stripes!

just a quick blog post about my latest project (or at least one of them...).

peyton's room got overhauled! my mom had some days off work and we got to work. this probably could have been done in an afternoon, but, you see, i have a child care....enough said.

and again, i forgot to take a "before" picture. which i also blame on having a child care:) my head spins daily and i just don't remember small details. but just picture the faintest color of mint green and that was on peyton's walls. just a blah color in general. we jazzed it up with some happy green paint and a stripped wall. i love it!

this is an "in "progress" photo, if you couldn't tell, since there's barely any furniture in there. i'm hoping to get some more things up on the walls,as well as a shelf for "cute, but breakable" items so littles can't reach.

thanks to my mama for all the tedious trim painting and to my dad for his perfect taping skills! they made a great team. i might need to hire them more often:)

gotta go sneak in some lunch while i can!

xoxo,
maggie

my husband's dream day

he spent the day golfing, while his bedroom made a total transformation. and not a finger was lifted. or should i say....none of brandon's finger's were lifted:) my mom and i busted our booties all. day. long.

i was quite the busy bee this past week. the bedroom makeover is now 85% complete! my last post explained which projects needed to get finished/started, so today i will give you an update. but first, i have to give a little shout out to my mama. she pretty much rocks when it comes to helping me around my house. i couldn't have done everything without her!! she has a lot of experience in the DIY field, especially when it comes to painting and furniture refinishing....she's pretty much my go-to lady. you're the best, mom:)

anyway. on to the updates:
we have two "new" pieces of furniture, new curtains for the window and a new wall color.
brandon and i found our "new" dresser and night stand at an estate sale about a month ago. we happened to see a sign for it early in the morning and on a whim, decided to check it out. i bought so many cool things (which is a topic for an entirely new post), two of which are now living in our bedroom. the dresser is actually in great condition, but needed a few tweaks. here is a "before" picture, after i took off the hardware (which needed to be replaced 25 years ago).



and after:

and to think we we scored it for a mere $15?!...it was a deal that couldn't be passed up! up close, the finish was an orange glaze (yikes!), so i sanded that off and bought some oil based paint in a creamy white color. my mom educated me on how great oil base paint is for furniture, since it holds up better to knicks and scratches than latex paint. the dresser got two coats of white and waited to be transported from the garage into the bedroom. i found some knobs for the top drawers, but i'm still waiting to get some pulls (long story), which is why the bottom drawers have to be cracked open.

the other old piece of furniture we snagged, was this great little side table. i had no idea what i was going to do with it, but it was only $10 and too cute to walk away from. i sanded it and painted it one of my favorite shades of blue. i forgot to take a "before" picture, but it was originally a chestnut brown stain. i think i took 20 years off it's life with the new color:)

saturday was D-day. brandon went off to his golf tournament and mom and i went to work. peyton even cooperated and took a two and half hour nap, so we got the painting done in no time! i chose to paint the walls a grey/taupe color. the Sherwin Williams paint chip is called "amazing gray" (but we had Diamond Vogel color match it....support local businesses!). it sure beats the pale, pale lavender that screamed at me when i woke up every morning. i love how it turned out! it has great flow with the rest of the house. here is a set of before and after pictures:

before

after!

those curtains are really what tie everything together. originally, i was planning on buying some fabric and making my own curtains, but we calculated that it would have cost $150 to make my own. not to mention all the time and effort needed to finish them. on that note....world market never disappoints. i used a coupon for one panel and then went back for the second panel with my mom's coupon:) i spent a third of what i would have if i tried to make my own. phew, glad i decided to skip that obstacle. the colors are perfect for the room and really bring some life to it. AND, brandon likes them.....double bonus. i was worried, because he doesn't understand my love for patterns and prints, but he's slowly learning and adapting:)

my dad helped out by hanging up the curtain rod and sitting at my house while peyton slept, so mom and i could run around the city of west des moines. thanks, pops!

SO. the only things i have left to finish is:
-pulls for the dresser
-finish the jewelry frame
-get some art on the those bare walls!

 what do YOU think? i wanna hear some feedback:)

p.s....see this terrible dresser that we've had to live with for the past four years? yeah...we kicked it to the curb. literally. brandon set it outside on the street for big trash day and just as he was heading back up the driveway, someone stopped and asked, "you're not throwing that away, are you??". haha....oh, yes we are.
they had it loaded up in their truck before i could say, "good riddance":)

a few things i am working on....

i am notorious for not finishing projects. or buying craft supplies for a project and then not even starting it. i think my husband is this way too, except it concerns house projects and not craft projects. put us together and things get put off. we ripped up the carpet in our dining/sitting room a few months back and have yet to fill all the holes around the outside. it took us months to smooth out our front yard after getting a new sewer line put in. our garage currently houses five projects that have yet to be finished (or even started) which means that both our cars are sitting in the driveway.

siiiigh...i have tried to change this trait about myself for quite sometime. but no luck. i have come to accept the fact that i am definitely a Project Starter and very rarely a Project Finish-er. and i am okay with that:)

here are a few projects i am working on right now:

1. creating my own jewelry frame, a la this. mine will look a little different, but will have the same vibe. i have all the pieces and parts, just gotta get it done!

2. a sunburst mirror for my living room. inspiration found here. status: the wooden dowels have been glued and glued and glued, but the whole shebang needs spray painted. pictures to come! (hopefully)

3. refinishing an old dresser that brandon and i snagged at an estate sale....for 15 bucks! we have been needing a new dresser since, well....forever, and this one was perfect! i need to slap a few coats of paint on it and add some new hardware and it will be fab. my plan is to get some paint today (!) and start working on it.

4. refinishing an old side table found at the same estate sale. the table was $10 and it was screaming for some love and a makeover. it has now been sanded and is ready for a pop of color.

these are just a few. BUT, three out of four of these will be done by the weekend. why the rush? it's Operation Make Over My Bedroom Weekend. my mom is coming over and we are going to hack out as much as we can. walls are getting painted, curtain rods will be hung (dad, wanna help?) and refinished furniture will be brought in. brandon will be at a golf tournament and will come home to an entirely different room to sleep in. lucky guy, eh? i'm calling it his Father's Day present this year:)

let's hope that by next week, i will have many pictures to show you all. and if i don't, maybe in a few months:)

happy wednesday!

ps.....can you believe it's june already?! the older i get, the faster the time flies. and to think that i was just complaining that it was january.....

pillow-tastic

this past saturday was spent with my mama, who graciously gave me a lovely tutorial on pillow re-covering.
mom has been "cleaning out her life" and trying to get rid of things she no longer needs or uses. she had about a dozen old throw pillows, clothed in some outdated fabric and taking up space in the basement. i have been itching to get some new throw pillows into a few of our rooms, but just couldn't justify the price tags. throw pillows are annoyingly expensive. DIY has been on my brain lately, so it only made sense to steal up those puppies from the basement and give them a nice makeover.

here they are before:




i know nothing about sewing, but have always envied people who did. i would love to have the capability to create clothes for peyton or even clothes for myself. but at this point in my life, between my job, family, friends and activities, sewing is a hobby that may have to be put on hold for a few decades.

mom showed me the drill and it comes down to this: pressing, measuring, cutting, pinning, sewing, pressing, stuffing and lastly, hand-stitching. it's actually pretty easy once you get going, but we were juggling a curious baby, a feisty bobbin, and a hungry papa, so it took a little while longer than expected. not gonna lie, mom did the majority of the hand stitching, only because i was super sllllloooooow, but practice makes perfect, right?

overall, i scored eight pillows and only spent about $30 for the fabric. now if that's not a deal, i'd like to know what is:)

here i am, hard at work. don't be deceived, i look pretty hard core, but this pic was staged:)


 


here are my pretties showing off their new look. i love how they all turned out! it's crazy what a few pops of color can do to a room.

orange damask....one of my favorite patterns, fo sho!

this pillow ties in our khaki green couch and the bright orange pillows. i also have one of these in our bedroom, which is currently too messy to take of picture of. just being honest:)

 

this is the guest room. the front pillow is the newest addition. that headboard is also a DIY creation of mine (using this tutorial).

close up

this little guy (girl?) will live in peyton's room. i plan to add a DIY flower on it (pics to come?). i told you i liked damask...this pattern will most likely show up in my house on more than just pillows!

the basement couch. i picked the fabric and mom sewed 'em! 

 here are some of mom's creations...she redecorated her guest room and needed a change in pillows:

love this pattern combo... it looks great in the new terracotta guest room!

peyton's doll house got some upgrades too...mom, are you going to re-upholster the couch next??:)

a big girl in a big-girl chair

a happy hubby after being reassured that orange is a good accent color... "don't worry, babe. the room will come together....just trust me":)

on a completely different note, i have to give a shout out to my new favorite obsession, Pinterest.  rachel is the one who inspired me to jump on this trendy, new bandwagon, but I LOVE IT. (she blogged about it here.) it's a great place to go to just get inspiration. think of it as a virtual cork board, full of images that you love and have "pinned" to your own personal board. i 'm probably not explaining it very well, so you may just have to hop on over and check it out!

how do you feel about my pillows? wanna come over and see them in real life? i love me some visitors:)

spontaneous home improvements

last week brandon and i decided it was time to rip up the carpet in our front room. i was ready to tackle this task the minute we moved in, so when he finally gave me the go ahead, i didn't have to be told twice to run downstairs for the toolbox.

you see, while house hunting, brandon and i both knew that our hearts were set on finding an older home. the charm...the character...the history. there's something about living in a home that holds a story. the memories that are housed within the walls of a home are priceless. i'm sort of a sentimental schmuck and brandon always pokes fun at me when i remind him of our first apartment together on sheldon and our memories shared as newlyweds. or the house rented on 6th street, where i learned that i was going to be a mommy. and then nine months later, i learned how to be a mommy. and we can't forget the house on ontario street where peyton took her first steps and blew out her first candle. yeesh, i'm getting teary just typing about it.

yep...i'm a schmuck:)

anyway, we wanted to find a cute, old house that had seen many, many memories being made and continue to fill up the memory glass.

and with old houses, you get original, hardwood floors. the previous owner had carpet laid down to cover the hardwood. our front room is part living area, part dining area, so you can imagine my fear of trying to keep white carpet clean with a toddler (and future toddlers) who tells me she's "done" by throwing her food on the floor. oy.

we had planned a weekend where brandon would rent a floor sander and we would go to work sanding and refinishing the floors. but brandon and i are both antsy and wanted to dig in. we knew there was hardwood beneath the carpet, but had no idea what condition they were in. much to our surprise, when we pried up that carpet, there were beautiful, shiny wood floor staring back at us. brandon and i yanked out staples for about an hour and voila! an entirely different room. (brandon also spent the better part of sunday afternoon ripping out the tack board and all the nails that outlined the perimeter of the room.....so don't get me wrong, it did take some work...but much less than we anticipated!)

all we have left to do is fill in all the little nail holes and do some buffing and polishing, and we're done. i couldn't be more pleased with the outcome. i have crushed on my friend's and family's hardwood floors for years and now i have my own. i am one happy lady:)
here are a few before and afters:

this was taken earlier in the year, right after we painted.

post carpet destruction

there's still a few things to be done with this room, but we are so excited and happy about the latest find!

bathroom facelift

in the spirit of room makeovers this week (check out hannah's new dining room color), i thought i would share our new and improved bathroom. we didn't do a whole lot of over-hauling, but just enough to really clean things up and simplify. unfortunately, i am terrible at taking before pictures, so you will just have to take my word for it. here are the few that i took before we started making changes:

first things first....the hardware. brassy, shiny, and not our taste. as you can see, they got voted out. and then nicely lined up so i could take a picture to post on craigslist. anyone want 'em?

the best pic i could get of the whole bathroom. this is still with the brass hardware. also note the purple and white sponge paint on the bottom half of the wall. hoo boy...that had to go.

a close up of the purple madness. imagine, if you will, various sizes and colors of lighthouse wallpaper, lining the top edge of this paint. making its way all around the bathroom. they got yanked during the destruction of the kitchen wallpaper...hence, no picture.

new color and new fixtures. sans wallpaper.

Add caption

this guy is so much more delightful to wash your hands under:)

replacement towel bars. these babies really proved my husband's good handiwork. he put these in all by himself, with barely any tools! sometimes i think he's a human level....the guy has an eye for straight lines!! ....if only he knew how to use the towel bars, which would eliminate the wrinkly towels, eh?

so there you have it. a (fairly) cheap and easy way to makeover a room. five rooms painted, two to go!

what do you think??

no longer M.I.A

i just wanted to tune in and apoligize for my absense over the past few weeks. let me tell you....it's been a crazy couple of weeks:) han and rach have filled in for me and i am so thankful! between moving, christmas, and lack of internet for a week, blogging has gotten pushed to the bottom of my never ending "to-do" list.

my first order of business to address is: WE BOUGHT A HOUSE! i have a feeling that a lot of my blog posts will be centered around new home-ish topics, since i have immersed myself in some serious room redecorating lately.

brandon and i (and my mom, for a few hours) spent the better part of new years weekend painting the three main rooms in our house. we rang in the new year by moving furnature, frog taping the death out of our kitchen and removing about a hundred outlet covers. thankfully, little miss P was having fun up north for the weekend at grandma's house, otherwise, our three room overhaul would not have been as successful.

here is a little sneak peak of what was on the outs:

blue heart wallpaper? no thanks.

pastel blue paint and birdhouse decals. again....pass.

blue gingham curtains. now stashed in a goodwill box.

can you blame us for doing a little dance once all that was gone?? i know, i know...many people love this style, but brandon and i just don't share that love. come back tomorrow for a new and improved kitchen.

you'll be green with envy:)

Hanging a photo collage

I have been collecting white frames and photos since we moved into our home a year and a half ago. After a trip to IKEA, I was able to get all the rest of the frames I needed at a great price and a few weekends ago, we finally got them up on the wall.  Since I only have about 4 walls in my house that are big enough to have any sort of artwork or frames, I decided to cram as many photos on one wall as I could:)  

Hanging frames in relationship to one another other can be tricky (you should see some of our wall-hanging disasters when we were first married) so I thought I would share some quick tips I tried this time to make it go a lot smoother:

I laid out all the frames on my floor and moved them around until I got them where I wanted them.  It took awhile to get it "perfect" but it's a lot easier to test it out on the floor rather than put a bunch of holes in the wall and realize you don't like where you placed things.  My eye is drawn toward balance but I didn't want it to look too perfect so I tried to give even visual weight to both ends of the composition but still have different sized frames throughout. 

As a sidenote: all the frames are all the same color but different types and sizes.  It helps to have a common denominator when doing a collage like this.  You could use various colored frames but have similar colored photos (black & white, sepia OR bright colors).  But if you really feel avant garde and think it would match your homes decor (usually eclectic), you CAN throw out all the rules and just hang any type of frames together with any type of photo.  It can just be hard to pull off.  

Also, feel free to throw in other objects besides photos (decorative keys, clocks, alphabet letters) and even different images in the frames like special handwritten notes or illustrations from magazines.  

For some reason a photo can help you decide if you like the layout.  It gives you a different perspective.  So I snapped this one and then moved things around a bit more.  After I was sure everything was ready to hang.  I used craft paper to trace the frames.  I labeled each paper frame for the photo it represented so I wouldn't get them mixed up.

Jer and I measured the distance from the left to right side of the collage and from the top to bottom.  We marked the center of the wall we wanted to place the photos on and then marked the points we had just measured and started transferring the paper frames on the wall in the respective positions.

I used drafting tape to hang the paper so I could move it around easily without damaging the wall.

Jer was genius and marked inch marks on my finger so I didn't have to hold different tools when I was determining where to hang the frames in relationship to each other.  If he told me a frame was 2 inches from the one to the left of it, I would simply use my finger and measure to my knuckle to know where to place the next frame.  

Then, we started nailing.  We hung the photos over the paper to make sure they were in the right spot.  We make it a rule to only use one nail per frame.  If there's two nail hangers attached to the frame, Jer will connect a wire between them both so we can use just one nail.  This gives us much more of a chance to hang the pictures straighter. Finally we ripped the paper off the wall aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnndddddddd  Ta-Da!  It's finished!

But if you look closely, you'll see Grandma Vivian is on her side and two of the frames don't have photos in them at all. He he. It seems every project is always a work in progress... :)