Category Archives: Room Redo

This Business is for the Dogs

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I “work” from home. I use the word work lightly. Currently what I do is go through the motions of work. I guess I shouldn’t sell myself short, I’ve accomplished a lot in the past few months, but still have a long way to go before I’ll feel I can truly say I’m self-employed.

Working from home certainly has its perks; A flexible schedule, lax dress code, unlimited  sick and vacation days, extended coffee breaks all make up for the grueling hours and poor wages.

Of course, there are challenges in working from home. Distractions abound and when you suffer from monkey brain, those distractions can lead you down rabbit holes to nowhere.  On a good day all temptations to “just polish the drip pan under the refrigerator real quick” can easily be pushed aside to attend to more pressing real world goals. On a bad day, I might end up swinging from one chore to another like a gibbon on crack. (Ok a gibbon is actually an ape, not a monkey, but you get the reference right?) Aside from the usual distractions of dishes, laundry, yard work, dust bunnies and actual work, I have to deal with this:

twix waiting

It can be difficult to concentrate with these eyes on me. As  I tap away on the keyboard, I feel the rumbling engines of the train bound for a guilt trip revving.  ”Have you forgotten something this morning?” How can I forget? Do I ever forget? Oh, the short memory span of an impatient pup.

As if one pitiful reminder of my dereliction of duties isn’t enough, there are two of them working as a tag team.

yuma waiting

I mean, really, how is person supposed to get anything done under these conditions?

What the photos don’t project are the sound effects. They start with forced sighs, subtle hints at my neglectfulness. When sighs go ignored, they move onto whimpering. I offer a few words of encouragement, let them know I really haven’t forgotten, which only takes them from whimpering mode to “my life is pure hell” moans. Eventually, if I am very still, they give up and I get a few more moments of (somewhat) guilt free silence.

Any movement on my part is taken as indication that it must be time for the most exciting, fantastic, mind-blowing event of their lives:

walk timeA WALK!!! TIME FOR A WALK (repeat 72 times). However, this is not always the case, sometimes, I simply have to shift positions, or go to the bathroom.  They make their disappointment known. And they know if they nag loud enough, their yowling and rooing will get me out the door.

Yet, I find through the stress of it all, this morning ritual they’ve made me part of is better than any timer I could set for myself. They know, better than I, the importance of taking those small breaks in the day.  A little walk does a lot of good and does wonders for the mind, even if it isn’t the most exciting, mind-blowing event of the day.

You can probably guess, as I sit here typing away, all eyes are on me, they are beginning to throw in an occasional moan with the sighs – I should save myself a little frustration and get going before the rooing starts. Ah heck – why mess up the routine? I think I’ll finish my coffee first….right after I get to that drip pan….

Let the rooing begin!

A Pinterest Do

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Ok, so who isn’t a Pinterest addict these days? I know I’ve spent my fair share of hours pinning away  - everything from too cute kittens, favorite bands, beautiful places, art that inspires me and of course cool projects I am “so gonna do”.

Of course the ideas are endless and the talent displayed far exceeds my own, but non the less, that doesn’t stop me from pinning and dreaming.

This past week, I finally decided to try my hand at a Pinterest interest. I’ve had the urge to paint SOMETHING. Now, I have plenty of things I can paint, but I’ve been wanting to do something really bold, fun and different. Then I came across this on Pinterest:

4337691078adf7e6e81c7a24216dd146

(I found the above photo on Pinterest but I think it was originally posted at design dazzle)

WOW I just love this color. A while ago I painted a wall in there a bright aqua blue, but haven’t done much else since then. I have been thinking about how I could simply and cheaply spruce this room up. Some might ask “Why?” Well, I can’t explain it. I know it seems crazy to invest time and energy into such a utilitarian space that no one is  likely to see, but I have this sickness. I’ve also been in a bit of a creative slump lately and feel doing something really different and bold might revive the creative side of my brain.

Of course, I knew it wouldn’t be as easy  as I was thinking it would be, but I prepared myself for that and promised I would take my time and quit when I needed a break, no reason this would need to be done in a day.

First, I made stencils to use as a general guide.

I had a roll of cheap drawing paper which would be great for making a few large stencils. This wouldn’t have been my first choice (as I’ll explain why later) but it was what I had on hand.

I rolled out the paper and let my pen do the walking – swirling and curling.

ceiling stencil

Cutting out the “stencil” with an X-Acto knife was a cinch – applying it to the ceiling was a different matter. I used painters tape doubled over to place the design where I wanted it on the ceiling, then went around with the hanging edges with some double-sided tape for a more secure fit.

applied stencil

I wasnt too worried about applying the stencils perfectly as I figured I would easily just roll my roller brush over them and viola – paint would be applied easily where I wanted it. This has always been the case when I have used stencil for small projects.

Was I wrong—

The paint I used was very thick and sticky which caused the stencils to pull away from the ceiling when I rolled over them.  But with just a little patience (HA–actually  A LOT of patience) I was able to hold them in place with one hand while I rolled with the other.

Since this was just a random splash design, I wasnt worried about it being perfect, I just concentrated on keeping the edges crisp. I knew I could go over the design with a brush and nudge the design a bit if I had to.

Surprisingly, my patience paid off. Over all I am quite happy with it.

After this was done I was motivated to remove the ugly cabinet doors and dress up the shelves a little with some contact paper.

Which brings me to this point; contact paper would have been great to use for this ceiling project, it’s sticky enough to completely stick, but not so sticky that it can’t be easily peeled away. But you know how it is when you don’t have the exact product you need – you make do.

Anyway – here is the result. I had to touch up a few places, but like I said with this kind of design mistakes are easy to fix and blend in.

pinterest do

I also splurged the other day when I came across the little bird. I found it at Target. I just loved how happy the color made me feel.

Are you a Pinterest fanatic? Do you have boards  of “need to try this” and “so gonna do this” projects?  What Pinterest interest have you done lately?

The Call of The Drunken Pansies

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Do you find yourself getting so bored or frustrated with a project you end up rushing through it just to get it finished? Do you end up with other than desirable results when this happens? This often happens to me when I take on something  like a complete room redo, especially when there is a lot of painting involved and especially when painting with one dominant color.

When I gave our family room a complete make over last fall, it involved painting a lot of our existing  furniture and accent pieces white, including this armoire which was the last piece I painted that would have made this room complete (with the exception of finding a new sofa which we finally did a few months ago …). By the time I gave it a wash of white paint, drew, masked and hand painted the double luck symbol I was totally OVER IT. Though I intended the cherry blossoms to look whimsical, airy and fun, my boredom and impatience produced blossoms that looked more like dejected, frazzled skid row  pansies.

armoire before

When I sit in this room, my eyes are always drawn to those frazzled, drunken little blossoms. They scream at me constantly,”Save Us, Help us, look what you’ve done….”.  Clearly, I’ll have no peace until I rescue these buds from their identity crisis.

As somewhat of a New Years resolution, I’ve vowed to have more patience – to enjoy the process of DOING and not feel rushed to completion. I need to learn it’s okay to walk away from a project when I begin to feel bored and rushed.

To test my new-found ”enjoy every moment” approach to projects I CHOOSE to take on, I decided to tackle this armoire again. This time, I would take my time, practice patience, enjoy the process and ignore that voice in my head that screams “Get er DONE!”

I sanded off as many cherry blossoms as possible without damaging the center design. I applied more white paint, properly attached the pulls (which required drilling new holes and patching the old) and  made a cherry blossom stencil out of cardboard (because I obviously couldn’t do it free hand as clear by the first attempt) and traced the cutouts onto the armoire. Then I painted. AND took my time at it.

armoire bef:aft

I like it much better, well, I can live with it. The only way to truly fix it would be to strip it completely and I am just not ready to test my patience that much yet. But from now on I vow to have patience through the entire process of a project.  Rushing really only creates more work.

By the way, I never posted a before and after shot once we got our new sofa so here it is:

LR

Before, the brown sofa, even with all the colorful pillows just wasn’t working for me.

Do you ever get bored with projects you decide to take on? How do you handle it? Do you rush through it or put it away until you feel ready to do it right the first time? Or are you one of those annoying people who just happens to do everything perfectly and easily on your first attempt? I’d love to hear about it.

Creating My Space in This Crazy Place

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Ok let me just get this right out there:

PicMonkey Collage

Yep, embarrassing.  It doesn’t always look like this, these photos were taken several months ago when I was in the process of organizing other rooms in the house and it became a dumping ground for all those “what do I do with this?” items. Well, ok, who am I kidding – it almost always ends up looking like this.

This was supposed to be my art room, but it’s too small and I don’t like to isolate myself when the creative urge comes over me. I’d usually take supplies out to work in the family room or dinning area which resulted in all my tools and supplies being stored in random parts of the house. Having to hunt around and travel through different parts of the house when working on a project was frustrating and discouraged me from doing any work. Clearly, I needed to rethink my idea of a functional space. 

A few days before Thanksgiving, our son moved back in and brought two friends with him. You might remember from earlier posts my frustration at the game of musical rooms we were playing in our house. I had finally reached a point when I thought the game was over and well, you can imagine reconfiguring rooms to accommodate a family of six from what was a family of three.

As this room needed to be turned into a bedroom (again), I decided it was a good opportunity for me to create a space for myself where I could get serious about my “art” (yes, I use the word loosely) and after all, the title of my blog is My Space In This Crazy Place…

I found some great ideas for my space at houzz.com:

Craft Room traditional home office
S. Boatman contemporary home office
S. Boatman contemporary home office
Craft Room traditional home office

The last one is stark but I see it as a blank canvas with tons of potential. The other photos are pretty typical of what I have in mind; along with a great view, a water source, access to the outdoors and large sliding doors that could open (or close) to the common living space. The problem is I don’t have a room big enough for all my wants. Or a budget big enough for that matter (maybe I should see about getting myself a coin minted).

The best solution for me would be something like this:

Alicias Studio eclectic home office

I could easily do this in a corner of our family room. One thing I would have to overcome is my need for tidiness. Things can get pretty messy when I’m “in the zone” and the thought  of not having a door to hide the mess behind makes me a little uneasy.

But, I finally accept the fact that homes are made for living in. Right? All homes have some  ”mess” and creative mess is the best kind of mess – it’s really a sign of a busy, active, creative mind. Right? If I am going to seriously throw myself into my art, the first step (one of many I’m working on) is to get over this idea of what I think a home should look like. I mean, it is totally unrealistic of me to think I should be prepared for the Elle Decor staff to drop in at any moment. Right?

Too often we lock onto the glamor shots in those staged rooms we see in decorating magazines. We believe the make-over shows where an entire crew makes over a room for a homeowner, even down to organizing the drawers, folding pairs of socks into perfect little squares. We forget about FUNCTION and our habits: in short, what works for us.

What works for me is:
1) having EASY access to the most used tools and supplies
2) the ability to interact with others while I work
3) being able to see what I have
4) having a space that does not need to be cleaned up at the end of the day (unless the mood so strikes me)
and while drawers and cabinets are great and necessary, for me they are somewhat cumbersome, so
5) open shelving is be the best solution for me

While I don’t have everything on my wish list for the perfect art room (who really does?) I do have:
1) a large, bright, happy place to work
2) access to the outdoors
3) a space big enough to accommodate the rest of the family
4) easy access to the garage ( where paints, canvas power tools and stash of “I’ll make something with this someday” items are stored)
5) a hidden space I can feel comfortable getting messy in

So here it is:

No, the cords are not usually a tripping hazard

No, the cords are not usually a tripping hazard

I received the art table for Christmas from my hubby and I love it.  I’m still working on finding a comfortable stool, but the wicker trunk works well for sitting and storage (I was pretty excited to find it at a yard sale for $10.00!) The open shelving lets me find everything easily, which also makes clean up easier. I am not crazy about the plastic drawer unit – but it is made really well and is very functional.

I’m pretty to happy to have a place for everything:cubbies

Yes, there is chocolate stashed here somewhere. Can you find it?

Surprisingly, I don’t feel distracted by all this clutter. In fact I find it much easier to get inspired and motivated to work. So I have finally created my space in this crazy place and I’m ready to get to creating.

I’d love to see photos of your work space and of course, I’m always open to new ideas and suggestions. Please do share!

Still at it in the Boudoir

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It has been a super busy two weeks, but it has been fun. We’ve spent time with family we rarely get to see and met a few new family members as well. Needless to say my master bedroom redo has been put on hold, however I managed to finish with one project just before all our festivities started.

I have two antique Chinese tables I thought about selling but then decided to give them a makeover instead. I know to some of my friends who love this Asian furniture, painting over such a lovely design would seem almost sacrilegious, but It’s only paint right? I love the tables, but in this  ”original” state they weren’t working at all with my color scheme.

The tables had a coat of lacquer on them so they needed a good roughing up in order for the paint to stick. Luckily I have a small electric sander which made this an easy process. (After my dresser redo I decided an electric sander would be a good investment.) I had to hand sand the drawers and the  molding around the doors though. Once the sanding was done the painting was a cinch. First, I spray painted the bronze hardware with a”hammered silver’ effect spray paint then I used a roller to cover the large surfaces. After the paint dried I taped off around the molding to apply the accent color with a small brush. If you have a steady hand – lucky you; when I paint straight lines I HAVE to mask off the surrounding areas which is the most tedious part of painting for me.

I used a set of rubber stamps to stamp the dandelion design on the doors and drawers. This set is called Seeds of Kindness and is from Stampin Up. Rubber stamps make this kind of project super quick and easy.

This is the new look:

I’m nowhere near finished with the room, but I am definitely moving along. It took me about two weeks to finish painting the walls. The walls are heavily textured which required some extra effort to work the roller into all the crevasses and I think it took about a week and a half working on and off to finish these tables. I’m sure this could be accomplished in a day though. It really wasn’t difficult at all. I used the same color paint on the tables I used on the walls.

Now, I know you are thinking they looked much better before, but I have no regrets about repainting them.

Well, until next time…

Still Busy in the Boudoir

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Last week I started work on our master bedroom. I began painting right away, but I’m still at it. It’s been a long process as I have to start and finish early in the day to make sure the room has plenty of time to air out before we go to bed every night.

The other project I started on right away was the very UGLY headboard. I have despised the headboard from day ONE. No matter what bedding or how many pillows I throw on it, its ugliness glares at me. It reminds me of a car seat or those old chunky recliners you’d find in a cabin. It’s a new bed, less than two years old. We bought it because the mattress is awesome, unfortunately we had to take the rest of the bed too.

I should mention we bought it in Singapore so it is not a standard U.S. size, which means it wont be easy to find a frame to fit it. The other option was to remove the head-board, but honestly, the bed is comfy as is, I like the padding on the head-board because it’s great support when reading in bed. The only option I can think of is upholstering it.

I first thought I’d remove all the faux leather and some of the padding, but after peeling off the dust catcher and seeing how the bed was constructed and how the padding was attached, I realized attempting to change the structure of the padding in any way was sure to be way beyond my skill level.

Instead, I decided to apply the fabric over the existing material using my trusty staple gun.

After a few hours,  I was done with the head-board, but I still needed to do the rest of the bed, which you can see below. The fabric is not as shiny as it looks, I think my flash created a glare.

I’m not a great photographer, so in the photos It doesn’t seem like much of an improvement,  but I am quite happy with the result. Now I need to find bedding. I’ve been on the hunt for weeks and wouldn’t you know, I am finding exactly the print I want, just not in the right color. I’m starting to think I should have chosen a different color. Oh well, something will come up.

On Another Note:

Have you seen the cost of bedding lately? Good GOD you really could support a small developing nation on what it would cost for a decent bedding set. The prices really are ridiculous, especially when you consider some of that very fancy, expensive bedding is made in places where the producers would never be able to afford even half a pillow case. In the beginning, I thought to myself, I’m gonna splurge on luxurious linens for the bed.’ I just can’t bring myself to do it, even if I had the budget for it, it seems almost obscene to spend that kind of money on a duvet or a pillow sham. How much money are we talking here? Well, for starters a flat sheet I came across was US$190.00 by itself. NO WAY. You can imagine what the rest of the set cost. Try $499.00 for a simple coverlet – again, NO WAY.

Anyway the before and after: Gee, I guess I could have at least made the bed a little nicer in that first pic. :)

Covering the base of the bed was super easy and took no time at all.There is still a lot to do in here, but I think I can get this half of the room done in a couple of weeks. I really hope to find a reasonably priced comforter soon, in the color I want, and without having to take out a loan to purchase.

Well, until next week….

Gettin’ Busy in the Boudoir (part 1)

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Doesn’t it seem the master bedroom is the very last room in the house to receive any special attention? This has always been the case in our house(s). With every move we make I usually jump right into the decorating of our new abode, focusing on the main public rooms, the kid’s rooms and then only giving minimal attention to the master bedroom just before it’s time to move again. Even the laundry room comes first! But no more; even though there are no plans to move anytime in the near (or far off) future,  I decided to give full attention NOW to our master bedroom.

I spent several days first trying to come up with a color scheme. I like all colors, but I want to keep the master bedroom palette very subtle. Monochromatic would be a better description (if there is such a thing as a “palette” of only one color). I feel a simple, monochromatic look is more conducive to rest and relaxation. And romance.

I was torn between creams or greys and ended up with this:

Though I do love a monochromatic bedroom, I think a contrasting accent color would make the space look more finished. I am trying to decide on 1) yellow
2) purple or
3) dark blue

I’m sure I’ll find the perfect color within the next few weeks as I progress through the makeover, until then I’ll start with painting the walls.

I am hesitant to post a before picture because the room is in such a sad state, but this is what I have to work with:

As you can see it is a very narrow room, but it’s big. This photo was taken right after we moved into it. This was our son’s room, then my daughter’s until  she decided to move back into the guest bedroom. When my husband and I moved into this room, she decided to move into our old room. I think the game of musical rooms is now over and I’m settled on making this an inviting, relaxing get away. Somehow.

There are so many things on my to do list I want to get to ASAP, but the first thing will be to paint. Oh and I really, really, really want to do something about that horrendous headboard! In fact, I think I will get to that right now. Hopefully this time next week I will have a spectacular update for you. :)

Bulletin Board Makeover

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A few months ago I wrote about how I used the top of an Ikea table as a canvas for this butterfly painting. I was then left me with the rest of the table. I knew I would be able to use the leftover pieces for something. Someday.

Months ago I had made this bulletin board from scrap material and ribbon. It’s a little wonky and completely impractical because it was basically just a frame with no solid back. Even with two layers of cork board it was still a too flimsy.  Oh well, it was something I threw together on a whim and I have been meaning to do something about it for a while now.

I decided to use the left over pieces of the Ikea table to make a bulletin board that would be more functional than this prototype.  I also wanted to create something a little different so I thought I’d also use the legs of the table to create a few mini boards.

So, here goes:

1. Apply chalkboard paint.

2. Apply fabric and cork. (fabric right side down, staple down center edge, then apply cork)

 3. Once the cork was in place, I pulled the fabric over the cork; this gave a very clean finished edge to the line where the bulletin board meets the chalkboard.  Tuck extra fabric behind board and staple in place.

4. It was difficult to remove a bolt from one of the legs so I  left it in place and joined two legs together. This gave me a long mini board, but I was ok with that.

The legs were very easy to cover:

First I applied cork to the edge that would be the front and then just covered them with fabric.

I attached  brackets on the backs of the boards so they would hang on the wall without any hanging apparatus showing. In this photo, the brackets are too low. This caused the board to lean out too far when hung so I had to readjust and raise the bracket up, almost flush with the top edge.

So here is what I ended up with:

I like it much better than the wonky one I had up there!  I also think the narrow “mini” boards could be great to use in a variety of small spaces and they can be hung vertically or horizontally.

Well, this is just a small start to what I have going on in this room, but it’s a start. Stay tuned for more, which I’m hoping will be SOON.

Oh, I also thought I would create a few decorative tacks out of these beads, true you can buy decorative tacks anywhere, but I didn’t feel like making a special trip and my glue gun was still hot, so…why not?

Make Over A Neglected Spare Room

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This was our daughters room.  It actually looked pretty nice when it was fixed up. She wanted the walls painted the aqua I ended up doing in the family room.

before

before

A few months after painting the room, she decided to move into the room formerly occupied by her brother. Now, after playing musical rooms, I’m left with a hodgepodge of a room that has become sadly neglected.

The main problem with this room is the bed is too big. I am NOT getting rid of the bed, it’s less than 2 years old and it’s a comfortable size. I just have to make it work.

The first chore will be to clear the room out and pile all the stuff into another room. I feel like  I’ve been doing this for the past several months.

ADD Gets In The Way
I started this post a few weeks ago when I had plenty of time to get it in shape for an out-of-town visitor. Well, they arrive today and I’m sad to say the room isn’t finished. Yikes! What am I going to do? ( Perhaps getting off the computer and into that room might be a good first step)

Yes, It is sometimes difficult  to stay focused on just one thing. I can’t entirely blame my ADD. The weather the past few weekends has kept me busy in the yard. Though if you were to see the yard you wouldn’t be very impressed. All we did was tear it up some more. It’s pretty scary really – but more on that later.

Now Back To The Guest Room
I had purchased the bedding a few weeks ago, gave the dresser a make over, hung curtains, cleared the room of all miscellaneous stuff (NO - it isn’t all crammed in the closet) and painted the butterfly.

There is still so much to do. But the yard has not only cut into my time, it has cut into the guest bedroom budget as well. All I could manage to do today was put some fresh-cut flowers in a vase, make a few small hand stamped prints and move a rug in from another room.

I have to leave soon for the airport but felt guilty about not having posted in a while so thought I’d share a few “close to after” photos.

I still would like to put some molding up, add a few more pillows and a table lamp – anything to make it look just a little more lived in. Oh well, This will do for now.

Oh – I also need to remove that applique off the bed – gonna get to that right now.

DONE.

Have a great weekend!

Quick Butterfly Art

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For the guest bedroom makeover (wich I am very much behind schedule on) I wanted to create a calming piece of art work that would work with the decor of the room, but would also be easy enough for me to produce in just a couple of hours.

The color scheme is black and white. The walls are aqua blue, which I am pretty tired of now, but being in a time crunch, they will have to stay that way for a while ( a very long while). I wanted to create a black and white piece of work for the space above the bed. Of course, I had some great ideas, all of them complex and time-consuming.

I found an image of a black and white butterfly which I though would be perfect, because it is a soothing image and subtle enough not to compete with the pattern on the bedding.

B/W butterfly

It took about 3 hours for me to do this, which might not be your idea of quick, but it took a while to get the wings just the right shade of silver.

Wouldn’t you know, I didn’t have the right sized canvas, but I did have an old Ikea Lack TV table sitting in the garage, the top was a perfect size, so I dismantled the table and used the top for my canvas.

When creating something as symmetrical as a butterfly it helps to draw the image out on a piece of paper. Just make sure the size of your drawing is the size of the image you want to paint. When you have one half of the drawing done just right, simply fold the paper in half and cut the image out (Just like the heart shapes from back in kindergarten), then you have a symmetrical image to use as a stencil on your canvas. Very easy.

So this weeks project was just a simple painting. I also managed to hang curtains. There is still a bit more do, but I’m almost done. Hopefully I’ll  have big reveal photos next week.

I should also mention I really, really wanted to paint a wall in this room black. I still want to but I’m very nervous about taking that step. I love color and have used bold colors on walls, but something about using black scares me a little. let me know if you have actually taken the bold move to paint a wall black, I’d love to hear about it and see pictures too.

Cheers!