Radiant Orchid and the Crazy Closet Redo!

I haven't posted in such a long time! But trust me, we've been busy doing all sorts of things around this house. Plenty to write about now! I had mentioned that we were in the middle of a project.

This is our entryway. 

And this is the terrifying pink swatch color that I couldn't get over.
It stayed there, I dare say for months. 

I had this grand idea to redo the closet in our entry. It started with doors; gross, brown sliding closet doors. The kind that fall off the track every time you touch them. Needless to say, I hated them. Plus, I wanted more room in the doorway. So we talked and plotted about what to do. I'm constantly on Pinterest, looking for ideas, so I came up with removing the doors and adding hooks and better shelves to create a larger space for guests to enter, hang coats, and also for me to store things. I wanted it to stand out, but go with the rest of the house. 

For some crazy reason I was obsessed with the 2014 color of the year: Radiant Orchid. 

Now this is where most sane people would stop and say: "But isn't that going to be too bright, too pink, too….much?"

Closet cleaned out and prepped. 

Clearly I'm not one of those people. 

Right about this point of the painting, I started to panic. What was I thinking? There's nothing radiant about this paint! This is too much!!!! I kept telling myself to keep going. It's just paint, we can always change it. That's even what I told my husband. But inside, I was terrified - panicked at the thought that I would have to live with this bright pink wall in my house. There was pink everywhere!

A mess of "orchid" - we ended up doing three coats of paint!

Nevertheless, we trudged on, going along with my ridiculous idea even though I was terribly unsure. One of the things we wanted to do was get better shelving, but we ended up using the same shelves, but bought new wooden brackets. We also bought a new wood plank to use for multiple different types of hooks on the wall. We sanded the wood down, and stained it a dark color so everything matched.

New wooden brackets, before stain. 

The two old shelves and one new builders grade
plank for the wall of hooks.

After we stained everything, we went to work hanging all of our brackets and shelves. As you can see from the pictures, the dark wood against the pink seemed to lessen the brightness of the paint. I started to get a bit more comfortable with everything, which made my husband and I much less apprehensive about moving forward.

This is a more representative version of the color.
Much more radiant now!

A great close-up of the grain in the wood. 

We added our shelves and hooks and then my husband went to work on our new bench! We decided a great way for guests to feel comfortable is a place for them to sit to remove or put on their shoes. So he bought, once again some plain builders grade lumber. After he builds things, I get to work staining. At this point, it was winter, so the bench had to come inside for the stain to dry. Hence, my living room carpet once again gets covered and no one can move around the house.

This is what we are reduced to when my grand ideas take over. 

Such a strong bench! Look at the wood grain!!!! 

I polyurethaned the bench to protect it because it will get more use then the shelves. 

Inside the closet, my husband put some 2 x 4 as extra supports. 

Which I then painted to camouflage . 

 

After he placed the bench inside, I went to work styling the new space. I already had purchased dark brown baskets with teal and white print inserts to look pretty as well as hold scarves, hats, gloves, and doggy items. I added some picture frames, vases, books, and other odds and ends to make the space inviting and homey. 

I can finally say that I'm soooooooooo…(too much??).... so glad that we kept going with the radiant orchid. It ended up looking exactly how I wanted: a little fun, unexpected, clean - and it also coordinates with the house, without being too matchy-matchy. 

The final product! 

Hope you like what I've done! What are your thoughts?

See you next time!

Deborah

Valentine's Wreath

I raided the dollar store the other day.

Determined to not spend a lot of money, but decorate a little for Valentine's Day, I bought some floral picks, ribbon, doilies, etc. All in hopes of making a cheap wreath. 

My spoils on the floor of my basement living room. 

I found this wreath on clearance after Christmas, not really in love but unable to pass it up for $2.50

So I had the brilliant idea to fix it! I took all my heart floral picks, cut them apart, and placed them here and there until I was happy with what I saw. Then I picked up my trusty glue gun and went to town.

Here's the end product!

All in all, I think it ended up really cute. I may add a bow later. 

The entire thing only cost $7.50. Not bad, considering a store bought wreath is at least $20. 

See you next time!

Deborah

The final look of the Great Bathroom Makeover

In my first post, I spoke about the bathroom makeover. 

You can see that post here.

These are a few of the images of the final look (for now). We're already talking about "future" plans for new tile, vanity top, and a tub. Houses are never done. But this is pretty and does the job, updated, clean and exactly what I wanted for a budget makeover. 

I got a lot of the finishings on clearance, or I already had some lying around. I tend to move things from room to room until it's right. A lot of this room was based on trying to make it feel like a spa, so I used a lot of teals and greens. 

Here you can see the shelves I picked up from Hobby Lobby, on clearance ($15 each), along with some teal glass bottles (half off on sale). I also used some old wash cloths in a basket to make it look a bit spa-like. I got the jewelry armoire on a huge discount from Pier 1. It was "damaged," which meant a couple of dings and wobbly legs. I brought it home, pledged it a bit, and tightened the legs. 

Good as new. 

Any of the wall hangings were also on clearance at Hobby Lobby. I waited until they were at least 66% off so I wouldn't spend a lot. 

I'm really happy with the way it turned out. What do you think?



See you next time!

Deborah

Little Gold Roosters

We are literally in the middle of a project. And we have no idea what we are really doing.

When we bought our house, I'd decided to redo the entry closet. We have a tiny little hallway and a pretty large closet. So we're in the process of taking the doors off, painting the walls, and creating more entry space.

When we're done, I'll show you what we did.

In the meantime, I can show you these:

I found these sweet little roosters at a thrift store, all dusty and forgotten. I decided to save them. I got them home and my husband questioned my life choices. I think they are beautiful. I cleaned them up and set them on the windowsill in the kitchen. They seem to watch over me as I cook (and I've heard Roosters in the kitchen are good luck). They strike me as decor you might find in a high-end store, but I bought them for $4. I considered it a win. 

See you next time!

Deborah

The Great Bathroom "Makeover" of 2013

This is our house. 

Home Sweet Home

A sweet little 1970s tri-level. It's not perfect. Therefore, the minute we got the keys in our hand (May 28th, 2013) we decided on all the ways we would change it. As my dad says, "we bought a house we loved so we could change everything about it."

And so here we go. 

I'm crafty by nature, so of course I'm pretty handy with a paint brush. I also tend to annoy my husband with the ridiculous amount of ideas I have clunking around in my brain. In the end, he always loves it (or so he says). Too bad. 

My first great idea was to "re-do" our upstairs bathroom. We don't have a ton of money so I can't afford to renovate (but it's in the cards someday). So I decided it needed a "makeover." 

The Post Before Pic
(because I failed to take an actual before picture)

Imagine that the wood paneling on the bottom of the wall is the same color as the vanity. It was 1970s country. I don't even know if that's a genre. The walls were also a pale sky blue. Ick. Like I said, money is tight, so right now I'm making things work. So I whitewashed the wood paneling, painted the walls a peacock teal and hoped for a spa feel.

This is the gold hardware. Pretty right???
 I decided to just try to spray paint them. And so far so good!

All the knobs and towel racks.
Also the rings to the light plate. 

Bases to the towel racks and
vanity handles. 

My husband, the loving kind man that he is, helped me get down all the doors, drawers, and cabinets. Again, the wood color just brought the whole room down. It's also just basic cabinetry, so sanding and refinishing wasn't really an option. I'd read on multiple websites that I could possibly get a reliable finish by using a good quality primer. Soo…..off to the hardware store I went, finding the best primer I could as well as white paint. I cleaned all the surfaces and went to work, using a foam roller to get rid of brush marks. 

Mirrored Cabinet (sans mirrors and lights)

The Vanity "Before"

Wall Cabinet

 My living room was in shambles! Old sheets laid out on top of plastic to save my beautiful new rug (one of the only things purchased new for the house).

My "Workspace"

My Tower of Drawers (it was actually easy to paint them this way!)

I also spread out into the basement. There were bathroom pieces all over the house. Every level. You could barely walk.


But then, when the painting was complete, it started to look like I'd made good choices. One coat primer, two coats of white paint and to protect it all, I sealed it with a matte coat of water based polyurethane.

Ignore my under the sink mess. 

You have one too.

Be kind.  

Here you can see the hardware. It looks pretty good, and is holding up so far. They don't get used a lot (mostly for "pretty" towels). However, the knobs and handles on the vanity get used all the time and are doing great. 

Here you can see the final product of the vanity. We didn't replace the sink, but the multiple shades of white and ivory seems to work together (or so I tell myself).

And here is an overall picture of the final product. I'm so happy with how it turned out. This is prior to hanging the wall cabinets and basic styling as well. In my next post, I'll show you the real final product. It's so spa-like and it works for now. Clean, fresh paint works miracles!


See you next time!

Deborah