Monday, we shared the before and afters of a formal living room makeover we did last season for"Knock It Off". If you missed it, check it out here! If you haven't watched the episode- check it out HERE!
Today we're showing you how easy it is to add a fun (and temporary) pop of color to your walls!
Just in case you forgot- here's where we started with the piano wall…
We actually used vinyl stickers to add our dots. We could have painted, but it would have taken a lot longer and would have been more permanent. We got our vinyl dots from Walls Need Love, but if you have a Silhouette you can easily cut your own. We have a Silhouette and love it, but we're usually on a time crunch with the show, so we went the ordering route this time. We went with a really organic style with our dots. We wanted them to draw attention to the piano and then kind of pull the eye down towards the fireplace wall. You could do any style you want!
Here are some other awesome polka dot walls we love! Dottie Dottie Confetti
Source unknown
To and Fro
Vinyl stickers are such a quick, easy, and inexpensive way to add dress up your walls! What do you think- Are any dots in your future?
Thanks for all your feedback on Kira's Colorful Room Makeover this week! Funny story… Jess and I are doing some filming this coming Monday (can't spill the beans yet!) and they need to get some footage of Kira's room… can I just tell you how messy her room is now? There are about 200 tiny Polly Pocket accessories on the floor! If only my house could stay as clean as it is on the blog! If you missed the makeover reveal check it out here and you can read the full accent wall tutorial here.
Today we're talking whiteboard walls!! It's the perfect solution for creative kids that color on walls anyway!
I recently learned of IdeaPaint and I was super excited that they wanted to have me try out some of their new CREATE Idea Paint and accessories! I am a sucker for packaging and good fonts and they scored major points with me right off the bat!
Most people think of whiteboard paint as just that… White! Guess, what? IdeaPaint actually comes in clear (also black and white) so that you can put it over any color wall. That allows for so much more creativity… so guess what I did?? Yup, painted it on white walls! Ha! I have another can that I plan to use on a color-filled space when Jess and I get a blogging office (someday!) I have to show you the way IdeaPaint comes… you get two ingredients that need to be mixed… you add THIS to THAT (did you know I love witty things?!?) The prep directions were super simple.
So, here's how it all went down… We painted the entire room stark white. It's actually the first time I've ever painted a wall white…ever!
We didn't use a chalk line to mark off our whiteboard area because we didn't want blue chalk getting into the clear paint. We made really small pencil marks. I knew I was adding a frame, so the edges didn't have to be perfect. The paint was simple to apply with a roller (included in the paint kit) and you could clearly see the painted and unpainted areas because of the shine.
We bought two 8 foot pieces of plywood for the frame.
I wanted to mirror the rectangular shapes of the mosaic wall, so I sketched out a happy little drawing. I'd almost kill for just an ounce of artistic ability! (Don't worry, I won't really!)
We cut the plywood with a jigsaw (Jess and I sure love our jigsaws!!) We didn't take any pictures of that part, because it was really late… Yes, that's AM!
We waited until the IdeaPaint had dried for about an hour and was dry to the touch before we placed any wood near it. We needed to measure for a few cuts.
One REALLY important thing to know about IdeaPaint… you need to let the paint cure for 4 days before you write on it at all. They even include a really cute sign to put on the wall!
The next morning (yes, we do sleep sometimes) I spray painted the plywood. I really liked how some of the grain showed through.
Want to see something funny?… I don't have sawhorses… but I do have Power Wheels!
Once the boards were dry, we simply nailed them into the wall with finishing nails (making sure to hit some studs)
We were left with a HUGE area for Kira to color on! She and her little friends have so much fun playing school, store, and creating"Princess lands" on her wall now! (And don't forget the plain surrounding walls are getting something very special- hopefully this weekend!)
I highly recommend IdeaPaint- I know chalkboards are all the rage, but they're really messy! I didn't want a constant pile of dust on Kira's light carpet. The whiteboard wipes off easily and I feel like the kids can be even more creative with their color choices. There are so many dry erase colors available. I was browsing the IdeaPaint website and found these other cool ideas that I just might try in other areas of my house! I love the simple calendar!
See how cool a colored surface looks with IdeaPaint? That green is awesome!
Kaden has bunk beds in his room and as soon as he saw this picture he wanted a bunk bed that could write on! I've also seen it used on student desks and table tops for homework etc… There are so many cool ideas you could try (no pun intended!)
I want to give a great big Thank You to IdeaPaint for allowing me to try out their CREATE paint. Kira and I love the result and I can't wait to try it in on some other surfaces! Have you ever thought of adding a whiteboard to your house? Where would you try one first?
Check out IdeaPaint's Website IdeaPaint on Facebook ** I was provided with IdeaPaint to review. I was not compensated in any other way for this post. All opinions are 100% legit and all mine. **
While the upstairs of the barn was being spray insulated the downstairs was fast coming along. One of those things was the staircase that mister man felt the need to change in the design, something else that cost more money! Even though mister man was building the stonewalls and he was using leftover granite blocks it still cost extra to have half the lower barn dug out as seen here.
While these pictures don't look like much yet it will. The staircase is 42' wide and goes up and takes a 90-degree angle.
Here you can start to see the walls coming together with cement and granite blocks. The cement blocks will be hidden under the treads so no sense in wasting expensive antique granite blocks.
The brick you see in the middle of the wall won't show either but since mister man had cement blocks and granite blocks in that one pass he had to make the granite as wide as the cement to keep things even. All kinds of tricks! You can see here that as you start up the stairs they face out the back of the French doors.
Mister man allowing a rare picture of himself but he worked his tail off to finish the walls in two days time. This picture was snapped after spending a fourteen-hour day up to his knickers in cement and stone. He usually looks so much better but someone was tired!
The next morning after having an acid bath to wash all the stone dust off the walls. The cement block area under the stairs will be storage.
The stairs are actually going to be wood since building the rises and treads out of stone would have meant building the underneath as a solid structure. It would have been heavy and not cost efficient. See how the treads will hide the cement block and you'll be left with just the pretty antique block showing'love it!
Above view looking down the staircase.
While the staircase walls were being built our contractors were busy finishing up the rest of the downstairs that included mister man's workshop and the main barn area. This is a view of mister man's workshop, remember how dark and dank the place was, look below'.
Not a very welcoming room huh?
Here's a view of the barn floor where we decided to make it pretty. Since the back wall is stone boulders, one sidewall was granite block, we decided the floor should reflect all the stone. Very easy to do by tossing small stones in on the wet cement to give it texture.
If you look at the top of the picture you see what looks like two small rooms. The one on the left is storage under the staircase, the other holds all the heating units for the radiant floor heat upstairs.
Close up of what the finished floor looks like....
That raised back cement step just in front of the boulder wall is actually a French drain since water could still tickle down through the ground and out the boulder wall but so far no water so our contractors have done their job! As you can see the whole barn is really starting to take shape. Up next, buttoning her up!
This project was featured in an episode of our DIY show Knock It Off. To watch this episode online, click HERE.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Planked walls are the perfect touch for a coastal or nautical room (or in this case a pirate ship bedroom) but buying that much wood would cost a pretty penny! Instead, we chose to use paneling. We're known for being anti-panneling, but we're usually talking about 1970s paneling that screams"outdated basement!"This paneling, when hung correctly works like a charm!
Lowe's sells 8x4 panels of light greyish paneling that has a nice coastal feel to it.
The key to making sure it doesn't turn 70's granny basement, is installing the panels so the lines go horizontally. That's also what gives the nautical planked feeling. We measured our walls and outlets and switches so we could template and cut them out of the panels.
We used a circular saw to cut full lengths and a jigsaw to cut out the outlets and switches.
This is definitely a case of measure twice, cut once- so make sure you check and double check your measurements so that your panels install easily. To install them, we just used a nail gun and made sure we hit a few studs, and got all the edges secure.
You will have some seam lines where your panels meet, but it blends in nicely with the coastal feel. We also added rope along the seam between the ceiling and panels, but you could easily use crown molding if you want a more finished, less nautical look.
These planked walls made a huge impact on the space and were super inexpensive, at $15 per panel, it's way more affordable (and easier to install) than individual planks of wood.
To check out more about the other projects in this room, check out our Knock It Off DIYs Page and to watch this episode online Click HERE!
Yesterday, I shared my daughter Kira's Colorful Bedroom Makeover with all of you. Check it out here if you missed it. It's interesting when you're doing a room for a little person… there's this part of me that wants to go all crazy blogger-designer-nutso on the space, and then there's the realistic mom side that reminds me that her room will be a disaster of toys in about 3 minutes flat and that I don't need to go over the top to make her happy. Honestly, I'd kind of be going over the top just for my own self-interest. So, with that being said, the mommy voice won out and I went with a fun, yet practical room makeover. I'll guess I'll save up the glitz and glam for the master bedroom (if I ever do tackle it!).
Today I'm going to share with you the focal point of the room… The Mosaic Accent Wall!
I'm a total sucker for an accent wall. Honestly, since I was a junior in high school I've been whipping them up! My very first was a blue feather dusted wall in my parents' house. Then, I did a pretty cool square grid wall (again at the 'rents house) when I was a senior. Kenzie's first bedroom had vertical stripes and stars, then I changed to a fun magenta gingham. We had an argyle bedroom too! I wish I had pictures of all of those, but it was in the film day and age- boo! Enough of the trip down memory lane, let's get going with the tutorial! How to Create a Mosaic Accent Wall Since this is the room of my 5 year old, I asked her what she wanted, and she told me LOTS of colors."Mommy, I want purple, blue, green, orange…" and the list went on and on. I thought about it and finally decided, I could give Kira exactly what she asked for- lots of color!
I bought a sample size of each color and a gallon of white paint to use as my base and for all the other walls. One word of caution, Valspar sample paints do not have the normal bonding agents that regular paint has. It will require more coats for solid coverage. Just keep that in mind when you're planning a project. For me, buying 8 quarts wasn't an option (this was a makeover on a budget) and I'd rather have to do a few extra coats of paint. I had JUST enough- it was close, but we stretched the samples far enough.
This unfortunate event occurred as soon as we got home with the paint. Grrr… I was sort of hoping Hurricane Sandy would wash some of the stain away a few weeks ago- No.Such.Luck! Blogger Fail!
Here's my supply list: Valspar® Sample Paints Base coat paint Purdy® Paint Brush Chalk-line (a DIYer Must Have!) Tape Measure Pencil Frog Tape® Mini Rollers Paint Trays
I had to get rid of that BRIGHT aqua color and amazingly, the Valspar white paint & primer in one did the trick! I was left with a blank"canvas" and two weirdos (the hubs and my oldest)!
There are all kinds of approaches to getting perfectly straight painted lines, but I really think we use the BEST method. I'll tell ya about it, and then you can be the judge… 1- Measure out your stripes and put tick marks on both sides of the wall.
2- Use a Chalk-line to get Perfect Guide Lines- Simply, put the string directly on the tick marks on both sides of the wall, pull the string taut, and snap that baby! It is so much MORE accurate and FASTER than using a level and a pencil. Let me remind you of something… you've seen how awkward I am at dancing… would you trust me to use a level on wall stripes? I think not.
These bad boys are crisp, straight and ready for some Frog Tape!
3- Use Frog Tape to Divide your Stripes. When I'm working on an accent wall, I know it's going to be the main focus of the room, so I have to have crisp, perfect lines (yes, perfectionist tendencies admitted).
My hubs uses a few pieces per stripe, but I'm a one stripe wonder. I definitely prefer to do the entire stripe with one piece to make sure there aren't any uneven seams. Also, make sure you tape off the two side walls.
I love me some stripes!
After all my horizontal stripes were finished, I randomly placed my vertical dividers. I toyed with using a mini level to get them perfect, but then decided I could do it well enough by eye. Please ignore the epitome of frumpy DIY clothes, no shower, and tape on the leg.
Whenever I'm working on a project like this I rip off a bunch of pieces the length I need and keep them on the wall so I can get to them quickly, if I'm not using that method, I keep the roll of tape on my arm. Works like a charm.
4- Paint the Edge of your tape with your Base Color. It's one extra step, but it's the MAGIC INGREDIENT to perfect, crisp lines. Frog Tape alone is excellent, but on an accent wall like this, I had to be sure everything would be perfect. Just take your base coat color (whatever color is under the stripes) and with an semi-dry brush (not dry, but not sopping wet either) paint over every edge. I don't recommend using a roller for this step, I always use a paint brush.
It makes the wall look a little scary, but it will all work out in the end! Allow it to dry- I gave it about 40 minutes before putting color over it.
I had a tray and roller for each color. I wanted to work in a random pattern and that meant making decisions as I went along- no time for washing rollers and brushes.
Finally, it was time to put some color on the walls!
If you want a random look (like mine) I'd recommend working in one section at a time, mixing your colors as you go.
Because of the sample paints, it took 3 coats per square. It was a tad scary at first, but by the second coat, I was confident the coverage would be good.
Jimniy Cricket- Even before I removed the tape I knew I was in love!
Now, for the Moment of Truth-Removing the tape… Once again Frog Tape & the Mangin Method = Perfection! Seriously, I do a cheesy dance (you can picture it) every time I remove tape from a project! I do recommend removing the tape as soon as you're done-I don't wait for the paint to dry, and I remove it VERY slowly and evenly.
Here's the finished product! It was so simple and took me and Eric about 4 hours from start to finish.
Here's a before and after…
It's a lot of color (as requested by Kira), but I like the extreme contrast that the white walls bring. I also could totally picture doing this with muted tones or even all in one color with an ombre effect!
Almost every morning, I find KJ hunkered down reading books in her PJs… She loves her new room!
Tomorrow, I'll be giving you all the details on the whiteboard wall and Wednesday one of our favorite things… DIY faux canvases with Staples prints! Make sure you check it out! What do you think of the accent wall?Have you ever tried something bold with paint?
It's no secret that I LOVE photos… I actually need to make a conscious effort to decorate with anything other than pictures of my family. Jess and I thought we'd share our gallery walls today and then some amazing ones we've found along the way.
These are OLD pictures from my very first gallery wall in our last house. I ran to Walmart, bought oodles of frames and just started nailing and measuring. This is not how I would recommend putting up a gallery wall. I was crazy lucky that this worked out and I didn't make one wrong nail hole. I'm still not quite sure how that happened!
Sorry, these weren't taken as"blog worthy" pics! In the new house, I knew that a top priority was to create another gallery wall. I had it up on the wall within three weeks of moving in. Score! BUT… I've yet to switch out any of the pictures, so they're all facing the wrong directions! It's amazing how long you can live with some things without fixing them.
I added a few larger frames and still went with a fairly linear layout. What do you think of the one yellow frame? It's just a fun little play off of the little bird on the table and on the fabric on the chair. (Please ignore the crooked red frame… life with 4 kids!)
Please notice the sideways pictures, the mats that should be removed, and the crooked frames. I'm keeping it real and showing you what it really looks like most days. One day in the next few months very soon I'll get new pictures printed. For now, the kids just think it's funny.
Even though Jess is on vacation in Maine this week, I got her to share a little bit about her gallery wall… ~~~~~ My gallery wall is in process, but here's what I have so far! Things to do: 1. Paint frames so they're all the same color, 2. Change out mat and picture in the large frame, 3. Put something in empty frame at top.
My favorite picture from the gallery wall- a recent gift from my husband! ~~~~~~ There are so many amazing gallery wall ideas out there in blogland… Here are a few that I really love. House of Smith's awesome colorful wall
Source: thehouseofsmiths.com via Monica on Pinterest This wall is SO ME! Grey walls, clean lines, black & white pictures (and man, that's one looong hallway) Source: laurawinslowphotography.com via Monica on Pinterest
Source: houzz.com via Monica on Pinterest I love the accent lighting and the combination of sizes in this arrangement (Jess would love the baskets and bench)
Source: theinspiredroom.net via Monica on Pinterest We love The Lettered Cottage, and we love their gallery wall too!
Source: theletteredcottage.net via Monica on Pinterest This isn't my style, but I like how they used frames in unique ways and incorporated other items.
Source: thenester.com via Monica on Pinterest This is fun and whimsical. I love the use of paint to frame out the layout
Source: parlourhomeblog.com via Monica on Pinterest So, do tell… do you have a gallery wall? do you want one? I'm planning to add another gallery over our piano, so stay tuned for some DIY tips and a step-by-step post coming soon!
P.S. Don't forget that you can still enter to win a Blosoom Band! Check out yesterday's post for all the details! The winner will be announced Friday morning!
We loved Amanda's project this round because they did some things we're totally into… Everyone knows I have a thing for yellow (check out my yellow dining room buffet here). We also use our projector any chance we get (check out Jess' gigantic shaped frame), and we just love that they were willing to stage their garage to get the PERFECT look! Well, it paid off, Amanda! Now, tell us how you made it happen… ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have to admit, I was pretty stumped with the paint round at first. I'm not super creative when it comes to thinking up wall art or paintings, and I didn't have a lot of ideas in mind for what I could do. But then, I remembered this little guy sitting out in my garage:
Corey and I have had this Bjursta sideboard from Ikea in our garage for a few weeks now — my sister was getting rid of it and asked if I wanted it, and I rarely turn down free furniture, so I said yes even though I didn't really have a plan for it. Corey and I figured it could live in our garage when we convert it into a family room (which we fully plan to do ASAP!), but that was the end of the plans we had for it. So, after a brainstorming session one night, Corey and I landed on a plan — we'd give this guy a makeover and set it up in a high-contrast room. The goal was punchy, modern, and fun. After some debate, we landed on this color palette, with paint from Home Depot.
(The colors are Sunny Side Up by Behr, Cordite by Home Decorators Collection and Totally Black by Home Decorators Collection) We started off with a black wall…
We just painted one of the walls in our garage for this particular project — down the road once we convert it, we'll probably do the rest of the walls black as well (or 1-2 black and the rest white), but I didn't want to go there yet. So, if you back up from our shot a little bit, you'd see…
Just Keeping it real, y'all. For contrast, we picked out a super rich, mustard yellow for the sideboard.
(Obviously this is not the finished sideboard — just with one coat on it! Just a reminder that things look crazy before they start to look good!) On the walls, we originally planned on just hanging a gallery wall, but when I got the idea to paint a world map on it, we knew it was the way to go. We pulled up a good map online and used our projector to get it up on the wall.
I was surprised by how quick it was to get the map painted — we just used some small paintbrushes and I outlined while Corey filled in. It took about an hour and a half from start to finish, which is way better than I expected.
(Yes, we do DIY projects in our pajamas. Don't you?)
Once everything was all finished and dry, we decided the sideboard needed a little something extra. So we grabbed some paint in the same color but a different finish (the main part is high gloss, the details are flat), and used the projector again to add some numbers. It's a super subtle detail, but we love that about it — when you're looking from straight on, the map is totally the star. But if you shift yourself a little to either side, the numbers suddenly jump out at you.
After the numbers were finished, it was just time to style! We added an Ikea rug to hide the concrete floor (and to add some pattern)…
.added a lamp for some height… .
. …and then we finished it off with a few accessories and books. And it looks a little something like this:
I'm pretty head over heels with this little set-up, and I'll admit — I'm sad it's in our garage because I can't gaze at it every day! But, hopefully we'll be able to tackle the rest of this room pretty soon and I can go stare at it anytime I want to! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Talk about dramatic! Amanda's garage is now the prettiest one we've ever seen! It has been so much fun to browse Amanda's blog. One thing that caught our eye is this China Cabinet makeover. The chalkboard paint is such a fun surprise at the back and we loooooove that hardware.
Plus, this little table-length succulent trough is too cute!
We have two more awesome tutorials from Melissa and Sarah tomorrow and Saturday, so be sure to come on back. Also, if you haven't linked up your favorite paint project, you can do that until tomorrow at 10 PM EST. We LOVE seeing all the incredible things you guys do in your homes! We'll pick our favorite and feature it here on EC2 on Sunday!
We've been making some slow and steady progress on our hallway bathroom redesign (see my game plan here), but it feels like the eternal job. This is because of two things: we're making sure all the funds are in place (even though this is a small job, we still want to be smart with our money), and I've been searching for all the right pieces. Here's what we started with:
Not the worst bathroom you've ever seen, but it definitely had lots of room to improve. I'm so excited about this bathroom because it will be the very first room in our house that will be completed in the coastal/cottagey (neutral colors, weathered materials and warm wood tones) direction I'm heading in. I finally feel like I know what my style is, and now am taking baby steps to get my house in line. We started by breaking down the process into steps: Step One: Prep the Area First off, we had to take down that plain jane mirror and remove the builder grade vanity.
My he-man hubs cut through the caulk around the countertop with a razor and after that, just lifted it right off.
Removing the behomoth vanity came next. This was a bit tricky because we didn't have a clue how to didn't want to turn the water off completely to the entire house (he turned the water off locally, of course, though). After a bit of debating, Kevin decided to cut a small hole around the pipes with a jigsaw so that we could lift the vanity up and over the pipes.
Can you even believe the color of the walls behind the mirror? When we moved into this house 4 years ago, this was one of the first rooms we painted. The color was just unsettling. Still is, as a matter of fact.
Uh-oh. This was so not a happy moment. Actually, as we were pulling the vanity out, I said to the hubs,"I really hope the wood floor continues to the wall under the vanity." Ugh. It did not, and so, this project just got a little trickier.
Thankfully, the previous homeowners kept a few extra planks of wood flooring, but no matter what we do, there's going to be a difference in the staggered pattern of the floor where the vanity used to be. It's a good thing I don't care about everything being perfect. Why sweat the small stuff, you know? The final part of the prep stage was spackling and sanding the walls, and applying the base coat of paint to the walls (Olympic Quill color-matched in Valspar Premium from Lowes- A warm neutral gray.) Step Two: Beef up the Moulding This is a very simple and inexpensive designers trick that makes a world of difference. Some homeowners (ahem! Monica) are fortunate enough to have chunky baseboard trim, which just has a high-end, finished look, but we are not so fortunate. So, why not fake it? We bought 32 feet of half-round trim- enough to go around the entire bathroom, plus a little in case we made any mistakes. Then we took a piece of wood we had laying around to use as a guide (this is a must! It makes the whole job sooooo much easier).
Our piece of wood was roughly 3.5 inches tall. Cut the half-round so that it has nice corners that will match up using a mitre saw.(You can find loads of tutorials online that will teach you how to use a mitre saw and make the right cuts.) Place the wood on the top of the existing baseboard trim, lay the new cut half-round trim on top of that, level and then shoot in a few nails using a nail gun.
Next, use paintable caulk to fill in any gaps, and wood filler to fill in the nail holes. Finish with primer (ok, we did not do this because we NEVER prime, but you should do as I say, not as I do. We are such rebels.: ), and a fresh coat of white trim paint.
Voila! Chunky and fabulous. Step 3: Paint Stripes I'm not going to go into detail about this step, because we followed the exact instructions for painting the perfect stripe. I decided that we would paint a total of 3 stripes, and the middle stripe would be the darker color (Olympic Stormy Weather, color-matched in Valspar Premium)
The perfect stripe method worked perfectly! No bleeding at all. This picture does not do either color justice. They both lean towards gray, but are still warm like a neutral tan. I'm seriously in love with both of them, and am now contemplating painting the hallway/foyer one of these colors as well. Step 4: Make a Huge Mess (Optional) This is what our hallway currently looks like. How long can one live like this and not go crazy? We are are trying to figure out the answer and will fill you in. You're welcome.
Step 5: Install New Lighting Yup, after all the votes were tallied, I decided to go with this large, bronze fixture for above the sink.
It's awesome and huge, but there's just one problem: Because it's an outdoor light, the recommended max wattage is 60W. That makes for a very dim bathroom. I'm not giving up on this light, though, because I'm basically already married to it. I'm toying around with adding additional lighting somewhere else, and switching out the bulb to a 75W bulb (I'm a rebel, remember?)
See how there's almost no light shining above the fixture? Any suggestions? Here it is, as it stands today:
Lovely beefed-up trim.
Gorgeous stripes in neutral colors. I just had to throw my old ladder in there because I'm so impatient. And guess what? It's a keeper.
Wheeee! I'm totally loving it so far.
To Do List: 1. Add crown moulding. We're holding off on this until we can get a friend to help since we've never done it before and we've heard it's pretty scary. 2. Fix the flooring under the vanity and install baseboard in that area. 3. Paint and apply an antique glaze to the mirror. 4. Figure out the vanity situation. 5. Accessorize! (My favorite part!)
So, it's slow and steady progress, but it's progress nonetheless! Happy Thursday,
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I told you in my last post about our barn that the carnage wasn't over and just look at what our contractors did! Can you imagine my face when I walked outside and saw our barn hanging by a thread? It was necessary in order to fix the water problem since water and wood don't mix. I know it's a little dark but if you look inside under the barn you'll see that our foundation for the barn is made from stacked boulders. It won't fall since it goes back into the earth twelve feet! The foundation for our home is like that too in our basement and it's stunning! Isn't the barn pretty nestled in the forest?
The earth came up on the sides of the barn and was rotting the wood so in order to stop that little problem we decide to use something that would never rot from water'stone! Both end walls will be built up out of antique granite block to the second floor crossbeams. Since this is the granite state and our home foundation is all granite we weren't going outside of what is normal for our home.
That would be the husband laying the footers for the walls, he's very handy to have about. No he isn't a mason by trade but used to do it once upon a time in another life. You would think I would be married to the hulk since those cement blocks weigh 67 pounds apiece. Good thing he didn't get mouthy with me since he's already standing six feet under'.;)
Up go the granite blocks, those only weigh 18 pounds apiece and he's doing a double wall, one inside the barn, and one outside. The cement and one or two of the granite blocks will be buried once the earth is graded on the outside. The rebar in the middle helps to stabilize the walls.
Mister man had to hand cut those thick solid granite blocks to fit snugly around the boulders. Everything had to be precisely measured so when he reached the beam he wouldn't have to cut any blocks or end up with any gaps. It's amazing how he worked it all out but he has a saying: prior preparation prevents piss poor performance and trust me he did his prep work.
A corner that wraps around to the front or face of the barn, that corner will support one barn door when finished.
This is the end of the barn you can see from the street and as you're coming up our drive.
Look at that, to the left of the picture, see that support beam hanging out in thin air'another water incident that will soon be taken care of and look, the wall is up to the beam!
Mister man finally got smart and hired our contractors' 18-year-old son to labor for him and the kid didn't whine once'.now that's amazing!
You can see from the inside how the block wall came right up to the crossbeam. Look right there in the very middle, you can see how the blocks were fitted right into the boulder wall. Oh and that yellow tubing you see snaking through several of my pictures....yeah, that would be the propane for my stove and oven. Imagine how exhilarated I was to see people cutting and sawing around it?
One wall up now to get mister man to clean up this colossal mess! Yes, this whole mess is just from the husband not to forget that the contractors were here working and making messes of their own!
Not only did everyone have messes working on the driveway but they took over my front yard as well!
And then more trucks arrived with more deliveries. The excavator thought it a good idea to park his bobcat on top of the husbands' stone dust. To top it off the cement guy thought the stone dust was a great place to wash leftover cement into, do you know how that stuff sets up'it's concrete! Trust me ladies this sort of work is not for the weak of heart to live around! Stay tuned for next week when we feature'.oh yeah more mess!
November marked 2 years in our"new" house. I can't believe it's already been two years, and at the same time, it feels like we've always lived here! Before we moved in, I quickly painted each of the kids' rooms in a solid color and did very minimal decorating. Last year, I did Callen's room with the fun Pallet Wall, but he's the only one that has a"cool room" as my kids say. Kira was next on the list for a room makeover and thankfully, it's already gotten the"cool room" stamp of approval from my kids!
This room makeover was part of one of my projects for P&G. It was my first video for those readers, so sorry about the introductions, but this video does give you a great little room tour! (Excuse the creepy freeze frame… why does Youtube do that?)
Here's a still shot before and after
Pretty Big Difference isn't it? I can't wait to share all the fun projects and DIY details with you- I'll be featuring one project each day this week, but for now, here's ton of pictures!
I grabbed this adorable little hooter at Target. The mirror was something we DIYed about 8 years ago, yup, we DIYed before DIYing was cool!
Little Book Nook!
Spray paint and round bulbs make all the difference! All the color details coming later this week.
And this is the other side of the room! Helloooo… huge whiteboard wall! As you heard in the intro video, KJ had a tendency to write all over the walls. We now have a dedicated place for that! Wednesday you'll get all the product info and tutorial for this.
A little DIY took this dresser from boring to custom-ish!
For P&G I can't have any pictures showing, so I left Kira a little note in this cute frame instead.
Creative coloring storage!
Masterpieces from my little artist
Now that you've gotten the quick tour… Here's the plan for the posts for this week… Tomorrow (Tuesday) I'm going to give you all the details on this stinkin' awesome mosaic accent wall. I'm not sure I'm allowed to say something I did was awesome, but man I love it!
Wednesday, I'm going to tell you all about Idea Paint and how it can turn almost anything into a cool whiteboard surface!
Thursday, it's more Staples LOVE and I'll give you the 411 on these foam core faux canvases. And to think I almost bought 4 frames at 39.00 each! The entire project ended up costing me under $25!
There's actually one REALLY BIG step left before this room is finished. You might have been thinking that the walls are a little too plain and white, and I agree! They won't be that way for long! One crazy-talented Art Teacher from my school, who Kira has now titled"The Artist" is coming to doodle on the white walls with paint pens! Kira has all sorts of fun, things she wants doodled… peace signs, butterflies, and flowers are at the top of her list."The Artist" and I are coordinating our schedules, but once we do I'll be sure to do an update post! Until then, make sure you check back this week for all the tutorials and fun details of the room! So what do you think of my colorful bedroom makeover? Any favorite parts? Do tell!
Styling this space had its challenges. First, it's a small room and second, we were on a tight budget.
Let's start with a trip down memory lane....this is what we started with during the first round of the remodel three years ago. Oh look, more paneling!
This is after we tore down the paneling so we could paint — um, I mean, so we could figure out how to get the Jackson Pollock glue marks off the walls, before we could even dream of painting!
This is what became of this room after we dealt with the glue stains and painted the walls. This photo pretty much sums up our first year living in the house. During our remodel, upgrades to the room included new Marvin replacement windows, new base and quarter round mouldings, and new paint (this was all done three years ago). The primary role for this room had been storage, so we've spent little time in here until now.
And here's our new den!
For the most part, we've furnished the den using items we already had. The armoire, an Ethan Allen piece I purchased at a consignment store several years ago, holds our old TV. And due to the small square footage of the room, subtitles are easy to read!
The writing desk is an old family piece, the wicker chair I stole from another room and the couch....that's right, the couch I swore to oblivion, is the couch that use to be in the living room. If anyone knows of a way to dye a couch slipcover, I would love to hear about it!
The salon wall was more difficult than I had expected! This was due to the plaster walls, which required each nail to be pre -drilled. This made it much more difficult to play around with the layout. All the art I used on this wall were pieces I already had or have recently re-framed. Our budget for this 'new' room was minimal. In fact, I believe Hubby's budget advice was — don't spend any money! Withthat in mind, the only new items include....6x9 (a hard size to find) jute rug from The Company Store, an armchair from IKEA and a few throws and pillows from Home Goods. There's still some finishing touches to add....like a ceiling light! I was thinking of a mini chandelier but have also looked at some modern style fixtures. Also, we need to add some sort of coffee table to put cups of tea and other beverages on. I'm thinking it too will have some modern lines.
Before we get into today's dining room post, there's some CWTS Biz to take care of… Umm 361 Entries is Amazing!! My goal (which Jess thought was a little nuts was 300!) Thanks so much to everyone that entered. So what happens now?? Submissions have closed and the Blog Stars are working on choosing their top projects. But lest you think it's all in the hands of those ladies, don't forget about the 12th Spot!
Starting TODAY (to give everyone a fair chance) the entry with the most views will be awarded the 12th spot! (Remember, don't be a lameo and click on it 34572 times yourself-lol) This means that now's the time to get YOUR blog readers over looking at your submission. Tell them your number and tell them to check it out! You have until Wednesday, February 27th @ Noon for your clicks to count. Be creative and show the world that YOU want to be a CWTS Contestant! Speaking of Dates, here are some important ones to remember…
We can't wait to get this party started!
Now back to your regularly scheduled programming… ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I don't often refer to myself as the"Original Funkmaster", but it was the first thing that popped into my mind when I saw HGTV's recent pic on Instagram.
What the What! That looks like my house! Now, I don't actually think that I'm the first person in the world to do this, but in my own little world at least, I'm the Frames Wallpaper Original Funkmaster! Check out my dining room wall.
While no idea is ever truly original, I can proudly stake claim on this room for the past year and a half.
I realized when I saw HGTV's pic that I'd never actually shared a full dining room reveal of sorts. Today is that day peeps! You know how for many people, their dining room is the most underused room in their entire home? That is SO NOT the case in the Mangin family. We use it all the time and so we wanted to be sure it was a space we loved! Remember this crazy crew that we have over for dinner every single Tuesday night for what we've creatively named,"Tuesday Night Dinner." This was during cookie decorating night… (no, it's not usually this nutso… we typically put the kids in the other room to eat)
So back to the wallpaper… It's Graham & Brown Frames wallpaper and I first posted about it in my very first post on this here blog. I had seen it used for many kids spaces, but I hadn't seen it in any"grown up" spaces… I decided my dining room was the perfect place to try!
We lived with it plain for a while before I added the pictures, and the second I added them (literally the second) I was head over heels in love! The pop of color and the personality was SO ME! (I actually used a purple Elmer's Glue Stick to attach the pics. It's permanent, but even Command strips would have torn the paper bc it's completely matte)
I thought for about 2.1 seconds about using like artsy pictures or something"cool," but then I remembered that I'm not actually cool and that pics of our friends, family, and even pets would be so much higher on the awesomeness scale! Forgive the heavy load of pictures, but I've gotta show you some of my favs… First day of Pre-school… refused to smile until we did this!
From London… could have taken pics of Big Ben, but instead played Mary Poppins with the pigeons! FYI They're creepy!
Top left pic is of my parents… Seriously, when your parents are this cool wearing 3D glasses, you've just gotta put them on your walls!
Friends & Family rank high on our list, so of course we needed silly pics of the families we love! These are the people surrounded by these walls each week!
This pic is what got us into the finals for the Parents of the Year Award. Yup, sprinkler to the face gets me laughing every time!
And I'd be remiss, if I didn't include some of the Mangin Menagerie on the walls. This is Kenzie's duck Chase. (He attacks me and I loathe him!)
So you're getting the idea… this space is my favorite and makes me smile so much. Toss in some peacock feathers, some really bright furniture, and a Massive DIY Farmtable and you've got just the room for me!
Is it going to end up on HGTV… probably not (umm…HGTV, if you're reading, I would totally be into that though!) but that's okay because it's perfect for us!
If you want to check out any of the other projects in the room, here are a few fan favorites! The DIY farmhouse table is still one of my personal favs.
click here click here
click here So, no pressure to call me the Funkmaster anytime soon, but at least now I've shared my room and you see that the looks that you see on HGTV etc. can work in real life too! Linking Up to: Home Stories A to Z
Downtown with only two streets I thought I'd tell you how we came to be living in an 18th century house in the country. My husband Rick and I were living in NYC and had been searching the suburbs for 5 ' years looking for the perfect antique house to no avail. We had quite the list of wants and weren't willing to settle. After one particularly disappointing day my husband brightened up and said time to go farther out and made a call to an old childhood friend who was in real estate.
Autumn in Our Town An hour later our fax machine started humming away spitting out house listing after house listing, talk about excitement! The house listings were in Rick's childhood hometown up in New Hampshire and one house in particular caught both our attention and Rick couldn't figure out why it seemed so familiar so time to take a drive up and have a look.
Front of House at first meeting Rick had driven up alone to see the house and called that night telling me I needed to hop on a plane and get up to NH pronto, he had found our dream home. Meeting our home for the first time took a bit of imagination to envision what it could look like when brought back to life. Upon arrival to our house you couldn't see it sitting up on the side of the mountain from the road since the front forest was so over grown. But once up the drive there she was'''a cape built in 1790 sitting looking very blank and forlorn just waiting for someone to love her.
Side yard looking into the back The property was blank! No shrubs around the house, no gardens, no nothing except what Mother Nature planted. Those 'shrubs' you see at the back of the house were actually invasive weeds called Japanese knot weed or bamboo and were next to impossible to kill off.
Back of house
The property in general was an absolute mess! The side field weeds had grown part way into the side yard and calling them weeds was putting it mildly. There were huge wild rose bushes the size of a vehicle, poisonous sumac trees and giant weeds taller then a man. The only way around that mess was walking around on the road because you couldn't go through it.
Rick told me while we were touring what we termed 'the mess' that he finally knew why this house seemed so familiar, it was his old pediatricians house. My husband was born and raised right down the road from this house, talk about going full circle. Another surprise from our realtor, the old gal is buried right out back on the tier. I guess she really loved this house!
Yes, as far as you can see this is our mess!
The interior turned out to be as dismal as the outside, the whole house had white walls, not semi flat painted white walls but the white of primer paint. Yes, you read that right, everything was painted with primer white paint! While almost every trim throughout the entire house was painted that strange blue/green. Take it from me people white is not neutral it's shockingly bright!
We had seen our house on a rainy day so found out first hand that the roof needed help since it was raining on the first floor of a two story house. See the rain coming down the window shade? It's was flowing steadily from the ceiling as well. Despite the fact we were going to need a bulldozer and every surface in the house needed help the structural bones of the house were perfect and ready to stand for another 200 years.
Front forest after we cleaned and thinned it out We found everything we wanted in a property and house even if it was going to take a very strong back and many years to put right. So after nearly six years of searching we took the plunge and bought our home. Welcome to our dream!
Monica and I both went to the Dublin Fire Co. annual flea market last week (went the same day, but not together. Boo!) This was the first flea market I had been to where I was actually looking for items to repurpose. I had a couple of things in mind that I wanted, but also found a few other things that just begged to come home with me. I went with my mom, and she is a great person to go with because she, like me, can see potential in anything! (It's one of the perks of being an eternal optimist).
I got this awesome Pier 1 vase/urn for $5 (regularly $30) and it now graces my mantel.
One of the other things I purchased was an old workbench/sawhorse thingy. This was a little bit of a risk for me- I had an idea of where I would put it, but wasn't sure it would work out. But for $20, I knew I could use it somewhere!
That little beauty fit perfectly in my entryway! I had been wanting something to make that space a little more welcoming (and I little less"go away"-like, as Monica says), and this fit the bill. I can't get enough of the color, either.
Good, sturdy legs, huh?
This large pitcher caught my eye on the first table I went to. It was very country-looking with it's red and white checker pattern (sorry, no before pictures, but trust me, it's much better this way), but a little Rustoleum Painter's Touch spray paint in glossy white took care of that. I filled it with pussy willows from a local garden center and now it looks like it was meant to sit on that bench all along, and I just led it home.
Over on the other side I stacked a few books and an old lantern of my grandmothers. I love having a few of her things in my home as a way to remember her. That cute little plant is from Ikea and the mug was from a friend. (Thanks, Lindsey S. It's getting good use!)
(The view from the hallway upstairs.) On a side note, the pictures have made me hate the color of paint on our walls in the entry even more than I already did. When we moved into this house, the walls were peach. Like literally peach. We said goodbye to those as soon as we could, but lo and behold, the color I picked to replace it has a pink undertone, as well. Definitely the color of swine. (Melissa, at the Inspired Room, dealt with an entire house of swine, and I realized that this is the PERFECT description of my color). Blech! It will be a nice, non-swine, beige soon. Add that to the never-ending to-do list for my hubs. Poor guy.
Some of you may be wondering about the frame hanging above the new bench vignette. My hubs and I made this out of reclaimed barn wood (my father-in-law has a treasure trove of barn wood in his barn. Go figure.: ) Kevin cut the picture holes (is that the right word?) and then mounted another board to the back that I painted black, so that I could attach the pictures to it. I then painted the entire frame black, then painted it again in a brick red color with a thick bristle brush and minimal paint so that it looked a bit distressed. Finally, I added the phrase that I bought from Uppercase Living to it. I am so in love with this frame, it's not even funny.
Speaking of reclaimed barn wood, I have two big pieces ready to be made into frames (one holds four pictures, and the other holds one picture). If you're interested in purchasing one, send me an email to let me know. You can totally customize the color and phrase. This piece never fails to get lots of"wows", so if you want one in your home, give a holla!
What are some of your favorite flea market treasures? Happy Monday,
You might have noticed that once in a while we start a project here on the blog and then pretty much never mention it again… leaving you hanging. Sorta like the awesome guy on a date that never calls again. We don't want to be"that guy," so today I'm doing a little blast from the past update! Remember my family room last January? I was getting ready to stencil some wall panels…
So I painted them and then decided they just weren't working. Far too much going on…
Since I loved the stencil pattern (just not on that wall), I used it on my outdoor rug!
BUT… I left ya hanging with my family room! What happened to the walls?
Here's what we've got going on now… I had these two pieces of art in my completely mishmashed piano/craft room, and thought the colors would work in the family room. It took me a few weeks to decide if they worked or not, but I decided I think they do.
Let me be honest with you for a second… I HATE decorating around my TV! (Although, I am thankful for the TV) I'm constantly grumbling about it in my head. There's only so much you can do around it and to be really honest, I sort of just put together semi-lame mantles because of it. At least I have Jess' super awesome mantles to drool over!
Even with my semi-lame mantles, I usually manage to find one or two things that I like… This season my light-bulb-meets-lantern is enough to keep me happy!
So, as of right now, my family room is feeling 95% finished. I'm pretty sure that as a mom of four kids, I'm never going to get to 100% and I think I'm okay with that. We play soccer, make Wipeout obstacle courses, and of course make cool forts in there all the time. I never want my design plans to get in the way of that! So what do you think of the family room walls? Think the art works alright?
Earlier this year, we shared goals for our homes, and one of mine was creating a big boy room for my baby, Charlie. I guess he's not really a baby anymore, he'll be 3 in July, but you know what I mean. And now that there will actually be a baby in our lives, we need to move Charlie's crib into the nursery. Rather than kick him out of the crib right before the baby arrives, we decided to make the transition far in advance so that he doesn't feel like he's being replaced. Last week we moved a twin bed into his room and he's been sleeping in it like a champ ever since!
Now that the hard part is out of the way, I'm ready to begin decorating the room! Of course, I've been gathering lots of inspiration on Pinterest and have a pretty good idea of what I want the room to look like. Want to see?; ) Here are a few of the elements I'm planning on incorporating: 1. I'm so in love with the way the designers layered the headboards in this room. I'm not going to do two upholstered headboards, but am hoping to achieve the same affect with something a little different. Also, man, do I love stripes! That exact striped fabric is defintiely going to make an appearance.
Source 2. Navy! Enough said.
Source 3. Planked walls. I've done enough entire wall planking for a while, but we are going to be dressing a small area of the room with some planks. I just can't get enough of this style of walls!
Source 4. I know this has been done millions of times, but I'm still digging the monograms on the wall. I love the graphic statement these big letters make without costing a fortune!
Source 5. Sadly, there won't be any nautical elements like I had originally hoped for. When given several choices, Charlie chose rocket ship sheets (I didn't even know he knew what they were!), and even though I'm not going full on space theme, I know nautical stuff would be much more for me than him. Boooo.
Anybody know the source?? I can't wait to get started but we start filming another episode this weekend, so it might just have to wait. I hope to give you an update as soon as I can!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Psssst. Did you hear our BIG NEWS?
Click here for our announcement post with all the fun details!! We can't wait for July 7th!!
If you haven't already done so, please GO VOTE for your favorite in the fourth and final round of CWTS! If you missed all the amazing projects in the first three weeks of CWTS, be sure to check them out below! Round 1 Projects & WinnersRound 2 Projects & WinnersRo und 3 Projects & Winners
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We can't believe we are already in the final week of Creating with the Stars! This contest has far exceeded our expecations and has opened our eyes to so many new blogs and talented people! This week's challenge was Home Decor, and I knew right away that I needed to tackle my kid's bathroom. It was in bad shape- boring, dingy and gross. It had ugly vinyl flooring, yellowed rubber trim and purplish walls (we bought a $5 can of"oops" paint when we first moved in- big mistake!)
We made a lot of easy and inexpensive upgrades like replacing the old flooring with vinyl peel & stick tile (it cost under $30!), adding chunky baseboard trims, painting the walls and the vanity, framing the mirror, hanging a new shower curtain and throwing a new bathmat down (both were from World Market). Not to mention, I accessorized with fun stuff from HomeGoods. Thanks, HG!
This adorable bird shelf coordinated so well with the shower curtain and was marked waaaaayyy down from $120 to $30, which made me super happy. I lined the back of the shelves with coordinating paper for a fun pop of color.
And just for fun, here's the before and after shot for you.
Now it's your turn to link up your favorite home decor projects from the past year. Anything home decor-related, room makeovers included, are fair game! We can't wait to see what you've got!
Don't forget to checkback tomorrow to find out the Winner of the first ever Creating with the Stars contest! We're biting our nails over here!
When we bought our 18th century home fourteen years ago never in my wildest imagination did I think it would take so long to remodel my kitchen. Being both a Yankee and a New Englander we don't believe in waste and using things until they literally fall apart. I hated my kitchen and nearly dropped to my knees in thanks when my stove finally became a fire hazard. So when the husband said lets remodel the kitchen images of grandeur floated through my head''.
I dreamed of high ceilings and clean open spaces''.image viaBill Litchfield
I dreamed of tons of cabinet space and seating area....image via Steve Giannetti, Brooke's husband, fromVelvet & Linen(I'm in love with this kitchen just move it into my house please!)
I dreamed of large windows with lots of natural light....image viaBelgian Pearls
Lots and lots of light!....image viaBill Litchfield
I dreamed of using natural materials....image viaChateau Domingue
I dreamed of using stone....image viaCote de Texas
Image viaChateau Domingue
I dreamed of clean lines....image viaA Life's Design
I dreamed of stainless steel appliances....image viaDarryl Carter, love, LOVE this kitchen! But then reality crept into my world and my dream bubble popped and I was faced with the kitchen from my nightmares! The reality is I have a kitchen that's only 16' x 14', a whole 224 square feet with 8' 2' ceilings, the lowest ceiling height that could be found in my house. It's one of those quirks of an 18th century house.
The kitchen did have semi custom built cabinets and corian counters but it had a lot of issues. White counter tops are not my thing, neither is an electric stove with only two burners. No back splash around the sink or the stove. The microwave above the stove would get really hot when I cooked, it being digital you can imagine how well it worked after a few shots of heat. That refrigerator couldn't hold the makings for a Thanksgiving meal. The faucet had this annoying drip for years on end let alone it didn't reach into the middle of the sink just that one little corner and no sprayer! The floors were badly worn, wood floors should never be allowed in a hard working kitchen. We made the mistake of using our kitchen as a giant crate for our brand new puppy and he choose to do a little decorating himself'...look at the wall'nice huh? Sheet rock paper ripped off and the sheet rock and baseboards chewed. DO NOT USE YOUR KITCHEN AS A PUPPY CRATE! And I hated the country look but felt tied to it for some reason. Probably because of the elements in the kitchen felt so country.
I had a few restrictions when it came to designing my new kitchen''.I wasn't allowed to bump walls out in hopes of gaining space, the kitchen is not as wide as my house and I could have gained ten feet in width had I moved those walls. Since we have harsh cold winters we had to have a wood stove for warmth. I wasn't allowed to change the windows out since they were original to the house and not drafty believe it or not. And our Golden Dylan needed his area. Other then that I had a free hand and boy was I excited!
With Hubby out of town all week, I decided to paint our kitchen walls. But let me just say (in case I've implied otherwise), that I absolutely dread painting. I think by far the hardest part for me is just getting started. For example, I put on my calender "Paint Kitchen Tuesday." Wednesday came and about 5pm, I called my Mom and said, "ugh, I have to paint the kitchen today....at some point." It was 6pm before I started and almost midnight before I finished.
I painted the walls Simply White (eggshell finish), which is the color we used on the cabinets, shelves and trim (in semi-gloss). With a fresh clean slate, I then experimented with creating a not so kitcheny kitchen! Jennifer over at The Newlywed Diaries inspired me with this post! As I began gathering up some not-so-kitcheny items, I started to gravitate towards all things white, silver and wood.
I added a clock, some candlesticks, an alabaster bud vase that I put toothpicks in (to add some wood) and my sweet little owl figurine.
I didn't spend very much time on arranging things — can you tell? I sort of began with the basics of all the whitewear dishes and drinking glasses we'd be using on a regular basis. To balance out those kitchen items, I added my Grandmother's old candelabra, her big silver tray and her old little lamb print....oh, and her old owl print that I reframed. xo I tried to break away from my previous tendency to create too much symmetry. I still tried to balance things out, but in a more irregular way.
I like how the light reflects on the silver things.
I also really love my owl figurine.
And look, here we are....I think this will be Hubby's favorite not so kitcheny addition to our shelves. xoxo
My daughter turned four a few weeks ago, and as her gift, we promised that Daddy would build her a new playhouse loft bed, and then Mommy would decorate it. We love our girl and were more than thrilled with how excited she was about her new bed. Every day of the week we built it, she would ask us if it was done and could she sleep in the loft? My hubs could not be more proud of the work he did (he did a seriously amazing job!), and I'm so excited to share it with you today! Playhouse Loft Bed
This is not a tutorial, because we basically followed Ana White's plans word for word, although we did make some minor adjustments to the bars at the top of the bed. Check out her plans here for more information.
We cleared the bed out of Campbell's room in preparation for the building process. Because of the size of this bed, my hubs had to build it in pieces and assemble it right in the room because it wouldn't fit through the door.
Poor girl slept in a sleeping bag the entire week! (Find out more about the family tree mural here).
I can honestly say that I have the best in-laws ever. They willingly help out whenver they can and we so appreciate them! My hubs called in my father-in-law for reinforcements, and we were thankful for his expertise!
The biggest expense is obviously all the wood you need to build it. Since my hubs has such a limited amount of free time (he works 6 days a week!), we decided to have Home Depot make all the cuts for us to save some time. It worked perfectly- in about an hour, the really helpful Home Depot guy had all the cuts done, whereas we would have had to set up a work area, do all the measurements, make the cuts and clean-up which would have taken loads more time. They didn't charge us for any cuts since we bought so much wood (about $250 worth), so it was totally worth it.
Ana's plans are pretty extensive, but my hubs and father-in-law quickly threw them around on the floor in a haphazard manner. I'm not really sure how much they actually followed the directions, now that I think of it…
But after a few nights of building, a few more of painting and decorating, we had this:
Pretty adorable, right? One of my favorite parts of the house is the faux"siding" (which is pretty hard to see in pictures). We saved a bit of money on a couple sheets of plywood since we already had them on hand, so I splurged on two sheets of faux wood panelling ($24 each) that we hung horizontally on the outside walls. The guys used wood glue and clamps to hold it in place until it was secure. It adds such a cute touch and I'm so happy we decided to go for it.
The inside walls are painted an in-your-face pink that made it ridiculously hard to get a good picture. Note to self: 1) Turn off Christmas lights before taking pictures next time, 2) Straighten picture frames after the kids attack that area, 3) Don't try and take pictures with the kids around because they immediately mess things up. Ah well…life with kids! I wanted a place for Campbell to play dress-up and also a spot to corral all her jewelry and makeup, so I created a little vanity area with a simple mirror from Walmart ($4) that I spray-painted and a shelf that was already in her room that I spray-painted white. The two little patterened boxes are from Walmart, as well, and were only $.99 cents each. Score!
I found the super-cute flower hook at Joann's on clearance for $2.00 and used two Ikea hooks I had on hand to create a place to hang her princess dresses. The flower hook was already blue, but I spraypainted the other guys a similar blue for a cohesive look.
My wonderful mom bought fabric from Joann's and whipped up some curtains for the windows and door. I still need to make some tiebacks, but I love the polka dots and sweet flower prints!
Our original plan was to build stairs, but we didn't have enough space, so Kevin built a ladder, which she actually loves. She did fall all the way down once, on her very first try, but she's gotten used to them, by now!
All in all, this playhouse loft bed made one little girl very happy, and that's just what we wanted. Woohoo!
Did you have an awesome play area when you were little? What was it like?
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