The Rabbit Hole

Are you getting sick of the toy room yet?

Well, if you are, there is good news for you. It is pretty much completed. Not that I won't probably add things in the future...because I most likely will.

That is how I roll.

But, just to get you up to speed...

I bought this "couch" to use in the toy room. It sits low to the ground so I thought it would be good for kids. Problem? Where do I begin. It didn't have a cushion or a cover. I figured it wouldn't be that bad to make one myself. That is the problem with wanting to do something yourself....sometimes it doesn't work out quite how you planned. I figured that I would go to the fabric store, buy some foam, make a cover and we would be set.

Do you have any idea how expensive foam is?! Spendy stuff.

So I did what any normal person would do, and I deconstructed our couch and used the foam.

Ok, so most people don't do that. But I did, and it saved me a fortune.

Then I got to problem number two: No cover.

Thankfully, I am handy with a sewing machine so I wasn't quite so nervous about this part. I was mostly concerned about how expensive the fabric was going to be.

Hancock Fabric here has fairly inexpensive upholstery material so I found some there. I then made a pattern out of paper so that I could get the curve of the couch correct.

It took me about a day to complete the cover. I was pretty happy when it was done, but wished I had made the zipper opening a little larger. Trying to get that cushion in ended up being more hassle then I would have preferred.

Since the back of the couch is wood spindles I opted to make some over sized pillows with some fabric that I found at an estate sale.

I also finished up my hand stitched flower pillow, complete with pom pom fringe. I just couldn't help myself.

I have to tell you a secret. I am having a small love affair with Mid Century Modern furniture. I want to buy it all and fill our house.

But I will tell you something else,...it ain't cheap.

I really wanted a cabinet to put in the kid toy room so that I could put the kids legos in drawers and something to hold the kids books. I had been looking at estate sales and the DI but I hadn't had any luck.

I had this cabinet that I had painted with chalkboard paint, but I didn't really love it.

I actually hardly liked it, but it worked.

It is hard to argue with something that serves a purpose, when you don't have anything to replace it with.

Sometimes patience pays off. 

And sometimes it pays off in the form of a $25 dollar dresser.

Funny side story: We bought the dresser for $25 from an estate sale. I couldn't have been more pleased. It came with a mirror that matched it. Because the dresser is right underneath a window I had no purpose for the mirror...so I sold it...for $30. Then, because I had no use for the black cupboard, I sold that for $20. I am going to call this dresser a win.

Especially since this is the same dresser! Crazy!!

With the new dresser, the couch got repositioned to a different wall. I much prefer it to the older set up.

Blake put up some baseboards right before company came for Thanksgiving. It is impressive how much nicer a room looks with baseboards.

Ya'll ready for this?

Finished!

...well...for now anyways...

Painting the Roses Or Dots Red. Whatever.

December is a busy month.

I am probably preaching to the choir.

I haven't only been doing Christmas stuff, there has been other "stuff" too. Problem is, finding the time to blog about it. In other words, lots of things to come in January. 

In the mean time....enjoy some of what remains of the bathroom.

I made the decision, I was doing polka dots. I couldn't decide on the size or how many...but I was doing dots and they were going to be a coral red color.

After much Pinterest hunting I decided that I liked the size/spacing/randomness of this picture the best.

So, I went with it. I found a circle cap that I had, and used that as the template. If you know me, you know that while I like the way "random" looks, my brain tells me that it is all wrong. So, trying to space my dots, with out making them looked spaced was...interesting.

I started by drawing circle outlines on the walls. I would do a couple and then stand back and look to see if I liked it. The more dots I put on the harder it was to see the spacing.

So I put x's inside my dots. That didn't work quite as well as I had hoped either.

 So I put on my thinking cap and went with what I had...little dot stickers.

The color of the dots was annoying, but it gave me a good idea as to whether or not I would like it, and if I needed to have more or less of them. In the end I decided that I liked the spacing. Seeing the dots visually also helped me to decide to add dots to the wall with the window and the wall with the door, that I was previously going to leave white.

Then I painted each one of those dot outlines with a little paint brush, twice.

They are not perfect, but I kind of like them that way.

Personality, and all.

Next step in finishing the bathroom was picking out a shower curtain. I do just about as well with picking out shower curtains as I do with picking out curtains. In other words. Not well.

So, I decided just to make one. Simple as pie. Um...no. Picking out fabric for the shower curtain gave me a minor hernia.
I had two pictures on my phone to help me with picking out colors. 

When I finally picked out the fabric that I liked....they didn't have enough. A grown woman almost cried right there in the store. Alright, alright. I may be overselling it a bit. But I did have an internal tiff, then proceeded to buy 4 swatches to decide which one I liked best by hanging them up by the shower.

Wouldn't you know the original one that I liked, I still liked the best.

So I went back to the store and bought all of the yardage that they had, and crossed my fingers that it would work.

Fate was evidently on my side that day, because just a couple of seams later and I had a functioning shower curtain.

With a shower curtain, some dots and a bespectacled pig we were set.

There are still a couple of things that need work. Namely, finishing the vanity (Hello! no drawers!). Also this little nook is odd. It has our water softener in it, and it also has the shut off for our AC unit.

We plan on eventually putting a door there and making it a linen closet, but in the mean time I found a dresser that may find a home there.
$7 for a good wood dresser isn't bad in my opinion.

Blake always says that before and after pictures are his favorite. So for Blake, may I present....
Before:

After:
It looks like this picture is taken from a different angle then the before picture. 
It isn't.
So strange that most of this bathroom use to be a big closet.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

Before again:

After:

Still on the list?
finish the vanity
paint dresser
make curtain or valance for window
shelves above toilet

Side Crafts

October is normally a busy month for me. In between making our families Halloween costumes, and with my masks on Etsy, it ends up not giving me much free time. 

Not that I am not getting things accomplished. I am. I just have to do small projects so that I don't get overwhelmed. So here is a run down of some recent ones....

The entry chandelier.

Oye. You gold, jeweled sparkly goddess you.

I really wanted to throw this in the trash. I really really did. Then I started to shop around for light fixtures I liked. Did you know that they are expensive? Like...really expensive. Since our life consists of living within a budget, I was faced with the dilemma: new light or tile for the bathroom. I chose tile.

I figured that if for some reason my spray painting the light fixture ended up in a epic fail that I could always buy a new one.

There are some good things to be said of having nothing to lose.

Luckily, I like it. It is odd, sure. Maybe that is why I think it is fun.

I painted it a light blue so that it wouldn't look like it took up a lot of space visually. An added bonus? It is wicked bright if you have it all the way on. Blake said, while hanging it, that whoever made it was the devil, so I am sure it will be there for a while.

There have been many many times that I sent a picture, of something that I want to buy, to Blake and he is normally not convinced.

I found this big amber glass hanging light months ago at an estate sale. They wanted $3. I paid them and brought the light home. Blake thought I was nuts.

I had this crazy idea to paint it. I figured if it didn't work then it wasn't that big of a deal.

I bought some "glass paint" at Micheals and got to work. I started painting lines thinking that it would level out and make a smooth surface. It didn't. It looked like a toddler's craft project.

Since it was going to show the pattern no matter what I did I figured I should do an intentional pattern. I did a space of circles and then let it dry. There was no point in doing the whole light if it was just going to end up in the trash. Much to my excitement it looked cool. The light has been done for months and has just sat in the corner. As I was sitting at our table this weekend I noticed a hook that we had left in the ceiling, and decided right then and there to hang my light.

It looks more blue then it appears in the pictures.

We lovingly refer to it as the "Starry Night Light." 

The kids love to turn it on. For now it is staying, although down the road it might find a home in a different room.

While we are on the subject of things Blake thought I was crazy to buy, let's discuss this desk.

I sent Blake this picture in a text from the DI. His response:

"That's interesting."

When he says interesting he means weird.

I had a vision. The girls needed a desk for their room, or some kind of storage, and for the price I just couldn't resist. 

When I told Blake that I wanted to paint it a bright salmon color I am fairly certain he probably responded with "whatever you want."

I sanded the desk down and began to paint, then sand, then paint, then do a wax top coat.

The finish is smooth and a lovely bright salmon color.

Just right for a little girls room.

It is not very often, but every now and again I will send Blake a picture and he will flat out tell me no. Most of the time the things that I find are cheap and sometimes he can't see past the ugly to see how cool something could be. Most of the time he just needs a little convincing.

I saw these warn and weathered stools at an estate sale. They wanted $6 for both of them. I asked Blake what he thought and he said he thought we could find something better. I agreed and we left.

Then I kept thinking about the stools...so we drove back later that day and the stools were still there. Serendipity.

A little scrubbing, reupholstering and new feet and they were as good as new.

When I sent this picture to Blake

 and asked him to call because I wanted these chairs he said "are you kidding?"

As a matter of fact, I was not.

I am sure it is not hard to guess that I painted them. I paint a lot of things. Sometimes when we go to a normal store Laney will ask why I am not buying something and I will tell her "It's the wrong color" or "I don't like...". Laney's response? You can paint it. 

True. I could paint it. 

Problem is...I only like to paint cheap stuff. Less risk.

Since I have never painted vinyl chairs before this was new for me.

I put a garbage bag around the base so that it would protect the legs then I gave the whole chair a two coats of white spray paint.

I used Rust-oleum's 2x paint plus primer that is supposed to work on plastic.

I let the chair sit for 2 days, to dry, before I started taping off my lines.

I really wanted to do horizontal lines.

For some reason no matter how hard I tried I could not get the tape to stick or lay flat. I taped the chair a good 3 times before I just gave up.

Vertical lines it was.

I used a piece of tape to make sure that the spacing was correct.

Around the chair there is trim. That, coupled with the fact that the back lines didn't line up perfectly, I decided to make all of the border grey. So I trimmed the tape accordingly.

I sprayed one more coat of white paint over the entire chair to seal the tape lines. Then I applied two coats of charcoal grey spray paint.

Then it was time to remove the tape.

Overall it turned out pretty good. There are a couple of spots that need to be touched up where the paint leaked under the tape but besides that, I love it.

There is a definite difference between the original and the new painted chair. Now, it would be helpful if the weather would cooperate so I could do the other chair.

Not all things that I paint turn out the way that I want them to.

Our back door in our kitchen was a plain wood door.

I thought it would be fun to make it the same color as our front door.

As soon as I put one coat on the door I knew it was a bad decision. The blue door at the front of the house is cute and friendly. The blue door in the kitchen is bright and obnoxious. Dare I say...dirty looking. Can something look bright and dirty at the same time? Because it did.

White it was. After I painted the door, I sighed. Sometimes white is good. In this case...way better.

We have been on the look out for a bed frame for our downstairs bedroom. When I stumbled across this 100% brass bed I was smitten. It had a lovely patina on it and it was oh so heavy. Problem? It was missing it's side rails. No biggie, I thought. Um...I was wrong. I looked up side rails that would work for this bed and...to say they are expensive would be an understatement...

So plan B it was. KSL has become my new best friend.

I found two matching headboards with frames for $30.

I used some turquoise spray paint that I had on hand, and one afternoon later we had beds for our guest room.

Since this has turned into a really long post...this is the last thing...

This weekend I made pillow covers.

14 to be exact.

Some ended up in mine and Blake's room. Some were for the spare room and some were for the family room.

It is amazing that having pillows makes the room seem a little more finished. Plus, I like to aid in my kids fort building...

The rest of October's postings may be a little sparse. However, since we are hoping to finish the downstairs bathroom by Thanksgiving there should be an abundance coming in November.