Small Projects

Loaded & Headed

Published on March 20, 2013March 26, 2013 by Our Humble Abode25 Comments

Progress has been made in the guest/Handy Sammy’s room. The shelves have been reconfigured, curtains sewn, storage boxes made, storage needs assessed, and mini dresser refinished. Taking the room from dark:

To this brighter space:

Now to an almost finished room:

After clearing off the shelves, I edited the accessories, keeping only favorites and books. Last week the shelves fully dried and I loaded everything back on.

Organizing books into genres, then arranged by color (ROYGBIV with white, gray and black at the end) makes it easy to find what we’re looking for.

Magazines organized by month in files at the bottom.

On the other side, Handy Sammy has four shelves (the vase, frame, and plant can easily be cleared) to store school books and papers, chargers, and his laptop. A shelf at bed height also doubles as a night stand.

I’m guessing you noticed the blue headboard, too. We thought about upholstering with a fun fabric, but the books and accessories on the shelves are already kind of busy for the small room. And we didn’t want to lose precious space, even if it is only a few inches. In this room, every inch counts.

Solid color seemed the best fit for the room. I bought two yards of navy linen, brought it home and didn’t like it. Too blue. Then I heard our local Ace Hardware stores were giving free quarts of Clark + Kensington paint away one day only. I chose a dark blue-green color (King’s Canyon), not knowing what I’d use it for. Once I held the swatch up in the room, it seemed perfect for the headboard. 1/4 inch MDF is light weight and super thin, so I painted a few coats. Ben hung it last night, covering the edges with pre-painted quarter round trim.

And he installed the second sconce we had ordered.

Making this little nook inviting and useful.

Next up, hang a light fixture. Surprise, it’s a DIY creation I discovered yesterday. Soon we will install crown molding, baseboard, and door trim. Paint on the trim, ceiling, and walls (I’m STILL looking for the perfect color), we can call this room done. Wow, this room is actually going quickly.

12 More Inches

Published on March 13, 2013March 13, 2013 by Our Humble Abode35 Comments

Our guest bedroom (currently Handy Sammy’s room) is small. Not even 10 feet wide by 11 feet long, including the foot deep bookshelf. And it doesn’t get a ray of direct sun light, so it can be dark sometimes.

Add in furniture and fill the bookshelves and it’s one cluttered, dark little room lacking real storage and organization.

I found a pint-sized dresser, for more storage space. But it took up valuable floor real estate. And left a tiny walk way between it and the bed.

We had always planned to notch out the bookshelves, pushing the bed against the wall. Spurred by the new dresser, we started a few weekends ago. It took me an hour and five laundry baskets to clear off the shelves.

We drew a quick sketch and talked about our plan and options. And then Ben worked his magic and Sawzall. It worked best for us to cut out the vertical supports, leaving the tops.

This allowed us to keep the shelves above the bed the same width and reuse the cut pieces as side supports.

The old shelves cut down to fit the narrower sides.

A new piece at the top framed out the bed opening. To brighten up the room, we painted everything bright white.

For function, Ben added an outlet on either side of the bed, inside the bookshelf.

Sconces (these specifically, hung upside down, though I would have loved to have these if clearances weren’t an issue) replace the old table lamps, giving ample reading light while keeping clutter off shelves.

With the bed pushed against the wall, we gained 12 inches of floor space.

Obviously we’re not finished. Here’s what’s still on my to do list:

Let shelves dry before loading contents back on

Find the right paint color (hence the Technicolor walls) – jeesh, finding a warm gold that isn’t too green or orange is tough!

Install new baseboard, crown, and door trim

Sew a bed skirt

Hang the headboard

Pick out an overhead light and install it

You Can Hang Your Hat On It

Published on March 4, 2013March 26, 2013 by Our Humble Abode26 Comments

Hello and happy Monday! Well, as happy as a Monday can be. How was your weekend? Saturday brought beautiful weather with temps in the low sixties. A touch of spring that I’m desperately clinging to. Yesterday started out nice, but ended with a snow storm complete with thunder and lightning. Never have I witnessed a snow/thunder storm combo. We took advantage of the nice weather and ran errands and grabbed lunch on Saturday. Which is always a treat. And we made a little tweak to the entertainment center. But let me back up, several weeks ago, Ben put in all the drawers. Then I primed and painted the inside and outsides.

Last weekend he attached the drawer fronts using this technique.

After some debate and opinion gathering, we chose handle option number 1, the simple (cheapest) square ended one.

My favorite and so pretty. After all, hardware is jewelry for a room.

As usual, our projects are never in the quick one week and done style. Oh no, we like to drag it out, because what else would we want to do? Pshh, that’s totally it. That means we still have a few things to do. Number one, cut pieces for the toe kick, prime, and paint. The only wood accent I want is the pretty top, not unfinished pine.

Annnnd I still want doors on the upper cabinets. We don’t have a lot of clutter there, but the bounty of speakers and electronics doesn’t look pretty. Doors would also help cut down the amount of dust.

For now, I grin like a fool when I see finished drawer fronts with functional storage behind. The boys now have a place to keep toys.

The top drawer closest to the stairs is super handy to store hats and gloves (and other randoms like plastic pea pods) that normally get lost in the closet.

And that brings us to this weekend’s little tweak.

We hung the tv to the back wall, making it easier to clean under.

In addition to showing off more of the dark wood top. What do you think of the nearly finished entertainment center? Tall, dark, and handsome, right? Of course that’s about the only thing that is done in the living room. Now I want to repaint the walls with a little color (notice the blue swatches?) in a flat paint. Satin is entirely too glossy on the knock down texture.

It’s About Dang Time

Published on February 21, 2013March 26, 2013 by Our Humble Abode14 Comments

At long last, we’re calling the main bathroom (we started working on, oh, mid April) d-o-n-e. What were we waiting for? False vanity drawers.

That we didn’t make. After all these months of waiting on a few drawers, we decided they weren’t worth the effort (and the sizes didn’t work well). Because they had absolutely no purpose other than looking like drawers. Instead, Ben cut a few pieces of MDF down, nailed them in place so I could finish painting.

The rest of the room was already done. Months ago. Except the dark gray painted door. I did that in December.

Officially our first completely finished room in this house. Woohoo, we’re on a roll…hopefully. Family room, I’m looking at you; get your act together already.

A few new accessories round it out, like these two bucks for three clearance cups from World Market.

And a navy and coral Without You print to hang above the throne.

Just because it makes me laugh.

Ahh, feels good to close that chapter. Finish any long-standing projects recently?

Can’t Wait for Paint

Published on February 18, 2013March 26, 2013 by Our Humble Abode16 Comments

Hello friends! Did you have a good weekend? Do something fun? Have nice weather? Saturday was almost 50 degrees, now we’re back to the thirties. Such is February. Which means we played outside and got some work done inside. A few weeks ago Ben added trim to all the doors in the hall.

Pre-primed trim immediately brightened the hall from the dark wood trim of yore.

Beefed up baseboard almost makes the vent covers disappear.

I’ve been busy filling nail holes, sanding, caulking joints, priming, and painting the new trim crisp white.

I’ve finished painting the trim and have already started taping it off in preparation for wall paint.

Before I can paint the walls though, we’ve still got a few more things to check off the to do list. First, sanding the patched area from the arch we took out and a few hairline cracks in the ceiling.

Then crown molding throughout the room followed by more filling, sanding, priming, and painting. And painting the ceiling before getting to the walls. Good grief, I want to paint those walls. Both for finished walls and the pretty details waiting. Look what we’ve got to install after paint: pretty brushed nickel sconces from Lamps Plus.

While I’m waiting to paint the walls I’ve been painting doors as quickly as I can. And I’m heels over head – head over heels doesn’t make sense, aren’t we always? Dark gray, a touch of brass (though I still want to take the sheen down), and clean white. My design color trifecta.

Only three doors left, including the boys’, which I’m dreading leaving them without.

Baby steps to a finished room. Down the line we’ll figure out furniture. I’ve got a serious crush on the Gus Modern chair from Mod Livin’. Sadly almost 18 hundred bucks for two chairs (my kids will jump on) doesn’t fit the budget, but that doesn’t stop me from dreaming. Any affordable arm chairs you like?