Stairway Stories

For the past three years we have lived here, our stairway has looked like this.  I painted it "vanilla milkshake" last year but let it sit idle while we tackled other projects around the house.

 I really love the character of our stairway.  The light was left from the previous owner(s) and is what I believe to be the original fixture of the house.  I love the light.  I also love the ledge that is there. It is great for setting up my Christmas village, setting up seasonal decor and adds a little voom to the space.

That was the life of our stair way pre-carpet install.  Once the carpet was in I thought about how I wanted to decorate this area.  I knew I wanted something different but something that I really loved since I would be walking this way numerous times in a day. 

The idea that made most sense to me was another photo wall! I had a collection of black frames that I wanted to use.  I knew the black would be an awesome contrast to the "vanilla milkshake" walls so I decided to give new life to the existing fixture and spray it black as well as the stair rails.

A lot of people have asked me how I go about hanging a photo wall.  There are a few steps involved in my method and I think it's a pretty low stress way to get a bunch of frames onto the walls.

Step 1:  I take two measuring tapes one to measure the height and one to measure the width of the space you are using.  Lock the measuring tapes to those dimensions and place on a surface such as the floor to decide your layout.

Step 2:  Lay the frames out into whatever pattern is desired.  Space them out to fill the area and be sure to mix bigger frames with smaller ones.  Another thing I do is to leave the pattern random.  I don't like the stress of having to use a level and making sure two frames are exactly symmetrical.  I just go for the scattered look. My main rule is to start with the biggest sized frame in the center and work around it, that way your wall is always centered and allows you to create a "full" look without having too big of spaces between the frames.

Step 3: Grab a friend or in my case, husband, to help you transfer your frames from the floor to the wall.   In this instance, we took a board from our scaffolding set and set one edge on the photo wall ledge while the other rested at the top of the stairs.  This made it so much easier to hang the higher frames.  After he was on the ledge and ready, I would hand him a frame and tell him where to hang it.  As we added more frames, I just eyeballed the spacing.  Eyeballing works for some, doesn't work for others but it's the method I find easiest for me and so far has worked for the frame we've hung.

Here is what our photo wall ended as.  There is still space around the tops and sides to throw in some more frames.  This is where my "start with the center" rule worked perfect because the frames are all centered in this space but I have the ability to add more and still have it look balanced.

Most recently, I found a few more frames and added to the bottom. (see right photo).  Still looks balanced.  I could get away with adding more frames to either the top or bottom but if I wanted to add more to the sides, I would need to add to both to keep the balance,

I also threw in my vintage camera collection and printed a quote I found online.

When deciding on what photos to hang here, I knew I wanted something that made me happy and that is my family, but I wanted to jazz it up a bit, make it a little more interesting then your basic yearly family photos.  So I decided to go vintage and do all old photos from the 50's, 60's and 70's.  I wanted pictures of my parent's youth and grandparents honey moon phase.  The past year I was assigned with the task of digitizing my maternal and paternal grandparents' photo slides so I had access to some great photos.

Here is one of my maternal grandmother, uncles and my mom in the stroller at Disneyland in the late 60's...

This one is of my paternal grandfather (at the podium) with Senator Kennedy and Jackie...

and here are my dad and uncle scoutin it up.

I still have quite a few empty frames but am waiting on some photos to come in from Justin's side and I have a few more I need to print off. 

I adore this wall with my whole heart.  It tells a little bit of my story, where I came from and the story of those who have raised me and shaped me into the person I am. Every time I walk up the stairs I smile.  

What makes you smile?

What Going On?!

Well we have 2.5 weeks until our Cru is due! We have been working like mad to get the house in tip top shape so that we don't have to worry about much after his arrival!

 

We've been working in all areas of the house and when we are done I will post a full house tour on the status of our construction, decor and untouched areas.  Our goal is to have everything complete by this weekend so that we can spend then last two weeks before baby just relaxing and hanging out with each other.

 

Since my last post, my sweet co-workers threw me a surprise baby shower, my girlfriends threw another and like I mentioned earlier, all of our spare time is being spent working on the house!

 

I will post shower posts today and tomorrow but here is the status of the housework plus a few teasers...

IN PROGRESS:

 Cru's Nursery:You may remember this post where I laid out all the plans for Cru's nursery.  I have to say that I pretty much nailed this exact look.  We had to make a few changes but It's looking awesome and I look forward to sharing a full on detailed post with you either Friday or early next week!  If you follow me on instagram or FB you'll see that I posted a little teaser of Cru's bookshelves.  I love them so much!

Master Bedroom: Progress is coming along in this room, you may remember my decor inspiration I talked about in this post.  We have our chandy hung (pic below) which we love.  Scale wise it's probably a tad to big for the space but it makes a statement and I love the look of the light using the round bulbs vs the candle wick looking ones.  As far as decorating, I need to purchase some key pieces for the space.  I need to get some throw pillows, a fiddle fig plant and move up one of my antique chairs.  Right now I am working with what we have as far as accessories and it's not really clicking for me.  I think after I find the perfect key pieces it will all flow together perfectly.  I plan on shopping this weekend to get all the goods needed for the rest of our pre-baby house plan and get the Master all decorated!

 

Master Bathroom:  I gave you the updates here. This room looks the exact same.  Our priorities keep shifting but I do have the mirrors purchased and some other pieces that I am excited to get in here!  Justin plans on doing the plumbing this weekend.  After that, it's ready for all the accessories.  We still need to get a shower kit for the clawfoot but are putting that on hold because the installation is pretty intense.  We're deciding on how we want to deal with that.  At least until then we will have an almost fully functional bathroom!

Guest Room: Our main floor guest room got an upgrade to a queen sized bed from a full which the in-laws appreciate as well as a nice memory foam mattress topper to make sure all are comfortable.  We also threw on some new bedding, did a little frame painting and un-accessorized a bit.  We don't have a bed frame so I need to get on that so we can get the bed off of the floor.  I also want to get some hooks for the wall so guests can hang their towels up in their room or whatever else they might want to get off the floor. 

Old Bedroom/Now Office:  The room we used to lie our heads on the main floor is now an office with sleeper sofa.  This room definitely has a vintage vibe.  We've put to use an old library table, some old suitcases and other old accessories.  I've gotten it all cleaned up and organized but there is definitely still more I want to do to it. I'm going for a vintage travel theme and purchased these post cards from Fab.com (see below).  I want to use them to document where hubs and I have traveled together and eventually come up with a great collage/central art piece.  More on that later. =]

STILL TO TACKLE:

Hall Mini Makeover:  I still really want to do this and told you all about it here.  We just haven't gotten there!  It would take probably an hour to complete but I have been dragging my feet on this! I have the perfect collage frame I want to hang here from my mom, started a calendar system to keep our lives straight and want to get a wall letter organizer to keep track of what to file, what to address, and all that jazz.  I also want to add hooks for dog collars, leashes and maybe find a slender basket to throw dirties in.  I know with a baby coming there will be a larger accumulation of dirties.

Stairway: Besides the carpet, this area still needs work.  I painted it a while back but that needs to be touch up since moving furniture up has caused some scrapes and scratches.  We are also going to put up a photo wall of all vintage family photos and put up railings so people don't go falling on me.  We took down the old light which we both love and spray painted it black.  It will pop against the Vanilla Milkshake colored paint.  This space will go pretty quickly as well.  My portion is printing the pictures, My brother and Justin will have to handle the rest.

COMPLETED TASKS:

Closets:  One of the things I wanted to complete was to get all the closets cleaned our and organized.  I am so happy to be able to check this off of the list!  All the closets/drawers are organized and cleaned out!  Our hallway/2nd pantry was the most major and it may not look organized to you but this is amazing! I was able to fit all my extra dishes and kitchen supplies in here as well as entertaining pieces and disposable cutlery and dishes!  After we move all our bathroom stuff upstairs I would like to use the cabinet in the main bathroom for all the things in the bathroom box you can see on the bottom shelf/floor.  Then I will have room for my wok, deep fryer and bread maker.  It's still a lot of crap but it's a lot of crap we use and at least its all in one place and organized. =]

Baby Gifts: This was quite the feat! We are so blessed and received so many wonderful gifts and are so thankful but man, going through and finding room and washing everything for all these little person things was quite the task!  We were able to get everything put away and have it all make sense and kept everything organized! It took over our guest room for a few weeks but with his impending arrival (any time!) I wanted to make sure everything was ready so that we didn't have to worry about anything when we came home from the hospital. 

Here is all his loot before the big wash/put away party.
 

 

All his diapers fit in the drawers of his changing station. More on this later ;]

 



 

His pack n play found a home in the living room since that is the main hub of the home and where we hang to watch TV, eat and visit.



Other than that, the hospital bags are packed and I am doing my best to keep on top of the cleaning so that we can come home to a clean house. 

 

Long story short, you can see the psychotic OCD nesting mode has fallen on me.  I am crazily trying to make the home perfect which I know is stupid but you can't tell a nesting pregnant woman that because that makes you crazy and wrong!  =]  I have to say thank you to my amazing hubby who is putting up with all the crazy and handling it like a pro.  I wouldn't be able to stand me right now...

 

As you can see I have a lot of home related posts I want to go into more detail about so stay tuned for those as well as a couple more baby posts! 



Master Look

I spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted to do with our Master Bedroom...

I want it to be a comfortable space for Justin and I and something we both love.  I don't want it too masculine or too feminine but a space we both enjoy  I am very into the globalist look right now.  I love white walled rooms with punches of colors, textures and am especially in love with the southwestern/aztec like patterns that are out there.  Luckily the white walls give such a neutral base that all that is really needed to give the room some flava is some throw pillows, wood/natural accents and some green.

Pinterest has made my love for the globalist look grow and grow.  Here are some examples I specifically love.

 

                                              Source                                                          Source

Source
 

We purchased our curtain rod from Lowes.  It has a good masculine feel with the dark wrought iron look but has a hint of femininity with the crystal finials.  I also like these because they will allow me to bring in black accents throughout the space. 

 

Source
 

I found these fun pillows on Etsy and other sites but there is no way I will pay more than $15 for a pillow.  So I will be going fabric shopping very soon! These will add the global feel we want for the space.

 

 

Etsy

 

 

                                                     Etsy                                               Source

 



 

We also purchased this light from Lowes.

 

 

To change up the look I am going to use these light bulbs from Lowes as well.  I thought it would add a unique look to the light fixture.  Here's hoping I'm right!!

I also need to get a couple of lamps for our night stands.  I am deciding between a few different looks; an antique studious look like this red one is one of them.  Not sure about the color I'm thinking I need something in a dark finish to tie in the curtain rod and chandy...  Justin specifically mentioned this style so it would be nice to incorporate something he wants. =] 

Another option I'm into are these wall sconces... I would definitely spray the base black though and the third option I'm thinking is this lamp. I think it would be a subtle addition to the room where we already have some crazy patterns and bold colors.

 

 

 

 

I really don't know what the best option would be...  I may have to purchase one of each and just try them out!

 

I am obsessed with the Fiddle Leaf Fig and would absolutely LOVE one in our room!  They look like they can get pretty big and I will need to research how to take care of them but aren't they the coolest!

 

 

I also want to have a little photo wall (shocker!) and will of course add some fun accessories.  The same theme will run into the bathroom so that there is a cohesive feel between the spaces. I am so ready to have our room done so we can focus on the nursery! 

 

 

Master Bath Update

Here is a little recap and update of our master bath.  Since it's been so long, I am recapping the whole process!  You can check out previous post here, here, here and here if you want to look back or just stay tuned because I'm about to give you the whole rundown.

 

When we purchased our house back in 2010, the upstairs "master bath" looked like this...

 

 

There's not a lot of "master" about it. The previous owner shoved a toilet and sink in an area that 5 ft tall and used the rest of the space for closet storage.

 

This obviously wasn't going to work for us so we did what we do best and gutted it.

 

We tried to be neat about ripping everything out and proceeded to make piles in the Master Bedroom.  We didn't want to make trips down the stairs so we got our garbage organized and chucked it out the window when we were ready for the dump run.

 

Here is the bathroom all demo'd and ready to be made beautiful!

 

 

After this part of the demo, we decided we wanted to add insulation to keep it warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer. 

 

So all the sheetrock and old insulation was ripped out and we started from scratch.  We also took this opportunity to have the bathroom replumbed and rewired to fit the style we wanted for the space.

 

You can see how we framed over the space in back that previously had the toilet and sink.  We really wanted to try an utilize the space but it just wasn't going to work.  We needed the wall space and the area back there was really too small for anyone besides me to fit so we closed her up.

 

 

After all the insulation, plumbing and electrical were done, up went the green board.  Green board is a moisture resistant drywall.  It's best to use in bathrooms and behind areas of possible moisture like a kitchen sink or laundry area.  It helps prevent mold and other gross things that can thrive in wetter environments.

 

After all that was installed, we (Justin and Roger) mudded and taped everything to fill in the seams so they become invisible when it's time to texture and paint.  Like always, our doggie boys were a huge help!

 

After we were done mudding and taping, we textured the space.  We purchased a large tub of joint compound and added water to create the consistency we wanted for the texture.  Once we got it just right, we poured some compound into a texture sprayer a friend let us borrow.  We hooked the sprayer up to our air compressor hose and chose size we wanted the texture to blow out by adjusting a lever near the spray hole. 

 

 

Once that was complete we just pointed and shot!  As you can see it the picture below, we taped off the bottom half of the room because I had something fun I wanted to try....

 

 

This was our first time texturing and we realized after the fact that we would have thinned out the joint compound a little more.  Some areas are thicker than others and we did have to sand a little after the whole process but after the paint went on, we could barely notice.

 

Then we painted it all white! I wanted the room to feel big and clean and airy so I decided to just go with the white in the master bed and bath.  I can always slap on some paint later if I change my mind.  =]

 

 

After this step we laid our tile.  I failed to take photos but we screwed down hardy backer boards, purchased our tile and laid it out!  In an end of the summer recap post, I showed a quick pic of the tiling process...

 

 

We chose a honeycomb vintage tile to keep true to the time of our home.  I love it so much! We tiled it with an Oyster Gray sanded grout.  We had a little issue with this step.  At first I purchased a non-sanded grout that was a gray color but ran out.  My uncle saw our progress and mentioned that we should be using a sanded grout.  We finished the project in a grout that was the same color but sanded instead of the un-sanded we originally used and it looked like we were going for an ombre grout look... not good.  So I went and bought a third kind of grout and Justin regrouted the whole space in it.  It looks muuuch better.  The moral of the story is to figure it out first...  It would have saved us time!

 

Once all the tile was in we were able to start on the moulding!  You'll notice a cameo of my Cyber Monday vanities in these photos.  We needed to place them for moulding spacing and such.

 

I found a moulding technique on Pinterest that I really wanted to try in this space.  It called for placing the moulding horizontally near the floor and curve of the ceiling, then add vertical strips in between to create a faux wainscoting look. 

 

 

We had to figure how far apart we needed to place the vertical pieces to make sure everything looked even.  Each wall is a little different but it looks perfect to the eye.  On the right hand wall we started by placing a piece of moulding on each end then measured the space between.  It worked out that every 20 inches we would place another vertical board.  On the wall behind the vanities we used the same tactic and it measured every 19 inches.

 

This method made sure that each wall looked even, if we just measured every 20 inches we would have had boards 1 or 2 inches from the corners and that would look ridiculous!

 

So here is where we're at as of last night.  I spent the evening caulking all the gaps and filling the nail holes with putty.  Today or tomorrow Justin is going to paint, then we will install the vanities and clean out the tub.  We still need to buy the clawfoot shower kit but at least for the time being we will have a working toilet and sinks! The vanities should be installed this weekend and then I am going shopping for accessories!  I need to find mirrors also! Can't wait to have our OWN bathroom in our home!

 



 

I will be posting more about this room but at least I've gotten all of you caught up!  Thanks so much for checking in!