The Change Up

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Despite finishing the basement nearly a year and a half ago, most of the rooms are filled with left over and unwanted furniture from the main level.  We don’t have a definite plan for decorating and we’re on a tight budget because we’re saving up money for our kitchen remodel.  Don’t get excited, we’ve made very little progress on that front, but we do have a mini change we’ll share later this week.

With guests coming tonight, I thought it was time to fix up the basement bedrooms.  The smaller of the two wasn’t so bad.

You know, if you think an industrial sewing machine isn’t so bad.  Or lack of closet doors.  The other bedroom wasn’t as great.

It’s a warehouse for chairs, exercise equipment, and flooring.

Fortunately for our guests, we’ve made some changes, but I have teased you long enough.  It all started when I got a bug up my butt to sell the massively dark queen bed from the larger bedroom.  Craig and his infamous list to the rescue.  I listed the bed for $500 or best offer, including a mattress.  A few days and phone calls later, a couple stopped by to look at the bed.  They said they’d take it, so Ben hauled the bed to their house the next day.  Finally, I could put my plan into action.

You see, I have always disliked the king mattress being in the smaller room while the queen bed was in the larger room.  Why didn’t we just put the queen bed in the smaller room?  Because the bed with headboard was too long to fit in the small room while leaving room to walk around the bed with the sewing machine.  Yes, I did just say sewing machine.

So, on Wednesday while Everett was napping, Vincent and I set to work to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.  First, I hauled the king mattress into the large bedroom and the queen box spring and mattress in the small bedroom.

We still have to get a bed frame and make a head board, but the size of the bed is much better for this room.  It allows for a larger side table.  I bought this table for only 25 bucks from Home Goods on our recent Minnesota trip.

It’s super lightweight, but the design is versatile.  The faux crocodile top adds interest, too.

With the king bed in the large bedroom, the mattress sat right next to the La Z Boy, so I had to think of an alternative layout.  Knowing we can’t get rid of furniture just yet, I worked with what I had.

I moved the chair over to allow for the bed to be centered on the back wall with a nightstand on either side.  Makeshift art that I hung above the bed and two small ottomans at the foot, just to give them a place.  We still have a pile of hardwood flooring stacked along the wall, but it’s the only place we can store it, so it stays.

The rocking chair now sits closer to the door, taking the place of the dresser.  To make the chair placement seem more intentional, I created a little reading nook, complete with a small side table and floor lamp.

Now, you see this from the doorway.

To the right of the entrance, we have a bookshelf Ben built, which originally lived in Vincent’s bedroom.  You know, before Everett was born and we needed to make space for the crib.  Really, we don’t need this bookshelf any longer, so it may find a new home via Craigslist.  Until then, I wanted to make it seem useful.

Ben’s weights had to stay, but by adding a blanket and towels, it can serve as guest storage.  A few random books, candles, vases, a mirror, and art add a little more visual interest, but still a far cry from finished or pretty.

While we’re on the subject of guest storage, where did the dresser go?

In the smaller bedroom, across from the bed.  Still, not perfect, but our guests now have a place to unpack and set junk.  Hopefully, some day, we’ll find a better place to house the manly sewing machine.  Overall, I think the rooms look better, and, we gained $400 by selling the too huge bed frame.  So, that’s how we updated the basement bedrooms without spending a cent.  Of course, we plan to add art, furniture we actually like, and accessories to make the rooms feel more complete.

What do you think of the changes?  Any free suggestions for improvements?  What changes have you made without spending any money?

Gimme a Giveaway: Gadanke Winner!

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Wow, one of the last Fridays this summer.  Where has the year gone?  Fortunately, we have good news for one lucky reader.  Random.org chose number 22, Rebekah, as the winner of the Gadanke giveaway.  Rebekah, you get to choose from several great journals!  Congratulations!

Summer’s end is sad, but I’m getting ready for (and dare I say looking forward to?) fall weather and apple crisp.  Definitely apple crisp.  However, I will miss the spray paint ready weather summer offers.  Guess what I did yesterday?  I spray painted something.  Well, several things.  Any guesses what I painted and which color(s)?

Feeling Peacock-y

Published on by Our Humble Abode9 Comments

Our basement bathroom is sort of boring.  Lots of beige and white with some green.

I want to change that, but we’re not replacing the floor or repainting.  So, how can we add character without hours of work?  By adding interesting elements, like cute deer hooks for towels, and color, of course.  You probably already guessed which color we chose to add based on the post title.  If you’re dense, we chose peacock blue.  Why?  Because blue and green look great together and the adjacent theater room is sea blue/green.

This all started with a harmless trip to Ikea in December when I snagged a set of three Limmaren bottles.  We use the clear bottle in our bathroom for mouthwash and love it, so I decided to fill the blue bottle up for the basement.

For another splash of peacock, I bought a three dolla hand towel from Target.

So far, so good.  I still have to convince myself Ben to paint the mirror a similar shade.  I have no qualms about painting the mirror, because I definitely don’t like the current finish.

But, do I use spray paint with limited options?  Maybe the same color we used for the shelving?  Or a more boring route, ORB to tie in with the other fixtures?  Or old-fashioned latex for a custom color?

I have about 10 ideas swirling in my brain for art, but I need to try some things out to see what I would like best in the space.  I know I want something long and narrow over the bath tub, but would it look strange to have another long, narrow piece over the toilet, sitting on the shelf?

That blank wall to the right of the toilet bugs me, but eventually we will finish the steam shower under the stairs so a door will swing out toward that wall.

More color to come, but I haven’t decided on other items.  This rug from Urban Outfitters is fantastic, but could be too busy in the space.  And it’s a simple cotton rug and Ben would hate that it doesn’t have a non slip backing.  However, the size and price is right.  You know what they say, “If the rug boot fits.”

Usually a shower curtain would add a ton of color, but we don’t need one because we have a tub only.  However, a small window sits above the bath tub.

 The window is the same size as the other small windows in the bedrooms.  Could we treat is sort of like the window in the basement bedroom?

Would it look odd to hang a boldly colored, fun patterned curtain there?  While I’m showing you the basement bedroom, you should know that they saw some changes yesterday.  I’ll share more on that next week.

What would you do?  What other ways do you add color to a bathroom?  Any art placement ideas?  How much is too much in a bathroom?

Worse for Wear: Dining Table

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As much as we love our kids, we don’t love the scratches, scuffs, dings, dents, stains and other blemishes they leave around our house and on our furniture.  To keep it real and show how items in our house have held up (or haven’t) to two rowdy boys, we’re starting a new series, Worse for Wear.  You know how fashion bloggers have “What I Wore Wednesdays”?  Consider Worse for Wear the home owner equivalent.

I thought the best place to start is our DIY welded steel and marble-topped dining table, our most popular post.

A year ago, the freshly spray painted legs looked like this:

Here are the legs as of yesterday:

And now, for a closer look:

I don’t know how they did it, but the boys have slowly chipped the paint.  Fortunately, we had anticipated this, so it should be easy enough to lift the marble top off, sand and repaint. 

Luckily, the marble top is still as perfect today as it was a year ago.  No scratches or stains.  And, the chairs look great thanks to the perfectly imperfect dented factory finish.  Overall, we’re very pleased with the durability of our new dining set. 

How about you?  Which furniture pieces have held up the best?  The worst?  Which did you expect to get trashed, but didn’t?  Who causes the most damage in your family?  Kids?  Dogs?  Husbands?

Simple Solution: Shelf Life

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When we last left off with the theater room entertainment saga, we had just installed the sliding doors, going from this:

To this:

But, we still didn’t have shelves to store the toys.  You see, we didn’t know exactly how much space the sliding cabinets took up before installation, so shelves had to wait.

 

Then, Ben cut two pieces of plywood to length and depth, minus 3/4 inches.   Why subtract 3/4 of an inch?  To leave room for two strips of 3/4 inch thick by 1 1/2 inch tall MDF to finish off the front shelf face.  Ben simply nailed the thin strips to the front, puttied the nail holes and seam and left the shelves to dry.  Then, I sanded the putty down for a smooth surface and used a spray primer (because I’m lazy and we had it on hand) to cover the board evenly.  In an un-Amanda fit of craze attempt to branch out and add a fun splash of color, I applied two coats of Rustoleums Lagoon blue spray paint to each shelf.

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However , I neglected the undersides, end and back edges.  Because A, I ran out of paint.  B, the undersides are not visible unless you’re two feet tall.  And C, I’m lazy.

We’ve just doubled our usable storage by getting toys and blankets off the bottom shelf.  As a bonus, the dark paint won’t show scratches and scuffs as easily as white.

What do you think of the added color splash?  How do you add color to your home?  Pillows?  Art?  Paint?  Have a storage problem you could solve or have solved with additional shelves?