My Creative Blog:
Knock it off

It's true- most people have heard of vinyl peel and stick tile. We both have used it in our homes in the past. But, what's also true, is that most people have never thought to create an awesome herringbone pattern with that tile! These tiles are ridiculously easy to cut which makes it the perfect material to go crazy with pattern! We have to say that this floor is one of our favorite projects to date- we transformed this dated floor into an expensive, slate-look-alike.

To say this flooring was dated would be the under-statement of the year. It was yellow and green and oh so bad! Even though the kitchen was tiny, we didn't have enough money or time to go with real slate tile.

Instead, we got our DIY on… Lowe's sells lots of vinyl peel and stick tile and while it does actually look like stone, when installed the traditional way it looks good, but doesn't have a big wow factor…

So, we had an idea… This flooring comes in 18x18 tiles- we decided to cut each tile down into three 6" strips per tile. Vinyl flooring cuts easily with a utility knife- Just score it and then fold it to divide.

We cut down all of our tile into strips and then measured to find the center point of the floor. We used a chalk line to snap a guide for us to follow.
Then, to give it a unique and high-end look, we laid the tile in a herringbone pattern. You just make"L's" over and over again. It's one of the easiest patterns to do!

How's that for a before and after?? And, honestly… these pics don't even do it justice! You definitely have to watch this segment of the episode! (Here)

I honestly was amazed and how good we made inexpensive vinyl look. It's like it was all dressed up for prom or something! Fancy!

Changing out the flooring played a big part in making this tiny kitchen renovation complete! No one would ever guess that this flooring was installed with some of the cheapest materials on the market! Changing the shape of the tile and the installation layout gave us amazing style, without the expensive price tag!

One of the most fun makeovers we've done to date (and one of the biggest transformations!) was our dreary to cheery family room makeover. Let me just tell you, it was also a TON of work. After we removed the dated wallpaper (using this fab method, which made it so much easier than we anticipated), we stenciled a wall that made a huge statement. Without this stencil, the room would totally be lacking the personlity it now has. We are in love.

The most important thing to do when stenciling is to purchase a high-quality stencil. This will make the process so much smoother. Our go-to stencil source is Royal Design Studio- we seriously don't mess around with anything else! They're just the best re-usable heavy plastic stencils around. Funny story: we loved the look of this Herringbone Shuffle stencil so much that we decided to use it in this family room. However, when we opened it up (right before we started stenciling- oops!), we realized we accidentally ordered the Get Ziggy with It stencil, which is still awesome, but not quite as organic and random as we wanted.

Get Ziggy With It Stencil
So, we recreated the look of the herringbone shuffle on our own by randomly painting some of the openings. Ha! So, if you love this look, save yourself some trouble and order the right stencil!

Stenciling offers big bang for your buck! For the cost of just paint and the stencil, you can have an amazing focal wall that will wow everyone who comes into your home, but getting started can be daunting if you've never done it before. If you're new to stenciling, but want to give it a try, make sure you check out our post all about how to stencil, which includes everything you need to make the job go smoothly.

Picking the right colors is key, too. We wanted a fun, bright, cheery color palette and I think we totally nailed it, (if I do say so myself.)

One other thing to note: this wall took us approximately 10-12 hours to finish. Stenciling is no joke, people, but again, it's sooooo worth the end result! So, grab your best friend, a fabulous stencil from Royal Design Studio, and go to town!

To check out the rest of this room, click HERE. To watch this full episode of Knock It Off, click HERE
Have you ever tackled stenciling a wall? Did we convince you that you TOTALLY SHOULD??

Have you ever looked at your house and thought, well… this is just what it has to be. I can't do much to change it. That's exactly what we heard from Terry, the homeowner of this episode of Knock It Off. I should mention that even though she wasn't liking much about her house, she had the most meticulously clean and cared for home- I want to be like her when I grow up! Now, back to the design- Terry had dark wood everywhere (which some peeps love, but it was dragging her down), wallpaper from almost every decade, and just not a whole lot going for them… Or so she thought!

See what I mean? It's just not the kind of room that inspires you to"Be Awesome" on a daily basis. So, Jess and I decided to take this room from dreary to cheery (yes slightly cheese ball-ish) with a really fun, bright color palette.

How's that for bright and cheery and just overall awesome?!?

We love the impact an accent wall can have and after we removed the circa 1970s wallpaper, we knew that a Royal Design Studios stencil was the way to go! We'll be posting on how to remove wallpaper (we know you want our tips and tricks!) and all about stenciling an accent wall. For now, just enjoy the eye candy!

Terry's family room connected directly to this tiny sunroom she uses as an office and study area. We didn't have money for new chairs, but we were able to build a bench seat (all we needed was wood and 1 piece of drywall! Tutorial coming soon!). We tossed on a few World Market pillows that were on major clearance and we had ourselves a super inviting sunroom! I literally had to pull Jess away from this comfy seat to keep working!

We worked with furniture Terry owned, like this gem and just gave it a new sassy swaga with some paint and two pieces of hardware. If you have a piece of furniture that seems beyond dated, just try giving it a bold color paint and see what happens- it's kind of like magic!

Some of Terry's furniture we used (like the adorable table we upcycled), but other things like the huge ottoman they had, had to go. Instead, we built our own table using 2x4s and 2x6s. This piece looks so expensive because of the X frame, but it's easy-peasy to build (tutorial coming soon!).
I think my favorite thing from this episode was seeing how empowered Terry and Jesse felt. I sound all Dr. Phil, but I'm serious! They thought they just had to settle for how their house was, but now they know the awesome potential it has! Since we filmed that episode Terry has sent us pictures of other furniture they've upcycled, and she's painted her dining room walls and all the trim! Jess and I feel like proud Mamas!
So, no, we can't come to every single reader's home (we wish we could!!), but hopefully by seeing what we're doing with homeowners on Knock It Off, you're feeling like you don't need to settle either!
Here'a a little more before and after action for ya!

Hello adorable sunglasses pillow! Thanks Homegoods for always having amazing things to use in our makeovers!

See how the little sunroom flows right off the family room?

If you missed this episode, what are you waiting for? Click HERE to watch it online!
We promise we'll get all these tutorials to you really soon! I mean with our amazing intern Diana, is there anything we can't do??: ) She's the best!
What do you think of this makeover? Do you have one of those rooms in your house where you just feel stuck? Do Tell!

Outdoor furniture can cost an arm and a leg. Since I'm not interested in selling my firstborn to afford nice furniture, we often build it ourselves- and we do the same thing with homeowners on Knock It Off. We wanted to build Barb and Derek a sectional for their sunroom that would have a high end feel and not the price tag.

Doesn't it look great in their finished sunroom?

We are huge fans of giving credit where credit is due- Ana White is the queen extraordinaire of all things DIY furniture! Her blog is full of FREE furniture plans and one of her projects inspired our outdoor sectional.

We didn't use Ana's plans exactly, because we wanted it a certain size for Derek and Barb's room, so we came up with our own version, but if you want to make one, you should follow her step by step directions with awesome pictures!

Ana's plans for an outdoor sectional can be found HERE and you can download a PDF with everything you'll need.
A few tips for making one of your own…
# 1- Have the right tools! You don't need anything extravagant to build this sectional, but a strong drill, a Kreg Jig, and a Chop Saw are essential.

A Kreg Jig is a great, inexpensive tool for building furniture. We used one when we built our farmhouse table, outdoor table, garage lockers and so much more.

It creates a pocket hole to hide your screws.

You can check out Kreg's website here (and no, this isn't sponsored, I just really love this tool!!)
# 2- Have a friend to help! this is a two person job. There are lots of times where you'll need one person to hold and the other to attach something.

# 3- Use Exterior paint or Stain with a Sealant For our sectional, we used exterior paint, but watered it down a bit, so we could still see some of the wood grain. It's a little trick if you're in a time crunch. It spreads easily, like a stain, but you don't have to do an extra coat of sealant. We've learned lots of quick trips doing rooms for Knock It Off.

This project looks amazing and expensive, but it's really simple and a good first project if you're wanting to try your hand at building. All the cuts are straight and the plans are simple (you can thank Ana White for that!)

If you want to see how this sectional looks in the room, click HERE to watch the full episode online.

Hopefully this project encourages you to take that first step and give building your own furniture a try! It will save you a ton of money (maybe even your firstborn!!)

We were really excited when we heard about this screened in sunroom needed a makeover! We hadn't tackled an outdoor space yet for Knock It Off, and we were bursting with ideas. Here's where things started…

And here's where we ended up… We created a space that was fully comfortable, much more weather-proof, and filled with style- all on a small budget!

Soon we'll post tutorials for the sectional, plant wall, how to paint siding, and the painted rug, but for now, here's some eye candy from the makeover!
This drink station is actually a fold down table. When it's not in use, you can attach it to the wall and it looks like artwork. It was incredibly simple to make and such a great thing to have for entertaining.

We wanted to set this space off as a room of it's own, so we went bold by painting stripes on the exterior siding. It added a huge pop of color and just made the space super cheery (and I know that sounds cheesy, but it's true!). The plant wall was much cheaper than large artwork and also helped with our goal of bringing the outside in!

We were excited that we not only gave the homeowners an entire sitting area with the sectional, but we were also able to give them a little dinette where they could enjoy a meal (or soft pretzel!) outside!

These solar lanterns are from Ikea and you should see how fun they look at night! We added so much mood lighting that we almost wished we could have revealed the room at night! Our producers told us night reveals are a no no: )

And the sectional… ahh we loved how this turned out!! We know many bloggers have built outdoor furniture, but this was our first attempt at it (we didn't mention that to the homeowners of course!!) We basically decided how large we wanted the sectional, did a lot of math to determine how big each piece should be, and then crossed our fingers. Amazingly, it was really simple to build once we had a plan! We'll write a full post on our build within the next week!

If you missed this episode, head over to The Live Well Network for our Knock It Off Page. You can watch the full episodes online HERE.

Stay tuned for all the tutorials coming to EC2 in the next week or so!!
Do tell, what was your favorite part of this Sunroom Makeover?

This bedroom makeover was so fun to work on because we were challenged to combine both rustic and industrial styles together to make the space work! This room was huge, so we were able to do lots of fun DIY projects. Take a peek…

Now, to fully appreciate this room, you've got to see what it looked like before we started…

Talk about a transformation right?? You can watch the full episode online by clicking HERE.
We had a blast working with Tiffany and Jon and were so glad they BOTH liked the finished room!

Later this week we'll post all the juicy details about all the projects in the room, but for now, here's just a little room tour for ya…

This world map project wasn't featured in the show much (there's just never enough time), but we loved how it turned out and it might be one of my favorite projects of the makeover!

After a fun trip to one of the BEST salvage shops around, we built these reclaimed wood floating shelves using conduit pipe! The awesome shop we went to is Architectural Antiques in Bedminster, PA. Click here to visit their Facebook page for more info!

Using a mantle we found at the salvage shop, we used wood slices to create a faux fireplace look. It really helped define the sitting area we created!

One of our wildcard projects (AKA we'd never tried it before and just crossed our fingers it would be awesome) was our metal headboard. Toilet bowl cleaner and inexpensive metal sheets never looked so good!!

And stealing the show… herringbone barn doors with a custom made track for UNDER $200! I love how these doors are barn, but with such a modern twist. The yellow color and the arrow pattern made these doors super unique!
So, go check out the episode HERE, and then check back this week for all the complete tutorials!!

We've gotta know… What project is your fav? Any you'd like to try?

You all are familiar with marquee signs, right? They're those lighted signs that you see outside of old movie theaters, hotels or casinos in Las Vegas.

Source
These signs are definitely a retro throwback, but have come back as a home design trend in a big way! Adding one brought whimsy and fun to this kitchen and dining room that otherwise lacked both. These beauties aren't only meant for kitchens, though! They would look fabulous in a kids bedroom or playroom, a fun family room or even a game room. The best part about this project is that you can use absolutely any word that has meaning to you!

We've actually seen a bunch of tutorials for marquee signs using 3-D cardboard letters, and honestly, we toyed around with the idea of using them too. But we knew we wanted this to be a permanent fixture in her dining room so we didn't want it to be flimsy or break after awhile. Using chipboard letters (wooden would work too!) from Michael's on top of a plywood frame made this piece one that will last.
To create the box that your letters attach to, we used a piece of plywood and 1x2 pine boards. Cut the plywood to your desired size and the cut two horizontal 1x3’s and two vertical 1x3’s. Attach those pieces to the back of the plywood with a nail gun, creating the frame. We painted our plywood with the same color as the kitchen cabinets (Summer gray by Valspar) to tie in with the rest of the room, but feel free to go as bright as you want. It's your project, after all!

Decide how many lights you’d like on each letter and mark their placement. Our bulbs were evenly spaced.

Drill pilot holes where on each mark on the letters. Doing this allows the larger bit to go through the letter without splintering it, so don't skip this step!

Using a large bit the slightly larger than the socket of the light bulbs, drill larger holes through your pilot holes.

Go ahead and clean off those letters and spray paint them in the color of your choice. We LOVE Rustoleum's spray paint in Blue Lagoon (it's the color we used on our giant shaped frame)

Once your letters are dry, lay them back down on the plywood and figure out the spacing you want. Draw a small “x” in each of the holes and then drill a hole in each of the “x’s”.Place a few dots of liquid nails on the back of the letters and align the letters over the holes in the plywood. Let dry completely. Thread the sockets through the holes and then screw the bulbs in. We used these string lights from Target- there are about 25 bulbs per strand, so plan accordingly.

We chose to add an outlet behind the marquee sign to hide the cord, but you could easily drill a small hole in the bottom of the frame to pull the cord through. If you paint the cord the same color of your walls, you'll never even notice that the cord is there!

We think this sign is pretty darn awesome and Linda has since told us that it inspires her to be more creative with her cookies and cakes business!

Haven't seen this episode yet? Watch the whole thing online HERE!

Also, we're always adding new Knock It Off projects to our DIY gallery, so be sure to check those out, as well.: )

It's kind of a bummer that kitchens are usually the hub of a home and at the same time, they're the most expensive room in a house to remodel!! The good news is that we found ways to DIY almost every item in this galley kitchen and did the entire makeover on a tiny budget. Today we're going to share with you how we took the kitchen cabinets from dated, pickled wood to classic, crisp white!

To watch this full episode online Click HERE!

This was the cabinet situation when we arrived. I really wonder why on earth pickled wood was ever a trend?!? I'm sure in a few years, we'll look back on lots of our design choices and wonder the same thing.: )

Other than this one cabinet, all the rest were in good working condition. We also got lucky that the style of these cabinets was pretty simple and classic. No crazy scroll lines, just clean and straight- perfect for a paint-pick-me-up! The hardware however… that had to go!

The finished look was insanely different!!

Now, we're going to share some basic tips for painting your cabinets, but Jess also did her entire kitchen white last year, so at the bottom, be sure to click through to her post for a really detailed tutorial!
1. Remove the cabinet doors from the frames. Take off all of the hardware at this time and put them in a safe place, if you’re going to be reusing them. We did reuse the hinges for the cabinets, but that was it. 2. Set up a work station where you can lay out all of your cabinets at once- this is the fastest way to get all those cabinets painted as fast as possible. We like using plastic folding saw horses with 2x4s laid across. They're light and easy to move around. We got ours at Lowe's for $49 for a set of 2.

3. If you’re cabinets aren’t super glossy, you can use regular old steel wool to rough up the fronts of the door. You just want to make it so that the paint adheres. If you’re cabinets are glossy, go ahead and sand them. You won't regret doing this step right- it will determine if you have paint chipping in 6 months or not.

4. Wipe down the cabinet doors to remove all dust. Make sure you use paint plus primer to get the best coverage. Using foam rollers designed for cabinetry, roll on the paint in even coats, making sure to not drip!
For Linda's kitchen we used Valspar's Summer Grey in Semi-Gloss. It reads like a white, but looks just a little moodier: )

5. Once the paint has cured for the recommended time, flip them over and repeat the process on the insides of the doors. 6. When your doors are drying, head back into the kitchen and rough up the frames of the cabinets with steel wool and paint them, as well. Once they’re dry, rehang your cabinet doors.Reattach the hardware, or install new hardware. This is when you can step back and admire the way your kitchen feels completely transformed!

Check out Jess' kitchen makeover with a full breakdown on how to properly paint your cabinets.

It's amazing the difference a coat of white paint can make! For about $30 you could completely transform any dated kitchen!!
To watch this segment or the full episode- click HERE! Stay tuned for these other DIY tutorials coming to the KIO DIY Page soon!

We could not wait to get our hands on this white-walled, lackluster master bedroom! We had a blast transforming it into a colorful and fun room that was full of personality and matched the homeowners enthusiasm and zest for life! After thoroughly scaring Steph and Dan with our choice of tangerine orange paint for the walls, we showed them how a little bit of color can go a long way in creating an awesome room!

Meet Steph and Dan. They're super fun, young, outgoing, goofy and not-to-mention, pretty darn good-looking!

In two days, we took their blah bedroom from this:

to this!

Pretty crazy, right? We DIYed our way through this entire room and even upcycled some of their old furniture into amazing, modern pieces! Plus, we were so happy to incorporate the gorgeous jewelry that their non-profit Worthwhile Wear creates to help rescue women from sex trafficking in a quirky wall display.

You can check out all our fun projects for this room right here.

If you missed the episode, you can check it out here. We hope you love it as much as we loved putting it all together!

This project was featured in an episode of our DIY show Knock It Off. To watch this episode online, click HERE.

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We’re going to let you in on one of our favorite trade secrets: giant, engineer-sized prints! If you're one of our fabulous blog readers, you already know that this is kind of our go-to trick for dressing up a wall.

Choose and order the pictures you want to use. You could go with family shots, favorite sayings or even printable artwork found online. We've even shared some of our very own free printables here, here and here. The giant geometric-looking heart in this gallery wall came from one of our favorite places for downloadable art: The Caravan Shoppe. Make sure your images are high-resolution for the clearest picture possible and take them to any office supply store. Ask them to create engineer prints- our pics were 4 feet by 3 feet and only cost about $5 a piece! You can only get them printed in black and white, but for a gallery wall this size, that’s perfect and looks really classy.

Now we’re going to mount the pictures to the “canvas”. We chose to use foam insulation panels because they’re inexpensive and easy to cut. Trim to the appropriate size. (If you want something already pre-cut, go with foam core from the office supply store. You’ll pay more, but won’t have to make cuts!) Cut your sheet of insulation so that your photo is 2 inches bigger all the way around.
Lay the engineer print over the cut insulation panel and fold back halfway. Spray with adhesive, lay it back down, smoothing out the wrinkles as you go. Do the same thing to the other half. Now wrap the canvas like a present! Fold the corner of one side in towards the middle of the panel and staple into place. Continue pulling the print around the entire insulation board and staple into place as you go.

A wall of gallery-wrapped canvases can be super pricey, but not if you do it our way! Honestly, this is one of our favorite insider tips…but shhhhh…let's let this trick be our little secret.: ) And seriously, if I looked that good, I would have engineer prints of myself all over my house!

We've used engineer prints in our own homes lots of times. These projects are some of our absolute favorites, and make a huge statement!
Jess' Giant, Shaped Frame with Engineer Prints

Monica's Ginormous Industrial Art

Don't forget to check out the other projects in the room here.

This project was featured in an episode of our DIY show Knock It Off. To watch this episode online, click HERE.

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Vaulted ceilings can be a real bear when you're trying to decorate a space…should you hang something high or at regular height? How can you fill a huge space without spending a fortune? We came up with a great solution by layering headboards- making one really big neutral-colored headboard as the backdrop (actually ours was 8 feet by 8 feet!) and then one smaller queen-sized headboard with fun fabric. We found a way to create these upholstered headboards using some unusual materials that kept it right where we needed it…below budget! However, if you're not concerned with keeping the price as low as possible, definitely go the traditional route with foam padding and batting! Trust us on this one.; )

Decide on the dimensions of your headboard. The standard width for a queen mattress is at least 60 inches, so plan on making the width of your headboard at least that wide. The height really depends on your preference and the space you want to fill. We had a giant wall to fill…just take a look at this before picture!

Gather your materials. We could have purchased plywood, foam and batting, but those items would have cost us too much for our small budget, so we decided to use foam insulation panels and carpet batting from the Lowes! We found that while using these unusual materials helped with our budget, it made the process a lot more difficult! You'll use the same method either way, but it will go a lot faster. You’ll also need fabric of your choice. Our funky colorful fabric came from Ikea.

Cut the insulation panels using a utility knife to the size that you want. Do the same with the carpet batting but allow for a few extra inches so that it can easily wrap around the insulation board. Lay the insulation board onto the carpet padding. Beginning at one corner, fold carpet padding in towards the center of the board and staple into place using a heavy duty staple gun. Continue wrapping, pulling tight, and stapling as you work your way around the board. We found the stapling at an angle helped the staples"grab" the insulation better.

Lay the batting-wrapped insulation board squarely on top of your fabric, making sure that the pattern is aligned correctly. Use the same method as with the batting and staple fabric all the way around the board. About half-way through, lift the board up to make sure your fabric is still aligned correctly. Make any necessary adjustments and continue. (And yes, I like to work barefoot.; ))

You can hang your headboard a bunch of different ways, but we decided to screw them right into the studs. You could hardly even see the screws because of the busy pattern on our headboard. However, you could do a french cleat, or build legs that will attach directly to your bed frame.

We love the way this came out…and of course, how cheap it was to make!

Don't forget to check out the rest of the projects in this fun and colorful bedroom makeover here.