Main Floor Bella’s Room–Weeks 9 & 10

I haven’t even bothered to get out our good camera to take pictures of the progress yet.  So I thought I would post some snapshots from our phones on what has been going on these past couple of weeks.

The walls got painted and the ceiling fan got installed.  While we were waiting for carpet to be installed we used the bedroom as a painting spot.  First up was a big boy bed for Oliver.  We promised him a blue bed.  He decided he wanted to help again, so he put on dad’s flip flops and helped me roll on the primer.

He took his job very seriously.

You may notice in the photo above I chopped off my hair.  Here is a recent image from a concert Jesse and I went to (sorry for the dark image).

The carpet in Bella’s bedroom did in fact finally come in after being backordered a couple of times.  A certain younger brother seems to think this new room is his to take all his toys into.  Also worth mentioning is the color on the walls.  I went with a “dusty coral” color and my final hope is to have a vintage girls bedroom for Bella.  While Jesse was painting the walls, he mentioned multiple times he did not like the color.  When Oliver got up from his nap and first saw the bedroom painted he claimed “Ohhh……I don’t like it”.

Although now that the carpet is in, drapes are hung and Bella’s bed has been moved into there, he told me yesterday she had a fancy room.  He also cracks me up because most of the time I wear “workout” type clothing.  Or anything remotely comfortable with my ever expanding belly.  If I do happen to dress up, fix my hair, and actually wear make-up he never fails to tell me I look pretty or beautiful.  And then usually ask me “Where are you going?”

Other big things happening this week, the fact that school finally starts tomorrow.  These last 5 weeks have been a little difficult with both kids home all day long, but I somehow made it through.  Oliver gets to start his brand new preschool and is pretty excited about it.  Here is part of the new playground setup at school.

And lastly Bella is having minor heart surgery this Friday.  She has a small PDA hole that never closed up, so they are going in with a cardiac catheter to close it up.  It’s supposed to be an outpatient surgery, so hopefully it all goes smoothly.

And I’m just hanging on myself as this pregnancy nears its end and makes life pretty uncomfortable.  Sleep has been my enemy of late.  In fact most nights I can only get about 4-5 hours.  As you can tell it makes getting things done around here pretty difficult, as in our progress is at a crawl stage.  But with less than two months to go, we do have a few things that need to get done before the new baby arrives.

Vanities

While our master bathroom is being worked on, I am in the process of picking out finishes for the lower bathroom.

I have been obsessed with vanities made out of antique dressers and buffets.  I couldn’t quite convince myself I wanted to put one in our master bath, but I think I am going to attempt one in the lower bathroom.

Some inspirations I found.

This picture showing you can put a single sink offset and it still looks good.  We are definitely leaning towards a single sink in the lower bathroom.

 

I like this unusual color on the buffet below.

I have been perusing Craigslist for the perfect piece of furniture.  I am hoping to find something in the next couple weeks, or I might just run out of time.

And beyond finding the right piece of furniture I will have to decide if I want to paint it and what type of sink; undermount, top mount, or vessel, I want to use.

Clunky Toy Storage

Do you have large toys and no place to put them?  Sometimes if you are lucky you can find pieces of furniture around your house that will accommodate storage.  Because as we all know, children’s toys can quickly take over all our living spaces.

I had bought this console table a couple years ago off craigslist.  It was originally purchased to go into our hallway for mail/paper storage.

It got moved around a couple of times, until it went into the family room to help store toys.  The functionality of the piece was great, but with a really fake veneer/laminate wood look, it wasn’t the best looking piece.

So I thought I could easily paint it in a couple of days and give it a whole new look.  This process started in the beginning of November.  My first mistake was to use the wrong primer.  So after a days work of two coats of primer, I had to scrap everything off and then do a little research on how to paint laminate.

I followed this tutorial from Centsational Girl. and used the oil based primer, which worked great but had a high fume smell.  That meant I had to move the piece into the basement, which also meant I could easily forget about it, hence how it took months to finish.  Then I painted on a custom color I mixed from paint we already owned, followed by a couple of coats of water based polycrylic, because I knew this piece was going to get beat up by the kid’s toys.  And while this easily could have taken a couple days, I dragged it over the course of 3 months. 

Lastly I wanted to update the black legs and drawer pulls, so I brushed on some antique brass acrylic paint I had laying around the house.  I actually dabbed the paint on using my kids Crayola brushes which I stole from them once I figured out they made great brushes to do little craft projects with.

After all my hard work.

I really like how it turned out.  Up close you can really see the stamped antique bronze look of the legs.

I love baskets for small toys, but large toys need a home too.  And the big open bottom shelf of this console is the perfect place for them.

I was trying to quickly organize the toys for pictures before the destructor showed interest.  He made it over to his new toy area and wanted his picture taken.

Then he informed me he really wanted his car rug put into the space.  So we did a little more rearranging and got to this.

Here is how this little toy area looks incorporated between the family room and kitchen.

Notice my other started but nowhere near finished project.  Yes only one chair has a slipcover finished, I have three more to finish up in the near future.  That is going to be my number one sewing priority…after I finish a couple of other projects of course.

Ways you will use Math after school–Making a slipcover

At first I thought I could just use a picture and take measurements on my chair and come up with a perfect slipcover on my own.

Then McCall’s patterns were 70 cents, and they happened to have a slipcover pattern that I could modify for my own use.  I was sold.

I didn’t think it would be a walk in the park, but I thought it would be manageable.  I spent hours and hours taking measurements and modifying the pattern pieces, then cutting out the fabric itself.  I followed the directions and kept trying on the slipcover as I went.  Even with taking measurements, I was having to adjust quite a few things as I sewed, especially around curves.  I was also finding that I didn’t really make all of my adjustments correctly.

But in the end here is what I came up with.

From the front it actually looks quite good.  From the back…it’s a disaster.

Notice the weird gaping part in the middle back.  That is were common sense comes in.  I cut all the pieces exact to fit.  When I went to slip the cover on, I realized one huge fatal flaw.  I could not get the skinner bottom piece of the upper chair back over the wider upper portion of the chair back.

So I had to cut a slit in the slipcover and sew in some extra fabric.  Eventually I plan to sew on some buttons so I can close it up and it will look better.

Another problem is that the back must have taller proportions that the front, because if you look closely the skirt slopes up towards the back.

That would be an easy fix by adjusting the bottom hem, but I just don’t feel like taking it all apart and sewing it up again.  So for now I will live with it.

The pleats turned out pretty good.  I should probably go back and iron it, but again, I just want to be done with it!

The one slipcovered chair has made its way down to the kitchen.  Only 3 more to go, and I am really hoping they go smoother and that I have fixed all the kinks.

It will definitely be a bold pattern to break up our boring brown kitchen.

Stress

I’ve been a little down on myself lately.

I’ve been super busy at work, on what turned out to be a pretty stressful project.  In my life stress means I don’t take care of myself, I’m tired, and I don’t want to do anything.

My days consist of getting the kids ready in the morning, working all day, and then taking care of the kids again around 4pm when they are done with school/sitters, etc.  Once the kids are in bed at 8:30pm, I’ll admit I often just head straight to bed myself, that is how tired I am.  In fact my husband and I have hardly had any time to speak to each other lately.  We usually eat dinner together, but besides that we have the divide and conquer theory of taking care of the kids, since they like to do such different things.  And if we are both going to sleep as soon as the kids are asleep, well we don’t have any alone time together either.

I also haven’t really been concentrating on eating good.  Whatever is easy, fast, and minimal clean up is what has been going on the table around here.  I noticed on our last months budget we had almost tripled the amount of money spent on going out to eat.  That directly affects how I have been feeling about myself, how my clothes have become tighter in the past month.  I also have been so tired that the thought of doing any physical exercise makes me want to curl up and ignore the world.

I was so excited for the school year to start.  To have both kids taken care of and doing exciting activities on their own for the majority of the day – 5 days a week.  Except after being at school for only 2 days, both kids got sick.  And then a few days later, I caught their same cold.  More miserableness for our household ensued.

We are finally at the tail end of our colds.  My stressful project at work is finally over.  Both kids are loving school.  I am finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel.  One that I hope stays bright for quite awhile before the next thing hits us…because it always does.

I have been itching to be creative again, to eat better/prepare more meals, and yes to even get in more exercise.

So I have jumped off and am tackling a huge daunting project.

We have this kitchen table and chair set that we bought off craigslist a couple of years ago.  It was ugly when we bought it, and I always had plans to change it.  Here is an old picture (Oct. ‘12) showing the set with it’s usual mess on top.

My plan was the re-stain the table a deeper color like the photo below and to make a slipcover for the chairs.

I may have talked about these plans before, but I have actually started working on it.

And now that I have started the project I am asking myself if having fabric chairs around young children is really a smart thing to do?  I will just have to hope that the stain guard I spray on them really works, and that if needed since the fabric will slip off, I can wash it and not ruin it. 

Anyone else have fabric kitchen chairs and young children?

A Birthday Gift

Do you have an annoying overabundance of stuffed animals?  We do.

So we created a zoo/cage for all of them.

We started with this wood box I picked up at the Salvation Army Store.  It was labeled as a tv stand and on sale for $7.  You could also easily build the box yourself if you wanted.  I painted the box white and added some wood slats on the back and string in the front.  I also added a signage board in the front so I could label the box.  We put ours on wheels, so that it can both be wheeled around and so that we could tie the string off on the bottom and have the cage still be stable.

Someone though it was cute, and liked the animal letters on the front.  The new rule will be, if it doesn’t fit in the cage, it’s time to get rid of some stuffed animals!

Thanks to dad for helping out so we could get this finished and to Oliver in time for his birthday!

Dining Room Changes

We just finished up remodeling our dining room.  We didn’t do anything major as far as changing layouts, knocking down walls, etc.  We did manage to touch pretty much every surface of the room.

When changing colors in a room, don’t over look the power of spray paint.  Or even paint in general.  All our decorations and furniture were from our first house.  In our first house I went with a burnt orange color.  Therefore my decorations were that same orange color.

But a little spray paint on the plate easily changes it from orange to navy blue.

And a little antique bronze paint on the candles takes them from orange to metallic.

I also used the scraps from the new drapes to sew a table runner.  I am thinking about adding some metallic paint to that as well, but have not attempted it yet.

And lastly the old dining room chairs had a faux black leather seat cushion.  Seat cushions are very easy to change out, and make such a dramatic difference when you add a bold print.

And let’s not forget we also spray painted the chandelier to get rid of the bright white candle holders and made them also navy blue to blend into the room better.

So if you get tired of your old decorations….see if you can paint them before you decide to buy new!

If you would like to see all the before and after pictures of our dinning room remodel click here.

Vintage Trim Lampshade

I found this old vintage trim at my parent’s house and brought it home with me.

I held onto it for awhile before I came up with an idea.  I have this plain white boring lampshade on a floor lamp in our living room.

Why not add a little trim to spice it up.  Using a glue gun and about 20 minutes of time was all it took.

It adds such a subtle amount of color that goes perfectly in this room.

Upholstering A Chair

This is my big project I have been working on for awhile.  I have always wanted to reupholster a chair.  You can always seem to find cheap chairs with horrible fabric, that you know would look great if you could just get some new fabric on them.

It was a huge and daunting task.  There are some great tutorials out there if you want to learn how to do it yourself.  I’m not going to go into great detail here.  I actually didn’t use a tutorial myself…I just winged it.  I would say that some chair styles anyone can recover with fabric.  The one I tackled did have some sewing to it, so it would be more of advanced beginner experience project.  If you want an easier project, just look for a chair that has a seat cushion that isn’t removable.

So here is the old chair I picked up on Craigslist for $10.

It has very simple lines, nothing fancy.  I figured it would be a good chair to start with.

I had already bought fabric that I was going to use to recover some kitchen chairs….but since we have new plans for the kitchen, I decided to use the fabric for this chair instead.

So here is the finished project.

It now sits in our family room and completes the empty space that was being filled with temporary chairs that didn’t match.  The only question I have left is whether I want to paint the chair legs in a cream color.  I’m leaning towards yes.

I’m actually pretty proud of myself and now have the confidence to tackle two other chairs that need reupholstering.

As I mentioned I won’t be doing a tutorial, but I thought I would list some simple tips in case you are thinking about trying this yourself.

1.  Fabric choice is very important.  I picked up a fabric that had a little bit of a stretch to it.  It made it a little harder to get nice crisp lines.  If I did it again I would get a fabric without stretch.  Come to think of it, with two black dogs and kids, I probably wouldn’t get a fabric with so much white on it again. 

2.  Take a lot of time to write down what you are doing when you remove the existing fabric, then when you use the new fabric you just work backwards.  Takes pictures of areas that are difficult to remember so when you are putting it back together you can remember exactly how it goes.

3.  You have to be careful because you will use the fabric you remove as patterns to cut out the new pieces.  This is also good to remember because if you get a chair with fabric that is so gross you don’t want to touch it, you won’t want to use it is as a pattern.  So make sure the old fabric is ugly, but not infested, gross or too dirty.

4.  The one thing I wish I would have done is when tearing apart the pieces that were sewn together (ripping out the stitches), I wish I would have marked the stich line with a permanent marker on the old fabric and cut the old fabric on that line.  Then when I used the piece as a pattern I would have cut around leaving a 1/2” seam allowance.  This would have made it easier to stich back together and get the perfect shape.

5.  It took about 7 yards of fabric to cover this one wing chair.

In the end it took about 7 hours of my time and $70 dollars worth of fabric.  So after you add the initial cost of the old chair you have a total chair cost of $80 plus labor.  Not a cheap item…but buying a custom chair with fabric you like in a store can easily set you back hundreds of dollars.

P.S.  If you follow my personal blog you will soon be able to see the post my husband did that I had to remove until I was able to finish this project.

A New Blog

It's my new crazy idea for this year.  What if I tried to make it for a whole year without buying anything new in the way of clothing or furniture.  I attempted this a little bit last year.  I did....alright.  This year I want to do better!

I get a lot of inspiration from seeing blogs where they refashion clothes or completely transform a piece of furniture by painting it.  I have dabbled in it a little bit, see the posts below for a refresher...why not turn my hobby into something more.

So this is my new website you can find it my linking to my personal blog or just coming here, it all depends on what you enjoy the most.

Thanks,

Kristen

Brightly colored candlesticks

Craft Chair

A New Lamp

From Frumpy to ?

Geometric Maxi Skirt

A New Buffet