Guest Bedroom // Painting and Staining (ORC, Week 3)

October 18, 2018 By admin 5 Comments

Welcome to week 3 of the One Room Challenge hosted by Linda at Calling it Home. As a reminder, every spring and fall, designers and bloggers commit to finishing one room in their house over the course of 5 weeks (or 6 depending on how you look at it). The ORC team select 20 feature designers, while hundreds others participate as guests. This is my first time participating as a guest and it is giving me the motivation I need to finish our guest bedroom before the holidays. So, what have we been up to…

Catch up on week 1 and week 2 progress. Things checked off the list in week 3:

Removed textured ceiling
Skim coat ceiling to create a smooth finish
Caulk the corners where the ceiling meets the walls
Paint the ceiling
Sand and stain the dresser
Spray paint the dresser hardware
Order light fixtures

Caulk? Why caulk? Great question! When scraping off the ceiling texture, small pieces of the wall peeled off as well. The top of the walls themselves also appeared a bit textured to begin with (think, paint drips). In hindsight, I should have applied a small skim coat along the top edge of each wall to smooth out these imperfections. I didn’t… and I was feeling too lazy to break out the mud a second time. Enter caulk. In my mind, caulk could help smooth out the wall to ceiling transition and fill in some of the areas where pieces of the wall peeled off. I gave it a go. It did not produce the finish I hoped for (skimming would have been better), but an improvement nonetheless.

Ahhhh so light and bright. Starting to tape off the scale of a headboard I have my eye on. There is a part of me that really wants to DIY the headboard too. Time is running out to make this decision.

I have painted furniture before, and stained a few wood-based crafts. The gel stain from general finishes was a good next step. It doesn’t require application to raw wood, although you certainly could, and the stain self-levels making it very forgiving. Pictured below is the drawers sanded and after one coat of stain.

For nearly a week, I contemplated whether to fill in the screw holes so I could replaced the hardware with long sleek rods. If I really wanted to replicate the West Elm Alexa Dresser, I probably should have. The original hardware had a subtle charm that ultimately won me over. A quick wash and paint revived their sparkle.

This week involved 5 trips to Lowes, 1 trip to Walmart, 1 trip to a local hardware store for the gel stain (W.C. Winks), and 1 trip to Sherwin Williams. I plan ahead for a lot of things but that never prevents me from running out of mud, not liking the initial spray paint color, stores being out of stock, and running out of paint.

It’s on to week 4. Things on deck:

Design the closet doors
Purchase or DIY the leather headboard

Its a smaller list for week 4. Namely because Nick and I are both out of town for most of it. That means week 5 and 6 will be jam packed with fun and last minute decisions. Chaos I am actually looking get forward to.

Guest Bedroom (ORC week two)

October 11, 2018 By admin 3 Comments

Seven days have come and gone in the One Room Challenge. Unfortunately, I don’t have much to show for it. Truth be told, Nick and I were out of town this weekend running the Chicago Marathon. It was our first marathon and I did not anticipate being this sore for this long. We did not have the energy to remove the textured ceiling. We did move all the furniture out of the guest bedroom and we tested a section of the textured ceiling to get a better idea of what we were in for.

I also spent some time thinking about the vintage dresser this week. If you recall from the Guest Bedroom Plans (ORC week one) post, my inspiration is coming from the West Elm Alexa 7-drawer dresser in black. It is a beaut! To achieve this look, I planned to strip the finish and stain with several coats of a dark stain and then apply a satin top coat. However, I started second guessing myself thinking a natural wood finish might be better.

Via

After some research and contemplation, I am leaning towards sanding the dresser and applying a black gel stain and polycarbonate finish. Gel stains lay on top of the wood meaning I can always strip it off, sand it, and re-stain it later if my heart so desires. Gels stains also maintain the wood grain texture that is typically lost with painting. What do you think? Does anyone have experience using gel stains?

Via

Last but not least, I started perusing some bedding options. Up to this point in my life, I have not given bedding much thought. Most of my sheets have been given to me (hand me downs) and occasionally I may have picked out a decorative duvet cover. Needless to say, I am learning a few things. Lets hope I can pull together something airy – I am thinking neutrals with a little bit of texture or pattern and some fun pillows!

Via

This week we plan to actually tackle the popcorn ceiling and refinish the dresser. Less labor-intensive tasks include ordering finishes and finding new homes for the furniture we don’t plan on keeping.

Guest Bedroom Plans (ORC, Week 1)

October 4, 2018 By admin 8 Comments

It is One Room Challenge time – just the motivation I need to make some progress on the house. The One Room Challenge is a five week, six post spree of fun and creativity where featured designers and guests commit to finishing one room in their home. This will be my first time as a guest participant and I am very much looking forward to it. Thank you Calling It Home for hosting the challenge each spring and fall.

Holiday season is just around the corner and we are expecting a few visitors so we picked the guest bedroom for this challenge. Let’s take a trip down memory lane. Here is the guest bedroom when we moved in…

In color overload, we painted all walls of the house white, including this room. We removed the sliding closet doors and lace curtains. We also removed the baseboards thinking we would refinish the floors. We ended up installing new oak floors in the hallway and leaving the guest bedroom floors alone (they were in pretty good shape). The oak offers a less harsh transition as well. Nonetheless, we will need to put back the baseboards. Here is the guest bedroom today…

While already an improvement, it has been fun dreaming up plans for this space. We scored a dreamy vintage rug from a local source last year and I want it to shine in this room. It is a handmade Persian rug that is super soft (wool) and changes colors as the light hits it differently throughout the day. We will leave the rest of the room a fairly neutral palette and pattern – think brass hardware, plants, wood, and leather.

Sources: 1 Ι 2 Ι 3 Ι 4 Ι 5 Ι 6 Ι 7

We picked up a modern bed frame and vintage dresser from Facebook Marketplace yesterday and the day before. Aside from that, everything on the todo list remains. We will start by attempting to remove the popcorn ceiling. Other large projects include refinishing said vintage dresser, making a headboard, installing the baseboards, and building custom sliding door(s) for the closet.

Source: Leather Headboard Ι Cork Doors

I am feeling giddy. This is probably my favorite stage of renovating/decorating. There are inevitable bumps in the road ahead, but for now the future is hopeful.

Wish us luck while we attempt to tackle all of this over the next 5 weeks!

Weekend Bundle

August 25, 2018 By admin Leave a Comment

Photo Source: apartmenttherapy.com

Finding wood wall inspiration in this apartment therapy home tour of a traditional Philadelphia row home. We have a bunch of hardwood floor left over from when we replaced the pine in our living room with oak to match the dining room. Part of me knows it would be practical to use it for the wood wall. Another part of me is drawn to these funky and fun geometric designs. Also loving the large drawers and grey cabinet paint color.

We continued to leave the oven off this week which was a-ok once we found this Beet and Quinoa Salad recipe from Cookie and Kate. Rain is in the forecast. Perhaps with cooler temperatures, I will turn on the oven and get back to my quest to try all of these chocolate chip cookies, or perhaps try to bake something with our current surplus of plums. Any good recipes for plums?

I finished season one of the podcast Slow Burn which details the events of the watergate break in leading up to Nixon’s resignation. The similarities to today’s political climate are striking. What interests me most about this piece of history is the series of small things that ultimately influenced the outcome. Imagine the number alternative endings that could have been brought on by one slight change in the events. I am looking forward to tackling season two, the Clinton presidency, this week.

There are more and more airstream trailer reno’s every day. This airstream trailer makes me want to grab some coffee and cuddle up with a good book.

In case you missed it, we toured The Smurf House in its original form on the blog this week. This walk down memory lane reminded me to appreciate how far was have already come. It is all to easy to get overwhelmed by the things you hope to accomplish. Feeling grateful.

Rest up this weekend!

The Smurf House Tour: Before

August 23, 2018 By admin 1 Comment

Welcome to our first home! The Smurf House will forever have a special place in my heart. These before pictures may not compel a spread in a design magazine or an apartment therapy home tour, but this is our home. Every minute spent here, making it our own, is a memory Nick and I share.

Exterior

We added “paint the exterior” to our list of projects the day we toured this property. The house did not lack color but it did lack contrast.

White picket fences may have been the rage back in the day. This blue picket fence is on its way out.

On Nick’s list is to re-pave the driveway.

Living Room

Lets play two truths and a lie. One, mirrors make a small space feel larger – truth. Two, we did not like these mirrors – truth. Three, no one was hurt in the process of removing these mirrors – lie. Mirrors gone, this is still a great accent wall. We plan to accent with wood in some shape or fashion.

Every room in this house had different hardwood floors. However, all were red oak except for the living room and hallway. Add new hardwood floors to the list!

Does this space need more windows? Maybe.

Dining Room

I am not sure I understand why a dinning room needs a ceiling fan. Any thoughts?

The wall between the dining room and the living room had to go. That saved us from having to remove another set of glued on mirrors.

Every wall in this space was textured and had many hole to repair. Time to learn how to skim coat.

Kitchen

This kitchen layout packs a lot of storage into a small space. It needs some creative visual distractions to make it feel a bit larger. First, remove the cabinets above the island.

Every day I search for steals on a slide-in gas stove.

The biggest question mark with the kitchen is just how much to put into this space. Still deciding. Please help.

The Blue Room

Smallest room, biggest closet. We use this room for both storage and hosting out of town guests… which seem to be more frequent since we moved to Portland.

Over time, the cat knocked over or ate enough house plants for this room (with a door) to become home to every house plant we own. Rey Rey Monster brings more joy than frustration, I promise.

The Pink Room

This room has a half bath – te perfect spot for the litter box! Which, much to Nick’s discontent, meant this would be our room.

The half bath currently also houses the hot water heater.

Built in storage (and, of course, mirrors) are rather functional.

Bathroom

Not pictured: all the stuff on the walls. Let’s remove it all.

Also not pictured (I’ll get batter at this): all the wall paper. Wall paper might be making a come back. This, I could not salvage.

We need to replace our galvanized piping soon so stay tuned for a complete bathroom gut job.

Porch

This was our favorite space when we toured the house. It offered a place to socialize outside during both summer and winter.

On the agenda is a new roof, updated railings and curtains, new light fixtures, lounging/eating furniture, and a fresh paint/stain.

Backyard

I aspire to be as good at gardening as the previous owners. Unfortunately, I am starting from ground zero and could not keep up with all these beautiful plants.

We also want more lawn space for mingling, fires, and lawn games. With all the “stuff” removed, we plan to level the backyard and add a fire pit and seating.

Look at the beautiful plum tree!

Garden

Imagine lush rows of ready to pick, organically grown, fruits and vegetables. That is what I imagine this space once was and could be again!

In year one, we focused our efforts on just one plot to make sure we could manage all that is required to maintain a garden. So far so good. If by the end of summer, all our plants our dead, this space becomes a horseshoe pit or bocce ball court, TBD.

Garage

I drive a Honda Fit and I am not sure I could successfully navigate into and out of this garage without scratches or folded in side view mirrors. We can comfortably fit three cars in our driveway, so our current plans for the garage include optimizing storage and shelving for tools and nick nacks. Oh, and the beer fridge, of course.

Check out the Home Tour Page to see how we are progressing!

Weekend Bundle

August 20, 2018 By admin Leave a Comment

Photo Credit: workfrom

Thanks to a friendly mid-week reminder from a coworker, I participated in a delicious and educational Portland Burger Week 2018. I finally had a reason to trek over to the newest location of Tilt, a blue collar inspired burger joint. Their $5 burger was on point and the skater vibe played up its unique location near the famous burnside skate park. It was hard resisting the pie milkshake. Yes, they put a pie slice into a milkshake. It is life changing.

I finally tried the electric scooters that hit the portland scene a few weeks ago. I empathize with the bike-lovers throwing the scooters in the Willamette river, but these things are a good time!

This week I rewatched Jurassic World. Turns out just three years is enough time for me to forget the details of a movie and enjoy watching it again. Is Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom online anywhere yet? Love me some Chris Pratt.

After a year in this neighborhood, we finally made plans for dinner over at a close friends house. It was the first meal with ingredients harvested from our garden. Pro Tip: arugula gets real peppery if you wait too long to harvest the leaves. Peppery arugula and all, this recipe from HalfBakedHarvest still served up a delicious dish.

I am behind the times on 98% of things, including this week’s discovery of the Unfold app for Instagram stories. What other apps am I missing out on?

Last but not least, the polygal samples I ordered weeks ago finally arrived. Nick and I spent some quality time measuring the porch roof. Despite many brainstormed solutions to incorporate the polygal, we plan to re-install corrugated sheets. The only decision remaining is PVC vs. Polycarbonate.