How Far We've Come... Master Bath!

This room is actually COMPLETE and I have no goals for this space for 2015, but stumbling along the pictures really made me appreciate how nice this bath is now compared to when we moved in. Therefore, thought I would still share!

 

This was my inspiration board:

 

Originally we put beadboard on the upper half of the wall, but when we did the full renovation we took it down and drywalled.

And the final result:

 

As crazy as it sounds, Miles has always slept best in this room in his moses basket!

 

 

 

How Far We've Come.... Den!

Ohhh the den. How I've hated this space! I have just had complete designers block when its come to this space since the day we moved in. We've made improvements over the time, but the room just lacks purpose, warmth, and style.

Here is the room shortly after we moved in. The carpeting was d-i-s-g-u-s-t-i-n-g! We had an old, hand-me-down couch with an awful slipcover. 

The one thing we knew we wanted to do - and I actually do love - is the tall beadboard throughout the room.

We also opened up the built-ins to fit a larger TV (that we never use!)

So much about this room just irked me.. The gray paint was too silvery, the blinds were perpetually dirty no matter how much I tried to clean them, the curtains looked too yellowy, the rug is not my style, and the room overall does not look inviting.

When we found out we were hosting Christmas and having a ton of family in town, we brought in a second hand-me-down couch. It may have made the room more functional for that one Christmas with a dozen guests, but overall it did not make me like this room a single bit more.

THEN came the day when we couldn't take it anymore! The carpet had to go!

Based on a project we saw on Young House Love, we decided to sand and paint the subfloor until I could figure out what kind of carpet I wanted.

Also had to say goodbye to the silvery,blue, purplish paint. We decided to take a risk and try brown.

Much cleaner! With no furniture, I actually sort of like this room.

We were going to recover this sofa because we liked the size and shape, but it was super expensive to hire someone to make it (better to just buy a new couch!) and I just haven't got around to trying to make one myself. Also still not a big fan of the rug and the curtains.

Wow, this post has been pretty negative so far! ;) The good news is that we have a plan! Sooner rather than later, we are pitching the couch, donating the rug to Goodwill, selling the curtains, and starting from scratch. Our plan is to make this room a playroom for Miles. I picture a tepee tent as a perfect place for reading books and having adventures, a big toy box, thick cozy carpeting, and new curtains. That being said, I know the function I want this room to have but still don't have a completely clear vision of the style. I'm currently searching for some curtains that inspire me! Hoping that a year from now (or month from now!) this room looks completely different. No idea what that look will be, but I can't wait to share once we figure it out! 

3rd Floor Bath

Along with the 3rd floor guest room, we also did some minor updates to the 3rd floor bath, mostly painting and accessorizing. It still needs new tile floors (the linoleum is beyond dated and ugly), new bath fixtures, a new toilet, and new mirror. I think we will tackle those projects this summer, but for now we just wanted to spruce it up!

 

 

 

Something that I think is essential for a guest bathroom are easily accessible toiletries in order to make them feel at home. I picked up these adorable baskets from Target for $14.99 each. You can't tell from this picture, but the top basket has toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, face wash, soap, and ibuprofen. Also easily accessible to guests are kleenex and TP. Just like a hotel, I think having these things handy for guests can make them feel much more comfortable during their stay!

 

3rd Floor Renovation - Guest Room Setup!

After working our you-know-whats off for a solid month, I'm happy to say we were able turn our third floor into a pretty comfortable temporary guest room for Thanksgiving. From start to finish, here is what we did:

• Painted the walls Martha Stewart's Flagstone (From Home Depot)
• Sanded the floors and stained them Sherwin William's  Interior Classic stain in Pickled White (2-Coats)
• Installed new baseboards
• Installed new trim around the windows
• Put up new curtains

By far my favorite part is the transformation of the hard wood floors. I would never be daring enough to stain the floors this color in a more prominent area of the house, but I LOVE the result! Like love it so much I want to marry it. I can't stop going and looking at it and just sighing! haha :) 

The permanent plan is to turn it into my office, so I look forward to transitioning the room over Christmas break for that purpose! Here are some pictures of the transformation: 

Progress on the Kitchen Built-Ins - Cabinet Doors!

If you may recall, we've had the framing of the built-ins in our kitchen done for awhile (see here), but a few weeks ago we installed two of the three cabinet doors. WHAT A DIFFERENCE!!! It is so nice to hide all the food/spices/cereal boxes/etc. that reside in this pantry. It makes the room feel 1000x cleaner and bigger. I can't stop looking at it.

And I would like to brag for a second that my sweet husband made these cabinet doors HIMSELF!! Because we couldn't find doors that matched the other cabinet doors perfectly and because we wanted very specific sizes,  we decided that instead of breaking the bank to have someone custom make them for us, we would invest in a router and buy the supplies we need and give it a shot ourselves (Errrr, himself. I had no participation!)

The last door will start underneath the microwave and down to the floor. Ahh so excited! :)

Then all that will be left to do in the kitchen will be the countertops! I'm leaning towards quartz that looks like marble, so we will have both the look and durability that we want. I tried ordering samples of Misty Carrera and London Gray from Caeserstone but they were completely sold out, and no place around us carries them either! (Go figure, I think I find something I want after a year of looking and can't get a sample! Blah!)

One step at a time!! If there is one thing I've learned in renovating this house, it is that good things (and/or good prices!) are always worth the wait!

Spontaneous Weekend Transformation - Inspired by Young House Love!

Let me start by saying we had absolutely NO PLANS to do this project this weekend. I'm going to blame it on pregnancy hormones making me super emotional and a well-timed post by Young House Love. (I'll get to that in second!)

You see, I have always hated this room. It just never sat right with me. The wall color, which was supposed to be a light gray, always looked a little blue and the curtains always looked too yellowish against the white woodwork and blue/gray walls (Ugh!). The couches were ugly hand-me-downs (although seriously comfortable) and the berber carpet...Ohhhh the carpet. No matter how much I tried I couldn't get it clean enough! We've been talking about replacing it for two years, but I have had design block regarding this room and haven't been able to make a decision I felt comfortable living with the next 10 years. (I really struggle with carpeting! Good thing this was the only room in our house that still had it!)

Anyway, I woke up last Saturday morning, and had a completely meltdown about the room and how it just always felt "dirty" and how I wanted the carpet GONE before the baby comes in February. But I still couldn't make up my mind what to do! Coincidently, this conversation happened over breakfast when I was skimming through Young House Love's blog on my iPad and saw this post they did about painting their subfloor as a temporary fix. HALLELUJAH!! It was less than 5-minutes after reading that post that I had pliers in my hand and was discreetly pulling back a corner of our rug.

What was underneath was beautiful, beautiful plywood (never thought I'd say that!) Thankfully Evan was on board for being spontaneous (especially since he did virtually all of the work) and we had all the carpeting up and out of the house in 30-minutes!

Once the carpeting was up, we had a decent amount of patching to do using wood filler. I think we went through 3-full tubes of it filling in holes where staples/nails resided and also filling in the small cracks between the pieces of plywood.

Unlike YHL, we decided to rent an orbital sander for the room to get an extra smooth finish. Sanding by hand just seemed too greuling. It cost us $55 to rent the sander from Home Depot for 24-hours, and we spent about $15 on sand paper to go with it. We went over the the floors once with 60-grit paper and then went over it again with 120-grit paper for a fine finish. (Unfortunately the cuff was stuck on the sander we rented and we couldn't angle the handle! Thank goodness it was a small room!)

Before sanding the floors, we decided to re-paint the upper walls. We went with Sherwin William's Van Dyke Brown. I knew that going with a dark brown was a risk and we didn't put that much thought into it ahead of a time, but thought we'd give it a shot! (Very unlike me on both fronts, but like I said this was a spontaneous project!)

Thankfully I loved it :) Then Evan primed the floors. We just love Killz water-based primer, so Evan finished this up while I got out of the house the rest of the day (shopping for baby stuff, of course!). 

Once it dried, we painted the floors in Martha Stewart's Flagstone (a semi-gloss Glidden paint) from  Home Depot. This is same color as the walls in the adjoining room and kitchen. I thought it would tie the first floor together nicely!

We did two layers of poly-acrylic so far and it makes all the difference! The shine brings it from a painted subfloor to a beautiful, shabby chic floor. Overall, I'm LOVING the result!! It feels like a new room. It is warmer, crisper, and CLEANER!

We originally had planned on doing white stripes on the floor, but I decided I liked it so much just being a solid gray that we are leaving it as is.

Talk about a transformation on a budget! We already had the paint so the whole thing cost us around $100 (sander rental, sand paper, and acrylic).

 

I can't believe thats all we had to spend to make me so excited and happy about this room! It is something I never would have thought to do or been brave enough to do without John & Sherry's inspiration - SO THANK YOU!!!

 

Here is one more before and after so you can get the full effect:

 

I'll keep posting more once the room is finished :) We have some plans in the works in terms of reusing furniture and adding a cushy rug.

 

(and yes, i'm very excited for the holiday's this year so I had to see how my wreaths looked hung up in the room!)

 

Stay tuned!