Painting the Nursery Dressers

You may not have really noticed yet but the room we are using as the nursery doesn’t have a closet. It’s not really a bedroom but more of an office space. The reason we are using it is because it’s the only other enclosed room on the main level,  which is where our master bedroom is. (For a better picture check out the floor plan page)

I say all of this to explain why I wanted two separate dressers in the nursery. I’m trying to get as much storage as possible in the small space.

The first dresser is actually a baby dresser. My grandfather made it many years ago when my uncle was born. It has 6 drawers and it has a hanging rod behind the larger door.

I also wanted another shorter dresser that I could double as a changing table. I debated about what to get as a second dresser and originally considered buying something new. In the end I remembered that we had an extra Hemnes dresser that we weren’t really using in the guest room. It didn’t seem like too much extra work to paint it at the same time as the other dresser.

To get started we brought everything out into the garage and gave all the surfaces we wanted to paint a sanding.

We didn’t sand down to bare wood. We were really just looking to degloss the surfaces.

Then we just used foam rollers to apply one coat of primer. As you can see we really only painted the visible surfaces. The primer we used was Miller paint’s stain blocking primer.

After talking to the guy at the paint store we decided to just paint one coat of the primer even though it wasn’t very opaque.

Then we came back with the final paint and painted away. We painted the drawers faces with left over flagtone grey (MSL247) from the guest room painting.

For the main part of the cabinets I picked up some new white paint in the Kelly Moore Dura-Poxy. The color I had it tinted to was Miller Paint’s Cyprus Spring (0411). The baby dresser really only needed two coats of paint but I think we might have done three anyway.

As for the short black dresser it really needed the three coats. In hindsight we should have done at least two coats of the primer but it still worked out fine.

Once everything was thoroughly dried we brought the cabinets inside and put on the new hardware.

I was worried that the two different styles wouldn’t look very good together but once they were painted and sitting side by side I think they look pretty good.

All the knobs came from Hobby Lobby and it’s so nice that they all match and look more updated than the original ones.

I added some drawer liners to the bottom of the drawers since they were a little rough and I thought it would protect whatever we put inside them. I found this drawer liner on amazon and I really liked the pattern and colors. (It may still be available so here’s the link I used) The liner wasn’t perfect because it was a little shorter than the drawer depth. If I rotated the pattern I could have filled the whole drawer but I didn’t think it was worth it with the pattern. Just something to consider if you’re thinking about buying this drawer liner since it has a directional pattern.

I even ended up adding some drawer liner to the bottom of the closet area so that it would match. Chris also installed a second closet rod in the cabinet. I’m not sure that it’s really going to be tall enough to hang things on but we can always just take it out later.

Beside the chair cushions this was probably the most time consuming project for the nursery. I’m glad they are finally done and ready to use. I am getting so close to being finished with this room. I can’t wait to finally feel like the room is ready.

Farmhouse Doll Bed

Now that it’s after Christmas and this gift has been given I think it’s safe to finally share it without someone ruining the surprise.

Chris and I didn’t find a lot of time to be able to make many things for Christmas gifts but we were able to do this one. I’ve been wanting to make a doll bed for our niece and Chris helped me make one this year. We used Ana White’s Farmhouse Doll Bed pattern and pretty much just followed the directions. Since we keep a lot of scraps we were actually able to find everything we needed in our garage and cut it all down to size.

While I was sanding away Chris assembled all the pieces by gluing and nailing them together with our smallest nail gun.

He used a scrap of wood to center the top and bottom boards that attached all the slats together on the headboard and footboards.

Here’s one side all assembled and ready to go.

From there we pretty much followed the directions and attached everything to the frame. We did add an extra 2×2 board in the center of the bed to add a little extra strength.

To finish off the bed I used two coats of kilz2 primer and two coats of white paint to finish off the bed.

The only part we had to buy was a small sheet of thin plywood to use as a base for the mattress.

Of course I couldn’t stop there I had to create a little bedding set.

I made a mattress and pillows using Ana White’s pattern. To go with is I put together a simple little quilt using scraps I already had on hand.

Of course since I’m crazy and little addicted I also couldn’t help but cut out some shapes with my silhouette to personalize it a bit more.

I just love the way it turned out. As usual the sanding and painting could be a little tedious at times but I think the end product was worth it.

Were you able to make any of your Christmas gifts this year?

Nativity Canvas Art

Last winter I wanted to switch out my canvases in our family room to something more season appropriate but I just never got around to it. Here is a reminder of what the set has looked like:

A couple of months ago I got it in my head that I wanted to do it this year so I grabbed 2 8×10 canvases and 2 11×14 canvases. I decided that I wanted to do something that was centered around the nativity.

I pulled out a sample pot of Martha Stewart’s Azurite (MSL 167) to use as a background. It’s actually the same color I used on the front door and it is a little darker than the kitchen so I thought it would blend well with my decor.

Next I found some shapes that I liked on the Silhouette Online Store and used scrap paper to test the sizes and placement for all the  shapes.

It took a lot of tries but I finally figured out how I wanted everything and got the fonts to look the way I wanted them on the quote. By the way the quote is from a song by Jars of Clay called “Love Came Down at Christmas”.

After I finally figured out how large I wanted the shapes I had to decided what papers to cut everything from.

Once everything was cut I was ready to figure out how to attach it all to the canvases. I honestly got a little frustrated when trying to adhere the papers to the canvas and I think I lost motivation to take any photos. Basically I ended up having to use a glue stick to glue the shapes down and then I covered it all with mod podge to seal it. Since the mod podge is so wet it ended up bubbling some of the papers especially on some of the larger pieces. It’s hard to tell in the photos but in person it’s a little more noticeable.

I do like how it turned out in the end it just didn’t go as smoothly as I had originally hoped. It is really nice though to have something more fitting for the Christmas season.

I guess it’s just another case of my ideas being more grand than what I am able to accomplish. Has anyone else made a project lately and had high expectations than you weren’t able to achieve?

DIY Canvas Photos: Powder Room Edition

Continuing the canvas in the bathrooms theme I made some photo canvas’ for the powder room. Since we painted this room I haven’t really done anything else in here. I think it’s an oddly over sized space for a half bath and I just haven’t spent any time on it.

A while back I got to thinking about all the photos Chris and I have taken on hikes. I thought that the dark water and forest greens would look great against the deep blue green paint on the walls.

Just like with the master bath canvas’ I started by painting the edges of five canvas’. This time around I chose to go with a larger 12×12 canvas since I thought they would fill up the space better. Also since the walls and photos  are dark I went with the black paint instead of the lighter color I did last time.

I had a selection of photos printed and chose five that I like the best. Then I just trimmed them a bit and used mod podge to glue them down.

I chose to hang one right about the toilet which is pretty much the first thing you can see through the doorway.

The other four I hung in the corner almost behind the door.

I just love how the colors of the photos look against the walls.

Now I feel like this room is just a little step closer to not being a weird, boring little box.

Painting Birds on Some Wires

Lets head back to our guest bathroom. Had you forgotten I’ve been working on it? I wouldn’t be offended if you have. It’s been a while since I’ve talked about it or even worked on it for that matter.

After I finished the shower curtain I wanted to make some art for the bathroom. The shower area doesn’t have a lot of wall space but I still thought it would be nice to have at least a little decor on them.

Since I’ve appearantly been into canvas’ lately I bought four square canvases in two sizes to make a little mini canvas wall. I already had a lot of test pots that matched the guest bathroom paint colors I started out by painting a base color of sunken pool (MSL 126).

After that dried I taped of some thin lines slanted in various directions. For these I used Love in a Mist (MSL 142), Lagoon (MSL 125), Magnetite (MSL 278) and Driftwood Grey (MSL 265). The last three colors I didn’t use in the bathroom but I already had them and they matched the color palette I was going for.

It took a couple of coats but once those were dry I pulled off the tape. I wanted to paint birds on the “wires” so I cut out some bird shapes using my Silhouette Portrait.

I used a regular card stock to make the stencils. My first thought was that I would just use them like a regular stencil and paint inside them. This didn’t work well since the paper stuck to the canvas and the paint bled underneath. You can see the bird on the left hand side where I tried to rub off the paint before it dried. Obviously that didn’t work to well.

Instead I ended up using the cut outs to draw an outline in pencil. Then I used a small paint brush to fill in the bird shapes. It was more time consuming but the shapes turned out really well this way.

After about two coats of paint on each bird they turned out like this.

To hang them I just pounded small wire nails in the wall.

I love how the colors go well with the rest of the bathroom so far.

I think the birds are simple, cute and go well with the shower curtain as well.

These ended up being a simple little art project that I think looks great in the bathroom.

Has anyone else become obsessed with canvases lately like I have?

Painting the Guest Bathroom

While we are working hard on the deck trying to get the next step completed I thought I would finally share another project I’ve been working on little by little.

Every time I think about painting walls I just can’t help but think of this clip:

Now that I have that out of the way.  I’ve painted yet another room and this might even be my last (at least for a while).

More than a month ago now while Chris was outside working in the yard I was upstairs sweating like crazy painting our guest bathroom.

As usual I taped and covered what I could with protective plastic.

I got all my tools out and got ready to paint starting with the shower half of the room.

The last time I got paint (during a sale) I bought a gallon of Love in a Mist (MSL142) color matched with a satin Acro Pure paint. I originally bought it thinking I might paint the ceiling of the laundry room with it and I could use the leftovers in the guest bathroom. While painting the laundry room I decided to paint it all Sunken Pool (MSL126) instead. That left me with a full gallon of love in a mist to use in the guest bath.

I did a full two coats of paint on the walls and the ceiling of the shower area.

One of the reasons I wanted to paint this room Love in a Mist was to brighten it up. When I used this shower a while ago I noticed how dark it was and I wanted to lighten it as much as I could.

It’s amazing how blue the paint looks in these photos. It’s a lot more white in person and in other areas of the house as well. (You can see another view of this paint in the guest bedroom closet.)

To tie both the sink area and the shower area together I painted the ceiling of the sink area Love in the Mist as well. I was able to finish all this painting pretty much in one day.

Unfortunately I didn’t have the paint I wanted for the walls in the sink area so I had to wait for the next weekend to finish that.

The next weekend I came back with a gallon of Sunken Pool (MSL126) also in the satin sheen.

I painted two full coats to get the coverage on the walls I was looking for.

Since the room is so small it was pretty fast to paint. I ended up standing on the counter to paint around the mirror and let me tell you those lights get really hot. Not a great combination on a warm day on a second story.

I love the way the two colors look together and how much they brighten up the small space.

Both areas looked a lot better once I pulled all the tape off the walls and tossed the plastic.

I also like the way the hardware contrasts the walls now.

I think the ceiling and the walls are a nice contrast as well.

As you can tell from other rooms in our house I really like these colors. I’m hoping when I’m done this can be a room that isn’t too juvenile or mature feeling either.

I’m glad I was able to find the time to paint this room. Since then I haven’t really done much else. I’m still working on a few other updates now that the painting is done so stay tuned for that. Hopefully in the next month or so I’ll be able to at least put this room back together so that it ca a least be usable for guests.

Have you painted a bathroom or small room to make it seem lighter as well?

Laundry Room Striped Mirror & Shelf

I’ve been working on our laundry room. Check out the last post to see the shelving that we installed.

While we were cutting and painting wood for the shelving I started working on a custom mirror to go in the laundry room as well.

Did you know that you can get a mirror custom cut at Lowe’s? Kate from Centsational Girl talks about it in this post and that’s how I found out about it. I bought a 24″x30″ mirror for $12.05 that I had cut into a 16″x16″ mirror. I kept what was left over so maybe I’ll end up using that for something else.

For a backer board I cut some of the 1/2″ MDF plywood we had left over into 28″x24″. After I primed it I did a couple coats of Love in a Mist (MSL#142 ) which I had a tester pot of.

Then I started to tape out a pattern to paint on some more colors. At first I thought I would do a chevron but I quickly realized I was much too lazy for that. I just didn’t have the patience to mess with it this time.

So i just switched to a varying width stripe instead. I just randomly taped and painted in the lines. For the stripes I used Lagoon (MSL#125 ), Sunken Pool (MSL#126 ) and Barn (MSL#026) which matches the washer and dryer.

It only took two coats for the blue stripes to have good coverage. The red however took four coats and I still don’t think it’s fully opaque. It looks good enough for me though.

After the last coat dried I pulled off the tape. Next I taped off where I wanted the mirror and the shelf. The shelf was just a few inches shorter than the back board width and I just painted it with the Love in a Mist. Originally I thought I would paint stripes on it as well but it just seem like it would turn out a little crazy.

We used the liquid nails mirror adhesive to attach the mirror to the board. Per the directions I roughed up the painted surface behind the mirror before we adhered it. I don’t think you really had to clamp it down but since it was lying flat we thought why not.

As a side note be careful about the adhesive you chose to mount a mirror. The first adhesive I bought stated specifically not to use on mirrors. Luckily Chris noticed it before we used it. We later found out that some chemicals in adhesives can actually eat away at the mirror coating. That would have been really disappointing.

I waited 24 hours before I pulled off the magazines. Then before we attached the shelf we turned the board over and attached two hooks and some hanging wire to hang the mirror from.

After that we just turned it back over and screwed the shelf in place using pocket hole screws.

I was lucky this time and we were able to locate two studs behind where I wanted to hang the mirror. We just screwed in two screws, one on each stud and hung the wire over them.

I’m glad Chris asked if I was put a mirror above the sink. It has already come in handy to see the paint I needed to wash off my face.

I’m also glad I cam up with a way to count a shelf above the sink as well. It’s the perfect size to set mason jars that I can put my paint brushes in to dry after I clean them in the sink.

I love how the colors on the mirror look with the wall. I thought it was a fun, simple project that is a perfect addition for this room.

Next up is adding some decor to those bare walls and shelves! Check that out here.

Laundry Room Shelving

Other than painting the laundry room a while back it’s one of the rooms we haven’t really done anything with since we moved in. That recently changed and in just a few weeks time it’s become the first room I’ve really felt was finished.

What I wanted to share today was the first step in the make over. Building and installing some usable shelving.

As usual I planned out what I wanted it all to look like as well as how much material I needed. My plan was to  create a shelf to cover the top of both machines as well as a set of drawers to fit in between the two machines.

To start with we installed some 1×2 cleats on the wall to support the top with.

Then we cut three different legs, the top and a shelf out of 1/2″ MDF plywood.  We chose MDF because I’m lazy and I didn’t want to have band the edges before painting. After cutting everything to size we just went ahead and primed and painted any visible surfaces.

After all the pieces were painted we assembled and installed them in the room. The first leg is the full depth of the top shelf as you can see below. We used pocket holes to attach the leg  to the top. Since we only used 1/2″ MDF it tended to split and not grab as well as we had hoped. We also screw the top down into the cleats underneath to hold the top in place.

In the center we installed another set of legs. These ones were only 24″ deep so that they could be cut out of one sheet of plywood. Since they are shorter it also makes it so that there is space to get the backs of the washer and dryer if we need to. Even with the shorter depth the shelves are still pretty deep. Since the shelves are deep I wanted to install sliding shelves. That way I would be able to easier reach everything on the shelf.

Before we cut and assembled the shelves we installed the drawer slide halves so we could get an accurate measurement to build the shelves to.

We used wood glue and a nail gun to assemble a box with 6″ sides to keep everything in the shelves when they slide out. Here I was also painting one last coat on another shelf.

Speaking of the shelf I bought 3 sets of the Ekby Mans brackets in black from Ikea. I knew that I didn’t really want black brackets but the price was right and I like the bubble looking shapes. To change them up I sprayed them with a silver metallic spray paint. By the way if you’re looking for a glittery sliver spray paint this is the one. It was pretty much like spraying crazy thick glitter.

As far as installing the brackets we were really lucky that we were able to align them all with a stud.

Here is the shelf installed in the room and I think it helps the room to feel less empty and makes it look more polished and finished.

Oh and check out those brackets in all their glittery goodness.

Back to the drawer shelves we were making. Once the shelves were dry Chris installed the other half of the drawer slides on them.

Then all we had to do was slide the drawers in and fill them up!

In the picture below you can see a piece of unpainted trim next to the washer. After we finished the shelving we thought that it would look a lot better if we had trim to finish off a lot of the raw edges as well as cover some screw holes on the top of the shelf. You’ll be able to see that more in the posts to come.

Now back to the shelves. They are the perfect size to fit laundry supplies in the top and the kitty food bin in the bottom along with a lot of other stuff. I like that the drawers are easy to get to and I can grab things without pulling out the drawer. Of course if there’s something hidden in the back I can just pull out the drawers and easily reach it. I just love function storage and organization. Don’t you too?

I’m so glad to finally have some usable storage in this room. It’s starting to look like a custom room instead of just a boring room with a washer and

Now stay tuned. Next up is a custom mirror! Check it our here.

Custom DIY Open Frame

Little by little I have been working on our master bedroom. Over time it’s actually starting to look something like the mood board I created.

We painted the room first and that made a big difference. Then I made the Malm inspired console table and switched up the duvet cover on the bed.

So when we left off the wall in between the bathroom and bedroom door was looking much less blank but it still needed a little something. To fill in this void I wanted to create an open frame to go around some picture frames that we previously hung on this wall.

First off I set out my frames on the floor to decided how big I wanted to make the open frame. I ended up going with about 3″ of space in between each frame and around all the edges.

I picked out a molding that I liked the shape of at the hardware store. This one happened to be a primed MDF molding. I measured everything out and cut the boards to size mitering the ends. Since I have such a hard time getting a perfect miter I had to fudge things a bit. I ended up taping the frame down to the floor to keep it in place and I used wood glue to glue the ends together.

Once the glue dried it was surprisingly strong. I used some caulking to fill in any gaps on the front side at the corners of the frame. Then I turned the frame over and screwed in a little L shaped bracket to strengthen the frame. The brackets came with a 5/8″ screw which were actually a little long. I found some 1/2″ screws to use instead and they worked fine.

I wanted my new frame to match the frames I already had so I spray painted it a semi-gloss black.

The first coat was a little splotchy but a few coats later and the frame looked pretty good.

To hang the frame I nailed in two saw picture hangers on the backside of the molding. We then hung the frame on the wall using small nails.

To figure out the placement of the frames we used pieces of paper to  line everything up.

It was such an easy project and I think it makes quite a difference to this set of frames as well as this side of the room.

I love the way the blue paint is framed and can be seen through the open frame.

The frames now fill up the wall nicely and look perfect over the new console table.

Is anyone else creating some simple gallery walls in a little different way?

Pretty Front Porch: Round Up

I made it through a full week of posting every day! It was pretty fun but here’s the last installment. Nothing too new or exiting here. Just a round up off all the projects we did to the front porch/walkway area.

First up was painting the front door navy blue.

Once the door was painted I had to update my yarn wreaths to something new for summer.

The last little update to the front door was adding the vinyl welcome sign.

A part of the front porch I never really showed you was this alcove.

Next up we moved off the porch and talked about the three cedar planters we made to go in the front flower bed.

They took pretty much a full day just to build them but we love how great they look so I think it was worth it.

I also think the addition of the pretty flowers is a fun pop of color.

The last update was building and painting some custom tapered planters for next to the front door.

I’m loving the way everything looks all together

It’s a major upgrade from where we started. Here’s a shot from just before we moved in.

This is a picture of the front door this fall in all it’s white(ish) glory and that lovely left over carpet triangle. Yep just keepin’ it classy over here.

Lastly here’s a wider shot of the front porch. It was looking a little funky and blah last fall but is much improved now.

I think that was pretty good update, at least for one summer. What do you think?

Who else out there has been fixing up your outdoor entry area?

Don’t forget to check out all posts in the Pretty Front Porch Makeover Week:

Painting the Front Door
Yarn Wreaths and Welcome Decal
Cedar Planter Boxes
Tapered Planter Boxes