One, two, three art caddy

Well HELLO! Hope you had a fantastic weekend! We finished up marching band season (for the most part – more on that soon!) and I am SO PROUD of my hubby, the staff and those kids. They are so crazy talented and they work their tails off all summer and fall.

But I am glad to have my hubby back – for a few weeks anyway. ;)

Over the past few weeks I’ve been working like a mad woman trying to get the office redo completed.

YEAH. That one. The one I started (early) last year. I’m so incredibly efficient, it’s just shocking. :)

My to-do list is dwindling though, and this project was so easy and fast! I just love how it turned out – couldn’t wait to show you!

It all started with my sister, and the Pottery Barn gift card she gave me for my birthday. She knows just what I love! (OK, she asked where I wanted a gift card and I told her Pottery Barn, but still. She’s awesome.)

I went to spend my free moolah (the best kind!) and of course…couldn’t find a THING. Gah – that is so frustrating! You walk in with a gift card and find nothing, and the next time you have two cents to your name and find EVERYTHING.

Can I get an AMEN?

:)

I went to another store at the fancy mall, then went back to PB – I was determined. I walked around so long the staff was giving me the stink eye.

Finally I found something I thought I could use:

It was filled with towels and I loved that, but we don’t have a great spot for it in our bathroom and besides that, I wanted to have it out where it would be seen.

The nice little surprise was that it ran up on major sale – I think I paid $30-something for it? Rock. on.

Anyhoo, I came up with a great use for it in the office! But the wood tone, although lovely, wasn’t doing much for it.

So I painted it. :) Oh yes. I did.

I started by spray priming it in my workshop spray paint station on a sheet on the floor in the garage:

At least I covered the snow blower. ;)

Then I finished it up with a coat of Rustoleum flat white:

 

Remember when spray painting:  shake the can really well before and during, use a mask or spray outside (or both!), and use small, short bursts – not big long ones. (DRIPS!) Oh, and numerous light coats are better than fewer thick coats!

I didn’t even sand it down, because the outside of it really won’t get much wear and tear. I did, however, use my sanding block to distress the edges up a bit:

I just sanded down parts that would show wear…if there was going to be wear. Which there won’t. But whatever:

I planned to use the caddy for the Bub’s markers and crayons and stuff, so I wanted to dress up the front with something kinda cute and fun.

I got the Silhouette machine out and cut number stencils out of vinyl and put them on the front of each shelf:

If you’re real good you’ll measure them out and place them just right. I just eyeballed it and was real lucky they weren’t wonky. :)

I used the extra blue green color I had leftover from the book nook to paint in the letters, (I believe it’s called Lake from Valspar?) then took off the vinyl.

I LOVE how it turned out!:

I loved the wood, but the white pops against the floors and the black dresser!:

    

And dang…it’s CUTE!!

The top shelf holds crayons, the middle is markers and the bottom is filled with paints:

It’s super easy for the Bub to get to everything and super easy for him to put everything away. (Ding! Ding! Ding!)

I love that blue color – it’s a perfect match to the Target lamps on the Craigslist dresser:

And the whole thing was free (for me) – I used paint and spray paint I already had. Love when that happens!

One more project down – WHOOHOO!

The next time you see this room, it will be D.O.N.E. Geez Louise, that took forever. Anyone else taken 18 months do redo a space? No? Just me? :)

November Before and After: New Knobs

Hey there! It’s time to party down at this month’s Before and After Party! Whoo HOO!
This month I’m sharing a really simple update I’ve talked about a few times – but it makes such a BIG difference (I think anyway).
Earlier this year I showed you the Craigslist dresser I got for the office:

I’ve purchased a few things from this Craigslist seller, and she always uses those basic wood knobs on all of her pieces. They were on the buffet in the foyer as well (before on left, after right):

You can see more about those glass knobs here.
Because I love the look of those on the black furniture so much, I decided to check out Hob Lob during the half off knobs week (the most magical week of the month baby!) last month.
They didn’t have the look I was going for, but I LOVE what I ended up with! First, I had to get those dang wood jobbies off – which isn’t as easy as it sounds. These are always stuck on GOOD – I think she puts them on immediately after painting, so they stick and end up curing on there.
To get them off, I used a razor to score around the knob, then hit a putty knife with a hammer to get them to pop off:

Of course you’ll want to unscrew them first. Cause if you forget that step, you may keep banging on the knob wondering WHY IN THE WORLD IT WON’T COME OFF:

Yeah.
No fear – if the new hardware will cover your little freak out, you’re good. ;)

The middle of the top drawer had smaller knobs, and of course those left the biggest mess when I took them off:

Because I was installing smaller hardware there, I needed to fix them up a bit.
I just sanded them down and then used my own black paint to touch it all up. You can’t even tell:

You can close up, but like always…anyone that would notice that would get a cookie. And no one has gotten a cookie yet. Well…they have, but not for noticing my imperfect projects. :)
So here’s a couple before and afters -- the blah wood knobs on the left and the new-but-look-old on the right:

 

I LOVE them against the black! The white ceramic looks fantastic with the white board and batten behind it. And they make opening the drawers SO much easier – they are much deeper so it’s easier to get a hold of them. Bonus!
Here’s a before shot of the whole dresser:

And the after!:

Excuse the horrible night shot – the good photos may be lost forever because of daylight savings time. ;)
Alrighty – it’s time to see what you’ve been up to! I’m hoping to see some Christmas goodness here and there! I know you won’t disappoint! ;)
I would love it if you would link back to this post -- you’re welcome to include my beauty of a button as well:

Have fun and link it up baby!

Great white!

Well, first of all, thank you for all the lovely birthday wishes! And everyone who guessed 26 was RIGHT!! I am 26! Plus 10.

Everyone who guessed 32 and younger has a check coming in the mail. ;)

As many of you know, our new hardwood floors are being installed this week. I’m a jumble of so excited I could pee and totally dreading this – I’m so confused.

They start Tuesday and at least for right now, I’m definitely leaning toward the excited part. Actually, I’m GIDDY at the thought of lovely hardwoods throughout our main floor. By Thursday, when we’re covered in an inch of dust, I may be signing a different tune. ;)

Check out all this hardwood waiting patiently!:

I’ve been trying to get a few projects done before they get started, especially since I won’t be able to get much accomplished this week. One project I’m ITCHING to get finished up is the office.

I started painting the board and batten six weeks ago – just days before the water issues and the kitchen island was placed in the office for a week and the whole house basically imploded.

At least that’s what it looks like. ;)

So I haven’t gotten back to the painting. Because it’s just not been a priority and OH YEAH, I despise painting board and batten. For reals…it is one of the most dreaded activities EVER.

I’m exaggerating. A wee bit. But not much.

I was out with my friend Beckie the other night and she reminded me that she used her paint sprayer to spray her (awesome!) board and batten project. I kept pushawing it though – whining about taping off walls and protecting floors and wah wah wah…

And then I realized I didn’t need to worry about the floors. Cause they were comin’ out! I could spray right over them and it wouldn’t matter one bit! WHOO!

And then Beckie told me about this awesomesauce plastic stuff for the walls:

The bottom part is painter’s tape. You just tape it along the surface, and then the plastic opens up and sticks to the wall all by itself.

It was not cheap -- $8 for the roll. But it was the best eight buckaroos I’ve spent in a long time.

It worked like a charm!:

Then it was time to bust out the sprayer. My Dad got me one for my birthday, at least a year ago – if not two. I just used it for the first time two months ago.

I kept putting it off cause I was sceered. Not sure why, cause it is SO easy to use, and it works GREAT! Mine is the Wagner Paint Sprayer:

You can see it on Amazon here. The reviews are mixed, but I LOVE IT. There’s a few tricks I’ve learned as I’ve used it, and I’m doing a post about it shortly. So far I’m very happy with it!

Even though I use primed mdf, I still start with a primer when painting it. I used that in the sprayer, and I couldn’t believe the difference after just that coat!:

When I did a wall by hand a few weeks ago, I did one coat of primer and two of white. It still looked like it needed another coat. It was driving me MAD.

But when I used the sprayer, I did one coat of primer, and one coat of white – that’s IT.

(I use semi-gloss or high gloss white on all of my moldings.)

It was so, so, SO much easier and quicker than brushing it on! THANK YOU BECKIE!! ;)

I am so in love with the crisp white against the walls!:

It’s exactly how I envisioned it 18 months ago all that time ago when I started this room redo!

I’m such a sucker for contrast – I could eat it up with a spoon. I can’t get enough of it:

It feels so good to finally have this done. And now I never have an excuse again to paint the board and batten. Which means you’ll probably see it in every. single. room. :)

I realized after the fact that taping off the floor wouldn’t have been a big deal – next time I’ll just get another roll of that plastic and use it along the floors. I did the whole room and used it on the windows and doorway and still have a ton left.

Now you know why I’m giddy – how fantastic are the floors going to look up against all this white??:

Even MORE contrast! Be still my heart.

Here’s an idea of the difference the white paint makes:

  

It took all this time, and it was so easy to get done. I should listen to my bloggy friends more often. ;)

And this room WILL be done this month. I don’t care what it takes – it will be done. It’s soooo close already…just a few or 15 things I still need to do. ;)

Now, I’m off to bed because I need to be up at the bum-crack of dawn to start moving stuff to the basement. The contractor we’re using covers all of the moving of the furniture, but there are a few delicate items I want to get out of the way myself. :)

I will give you some updates on the progress soon! I hope to post on why we picked this installation method and how we decided on all the other details – stain, width, etc. – this week. It was a lot to figure out so hopefully it will help some of you too!

Wish me luck! ;)

P.S. I always get asked about that drum light, and you can see the how-to for that here!

Before and After Party: Buh Bye Pleather

So….you remember that one time, when I was redoing my office? Yeah. It’s taken a while. I’m just so easily distracted, really.

A few weeks ago one of my very best bloggy friends came up to help me out with a project. Traci from Beneath My Heart came to town and I could NOT have done it without her help. That’s what we told her hubby anyway. ;)

I wanted to reupholster the chair in my office:

I got it from Bombay Company years ago, and it’s a great chair, just not the look I’m going for in this space. I wanted to reuse it if at all possible.

My plan all along was actually to make a slipcover for it. But when we sat down to check it out, we realized a slipcover wouldn’t work with the pleather – it would slip and slide all over the place.

So we decided to take it apart and just cover each part individually:

Because this was in no-spend July, we used some fabric I bought months ago to make a bed skirt for our bed. That never happened. :)

I think we had plenty:

;)

We covered the seat like I’ve shown you a few times:

Then we stopped to tickle a Bub:

OH my goodness, I think the Bub loved Traci more than I do…and that’s a lot. :) He still talks about her.

The original plan was to tuft the back of the chair (it was already tufted), so we took the back portion off:

And then put a dog on it:

He wasn’t helpful. Really.

We left the pleather on the rest of it and just covered it, much like the seat:

We used a staple gun for all of the recovering, which was a bit of a pain. The staples were too shallow and wouldn’t grab the wood. We had to do each staple at least twice.

That part was SUPER FUN!

Then we took a nap:

Trace loved the new sofa. ;)

The next day, we put the chair back together and started the skirt. I knew I wanted it skirted because of all of the legs on the desk -- I thought having the chair legs hidden may help to break up all the legginess (word?) a bit.

Traci showed me a bahhhhrilliant way to fake a custom skirt. We hemmed up little corner pieces and then just stapled them along each leg:

When were done, this is what it looked like:

Then Traci had to go, and she left me to fend for myself. We all cried. OK, not really, but my eyes welled up. A lot. :)

It only took three weeks, but I finally finished it up. You all know how efficient I am, so this should not surprise you.

We had hemmed up more fabric, and then I cut it to fit along the sides and just hot glued them on, leaving the corners exposed a bit:

Yes, hot glue baby. It works. It does the job. You can’t tell. It’s not perfect. (Never is.)

Once I trimmed up the fabric, I needed to cover the raw edges, but I didn’t have anything that would work. I was determined to make this happen without spending anything, so I went to some extra fabric I’ve been using in the space:

I cut the blue stripe out of the fabric, then used my hemming tape to fold it over and make a “trim.”

I had to do the same for the back:

By the way, we didn’t end up tufting the back of the chair because 1.) it was going to be a pain in to booty and 2.) the fabric looked like it would tear if we poked through it too much and 3.) it was going to be a pain. :)

Once the trim was in place, it covered all the glue gun sins perfectly:

I came up with a nifty little way to hide where the pieces came together on the back – I just took some of my DIY trim and hot glued it around the edges of the blue banding:

And I LOVE how it turned out!!:

You can see I threw together a little pillow, with my cutie little sewing machine I showed you here. Traci was not a fan of my little Pixie machine. Pixie’s a little slow going, and you have to be patient with her…but she gets the job done.

Just like me and this office. ;)

Like I said, it’s not perfect, not even close. But I’m totally OK with that, if you haven’t noticed.

So here’s some before and afters for ya – a WAY before of the chair in the other corner, as it was before:

Geez, that seems like forever ago! OH, that’s right…it was forever ago. I swear I’ll finish this room soon. :)

And now:

Can you even believe it’s the same chair? Nuts!

You’ll notice from the first pic (up on top) that I changed up the orientation of the desk. The chair was hidden behind the desk before, and I wanted to show it off! I just feel like this way works better in the space.

But who knows if it will stay this way. I’m still not 100 percent sure anything in the room will stay where it is. :)

Here’s a before of the corner where the desk and chair sit:

And as it is now:

And…NO. I still have not painted the board and batten. It WILL happen this week – it. will. happen.

If I say it out loud it will come true, yes? ;)

Really though, I will have this space done this month, I’m sure of it. It’s about time. I’m painting tomorrow…swear.

So there’s my before and after for this month! I can’t wait to see yours!

Link them up folks, and remember to use the html from your specific post, and not your blog. This will be open for a week, so you’ve got plenty of time to add your post!

Have fun!