COLOR! (in the living room)

First of all, Happy Valentine’s Day my SQUEEZIES! :) Hope you had a great one.

I’ve been working on some changes in our living room over the last couple of weeks, and I’m nowhere near close to done, but I just couldn’t wait to show you! I am LOVING how it's turning out -- so excited.

I don’t know if it’s the three inches of ice that have finally melted off our driveway (for the first time in two weeks), or the warmer temps we’re getting this week that is giving us hope for spring, or maybe it’s because the cat peed on the drapes…any one of them could be the reason for my spur-of-the-moment decision to make some changes to our front room.

What’s that? Hmmmm? Oh yeah…I skipped over the pee cat thing. She was off her meds for two long and the inevitable happened. This time though…I’m GLAD. Because that’s actually what started this ball rolling. See – pee cats are good for something! (And she’s really sweet and loving and yada yada…)

Anyhoo, enough mentions of pee for one post. Onward! It started when I took a drape down to wash it, and it just spiraled out of control from there.

For the past year or so, I’ve been trying to add more color to our living room. It looked like this back in the day:

OK, well there’s been color – it’s just been one color. Red. :)

And then I made a few more changes and it looked like this for quite some time:

Notice the trend? DARK. A ton of dark peices and accessories, and red fabrics – ONLY red. You see, for the longest time I thought our wall color was hard to work with. It’s called Beechwood Grey from Porter, and I like it – but for a long time I just felt like I needed to match it, you know?

So red was the direction I went…and I liked it for a while. But my style…it is a changin’.  :)

And taking that one drape down kind of got my wheels turning. I noticed how much brighter it got in the room with just the one panel down. So I took another down…and another…and you get the picture.

The front of our house doesn’t get direct sunlight, but you wouldn’t have been able to tell – the room was positively glowing. And I was in luuurve.

That’s what started the ball started rolling – and the wheels in my head churning. First up was to trim out the windows like I showed you here. I’ve slowly but surely done this around the house, and I’m about half way through the windows now.

And then, since I was going to paint the sills and everything around the window, I went ahead and recaulked both of them:

I didn’t even keep it clean and pretty, because I knew I was painting over it all in white.

And that I did – the new trim and drywall around the windows was painted out in glossy white. See how this started with a little bitty thing and got HUGE? :)

Then another idea came to mind. I love love LOVE my free sewing cabinet and Ballard-esque cafe shelves between the windows, but they have seemed so HEAVY to me lately:

(The iron snowflakes hanging in the windows that I tried to convince myself didn’t look like snowflakes have been gone for a while. They are now packed away in the Christmas decor. Cause they are snowflakes.)

Anyway…I’ve always felt like I needed something more substantial between those windows.

So I took it all away:

(I had just wiped down the wall – hence the dark marks.)

I contemplated leaving those windows nekked by the way, just like in our kitchen. I was smitten, I tell you. 

But then…then, I found THIS:

I was perusing Calico Corners last week (I hadn’t been to the fabric store in forEVER), saw this and couldn’t get it out of my head. It had COLOR – so many beautiful colors. And I just thought the print was stunning.

I couldn’t resist it. And I’m so glad I didn’t. Cause now that dark room looks like this:

Now, I’m showing you in between pics here – keep that in mind. I like to show the process of things so I really wanted to show you the progress thus far.

I think it’s a dramatic change, yes?:

That dresser has made the rounds around our house. It was the Bub’s changing table forever, then it moved to the office, and then it was in the basement for a while.

I made hubs drag it up the stairs to see if it would work and I fell. in. love.

Do you see how differently the wall color photographs? It drives me a little batty. It’s looking way pink in these pics, when it really has more of a greyish tint like in the nekked window picture above.

I’ve mentioned before that we don’t use this as a formal living room – we use it constantly. So the dresser is going to be fantastic storage for puzzles and other activities we do out there:

I have a Goodwill lamp that’s almost ready for the left up on top there. The beautiful wood crate? HomeGoods baby! (For $16!) Doesn’t it looked like I plucked it out of an antique store? LOVE that color too.

One of the things I’d love to do, especially now, is to get a slipcover made for the chair and sofa:

But even without covers, I love them SO MUCH MORE in this room now. It’s just crazy – I don’t know why, but they don’t bother me nearly as much. (But I AM going to slipcover. Oh yes…I am.)

I have a plan for the wall above the dresser too – I already have everything I’ll need. Can’t wait to get it up there!:

And yes, there ARE about 50 holes in that wall from the various changes I’ve made to it. :) They’ll all be covered with my plan. I’m not even gonna fill them. Buwahahaha!!!  :)

I’m hoping to get the rest of the changes made to this part of the room by the end of this week, so I’ll show you as soon as I’m done. There’s some other stuff I’m working on elsewhere in the space too, but that is going to take a bit longer.

But for now…I simple cannot believe the difference a little editing and new drapes made…the before:

And after:

WHOO, swoon, ACK…Happy Valentine’s Day to ME…I am love! Ha! :)

Can’t wait to show you the rest! So far it’s turning out just like it looked in my head…just hope the rest of it does. (I love when that happens!)

P.S. I have not even hemmed the drapes yet…that’s how not completed this room is. Did I mention I have little to no patience?? :)

Like my version of the Ballard Designs cafe shelves?
You’ll LOVE Knock Off Decor!

Work what ya got

Well hello!! I got a fun little project accomplished yesterday that I absolutely LOVE. :)

It started with some house envy, believe it or not. :) Yes, even I see beautiful homes in blogland and sometimes that little green monster starts rearing it’s head. You all know I LOVE our house, so it’s not a big monster, mind you -- just a little one.

I just love little corners, niches, interesting spots in homes, and I adore how some people use awkward spots to their full potential. Like hallways – I just love a long hallway with hardwood floors, a beautiful runner and woodwork as far as the eye can see. Add a gallery of family photos and I’m swooning.

I have a recurring dream about a house we buy and are fixing up, and in each dream I find a new little nook or a tiny room I didn’t know was there before. I LOVE that dream. :)

But alas, we have no nooks, no niches. Not even a hallway. Not one hallway in our entire house. That’s the new open concept for ya – plenty of open spaces (which we love), but sometimes I do crave a little nook.

About a month ago or so, I realized we a needed a storage solution for our son’s dress up stuff. Now, not dress up like princess dresses. Manly dress up like policemen, train conductors and firemen.

(Insert Tim the Tool Man Taylor grunt here.)

So I thunk and I thunk, and I thought of the closest thing to a hallway we have – the half wall in our playroom/loft:

And the idea hit me. I knew exactly what I wanted to do!

First step was to paint the wall out in semi-gloss white:

Didn’t he do a great job?:

I kid! I kid! No child labor here folks.

Mostly because he wasn’t doing it right.

I kid! Not really.

OK, onward! You’ll notice I didn’t even paint the edges of the wall. I didn’t need to because it was going to be covered up with my next step. I took primed mdf from Lowe’s and started installing my vision:

I took some video to give some more detail, but it’s so straightforward – boards across the top, bottom and sides. Then I did some measuring to figure out the spacing between the rest of the boards.

The math went like this – the space between the two outside boards was almost exactly six feet. So I took:

6 feet x 12 (for inches) = 72 inches

The boards were 3.5 inches wide, so I figured out how many sections I wanted (five) and knew that would take four additional pieces of mdf:

3.5 (mdf boards) x 4 = 14 inches

Take the 72 inches minus 14 and you get 58 inches.

Divide 58 inches by the five sections I wanted, and you get 11.6 sections between each vertical board.

Does that make sense? Math and I are not friends, and I swear it’s easy. Once you do it one time, it’ll make more sense for the next time. :) I use that method for any spot where I’m adding molding to a specific amount of space (and I want it to look uniform.)

I took a quick video to show you a couple of my other tricks:

 

Sooo…anyhoo, after a couple more coats of paint on the mdf, some caulk (remember, it’s your BFF folks!), and hooks – I got this:

Isn’t it gorgeous? I mean, really. I want it all. over. my. house. ALL OVER. It’s just classic and pretty and yummy.

I can’t believe how happy woodwork makes me. It’s just ridiculous.

Now we have a spot for all of the make believe outfits:

I almost hated to cover it all up, but it’s for the sake of my sanity. Those hats have been laying around here and there for months because I haven’t found a good spot for them.

I especially love how it ties into the mdf I added to the staircase last year:

And you smarties will notice that NO, I have not painted that railing yet. Only the bottom section is done:

That is how I roll. :)

I just love how it turned out! I took an empty wall that wasn’t doing anything:

And made it functional and pretty:

Gotta love that!

The wood was el cheapo – I think I spent $15 on the mdf. I got the ORB hooks at Lowe’s as well. Love, love, LOVE!

Now I’m so pumped to get moving on the board and batten in the office! My plan is to get started on that this weekend.

Have a GREAT one!

A DIY memo board

Well hello there!! I am just overwhelmed at your response to my last post. You made me feel SO much better! :) I was so happy to read your comments and to hear many of you are making time to take care of YOU! It made my week! (Really.)

Because of I’ve been organizing like mad, and throwing in a few more work outs in here and there lately – my DIY/crafty/decorating time has been suffering. :) I rectified that today with a project I’ve been meaning to do forEVER.

I needed a new memo board for the light and bright office redo I’ve been working on. I made this one years ago:

It’s looking a little sad now. :) To make it, I just covered a piece of insulation foam with fabric. I wrapped the ribbon around it and hung it -- done!

I wanted something huge and it worked perfect! (See that squishy face in the picture on top? That’s my Bub’s birth announcements. Still LOVE.)

Well, about a year ago (yes, a YEAR) I found this huge frame for $10 at Goodwill:

I think it was even half off – it’s been so long I can’t remember! I knew it would work perfect for a new memo board. (I was planning ahead.)

I liked how chunky the frame was, but it wasn’t in the best shape:

It also had a band of linen-type fabric that I actually quite liked.

I had a plan in mind for this baby and I absolutely luuuurve how it turned out! Not just love – LURVE.

First step was to prime the heck out of the sucker. I laid it down on my “spray painting” sheet on the garage floor and did a couple quick coats.

I need to mention that it was NINE degrees outside when I did this. It was unreal, it was so cold.

I am nothing if not dedicated! :)

Once I got feeling back in my hands, I brought it inside to dry. (Spray paint takes forever to dry in extreme temps.)

After that it was ready for paint. Because I wanted to use only what I had, I painted it the blue ceiling paint I used in the office. While it was drying, I moved onto the “memo” part:

This stuff is that thick foam insulation you can get at the hardware store. I love it! I got a few sheets to cover our crawl space openings into the basement years ago. It works GREAT – keeps the cold and the spiders out! Eww!

Anyhoo, I wanted to reuse the foamy stuff for this memo board as well. I measured the size I needed, then used my Dremel to cut it out:

Awe-some!! (Said in a sing song voice.)

I wrapped it with my fabric, securing it to the back with hot glue:

I nail gunned it to the back of the frame and it worked like a charm!

For now it's hanging right behind the desk:

I think it will stay on that wall, but not sure where exactly. :) My plan for the board and batten includes a small ledge, so after that’s done I’ll have to play around with the memo board.

Of course I used the stripe fabric, which is a pain in the booty to get just right:

It has to be perfectly straight or it will drive. you. MAD. Or maybe it just drives me mad. :)

When I primed the frame, I sprayed right over the linen fabric (one word: L.A.Z.Y.) and the primer didn’t even cover it. So weird – it looks just like it did before!:

I just left the little gold strip inside the frame primed. Again…laaaaazy.

I got the fabric pretty straight:

Enough that it doesn’t give my hives to look at it. :) It’ll be covered with notes anyway. That’s what I keep telling myself.

Did you notice my little addition to the DIY drum shade fixture?:

A picture in a magazine inspired it – I saw a beautiful drum shade trimmed out with beautiful, large glass beads. It was GORG. I searched ev.er.y.where. online and couldn’t find anything that looked like it – and then one day I checked out Hobby Lobby and found this.

It is just a precious little beaded trim – I adore it:

Is it possible to be in love with cute beaded trim? Is it normal to be in love with cute beaded trim? I don’t care – I am. :)

I am loving how the room is coming along! The time has come though – I need to buck up buttercup and just get that board and batten DONE.

I still can’t believe the transformation so far. The office before:

And after:

WHOO! Love it! And my office will be extra insulated now. ;)

**I still don’t know what I’m doing with that chair – the cover I had was the wrong blue, (total clash with the memo board) so I took it off for now. I think I have something in mind. (Do you hear my mind crankin’?)

Hope you have a fantastic weekend!!

Before and After Party: Installing crown!

Hey all! It’s a new year, and that means some fun new projects up in here. In between the decluttering (I’m attacking the excess Christmas decor) I finished up a project I’ve wanted to do for YEARS.

I told you way back when in this post that I didn’t know how to cope or cut crown molding – so I’ve always used the corner pieces like these when installing crown:

And I really love them – they add a little extra architectural interest. And they fit right into the corners and make the installation of crown SO much easier. You just cut straight cuts and butt the crown up against it.

The only issue is the cost – they aren’t cheap. Easy, yes – cheap, no.  (Um, this post is taking a very wrong turn.)

Anyway, I’ve been determined for years to figure out how to cut crown so I wouldn’t need the corner pieces.

When I mentioned this on Twitter and Facebook (because I was so excited!), I said I had figured out how to cope crown, which is the wrong terminology. Coping is actually a process of cutting out the shape of the molding so it fits snug into the other piece:

I did not do this. :) That’s still way over my head. But I did figure out how to cut the crown on my miter saw, which has eluded me for years! Yessss.

It was SO stinking easy. Seriously, I can’t believe it took me this long to figure it out. There are a few tricks to doing it right that I figured out along the way.

First of all, I used my compound miter saw. You do NOT have to have one – a miter box (like I used for years for my molding projects) will do just fine. It will just take more strength and endurance. :)

Because crown is installed at an angle, it changes things a bit. First of all, you need to place the crown at an angle on the saw when cutting it.

Here’s some pictures to help explain – for an inside cut, you to make sure the front is facing into the saw. This molding set up for a cut that will be on an inside left corner:

The front is facing into the saw, top on top, bottom on bottom.

Here’s what it will look like on the saw:

For a standard (inside) corner, you’ll want it set to a 45 degree angle:

You do the same thing for the right side of the molding:

You’ll notice the left of the molding on the saw is really the right side, and vice versa (because the back is facing you).

That’s it. Seriously, I waited how many years to figure this out? Here’s how your molding will look for an inside corner:

Notice you can see the edges of the wood? You want to see that, so when they go together up in the corner, they’ll meet up like this:

That’s the only tricky part, getting that angle right as you’re working around the room. You do want the back of the molding to be the longer edge, not the front:

Does that make sense? That part is huge! For an inside corner, it just won’t meet up the other way.

Installation is EASY – you’ll just need someone to help you hold up the pieces as you nail them in (thanks Dad!!).

I used our nail gun and nails that were just over an inch long:

I put nails in the bottom of the molding every 18 inches or so, and you’ll want to get them into a few studs along the way. I don’t worry about that too much – crown isn’t too heavy (typically), so as long as  you get nails in a few studs you’ll be good. I also put some through the top (into the ceiling) as well, just to secure it a bit more.

Something to think about as you have the molding on the saw is to watch how it rests. If you have it at this angle for one cut:

Make sure it’s not lower like this:

Or this:

For the other cuts. It will change how the molding meets in the corners.

If you do it (fairly) right, you’ll end up with this:

Don’t worry about it being perfect!! More on that in a bit!

One thing that’s held me back from figuring this out in the office was the weird angles at the doorway:

But we quickly figured out it was the exact same cuts, just at a 22.5 degree angle:

So, overall, this was WAY easier than I thought it would be. But, as always, I ran into issues I figure you all will too. So I want to mention them. So you don’t hate on me when you try it. :)

I’ve mentioned before that when you pick out molding, you’ll want to make sure it lays flat against the floor. Any pieces that are slightly bent or wackadoodle will give you issues when you install them.

I knew one of mine was slightly off and used it anyway, and wish I wouldn’t have. Because it was bowing, it looked like this when I got it up:

See the eleventy billion holes? Yeah. That’s me trying to get it to go flush against the wall. It wasn’t. :) There was no stud at the point where there was an issue, the nails just weren’t grabbing anything. So I was left with a spot that didn’t match up perfectly.

I could have just taken it all down, cut a new piece and reinstalled everything. But I don’t roll like that. I hide, hide, HIDE all the imperfections I can. :)

Also, if you don’t have a piece long enough for a whole wall, you’ll need to meet up two – which is why I cut the crown at an angle above. Supposedly an angled cut hides more than a straight one – that’s what I’ve heard anyway. I’ve done it both ways, and over time, both need to be touched up as things settle.

So basically, do what you want. :)

That brings me to my next point – caulk is your BFF. Don’t fret if it looks like patoot after you install everything. Caulk and putty cover a multitude of sins. Here’s that same spot with caulk covering the nail holes and the crack:

When I paint, it will cover it up even more. Most people will never notice it. MOST. :)

You can see how the bowed piece didn’t meet up with the wall perfectly on the bottom:

Can you see the gap? I’ll caulk it so you won’t even notice it. Or maybe I won’t. :) It doesn’t bother me too much, but that’s me.

Finally, I was thisclose to done with the room, when I finished up the last corner – and the two corners didn’t match up. You need to make sure the angles of the crown (how it fits on the wall) are exactly the same as you go around. Does that make sense? If you are slightly off in the way you hold it up and install it, it won’t match up perfectly at the corners, no matter how well you miter those corners.

Again…CAULK IS YOUR BEST FRIEND. Serious. Remember, crown is up high. Way above your head. People can’t see the itty bitty imperfections. Only YOU do. Trust me. :)

So, for now, it’s done. My plan was to install a skinny trim an inch or two down from the crown, then paint it all out white (this gives the illusion of chunkier molding), but I’m going to wait to see how it looks with all of the board and batten before I do that.

By the way, doing that would hide even more imperfections. :)

Here’s the end result!:

   

OH my, what a difference!! Isn’t that crazy?

Goodness, I LOVE MOLDING!! :)

So here’s my before and after for the month – the office before crown:

And after!

(Don’t worry – the cord will be hidden by the beautiful drapery fabric.)

I hope my pictures and instructions help and don’t make you more confused! Keep in mind, I only had to do inside corners. I haven’t had to attempt the outside versions yet. :)

And YES, you can do this with an $8 miter box and a hand saw, and YES, you can install crown with regular nails and a hammer. (I’ve done both in our dining room.)

It will just take you a bit longer to get to the finished product. :)

I can’t wait to see your before and afters for the new year! Remember, be sure to link up to your post, not your blog! And you’re welcome to add this purdy little button to your post:

Thank so much! Link it up Squeezays!!