Ledge Shelves

Remember my art/craft/second guest room?  No?  Well, here she is….I should say here she WAS, because we have made a few changes in here.

First up, we ditched that old futon.  We dragged that sucker to curb, and said good riddance.

Then, I spruced up my sewing table a bit (If you told me when I was 21 that I would one day type that sentence, I would be making fun of myself big time). Next, I bought some IKEA RIBBA Picture Ledges.  These…Once they were at my doorstep, I was pumped to get them on the wall.  I almost put them up myself, but then I couldn’t find the stud finder and the screw gun wasn’t charged.  So, I got smart and decided to wait for Justin.  Good thing too, because it was a lot easier with two people.  It’s always nice to have someone around to eye out heights and double check if things are level.  Let’s face it, sometimes things get wonky when you don’t take a step back and take a look.  Here they are, all hung up…This room was bare for so long, it was about time we added something to these walls.

Here’s a closer look at the ledges… they are perfect for displaying art.  I create new art from time to time, and do not necessarily want to frame everything or display it all over the house.  This is now the perfect spot for those misfit art pieces. Once everything was anchored in place, I did my thing adding art.

This is what I came up with…When you take a step back now, this is what you see…And, I know, you see that dresser in the right-hand side of this photo.  I’ll explain more on that another day.  For now, I hope you enjoy my new ledge shelves!What do you think?  Better?

 

Painting the Guest Bedroom

My blue dresser has a home!  Remember this guy?…

Well, his living arrangements were determined early on.  I knew I wanted him to live in our guest bedroom.  We desperately needed to kick our old entertainment center to the curb and find a better solution.  This little blue dresser was my solution!

So, I dragged the old entertainment center to the road and moved the blue dresser into it’s place.  I stepped back, and took at the room, and I thought booo.  I wasn’t digging all of the blue hues going on in this room.  It was blue overload.

So, I painted.

I went with Colorplace Autumn Haze.  It is a pretty neutral tan color. I figured with all the blue going on in here, it would help tone things down. P.S. I just throw everything in the center of the room when I paint, don’t mind my mess. Once I was finished painting, I brought the dresser back in.  And, what do you know? It looked much better with the neutral wall color!  Woot woot! Of course, Charlie helped keep an eye on my work.   And he also digs the new color. I think it looks bigger in here now, even with more furniture.  Weird how a color will do that. One last thing before you go.  A before and after…

 

Who Doesn’t Like a Good Pillow

Last I showed you our bedroom was looking like this…

We had purchased some new bedding that we fell for at Target and just to keep you all posted it is super comfy and working out great, it’s even char man approved.

How cute is he?  Anyway, this bed was much in need of some pillows to beef it up a bit.  So, I got to hang out with my sewing machine for a little bit.  I decided to just cover the old pillows that were on this bed previously…

I’m talking about those three blue guys on the bed.  Here’s what I did…

I started by taking some scissor and slicing those old covers that I had previously made right off(yes I am recovering previously covered pillows, no waste here).  Once I had my old pillows ready to be recovered I needed to decide on what fabric I wanted to use.  I thought that I definitely needed to go with a lighter color since the bedding is pretty dark.  I thought white would be nice and I just so happened to already own the perfect fabric for the job.

It’s the white fabric that I used on the cornice in our room…

Once I had decided on the fabric I cut it about an inch wider than the pillow’s length on each of the four sides.  I had to cut four squares, one front and one back piece for each pillow…

Look at those snazzy squares.  From there I sewed three sides of the fabric together back side of the fabric facing outward…

For the last side that was left open, I sewed a small portion of this side shut. I sewed inward from the corners leaving a small gap open in the center. This probably makes no sense, hopefully this picture will help…

See how the top and the bottom are sewed about an inch and a half inward?  Then I flipped it inside out.

I had to make sure I pushed the corners out completely, they got stuck slightly because it is a thicker fabric.

From there I just shoved the pillow inside.

Once the pillow was inside I flipped the extra fabric around the hole inside as well.   Then I just needed to sew that sucker up.  I made sure the folds were even and I used the sewing machine to sew the last side shut.

See what I mean?

Then I just did that all over again for the second pillow.  And now I have this…

It was still a little too plain for me, so I picked up this guy at the Dillard’s clearance center for $2.  Yes, $2!

Perfect combination of gray and white right?  I am pleased with this pillow, makes me love our new bedding!

I think I will eventually buy a couple shams or possibly make them, but for now our gray pillow cases will do.  So here is our bedroom now.

Let’s Caulk it out

I think we all now know that I have a love for caulk. I just want to caulk everything! But that is not an option. I did however need to caulk a few more areas in the bathroom, yippee skippee right? That’s what I thought! As I last left off with the master bath, I had removed the counter splash guards…

The walls are now all painted blue so you cannot see any of that spackle hanging out anymore, but what you can see are some crazy gaps between the wall and the counter top….

Careful, don’t get too close, you may fall in! This was in need of some caulk! So, I happily made my way to the garage to get my caulking supplies…

Pretty extensive supplies huh?

From there I just went my normal route of taping off the areas that I wanted caulk, then I plopped some caulk down…

While I was at it I found a few other areas that I thought needed some caulk as well…

Wanna see the results? Good thing cause here they come…

BOOM! Look at that!

Much better!

Here is the back of the countertop…

This piece of trim just had a crack down the side, so I filled that right in.

I also did some of the trim near the floor that had some cracks. Fortunately we still have these beautiful laminate floors! blah!

And around the toilet…

And next to the shower…

How about a close up?

Here is how the bathroom looks today…

I decided to change out the countainers on the counter to something with less of a tealish tint.

We also took the door off of the “toilet room”, we really hate having a separate room for our toilet, just seems like a waste of space.

We cannot wait to renovate this entire room, as for now we are going to live with everything as is. We are saving our pennies and one day we will have a brand new bathroom! Can’t wait.

Here is one more before and after of this quick update on our bath…

Better? I hope so!

Painting the Master Bathroom

As you know I have prepped our master bathroom for paint. Now that it is all set to go, I got right to it. I decided to go with Lighthouse Shadows by Valspar, it is the color of our master bedroom. I had a bunch left over from painting our room, so I thought that would be a good choice. Since we will eventually be demoing this entire room, I didn’t want to purchase new paint. Here is what I started with…

Here is what we have now…

I love that it makes the bathroom feel like a continuation of our bedroom now…

I unfortunately did not get any photos of the painting process, but I do have some before and afters!

I also put a fresh coat of white paint on all the doors…

We still have big plans for this bathroom, but for now it feels a lot cleaner in here. I still need to do some more caulking and I would like to hang some art and change a couple other things. Thanks for reading folks!

A Little Bit of This a Little Bit of That

This here is a very random post.  I just have a couple quick things that we have done lately that I have not shared.  What better time then now?  Am I right?

First up the fan in my art room has changed again.  We now went from this…

To this…

The white fan just fits better in this room.  The brown fan was nice, but it was too dark.

Want a side by side?  Finnnne…

I just think it fits better in this space.  This room has a lot further to go, slowly but surely were making our way.

One other quick thing I did was move the guest room around a bit, before it was looking like this…

Now here is it’s new set up…

Basically, I just added our TV stand and TV, and moved the bed to the center of the room.  I put the two stools on each side of the bed to be used as night stands.  This room now feels more balanced to me.  Eventually I would like to get a nice antique dresser to put across from the bed instead of our old TV stand, for now it works though.

So these are couple little things I wanted to share.  Thanks for reading folks!

How About a Whole House Tour?

We have been in our home for three months now!  Already!  I have no regrets whatsoever with this house, I love every nook and crannie of it. If we had settled on one of the other homes we were considering buying I don’t believe I would be as happy with our choice.  So Woot Woot! Three months in and we have no buyers remorse!

That being said, I think we have made enough updates in this house that it would be an appropriate time to give you all a whole house tour, complete with before and after photos(my fav).

I decided to go ahead and include photos of the very first day I laid eyes on this house(the photos are from my phone and they aren’t too clear, sorry!), also I will include photos of the house the day we moved in and lastly photos of our progress! I will also explain what we have done in each area of the home to date and what we would like to do down the road. So hold on to your hats cause here it comes.

Front Yard:

Here she is! The first time I laid eyes on her, it was love at first sight.

And here she is today, this photo is a bit closer. I did not get a photo of the front yard on moving day though! poop!

What we have done:

• Removed dying sago palm on the left side of the garage door.
• Removed holly bushes, stumps and all.
• Dug out all remaining plants.
• Removed all garden rocks and pavers around gardens.
• Trimmed back remaining sago palms.
• Added in new red mulch.
• Added solar lights.
• Power washed house and driveway.

What we still want to accomplish:

• Add more plants/flowers to the gardens.
• Paint front door.
• Get new house numbers.

So far were off to a good start with the front yard.  I am sure this to do list will expand. Next up…

Dining Room:

This is the first time I saw the dining room at my walk through with our realtor…

Here is moving in day…

and today…

What we have done:

• Prepped and painted the walls and trim.
• Changed outlet covers, door handles and hinges.
• Steam cleaned the carpet.
• Removed the chandelier and installed new light fixture.

What we still want to accomplish:

• Get rid of old couch.
• Remove carpet, replace with new carpet.
• Get furniture.
• Find art for walls.
• Add window treatments.

We are still unsure what we would like this room to be, we do not necessarily need a dining room.  We already have our table in our little eating nook in the kitchen and we now have the new patio set.  We are contemplating another living/sitting area.  We are not really formal type of people, so a formal dining or living room isn’t really for us.  We still have a long way to go in here.

Office:

First day I saw it…

Then on moving day…

And then here it is today…

What we have done:

• Prepped and painted the walls and trim.
• Changed outlet covers, door handles and hinges.
• Steam cleaned the carpet.
• Added our desk, printer table and lamp.
• Added some wall art.

What we still want to accomplish:

• Remove carpet, replace with new carpet.
• Add walls and french doors to close off the room.
• Get new corner desk.
• Get book shelf or hutch for storage.
• Add window treatments.

Still plenty to accomplish.

Long Hallway:

At first sight again…

Then on moving day….

And today…

What we have done:

• Prepped and painted walls and trim.
• Changed outlet covers, door handles and hinges.
• Removed lighting at front door.
• Added small hanging fan to front entry.
• Added carpet runner.
• Added long hall table.
• Let Charlie live here.

What we still want to accomplish:

• Paint inside of front door.
• Add glass storm door.
• Add art to walls(possibly gallery wall).

Kitchen:

At first sight…

Then on moving day…

And then today…

What we have done:

• Cleaned grout.
• Prepped and painted walls and trim.
• Changed outlet covers, door handles and hinges.

What we still want to accomplish:

• Paint cupboards white and replace doors with new white ones or replace cupboards completly with new white ones.
• Add granite counters.
• Replace island with butcher block.
• Get stainless steel appliances.
• Add art to walls.
• Re-grout tile(it’s all discolored).

Kitchen Eating Nook:

At first walk through…

On moving day…

And then today…

What we have done:

• Prepped and painted walls and trim.
• Cleaned grout.
• Added our kitchen table.
• Changed outlet covers, door handles and hinges.

What we still want to accomplish:

• Re-grout tile.
• Add art to walls.

Living Room:

At first sight…

Then on moving day…

And today…

What we have done:

• Prepped and painted walls and trim.
• Changed outlet covers, door handles and hinges.
• Purchased new couches.
• Purchased new TV console and TV.
• Made cornice for window.
• Added area rug.
• Added art to walls and mirror above fireplace.

What we still want to accomplish:

• Mount TV to wall.
• Add decorations to nooks.
• Possibly add a matching cornice above french doors.

Guest Bedroom #1:

First sight…

Move in day…

Then today…

What we have done:

• Prepped and painted walls and trim.
• Changed outlet covers, door handles and hinges.
• Steam cleaned the carpet.
• Purchased queen guest bed and bedding.
• Added wall art.
• Added rocking chair and small stools for tables.

What we still want to accomplish:

• Remove and replace carpet.
• Get nice antique dresser.
• Add more art to walls.
• Make window treatment.
• Get headboard/footboard for bed.

Guest Bathroom:

First…

On moving day…

Today…

What we have done:

• Prepped and painted walls and trim.
• Changed outlet covers, door handles and hinges.
• Added shower curtain and rugs

What we still want to accomplish:

• Repaint walls(I do not like the color).
• Replace vanity.
• Possibly add bead board.
• Purchase new shower curtain and rugs.
• Add wall art.

Guest Bedroom #2:

First sight…

Moving day…

Today…

What we have done:

• Steam cleaned the carpet.
• Added junk.

What we still want to accomplish:

• Remove border.
• Prep and paint walls and trim.
• Change outlet covers, door handles and hinges.
• Replace fan.
• Get shelving/furniture for storage.
• Remove and replace carpet.
• Get desk for myself.
• Purchase easel for painting.
• Organize and store painting, sewing and crafting supplies.

I have a lot of plans for this room since it will be my office.  I am waiting until I find the right furniture and art.  I want unique things in here! I can’t wait to get going.

Master Bedroom:

Moving day…

And today…

What we have done…

• Prepped and painted walls and trim.
• Changed outlet covers, door handles and hinges.
• Got new bedroom furniture.
• Added art to walls.
• Purchased new bedding.
• Added area rug.
• Added rocking chair and old trunk.
• Made throw pillows for bed.

What we would still like accomplish:

• Add one more piece of art on the wall between the bathroom door and the bedroom door.

Very close to done! Woo hoo!

Master Bathroom:

First sight…

Moving day…

And today…

What we have done:

• Add some decorations.

What we would still like to accomplish:

• Remove shower and tub.
• Remove linoleum.
• Remove vanity.
• Remove walls around the toilet.
• Lay new tile and grout.
• Add storage closet.
• Add new vanity, mirror and light fixture.
• Add glass shower stall.
• Tile and grout shower.
• Add art and decorations.

Basically we have done nothing in here.  We would like to change the whole layout of this bathroom.

Back Yard:

moving day…

And today!

What we have done:

• Added screen.
• Replaced ceiling fan.
• Power-washed the house.
• Painted doors.
• Dry-walled, textured and painted back of house inside screened area.
• Tiled and grouted floor.
• Bought patio set.
• Bought plants for inside patio.
• Re-sodded yard.
• Trimmed bushed and trees.
• Removed holly trees.
• Planted palm tree and magnolia tree.
• Made garden around patio.
• Mulched all gardens.
• Bought Big Green Egg grill.
• Added patio pavers.
• Had new gutters put on back of house.

What we would still like to accomplish:

• Add trim between grout and wall of house.
• Add wall decoration in patio.

Laundry Room:

First sight…

Moving day…

and today…

What we have done:

• Prepped and painted walls and trim.
• Removed old shelving and added new shelves.
• Added decorations and wall art.

What we would still like to accomplish:

• Add art to wall on opposite wall.

So that’s our whole house!  I think we have gotten a good start on changes we want to make.  Of course we still have a few huge projects like the kitchen and master bath, but so far we have made some good improvements. What do you think?  Please share!

Bed for the guest bedroom

When we moved to Florida(two years ago!) we were using my queen size bed that I brought from NY.  I had had that bed since I was probably 16, wasn’t in the best shape but it did the job.  Not long after we moved Justin decided it was time to get a new bed, since he was having trouble sleeping.  We ended up getting a new king size bed that is firm and amazing.  So at that point we had two beds, a king and a queen.  Both of the beds were residing in our one bedroom apartment, both in our bedroom.  The queen size bed had become a very large dog bed, Charlie and Zack were big fans.

Here they are on the queen mattress on the floor.  And of course they get sheets, blankets and pillows… your dogs don’t?  Also if you are wondering Zack does indeed have a mohawk, he rocked that look for a while.  After a couple months Justin had had enough of having two beds in our bedroom and he packed up the other mattress and threw it out.  I was anti throwing out the bed, because I knew soon we would have a house and need a bed for a guest room. Fast forward to now and guess what… we need a bed!  My parents are visiting soon and they will need somewhere to sleep.  So I began searching for an affordable new mattress and boxspring.  I figured since this bed will only be used a couple times a year, it really does not have to be high quality.  Also, since we just purchased this house funds are low and I needed to find something pretty inexpensive.  I ended up finding the best deal at the Mattress Firm Clearance Center.  It’s only about 15 minutes from my house so it worked out well.  I ended up getting a queen mattress and boxspring for only $200! It’s not the best bed out there for sure, but it will be fine for a guest room.  The next problem was getting the bed home.  Since we do not have a truck it was either barrow one from a friend, rent a uhaul or pay the delivery charge of $100.  I was not a fan of choice 3, I looked in to renting a uhaul truck and it was going to end up being $30.  My boss heard that I was going to rent a uhaul and he told me to just use his truck.  Score! $0 just some manual labor and lifting by myself and my friend Janine(also coworker.)  Janine drove since she was worried about us taking his truck and apparently she is a better driver.

I’m not gonna lie, she did a good job.  His truck is massive, it’s a ford super duty!  She managed to back that thing up this ramp!

So we managed to get the mattress home and from there Justin got it from the garage to the bedroom.  I still had the frame from our previous queen bed so he also set that up.

This is what it looked like in the guest room the first night…

Charlie thinks he’s a model.  This is a comforter I have had for a while that I love, but don’t love it in this room.  I bought a new quilt at Marshall’s that I think works a lot better with the gray walls.

I swear, I go to take a picture and he hops right in front of the camera.  Hey, at least he’s handsome!  I really love this new bedding, I love the ikat fabric.  I also love all the different shades of blue.  From there I really wasn’t digging that you could still see the wheels on the bed frame.  I really am not a fan of bed skirts because when I think of a bed skirt I think of something like this…

Not a fan of a ruffle bed skirt.  I wanted something more flat and tailored.  I found a decent one at target on clearance for $12! Score!

Now you can no longer see those pesky wheels.   I am very happy with this new bed in the guest room.  Now my parents have somewhere pretty to stay. woo hoo!

Painting the guest bedroom

Remember this room?

This is going to be our guest room.  Such a boring color on the walls, so I decided it was time to paint.  I was torn on which color to use.  I was considering yellow, green or gray. I ended up going with gray.  So I bought two samples of gray from Lowes and put them on the wall to see which I preferred.

I usually choose two shades that I like and let Justin have the final say.  He chose the gray on the left, good thing because that was the one I liked.  So I covered the carpet with some drop cloths and went to town.

It doesn’t really look like it in this photo but it was starting to look more light blue than gray to me.  So once again I was starting to get a little worried mid paint job.  So I trucked on and gave it a shot just like my experience with the master bedroom.  Thank goodness I did because it is now my favorite room, all because of the color.

Mom and dad this is where you will be staying so get pumped!

We also steam cleaned the rug, as you can see all the fresh tracks on the carpet.

Love this color.  Looks great.

I was so excited that I had Justin hang some art the next day.

I bought this print off etsy, it is a print of a watercolor done by an artist from Oregon named Katie Daisy.  She has some amazing art, check out her shop.  I want to buy everything she has for sale, but I needed to go with something that Justin wouldn’t hate.  Her art is pretty girly, I do eventually want to buy one of her house prints(like this farmhouse.) Anyway, I went with her sweet print of the great lakes.  I thought it was nice since Justin and I both grew up on one of the lakes(he on Erie and myself on Ontario.) Seriously, check out her art she’s great.  Here’s a closer photo.

The print is an 8×10, so I wanted to put an 11×14 mat with it to help it fill out the wall.  I bought the frame at Michael’s.  Normally I’ll purchase a mat and frame separately, but with my luck they were selling this guy on sale for $12 with the mat included.  I was going to go with a blue mat but I think the whitish-gray looks even better. For one of the bigger walls I decided to hang some of my own art.

These are three paintings that I did last year.  You can check  them out and more of my art at my etsy shop here.  Here’s a closer look.

Justin made the wood piece that the canvas’ are hanging on a while back.

The guest bedroom is coming along, still needs a bed and some other furniture which I’m still working on. I’ll keep you updated;).

Bedding for our bedroom

Justin will not allow me to put anything even semi girly in our bedroom, so I was in for a challenge with our bedding.  Most bedding that I ended up liking was so girly, which is weird because I wouldn’t even consider myself to be girly.  I went to TJ Maxx, Target, Marshall’s and Steinmart one afternoon on a mission to bring home a new comforter for our bed.  I found these two that I liked and thought would work well with the new color on our walls.

I sent them to Justin and he immediately said no to both. I figured he would, just gave it a shot.  I really wanted something gray and simple, but apparently plain bedding is not in stores.  I decided to check online and see what I could find. I found this duvet on IKEA.com and I love it.

I was not sure about a duvet cover because I have never had one.  I thought it would fall to the sides or edges and not stay in place.  I literally could not find any other plain gray bedding that I liked so I ordered it and figured I would try it out.  I was under the impression that it would arrive in a week.  One month later it finally came.  If I would have known how long it would have taken to arrive I would not have purchased it, but I waited it out.  Good thing I ended up liking it!

I love it!  Looks great with the wall color and it is definitely neutral enough for Justin.  Also so far it has held our previous comforter just fine, no bunching up at the edges yet.  It also has a little design in the fabric.

I also made a few throw pillows for the bed to dress it up a little.

I just took some old pillows I had and covered them.  So far so good in the bedroom.