Painting the Nursery

I’m excited to start sharing some nursery updates.  As I mentioned in my nursery mood board, we wanted to a gender neutral room and decided that turquoise colored walls could be fun for either a girl or boy’s room.  I wouldn’t normally pick such a bright paint color, but hey this is a nursery, let’s have some fun!

Of course picking the right shade of turquoise is another story.  Since it’s already a bold color choice (for us), we didn’t want to go too bright with it.  We also didn’t want it to be too minty or too blue.  Okay, we may have gone a little nuts when trying to chose the color with quite a few paint samples, and then we even mixed some of those colors together in search of the perfect shade.  Eight paint patches on the wall, that’s normal right?



Now, it would probably be helpful if I could remember what each of these colors are, but these pictures were taken a while ago (there’s been more nursery progress than I’ve let on) and sadly I have no idea which color is which.  But fear not!  I still have the sample paints so I painted them on a piece of white paper so I’d be able to share which color is which.  Whew.







We decided that the first three color choices were all very similar and were all too light and minty colored (this much I do remember.)  So that left us with the Sherwin Williams choices.  Tame Teal was a little bluer and Aquatint was a little greener than we wanted, so after much back and forth we decided that Waterfall by Sherwin Williams was just right.

We went with the Waterfall color in the Sherwin Williams Emerald line of paints because they are no-VOC.  We also chose a satin finish because we figured kids are messy and we’d want something more wipeable than a flat paint, but still not super shiny.  Luckily, Sherwin Williams was having a sale when we bought the paints because they are on the pricey side.

Before tackling the walls, we painted the ceiling with Sherwin Williams HGTV Home line of paints.  The previous owner had painted the ceiling an off-white color, but we prefer the look of a crisp white ceiling.  We went with the HGTV line for the ceilings because it is a less expensive option, but is still zero VOC. 

Here’s a progress shot of the room after the ceiling was done and we started cutting in with the turquoise paint.  Sorry for the iPhone pics, but after working on the room, this pregnant lady didn’t have the energy to get the real camera (stairs + pregnant lady = lots of huffing and puffing!)



And now for the room after one coat of paint: 



Aaaand, the finished walls.  Sorry to only show a few corners of the room, but I didn’t take any pics of the walls while the room was empty and there’s some furniture in there now, which I’m keeping under wraps for the time being, mwahaha!  Plus, I think seeing the color next to white doors gives a better idea of the shade (because between my camera and individual monitor settings, there’s bound to be some differences between the photo and the color in real life.)




And now for a shot of the baby’s big brother guarding the room, gotta protect those baby shower goodies!



I really like the quality of Sherwin Williams paints, the walls had a very nice finish after 2 coats of paint.  However, I was hoping the no-VOC paint would mean it wouldn’t be smelly at all, but there was still a slight smell from the paint.  The smell was less than a regular paint would leave behind, but since this is a baby’s room we still did a considerable amount of airing out the room with the windows open and a fan going to get the paint fumes out.

I’m also really happy with how the paint color turned out.  At first I was worried we went too bright or bold, but once we got some furniture in the room it looked just right.  I’ll be back soon with an update on the furniture!

DIY Craft and Office Desk Makeover

I’ve been holding out on you guys.  A while back I completed what can only be described as my FAVORITE DIY PROJECT EVER!  I took some time to tweak it and take some nice photos of it, but I’m finally ready to share it and I couldn’t be more EXCITED!  Can you sense my enthusiasm yet???

Get ready…It’s a DIY office/craft room desk makeover!  Before we get to the awesome (if I do say so myself) after photos, I must share the embarrassing before pictures.  You see, my husband is a truly wonderful man and has brought so many fantastic things into our marriage.  BUT, he also brought his computer desk from college into our home!



This style of computer desks was quite popular not that long ago and could be found in homes everywhere.  And while my husband was very fond of it and describes it as “functional” and “homey,” I was not as thrilled by it. 

This desk lived in the corner of a spare bedroom when we first moved in and I would use it occasionally (Hubby got a larger and nicer desk for his office), but I quickly decided it needed an update and one day I doodled a little sketch on a post-it note of how I could fix up this desk.



Although I didn’t stick to this plan exactly, the basics remain the same- a coat of paint and some new shelving to completely transform it.

I started off by removing the top hutch portion of the desk.  It was fairly easy to take apart and I covered up the holes from where the desk and hutch were attached with some spackle before painting.



Then, I sanded the desk down manually (it’s made of particle board so I didn’t want to go crazy and sand off too much with a power sander).  I know there are lots of tutorials online for painting furniture, but since this is a particle board desk and not an expensive antique, I just used whatever supplies I happened to have on hand.  I think I used a can of spray paint white primer to give the desk a base, then painted it with regular latex wall paint I had left over, and then finished it with a  coat of protective spray paint. 

So are you ready to see the after photos?!



Boom!  If I can pat myself on the back, I must say that’s quite a transformation!  Here’s a good before and after shot to give you the full picture:



I’m now able to plop my laptop down and use this desk as my office, or I can add my sewing machine and use it as a sewing or craft space.

Above the desk, I hung two shelves I had purchased at a garage sale.  They were originally red, but I painted them white too.  I used some empty food jars to store some paint brushes and pencils.  The letters are our initials and are from The Christmas Tree Shop.  I absolutely love the map too, it is another garage sale find.  I plan on adding pins to the map marking the places we’ve traveled.



The desk isn’t very large so I try not to keep a lot on it.  Just a lamp (also from a yard sale) and a couple of framed photos.



When I’m not using the sewing machine, I keep a little decorative box on top of the desk.  It’s filled with old birthday/holiday cards, party invitations, and other little keepsakes I like to hold onto.  I haven’t gotten a nice chair for the desk, so I’ve been using a dining room chair in the meanwhile.



Just for fun, here’s another before-and-after shot:



I couldn’t be more pleased!  This is probably the most fun and satisfying makeover project I’ve done to date.  I’m really thrilled with how this desk turned out and that I have a new office and craft space.  I’m so happy we were able to keep the desk and transform it into something that works better for us without too much difficulty and at almost no cost (about $8 spent on the map, shelves, and decorative letters, everything else we already owned).

What do you think of this transformation?  Have you created a craft or office space in your home?  Or have a spouse that has also brought some questionable furniture into the house?


I'm entering this project into the Creating with the Stars contest from East Coast Creative!

I'm linking up this project to House of Hepworths, Miss Mustard Seed, Finding Fabulous, Beneath My Heart, Thrifty Decor Chick.

White Painted Fireplace!

Woohoo!  I’ve been hinting about a project over the last couple of weeks and I’m so excited to finally share it today.  I’ve been giving my fireplace a makeover!  After a lot of pondering, I finally worked up the courage to paint my oak fireplace white.  (Spoiler alert: I love how it turned out!)

But before I get to the makeover, here’s a look way back at how the fireplace looked before we did any improvements.  When we first moved in, the fireplace was oak with no real mantle shelf (it was only about 2 inches wide at the top making it too narrow to place anything).    



My Dad built a mantle shelf for us which gave me more room to decorate and made the mantle look more substantial.



Then I used paper of all things for a free and easy way to hide my flat-screen tv cables.



Then over the winter I finally got around to painting the brass fireplace accents with high-heat black spray paint.



The fireplace was looking much better than the sorry state we found it in when we moved in, but I still was dreaming of a white fireplace mantle.  So I did it!  I painted the fireplace white!  To do so, I broke out some new painting tools.  I read a lot of articles on painting oak, and oil based primer seemed to be the way to go so I bought Zinsser white oil-based primer. 



And I bought some new brushes too because I wanted a really smooth finish.  Since I have some other painting projects in mind down the road, I got a multi-pack of Purdy brushes.  These brushes were good, but I wasn’t blown away with them considering they were the most expensive brushes at Home Depot.



With those tools in tow, I finally got to painting!  I gave the mantle two coats of primer.  Here it is after one coat of primer:



Since the top mantle shelf is removable, I was able to take it apart and paint it outdoors since oil based paint can get a bit smelly.  I used a fancy method of newspapers and chairs to setup a painting station for myself.



In between each coat of primer, I sanded everything down.  After two coats of primer were on and dry (I actually waited about a week since I was only able to work on weekends), I got to the actual painting.  I used semi-gloss Behr paint in “polar bear white.”  Choosing a white paint color was surprisingly hard because I wanted something white, but not too stark, and didn’t want the paint to have a grey or yellow tone so it wouldn’t look dingy.  Polar Bear White ended up being a little brighter than I expected, but I don’t mind because it has a nice fresh look.  Here’s the fireplace after a coat of paint:



Again, I sanded between coats and gave the fireplace about two full coats of paint and a third coat at the top of the shelf to give it the perfectly smooth look I was after.  And here’s how it looks cleaned up:



After I took the painter’s tape off, I could see how much paint I accidently got on the black fireplace surround.  I’m not worried about this though because the final phase of this project will be tiling the surround which will disguise all of my misguided paint.



I didn’t figure out exactly how I wanted to decorate the new white mantle yet, so I just put a plant and some decorative birds up there for now.



Here’s another look at my new white fireplace! 



Since we all like a good before and after, here’s a look at how far my fireplace has come.



My fireplace has had more looks than Madonna!  Now it just needs some new tile and it will be all done.  In the meanwhile I’m thrilled with my new white fireplace!

I'm sharing this project on Delightful Order, House of Hepworths, & Beneath My Heart; check out the other great projects shared.

Tropical Guest Room Makeover

My house tour is moving upstairs today to our guest bedroom. Or rather our no-guest bedroom since most of our friends and family live close by and we never actually have guests stay overnight.  But we set up a guest room anyway since we already had a mattress and some accessories from Rob's bachelor days. Plus it makes a nice reading room and the extra bed has come in handy when one of us has been really sick and wanted to keep our germs to ourselves.  

Since the room isn't used too often we didn't want to spend much money on it (okay, no money) and haven't done any major updates, but we have made a few small improvements.  Here's how the room has looked before:

The mattress, bedding, and art are leftovers from Rob's pre-married days. Since our budget for this room was basically $0 and we both like a tropical look, this stuff stayed. Plus all of the tropical stuff kind of makes us feel like we're on vacation when we go in here.

But the room needed some improvements. Namely, we had to get the mattress off the ground and the bed needed a headboard.  So here's the room after these, and a couple other, updates:

 Luckily, my Dad had an extra bed frame that he gave to us so that got the bed off the ground. I was surprised that the bed frame made the bed look so much higher than before.

I also added a seagrass headboard that I made myself. You will never believe how cheaply and easily I made this, but I'll share the full tutorial tomorrow.



In addition to the bed updates, we also swapped out the small tray table with a rustic end table (a free hand-me-down from my cousin).  I like how the rustic table looks along with the tropical elements in the room.

To accessorize the table, I added a tropical lamp (Rob's from back in the day) and a plant set on top of an upside down wicker planter (a $1 garage sale find).

I'm happy with how the room turned out considering we only spent a few dollars to update it.  Now, if we ever do have guests we'll have a comfy room for them to stay in.  In the meanwhile, our pup has another napping spot.


What do you think of our tropical guest room?  Any suggestions on how we can further spruce this room up on a dime?

P.S. The 3M prize pack giveaway is still going on- don't forget to enter!


I'm linking this post up to Guest Room party at DIY by Design.

Powder Room Makeover

I’m excited to share the next room of my house tour today, the powder room.  The powder room is one of my new diyear resolutions from this year so I’m happy to officially check it off of my to-do list!  My goal was to makeover the bathroom for under $75 and I’m happy to say we come in under budget.

First, a look at the scaaaarrrry before of this room from when we first moved in.  BRIGHT blue paint everywhere.  And by everywhere I mean on the walls, back of the door, and ceiling.  Yes, bright blue paint even on the ceiling. 





To make matters worse, before we moved in the previous owner replaced the light fixture from the above photo with this builder’s grade one.



Needless to say, the first thing we did when we moved in was repaint this room a more reasonable color.  This was actually the first room we painted and Rob chose the color, Misty Surf by Behr, which is a much lighter and subdued blue.

The room looked much better after being painted and stayed this way for several months…until I found a major score at a garage sale.  I found this lighting fixture, plus an outlet cover, and towel ring for just $8 total!



The light and towel ring made a huge difference in this small room.  I also swapped out the light switch covers, but had to buy a second one at Home Depot to match the one I got at the garage sale.



The bathroom was looking much better, but it still needed a new mirror.  Luckily, I found another great deal at Ross with this great mirror for just $13!  The mirror plus a new soap dispenser and some art completed the bathroom makeover!  Here’s the much better “after” of the room:





I repainted a silver candleholder (from Target many years ago) to match the new bathroom accessories.



Some cute doggy art (another Ross score) adds some fun to the bathroom:





Here’s another look at the before and after:



Much better, if I do say so myself!  And here’s a look at how we kept to our cheap budget for the bathroom makeover:

$28 – Behr Paint
$8 - Lighting Fixture/Towel Ring/Light Switch from Garage Sale
$6 – Second Light Switch
$13 – Mirror from Ross
$9 – Doggy Artwork on Clearance at Ross
$4 – Soap Dispenser on Clearance at Ross
Total =  $68!

So that’s my bathroom makeover on the cheap.  Pretty, pretty good as Larry David would say.  What do you think?

Don’t forget to enter to win my 3M prize pack giveaway!


I’m linking up this post to the bathroom inspiration party over at Homemaker on a Dime, and at Southern Hospitality, Beneath My Heart.