Basement Bathroom

When you have a hankering to tackle a project, my theory is to GO FOR IT!  Because before you know it your motivation might be sapped by a crying baby, dishes in the sink, or a cup of hot chocolate and a good book.  So carpe diem, people.  That is exactly the story of our basement bathroom, because with a bazillion other projects that I should have been working on, this is the one I felt like doing.  Maybe it was the towel bars.  I’m pretty sure there were about five of them, and that fifth one just did me in, I tell you.  I mean, towel bars are one of my least favorite bathroom accessories anyway – give me anything but a towel bar, please!  So yeah, that’s where it all started – with the towel bar that broke that camel’s back. 

There was nothing too noticeable about this bathroom – other than its ubiquitous towel bars – and the purpley tile. 

I decided to paint the stark white walls a blue-grey color, and this time I stuck with it.  : )  It’s hard to see in the photos below, but it plays nicely off the tile.  We popped up some frames that we already owned.  I wanted them both to sit centered on the wall, but the toilet is off-set, so we decided to off-set the frames, as well.  The bird art is one of my favorite pieces from the ARC (a local thrift store) – it’s actually embroidered with thick thread, and I love its cheery self.  The basket on the back of the toilet holds toilet paper, because I didn’t get around to putting up a new toilet paper what do you officially call it holder.

Gray rugs and towels from World Market accent the room in an attempt to draw out more gray tones, rather than purple. 

Sayonara towel bars!  Hello there lovely hooks.  Thank you, Hobby Lobby, for keeping your knobs and hooks on a continuous 50% off sale.  Or maybe you just mark them up knowing it makes me feel better to think I’m getting a good deal…

Some purty knobs to replace the old brass ones.  Can’t replace the other sassy brass (faucet, shower door, etc.), but we’re okay with it.  I’m getting more into mixing my metals these days.  At least it sounds kind of cool to say that I’ve got an “eclectic” vibe going on, right?

In a last minute decision, I painted the cabinets white, as the oak just wasn’t doing it for me.  The white also helps to brighten the room, since it receives no natural light.  And it’s always fun to leave a small bouquet of flowers in the vase for guests. 

Oh, and just a quick tip for when you paint a bathroom… No one ever looks behind a toilet, so we opt to toss a trash bag over the back of the toilet and simply paint around it.  It sure beats removing an entire toilet. 

Hooray for semi-quick projects that leave a room feeling fresh! 

Lightening Up the Living Room

After gawking at the projects completed by my sisters this summer – recovering chairs, painting loads of furniture, etc. – I was inspired and reminded that even though I often feel like we are crawling in the house project arena, we actually are making progress.  Namely, paint progress. 

Is there an official name for paint-sample crazed?  Ironically, we ended up going with a color not even sampled.  Let’s just say I was getting a little antsy…  Truth be told, our small group meets weekly in our home, and trying to over-explain our walls week after week…yeah, totally embarrassing. 

Oh, and of course, we first painted our walls a lovely shade of blue/grey before I snacked myself on the forehead in a paint-fume induced haze, muttering, “Self, you’re forgetting your neutral-lovin’ roots!  No need to stray too far from a good thing.”  Thankfully I’m married to a laid-back man. 

It’s really difficult to tell in the 11 pm lighting, but the blue color – as much as I loved it – felt too cold for me once it was one our walls.  I liked it, but it was more of a crush that I knew wouldn’t last beyond six months.  If you’re wondering, the color above is Benjamin Moore’s Blue Nelson cut by 50%.  I’m keeping it in my back pocket though – as it really is a great color!

Here’s where we landed after swapping out our buddy Nelson for a creamy neutral – Sherwin Williams’ Natural Choice.  We debated over about 15 shades of tan, grey, and everything in between.  But this room needed something different – perhaps because of the lighting?  It’s a long room with windows on only one side, and for some reason, every color we tried felt too heavy and dark – even the color we used in our old house and loved (Valspar’s Oatbran).  According to the color swatch, Natural Choice is considered a white.  Since it covers so much wall space though – kitchen/dining/living room – it reads as a creamy tan with enough yellow to keep it from being fleshy and enough grey to keep it crisp.  I’m smitten.  And it feels good to know that we won’t be painting these walls again any time soon. 

While we had our brushes out, we also painted the ceiling, trim, vents, paneling, doors, and fireplace brick.  We tried to do most of it while Liam was napping or down for the night – which meant many late nights for a few weeks.  Plus, the previous wall color was dark enough that we needed to prime first. 

A look at the before and after.

    

Our goal was to lighten the room while still maintaining a cozy feel.  I’d say mission accomplished.  : ) 

Dressin’ Up

When you find a dresser on Craigslist for $10, you buy it.  Well, I do.  Especially when it’s solid wood with dove-tailed drawers and clean lines.  Yes. 

But you also get what you pay for.  This guy was in need of serious work.  And he reeked of curry.  Don’t be fooled into thinking he was all cute and chipper…

To eliminate the odor and give myself some time to figure out what in the world I was going to do with him, I left him in our garage for several months.  I didn’t really intend for his time out to last so long, but that’s kind of the way it goes for me anymore.  Can you relate? 

Lately I’ve really been into the two-toned look of paint paired with stain.  Ummhmm.  It’s a bit of a cottagey look, which I also love.  This photo ended up being my inspiration from LizMarieBlog. 

It was basically the kick in the pants I needed in order to get started—which was pretty daunting since it required some steps that I’ve never done before, like stripping and staining. 

Although painting is the most rewarding part of the refinishing process for me—since you see such a major change in such a short amount of time—I knew that in order to bring this dresser fully back to life, I needed to strip it down to the bare bones.  To do this, I used paint stripper (a first for me), and then I sanded it with 60 grit and finally 220 grit paper.  I wasn’t sure that the 220 grit was necessary, but it brought such a lovely smooth finish to the wood that I will definitely use it on future projects. 

As usual, things got worse before they got better…

Then I gave everything a coat of primer and several coats of paint (one coat of Minwax Jacobean stain on the drawer fronts—I let it sit for about 10 minutes before wiping it off), plus some polyurethane on the top, as it tends to be the most heavily used part of the dresser.  Then I painted the inside of the drawers and added some hex-like contact paper that I snagged at HomeGoods.  Glass knobs from Hobby Lobby were the final touch. 

Love!

Sadly, even though I tried multiple times to find the perfect spot for him in our home, it was a lost cause.  Our house is small and cramming it just emphasizes that fact.  I tried selling him at our yard sale last weekend, and while lots of people expressed interest, only one guy was willing to pay more than the usual $5 yard sale price, but he never came back for it.  So I put the dresser on Craigslist and got loads of interest!  I was so happy to send him off with a sweet young mom and her son tonight—and I was really glad that the semi-creepy guy didn’t end up with it at our yard sale.  I think our dresser found his rightful home.  *Happy sigh.*

Projects like this are about getting my hands dirty and enjoying the process of redeeming a piece.  If I kept every knick and knack that I redid, our house would be overflowing with stuff, so it’s really fun for me to find ways to give and sell it to others.  In case you’re wondering, this project took me several months of on and off work, as I had to squeeze it in during Liam’s naps.  It could definitely be done in less time, but if you’re a mom like me, it’s at least nice to know that it can be done—just take your time.  : )

*ACE Hardware occasionally gives away free quarts of their Clark & Kensington paint, so I snagged Colonial Blue and used it on this dresser.  Although it’s a flat paint, it actually has the quality of a satin finish.*

A final before and after…

Something Old, Something Blue

Every time I glance at our backyard, the peeling paint of the garage rears its ugly head and glares back at me.  Check out this photo from when we first  bought the house.

While we’ve trimmed the tree and cleaned up the junk in the yard, the garage itself looks much the same.  I’ve tried to ignore it.  I mean, it took living here for well over two years before I finally cleaned the dirt and bird poop off the window of the garage door! 

And then I sold something on Craigslist.

The buyer needed to get into our garage to see the item…and I was totally mortified.  That’s when I snapped and decided a little facelift was in order.  Since school was starting and a baby was growing, this normally quick project took almost a month to complete with all the prep work, priming, and painting between Liam’s naps.  But she’s finally done—yay! 

I’d really love to paint the entire garage, but to be perfectly honest (hmmm…that rings of Eugene from good old Adventures in Odyssey—anyone?), that’s just a little more bite than I can chew right now.  So I tackled the next best thing—the door.  I have a slight obsession with old doors.  They have all these great features, but sometimes they are so old that their lovely attributes get lost beneath the wrinkles.  Thank goodness for power sanders and paint!  While it took some serious elbow grease to get beyond the grime of this door, it was worth it. 

Before…

After…

She’s definitely a far cry from perfect, but she’s cleaner and brighter, giving the entire garage a much needed lift.  In addition to painting her blue to match our front door, we spray painted the hardware oil-rubbed bronze

and replaced several of the wood slats on the inside of the door.  See how they’re all rotted out? 

We scraped them clean with a chisel and then picked up some thin plywood from Home Depot (I think it was 1/4 inch).  We had them make some cuts in the store and then finished off the rest of them at home with a circular saw, since HD won’t make rip cuts.  Then we used wood glue to lock them in place, finishing off the edges with caulk.  After a coat of Zinsser’s oil-based primer and two coats of paint, we had a new-to-us door on our hands. 

Maybe someday we’ll replace our garage door with something new—or maybe we’ll snag a good replacement at the Restore.  Until then, it feels good to have restored a bit of life into our garage without spending much moolah.  In fact, I think we only bought the wood and the glue, as we had everything else on hand.  It works for us.

Nursery Furniture

Happy Wednesday morning!  I just finished grading my last online discussion posts of the year—whoohoo!  Final exams…well, those will have to wait until next week.  The end is in sight, ladies and gents!  Although I’m not sure if any gents actually read this blog…maybe my dad?  Little bro?  If so, welcome!

Blogging has clearly been at the bottom of my list lately, but I thought I should update y’all on the nursery.  It’s done enough that if a baby came tonight—gulp—we would be okay.  In all honesty, we would have been fine if the nursery was mismatched and chaotic, so maybe I should say that I would be okay.  Haha.  Perhaps it’s more about the mom feeling prepared…

We definitely made our biggest strides when my mom and aunt came out, as they painted walls and furniture, bedazzled curtains, and decked out the room with frames for art.  My mom was a whiz at painting the room!  I’m pretty sure she did it all within about four hours, and that included two coats of paint, plus painting the inside of the closet.  But this post is about furniture, so let me get back to the point.  Our nursery consists of used furniture, which we were extremely happy to receive, in addition to making a few Craigslist purchases.  Buying a new set just wasn’t in the budget for us, and when it comes down to it, I thoroughly enjoy the process of making used pieces feel cohesive and new.  Plus, I love it when a room evolves over time.  Take a peek into our progress…

Remember how I bought this rocker off of Craigslist awhile back? (I was air-drying the cushions after washing them…)

As it turns out, the cover was much harder to…cover…than I originally thought it would be.  My kind neighbor was willing to help tackle the project, but in the end I decided that it wasn’t worth the headache, nor the extra cost of upholstery fabric.  Thankfully, I was able to resell the rocker for the same price I paid for it, and then a few days later I bought another rocker for $30 off Craigslist.  This time, the rocker was pretty much everything I wanted.  The owners took extra good care of it, and they even had it recovered recently in a fabric that I was happy with.  To top it off, they were super nice people and we spent about 30 minutes chatting before I actually paid them for the rocker.  It felt right. 

All I did was prime and paint the rocker white (actually, my aunt did it for me—thanks, AJ!).  Tadaa! 

The other piece of furniture that needed some TLC was a table given to us by some good friends.  Apparently they swiped the table off of www.freecycle.org when they first got married, so I didn’t feel bad taking it off their hands for nothing. 

My original idea was to paint the table white in order to match the rocker and changing table dresser, but it looked pretty washed out.  Mom suggested painting the top a darker color, so we just wrapped a garbage bag around the white base, gave the top a few coats of oil-rubbed bronze spray paint, by Rustoleum, and then a few coats of polyurethane to keep it from getting scratched and beat up.  I love the final result! 

The dark top really helps to ground the table and ties it in nicely with the other dark brown accents in the room.  It makes me want to find more free tables…they have so much potential!  Actually, some friends called us the other night to tell us about a free desk that was on the side of the road.  I sooo wanted to pick it up and give it a second life, but I said no.  It’s getting harder to maneuver myself into the positions needed to paint, I probably shouldn’t paint right now, and with a baby coming soon, I need to allow myself a little time to relax.  I hope someone else decided to redeem that desk! 

In other baby related news, my sweet 7th grade students and their parents threw us a surprise baby shower at school yesterday!  They went all out on food, décor, thoughtful notes of encouragement, and gifts galore!  It was a blast, and we were so blessed by their efforts.  They even gave us a huge lawn sign that we can apparently stick in our yard when the baby comes.  It has a place to write the name, weight, etc.  I guess it’s an easy way to let the neighbors in on the action! 

Nursery Musings

I know that the love of money is the root of all evil, but I have to be honest.  In the world of home decorating, it wouldn’t hurt to have just a little more.  There.  I said it.  Sometimes it’s hard being on a budget, especially when Pinterest offers so many tempting images of posh baby nurseries.  All that said, I know it’s good for me to have to think outside the box when it comes to decorating.  If it came too easy, it would be boring and I’m sure I’d take it for granted.  Obviously it’s a treat to have a cute room—not a right.  Can you tell I have to keep myself in line?  We all need some checks and balances in our lives, true?

When we first moved into our little bungalow, the soon-to-be nursery looked like this…

I know…those curtains seriously give me the creeps.  Then we converted it to a guest room, and it took on a slightly country look that I was never totally satisfied with, although it was a major step up from its humble beginnings (somehow we managed to paint the walls the same color as the original shag carpet…not our best move). 

It currently looks like this…

Several weeks ago, our friends moved into a new house chock full of bedrooms, and since they needed some furniture to fill the empty space, and we needed to clear out for Baby Braham, we loaned them all the furniture that resided in the guest room.  It was great to empty out the room so we could start fresh, but it was also a tad overwhelming.  It really didn’t take long to begin filling the space though, as some friends from church gave us this great changing table/dresser.  I’m considering either painting or changing the knobs, and I’ve also thought it might be fun to paint the top a bold contrasting color.

and a few days later we snagged this $20 glider on Craigslist. Pardon the wonky cushions—they’re air drying after a good sanitizing wash.

Yep, that chair is ugly as sin.  I have plans to paint it and recover the cushions (I’m hoping my talented neighbor will help me out, since she sews—which, by the way, is one skill I sew so totally wish I had under my belt).  At $20, it’s hard to go wrong, folks.  I’d love to add some sort of ottoman eventually—maybe one with storage inside. 

I’ve also been debating color schemes for the room.  Here are few of my favorites from the always inspiring Design Seeds website.

The neutral lover in me is struggling a bit over whether or not to paint the walls a color.  I’m currently on the lookout for some fabric, a rug, or a lamp shade that will inspire me one way or the other.  I really think every room needs something that pulls it all together, and I’m holding off on any major decisions until I find that something.  Ultimately, though, I really want this room to be gender neutral.  While I’d love to go all out, it’s really more prudent for us to make this a space that two kiddos could eventually share, and that means it has to be somewhat versatile. 

Since there is not much storage in our house, we’re hoping to add it via a bookcase, a crib with a pull-out drawer underneath, and some floating shelves.  Here’s what we’ve been eyeing.

Next time Matt drives to Denver, he plans to stop at IKEA to purchase the Expedit bookcase and Lack floating shelves.  By the way, IKEA definitely has the best deal on these shelves that I’ve seen so far.  They are white (although they offer several other color options), chunky, and only $15!  Woot!  The bookcase is more of a splurge, so of course I’ve been seeking used alternatives at local thrift store and Craigslist, but so far I’m loving this guy, especially since he fits perfectly into a little nook in the room. 

Now that I’ve rambled on about random aspects of the nursery with very little to actually show for it, I thought I’d give you some real news.  On Tuesday we had our 20 week ultrasound, and it turns out that Baby Braham is…

…….

 

 

…….

 

 

…….

 

 

…….

 

 

a healthy BOY!!  We are so thankful and excited that our future kiddos will have an older brother to look out for them—here’s praying that he’s a great role model!  During the ultrasound, our wonderful technician said, “I’ve been doing this for 26 years, and even though I can’t tell if it’s a boy or girl quite yet, its hand is between its legs, which almost always means it’s a boy.”  We laughed so hard we almost cried.  A few minutes later she confirmed that our very active baby was indeed male.  And for the record, this kid can kick!  Oh, the adventures that lie ahead…

While we’re on the topic of boys, we’re all ears when it comes to parenting wisdom.  Any thoughts on bringing up boys?