Showing posts with label Home Projects. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Home Projects. Show all posts

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Powder Room Renovation

This is a project that ate up a whole bunch of our Saturdays this summer. It's been done for a few weeks but I've been waiting to take pictures until I finished decorating the shelves, which STILL isn't done. I want a chrome or silver Eiffel Tower to go where the picture is now. Wouldn't you know, all my trips to TJ Maxx, Home Goods, Ross, etc, BEFORE I was looking to buy one and I saw tons, now that I want one, there are none to be found. Anyways, onto the good stuff!
Ta-Da! I love it. I'm usually a 'light, airy, white' kind of person, but this room gets zero natural light when my laundry room door is closed (as in the 'after picture) so I decided to just work with that and go a little moodier with the colors. Here are some other 'before' shots:
top left: in the middle of re-finishing the vanity doors (using this tutorial,) Top right: We are never lacking helpers, look at Kate double timing that brush and roller. Bottom left: Renovations get sooo messy, and tend to spread their way out over the whole house. Bottom right: new tile!
And that's about it! This room is small and hard to photograph, plus, I'm just not all that good at pictures like this. Here is a breakdown of what we did for those interested.

-Removed wallpaper, painted walls & put up bead board wallpaper, chair rail and crown moulding. (bead board WALLPAPER guys. It's awesome. I wouldn't use it in an extremely busy area, as it does scratch and dent fairly easily, but in here I think it will be fine. Also, I think I'm going to use it on the ceiling in the upstairs bath. Perfect for that!)

-Replaced the mirror. Originally we intended to cut down the old one and frame it. Guys., listen, we got this mirror for 24 dollars at Home Goods. You can't buy the supplies for that. Much less the cure for the headache trying to square up a home made frame will cause. Check out stores like that before stressing too much over getting your old mirror off the wall in one piece to cut it down.

-Replaced light, sink/counter, and faucet.

-Refinished the vanity with the tutorial I linked above. Use the gel stain she recommends, I think it's basically foolproof, it was seriously the easiest paint job I've ever done. Just make sure to take the time between coats. It just looks so rich and pretty in person.

-Tiled the floor and hung some floating shelves. I like the shelves okay, but use your own screws! The ones that come with it are terrible, and you will strip them before you can really get your shelf secured down tight.

Thursday, September 10, 2015

Mini Porch Makeover

 My awesome mother-in-law was in town a few weeks ago and she is the ultimate DIY-er. We loved having her here, she gave us some awesome advice about the rest of our house, helped me wrangle all three babies through an Ikea shopping trip and she painted our front door. Isn't it pretty? I originally planned on something darker, but she in all her decorating wisdom talked me into this lighter, prettier blue. I LOVE it and can't wait to make some matching shutters!
 Here's a breakdown of what changed for those interested. It wasn't a huge makeover, but the little things we did helped so much!
Sun faded hollow core door-painted with Behr exterior paint (my MIL swears by it)
Outdated plastic doorbell-Replaced with this bad boy(but it appears to have tripled in priced, we only paid 8$)
Sconces: wiped down, disassembled and painted with Rust-Oleum Metallic spray paint (way cheaper at Home Depot, but they don't have it listed on their site, one can just barely covered 3 fixtures). We thought for sure these were goners, they looked so worn. April suggested I at least try to paint them before replacing them and I'm so happy we did! The finish is so smooth and pretty, I love them. 
Welcome Mat: a 10$ blank mat from Home Depot then spray painted using a stencil I made on my Silhouette. It's not perfect, but it's exactly what I wanted. 
Wreath: Saw it here and loved it, but mine turned out just 'meh' for me. I like the colors for fall, just not digging how huge all the cotton puffs are on mine, but oh well, it's what they had at Hobby Lobby :) so for now it stays. 

We also trimmed our gigantic bush, sprayed down all the bugs and webs(that helped a ton) and hung up our flag, because patriotism my friends, is always classy. Thank you April for all your help!