A place to PLAY!

Moving on to the next room of the house, is our play room. This room is in the front of the house, to your left when you first enter the front door. This room is the most closed off, and we hope to open it up a bit more soon. Remember the wall on the other side of the stairs I was talking about? Well removing that wall will open this space up to the entry. It will really make the first floor as a whole, much more cohesive in flow. Once you step into the dining area of the kitchen, the floor plan is very open. Flowing from dining area, to kitchen, to family room. The entry and two front rooms (this room and the formal dining room), are much more closed off. My last blog post kicked Steve into high gear and he is really motivated to get moving on starting that project! So that will be soon.

Back to the play room though. This room is of course, still in progress. We have most of it done though, after a week spent mostly putting it together. Just a few small things and I think we'll be good to go for a while. Which is great because the kids and I spend the majority of our day in this space. It is nice to have it brighter and more organized. It felt more like a shoe box previously. The walls were dark, the window and trim were dark, walls were blank...blah! Now it actually feels like a room. Imagine that!

Here are some before photos. Again, not great. This one is from the previous owners, before they painted it a hideous blue in between our two viewings. Don't you just love the organ?? Oh and of course the too-small "art". Yikes. 

Then, after our first tour of the place, they "upgraded" to this really terrible shade of blue. It was DARK and flat and really made you feel boxed into that room. This photo is really awful and zoomed in.

Here are a couple shots while we (Steve) were painting it. I told you Steve loves spackle, right? I wasn't kidding. These were taken at night on the iphone, so sorry about that.

 I can't tell you what a difference just painting the trim and window made! It really makes you appreciate white semi-gloss when you are painting over flat blue.

And here is our room now. The paint is a beige-gray. During the day it looks more beige, in the evening it looks more gray. I figured I'd stick with neutral walls in here because of all the colorful toys & accessories. It definitely has that playful look to it though, overall.

My white 96" drapes are from Ikea and we hung them nice and high and wide on the window. I also have white roller shades installed for privacy in the evening. The couch we had (and even though I don't love it, I can't justify buying a new one for a playroom that kids will PLAY in). The leather chairs are from Target. As is the ottoman and the lamp filled with lemons. The green, brown, and yellow/gray pillows are from Target and the other 3 I made. The table in between the chairs is from Ikea.

This is the wall that we want to open. Once we do that, we will obviously have to rearrange the room a bit. You can see the front door on the right, to give you an idea of the floor plan. The 3 shelving units (which we bolted together and to the wall) are from Target ($90 for all 3 pieces!). The chalkboard is the other one I made. That less-than-ideal torch lamp is from Target back when we first got married. I don't love it, but we need light on that side of the room and that is the only thing that fits. I'm on the look out for a better replacement. The letter 'E' my bestie Jane made for me as a housewarming gift.

Pin It

This is what you see when you first walk into the house. On your left of course. You can see the sliver of gray-green entry on the left of the photo. The ladder we have had (it was left at our first house when we moved in. It is anchored to the wall).

The tripod lamp (which I LOVE) is from Target (are you noticing a theme here yet?). The canvas artwork I made. The play kitchen we made a few years ago and the kids table is from Ikea. The wall above the kitchen is empty for now but I have a big huge, awesome mirror to put there once I can spray paint it the fabulous turquoise color I bought for it. It will be super playful and also reflect sunlight from the window which will be directly across from it.

The side tables are a work in progress. I want to replace the feet with blocks (like the rest of the furniture) and also replace the pulls. They were originally part of a desk that was Steve's grandparents. Oh, I love that clear lamp! It is from Target and I haven't decided whether I like it empty or with the lemons. It is such a pretty tear drop glass base. 

The canvas "artwork", I made. Let me tell you. This was all so simple and quick. The one that took the longest was the flower. I made that with scrapbook paper and Mod-Podge. It took me FOREVER to figure out papers that looked good together and how to arrange them. I love the one little yellow petal, which is hard to see, but in the photo above you can see it a bit more clearly. The rest took about 30 minutes a piece, which I did over several days during nap.

The two black ones I painted with the chalkboard paint and then softened a bit by rubbing chalk all over them and wiping it mostly off. The striped one I made by painting over masking tape. The chevron print and the flower print, I used the entryway paint, to tie the spaces together a bit.

The chevron one, I printed and cut a stencil of sorts for. I used a mother of pearl acrylic craft paint for that, as well as for the birdie. It is nice because, depending on your angle, the paint looks white or silver. Very pretty. The birdie canvas, I painted yellow with acrylic craft paint and then white washed with some white paint mixed with a bit of water. Then I printed a birdie off of an image I liked, cut it out, and stenciled it. The quote I stenciled.

Overall, I love them! I had a 5 pack of canvases that were on sale for SEVEN dollars. Yes, you heard that right. Seven. So in total, including the 2 craft paints & foam brushes, all 5 pieces were under $10. They are each 16x20, so they cover a good amount of the wall when put together.

Here is the second chalkboard I made. It is a bit smudged up at the moment. Kid prints and such. I just quickly scribbled a cute Dr. Seuss quote that I really like on it with my chalkboard marker. I want to spend a little more time on it at some point. But for now, I like it.

"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you'll go!"

So that's it so far. It has come a LONG way! Left on our to do list for this room:

-Open up the wall
-Spray paint the mirror I have for the empty wall above the kids kitchen space (waiting for some warmer weather)
-Revamp the side tables (the one on the right of the couch looks lower because I took the feet off already)
-Add bamboo shades to the window
-Shampoo the carpet. I have had the machine in my garage for weeks now. Must get on that! The carpet isn't terrible, but it will definitely look nicer once I get it freshened up.

Ahhh. So nice to have a space where the kids can play that is organized well for them and looks nice for me! They love having their toys on the shelving unit because they can see it all and it is easier to clean up. My favorite part of the room is my lighting. What do YOU like best? Any recommendations??
Take a moment to "Follow" me if you haven't already! Pin It

From Trash to....

See this lovely little (well, BIG) framed chalkboard?

Oh it is just the perfect size for above that desk. Which again, looks TINY! Remind me never to use that stinkin' kit lens again. Distortion is wacky! I knew there was a reason I had it in the attic for the last 2 years.

ANYWAYS. It is a nice big framed chalkboard that I can switch around little quotes and such on. When I first put it up, it looked like a TV actually. But nope, just a chalkboard. Darn because that would be one cool looking TV!

Why do I keep getting on tangents here?? Maybe because it is 9:45 pm and we spent the day painting the play room and wrangling three kiddos? Maybe.

OK. For real now, I'm getting down to business.

So a while back I saw a pin on ye 'ol Pinterest of a framed corkboard that someone had made from an old thrift store frame. I thought it would be neat to do a chalkboard one too, so I figured I would keep my eye out for one.

Well get this. The VERY NEXT night I was driving down our street and low and behold, on the curb (trash night!) I see a STACK of old artwork! Seriously, there must have been 15. I pulled over and practically squealed when I saw them. There were a few of these big ones and some smaller ones. I slid five of the best looking ones into the back seat and had Steve unload them all for me when I pulled into the house. Score!

Here is what this one looked like (the others look similar):



Nice huh? Don't you just love that beautiful scene??

Now, this framed art didn't have any glass. But if yours does, just remove it. This piece was a fake oil painting on something like cardboard but thicker. So I just painted right over it.

Here is a close up of the great detailed frame:

It could be nice even unpainted really. But for the look I'm going for, I wanted it white.

Once you find the frame you like (Goodwill is a great place to look. As is Grandma's basement), you just need chalkboard paint, a brush of some type, and some white paint. Here is what I used:

I used spray paint with the first one I made and it was tricky. So I switched to a quart and used a foam brush (my detail oriented husband is cringing at the foam brush usage). It worked so much better and was a lot easier and faster. For the paint, I just used some semi-gloss white trim paint we had leftover from painting the bathroom. I used Olympic No-VOC Premium paint.

I found a nice flat surface to paint it on (our kitchen island was actually perfect because I could walk around it) and here is it after the black paint (again, I just painted right over the mountains):

Next, I taped the edges before painting the frame:

The more I look at these, the more I feel like the frame looks a lot nicer in gold in photos than it did in person...oh well.

So then I used the foam brush to do the white. You don't want to put it on too thick because it will drip. After the first coat, it looked like this:

You can definitely still see through the paint. So I waited a couple of hours and then applied a second coat. After it dried, I pulled off the tape, touched up the edges where needed (you can see in the photo above that I didn't apply it very precisely. Hey, I was rushing during naptime!). Here is the final product again:

Perfect. I used a chalkboard marker to write on it ($4 at Joann's) and figure I will change it up every so often. I love how nicely it looks with my white chair!

There is so much wall space in this house, that any large "artwork" I can find for a good price, I'll take. Considering that I spent a whopping $6 on this for the chalkboard paint, of which I used about 1/10th of the can....I think it's right in my budget.

I made one more for the playroom, which was the identical frame. I haven't put it up yet since we have actually been painting the room today....did I tell you that I can't seem to commit to just one room?? Yeah....today my mind started wandering to the dining room actually.

Pin It

Family Room Progress

I went back and forth about 100 times on what my first post should be. Where I should start this whole thing off. A whole house "before" tour, one room at a time, or with a DIY idea. I think I landed in the middle. Let me start with this. Nothing in our house is an "after" yet. It is all a work in progress for sure. I sort of have my hand in several different rooms right now...I can't seem to commit to just one space at a time. So for now, it is just a mish-mash of progress all over the place. When you see the joint, be reminded of that. Progress people, progress.

That said, here is our family room BEFORE. This is the old owner's photo actually. The only real before shot. I seem to have a hard time taking photos before I do a project (that is changing though). I tend to do something then go, "AHH!!! I forgot a before!!". Grrrr. Ah well. So yeah, here it is world (really exciting stuff here, I know):

Mmmmmmm. Don't you just love that window AC unit? Really makes the room I think (central air going in this Summer, yay!). So the pluses. It is a great large space. Nice hardwoods (not as dark as I would prefer but still, nice). Great window. Open floor plan (this is taken from the kitchen).

Obviously we have a lot we want to do with this room, but here we are now:

Don't mind the lack of height on this wall. Gallery wall coming soon!

I don't know why, but this room looks SO much bigger in the photos and the furniture looks so much smaller. Well, I do know why, this cheapo lens I used to get the wide angle of the room, distorted everything. But whatev. Basically, my point is, the furniture is much larger looking in real life.

Some of what we've done so far:

-Twin couches facing one another

-New grommet top curtain panels hung outside the frame of the window and just under the ceiling

-Bamboo shades also hung high above the window frame

-2 area rugs combined to make one large rug (I liked the smaller scale pattern that the smaller rugs featured, as opposed to the very large pattern of the 8x10 rug)

-A couple upholstered chairs (the orange vintage one will be getting a makeover)

-Lots of colorful toss pillows (some I made, some I didn't)

-A rattan chest for the coffee table (holds our games)

-A defined desk space

-Temporary TV console with ottoman beneath

Some of the things still remaining on our to-do list:

-Paint the walls a nice gray

-Add crown molding and paint existing trim a crisp white (the previous owners painted ALL the trim in the house, the color of the walls, GAH!)

-Decide on what type of shelving we'd like to do on the TV wall. I'm thinking something industrial looking. (Then we will remove the existing bookshelf in the room which doesn't match)

-Gallery wall of photos on the right couch wall

-Paint the woodwork on the orange chair, white, to modernize it a bit

-New filing cabinet to replace that lovely light oak one (redo it somehow or replace)

-Art work for where the existing bookshelf is, once we move it

-Replace lamps with the glass ones I looove from Target (waiting for a sale!)

-Find a nicer planter for that palm on the printer

I think that will about sum it up! We have also talked about eventually converting the window into a french door to the deck (which will hopefully go in this summer) and also maybe adding a fireplace to the TV wall. We even think vaulting the ceiling would be gorgeous (since there is nothing above the family room). But that won't be for awhile.

I was going to feature our first little project tonight, but this has gotten lengthy, so I'll leave it for today. I'll get the post all set and show it to you tomorrow. I'll be talking about the framed chalkboard above the desk space. It had an interesting fate and I most certainly changed that quite a bit!

Thanks for hanging in here with me as I figure this stuff all out. Things will adapt and change for sure. My style is evolving and transitioning everyday! See you tomorrow friends.