Assorted tutorials to help you learn something new.
My favorite bloggers, YHL, featured our dining table today as a Reader Redesign! You seriously have no friggin’ idea how very excited I am right now! If I weren’t holding a baby I think I would have jumped about three feet off my chair, really. If you haven’t seen it already, head on over to Young House Love and check it, check it, check it ouuut.
Paint colors can be difficult to choose. A lot of colors look great as paint chips, but not as great in mass quantity on a wall. We have definitely had our share of colors that seem great, but are atrocious. We have learned a few tips and tricks (some the hard way) about painting.
A few months before Ben and I were married, I came out to Montana to visit. During that visit, we started brainstorming ideas for the first few rooms we planned to finish. We easily agreed to install white trim in every room. Then, we chose paint colors, bought a few gallons and went back home. We chose Ralph Lauren’s Riesling and Behr’s Squirrel. I liked the airiness of Riesling and the moodiness of Squirrel. Ben lovingly agreed. We painted the first finished bedroom Riesling and loved it.
Then we finished the guest room. Then we repainted the living room. When we finally got around to the master bedroom, the tone of the house had been set. Dark, moody Squirrel was out. It just didn’t fit. I loved the color, but it didn’t work with the rest of the house. We tried a lighter grey, but decided we needed a color that coördinated with the finished rooms.
Moral of the Story: When choosing paint colors, first think about if the color will coördinate with other colors in your house.
I am more drawn to colors on the cooler side of the color wheel, like greens, blues, and purples. Red, orange, and yellow are on the warm side of the color wheel. In my opinion, pale blues and pinks are by far the least forgiving.
Our master bedroom color scheme is green with pink accents. When we finished our master bathroom, which is attached to our bedroom, I wanted to switch things up, but not too much. Rather than green walls with pink accents, I wanted pink walls with green accents. Well, I chose a light pink, got home and started painting. Oops! Definitely not a light pink. More like bubblegum pink! Needless to say, our bathroom did not stay pink. Nope, it’s the same color as our bedroom.
Moral of the Story: If you’re looking for a pale color, choose one that you like, then buy the lighter version. Believe me, paint seems to get brighter when you start putting it on your walls.
By far, my favorite paint colors are from Restoration Hardware. Saturated hues toned down with grey equals perfection in my book. Thus, many of the colors in our house are Restoration Hardware colors, color matched at Wal-Mart. Our main bathroom is RH Lilac:
The guest bedroom is painted RH Sea Green:
Our master bedroom and bathroom is RH Bay Laurel:
Our basement and dining room are mis-tinted versions of RH Silver Sage.
The basement bathroom is RH Sycamore Green:
Moral of the Story: When you find something that works, stick with it. I love that most of our colors are from the same line of paint, so everything is cohesive and goes well together.
We use satin finish paint in almost all our rooms, with the exception of the bathrooms, where we used semi gloss. We chose these finishes for durability purposes. Flat finishes do not stand up to the damage our two-year old doles out on a daily basis.
Ben has a lot of great ideas, especially when it comes to accent lighting. When we added this trim to our master bedroom, Ben got the idea to add hardwired rope lights inside. After taking the time to drill through each header, Ben had the wiring ready. Ben bought 3 to 6 foot long rope light strips from Home Depot. The lengths of the rope lighting depended on the width of the door or window they would go over. Ben plugged the lights in and wired in a dimmer switch. We love how handy the lights are, especially now that we’re waking up in the middle of the night to change diapers.
I had been planning my office for quite some time, but over looked the lighting. Ben suggested we install halogen puck lights to create task lighting. We have two sets, one on each side of the upper cabinets. The lights have two hidden switches located under my marble desktop.
I love how much task lighting I have now. It makes my work so much easier!
We have two boys under the age of three with grandparents, aunts and uncles that spoil them rotten. That means we have a ton of toys. Fortunately for us, we have created custom built in cabinets to hide most of their toys, books and diapers.
I’m still searching for the right size, cheap but durable storage bins to house V’s toys in this cabinet, but for now, it’s okay.
This red metal bin holds up to V’s abuse and it contains most of his stuffed animals. After all, three-foot tall Mickey and Minnie cannot fit in a small bin.
We don’t keep all the toys in one area, as they are hauled all around the house anyway. We have some toys stored in the Man Cave entertainment center. Once the doors are finished, the mess will be hidden away, similar to our living room built-in.
V has some larger Tonka trucks, which are stored under Ev’s crib, hidden by the crib skirt.
Basically, we don’t have a lot of baby/toy clutter because I refuse to keep large baby items like swings, bouncer seats, and exersaucers in the house. I also go through the toys somewhat regularly and throw out or donate broken or unused toys. It also helps to send noisy, annoying toys to grandma.
One major tip I can offer is to use closets and space under the bed. Keep items in bins labeled by size to organize items such as children’s out grown or too big clothes.
When I was pregnant, I found this tutorial on how to make a paper bird mobile. I decided to make a little mobile to hang above our son’s crib.
I made some changes along the way, so here is the step-by-step on how to create this mobile:
1. Print the template on plain cardstock or printer paper. I prefer to lightly trace the template on my colored cardstock, giving me the option to erase my lines after the pieces are cut. Cut out one set of the template.
2. Lightly trace the pieces on the cardstock colors of choice. For this mobile, I made three sets of each bird using two different colors of green, chocolate-brown and white cardstock. Be sure to mark the wing slit and hanging hole. Cut out your cardstock pieces and erase your lines.
3. Place your template over a cut out bird body. Use a cutting board and push-pin to poke a hole to thread your string through. Use an exacto knife to make a slit for the wing to go through. Do not make a box, as shown on the template. 
4. Slide the wing through the body and fold up slightly.
5. Add a very thin line of Elmer’s glue to each side of the tail on the main body. Slide the cut tail onto the body. Gently squeeze the tail and set it aside to let it dry. After the tail has dried, thread a string through the hole. Tie a few knots on one side and cut the extra off, leaving one to two feet on the other side. The length of the string should vary and will depend on the final hanging height.
6. Buy or cut a tree branch to hang the birds from. I prefer a branch with two or three small branches creating a V or W from one main branch.
7. Tie one piece of fishing line on each end of your branch. If you have a V branch, you will have three pieces. Make the pieces longer than you’ll need, allowing plenty of excess to tie a knot. Tie all pieces together at the desired height from the ceiling.
8. Tie each bird onto the branch, varying the height . Make sure each bird is secured on the branch. Once all birds are tied on, you’re ready to hang your completed mobile. Screw a hook into the ceiling, hang the mobile, stand back and admire!
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