March 2013 – Page 3

Which Way, Which Gray?

Published on March 12, 2013March 12, 2013 by Our Humble Abode8 Comments

Hey friends! Sorry I wasn’t here yesterday. I started a few projects and wanted/needed to finish them up. One of those projects is for our master bedroom. You see, here’s our current bed set up.

We had a bed frame and headboard, but they squeaked every time we rolled over. So annoying, so we took it out. Now we’re living bachelor pad style, with the box spring on the floor. At least we have two box springs to get some height. Yes, so fancy.

Ben built a bed over the weekend. And I have some work to do to make it purty. But, I need to choose a paint color. Wanna help? Right now, the room is a blank slate. Only the painted doors will stay. Possibly the bedding, but we’ll probably stick with white if we change it out.

Regardless of the item, I’m consistently drawn to blue-greens. Either Blue Sage or something similar will go on the walls when we get to that point. What color should we paint the bed? We’ve ruled out white (too much) and black (because we’ve already had one and want something different). Of course we’ve got several dark gray colors going on (the doors and the entertainment center). Which brings us to… light gray.

I pulled out a bunch of swatches I already had and then plucked out the too green/purple/dark ones, which left me with six contenders. Left to right we’ve got Gray Owl, Harbor Gray, Wickham Gray, Classic Gray, (all Benjamin Moore) Oyster Pearl Clark + Kensington), and Ocean Pearl (Behr) on top. Do you have a favorite? Or a light gray I didn’t mention? I bought a test sample of Oyster Pearl yesterday. On its own, it looks almost white. Against something white, it looks perfect. At least to me. I need to get Ben’s opinion.

What do you think of the color combo?

Would you go with gray? Or something else entirely?

Butterfly in the Sky {Free Prints}

Published on March 8, 2013March 12, 2013 by Our Humble Abode17 Comments

Do you remember the Reading Rainbow song? Well, now you’ll have it stuck in your head. All day. I’m sorry. How about a butterfly free printable to make up for it? Available in Aqua:

And orange:

Looking for custom colors? Hop over to our shop to customize your own print. Happy Friday, and have a wonderful weekend!

Box Tops {Lidded Storage Boxes}

Published on March 7, 2013March 12, 2013 by Our Humble Abode8 Comments

But not the box tops for education. Instead, building tops for these $3 boxes from Target’s dollar spot. These plain wood boxes are the perfect size for Handy Sammy’s bookshelf/nightstand storage. But I wanted lids to hide everything inside. So I looked in the garage and found a scrap of 1/4 inch MDF that was slightly larger than my box. In a word, perfect.

I measured the outside of the box and the inside.

And cut four pieces. One piece the same size as the outside, and another 1/4 inch smaller than the inside, for both boxes. Plenty of wood glue to attach the two pieces and wait for it to dry.

Then I started painting. I’m a rebel and skipped primer, but it would help. And sand the boxes quickly. I wanted something similar to these lacquer boxes, so I covered the edges with gold craft paint.

After the gold dried, I marked off 1/4 inch on all sides, then taped off the corners.

Mysterious blue paint and primer left over from the mini dresser covered nicely.

I still want to spray the boxes for a smoother, glossy finish, but I love how they look.

To make it easier on myself, I painted the inside of the boxes blue and the covers all gold.

As we tackle projects for the guest room, I’m getting more antsy to finish it. Because I want to see everything together. If you’ve got a tray you’d like to cover, this was as easy as two cuts. What do you think? Are you willing to give it a try? Or have you done something similar?

How Low Do You Stow?

Published on March 6, 2013March 6, 2013 by Our Humble Abode12 Comments

Storage. Everyone needs it, but not everyone has enough. As is the case in our little guest bedroom that Handy Sammy now lives in. Well, not this week because he’s on spring break, but usually. Actually, his break is the reason we’re working in this barely touched since we moved in room.

By far the smallest bedroom we’ve ever had, coming in at a whopping 9 feet 9 inches wide by almost 11 feet long (including the bookshelf depth). The closet is proportionate to the room, just about three feet wide.

And it has to work for a young college kid with clothes, books, backpacks, and other necessities. The current storage system is lacking, to say the least. Left over mismatched bins on the top shelves hold socks, t-shirts, and more.

A small shoe rack holds extra shoes, but there’s little room to store backpacks and other large items.

Once Handy Sammy returns, he can fill the mini dresser I refinished, hopefully giving more room at the top of the closet to stow bags and such.

But we did take out the nightstand, so it’s a trade. Gain some floor space, making the room feel larger, but lose a drawer of small storage space.

I do have a loose plan. Instead we’ll make more space on the bookshelves. One shelf of magazine files for notebooks/paper and another for books. The shelf at bed height will function now as a nightstand. I’m working on a few boxes for that shelf to store small items, too.

Under bed storage bins (for 8 bucks a piece) can hold anything shorter than 8 inches. Out of season clothes, school supplies, or other oddities. That should help until we get a chance to build a bed frame with drawers below.

Clearly we have some work to do here, like get/make a bed skirt (in addition to other things). And, if you look carefully, you can see one change we started over the weekend.

Handy Sammy isn’t picky, but I’d like to make this room functional, clutter free, and pretty. We’ve never had to think about the needs of a teenager, so if you have any small storage ideas, please share.

Less Expected Art Placement

Published on March 5, 2013March 5, 2013 by Our Humble Abode12 Comments

Over the weekend, we started working on a new project. Hint, it involves taking everything off the shelves in the guest room, but more on that when we make a little more progress.

I packed the shelf contents into five laundry baskets. That’s a lot of stuff. I’ll need to pare down my stuff to make room for Handy Sammy and his stuff. After all, he’s the one living in the room. I could either haul everything but the books to the basement or find a place to put it. I’d prefer the second option, so I looked around. And decided my side of the closet was the perfect spot.