Chevron, take two

Hey everybody! Happy Thanksgiving week! I won’t be posting much this week, and today’s post is short and sweet. I’m taking most of the week off and hope you’ll get plenty of family and rest time in too!

So here it is – my second attempt at chevron. If you remember I tried it a few months ago with my chevron Frogtape:

WELL. Funny story. When I was cleaning out the garage a couple weeks ago I realized I used the WRONG chevron tape. I work with Frogtape and they sent me their new shape tape before it even came out in the stores. This one must have been an early prototype that they didn’t use.

I grabbed this one off the shelf and didn’t even realize it was different from the others. The actual chevron Frogtape is actually much more chevron-y and less Charlie Brown-y.

I laughed out loud when I realized what I had done. Leave it to me. So last week I decided to do another little redo to that trash can.

I spray primed it and then spray painted it white…again. :) Then I played around with the tape to figure out the design I wanted. I was originally planning a thin line of chevron around the top and bottom but decided on a slightly different design instead:

I just offset the second line a bit to make it not exactly chevron.

I rubbed some gold rub n buff in between the tape and that was it!:

I decided simpler was better. :) Much better. This I love!

Their shape tape comes in three different designs – chevron, scallop and wave. (I showed you how I used the scallop design here.) As you can see you don’t have to use them as they come -- play around with them a bit to make your own look!

Want to try them out yourself? (You can see the designs here.) Leave a comment here this week and let me know which one you’d like to try! We’ll give away three of each design. I’ll announce the winner next week!

P.S. My friend Marty at A Stroll Thru Life has a lovely blog and highlighted me last week – go here to check it out!

Staircase nook

Hey hey all! Well, it’s about that time! I’m off to Atlanta today to prepare for the Haven Conference that starts tomorrow. It’s been a year of planning and I can’t even believe it’s already here! SO excited to see everybody.

So I finished up a quick little project this week that I’ve been meaning to do for months. Or a year. A year and a few months.

We have a little ledge/nook/cut out spot in the basement staircase that has been sitting half way done for that year and a few months:

You may remember that I installed a wood wall on the main wall in the staircase about this time last year. I still LOVE that wall. So very much.

Before we had the basement finished the wall next to it going down the steps had a weird cement wall bump out thing. Instead of drywalling all the way up I asked them to make it a little ledge instead. They installed a wood piece that I was planning on painting later, hence the stain spatter I didn’t worry about:

But since then I’ve decided I wanted it stained instead. I’m kind of obsessed with the look of the dark wood against the gray blue walls (Marina Gray by Ben Moore) and white trim down there.

So I needed to sand off that stamp and the stain dots:

It just took a few seconds and I was ready to go – then I taped everything off with my Frogtape really well. I find it’s hard to keep stain from going everywhere since it leaks easily and spatters all over the place. (It could be the operator, who knows.):

After I wiped everything down well (and let it dry), I grabbed my dark walnut stain and went at it:

Remember when you stain to work quickly and to keep the “wet edge” – if it dries at all during the process you’ll see where you left off. OH, and wear gloves!! Trust me – no matter how hard I try I always end up with stain on my hands.

I let it sit for a few minutes and wiped the excess off. I only usually do one coat – I find that’s plenty for the color I want.

While it dried I started hanging the frames I’ve had leaning there forever. Most of them are pics from the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade/NYC trip I showed you here, but there was one collage my stepdaughter gave us last Christmas (so sweet!) that I wanted to include too.

Here’s a little tip when hanging pics that have two hangers instead of one – just tie a piece of string or wire between the two:

Then hang that on the the nail. SO much easier. I mean, sometimes what you’re hanging is heavy enough you’ll want two nails, but most of the time I find one is just fine. And this way you don’t have to worry about measuring, finding a level, all that stuff. Ain’t nobody got time for that.

Like all of my gallery walls, I just kind of put stuff here and there – yes, that meant a few extra holes in the wall but they’re tiny. The wall will survive:

I was trying to use frames that I had on hand and I liked the (mostly) matching frames, so I didn’t go crazy trying to fill empty spaces. The “S” we’ve had for years and it perfectly filled one spot that was bugging me.

The ledge has plenty of room for accessories, but for now I just left a couple candlesticks we had here before (they ended up on there because I was too lazy to take them all the way to the storage room):

They are fake candles and they operate on a timer, so it’s kind of cool to have that little glow as we walk down at night.

It was a quick project and I think it turned out pretty cute! I love how it looks with the planked wall:

Next up in this space – touch up the wall and ceiling paint and install chunkier baseboards. Maybe I’ll tackle those in another year. Baby steps.

So are you loving gallery walls? I am and I don’t think they’re going anywhere soon. It’s such a personal, easy way to fill wall space! And remember you can find frames at Goodwill for super cheap and spray paint them. One color for all of them will unify frames no matter their design. 

A touch of chevron

OK…if you’ve been around these parts for awhile you know I show you the good and bad and the ugly around here. (Go here for a REALLY bad one that ended good.)

Not every project turns out as I had hoped, and some turn out…but I just can’t quite decide if I love them or not. This is one of those.

I’ve planned to do this project forever and was excited to finally get it done – it was a simple little trash can redo for my office:

I’ve had this wood one for YEARS. I think it was my first Pottery Barn purchase ever, about ten years ago. It was on clearance and it’s a great little waste basket. After all this time the structure has held up great, but the outside was a little nicked up. So I figured it would be the perfect project to experiment on. :)

I started by sanding it down super fast in my “workshop.” That would be on the trash can in the garage:

I got that sander a few months ago and it makes sanding SO much easier. It’s the first one I’ve owned that doesn’t leave skip marks all over everything. I loathe sanding and I love this thing so that’s saying a lot.

After I wiped it down I gave it a coat of primer and then a couple coats of a satin white paint in my other workshop. Or on an old sheet in the front yard:

Next was the FUN part. :)

I let the paint dry for a few hours inside so it would hold up to some painter’s tape. This wasn’t just any painter’s tape though – it was chevron tape!: I work with the lovely folks at Frogtape so I have had this stuff for awhile – I’ve just been waiting for it to come out in stores so I could show you! I saw it at Lowe’s a few weeks ago.

I sat and watched TV while I taped off the trash can:

So I’ve mentioned a few times that I’m usually eons behind the latest decorating trend. Either that or I’m so far ahead of the trend it’s not even cool yet. (I was putting chalkboards everywhere before they were the thing.)

Chevron isn’t one of those trends I’m hooked on – I haven’t added it anywhere in the house yet. When I got this tape a while back I knew it would be fun to use it somewhere small to see if I liked it. Just a little spot, a smidge. A skosh of chevron if you will.

When I redid my office years ago I added in a few touches of pink in the space just to break up all the blue and beige in there. I picked up a pink paint sample (Sunrose by Valspar) months ago to use on another spot in the room and figured it would be a cute accent on the trash can.

I didn’t worry about great coverage on this – I didn’t want the color to be super saturated, so I just did one quick coat of the pink. I was kind of excited as I peeled off the chevron tape:

It was looking super cute!

But by the time I was done taking it all off…I didn’t like it. At all. It was too much.

I was doing this at night so I tried to get a shot of it in the bathroom:

It’s hard to get a good idea of how it looked – it was just too bright and SO girly. I mean, I love some girly touches but it was just a LOT. In a little girl’s room, it would have been perfect. For my grown up office? A little much. (For me.)

Soooo, I tried to figure out how to salvage it. I didn’t hate the chevron, the color was bugging me more than anything. I decided to try using the sander again to knock it down as much as I could. I used a 220 grit sandpaper and then a 120 to knock it down even more.

And whew…I liked it SO much more.

It gave it a washed, old look that I liked so much more! Cause you know chevron is on all the old stuff. ;)

Do I love it? I’m still not sure. I do like the look of chevron, I’m just not sure I love the look of it in my house. ;) It really is pretty cute though:

I AM love with my new mercury glass “vase” on my desk – it was a clearanced out outdoor candleholder at Menards. Three bucks!:

I think it will be absolutely beautiful with a candle inside too – but I’m obsessed with my hydrangeas right now. :)

But oh, the possibilities with this fun tape!! It makes it so easy to add this look to anything! I’m not sure of the exact shapes they have out, but I do have a wavy look too that I’m thinking of trying somewhere.

Are you a fan of the chevron? Do you have it in your home somewhere? I thought it may go away but I am still seeing it all over! I don’t think it’s going anywhere soon. So NOW I’m totally caught up with the trend. Finally. :)

**For more on my office redo, go here.

Dining room (pretty) organization

Hey hey! How the heck are ya? There are some beautiful projects linked up at the before and after shindig – check it out here to see them or link up yours!

Today I’m back in the dining room – or is it the library? This room is a little confused right now. :) Last year we decided to do away with our dining room (that we used twice in seven years?) and make it into a more functional space for us. I shared the progress on this DIY built in project early last year and the final result here. The “book” part of the library is done…but we still need a cozy place to sit.

I love the built ins for so many different reasons, but one of the BIGGIES is all of the glorious storage they provide:

I chose to use upper kitchen cabinets as the bases, which I’ve done a couple times elsewhere in the house. They aren’t nearly as deep as a regular cabinet base (12 inches instead of 24), but I knew they would still provide plenty of storage.

I use this area for most of our serving stuff – the items we don’t use every day or even every week, but I like to have it all for special occasions/holidays/parties. You know – all that pretty stuff you hardly use but still need (want)?

When I finished the built ins I was so excited I just shoved everything back into the cabinets and called it done. For a long time now I’ve been wanting to clean them out, purge some of the stuff and pretty it up just a tad.

I started by pulling every single item out of the cabinets. You know, the whole it gets worse before it gets better thing? Yeah:

Well the dog wasn’t in the cabinets, of course. He just has to be in front of the camera every. single. time.

And this is another reason the room is still in limbo – the table and chairs from the kitchen were moved in here temporarily and have stayed. Hubby sits here to work most days lately instead of the basement so we’ve kept it for now. I’m itching to get those comfy chairs in here though. :)

So I cleaned them out and then cleaned them out – vacuumed all the leftover sawdust (nice) and wiped them down:

Side note – no I don’t paint the insides of the doors. SOMEONE (me) doesn’t have the patience for that.

I pulled out the top shelf in each one to cover them with some cute contact paper I had picked up for this project a year ago:

But I ran out of it before I could do the bottom shelves. I was just going to leave them as is but it looked wonky. Sooooo I quickly taped them off and did one coat of the color I used on the backs of the built ins – Storm Cloud (I think it’s Sherwin Williams?):

Do you see that little piece of Frogtape on the back of the door? That’s been there all this time – I used those to number the doors when I took them off to paint them. I highly recommend doing that because otherwise you’ll have to do a lot of adjusting to get the doors just right again.

Anyhoo, did I need to paint the inside the cabinets no one but me will ever see? (I mean, obviously I have no life.) No. But there’s something to be said for having an organized space look pretty too. It only took me five minutes for each one, so it wasn’t too bad.

I only had to do one coat each too – which totally surprised me. The paint is the SW Duration kind and it covered great.

After it was dry I did a super quick purge and then loaded everything back in. I have a cabinet for holiday stuff:

One for vases/pitchers/birthday party supplies (there’s no rhyme or reason to this as you can see):

One for random serving stuff, with room to spare:

I have more in the kitchen that will fill that space, don’t you worry. ;)

And finally, one dedicated to dishes. My vintage glass plates (from Goodwill) for showers and small get togethers, our white dishes for big meals and some serving plates and linens as well:

And, I gotta say, it doesn’t ever get any less weird that I share the insides of our drawers and cabinets with you, even after five years. ;)

It is SO GREAT to have a spot for all of this stuff! Most of it was in the basement before – now I like having it close by in a pretty spot:

I still LOVE how this all came together. So very much.

We’ve lived here for nine years and I feel like I am on the cusp of having a good spot for everything – it’s taken that long. If you’ve been around for awhile you know I have to live with things for some time before making them right for us – the same goes for how I (try to) organize the STUFF in our house.

How do you organize all the dining stuff you rarely use but want to keep? :) Or do you use them often? I think I need to throw a party.

Cheater crown molding

Progress people!! It’s happening in the powder room! WHOOT!

I know I said I wasn’t going to show you much more before the reveal. I lied. :)

I don’t know if I’ve told you about the crown molding in this room before, but I thought it was post-worthy, because it makes installing crown SO easy.

I think I have written about it, maybe? I don’t know, remember it’s been five years.

Anyhoo, last I left you I was showing you the new paint color, and in this pic especially you can see how craptastic the crown molding looked:

Spell check doesn’t recognize craptastic. WHY?

I had installed the crown years ago and then never finished it. I know! I’m surprised too!

(That would be sarcasm if you’re new here.)

I installed the primed molding and then put one coat of paint on the cheater pieces (that I’ll tell you more about in a minute) and that was it – no more paint, no caulk:

I did fill the nail holes at least – but the putty was still on there, I didn’t even sand off the excess. ;)

Soooo. It was time to fix that. I started off giving it all one coat everywhere but the bottom. I was able to cut in on the top of the crown because of that lovely gap, but the bottom (that looked the worst because of all the painting I’ve done over the years) needed to be taped off with my trusty FrogTape:

I used the yellow delicate kind because I had painted recently and because I just really like that version – it’s a bit thinner so it’s really easy to work with.

Everything got two coats and it looked SO much better. But crown still doesn't look just right till you get rid of all the gaps:

I still have these gaps in my office too, two years later and I still haven’t gotten up there to caulk all of it. Cause it’s about the most fun evah…can you blame me??

I used the little tool I told you about here to caulk and it worked great along the bottom and at the ceiling.

So now, the good stuff – I found these corner crown pieces years and years ago, before I knew how to cut crown molding:

Even if you know how to cut crown you know it’s still a major pain in the patoot, so these are AWESOME. They are just wood pieces you use on the outside corners (like above), and the inside corners:

So instead of learning how to cut the angles just right, (I showed you how to do that here) or if you don’t have a compound miter saw – this is the stuff for you. You just nail it in and then the actual crown only needs straight cuts that butt up against them.

I love the little architectural flair they give a room! They are kind of expensive, so now that I know how to cut crown I don’t use them anymore. If you just have a square room they wouldn’t be that bad because the inside corner pieces are cheaper.

Painting and caulking crown is one of those things I put off, but when it’s done I can’t believe the difference it makes. Here’s the before:

And the after – bright white and look Ma! No gaps!:

You’ll notice the wood planks have been painted too, halleluiah! Now I feel like I’m really in the home stretch! Just need to finish painting the door trim and baseboards, get the other trim up over the planks, hang a mirror and then I can decorate it a little!

Have you mastered the crown molding cut? Or have you tried these cheater pieces? Someday I’ll have crown in every room of our house – I absolutely love it. And if you can install it yourself the cost isn’t bad at all!

DIY floating shelves (bathroom progress)

Hello there and happy MONDAY!! It’s feeling like one to me today. ;)

So you remember that one time when I started two bathroom renovations and took for-absolutely-freaking-EVER to get them done?

Yeah. Well, it’s time to get them done. I’ve set a rule for myself – no gardening or outside projects till the bathrooms are DONE. I may cheat a little only because I am just one person and DANG it takes a long time to finish it all up.

The basement bathroom has come up from nothing, and I have only really showed you the tile so far here. Other than that the big stuff had been installed – the sink, toilet and shower. But the room sat half painted for months.

I was determined to get this bathroom done last week and I almost got there. Just a couple more projects to finish up and I’m moving on! WHOO!

This is how the space looked up till last week – you can’t see that the wall to the left is half way painted but just imagine it. It was pretty:

Since I hadn’t installed baseboards yet I just had to tape off the shower and light fixtures with my loverly Frogtape in preparation for paint. I’ve gotten pretty good at cutting in on the ceiling so that saves a lot of time.

I finished up the paint (I listed all the paint colors for the basement here) and realized again that you can’t even tell the difference between any of the colors – I could have just painted the whole basement the same color. But OH WELL. It’s done. :)

I installed all the baseboards and quarter round:

It looks like poo there but just wait till you see the power of caulk and filler. ;) Wish I could use some caulk and filler.

Once I got the trim done it was time to address the little nook next to the shower. Yes, the shower is tiny. When it came time to decide what we were doing we realized the space would only allow for a couple shower inserts (I had originally planned on tiling the shower but didn’t for cost and time reasons). The size that worked best was this shower – and it is small.

But I have to keep reminding myself this is a basement bathroom – we will hardly EVER use this shower. Some guests might, but even that will be rare. So I would rather have some storage than a big shower we’ll never use.

So storage it was – I had the guys frame out a little spot in the empty space by the shower. All along my plan has been to put some shelves in there, and I finally got it done!

I started by adding supports – I just used scrap wood from the garage every 18 inches or so:

I was going to add a support along the back but realized it wouldn’t be needed since the space is so narrow. I only installed these with a nail gun – on our library built ins and the pantry redo I used long screws, but I knew this wouldn’t be holding a ton of weight so the nails were easier and faster.

I had a piece of 1 by 12 I cut down to use as the shelf, but it was just a smidge too small:

I ended up finding more scrap wood in the garage, took it to Lowe’s and had it cut just a bit wider than the other wood, and it worked pretty well – I stained them before I installed (for once! Are you proud of me?):

I used the dark Kona color I used here as well. Love it.

I just nailed the shelves down into the supports:

I made sure I had the right thickness of wood for the fronts before I started – I wanted it to cover the top shelf, the supports, and an extra board I installed underneath to give it a finished look:

I actually had most of that front trim too – I only had to buy one small piece to finish it up.

I absolutely LOVE how it turned out! It’s a great use of an awkward little spot:

Let’s talk about that shower curtain shall we? I went through my normal Goldilocks routine to find that one (the one I LOVE).

I started with this one, but the blue tone was off with the walls:

I really loved this one and the colors were perfect:

I’m trying to go with a slightly funkier vibe in the basement and I thought that was fun. But I wasn’t crazy about it when I got it up – too graphic for this little space I think?

And then I found the one that was just right. It had a bird on it:

And there. you. go.

Since the shelves only cost my $3 for a small piece of trim (BOOYAH!), I had fun gathering a few new accessories for this spot, at Tarjay of course (all Threshold items):

I LOVE EXTRA STORAGE! Are you with me??

Here’s my little secret – I only had so much scrap wood so I didn’t even put the bottom piece on the two lower shelves:

You’d have to be sitting on the floor looking under them to notice so I’m not worried about it. Does it need to be perfect? NO.

I love having a little spot for the trash can too:

It’s the little things. ;)

Oh yeah – I told you caulk and filler make a world of difference:

Oh my, they are my BFFS. For real.

I adore how the shower curtain looks in here and ties in the blues and greens and even the dark wood tone:

I’m SO glad to have this space (almost) done. I’ll show you the whole room soon, but for now I want to look back to see how far I’ve come:

This was back in January I think?

And here’s a finished spot that makes me super happy!:

It’s a skinny little bathroom but it is turning out so pretty and functional. Love!!