Whitewashed

I was totally inspired by the Nester’s recent move to paint her family room white. When she mentioned the ease of carrying the same color from wall to trim, my jaw about hit the floor. There are two things that have really been bugging me ever since Nick and I painted the laundry room blue last summer…

#1: The color may photograph well, but in real life it is just too much to live with day in, day out. I was looking for something a little more moody, like Lindsay’s dining room…

Living With Lindsay

But I missed it and ended up with more of a cotton candy feel. Plus, thing that’s been bugging me #2: I made a complete mess of it.

I’ve been meaning to go back and paint the trim for six months now. Obviously it ain’t happening. But if I painted the laundry room white, I could knock out walls and trim in one fell swoop. Then I could use art and accessories to add color, which is more my cup of tea anyway.

Centsational Girl

So I’m thinking on it. I’ve got a few concerns, mostly about it looking dingy over time OR making my very old washer and dryer look even older surrounded by all that bright, clean white. At the same time, I think it sill help the small room feel more expansive. I’ll let the idea bounce around in my brain for a few weeks before I break out a paintbrush, but today I’m feeling pretty excited about the idea. What do you think?

Ch-ch-ch-changes

When I first started blogging, I thought maybe it would be fun to document and show off all the home decor and crafty projects I ‘d be doing anyway. I had no idea that my little project-completing engine would be hurled into overdrive. I’m so motivated by the desire to always have more new and interesting projects to share with y’all! I’m awestruck when I think about how many projects I’ve tackled just since I started blogging.

Can you believe that this was my entryway for the first year that we lived in this house?

And just look at it now (sporting a new bench and shelf)…

I took the porch from this…

To this (after I added a mailbox,painted the door, added plants, brought in art, stripped the original hardware, and finally spray painted the deadbolt to match the knob and lockplate)…

In the living room, I made a zebra-print floorcloth, constructed a shelf out of a floorboard I found on the side of the road, brought in a vintage quilt, made a pouf, and am almost done reupholstering the wing chairs. (not to mention some smaller projects, like a throw pillow, some wall art, and patterned coasters)

Before:

After:

The dining room isn’t quite as dramatic, probably because I’d already brought in the dropcloth slipcovered sofa, leaning bookshelf, blue painted dresser, and floating wall shelves before I started blogging. But even with all that work already done I’ve tweaked it by switching out the coffee table and painting it mustard yellow, creating a set of eclectic dining chairs, and swapping the tablecloth for a fringed burlap runner.

Before:

After:

There are lots of smaller projects in here as well, like the paper garland on the dresser, the fabric flower pillow I made using a brooch that I wore with my wedding dress, and the acorn silhouette I made just last week.

The kitchen is woefully stagnant. Nothing has changed at all, but I’ve got big plans for this space, like painting over the fleshy beige, adding some upper cabinets on either side of the stove, and opening up that awkward pass-through to create a casual eating area. I just gotta save up some moolah, which isn’t easy when I’m always blowing through my monthly home improvement budget to fund more projects to blog about.

The laundry room was so sad before I started blogging that I didn’t even include it in the original house tour. But Nick and I painted it blue and switched out those awkward cabinets for some open shelving that spans the full width of the space, adding tons of personality and function.

Before:

After:

Upstairs, in the master bedroom, we got new bedding, reupholstered the hope chest, painted the armoire and chest of drawers, made a little chalkboard message area, put curtains on the fifty billion windows, added flair with some homemade throw pillows, and brought in some art.

Before:

After:

Even the rooms we’re not really focusing on got a little love, like new hardware in the guest room…

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After:

Some fabric organization in the office…

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After:

And a new shower curtain (with ribbon detail), bath mat, and art wall in the downstairs bath…

Before:

After:

I’ve been a busy lady these last seven months! I just can’t believe how quickly things have changed. The whole house just has so much more personality now. A few years ago, I couldn’t have cared less about home decor. But something about having a house awakened the creative bug in me and I’ve had so much fun discovering and refining my personal style (luckily I had a rental house to practice on first–imagine lime green bedroom walls and all my stuff from college. I’m glad those days are behind me). I’m sooooo excited to see what the house looks like six months from now. Maybe I’ll finally have saved up enough dough for some upgrades in the kitchen? Or be decorating a nursery (for the child I have yet to conceive)? Only time will tell, but you can bet I’ll be blogging about it.

P.S. check out the house tour page for more pics of each room!

Basket 2.0–make use of what you have

Nick has had this little woven basket since his days of living in the frat house. I’m guessing he swiped it from his mama to store his dirty socks. I hope she didn’t want it back because I’m kind of in love with it now.

It’s really convenient for keeping in the laundry room. The colors weren’t really working for me, but I didn’t want to part with it, especially since it was a perfect fit on my new laundry room shelves.

I started by removing the liner. Even though a fabric liner is awesome for easy cleaning (just pull it out and toss it in the wash), the gingham was looking a little worse for wear and kinda clashing with my blue walls.

Even without the liner, I still didn’t like the color of the basket, so I decided to stain it. I had no idea how the material would take to stain so I was kind of taking a risk, but I figured what the heck, I like to live on the edge. I used some Minwax Dark Walnut stain that I already had.

Please forgive the blurry picture of my staining process. My right hand was covered in stain and I was struggling to hold the camera steady in my left. Working in small sections, I used a staining sponge to coat the surface of the basket with stain, squeezing the sponge so that stain ran into all the nooks and crannies of the woven surface, then came back with the same sponge and wiped up the excess. I applied one coat of stain to the whole surface, inside and out. Stain dries really quick, so I was able to do the whole thing in one sitting. Unfortunately, anything stained stays stinky for a few days so I had to wait a while before actually being able to bring it inside.

When Mrs. Basket finally did return to the laundry room it was a glorious reunion. She finally feels at home!

Can you believe it’s the same basket? Look how suave and 2011 she is now.

I feel really proud for working with what I already had instead of going out (or clicking over to Amazon) and buying something new. Baskets can get pricey if you start buying them left and right, and sometimes I struggle to find the size, shape, and color that I’m looking for. I’ve experimented with painting thrifted baskets before and was never thrilled with the result, but I’m totally stoked to know now that staining is a realistic option for giving something that’s still in good shape an updated look.

Have you found any simple tricks for updating something you already had?

Yarn Pom Pom Flowers

Remember this cute little ceramic vase I got for $5 and put on my laundry room shelves?

It probably would’ve been adorable with a little plant, but my gardening luck has been really terrible lately so I decided to give myself a break and make something to stick in it instead. Check it out.

The flowers are made from yarn and shish kabob skewer sticks. I started by unraveling a never-finished knitting project to harvest the orangey-yellow yarn. I wrapped the yarn around my fingers a bunch of times, then cut the end.

I also cut a short piece of yarn for the next step. I shimmed the yarn off my fingers, pinched the middle, and used my short piece of yarn to tie a tight double knot. Feline assistance is optional here.

Next, I used a pair of scissors to snip through the loops on each side and fluffed the whole thing out to reveal my sweet little pom.

Since this yarn has already been knitted it has a curly texture that I think works really nicely here. I made six flowers total, changing up the size a little bit here and there to keep things interesting. Wrapping the yarn around three fingers near the tips made a pretty small flower, while wrapping it around my palm made a larger one. I think it’s probably a good idea to give the yarn a few extra wraps for the larger flowers so they’ll be nice and full.

Next up, I took some skewers left over from making fruit shish kabobs for the 4th of July and used each of them as a flower stem by dabbing craft glue onto the pointy end and jabbing it into the pom.

I repeated the process for each flower and then set my attentions to readying the vase. I needed something to help the flowers stick up straight. I was hoping to find some styrofoam around the house that I could cut to size, but no luck. Just when I was considering running to Hobby Lobby for some floral foam, I found this little box that was almost exactly the same size as my vase.

I stuffed it down in there and used a screwdriver to punch a grid of holes in the top. It’s a really snug fit and it’ll take a good bit of work if I ever want to get that box out of there.

With my “flowers” and my vase both ready, I started putting it all together. I used a pair of wire snips to trim down the skewers a little bit at a time. In retrospect, protective eyewear may have been smart here. Those little pieces of wood went flying with every snip. Fortunately, my animal assistants and I came out of it unscathed.

I was pretty conservative in my snipping, as it’s a lot easier to make it shorter than to make it longer. I cut the stems to varying lengths and played around with the arrangement until I thought it looked pretty good, then used glue and toothpicks to make things stand up how I wanted them to instead of just flopping around willy-nilly.

I went looking through my craft stash and found some moss I’d bought at Hobby Lobby for a Christmas project. I stuffed it into the top of the vase to hide the ugly cardboard and toothpicks.

And here it is living it up in the laundry room! I love the happy vibe it adds. The fact that it’s so obviously not even trying to look like real flowers helps tone down the potential tackiness factor of other alternatives to an actual living plant.

I think they’re positively delightful, and I love that they’ll pretty much look cute anywhere I put them. I had everything on hand for this project and spent zero dollars. This really took very little yarn, so if you knit or crochet and have a small amount leftover from another project this would be a great use for it. If you’re not the kind of person who hoards yarn, consider unraveling an old hat, scarf, or sweater that you don’t wear anymore, or even scan the racks at Goodwill for a knitted garment in a pretty color. The fact that this yarn was all kinked up from being knitted already really helped give the poms a pretty texture. Another idea if you’re not into flowers: make a bunch of pom poms and thread them onto string for a pretty Christmas garland, or attach one to the end of a stretchy string for a cool DIY cat toy. Any other ideas for using these nifty little balls of happiness? I kind of want to make a billion pom poms right now.

Home Sweet Home

Remember this funky frame from Goodwill I popped onto the laundry room shelves to fill the space?

I gave it a little revamp yesterday. You know I couldn’t let it sit up there all sad and ugly looking for long. I used Publisher to whip up this sweet little colloquialism…

Then printed it out and used the mat as a template to cut it to size. I love using little pops of yellow in my mostly-blue house. Spices things up a bit, I think.

I used some plain ol’ acrylic craft paint to paint the frame black and the mat white.

I scraped off the Goodwill price stickers, gave the glass a good cleaning, and, after everything was dry, put it back together. That’s about the time I fell off my chair because I loved it so much.

It’s so funny how the mat originally looked blue in the frame but looked black when I took it out, and although it looked white after being painted it seems pretty gray against the white paper, but I love it. Yellow plus gray is so delicious.

This was such a quick fix. And, since I had everything on hand, it cost me exactly zero point zero zero dollars. Can’t beat that with a stick.

I heart it so much.

Beachy Blue Laundry Room

Ding dong, the beige is gone! In just a few hours Nick and I took the laundry room from flesh-like to fresh-like.

The brightness of this color is a little outside of my comfort zone, but I think I like it. Nick’s a fan. He says he feels like he’s at the beach. And since that’s about as much enthusiasm as I’ve gotten from him regarding any home improvement project, ever, I’m calling this one a winner.

The color is Benjamin Moore Waterfall color matched to Valspar’s kitchen and bath enamel. It took about two coats, but I am really bad about just going and touching up thin spots instead of giving a fresh coat to the whole wall so who knows how many coats it would take a normal person. For the shelves, we used Valspar exterior semi-gloss in off-the-shelf white. I had the exterior white on hand and I figured it was a good choice to stand up to the heat and humidity above the washer and dryer.

After sorting through what had been in the cabinets and weeding out what we didn’t need, this is what I was left with:

I went around the house rounding up baskets and bins, as well as items that were better suited to living on the new shelves than in their original locations (like extra pet stuff, our reusable shopping bags, paper towels, etc).

Ta-da! My favorite part is that I poured the vinegar (that I often add to loads of whites) into an empty clear-glass wine bottle and found an old cork that fit the top. So much prettier than the plastic bottle it came in. I’m even thinking about switching to powdered laundry detergent so I can ditch the bright plastic containers and put it in a pretty glass jar instead.

Here’s something else that I’m proud of: I pulled the bottom shelf out from the wall just enough for cords to fit behind it, then plugged a surge protector into the outlet below and hid it behind the laundry basket. No more ever having to wrap/unwrap the cord from the iron again, much less climb up onto the washer to plug it into the outlet back there. The excess cord from the iron drapes neatly behind the shelf. No messy cords + flicking a switch to preheat the iron = maybe I’ll iron more often now.

I think it’s important to bring a few pretty things into even utilitarian spaces like this, especially if it’s not hidden behind a door. You can see that on the far right of the middle shelf I grouped a thrifted picture frame (that I’ve got plans for–stay tuned), the wine bottle-turned-vinegar vessel, a square ceramic vase (snagged at Michael’s for $5) and an old gingerale bottle that I’ve held onto for years because I liked the shape and color. Part of me wants to put a little herb or fern in the ceramic vase, and part of me is sick and tired of taking care of plants that clearly do not appreciate my efforts. Would it be terrible of me to maybe make a big ol’ fabric flower and pop it in there instead?

Next up is painting the trim, putting something pretty in that picture frame, replacing the tattered blinds over the windows with something a little nicer, and possibly even coming up with a solution for storing the litter box and cat food out of sight.

Buh-Bye Cabinets, Hello Shelves!

The first step to making our laundry room more functional is to really amp up the storage. To achieve that goal, Nick and I decided to rip out the ill-sized cabinet above our washer and dryer and replace it with some economical open shelving that spans the full width of the space.

About a billion screws had been added over the years to keep it in place and many of them were stripped, but we removed as many as we could, gave it a few good tugs, and in no time had set it free for a better life in the country (at my sister’s new place).

Check out that kelly green paint! Paint a white “SHS” on there and you’d have my high school’s logo. I love me some throwback school spirit as much as the next girl, but this isn’t really working for me. And the wall is a mess from all those screws. Nothing a little spackle can’t fix though I think.

We went to Lowe’s and picked up 3 1×12’s for the shelves, as well as 1×2’s to support each shelf on three sides. The friendly folks at Lowe’s cut them to size for us. Take a squint below and you can see how the whole operation works.

We mounted the 1×2’s to the wall one at a time, using a level to make sure they were straight and a studfinder to decide where to place the screws. We thought placing them 13″ apart would make them evenly spaced, but apparently we were wrong. I think the shorter space available above the top shelf will be perfect for the lesser used items we’re sure to place up there anyway. Another little miscalculation resulted in the side supports sticking out a little further than the front of the shelves, but I’m not stressing about it. I figure when we paint the supports the same color as the walls and the shelves bright white the little oversight will hardly be noticeable.

I’m totally stoked about these shelves for the following reasons:

• I won’t sprain my abs anymore trying to reach the laundry detergent
• I can fit more stuff up there
• Keeping it open means I’ll be compelled to keep it organized

Next up is painting the walls, shelves, and trim (which is some kinda nasty), then loading the shelves up with pretty and functional storage. I’m more excited than a nerd before Comic-Con.

Project: Laundry Room

I don’t think I’ve ever posted pictures of my laundry room before. It’s not exactly my favorite spot in the house. Partly because it’s where chores happen and partly because it sucks.

It’s cramped and hot and I struggle to keep it clean.

I’ve got a couple of short-term ideas for the space. I’d like to paint, for one thing. The beige on the walls is just a little too warm and fleshy for me. The other big thing I’d like to do here is replace the cabinets with some open shelving.

Seriously, how much space is wasted around these cabinets? They’re definitely not taking full advantage of the space available on that wall.

There’s a lot of space wasted inside, as well.

So the first step in Project: Laundry Room will be replacing those cabinets with open shelves and painting the walls something cool and refreshing. In the long term, I dream of sleek and efficient front loaders with a convenient counter for folding on top, but I did not marry the kind of man who is willing to replace a perfectly good washer and dryer, so for now I’ll keep shooting them death stares and hope for the best.

You see that nook at the other end of the room where we keep the litter box and cat food? It’s about 3’x5′ and I want to turn it into the tiniest little half bath you ever did see someday. Our two full baths are both accessible only through bedrooms and I think that could get a tad awkward for guests once we have actual little people living in those rooms. But, like the new washer and dryer, that project is likely a few years out. Here’s what I’d like to do in the next week or two:

• choose a color and paint the walls (likely some shade of blue)
• rip out the cabinets and replace them with open shelving
• bring in baskets and whatnots to make the open shelving both pretty and functional
• Figure out the window situation–I hung curtain rods up there when we first moved in, but have since reconsidered the wisdom of hanging floor to ceiling curtains in a utility room. Maybe I should take them down and go for shades instead?

I’m soooo excited to tackle this room. Those cabinets have been a thorn in my side since we moved in last year, and the small scale of this room will be a welcome opportunity to experiment with color. As always, I’ll be sure to share all the details right here on this little ol’ blog. Any suggestions from you guys on adding form and function to a small-ish laundry room? The long and narrow dimensions give me the heebie-jeebies.