I’m BAAAA-aaaack!

Posted in DIY by Christina

Woot!

I’m totally back!

And happy to be here!

We got a brand spankin’ new laptop last week and I couldn’t be more stoked to be typing, uploading, and saving at a normal, nay, dare I say… rapid rate thanks to this fine piece of machinery.

It’s been so long since I’ve blogged that I’m almost overwhelmed as to where to start to catch you guys up. If you’ve been following me on Instagram, you probably have a good general idea of what’s been happening decor-wise, but for the sake of continuity, I decided to take some (waitforit) non-grainy shots with my trusty ole’ camera. You have no idea how long I’ve waited to type those words. Wait. Yes you do. Two months. That’s how long since I’ve been able to UPLOAD PICTURES. All caps really says it all regarding my excitement level here.

So, in organizing my thoughts here, I’ve decided to basically brain-dump all the decor stuff that’s gone on over here lately over the next few posts. I’m gonna start with a project that I recently finished in the living room. After that, in no particular order, I’ll be showing y’all some dining/foyer updates as well as our nearly finished breakfast nook. I just took all the pictures I need and am SUPER excited to show you guys everything. GIDDY, even.

So, let’s get started, shall we??

It actually took me quite a while to get to this project even though it wasn’t super difficult. You may remember from my last post that I herniated a disk in my back a few months back, which was a huge reason for my recent break. For a while, even the easiest of tasks felt insurmountable, but after a few months of physical therapy, I’ve had a pretty decent improvement. I’m still not running or anything, and I occasionally have exacerbations if I’m not conscious of my movements, but for the most part I’m feeling WAY better. So, you can say that getting started on this project was like a breath of fresh air (aka. normalcy).

Remember this blank wall over the TV??

Well this wall stumped me for the longest time. I had no idea what I wanted to do with it.

Then, one fateful day at Ikea, I spotted the Pugg wall clocks, and it was all over.

I had a plan. I purchased my clocks and went on my merry way. See, what I wanted was to hang four clocks to designate each of the time zones that mean something to us. Oregon (where Joey’s from), Texas (where we live), New York (where I’m from), and Paris (one of the coolest trips we’ve taken).

Now, please excuse the next few progress shots. They were taken in a rush (and many at dusk) with my phone.

Anyways, once I got started, the key was getting them lined up perfectly. And I’m proud to say that I managed to do it without punching a single excess hole in the wall. And here’s how…

First, I traced the clocks on wrapping paper, cut them out, and used these templates to determine roughly where I wanted them above the TV…

Then, I used a laser level and a yard stick to measure the exact center (at the location where the hanging holes in the clocks were). This is where I would punch my holes. It turns out that my holes were exactly 18″ apart from each other, so I simply measured and marked along the laser level line every 18″ and marked them on my templates…

Then, I hammered my nail in through the paper. I tore off the paper and hung my clocks…

They turned out perfectly aligned and straight. I couldn’t believe I’d actually succeeded in this the first time around. That almost never happens. See that blue painter’s tape in the pic above? This would be the next part of my project. And this was the part that I had to wait FOREVER to get to because of my back. It was literally up there for about 6 weeks. And weirdly enough, it started to grow on me. Heehee! So strange.

Anyways, once I felt well enough to go for it, I went to Home Depot and had a 1″ x 4″ cut to the length of my painter’s tape (73.5″). I sanded it with 220 grit sandpaper to smooth it out, then gave it 2 coats of white paint. I mounted the wood to the wall using 2 claw hangers. Then, I waited.

Because this was the point where I needed to print, but we hadn’t replaced our computer yet. Oy. So many blogging barriers that I’m happy to have busted through lately.

So, basically that blank piece of white wood hung in place of the painters tape in a state of limbo for another 2 weeks.

But then, BAM….

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And it was on. I’ve seen this technique on many blogs before, and have always wanted to try it, so…

I chose a font that I liked ON MY NEW COMPUTER (:D) and printed my labels on plain computer paper in my preferred color, cut them out, then scribbled lead on the back using a pencil…

I perfected placement of them on my wood with scotch tape, and chose the color of oil-based paint pen that I wanted (as seen in the scribbles above the wood)…

I removed the wood from the wall, then traced the outline of my font with a ball-point pen, giving decent pressure…

Which left this…

Then, I used this navy blue paint pen to fill it in…

And cleaned up the excess lead with a gummy eraser. Once this was done, I rehung my wood, which left this…

And as per usual, I can’t NOT put a before shot from when we gained possession…

Gosh, I’m a fool for before and afters. And here’s the other direction…

You can see that I replaced the Fort Worth print above the chair with a vintage painting that I found for $7 at a thrift store. It’s PERFECT there and helps tie in the hanging planters on the other side of the doorway. Plus, I love that the vintage style contrasts with the more modern clocks.

A view of that entire side of the room….

And a before…

And a few closer-up shots of that newly revamped corner…

I scored that plaid pouf at Target in clearance for $14.98. That was a happy day for me. #andcheaposrejoice

Here are some more close-ups of the new clock wall….

I LOVE that technique for transferring font. Now, I want to monogram everything in my possession.

Now, I just need to actually put batteries in the clocks and set the times. Joey keeps joking that for a room with so many clocks, we never seem to know what time it is. Haha!

Anyways, I am super thrilled with how this turned out. It’s exactly what I wanted. Something a little different that suits us and is actually meaningful to us. I think finally deciding on this project as our wall decor was well worth the year long decision-making process. Yes. It took a YEAR. And many, many ideas until this one came about and stole the show.

Oh! And just to update y’all on the last issue from my last post… The roof patch worked!!!!!! (fingers crossed that it continues) AND we had a new drain system with industrial-strength sump pump installed in the backyard, which meant ZERO flash flooding with the last storms we experienced. So, although our roof is old and will eventually need to be replaced, we’re now hoping that we can hold off for a while (please) and get to some other fun projects instead. So, it’s good news all around!!!

So, anyways, I hope y’all have had a fabulous holiday weekend! And thanks for not giving up on me. 🙂

16Oct2015

Bathroom blitz

Posted in DIY by Christina

Dude.

Duuuuude.

I had a busy weekend last weekend.

It wasn’t supposed to have been.

But it became as such thanks to this little guy…

Remember our fugly master coffin bathroom? Well, I had this notion that I’d change out the hardware on the cabinets with some knobs that were gifted to us by Joey’s parents a while back.

So, I did.

And I liked them.

But… The stainless steel finish made the dingy almond paint on the cabinets look WAY yellow. If you’ve been reading for a while, you know how adamant I was about de-yellowing the guest bath in our last house.

Samesies.

And that was all it took. My previous proclamation that I’d accepted our ugly bathroom as is until we could afford a full gut renovation flew out the bathrooms nonexistent window.

And the whirlwind began.

Before I knew it, I had the side splashes torn off (much like I did here)…

…and I’d busted out a quart of Clark & Kensington paint in Rockaway Beach, that I’d been sitting on since our last house.

I painted swatches on all of the cabinetry (also above the toilet) and decided… Hey, it’s free, I like it. Let’s do this.

Aaaand here’s where the decision-making turned south. Or maybe where hindsight was better than, um, presight. I thought that painting the bathroom cabinets would be a good test run for our kitchen makeover since they were painted exactly the same. And it was. BUT, I’d originally thought that stripping them of their poorly-applied beige paint was the ticket to the best possible finish.

So, I did that.

Ugh.

Now, I’ve stripped furniture before and it’s always time consuming (like here, here, and here). But these cabinets were BEASTS. The process was absolute misery. Seriously. Kathy Bates had nothing on these guys. AND after all that work I didn’t even end up with as smooth of a finish as I’d hoped thanks to some stubborn paint chips that wouldn’t quit. Once I started, I basically had to go all the way because it ended up looking like this for a while.

And those chips were firmly attached. And didn’t sand well since they were encased in waxy residue from the stripper. All said and done, I worked for nearly two full days on stripping four cabinet doors and four drawer fronts… simply to get them back to a point where they’d be acceptable to paint again. It took 4 applications of stripper, about half a gallon of mineral spirits, insane elbow grease, plus a healthy dose of sanding to get them smooth-ish and residue-free. Given the final surface I was left with, I would’ve been better off priming and painting over the existing paint.

Thus, it was decided. Oh. It. Was. DECIDED. There was no way in H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks that I would be stripping the kitchen cabinets when the time came (…have I mentioned that there are FORTY FOUR doors and drawer fronts in there?).

Lesson learned.

I did, however, discover that the paint-riddled hinges were salvageable after a little time with some stripper (fresh! 😉 ) and a rinse in the sink. That’ll be a nice money-saver for our kitchen reno (66 hinges!!).

The following day, after I finished stripping the cabinets, I primed them with Zinsser’s BIN shellac primer…

… followed by two coats of paint.

I have to say… The Clark & Kensington paint plus primer was pretty awesome. It covered really well.

Once that was done, I took stock of the space. And I had this sudden, unexplainable itch to paint the ceiling. See, the walls were white and the ceilings were beige. And it always bothered me. And I was on a roll. If you read this post, you know that I had a different color of white paint on hand that I’d always wanted to use for this space but hadn’t. But it was a different shade of white than what was already on the walls. So, if I painted the ceiling, I’d also have to paint the walls again.

So, I did that.

Then, I caulked around the counters and mirror to make everything look more finished.

Did I mention that all of this happened in the span of three days? Two full days of stripping plus one of painting. By the end, I was so ridiculously tired that as I was cleaning up, I wiped up a rogue drop of paint with a tissue. Then, threw said tissue into the toilet. Then, I stared at the toilet deciding how to proceed. Then, I flipped the light switch. That’s right…. I was so exhausted that I forgot how to flush the toilet. Once I realized what I’d done, I proceeded to bust out in inappropriate laughter every time I thought about it. (I’m laughing right.now) 🙂

So, as a refresher for where we started, here’s our master bath shortly after we moved in (peach walls and all)…

And here’s where we’re at now.

I love how the darker cabinets help the ugly 1970s purple marble fade away. And they almost make the coffin-shower blend in more. Sort of. Almost.

I tried to add some “life” with a fake plant. I seriously would LOVE to have real plants in here, but until we tackle a full reno of this room (which’ll include adding a solar tube), we have absolutely zero natural light in this space. So, fake it is, unfortunately.

Anyways, onward…. here’s the “toilet room” just after we moved in…

And now…

Please excuse how yellow the glare is in that pic. Like I discussed in this post, light bulbs make a huge difference. I need to trade those babies out for cooler bulbs so that the proper colors are reflected.

I decided to leave the doors off of the cabinetry above the toilet. They always hit the light fixture anyways. And, let’s face it… I wanted as few cabinet doors to strip as possible once the process got going. I really love the look of open shelving and this change just makes me jazz-hands happy. I kept the styling simple with useful things that we’ll actually need… towels, toilet paper, bars of soap. Attractive function. Totally my jam.

Next we’ll be changing out all the light switches from taupe to white. I traded out the switch plates in the meantime, but we still need to tackle the switches. I’ll also be deep cleaning the nasty floor grout. I’ve been reading about how to do it with baking soda and vinegar, and I’m intrigued. So, I may give that a whirl. If that fails, there’s always grout paint. In any case, I’m thrilled with the changes so far. It actually took the space from the thorn in my side, to a cozier space that feels much more like us. It’s just so much more in keeping with the other rooms of our home. All in all, I only spent $31 (on stripper and switch plates) since I already had the hardware, paint and primer. TOTALLY worth it.

So, what do y’all think? SO much better right? Have you ever had a project that started with something teeny, but then snowballed to a full-on makeover?? Spill! I wanna hear your stories!