Master Bedroom Ramblings/Cane Chair Progress

Can we all just agree that Pinterest is soooooooo addicting? It's bad people. I need an intervention! One good thing about it is that it's helped me come up with some great ideas for all of these in limbo projects we have going on here. Take the master bedroom, for example. It's slow going, but progress is progress. Right? Kevin and I stayed up until 1 am last weekend working on the thrift store cane chair. We had a few issues (most of which came from the fact that we were sampling a few new beers we picked up at the Sprecher Brewery in WI), but all in all I'm happy with it! We still have to get some more staples to finish the front - see how the fabric is sort of hanging off? And I have to buy some of that cording to trim out the back and bottom edges so you won't see the staples. Then we'll call Candi the cane chair DONE!

My daughter Abby (sewing genious at age 8) and I also made up some throw pillow covers to match!! I'm super pumped about how things are looking so far. Here's a photo update and inspiration pics/notes about where my brain is headed with the rest of this transformation. :)


Nice, dark picture!! My camera sux!!!


Up close..... fabric hanging off needs to be cut & trim added to it


Another view... prob going to do a couple of large pieces of art OR maybe a smallish gallery wall?? Like these....





OR



More photos.....

New bed pillows to match chair fabric... prob going to hang a sunburst mirror over the bed and add some frames over each nightstand like these... (and we still need some cool lamps too)





Near....


And far...... ;) grover reference


The door dilema or doorlema is going to be solved by adding a full length mirror to the front of the closet door (door #1 or the door on the far left). The door into our room (door #2 or the middle door) will stay as is. Door #3 or the bathroom door will be replaced with a full view frosted glass door. I feel like that will help open up the space of all those doors without making it look super weird. Here are a couple of idea photos...


Mirrored door for closet....


Frosted glass "bath" door :)

A few more photo updates that have nothing to do with the bedroom and then I will stop pic spamming!!! The laundry room lighting has always been total crap. We found an inductrial looking pendant light on sale for $15 on our latest Lowe's trip. Woo hoo, score!!! Here's what it looks like hanging in our laundry room.




How much do I love the giant Minion Abby drew on the chalkboard door?? So much!!!! :) Nevermind the fact that I almost sh!t myself every time I walk into the laundry room thinking it's a real person. Yes, I need new glasses.

In other thrifting news.... check out my super awesome $39 find!! They don't just sell cane chairs!!! :)



It's an old server, but Kevin and I plan on turning it into a bathroom vanity when we redo the kids' bathroom this fall/winter. :) It's going to look amazing!!! Picture it painted a bright turquoise with a cool vessel sink on top!!! Like this:


LOVE this color combo....


The vessel sinks at Menard's are $49, so this little project will be under $100 and look like a million bucks. Fingers crossed.

Well, that's it for now. Whew, that was a lot of pictures!!! Hopefully this next couple of weekends will bring more progress in the way of wall art for the bedroom. That is if I can make up my mind!!!

Paint It Black

I love fall. I love everything about it. The food, the sweaters, the football playing in the background, the cooler weather, the trick-or-treating, etc. There's just something about fall and the change of seasons that makes me want to renovate. We've been doing a bit of sprucing up around the outside of the house and it's really coming together! One thing almost always leads to another when it comes to home renovations as far as I'm concerned. So this weekend while painting the trim around the front door, I decided it was time to take off that old screen door. It's nice to be able to open the door and let in the fresh air, but honestly the door was toast. It was faded, broken and we've never had a key for it since we bought this house on foreclosure. So off it came!!! It looks a lot better.

Door without fugly screen door... before I painted it a new color.....




I have been needing to paint the front door for awhile - it's dirty, scratched and faded - plus I am kind of over its color. My mom suggested a black door which I thought would look pretty great! So I picked up some paint at Menard's today and painted it black after we were done with school. The paint color is called "gargoyle shadow" and I absolutely adore it. It isn't quite black black, but more of a grayish black with just enough brown so that it compliments our hardware and the colors in the brick. I will also be painting the faded poo brown shutters to match the door. Crappy thing is that I can't get them off the house - the screws won't budge. Minor detail. I will just have to get on a ladder to do it. So ya..... I will be sure to post pictures when it's all finished!! For now here are the "during" photos.


I love this color!! It's Dutchboy's new "maxbond" paint and primer in one and it's called 'gargoyle shadow.' Love!!!


From afar - don't mind my paint mess.... you can see I have one shutter done on the right. It looks so much better! I knew they were faded, but yowza!


Proof that you CAN paint just about anything. Kevin was all worried about painting the shutters since they're vinyl, but this paint is supposed to stick to any surface and it seems to so far..... shutter on the left is painted, shutter on the right hasn't been painted. See the difference???

So that project is coming along just fine. Other things on the agenda are staining the concrete out front, getting new house numbers, maybe painting the garage door and planting some sort of flowers in a big awesome pot next to the front door. Not sure if it's too early for fall foliage or not, but I'm gonna check it out today!! :) Fall. It's on.

Making It Happen

So summer is pretty much over. Boo. Hiss. But, I have to admit I'm sort of ready to get on with it. We're starting school over here next Monday. I can't believe how fast our summer break went! I always freak out trying to get things packed into the last couple weeks of August because I never feel like I got everything done that I wanted to do. But looking back, I think we really made it happen around here! We did lots of fun family trips, spent time with lots of great people and I even got one project finished - Ethan's room. (I won't tell you how things many I started that aren't finished!!) But at least I can say that his room is officially done. I guess if you don't count the fact that I have to do the quarter round.... but ya, it's done in my book!!

We actually moved Ethan into Olivia's old room. His old room is now Abby's new room and Abby's old room is now Olivia's new room. Make sense? Ya, it doesn't to me either. I still go into the wrong rooms!!! But it did make sense as far as changing them around. Now Ethan has the biggest room. His old room was a sort of primary colored pirate theme - very cute, but not really grown up enough for a ten year old kid. So we decided to go with a music/skateboarding theme this time. It turned out really well I think!!!

Here are the before pics of what it looked like when it was Olivia's room - we sold everything we didn't need anymore on Craigslist or Ebay....







Here is what it looks like now! Quite different!!!


bought the curtains and 'I Am Music' wall art from Target...


bedding is from Target and the loft bed and full bed are from Walmart - we got a great deal on them with site to store shipping...


dresser is the 'Malm' series from IKEA....


found the sweet skateboarder wall decal at our local Menards - you can also see that I painted the ceiling the same color as the trim & doors....


wall color is called 'Quiksilver' and it's by Olympic paints for Lowe's.... I had originally bought another trim color which turned out to be a nightmarish, bad prom dress teal. It's amazing how different colors can look in the store compared to at home!! The second color turned out to be just right...


Ethan got this shelf from my mom for his birthday from PB Teen....


I also painted the inside of his walk in closet the same color as the walls, but it's always messy so we keep the door closed! The mirrors were originally in my brother's old room and are from IKEA....

Phew! One room is technically done and I feel good about it. And Ethan loves his room!! Win!!! We also love the fact that it can sleep all three of the kids at once because that leaves other beds for when we have overnight guests. They also have frequent sleepovers in there just because. Especially during storms!!! :) I hope to be able to cross some of the other projects off the list soon. I will post pictures of the girls' rooms once I feel like I can call them done. So goodbye to summer and hello there, fall!! Here's to making it happen some more!!!!

What Up, Spring? Backyard Inspiration Hits!!

Tomorrow is the first offical day of spring on the calendar - but guess what?? It's gonna snow. Boo!! Hiss!!!!! Hopefully it's a short lived little slip up on mother nature's part. We sure have been spoiled the past few days with all of these warm temps and abundant sunshine.

This weather has me motivated to make some changes outside. Even though it isn't quite time to do any planting, I am already dreaming of what kinds of veggies to put in the square foot garden this year: bush beans, wax beans, beefsteak tomatoes, cucumbers, salad mix, sweet green & red peppers and maybe some peas and zucchini this year. I am planning on doing the herbs in the window boxes under the kitchen window again - mint for mojitos, dill, basil and oregano for sure.

I need to paint that darn blue door on the back of the garage again because it all peeled. I will probably tone it down and do more of a wedgewood blue this time - also thinking of painting the adirondack chairs by the fire pit. Maybe one red and one blue?? We're also going to relay the patio bricks and walkway as lots of them have heaved up the past few winters. I'm also wanting to redo the patio table and chairs instead of spending money on a new set. I love the look of bright furniture and flowers in a backyard. So I'm thinking maybe a creamy yellow for the table and maybe a different color on each of the four chairs?? Blue, red, green and ????? Here are a few of my inspiration photos!!


Pretty painted table...this is the yellow I was envisioning for my table which is similar to this one


Love how all the chairs are different colors! Looks like candy... I love candy...


This is the blue I am loving right now. It looks so great against all the greenery!


I wish I could get the plantings around my patio to look like this! It's messy but it makes sense....


Blue and red.... so happy together!!!


I'd love to do something like this against the back of the house to break up the expanse of beige siding....


Just a cute little shed!!

I can't wait to get to work!! Wut up, spring!!!!!!

When Boredom Strikes

Renovate something!! Seriously, is it still January?!?! This is the time of the year when I really start to feel like I'm going mad. So I turn to home improvement projects to keep me sane. Or insane, depending on how you look at it.

The project I've been wanting to tackle since we moved in here five years ago (wow!) has been the stairs. I already ripped off the carpet and painted/stained the treads and risers which was a huge improvement. But I've always wanted to cut into the half wall and put up actual wooden railings instead.





I feel like the half wall doesn't really go with the style of the rest of the house. Suprisingly, Kevin agrees with me and wasn't too against the idea of taking a sawzall to the walls!!! Here are a few of the inspiration photos I've found that sort of show what I'd like to do.





I like the square ballisters. We'll probably paint them white and then do the actual railing in black. Not sure yet though as I really like the look of the all white railings in the last picture. Hmmmm..... looking at my pictures also makes me want to paint the inside of the front door a different color. Black??? Hmmmmm..... I smell another project!!!!!! ;) Good thing I've got myself to keep me busy.

Before it's too late...

I need to post pictures of the newly organized school room. Before it gets destroyed, I need to post this blog to remember that this day actually existed. My mom would be proud! I sorted through everything and made way for our new curriculum, school supplies, etc. So, ta da!!!!! Behold. The amazing school room!


Full view of the cleanliness...


Art/play area, my table with all of my teacher manuals and supplies, our 2008 olympics bulletin board.....


The armoire is the only thing that is still a mess, but you can't see it unless you open it so who cares!!! Right????? ;)




Bookshelves that hold all the kids' curriculum for the year. Top shelf on the left holds read alouds for Core 1 and Science 1. Bottom shelf on the left holds both kids' readers. Top shelf on the right holds coloring books and Usborne Arts & Craft books. Bottom shelf on the right holds Usborne read alouds and picture books. You're impressed.




Look!!! You can see the top of the table!!!!


All the kids' workbooks and supplies on either side of the table....

Wow!!! All this was done last night and this morning. I am so proud of myself!!! The only problem was that we've run out of room for a lot of our books. They've taken up residence in the upstairs hallway for now, but plans are in the works for a built in bookcase. There is an odd little space just outside of Ab's room that would be a great place for one!! I can envision it, so now we just have to build it.





I'm thinking something white with a wainscotting back and several shelves for books and baskets of toys. It would also be nice to put in a can light over the top if possible, but my handsome electrician husband needs to spec that out.

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And this past weekend we finished putting down the flooring in the middle child's room. It looks great!!!







And the hallway is completely done too!!



So, we're making progress and having fun!! Three more rooms of carpet to go and we'll be carpet and hopefully allergy free!!! I have to say, as much as I love the Novalis vinyl planking in the downstairs I was a little worried about how it would be upstairs. I really love it. It doesn't have the weird sound that laminate can have and it's soft and warm under foot. We'll be adding small area rugs to the bedrooms eventually for more warmth, but for now I love the look of all the wood!!! Well, it's back to organizing for me. I'm taking it one room and one day at a time!