Tiny Tweaks!

I’ve been in a bit of a home decor funk lately. Progress has stalled and I’ve been itching to makes some changes. Since subtle changes throughout the house can make a huge impact, I thought I’d tackle a few.

First project was to install new blinds in the Spare bedroom. I took down the old wood blinds months ago when I added the window moulding, but I wasn’t sure what to use as a replacement. Then I read this post from Young House Love, and they shared a link to some bamboo blinds that were incredibly affordable. My window is not a standard size so it’s been difficult to find inexpensive window coverings.

The bed was completely made before my pup decided to ‘make it more comfortable’. He has a tendency to photo bomb my project pictures. Don’t see him? Look closely at the dark blanket…see that dark brown blob? Yep! He kicked all the pillows off the bed just to curl up at the bottom.

The blinds were pretty simple to install. The hardest part was fitting the screwdriver between the window and the hardware in that back corner. Once the brackets were installed I slipped the blinds on and tightened the included wing nuts. Easy!

Not bad for a $30 quick fix!

The next step is to swap out the lampshade for a simple white ceiling fan. I know they aren’t the most attractive things, but it’s all about function when the summers hit 110 degrees (and your AC is broken).

Another doggie photo bomb! He’s such a creeper, staring at our neighbor’s house.

 

With the successful Spare Bedroom tweak under my belt, I headed over to Target to pick up some night lights. My home is very compacted…by that I mean it’s tall (a 3 story condo), but it’s skinny. Lighting in the house doesn’t cover an expansive area and I’m constantly turning on a new light every few steps. It’s annoying. The night lights allow me to walk throughout the house without having to turn on and off every single light.

I found these awesome LED lights for about $8 each.

Is it weird that a night light is my new favorite home decor item?

It’s beautiful and it covers those ugly outlets! I also love that they don’t have switches. They automatically turn on at dusk and off at dawn, or as needed when the lights are turned off.

It’s like a little piece of art on the wall.

I also have one of this design in the Spare Bedroom. It’s not as bright as the other style, so it’s a little less disturbing in a bedroom.

The last easy tweak was to do a little remodel in my bedroom. The Master bedroom has been a design challenge for me. I can’t quite figure out what to do with it. What you see in the pictures below is only half the room, it’s big, but like the rest of the house, it’s skinny, so it doesn’t feel particularly spacious.

I actually like having the bed is this placement, but I really hate the window behind the bed frame. I’m toying with a bunch of different ideas, but for now I just wanted to try a different placement for the bed.

Since this is temporary, I left the art up on the wall even though the bed is now blocking it. I do like being able to see the window better, but it doesn’t leave any space for a nightstand. I’m using a small bookcase right now and while it’s functional, it’s just not working. 

[There he is again! We should play some sort of ‘Spot the Dog’ game.]

 

What kind of tweaks have you been doing around the house?

Enhancing Simple Canvas Art

A few snapshots from DC last night. All the holiday lights are so beautiful! I love this time of year. Today is going to be a lazy…mainly because I feel lazy after travelling all day yesterday. Also because it’s in the 30’s outside! This California girl is shivering just thinking about it.

 

As promised…here’s a fairly easy project I did a few weeks ago to dress up a wall in my hallway. I don’t have a great picture, but it’s a pretty narrow hallway so I couldn’t put any type of furniture here. I was also worried about doing anything with glass since, while playing, the dog knocks into this wall fairly often. I don’t want to risk broken glass on the carpet.  Shattered glass and puppy feet do not mix, and he doesn’t seem to understand me when I’m yelling at him to stay away from the glass. Go figure.

It needed something.

For the first year I was living in this house, I put up this wood piece. I picked up a pair of these at HomeGoods and it seemed to fit well. The other half is nearby on another wall. But after a while it seemed boring and I wanted some color. 

So enter another piece of HomeGoods art. I love these pieces and actually have a second one hiding in the spare bedroom to use in the office remodel.

However, the art if almost the same color as the wall. The art has a little more beige and the wall is a little more pink. Even with the type color, it was blending into the wall. 

So I built a backer.

I wish I could articulate how easy building something like this truly is. If you have some sort of saw (circular seems to work best for me) and a drill/screwdriver, you’re all set. After a bit of measuring, I cut down 2 – 1 x 6 boards to make this. To make it a lighter (and a little cheaper), I didn’t use long planks in the middle.  After cutting the planks, I used a thin unfinished moulding strip and some screws to hold it all together.

Using just the screws means it is a little wobbly when you’re holding it. However, it’s solid once up on the wall. You could add more screws and some wood glue to make it more sturdy.

I finished the backer with a dark Kona stain and hanging hooks.

In order to hang the art, I added a nail to the front.

SO MUCH BETTER!

Not only do the colors pop, but I love the rustic feel to the wood backer. The larger backer also helps balance the wall space better.

I had the thin moulding on hand, but they’re fairly inexpensive. I believe an 8 foot strip costs about $4 at Lowes. The 1×6 board ran about $3 each. So over all the project cost me $6 since I only needed the 1×6 boards. Even with the moulding and screws, it would have been less than $15. Not bad to create a larger impact piece out of some simple canvas art. 

DIY – Paint Dipped Holiday Pinecones

No grocery post this week. Partially because I’ll be at my parents house for the holiday, and partially because I’ve been fighting off a terrible cold. Just when I think I’m getting better, it takes a turn for the worse. I ended up taking Friday off of work, and I slept away most of the weekend. Ugh…I just want to feel better already. So instead of my grocery challenge update this week, I have an easy little DIY that I did a few weeks ago.

These would be great on a holiday table, mantle, or use them for place cards by tucking a little piece of paper with your guest’s name into the top.

Last year I purchased a bag of Cinnamon Pinecones during the holidays. I love the scent so much that I left them out all year. I’ve used them in a variety of crafts and they work with a rustic decor year round. You can just spritz them with a little cinnamon oil when they need to be refreshed.

You don’t need the cinnamon scented ones for this project. Use whatever pinecones you can find outside. If necessary, let them dry out for a few days. If you think there are any little bugs in there, toss them in a plastic bag, and store them in the freezer overnight.

 

Next, grab some paint. I used some bronze, gold, and silver paint that I already had, so the project ended up being free. Golden is my favorite brand of paint for shimmery metallic finishes. They are an ‘art’ paint, not craft paint, so they are more expensive.

 

Paint the outer third of each scale. I also painted the outer ‘pointy’ edge so that the scales appeared ‘dipped’ in paint. I found it easiest to work from the bottom up.

 

 

I finished all three pinecones in about 20 minutes. It was easy and so versatile. How fun would these be painted with fluorescent paint and used for a spring mantle! You could also attach a string or ornament hanger and use them to decorate your tree.

 

 

If you want a little sheen, you could spray the finished pinecone with an acrylic sealer.

The $6 Tile Project

One thing I’ve noticed about being a homeowner is that you must have a little savings set aside, because when you least expect it, something will break. I miss having a landlord sometimes. Case in point, my garbage disposal died last week. Granted, I don’t expect my appliances to give me two weeks notice (wouldn’t that be nice), but this is getting a little out of hand. In the two years I’ve lived in this home, my washing machine has burned out, my AC has stopped working, the oven heats up hotter than the sun, and now my garbage disposal died. I should also mention it all happened right after my home warranty expired. 

This is where a contingency fund, and a DIY attitude comes in handy. Of all the appliances that could break, the disposal is fairly inexpensive, so I’ll count myself lucky for now. Since I was clearing out the kitchen cabinet to replace the disposal, I also decided now would be the perfect time to cross another little ‘to do’ off the list.

This is the cabinet below the sink. This picture is about 2 yeas old, but it generally looks this bad. The pipes create a bit of an organizational challenge. I’ve also found that the inexpensive cabinetry bubbles badly if it gets wet. I needed a fix for that STAT. 

 

First step was to fix the garbage disposal, so everything had to come out. I ordered the replacement disposal through Amazon since it was cheaper than the model at Lowes, and it had great reviews. At Lowe’s it would have cost me about $240, but through Amazon I scored the disposal and necessary electrical plug for about $150. I did have to go to Lowes for a small container of Plumbers Putty, but overall Amazon offered the best deal.

Installation was fairly easy and took a little over an hour. I did have some help, but it could be done by one person if necessary. The hardest part was lifting the heavy unit up to attach it to the sink. We ended up propping it up with an upside down bucket which helped keep it level while we attached it.

It’s amazingly quiet, I never realized how loud my old model was before this was installed.

Now for the fun (& surprisingly easy) part!

To keep the bottom of the cabinet from getting destroyed by any leaks or spills, I decided to add tile. I picked up 6 vinyl tiles from Lowes for less than $1 each. Vinyl tile gets a bad rap for being dated (hey I know, I grew up with it too), but it’s come a long way. I was really impressed with the styles they now have available, they are a great knock off for stone if you’re looking to do an inexpensive update.

The tiles are self adhesive so all I had to do was cut them down to size using a box cutter. The project took less than 30 minutes from start to finish. The hardest part of installing the tiles was that the cabinet isn’t square, so some edges were difficult to meet, but it worked out.

Not bad for a $6 makeover. Pretty and functional.

DIY Tiered Shade Bedroom Lighting

It’s finally Friday! Yay! I hope everyone has been having a great week. I’m honestly glad this one is over, between me being sick and one of the puppies  being sick…it’s been a rough week. Luckily both of us appear to be doing better so I hope to finally get that grass redone in the yard this weekend if the weather cooperates. I’ve also been working on some new art pieces lately that turned out better than expected so I’ll share more soon. Since I couldn’t get the grass done last weekend (it was raining), I worked on a light project for the Spare Bedroom.

I have been coveting this tiered pendant light for quite some time. Unfortunately it runs almost $400 and that’s not in the budget for a spare bedroom that will be rarely used. Honestly, it’s also too big for such a little room, but I love the tiered look.

Source

So I decided to create my own smaller, far cheaper version (mine cost less than $30) out of the existing light fixture that came with the house. Yes, that is the dreaded boob light fixture; although, I already removed the ‘boob’ before taking the pictures so just use your imagination…unless you find that weird. In that case, whatever you do, don’t think of boobs…

…and now this post has just taken an awkward turn.  I wish I could say it will get better, but these lamp manufacturers have a serious sense of humor when naming these things.

Step 1: (Unpictured)

Unscrew the finial at the bottom of the light and remove the glass fixture. Remove the light bulbs so you don’t risk breaking them later when you install the shades.

Step 2:

Remove the threaded nipple.

No, I didn’t make that up just to include more boob references for you. I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried, and for the record I’m not looking forward to the pervy Google search spambots finding this post.

You can buy extended sizes for a few dollars in the lighting section at your local hardware store. If you are just adding one lamp shade, then the existing piece will probably be sufficient; however, I wanted to add two shades to create a tiered look so I needed something longer.

Step 3: Pick out your shades.

I picked up a pretty gray shade at Target for about $24. The color was perfect for the neutral design I was going for, and it was wide enough to accommodate a second shade underneath it.

If you wanted to use just one shade to replace the existing light fixture, you want a shade with a spider fitting. You can fit this on the existing fixture, screw on the finial and you’re done! I had it set up like this for a while, but you could still see the light fixture from the top. I preferred to have a shade that reached the ceiling and covered the existing fixture.

For the tiered look, I needed two different types of shades. The Target shade had a Uno fitting which would not fit onto the existing fixture since the ring was too big, the finial would have passed right through the fitting.

However, when I stacked a shade with a Uno fitting over a shade with a spider fitting, it was perfect. The white shade is something I had on hand, but I’d like to eventually swap it out for something with a pretty pattern.

From that point, installation was incredibly easy. I fit the shades over the threaded nipple and the finial held everything together. 

Step 4:

Add the light bulbs back in, and you’re all DONE!

In addition to the light, I also put up some art to finish off the room for now. I’d eventually like to repaint the walls, change out the art, add some storage, and hang new curtains.

All in good time.

DIY Foyer Bookcase Toppers

If you happen to have today off for the holiday, I hope you are having a great long weekend. My twitter feed is filled with pictures of BBQ food and beach days, you’re all making me jealous.Tomorrow is my first day back to work after a glorious week off and I can’t say I’m looking forward to it. So I figured I should catch you up on another project that has been crossed of the list.

If you remember back to this post, I recently built the bookcases for the foyer library. It was economical to use IKEA Billy bookcases since I already had a few at home, but they look like IKEA bookcases. Not bad, just unfinished in a way which was not the look I wanted. I could actually get past classic IKEA look, but I couldn’t get past the the view as I was going upstairs.

Awful…and that has nothing to do with the amazing amount of dust on top. My original hope was to have the bookcases look like built-ins and the unfinished bookcase tops made them look horrible. I considered painting the dark brown bookcases white (and I still might in the future), but that would not fix the look of the tops.

Instead I decide to build a simple topper to not only give the bookcase a finish look, but also add some ‘built-in’ moulding.

Construction was very simple. I took a piece of pressed MDF from Lowes and cut it down to the size of the bookcases. I then added a simple moulding to the side and part of the front. I couldn’t add the moulding to the entire front of the board because it wouldn’t accommodate the door. Above the door I added a piece of 1/2 round to give the board a finished edge.

A little wood filler, primer, and paint finished off the look. The greatest part was that they fit right on top and don’t need to be adhered to the wall or the bookcase. Easy.

Since I had the moulding and 1/2 round already on hand from another project, I only had to purchase the pressed board. I chose the pressed board because it was cheapest option. The boards are precut 2’ x 4’, so I was able to cut it in half and fit both bookcases. Overall this project cost me less than $10 for the pressed board.

I also did a little organizing (and cleaning) so it’s looking better all around. I can’t wait to see how much better it looks once I’ve refinished the hope chest and added some art.

Just one last look…

Before.

After.

DIY Dark Wood Laundry Drying Rack

A few months back I bought a carved wood hook (from HomeGoods, surprise surprise) that I thought was perfect for the laundry room. I loved the dark wood next to the painting, but it had limited functionality. I could only hand a few things on it, and I need more space to air dry some delicate items.

It also kept falling off the wall, but that was really more my fault than the hooks.

I still think it’s beautiful so it’s being moved somewhere else in the house (not sure where yet).

So down came the hook and I started brainstorming other options. l thought of grouping some single hooks in some sort of pattern on the wall, or a shelf that could at least provide some additional ‘counter’ space.

Then I saw the genius DIY post over at Centsational Girl for a dryer rack and the light bulb went on above my head. Actually it more like I swiped the light bulb that formed over her head (but whatever). That would be perfect to replace the wobbly hooks and add some additional functionality to the laundry room.

I picked up a 2’ x 2’ piece of plywood which fit the space perfectly, no need to cut it down. I also picked up 2 pieces of 1 x 3 boards and some 3/8 inch dowels.

I followed the steps in Kate’s post with the exception of the finish, and I used chain instead of brackets for the sides. It took a few days to build and stain the entire piece since I worked on it in small chunks of time in between work and other projects, but it could be easily built in an afternoon.

Drilling the dowel holes was the fun part. Who ever thought I’d have such fun with power tools.

I used Rustoleum Kona for the finish, which is essentially the ORB of the stain world. To create the darker finish color, I didn’t wipe off the stain. I apply it in thin even coats and let it dry. I then applied a few thin coats of Satin Poly to protect it since damp clothes will be laying directly on the wood. 

Just like Kate, I used a sash lock on the top to secure the piece when not in use. The knobs are from some old IKEA furniture which I’m thinking of painting a light aqua color, but for now the dark iron color works well.

I LOVE this thing! Especially since it was fairly inexpensive. All the supplies cost me less than $20 since i had the stain, knobs, and tools already.

It almost blends into the wall as a piece of art which is yet another reason why it ROCKS.

DIY Dark Wood Spice Rack

While wandering the Crate and Barrel outlet a few weeks ago, I found the perfect little spice jars. They run about $2 each, which is more than I originally wanted to spend, but I love them. They have a tight seal, are easy to access, and look so pretty lined up on the counter.

Source

However, as much as I like them next to the stove for easy access, I quickly realized I needed another way to organize them. It looked messy when I grouped them on the counter.

Stacking them was an option, but they aren’t designed to be stacked…

..so they would often look like this.

Needless to say, I needed another storage option. After playing around with some scrap wood in the garage, I came up with this.

It was incredibly simple to build and I had everything on hand so it didn’t cost a penny. It even provides enough room to add another 4 spice jars under the first level.

The entire rack was made up of 4 pieces. Each side was a piece of wood cut into an ‘L’ shape. I believe it was cut out of a piece of scrap 1 x 6 wood. The shelves are cut from scrap 1 x 3 boards. There is nothing magic about the measurements. I lucked out that the 1 x 3 perfectly fit the spice jars and I knew I wanted 5 jars per shelf. This design is easy enough to adapt to any space/jar size that I plan on building a second spice rack to fit in a kitchen cabinet to hold additional spices that aren’t used everyday.

I used simple brad nails to build the rack and sanded the whole thing lightly to take away sharp edges. I chose to stain the piece very dark to compliment the dark flecks in the granite. I used Rustoleum Kona, layered on a thicker than usual coat and left to dry for 2 days. Usually you would apply stain and wipe it off shortly after application; however, in this case, I just let the stain dry like paint. It ended up being perfectly dark and dried with a slight shine.

The finished product ended up being a huge success and I’ve already had several compliments on it. It’s an added bonus that it was free; although if you did have to buy the supplies, it would still be fairly inexpensive.

DIY Nail Polish Storage

I’m a little obsessed lately with nail polish. I’ve always like a good manicure (which I do myself), but growing up an avid nail biter meant my nails always looked awful. However, last year, I took a month to battle my bad habit, and things are still doing well. Now that I have longer nails, it’s much more fun to keep them polished.

However, breaking the nail biting habit is costing me a fortune! I love polish now. 

My collection before was housed in a plastic shoe box. It quickly outgrew the lid and was starting to spill over the sides. Not only was this messy, but it was awful when the only polish I wanted just happen to be on the bottom of the box (which was always).

So in an effort to organize my linen closet, I used some scrap wood to build some nail polish storage boxes. The structure was as basic as it gets, and to make them quickly, I only used nails to hold everything together.

I built 3 basic boxes, like the above, and one slightly special box that holds tools.The tool box was split into two compartments, one side for tools and the other for clear polishes and treatments (i.e cuticle oil, base coats, top coats, etc). I reach for this box most often since I keep all the files in there so I made the front a bit lower to make it easier to identify and remove from the shelf.

Since I used scrap wood, some of the boards were bowed and knotted. Each box needed quite a bit of wood filler. I set the nails and filled all the seams.

After a heavy coat of wood filler, I spent a day sanding them. As you can see in the picture above, many of the seams were very uneven. This didn’t really bother me since I was making these out of scraps for free, but it required a lot of sanding to clean them up.

After wiping them free of dust, I applied 2 coats spray primer and 2 coats of white satin spray paint. Since it’s likely that polish may leak, I also applied several thin coats of Satin Poly. It won’t help if a whole bottle spills and dries in the box, but it will help me clean up a quick leak. I also like the sheen of satin poly on a project like this.

There is a 4th box, but it was still drying when I took these pictures.

The last step was to add some label holders. I purchased 2 packages of chrome label holders from Staples, Martha Stewart collection. Unfortunately I can’t find a link to the product online, but I found plenty of them in store. They come is a brushed chrome color and I used my magic ORB spray paint to darken them. They attached with double stick tape, so there is no hardware to deal with.

…and ORGANIZE!

I split the boxes into color families to make it easy to find any polish. I have a Red/Pink box, a Blue/Purple box, the Tools box, and an Other box.

They easily stack in the linen cabinet and actually look pretty nice. I also like that there is space to add more boxes in case my collection continues to grow.

 

Project Cost Breakdown (for all boxes):

Wood/Nails (Already Owned/Scrap Wood) = $0

White Spray Paint, Spray Primer, Spray Satin Poly (Already Owned) = $0

Labels (Martha Stewart @ Staples) = $8 (I think they were about $4 a package and I bought 2)

ORB Spray Paint for Labels (Already Owned) = $0

Total Project Cost: $8

2 Year Home Anniversary – A Look Back

Alright, first things first. Who’s making a Golf Cake for Father’s Day?

It’s been the most popular post on the blog lately, so I suspect there are quite a few golf enthusiasts out there that will be eating cake this weekend. Great additions would be a sand pit (made with brown sugar), or a flag (using a skewer, cut in half). I’d love to see those cakes if anyone does it! I may just do a special post to share your golf cake pictures so feel free to leave links in the comments or email me pictures.

 

Okay, now back to the point of today’s post. The 5th of this month was the 2 year anniversary of when I purchased my first home. I didn’t start the blog until a year later so there are a bunch of projects that I never originally blogged about; although, I have been trying to share finished projects in order to catch up. I thought it would be fun to look back at some of the before and after pictures from the past two years.

 

Front Door Entry

There haven’t been any major changes to the front door with the exception of decorating and I changed out the handle/deadbolt when I moved in. This is my favorite picture from the Autumn setup. The star was found at HomeGoods and I built the Front Door Post myself. In the past year I’ve also created the Halloween Sign, Yarn Wrapped Fall Sign, Valentine Cork Heart, and most recently the Hand painted Welcome Sign.

 

Backyard

The backyard has been a bit of a challenge since it is completely paved. I have a dog and I desperately needed some grass so the main goal was to find a way to grow grass on concrete.

BAM…Yes. I. Did.

The grass planters work very well and would continually grow grass year round if my dog didn’t enjoy killing it so much. I’m tempted to swap out the real grass for a synthetic grass this summer.

Vertical planters went up along one wall to add some height and extra gardening space.

…and I built a potting bench for the wall.

Oh, and I can’t forget the BBQ…still love that green!

 

First Floor Bathroom

This is one of the rooms that I did before starting the blog. I had all the accessories with me from my previous apartment so I knew that I wanted a Hawaiian themed room somewhere in the house.

I ended up using a refreshing Bamboo color on walls which really brightens up such a small room.

French Doors

Oh, those doors! I though I was stuck with broken blinds until I found inspiration online to paint them!

This project made a huge impact and I’ve since covered several other windows in my house with the privacy film.

Dining Room

This room is still in progress since I’m currently using a small card table as my dining table.

For under $100 I added moulding and I LOVE it.

I get quite a few questions about that bar. It is a knock off of the Pottery Barn Bar and my dad built it for me. You can see more about the bar, here.

 

Garage

I’ve shared all my Garage woes on the blog so this is probably not new to you. Over the past few months I’ve made a ton of progress. Remember when…

…and now with all the shelving, it’s actually functional. I’ve since added a temporary workbench in the open area that I’ve been using for painting projects.

 

Fireplace

Another project that was well documented on the blog, and probably my favorite project to date. I was SO intimidated by this project that I kept pushing it down the list. I didn’t think I could really do it on my own.

I started off by painting the fireplace screen, and that gave me some motivation to keep going.

Little by little, I started chipping aware at the tile.

Before I knew it, the finishing touches were in place.

 

Powder Room

This is a small powder room near the living room and kitchen. The room has no natural light which made it difficult to get the wall color right.

I ended up a peachy beige and decorated with that lovely orchid and rustic boxes. The garden lantern on the floor holds extra toilet paper rolls.

I replaced the standard oval mirror with a larger version that I scored at HomeGoods for $49 and the Moroccan urn works as a trash can.

 

Kitchen/Ledge

I don’t think I’ve actually share the Kitchen as a whole on the blog before. I’ll show a little more in another post, but we did make one change to that half wall shortly after moving in.

An added ledge. Such a simple addition and it made a huge functional difference to the kitchen.

 

Office

This one shouldn’t be new to you since I just shared it the other day, but here’s a quick before…

…and in progress (right now)…it will all be changing soon.

Spare Bedroom

Another room that’s current in progress (and actually making substantial progress lately!). Before…

…and in progress…

 

Third Floor Spare Bathroom

Another all white bathroom. A blessing since I wanted to decorate each room myself, but it was so bland when I moved in.

Yes another room that I think I painted 3 times before settling on the green. First it was pink, then it was blue, then I scored with the ‘army’-ish green.

(yes, those curtains need to be hemmed)

 

Laundry Room

The laundry room is the room that you look into when you come up to the third floor, so I wanted it to look good. Who wants to stare at an ugly room every time you come upstairs?

A grey blue on the walls and sea grass baskets gave it the perfect style. Oh, and clearance art…can’t hate that!

On the wall leading in to the laundry room I have the DIY Chalkboard Thermostat Frame.

“Laundry Today or Naked Tomorrow”

So True!

 

There are a few other rooms that I haven’t shown you, like the Kitchen, Living Room, and the Master Bed/Bath. I’ll make sure to share those in the future. I’m also going to be updating the Home Tour page soon which will add some, much needed, organization to the site.

 

Have a GREAT Weekend!