Merry Renovation Christmas 2014

The stockings were hung by the chimney with (extreme!) care, in hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there. We did find our Christmas decorations, but not many of them fit where they did in the old house. We had a very red and green mantle at our old place, with green garland and silver accents. More of a traditional feel. When trying to decorate this fireplace, I quickly found out our new home had a tiny mantle. Not much fit. We could get our stocking holders safely hanging, but there was no way garland would fit. In addition to being narrow, it is also short in length. Since we'll have a completely different fireplace in a few weeks I didn't want to shell out for new decorations. Instead I re-purposed some old tinsel garland and hot glued left-over ornaments on a cone-shaped foam mold to make a tree. You can also find "Red" (our elf) hiding in the wreath today. Not the fanciest mantle, but festive. I think it goes well with our cardboard hearth and chipped tile.  ;)

D removed most of the tile on the hearth to make room for the gas line for the fireplace conversion a few months ago. The tile was attached with liquid nails and wasn't easy to budge. He chipped away a bit and ultimately used a saw to completely detach the hearth piece. He'll need to remove the drywall to get the rest of the tile off the wall. Since we have a big 5th birthday coming up, we'll wait until after the party to tackle the rest.  

We have our faux-stone on order. We decided to go with Boulder Creek Stone in the "Morgan" color. In print and online it shows up orange/pink, but it's actually more brown and gray. It's marketed as a DIY friendly install... we hope that's correct. Another benefit of the Boulder Creek product is that it has matching hearthstones which we were unable to find with the faux-stone at Lowe's or Home Depot. Plus, I preferred more of the "block" look versus the flatter "slate" look. Just a style preference. 

What is currently a plain wall with a fireplace will become the focal point of the main living area. We have white cabinets for each side of the fireplace just waiting to be installed. We'll put in white shelving to give it a full "built in" look. The TV will get mounted on the wall with a swivel arm and the stand will move to the basement. If D can manage it, lights will be installed over the fireplace. That ceiling fan will be replaced with a more attractive model with brighter lights. 

A few inspiration photos for the stones and mantle. I love the chunky mantles in these photos. We won't go to the ceiling with the stone in our home. We are also keeping the existing fireplace glass doors but will paint the brass to give it a solid look. Our TV will go to the right of the fireplace on one of the shelves (vs mounted over the fireplace) because it makes more sense for our room layout.  

A big impact project coming up for 2015. 

Until then, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 

Out with the old, in with the new for 2015!

A Tale of Two Bedrooms: Part Two

The second bedroom was orginially a pale blue, with oak closet doors and white curtains. The room's new owner selected a very bright, almost tropical, blue from Sherwin-Williams called "capri." Because it was such a bright blue, I also suggested stripes to break up the color. It was just by luck that this blue happened to compliment the green selected by his twin brother in the next room. 

"Take my picture in my room!"

Taking pictures with his leap pad,
while Mommy used her camera

The first thing D did was to remove the track lighting that was illuminating the closet door. I don't understand why it was placed there in the first place. It's the only light in the room and it shines directly on the closet. Weird. We were able to re-purpose the light in our laundry room make-over; I always feel good about re-using things if it makes sense.  He also added a ceiling fan and wired a new switch to have wall controls for the light and the fan. We had new carpet installed throughout the entire second floor. When we ripped out the old carpet we found original hard wood floors in this room as well. They were in horrible condition. Prior to the large renovation, this room was smaller and had a short hallway. There was also a tiny 3rd bedroom in the area we call the loft. From what we can tell, the wall was shifted over to enlarge this room and the floor was badly damaged. It didn't hurt my feeling too much because I don't prefer hardwood in the bedrooms, especially not in children's bedrooms. I know that goes against most interior design but that's my preference...but on the main floor, that's another story! Can't wait to have new floors throughout the main level. Several projects will need to come before that one....

Painting the built in bookcase

This room is smaller than the "green" bedroom but is still plenty big for a bedroom. It has a neat little nook next to the closet which was set up with shelves. I couldn't decide how to paint that area and finally decided to carry the stripes right through the nook/bookcase. It wasn't easy to do the stripes at times, but I am happy with the end result. 

As with the green room, I painted the gray stripe in the mid-to-upper third of the wall. Then I used Frog Tape to around the room and went back through with the blue paint above and below the gray. The Frog Tape was amazing. I wouldn't bother with any other brand. If there was any bleed through, it was only a tiny amount. I believe was only noticeable because of the bold colors. It took a bunch of tape to do all the stripes, but it was worth it!

I had originally planned to do two accent stripes in each boys' bedroom, but after I did the main stripe in the larger green bedroom...and taped...and painted...and taped...I scratched that idea and went with one larger stripe. But the thing about twins is, I don't want them to feel like they have the exact same stuff all the time. I wanted the rooms to look different even though they used complimenting colors and had the same general design. Plus both boys have the same furniture, same art wall, the same beds and bedding. So I sucked it up in the smaller of the two rooms and added two accent stripes. I'm not going to lie, it look a lot of tape, lots of measuring and time to snap chalk guidelines. However I think it's good that they have different rooms (copying what brother does is a big fight around here these days).

Green Frog Tape in preparation
for the green paint stripe. I kind of liked
the green tape!

I carried the stripe through the bookcase

Speaking of copying, we had a fight over the wall decals. One brother wanted airplanes and the other brother wanted....yep, "the same as T." I can't tell if he really wants to have the same things or if he does it to bug his brother. In the end I was able to convince him to go with paper airplanes and his name written in script. They're hard to see in the photos because of the orange color and the sunlight coming in the window but they are very cute. B has also started copying the scripted writing when he writes his name ("I'm writing it in 'fancy letters.") Adorable.



Without further adieu, presenting the final result....

Attempting to get a shot of the paper airplanes.
Full name edited before posting. 

We still need to battle the oak in this room, eventually replacing the closet doors and entry doors with a six panel style in white. Sometime down the road the closet interiors will be re-done with dual rods and shelving...but that will be after the master bedroom closet is properly organized. 

This room is now bright and cheery, just like the little boy who lives here! :) 

Update 2/23/15: We've finished the closet doors. A much needed update from the flat panel oak ones. 

A Tale of Two Bedrooms: Part One

While we're picking paint colors for the rest of the house, we have always been firm believers that our children should get to choose what they would like for their own rooms. It really helped them take ownership of the new house and to get excited about their rooms. 

If you remember our old house, T had a bright red accent wall with neutral beige complimenting walls. When asked what color he wanted his new room to be, he didn't even flinch.  GREEN. It's been his favorite color for about a year now. Of all the shades of green, he selected this bright "festival green" by Sherwin-Williams. Slightly concerned that the green would over power the room, I suggested adding stripes to break up the walls a bit. We sat down together and we both drew out what we thought the stripes should look like. I wish I had saved that scrap paper- too cute. He had originally suggested several stripes, but we were able to strike a compromise. He also agreed to switch from his choice of a red accent stripe to the blue from his twin brother's room. (whew, can you imagine a green and red room?!) 

The Yellow Bedroom was about to get a whole new look!

The Yellow Room "Before."
We also found out that this was the master bedroom
prior to the huge addition which explains its size.

I painted the gray stripe in the mid-to-upper portion of the wall first, then taped off the edges and added the green on the top and bottom. My master painter, D, worked on the trim. He's quite good at getting a nice line especially with such a bold color. I went back and added the tape above and below the area for the blue accent stripe.

At the same time as the painting, D patched all the holes left from removing the curtain rods and tie backs. We decided to leave the blinds for now. They're not in horrible condition and we know from past experience that our boys yank too hard on the cords and they will eventually break. We might as well replace them at that time. D also added a ceiling fan with light, wired a second wall switch for the light, and removed and patched the track light previously hanging over the closet (*weird*).

And now...... Ta-Dah! 

Under the window we added an "art wall" for the boys to display the things they simply can't bear to get rid of. Our rule is that they need to remove old favorites before new ones can be added. I hope this will keep the clutter down. The supplies are the same from our main floor art wall: Ikea curtain rod wire with Ikea clips. 

Ignore the open closet. As you can see in the "before" photo, this room had hardwood floors which I would describe as "decent" condition. We decided to cover it with carpet. Not the typical choice of interior designers, but for a child's room I think it was the right choice. However, the closet doors no longer fit so we removed one of them. We are working to replace them with six panel white doors to match the trim but the painting is still in progress. We will eventually replace the entry door as well but that's a different project. (There's a lot of oak to battle in this house...)

What kid doesn't love a bunk bed? 

Both boys have lofted beds from Ikea. We debated on bunk beds but buying two sets of bunk beds with four mattresses didn't make a lot of sense. And to have one room with bunk beds and one without...it wasn't going to happen. So the lofted beds were a nice compromise. They are twin sized and can be used flipped over the other way so that they are a "normal" height.

I also ordered vinyl stickers from Etsy. You can see the airplane peeking out near the door. T choose his name in script, a large block "T" and three airplanes with clouds. I did edit the photo to remove his full name before posting, but I think you get the idea.

And there it is. A green bedroom fit for a growing boy. I am very pleased with stripes even though they took a lot longer than anticipated to complete. The owner loves them too, and in the end, that's all that matters. :)

Update 2/23/15: The closet doors are finally painted and installed. Beautiful!