FANBOYS

Grammar, anyone?  I recently used this acronym to teach my students about coordinating conjunctions (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so)—and what better way to start off a post about a fan that coordinates with the rest of the bathroom—and it just so happens that it was installed by a boy!  And yes, we’re starting Shakespeare this week—but since not everyone appreciates them as much as me, I promise to do my very best to hold back all the puns that will surely be racing through my mind.

Alright, here’s the down and dirty of it.  Our bathroom had a bizarre window in the shower, so we popped it out and made a cohesive wall of subway tile instead.  Love the subway tile, by the way.  Apparently someone made a law that bathrooms must have either a window or a fan in order for air to vent, so we turned to our trusted friend, the HD.  As it turns out, fans are downright sterile looking these days.  I’m convinced that someone could make a good living just by redesigning some of the fans out there—and selling them at affordable prices.  But working within our budget, we determined to find a functional fan that was not a total eyesore.  Here were some of our options—and these are the good ones!

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We decided to go with the simple look of this fan, since it looked more like a normal light fixture, rather than a vent cover.

Since we want our house to be people-friendly, I wanted to make sure that the sound of the fan was adequate.  Too loud and it would be annoying.  Too soft and people hanging out in the living room might hear your business…you know?  That’s when we spotted a handy little contraption right in the middle of the fan aisle that allowed us to test out the noise level of our fan.  Bingo!  We were satisfied.

Before we installed our fan light, I worried that it would interfere with our extra tall shower curtain.  While it comes pretty close to the bar, it actually doesn’t look too awkward, and there’s never been an issue of our curtain bumping up against it.

In an effort to be more energy efficient, we screwed in some CFL bulbs—only to be creeped out by the bluish lighting they emitted.  Seriously, I felt like at any moment aliens would burst out of our light fixture.  At first we thought the weird lighting was just due to the face that we’d used CFL bulbs.  But after a second trip to HD (we pretty much count on a minimum of two trips at this point—although we’re getting better at buying several types just to be sure we have what we need), we discovered that there are soft CFL bulbs that are far less harsh and offer a look similar to that of an incandescent bulb.  They worked!  (I do feel the need to make a confession, since we’re on the topic of light bulbs.  I am a huge fan of soft, cozy lighting.  Even though the soft CFL bulbs are close, I do not love them as much as an old-fashioned light bulb—they’re just a bit too bright for my taste.  The good news is that they’re getting better all the time, as companies are working to merge the soft look with energy conscious technology.)

One final look.

And we’re happy to report that the fan light correlates nicely with the Pottery Barn light that we purchased to hang over our sink.

Both have a milky glass look that we love, as it’s more opaque, giving it a fresh feel.  Yup, you could say we’re fans of the way things worked out in our bathroom.

Moving From Warm to Cool

Snippets of our master bedroom have been posted over the past few weeks, but I think it’s time to reveal the whole room—all 10x12 feet of it.

When we first painted our house, I wanted to work with our original bedding, which was chocolate brown.  I liked the idea of a warm and insulated bedroom—it seemed more intimate for some reason.  So I boldly forged ahead and painted it this color.

We didn’t mind it for awhile.  In fact, I never really disliked the orange, but I began to feel boxed in by color scheme.  There were days when I felt like our room was something out of the Brady Bunch.  But since we hadn’t even lived in our house for a year, I felt guilty about repainting, and instead, I made up my mind to live with it.

This is where I virtually hug generous relatives.  Matt’s Aunt Kathy gave us a sweet Pottery Bard gift card for Christmas.  We decided to use the gift card to purchase something substantial—something that would really make a difference in a room.  In a way, we were looking for a focal point to build off of.  And that is when we discovered that West Elm, Pottery Barn’s sister store, was having a sale on their bedding.  It certainly didn’t hurt that my cousin works at West Elm and was able to get us an additional 40% discount off the sale price!  So we threw caution to the wind and ordered the winter pine duvet in sage blue—pattern and color!

I was sort of hopeful that the duvet would match the orange color on our walls—you know, in that eclectic sort of way that feels purposefully thrown together.  Alas, it was not a match made in heaven.

That’s when I remembered my roots—my mother is the queen of redecorating and repainting—and I decided that if a gallon of paint could transform our bedroom for around $20, then I was not going to let a timeline stop me.  I debated over paint colors for awhile, vacillating between a very light blue (Martha Stewart's Driftwood Gray) and the neutral tan (Valspar’s Oat Bran) we have throughout the rest of our house.  After painting a swatch of the blue on the walls, I felt like it would be too much blue everywhere—it felt a little cold, too—so I went with the tan, since I knew that there would be plenty of other opportunities to bring in soft shades of color in our accessories.

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A few days later, Matt helped me prep the room by taking down the curtain rods and hauling furniture out to the living room.  Since we don’t have tons of furniture anyway, it wasn’t an overly taxing process.  (If our room was bigger, I probably would have just moved everything to the middle and covered it with a drop cloth.)  To break up the job, I edged the room on Friday night after we moved all the furniture out, and I spent Saturday rolling paint.  Because it’s not a large room, I even had time to paint our dressers Martha Stewart’s Winter Day.  Check out the matching hardware I spray painted here.

When we pieced the room back together, I was sorely disappointed to realize that the full/queen size duvet we had ordered barely covered the entire bed (note to self: try out bed covers before redesigning entire room around them).  Thankfully, my faithful husband was there to calm me down (me—panic?).  When I was able to think straight, I realized that while I love the pattern of our duvet, it is pretty busy.  That’s when I ran back to the guest bedroom and grabbed the white shabby chic comforter off the bed and threw it onto ours.  It made a huge difference, as it completely covered the bed and tied all of the tan, blue/grey, and white together.  Here’s what it looks like all together.

We are loving the calm and relaxed vibe of our bedroom; I wake up feeling soothed by the cool colors.  It really is crazy that changing the colors of a room can completely change the way it makes you feel.  I’m sure that some of you are thinking, yeah, but what about the guest bedroom?  It’s true that our green guest bedroom isn’t looking quite so pulled together these days, but my thought is that a home’s master bedroom should be a place where you feel completely at ease.  Since we spend far more time in the master bedroom than the guest bedroom, I’m okay with making it feel plush at the expense of another room.  And who knows—maybe I’ll spy a great deal on bedding for the guest room down the road.

For those of you who love a breakdown, here was our total cost:

• West Elm duvet set—way discounted and covered by the gift card from Aunt Kathy


• Target shabby chic white bedding & throw pillow—stolen from guest room at no extra cost


• Lamps from HomeGoods—$22 each for a total of $44


• Uno lamp shades from Wal-Mart—$15 each for a total of $30


• Quart of paint for the dressers—$12


• Spray paint for the dresser hardware—just under $4


• Gallon of paint for the walls—$22


• Total cost for room makeover—$112 (yay for birthday money!)

Not bad for a weekend’s work!  The lamps were the most expensive part of the whole makeover, but since I repurposed the lamps that used to live in our bedroom and gave them a new home in our living room, I suppose you could say that we would have spent about that much on lamps for the living room at some point.

Keep in mind that the room isn’t completely finished.  We’re working on a DIY headboard at this very moment, plus we’d really like to add some sort of wall art to add a little character to our neutral walls.  We’ll be sure to post it when we finally get around to it.  By the way, does anyone know of a great resource for finding wall art?

What have you guys been up to?  Has anyone else tackled a weekend makeover recently?  Feel free to link up to any photos you have!

Blog Updates

We have recently updated a few features to make this blog more user friendly.  The most important update now allows our readers to create and read comments much easier.  We really value the conversation aspect of this site and are excited that it just got a little boost.  We will continue to make improvements in this area.

Also, if you look under our house tour tab you will find more pictures related to our kitchen remodel.  We finally got them up.

Lastly, due to many requests we will soon have a layout of our house posted which will hopefully help you visualize everything.  Keep an eye out for this.  Know that we are listening to you.

If you have any more ideas that might be helpful in making our blog better please share them with us.

Mirror, Mirror On The Wall…

In its black and gold glory, ours was definitely not the fairest of them all…

I’m feeling the need to defend my ugly purchase, so let me back up a bit.  To start, I’d been searching for a piece of art to hang above our fireplace mantle.  I wanted something large—a focal point that would add some color and drama to the room without feeling too busy.  And of course, I wanted it to be as affordable as possible.  And maybe even something that I could tweak over time…you know, just in case my mood changes and I want to play with another color scheme down the road.

And that, my friends, is why I love love love HomeGoods/TJ Maxx.  Not only do they sell quality merchandise at way lower prices than department stores—they have clearance sales on top of their already low-prices!  (I promise that I was not paid for my shameless advertising.)  So as I was browsing the sale aisles one afternoon, I stumbled across this mirror.

At first glance, I almost passed it up, because the paint job was so hideous.  But then I looked at the price tag: $25 bucks!  I think they marked it down mainly due to a crack in the frame...and maybe the color combo.  Still, that’s a tough deal to pass up, especially since it met all of the qualifications on my wish list, plus the added bonus of its octagon shape and raised edges.  I was swooning.  Since I’ve been trying to look at old or odd pieces with an eye for their potential, I realized this was the prime opportunity to get my hands dirty.  Into the cart it went.

When I got home, I stuck the mirror on the mantle, just to make sure that I liked it in that spot.  After gazing at its gilded glory for a few weeks, I finally decided that the mantle provided the perfect home for our mirror.  Now I was ready to give it a makeover.  It was actually very simple.

First, I filled the crack in the frame with wood putty.  Since we have plaster walls and had to do some repair work before we painted, we already had putty mixed in to our stash of tools.  You can see that I didn’t do a perfect job filling and sanding the crack, but unless you’re looking for imperfection, it’s not noticeable.

Next, I taped paper to the actual mirror so that it would stay clean when I started spray painting the frame.  Then, I laid it out in our garage over some plastic (I always use garbage bags if I don’t have any plastic sheets available) and went to work spray painting it RustOleum’s Cinnamon, which I chalk up to a combo of burnt orange with a hint of coral mixed in.

I let it dry for a full 24 hours so it would have plenty of time to cure.  As my finishing touch, I removed the paper from the mirror and scraped away any excess paint with a razor blade; it flaked off easily and left a nice clean edge.

And here she is—a fun pop of color in our living room.

You might be wondering why we haven’t officially hung her up yet.  We actually think that we might just let her sit on the mantle.  It feels a little less formal that way, and then we can switch things up whenever we feel like it.  Oh, and remember how I said I wanted some flexibility?  I’m loving the orangey look right now, but if I ever want to incorporate other tones, all it takes is a can of spray paint—simple as that.  I love that this project was so quick and inexpensive, yet it completely changes the look of the room.

What about you?  We love inspiration, so feel free to link up to a photo of a piece that you’ve overhauled or are even just debating over.

Shady Business

Our master bedroom has taken on a new look these days—and once it’s pieced together, I’ll be sure to share the outcome.  Since I moved our bedroom lamps into the living room (where they quickly adapted to their new home and shed some much needed light), I’ve been on the lookout for replacements.  There are so many fun bases and shades available right now, and as usual, HomeGoods/TJ Maxx and Marshall’s carry an abundant supply in a variety of prices.  Not long ago, while browsing the clearance section at HomeGoods (are you surprised?), I happened upon these beauties, marked down to $22 each.

I loved the base color (it ties in with our new duvet), but I was not a huge fan of the lamp shade.  I mean, it’s kind of cool in an ugly sort of way, but it didn’t really fit my idea of a calming, soothing look, which is ultimately what I want our bedroom to be.  I decided to buy them, in hopes that I would be able to replace the shades.  In case you’re wondering, my philosophy is that if it’s a good deal, someone else will snag it, so I might as well buy it, take my purchase home to see if it “goes,” and then return it if I don’t like it.  As a habitual returnee, I have never had a problem returning purchases—I just take good care of my receipts and make sure to return items within the typical 30 day allotment.

Anyway, after popping into stores all over town (that totally makes me think of The King’s Speech—great movie, by the way—when the king’s wife says, “We don’t ‘pop’”—but I guess I do, which just solidifies my common birth), I found these understated shades at Wal-Mart.

While Wally World is not my favorite place to shop, I do like their Better Homes & Gardens line—the creator of my shades.

But once I got them home, I realized that the shades were a different style than the original lamp shades.  Clearly, I had a thing or two to learn.  After doing a quick bit of research (how did people survive before Google?), I discovered that there are two predominant types of lamp shades in the world.

The most common type of shade is a spider fitted with a harp, which looks like this.

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The second type is called an uno, and it fits directly over the lamp socket, like this.

Since the lamps I bought originally were fitted with a harp, I didn’t think I would be able to use my uno shades.  But after fiddling around for a few minutes, I realized that the harp fitter was removable, and once I took it off, all I had to do was unscrew the light bulb, place the uno fitter over the socket, and tada!

The cute knob that attached to the harp was no longer necessary, so I tossed it into a bowl with several other knobs that I’m hoping to use soon.  For now, they add a splash of color to our bookshelves all nestled in an orange bowl.

It’s possible you have a lamp base that you love, but you’re not sure if you can switch out the shade.  I can’t speak for all lamps, but after my little switcheroo, it seems like a pretty easy fix that would work for most lamps.  If you have an uno shade and want to fit it with a harp, you can purchase a saddle for underneath the socket (around $1) and a harp (around $3) for a cheap and easy solution.  And if you want to switch out a spider shade for an uno shade, all you need to do is remove the harp.  It really is amazing how such a small thing changes the look of a room.  And there you have it—customized lamps on a budget.  And while I’m not planning to do this anytime soon, I’ve wondered what it would look like if I spray painted the very base of the lamp a catchy accent color to offset the gray/blue look.  Don’t you love knowing that even if you never do it, at least you have the option?  I do.

Has anyone creatively redesigned a lamp from a thrift store?  I keep finding these adorable lamps at the ARC and Goodwill for just a few bucks, but I have nowhere to put them!  If I did, I would be spray painting them and replacing the shades like a crazy woman.  It’s probably a good thing our house doesn’t have many extra rooms.

Ahoy Mate!

We promised that we would give you the details on finding a mate for our vanity, so here’s the scoop on our bathroom counter top.  Because we reconfigured our bathroom layout after knocking out the awkward third door, we suddenly found ourselves faced with more decisions.  Once we finally committed to a vanity, we began exploring our counter top options—and there are a lot of options out there, people.  Laminate, porcelain, granite, corian, cement, butcher block, glass, stainless steel, cast iron, tile,…the list could go on.  What about counter top edges: beveled, bullnose, waterfall, eased, etc.  And that doesn’t even take into account the type of sink!  Under mounts, drop-ins, vessels…I digress.

In a nutshell, my dream bathroom sink consists of a white cast iron counter top with a seamless cast iron bowl.  No back splash.  No weird indentation or rim around the sink.  Sounds so simple, right?  It is.  I love the idea of a classic look that I won’t get sick of—one that doesn’t have all the bells and whistles attached to it.  Sadly, my dream quickly shattered once I looked them up online (click here)—we’re talking close to $1,000…yeah.  Why is it that the simple things are often the most expensive?

 

After my bubble burst and I floated back down to earth, I determined that I would find an alternate plan—one that combined the right look with the right price.  So I started with the obvious question: What’s hot right now?  It seems that lately everyone is raving about granite.  But have you looked at those price tags?  To give it a fair shot, I buzzed over to Planet Granite and look a good look at their remnants, which are essentially leftover pieces of granite that typically sell for less.  A bathroom counter is a good home for a remnant, because bathrooms don’t require nearly as much square footage as kitchens.  No matter though, because even though these pieces are priced lower, they are still expensive.  Plus, we hadn’t bought a sink yet!  You have to take into consideration your personality, too.  Most granite patterns are fairly busy.  Are you going to tire of it within a few years?  What if you want to change your décor?  Will the granite pattern bother you when you decide that your neutral tan walls would look better dressed in a shade of lime green?  I tend to like a more classic style that I can dress up or down, depending on my mood, so I decided to nix the granite idea.

The second option we looked at was a faux natural stone sold at Home Depot.  They had some more subtle designs that seemed a bit more of what we were looking for at a lower price, but it still seemed like an extravagant amount of money to spend.  After staring at the samples for about an hour, Matt finally insisted that I call my mom to get her thoughts on the decision—he knows me too well.  After some serious resistance, I suppressed my pride and dialed.  Within about two minutes, I knew what I had to do.

In a nutshell, my mom brought me back to the basics (as is often the case).  What was it that I loved about Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware vanities and sinks?  Their simplicity.  Their clean and classic look.  But what about the fact that were lots of white sinks out there, but they all had rims and indentations around them, not to mention the unavoidable back splash?  She encouraged me to look again to see if I could compromise by finding a counter top with only one of those—and even thought it might not be exactly what I had been hoping for, it would be pretty close and within budget.  And being within budget is worth it to us, especially if it meets most of the requirements on our wish list.

Check out the similarities between this vanity from Restoration Hardware and our own...

That’s when I stumbled upon a Swanstone counter top—a matte (I’m a matte lover for its subdued look—and the fact that he’s my hubby…pun intended!), white counter top, seamless bowl with no rim/indentation—and a back splash (no way to remove it—grrr)—all for under $200.  And that resolved it for us.  I know that some people are willing to spend big bucks to get the perfect look, but life is just too short to lose sleep over blowing your budget, so stick to your guns and find something that works within your price range.  The great news is that you can usually find something close or even DIY it!

Here is our vanity with its new mate...

We replaced our entire vanity and counter top, but what about the rest of you?  I’d love to see your bathroom solutions—be it a painted vanity, updated sink, or complete overhaul.   

Real Life Shark Bites

What did you think we were talking about? Plumbing, of course! When it comes to soldering copper pipes, we get an “A” for effort, but a “D” for results. So if you’re like the rest of us and struggle with this complicated task, know that you’re not alone. During the few times we’ve taken our torch to the pipes, we only seem to get about 75% of the soldering to work. Clearly this is why plumbing is a skilled trade. With that said, I still think that it’s worth it to try soldering first, but if you just can’t seem to get it, or you need a quick fix, then Shark Bites (aka Gator Bites at Lowe’s) are the way to go.

When we bought our house, the plumbing barely worked. The house had basically been abandoned for a year, and the galvanized pipes had literally corroded so badly inside that when we turned on the faucets, we were lucky to squeeze out a drip of water. So we did what most people do and hired a plumber. Eventually we decided to upgrade to copper piping, because it is still the best option available. Herman’s Plumbing, a local company, had our house re-plumbed in a matter of hours. Plumbers are truly amazing to watch. They make it look so easy!

Several months later, during our bathroom remodel, we had to move the water supply lines over for our new sink and vanity. This simple sounding project quickly became a daunting task. We tried soldering pipes for literally two hours before we called a plumber to come to the rescue. We were amazed when even the plumber couldn’t get the joint to hold—that was a first. He finally gave up using his torch and solder, and ran out to his truck. When he came back, he enlightened us by introducing what may be one of the best inventions in this modern age: the Shark Bite. We were mesmerized at the ease in which it was placed. In a matter of seconds, the job was finished—hours of work resolved in a blink of an eye. Who knew?

Since that day, I have been a firm believer in the Shark Bite phenomenon. It may seem a bit pricey, but will be completely worth the cost if it saves you a call to the plumber. We actually bought a few extra to keep on hand just in case we encounter a plumbing emergency down the road.

We’re all about being honest about the good, the bad, and the ugly—and the truth is that most DIY projects require a “learn as you go” attitude. Before buying our house, we had zero experience in these areas, but during our limited time as home owners, we’ve found that the best way to figure it out is to just give it a whirl—the only thing you have to lose is some time and maybe a bit of your pride. In the end, you could save a wad, in addition to tucking some more experience under your tool belt. And before you know it, you’ll have added some invaluable skills to your growing repertoire! To all of you DIY plumbers out there, we tip our hats off to you—and if you have ever used a Shark Bite, we’d love to hear about your experience.

Good Resources:

Shark Bite Warranty

Click here and here to read more about Shark Bites.

Click here for a step by step tutorial on how to solder copper pipes.

Vanity Fair

Today has been absolutely glorious.  The sun has shimmered all day long, and the air is so mild that we propped our front door open to let a warm breeze waft through our house while we putter around—in the middle of February!  Just another reason we love Colorado.  Is anyone else about ready to jump out of their skin thinking about daylight savings time?!  I can hardly wait until we gain an extra hour of daylight—blissful!

Hmmm…where was I?  Oh yes—bathroom vanities.  When we decided to knock out the third bathroom door, we gained some serious wall space.  Before, we were pretty much confined to a pedestal sink, and no matter how darn cute they are, they offer little in the area of storage and functionality.  Instantly I began researching our new vanity options.

My first instinct was to make a DIY vanity out of a dresser, especially after seeing our friends’ charming bathroom.

While scouring American Classics Marketplace, a huge building stuffed with antique treasures, I spotted several unique pieces that I thought would look great in our bathroom.

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…until Matt started drilling me about their durability and size.  (Husbands...you’ve gotta love the dose of reality that they bring to the table.) Although I believe that we could have made it work, it’s completely possible that we would have put a lot of effort into restoring a vanity with loose drawers, wobbly legs, and an imperfect height. The truth is, when your house contains only one bathroom, you don’t have quite as much room to play around.

I boldly began again.  To compare the different styles of bathroom vanities on the market, I went online and searched some of my favorite sites—Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware.  Now keep in mind that I rarely ever buy anything from these stores, despite being sorely tempted, as they are most definitely out of our budget price range.  Still, they know how to design a beautiful, clean bathroom, which is a look I covet, yet often struggle to find among major retailers.  It didn’t take long before this look began tugging on my heartstrings.

Now, if only I could find a similar look elsewhere for less… On to Home Depot and Lowe’s.  In all honesty, I wasn’t that impressed with the selection in their stores, but thankfully, online was a different story.  We ended up finding this vanity, which we felt shared some of our favorite features of the Pottery Barn vanity—storage, a rich espresso color, chunky legs, and an exposed shelf underneath for storing towels or simple accessories.  The price tag was a little more than we had originally anticipated, but with a 10% off coupon and the knowledge that we had saved our fair share of money on other house projects, we swallowed hard and placed the order.

Several weeks later, our brown beauty arrived on our doorstep.  We were thrilled with the color, as the online reviews varied in their thoughts on the tone—some thought it was reddish and some thought it was black.  We were hoping it leaned toward the black/espresso side of things, and to our relief, it did.  But as is the case with many house projects, there was a hang up.  As in a busted drawer and a cabinet door that didn’t close properly.  While I wiped away a tear or two, we loaded the vanity back into the box and hauled it to the nearest HD right before they closed for the night (we I have never been known to wait around for my patience).  To give them credit, they immediately returned the vanity and bumped us to the top of the list for a new one.  We signed, wondering how many more weeks we would brush our teeth using the kitchen sink.

But before we knew it, a second vanity appeared on our doorstep, and this time it was pristine condition.  Oh happy day!  Details soon to come on how we chose a mate for our vanity.

Valentine's Day

According to Plato, "At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet." DIYers might say, "At the touch of paint, every wall becomes a canvas." So cheesy...I know. But it's Valentine's day, so somehow that makes it okay, right? Since I slacked off on the Valentine's day decor this year (although I did read up on some really fun ideas in Martha Stewart Living's February issue), I thought I'd share a sweet poem written by my sister Hannah's college friend, Randy.

In a defaced bathroom stall in bold black Sharpie, the tribute
in the front cover of the book
you are reading, carved on a tree in the state park
that is older than any person on earth, loopy doodles
dancing merrily along a notebook margin, traced in the snow
or sand, or scrawled on a piece of paper to be passed
across the room, you will find it
in many forms, but always broadcasting the same message.
TC + HM 4EVER, I heart Johnny
It could be as simple as a glossy purple check box
with a shaky, penciled affirmation slashing its simple confession
back to the pink-faced, blue-eyed giggling girl,
or it could be as meticulous as the engraving, orbiting
the inside of the band, the same one
that has been on his now-weathered hand for forty-six years.
I’ve seen it on license plates, decals, pins, bumper stickers,
earrings, arranged in the primary-colored alphabet magnets
on the refrigerator, or a blurry red tattoo
on a grizzled old biker sitting in the truck plaza.
You may find it in the bright pink aisles during February, on cardstock
or silk boxer shorts, or embossed on the shiny surface
of a heart-shaped box of sweets. Regardless
of its source, the reader knows the meaning. Faceless characters
in the shortest stories ever written stage the tiniest plays
all over life’s surfaces, and when fate places the pen
in your trembling hand, write.

Don't you just love it!? What about you guys? What is the most unique way that you've declared your love? Spill the beans!

My New Best Friend

Meet my new best friend—it’s quick drying, sticks to nearly anything, and can be found in soft muted tones.  That’s right—spray paint.

See, for the longest time I’ve been aching to repaint the dressers in our master bedroom.  These bad boys have been around for awhile now.  Before I entered college, I dug mine out of my aunt’s basement and ended up giving it a two-toned look where I painted the drawers a different color from the base.  The hub’s dresser was passed down to him from a friend—covered in stickers, nonetheless.  A few weeks after our honeymoon, I rescued it by sanding off the stickers and freshening it up with some paint.  Since new hardware is expensive, I chose to ignore the brassy, rusted pieces that adorned each dresser, hoping that we might get new dressers down the road.  But the reality is that new furniture is expensive, and I actually love refinishing old pieces and finding ways to bring them back to life.  So when I started fiddling with the paint colors in our bedroom this past weekend (remember how I alluded to the fact that the orangey color might be on its way out?), I realized that the brass hardware was killing all hope of a calm, soothing space, because no matter what color I painted our dressers, the glaring hardware was all I could see.

Then I stumbled across Kate’s delightful blog, Centsational Girl, and wouldn’t you know, she is a spray paint queen!  I was totally inspired by all the different ways that she uses spray paint to restore furniture—even old hardware.  And with a burst of confidence, I popped over to Home Depot and grabbed a can of Rustoleum’s Winter Gray.  Don’t you love that spray paint now comes in soft soothing tones?

Check out the brass in all of its glory…

Now see the difference a few coats of spray paint can make?

I don’t even notice the old-fashioned design anymore, because the color of the hardware is close enough to my paint color that it looks layered and lovely—all for under $4!  The updated hardware changes the whole room, and the best news is that it isn’t sticky or clumpy.  By using a spray paint grip (that I bought for under $3), I easily applied a coat of spray paint.  Then I let it dry for a few hours (although it probably dried in less time than that) before spraying on a second coat.  Since my hardware has floppy handles, I sprayed on the first coat with the handle facing up, and I sprayed the second coat with the handle facing down.  Waalaa!  New hardware for our gussied up dressers.

Have you used spray paint to completely transform something?  Details, please!

Just Call Us “Team Tile”

You know how when you start tinkering around with things, it can suddenly turn into a huge project?  Well, that’s essentially what happened during our bathroom remodel.  It started with, “This tile is uggggly.”  Before we knew it, we were yanking off speckled brown tile left and right, grinning madly about our success.  It was my first true experience with demo, and I loved it!  Just remember that demo is only the first part of the process…it doesn’t end there.

 

Before we bought our house, I was positive that I wanted a bathroom decked out with clean, white subway tile in the shower, layered against a black and white hexagon tile floor, like this.  When I found out that it was possible to buy sheets of hex tile online through Home Depot, I flipped out and nearly ordered it on the spot, but thanks to some good sense, we decided to check out our local options in hopes of striking a better deal.  Once we started looking around, I realized that I am not a fan of busy patterns—I prefer to stick to the basics so that I don’t tire of it too quickly, plus I can always change the paint or décor down the road if the tile is simple enough (think of all the people who installed pea green tile back in the day…I wonder how long it took before they realized what they had actually committed to!).  Not only am I not a huge fan of busy patterns, I also am not a huge fan of black—as in, other than clothing, nothing that I own is black!  When it comes down to it, I am way more of a brown tone gal.

After searching the big boys, Home Depot and Lowe’s, we took a chance on a place called The Carpet Exchange.  Turns out that despite their very misleading name, they actually carry tons of tile (I let them know they should change the name of their store—I’m sure they’ll be forever grateful to me when their customer base increases dramatically overnight).  While The Carpet Exchange wasn’t necessarily the least expensive, they had a better selection than the other stores.  Once I finally allowed my brain to shift gears, we stumbled across some lovely earthy chocolate brown tile at an affordable price.  That also meant we could use a dark grout (Poleyblend Sable Brown), which would be easier to keep clean than white grout on a bathroom floor—yipes!  While we were at it, we ordered our subway tile through them (we chose matte over glossy), although looking back, I have a feeling we would have gotten the subway tile for a better deal through a big box store.  Live and learn, right?  At least in the world of DIY…

Soon after, Matt went to town tiling the entire bathroom on his own—check out his detailed handiwork!  Isn’t it great?!  And boy are we glad for simple inventions like tile spacers—we used hundreds of them during this project!

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And that, my friends, is a wrap for Team Tile!

Doors Galore

In addition to the funky window inside the shower, our bathroom also sported three doors.  That’s four escape routes for a very small room—heck, five if you count the door to the bath closet.  At first glance, three doors didn’t concern us.  At least the bathroom was accessible, right?  We loved that there was a door connected to the master bedroom, along with an entrance immediately off the living room.  The only door that seemed a bit frivolous was the one leading into the back guest bedroom.  But like I said, we weren’t too concerned.

Then the rents came to town.  Parents—gotta love ‘em.  Especially my dad, who is the epitome of a self-made handyman; if he doesn’t know how to do it, he’ll bulldoze his way through it.  Dad, if you’re out there, you know I love this about you!  As we gave them the house tour (or should I say the stand-in-one-spot-and-you-can-pretty-much-see-the-whole-house-at-a-glance), we asked them if they thought all three bathroom doors were really necessary.  After a quick hash through the pros and cons—where the pros far outweighed the cons—they both agreed that two doors would be quite enough.  And within about two minutes, my dad and Matt were making a list of all the supplies they would need from Home Depot.

Looking back, I’m glad I didn’t realize how insane we were to try to refinish floors and knock out a door / frame in a wall—which, by the way, also tacked on a plumbing project, as well as the removal of some wall tile, since the pipes had to be adjusted—because this ended up being one of the absolute best changes we made to our house.

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Despite the stress.  Despite running to HD a bazillion times within 48 hours.  Despite the fact that we then had to reconfigure our bathroom vanity situation, which meant returning the adorable pedestal sink we had already purchased and *cough* removed from its packaging (note to self—do not remove packaging until you’re installing item)—more details soon to come on how we picked out our new vanity.  Thank goodness Home Depot allows you to return nearly anything without raising a fuss about it.  Plus, if you buy items using your credit or debit card, they can look up your purchase without the original receipt within a 90 day window.  Gotta love a customer friendly store.

After two grueling days of sanding floors and knocking out a door in the midst of it all, we gained some beautiful space in our bathroom (hooray for extra storage and counter space—and a larger mirror!), and so did the guest bedroom (the additional wall area created a perfect niche for our desk).  While I usually am a stickler to the plan, I must admit that being flexible in this case was 100% worth it.

Once Upon a Bathroom

Our house has one bathroom.  This is not unusual for a downtown house of our size, but one bathroom in this day and age certainly is.  The upside—scrubbing only one toilet and shower!  But having only one bathroom means it had better combine function and style in one package—at least in my perfect world.  In a nutshell, our bathroom originally had neither.  In fact, our bathroom had some really odd things going on with it…check out the shower.

If you’re wondering why there is a shower curtain at the back of the shower (in addition to the front curtain), it’s to cover the wooden window that some genius plopped right in the middle of a place that should be totally private, not to mention waterproof!  To give the poor builder some credit, they probably were required to stick to a code that said if there was no fan, there had to be a window in its stead.  (By the way, I wonder if that’s how the word “instead” originated.  Hmm.  Pardon the English teacher digression.)  Whatever the case, we knew the window either had to be replaced by a more waterproof version or completely knocked out.  Since we weren’t all that confident in knocking out walls—or windows—we buzzed over to the Home Depot to check out the cost of a replacement window.  Turns out it would cost about $200 to replace the wooden window with a vinyl (aka waterproof), blurred (aka private) window, and that did not include installation—another area of concern.  But $200 isn’t exactly pocket change when you’re on a budget, and we weren’t totally convinced that the window wouldn’t warp at some point.  On top of that, if we ever are able to replace all the windows in our house, we’d like them to be uniform, and we definitely weren’t ready to commit to a window style at that point.

In the end, our friend told us that he could remove the window, and while he was at it, install special waterproof cement boards, Durock.  That brought a grin to our faces, because it meant we could get rid of the built-in soap bar holder (a mar in nearly every shower) and redo all of the tile starting with a clean slate.  Plus, we’d never have to worry about any weirdness with our neighbors knowing exactly when we happen to be showering....

And thus began the gutting of the bathroom—a happy day and the beginning of an epic journey.  Well, maybe not epic, but definitely long and dangerous full of adventures.  Does anyone else have a funky bathroom story to share?  Do Tell.

Brick Pick

One of the things that initially drew us to our house was the gas fireplace.  We love the idea of a blazing fire—especially at the flip of a switch (or in our case, a knob at the base of our fireplace).  We’re pretty sure that it used to be a real fireplace, but was later converted to gas.  And despite the controversy over gas vs. real, I, for one, think that we will be more likely to use a gas fireplace, as they are convenient and clean (Matt does enjoy starting a good fire from scratch, though, so we might have slightly different opinions on the issue).  Sadly, it doesn’t really matter, since we cannot get the fireplace to light at the moment.  We’ve done a bit of digging around, and we eventually found the original manufacturer of our gas fireplace parts; however, even after emailing them photos of the whole set-up, they were not able to find replacement parts.  Maybe they’re no longer made?  If you know anything about R.H. Peterson fireplaces, we are looking to replace some parts (the fire safety starter kit which includes the pilot light and thermal coupling).  If that doesn’t work out, we’ll probably end up getting a whole new gas set-up, but we’d like to do it as cheaply as possible—hence, the digging around for parts.

But since we’ve recently been talking paint, we thought we should give you the rundown on painting our fireplace brick.  At first, we debated over whether or not it was worth it, as original brick is a selling point for a lot of people; while we’re not looking to sell our house anytime soon, we’re aware that the choices we make now may have repercussions (although hopefully good ones!) down the road.  Then we swung in the opposite direction, thinking that we should do what we like, since we’re the ones living with it, and who really cares what future buyers might think?  After considering both sides, we landed somewhere in the middle.  Why can’t we have the best of both worlds, after all?  So we grabbed our brushes and went to town painting the brick, knowing that we would love it (score!) and hoping that future buyers who are interested in our house like our style enough that they’ll be happy with painted brick (bonus!).

A few things to keep in mind when painting brick:

1.) Look at pictures of painted brick (there are tons of images online) to figure out what you like.  We love a light and airy feel, but there are lots of ideas to choose from—click here and here to see a few of our favorites.

2.) Make sure you start with a clean surface.  There is nothing worse than gunking up your paint with dirt and soot.

3.) Using a brush or roller, prime the brick first, as it tends to be an absorbent surface.  I prefer a brush, since it nicely fills the grooves in brick.

4.) Layer on the paint thickly—again, so that it doesn’t get absorbed by the brick.  Paint several coats if necessary.

5.) We chose a glossy paint (the same kind that we used for our floor trim), that way the brick is smooth and easy to wipe down, plus it should hold up better if we ever do have a fire in said fireplace.  And there you have it—easy peasy!  Honestly, I was a little freaked out to make such a permanent move, but now I can’t imagine our fireplace any other way.  As the focal point in our living room, it was a cheap and quick project that completely changed the space.  Oh, and just in case you were curious, we removed the old mesh screen (it found a new home at the Restore) with a few quick turns of the screwdriver, and thanks to Craigslist (gotta love it), we replaced it with a simple portable screen that doesn’t feel quite so heavy.

Cold Day Surprises

Evidently negative temperatures are a bigger deal in Colorado than in the Midwest.  I grew up in Northwest Indiana, and there is no way school would have closed due to chilly digits—but that is exactly what happened to us today!  Every school in our area shut down due to temps hovering right around -14 degrees, with a wind chill somewhere close to -25 degrees.  Brrr!  Since Matt doesn’t work at the hospital on Tuesdays, and since my school wimped out with the rest of ‘em (woot woot!), we were happy to hunker down in our snug home, thanks to our new Amana two-stage 95% efficient furnace.  The only weirdness we noticed was this…

Apparently our sliding glass door isn’t cut out for extreme weather, so even though temps like this are a rarity for us, we’re going to look into ways to help our door hold in the heat.  But on a happy note, check out the artwork that appeared on our windows this morning!

Coloring On The Walls

I’ve always felt like a fairly decisive person—that is, until we started talking paint colors.  While it sounds totally ridiculous, I had a hard time sleeping for the first several weeks because of all the possibilities running through my head.  But I faced a dilemma.  A budget dilemma.  You see, we inherited some leather couches from my parents (thanks Mom & Dad!) and while they are super comfy couches that we really are grateful for, they are…cough…maroon. 

Yeah, not exactly the color scheme that I’ve always dreamt of.  It didn’t take long to come to the conclusion that new furniture was simply not in the cards, and since we weren’t sure how long it would be before new/used/Craigslist furniture would be a reality, we decided to find colors that would complement the existing pieces.

I began to take stock of our furniture; I even asked some friends what color they thought it was.  Many of them said it looked brown, but I wasn’t fooled—it was definitely maroon.  My first thought was to paint the main rooms a neutral tan, but then I was afraid it would look dowdy and boring.  Since I tend to default to neutrals, I decided to go out on a limb (I know—so risky) and try some warmer colors in the living areas and master bedroom.  I envisioned mustardy yellow/golden tan in the living room, pale yellow in the kitchen, and a cinnamon/coral color in the bedroom (which you can see from the living room).

So we headed to Sherwin-Williams to pick out paint swatches.  Again, we had debated several times where to buy our paint.  After consulting a friend who grew up painting rental houses, we were convinced that SW paint would be the best for our humble walls that were just starting to come back to life.  If you’ve never painted with SW paint, I highly recommend it for the fact that it literally does cover in just one coat (although we always do a second coat for good measure), plus it glides on like butter—unlike some other paints which you feel like you’re always fighting just to get them to stick to the walls.  It’s definitely more expensive paint, but we loved knowing that we would not have to redo coats down the road.  Plus the SW employees are so great!  And it’s a good thing, because I turned out to be their most indecisive customer—meaning I was constantly in their store hemming and hawing over paint chips.  Thankfully, there is a marvelous little invention called paint samples—whew!  You can buy paint samples for about five dollars at most paint stores.  It’s an inexpensive way to compare colors, since you actually paint it on the walls.  I prefer it to just looking at tiny cardboard color swatches taped to the wall, although when you’re in a pinch, that works too.

We finally chose our colors and then threw a painting party where friends and family helped us bust out multiple rooms in one day.  Since we had pre-primed, it was pretty simple getting color on the walls.  We were super happy that we had spent so much time cleaning and priming our walls ahead of time though, because it turns out that tar bleeds through paint if it hasn’t been properly removed.

This is a picture of the living room…

And this is the master bedroom…

Our camera isn’t the best (or it could be due to operator malfunction), but the wall colors were not as bright as they appear in these pictures.  And yes, I said “were.”  After several months of living with lots of color and priding myself on the fact that I had taken a risk, I finally had an “aha” moment where I realized that in the name of stepping out, I had overwhelmed our house with color.  Too much color.  A rainbow of color.  Ahhh!!

Long story short, a mid-summer catastrophe (more on said catastrophic experience to come…) gave me the freedom to repaint, and in doing so, I stayed true to myself and went neutral.  Some may say that’s boring, but I have come to grips with my love of neutrals—and they are anything but boring.  Personally, I think they create a space that allows for more creativity, almost like a palate that’s ready and waiting for some pops of color, rather than boxing you in and making you feel like everything has to match the walls—not that we want to be all matchy-matchy, but you get the idea.

And here are the neutral walls in all their subdued glory. 

Matt wasn’t convinced that he would like them neutral—but now we both agree that our home feels calm and relaxed, creating an inviting space to simply be in.  As for the bedroom…well, the orangey color is probably next to go.  And since we just got a new duvet (thanks to Aunt Kathy for her sweet Christmas gift!), it’s a great time to think about getting out the old paint brushes.  Can you say addiction, anyone?