sprays out watered down joint compound and makes our job of texturing SO much easier!

First you add joint compound and water in your spray tool to create a thinner more liquid form of the compound.  We just eyeballed the amount of water we added to what we thought a good consistency would be for the texture.

Then you turn on your compressor, point the gun and pull the trigger!

It will be interesting to see how the paint looks over the texture.  Some areas are heavier than others and I have found a few thicker sprays that might need to be sanded down a little.  This was our first experience with this and it was really easy!

I am in the process of deciding paint colors so I will keep you posted on all that Jazz.

Is it Friday yet?

Ooops I Did it Again!

I redecorated the guest room...  I know, I know! It's a problem

It was only a month ago that I re-decorated the guest room and now I am re-decorating it AGAIN.

The last look was okay but I wasn't 100% about it.

The golden curtains made the warm grey paint color look a little off and that green chair was too big for that little corner.  It just wasn't right.

But now.... I LOVE this room!  It's almost done!  It's my favorite room in the house!

I got this gorgeous handmade blanket and all the colors are perfect for this space!

I found a couple more vintage suitcases and I love how they all have different patterns and textures!

I put white curtains back up and found a smaller chair for the corner. I'm loving the way its looking but I'm not sure how I am loving the black frames, mirror and lamp bases.

With that said, I am contemplating spray painting them.  I want to give them a couple coats of looking glass spray paint by Krylon.

I would like to achieve the look of these votive holders (see below). I'm hoping I can spray them and create an antique patina look.  The plan is to start with the frames and go from there. 

(source)

I will keep you posted! Happy almost Friday!

Checklist Update

So here is a little update in our main floor checklist:



Front Door Light: The light in our entryway consists of a bulb hanging out of the ceiling. I want to find an inexpensive, yet vintage inspired fixture to place here.

We showed you what we did with the front door light in this post along with our living room switchup...

Bathroom Fan: Our main floor bathroom fan is NOT cutting it. You can see the moisture on the walls and our shower curtain rod is showing rust spots. This is something that needs to be addressed ASAP before the moisture starts breeding mold! EEEK!

We completed this last night! We'll fill you in on this later next week.

TV: Our weird flat screen/tube television set has proved to be nothing but an awkward eyesore for the living room. We would like to upgrade to an ACTUAL flat screen that could be put in a more fitting location and provide one focal point in the space.
This was the best upgrade! It allowed us to position our living room in the best way to make it feel larger, more inviting and waaaaayyy more visually appealing.

Vent Oven Hood: We have a hood above our oven, but now we need to vent it so that it will actually take the cooking air outside so our smoke alarms won't go off on a daily basis.

Stickem Linoleum: Our entry landing and steps at the garage and basement doors has tired nasty stickem linoleum that show every dog hair, dirt and whatever else gets dragged in. We want to purchase a darker linoleum to put there to give it a fresh look and hide some of the grime.

Caulk Moulding: The baseboard in our living and dining room needs to be caulked. We have the caulk, now we just need to do it!

Clean Paint Off Hallway Floors: I was a little bit messy in painting the baseboards in the hallway. There are a few areas where I accidentally got some paint on the floor. I purchased some Goof Off wipes that I will review and used to clean up my mess.
I completed this task a few weeks ago.  No pictures to post but just imagine white paint on a hardwood floor and then imagine no white paint on a hardwood floor. =]

Dining Room / Kitchen Revamp: I'm tired of all the tan. It's broken up nicely in the living room with color and such but the dining room is baaaaad. The tan walls with oak trims and table is not working for me. My plan is to paint the dining room and kitchen a lighter beige color that will create a cohesive look with the two spaces but will also compliment the darker tan I have going on in the living room and hallway. I also plan to make some new window treatments and recover the dining room seats for a fresh, new look. I also want to paint the open cabinet backs an accent color to break up the white and add a little flare.
We made our living room lighter and brighter in this post and LOVE the way it's starting to look.  We still want to get a new light fixture in the dining room and finish out the look with new white Corian counter tops in the kitchen.  Getting our upstairs completed is a higher priority so these will have to wait.  Until then...

Stain Closet Door: It took a blog photo for me to realize that I need to do this. So I am adding it to the list!

My wonderful in-laws are coming to stay with us for 10 days starting next Wednesday! I foresee a lot of progress in which I will try to post daily!  Our main goal is to get going on the upstairs bath but I also have some caulking and staining planned so stay tuned!

Guest room Changes

I grew bored with our guest room.  I wanted more color and a change. =]

I received these sheets from my aunt for Christmas and I love the bold turquoise pattern and wanted to make it work in the guest room.

So here is what I did:

Put my super cute new sheets on the bed,

Moved in the green chair from the living room,

Brought in different curtains since I stole the white one for the living room

and added some yellow/goldish pillows to accent the curtains.

I also brought in some black hardback books to accessorize...

and moved my vintage luggage rack and suitcase next to the dresser.

I had all the items used to change up this room.  It's great how just moving a furniture piece or an accessory to a different room can make all the difference!



I'm not totally content with it but until then, this will do.  I think I like the white curtains better but I'll sit on this for a bit and see how I like it. =]