Lower Level Theater Room

In the Works

Published on March 23, 2011March 23, 2011 by Our Humble Abode22 Comments

Gallery walls are all the rage right now. We already have one in our main level hallway. I’ve been scouring Etsy lately to find the perfect art to fill a gallery wall in our basement. I’ve finally found enough art to fill the wall. Now, I’m fiddling with the arrangement. Something asymmetrical containing all my bird, feather and tree art. To find the perfect arrangement, I started moving the frames around on the floor in front of the wall. One layout I liked, the other I loved.

Option number one:

Option number 2 is the winner!

With the layout decided, I traced each frame on newspaper and marked where to nail. Seriously, this saves so. much. time. After determining the center of the arrangement and the center of the wall, I taped my templates up.

My frame arrangement as well as my drawing were close by for reference.

Stay tuned for the final reveal. In the mean time, I’m wondering how many of you have or would like to have a gallery wall? Where do you have it? Sprucing up a hall? Meandering down the stairs? What fills those frames? Family photos? Travel mementos? Etsy art?

Pillow Talk

Published on October 5, 2010October 9, 2012 by Our Humble Abode18 Comments

Yesterday, I shared a felt circle pillow that tickled my fancy. After looking at the picture for a few minutes, lusting after it, I realized it would be pretty simple to recreate the look. I remembered that I had a few yards of a similar yellow colored felt that I bought on clearance last year, so I used that.

First, I determined the size of my pillow. I knew I wanted a rectangle, so I cut my piece of felt to a 12 1/2 inch by 18 1/2 inch rectangle. Using a spool of ribbon, I traced a circle on to the felt and cut it out. This circle was my template for every single circle to follow. Why, you ask? Because, dear reader, both sides of the circle are visible and I didn’t want pen lines all over. That, and I don’t have a disappearing ink pen. If you do, you could use that. Because I didn’t, I pinned my template to the felt and cut one circle at a time, like this.

After cutting roughly 120 to 150 circles, I started sewing. First, fold the felt in half to get a rough cross-section. Pin the circle in place and sew straight across the center, in whatever direction you’d like. Place the next circle close to the first and sew it in the center, going a different direction. Continue placing and sewing the circles one at a time until you’ve covered the front. There will be a few gaps between the circles, but it’s not a big deal. Try to get most of the circles close together.

Here’s a tip: Start from the center of the pillow and work your way toward the edges. Once you’ve added many circles, there’s a lot of fabric and it becomes difficult to reach the center. I learned this the hard way.

Here’s another tip: Keep 1/2 inch perimeter without circles, for your seam allowance. Then, pin any loose ends toward the center of the pillow before you sew the back on. This will prevent edges from getting sewn where you don’t want.

For the back, I cut two 12 1/2 inch high by 12 inch wide pieces of scrap white cotton to make the back. The process is very similar to this envelope closure pillow. The only difference is it’s not all one piece. Start by folding and pinning the short edge. Fold over and pin again, then sew the along the edge for a nice, clean seam. Once both edges are sewn, place the pillow front face up. Add one of the back pieces to meet the edges of the front, face down. Pin in place. Add the second piece, keeping a few inches of overlap and pin, face down. Sew all four edges and cut the corners. Turn right side out, stuff with a pillow form and enjoy your work.

Wondering where the cable knit pillow came from? I made that from an old sweater. Follow the instructions above, substituting the felt circle front for a chunky knit sweater and voila! Instant fall and winter warmth without a hefty price tag. While we’re on the topic of pillows, check out this one for our theater room.

We’ve decided to add pops of yellow to our windowless theater room to brighten up and bring life to the space. It also doubles as a great fall color, but can be used year round, bonus!

Have you started any fall decorating? What do you think is the best or quickest or easiest or all the above way to inject seasonal accents to seamlessly blend with the rest of the decor?

Basement Progress: Man Cave

Published on July 20, 2010May 25, 2011 by Our Humble Abode8 Comments

When we posted about our basement living room aka the Man Cave, we were just getting the trim on the walls. Well, we’re back to show the recent changes we’ve made to Ben’s favorite room in the house.

After filling and sanding 1 million and 1 holes, taping and masking off areas, we were ready to start priming the walls, ceiling and trim. We opted to use a paint sprayer to apply the primer because we had so much area and detail to cover. After about four hours, we had the entire basement primed, looking like this:

This shot shows the small hallway and stairs.

We waited 24 hours for the primer to dry and began spraying the ceiling with Glidden’s Bird Song. Pass another 24 hour, then we taped the ceiling off to use the sprayer and painted our trim Behr’s Vermont Cream. We removed the tape and HATED the ceiling color. We decided to paint the ceiling Vermont Cream, too. After three coats of white paint on the ceiling, crown mouldings, and trim, we were ready to add some color to the walls.

I had planned to paint the basement living room Restoration Hardware’s Silver Sage, which is one shade lighter than our guest bedroom color. We had the swatch color matched at Wal-Mart to order 5 gallons. We started painting shortly upon returning home, but we had major clumps on in our paint. It turns out, the bucket had been on the shelf past it’s prime, leaving a semi-dry paint clump in the bottom of our bucket. We returned the paint and got individual gallons. The paint assistant converted the 5 gallon formula to 1 gallon formula wrong, so the new paint color is in between Silver Sage and Sea Green.

We were on a huge time crunch, with one week to finish before my due date, so we unpacked our rug and sectional. This is what our Man Cave looks like today:

The sectional is so comfortable and it can seat a ton of guests. We still need artwork, cabinet doors and storage, but it’s usable now.

Our 42 inch Insignia TV, which hails from Best Buy was a great buy-on sale because it is last year’s model. Ben did some internet searching to find the star of the room, his Onkyo 9100 sound system. He got a great deal because there is a small chip on the back of the subwoofer. It still works perfectly, shaking the couch during loud action scenes of movies. Of course, Ben loves it and shows it off to almost every visitor we have.

We have some finishing to do, like build, prime and paint our sliding entertainment center doors to hide the ugly toys, add shelving and make some pretty storage for DVDs, but all in good time.

I’m curious to know if we’re the only ones to tackle a project with a short deadline. Tell me your project and what your deadline was. The arrival of a guest? Selling your home? Or were you having a baby, like we were?

Our Past Four Years…

Published on June 21, 2010May 25, 2011 by Our Humble Abode1 Comment

We have done quite a bit to our humble rancher since Ben bought it back in 2004. Most you can see, like paint and trim, but others are a little more difficult to notice-if you can see them at all. So, here’s a little recap of things Ben did before we were married:

Cut out and installed egress windows in basement bedrooms and the office.
Drilled a well.
Installed wood burning fireplace.
Removed siding to add insulation all around the house.
Replaced all upper level windows, enlarging the bedroom windows by one foot.
Replaced the kitchen linoleum with tile.
Knocked down the kitchen wall to create a half wall:

8. Closed ½ bath and created ¾ master bathroom.

Changes we’ve made since we’ve been married:

Added trim to the 3^rd bedroom and repainted.
Added trim to the guest bedroom and repainted.
Repainted living room and built an entertainment center.
Gutted and refinished main bathroom.
Added oak floors and trim to master bedroom. Repainted.
Installed a new glass back door.
Finished 1^st basement bedroom.
Installed a central vacuum system.
Added trim to the dining room and repainted.
Removed the chain link fence and built a new painted white fence.
Planted 17 fruit trees, boxwood, roses, peonies, lilies, and other flowers.
Installed a larger electric panel and moved it to the laundry room.
Built and hung new shutters and window boxes.
Dug a trench to install the geothermal system:

15. Gutted and unfinished master bathroom.

16. Installed a new front door.

17. Finished office, including built-in bookshelves and cabinets.

18. Finished basement living room with painted trim and built-in entertainment center.

19. Finished basement bedroom with trim.

20. Finished basement bathroom, complete with 6 foot jetted tub, open vanity and soon to be steam room.

Of course there are several smaller projects we’ve finished, too.

Basement Progress: During

Published on May 20, 2010May 25, 2011 by Our Humble Abode5 Comments

We’re back to show the progress of our basement.

First, Ben framed in the walls and moved the duct work. It ran through the middle of the ceiling and tall people hit their heads when they walked down the stairs. Next, we started hanging, taping, and mudding the sheet rock.

The Framing Process: