Indigo-Go!

I'm dying to decorate with indigo (or navy or dark blue--whatever you prefer to call it). When I received my Pottery Barn catalog this week...that sealed the deal!

I have some ideas in my mind on how I'll do this. It needs to be in a room with enough light, so it doesn't feel like a cave. It needs to have a good amount of white accents, trim or furniture. I also think it would look great with subway tile. Any guesses as to which room I'm contemplating?



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What I'm loving so much about navy is that it is so many things. It is warm and cozy. It is traditional but totally modern now. It is moody and serene at the same time. And it doesn't have to be "coastal" or "nautical" at all.

 

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So if you haven't already guessed, I think I'm going to use navy paint in our guest bathroom. We have subway tile in the shower area. The floors aren't my favorite right now, but I still think we can work with them. The toilet and vanity need to go though, so if we tear those out we may as well do the floors too.

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This next picture is really what did it for me. I LOVE the mix of wood, brushed nickel, white, navy and little pops of yellow. It is beautiful (although a slightly darker shade than I'll probably pick). Since we don't want to tile up the walls, I am planning an easy faux wainscoting in white.

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What do you think? I think...Go Navy, Baby!
Karli

Powder Bath Reveal!

As promised, today I'm revealing our new main floor powder bath! I'm so excited to share the progression of this drab little bathroom.

 

It started like this. Tan, brown, builder-grade mirror and lighting. It also had a medicine cabinet on the small wall to the right of the sink. The floors were tan tile.

 

 

Some paint on the walls and cabinets, new cabinet hardware, a new mirror and towel rack, and the addition of some DIY paintings made the space look better.



 

 
We covered up the medicine cabinet hole with a painting.

 
And then, when it was time to get new floors on the main level, we just tore the entire thing out! It was liberating.

 

 

So, on to the big reveal after the new floors. Here was our inspiration post.

 

Love this new sign on the door that I found at an antique mall. People never knew which door was the bathroom. Now there's no question. :)

 

 

 

The hall where the bathroom lives looks so different now too!

 

 

 

When you open the door you're greeted with a brighter, clean looking room. I plan to change out the towel and a few other small items each season. For now, it's red for the recent Christmas season.

 

 

We need a bit of art to hang on the walls, but for now I'm loving the clean lines of the tall beadboard.

 

 

The vanity and sink are from IKEA. My dad helped me install it. I love how tall it is and how easy the sink is to clean. There's just something about a spotless white sink.

 

 

The vanity is awesome! The drawers are soft close, which I love. And the bottom one is tall enough to hold spray bottles, so all of our cleaning supplies live in here! I also love how it sits on little legs instead of on the floor. It looks like a piece of furniture now.

 

 

And that hole where the medicine cabinet was is now invisible. (Can I just point out that sink again?! Love that its all one piece!)

 

 

Here's another point of reference for where this bathroom lives in our house.

 

 

Just between the front door and kitchen. By the way, do you love that I painted all the trim bright white and the doors black?! I can't get over what a difference it makes in the house. It has a classy, timeless look. (And those new floors...are you kidding me?)

 

 

And another new piece that lives in that hall...

 

 

I found this at the antique mall too. It's a lovely pond with trees reflecting in the water. It makes me feel calm and serene. The black and white decor is really working in this part of the house.

 

Thanks for stopping by to see our latest makeover. Working on a home can be a slow, tedious process. But as we complete rooms and projects like this, it gives a huge sense of accomplishment. We did it!

 

 

 

All my best,

Karli

How will I get all this done in a week?!

Am I crazy? Why I do stack projects on top of projects? Because I'm crazy. Ok, so now that we've established that, here's the latest update on our flooring project. (It did just start as a flooring project, right?)

Our floors will be done in a couple days. My house is a wreck. The dog doesn't know where he can and can't walk and our family room and garage have been taken over by stray furniture and accessories.

Two things happened when we took everything out of the rooms on the main floor.

1)We tore out our powder bath vanity and toilet too. I wanted the new floors to run through the entire powder bath and they couldn't with the ugly old vanity in there. So it had to go. There was no other answer.

2) I decided I wanted a bigger dining room. But that's for another post.

3) I lied, three things happened. I decided to paint all the doors and door trim on the main floor too. Yet another post.


Back to the bathroom...There was also a lovely hole in the wall where they had a medicine cabinet. (Who puts a medicine cabinet in a powder bathroom?!) My dad and Brent patched that up beautifully so it isn't just a gaping hole anymore. BUT we were still going to need to do drywall repair and new texture to get the walls up to par. Or did we have to?!....

We hid that medicine cabinet hole with a canvas that we painted.

Answer: cover the walls in beadboard about six feet high. Seems too high you're saying to yourself. Nah...take a look at this inspiration.



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While the sink and toilet are torn out, we'll put the beadboard up and paint it bright white. Then we'll put a new vanity and sink from IKEA in and reinstall the toilet.

Whew. All of that in the midst of moving furniture back into the main floor. It all needs to be done before next Friday when my wonderful family members arrive for the Cookie Exchange...when there will be 25+ guests in my house for the afternoon.

Like I said, we're crazy.---Or at least I am.

~Karli

The Art Shed: Part 1

I have spent several weeks (actually months) working with my dear friend, Judith making her shed into an art studio, or as we refer to it, her "Art Shed". 

We are excited about the transformation and want to share it with you. Because it involved numerous steps to get to the "big reveal," we'll break it into two parts for you to see. It is quite amazing what can be done to a shed with just a little bit of time, energy, creativity, and a minimum investment of money.

Here is what we started with. These are photos of the exterior of the shed which Judith had used for storage for several years.
                                                


The exterior side view

The front doors

                                                  

  The floors were plywood. There was some mold in one area which we easily remedied with applications of Clorax.

To begin the makeover, insulation was added between the studs to the shed walls and ceiling.
                                                   

The insulation made a huge difference
to the inside temperature.

We considered several different options to cover the walls...sheetrock, plywood, beadboard, recycled barnwood, paneling, old doors, etc. We had to take into consideration the cost, the application, the look, as well as Judith's sensitivity to smells and chemicals.
                                                  

  I brought samples of several different options from home.

 

Judith finally decided her preference was to cover the walls with a product called Waferboard. The 4' x 8' sheets cost only $11.78 each. She liked the texture as well as the cost and the ease of putting it up. The lumber yard would cut the sheets to the 75" overall height we needed and deliver them for a small fee. The shed measured approximately 10' by 12', so we would need eleven sheets. We knew some cutting and fitting would be involved (as well as help from Judith's husband, Larry). We would also be thrifty by using those 21" pieces that the lumber yard had trimmed off.

Before we started putting the waferboard on the walls, we took a creative approach to the ceiling. We covered it with Painter's Dropcloths purchased at Sherwin Williams. We purchased two packages of the 6 oz. dropcloths that each measured 9' x 12'. We put them in the washing machine separately and laundered them with detergent on the warm setting. We then put them in the dryer too...they did shrink a little.  Prepare to empty your lint trap several times. They produce a lot of lint!!!  

I feel that laundering is an important step when working with dropcloths. Otherwise they do have quite an odor. Also, remember these are not perfect. You'll notice flaws in the fabric and stitching. However, we liked the look.

Getting these huge sheets onto the ceiling was a challenge. I had a tall ladder in the center and one stepstool on either side. I moved across the room back and forth, partially holding up the fabric with my head, stapling as I went. It was not easy and I can not exactly tell you how to do it...if you try this, you will just need to figure out what works best for you. Regardless of all the sweat and anxiety (did I mention that it was a hot day and I am still prone to having HOT FLASHES), the ceiling turned out quite well.
                                                          

The ceiling almost looks like a mattress. I felt like that was what was on top of me while I was stapling!

After admiring how well the ceiling turned out, it was time to move on to the walls. I screwed the sheets of waferboard to the wall studs with deck screws. I kept two drills handy, one to make the pilot hole, and one to screw. I started in the center of each wall, applying a full 4' sheet, lining up on the center of the wall studs. The other pieces then had to be cut down, centering them on the wall studs as well. It became a group effort. Judith and I measured, her husband then trimmed the pieces, and then I "screwed" them to the wall. Thank goodness for two drills so I didn't have to keep changing the bits!

                                                       

The pieces of blue tape mark the center of the wall studs for the screw placement.

After the waferboard sheets were all in place, we applied caulk where needed to fill in any gaps (using a paintable caulk) and then I applied two coats of primer to the walls and floors. I used Zinsser Bulls Eye 1.2.3 Primer. It is mold and mildew resistant, goes on thick and has a stain blocker in it. It worked well for covering the Waferboard. Primer doesn't make for exciting pictures, so I won't even show you.

Then came the fun part. Judith chose to have the wall color a neutral, almost matching the ceiling. Her artwork is to be the focus of the room, so we needed a calm background. We used two coats of Sherwin Williams, Harmony paint, Kestrel White, in a flat finish. 
                                                     

Sherwin Williams Harmony paint is Zero VOC. The neutral background will let the artwork be the focus.

Then we got a little crazy with the floor. Judith had left over paint in almost every color.
I started out with a coat of red.

                                                     

The red on the floor was just the first of many coats.

                            
The floor took several more steps. On top of the red, we brushed green and then yellow paint in random areas, not completely covering the floor. The last color applied was blue. I used a really wide brush and tried to create the look of floor boards, letting some of the other colors show through in places.
                                                        

The effect of all the paint layers is a time-worn distressed look. It is hard to tell that it is sheets of plywood, not floorboards.

Finally, after all those layers, a coat of Polyurethane was applied. This will protect the floor paint as well as making it easier to sweep.

Next came the addition of trim. We used 3 1/4" MDF baseboard for all the areas. It came pre-primed and we painted it the same color as the walls. We applied it as baseboard
along the edge of the floor, around the windows and on top of the Waferboard walls.

                                                        

This window trim is designed to match the trim on the outside of the shed.

Well, we are just about ready for the really fun part...putting all of Judith's art and furniture into the "Art Shed."  Check out the next post (coming soon) to see the big reveal.

Kandy                            

The McOlson House: Design Boards

Yesterday was a fun day! Karli delivered Marie and Travis the design boards we put together for their main living areas. This included the front room/dining room, the kitchen space and the family room. Below you can see each room's design board with notes for the two fo them as they start to execute the plan.

While Karli was there, the placement of the furniture in the front room was adjusted and Marie sent me a message today saying that she's going to buy the paint right now.

Here's the front room design. The walls will be SW Accessible Beige and the ceilings will be white.

Marie's front room by mrsmillspaugh featuring a sand table

A view of the room

 

The front room and dining room are open to one another, so they all need to be the same paint color. We also wanted to repeat the mustard/yellow accent by painting their side board and then hang that "inspiration piece" above. You will see that piece right as you walk in the house, so all the accent colors have been chosen to play off that.

The dining room view

 

 

Marie's Dining Room by mrsmillspaugh featuring black mirrors

Next up is the kitchen. They shared the floors they've chosen for the entry, kitchen and family room and we must have guessed correctly, because something very similar is represented below. We talked about painting their island SW Tricorn Black as shown below. Then potentially dropping three pendants. The eat-in kitchen will get a new light too. This whole space and the adjacent family room will be SW Functional Gray.

Kitchen view

Marie's kitchen by mrsmillspaugh featuring green salad plates

And finally, the room that presented the more challenging aspects of the entire project. The room is large and expansive. It also has a large wall that is calling for some art. The location of the TV required some creative thinking.

Family room view

So we've proposed two large square canvases hung vertically above the black console to draw the eye up. We also suggested adding a small bookcase under the TV, near to the stair railing to "ground" the TV. It should be painted the same color as the walls for balance.

We left lots of options for patterened curtains and rugs. We wanted them to be able to choose their favorite within their budget and timeframe. Their existing furniture will work in the room (rearraged ever so slightly) with potential additions of a chair (in an accent color like teal) and some transitional seating like poufs or cubes.

We also suggested that they paint the inset where the clock hangs over the fireplace a green. It will balance the two green canvases hung on the adjacent wall.  

Marie's family room by mrsmillspaugh featuring modern patio furniture
 

We really enjoyed putting these boards together and can't wait to see how it all comes together.

Kandy and Karli

The McOlson House: Making It Their Own

Meet Marie.

I was honored to have Marie as a beautiful bridesmaid during my wedding

I met her our freshman year of college. We were on the same floor in the dorms and soon decided we'd like to share off-campus housing once we were allowed to move out. We lived together for two years, in a tiny apartment and a rented single family house, so I had a pretty good idea about her style. She's one of those friends that you can pick right back up with, even if it's been months since you last talked.   

Marie and her husband Travis recently bought a house. She asked me to come over and give them some ideas on paint colors, layout, finishing touches, etc. I jumped at the chance! I spent a morning with the two of them, talking about pieces of furniture they had to keep, what we could change, what they like and don't like. Then I took pictures and measurements and started planning with mom. We did a lot of our brainstorming via a secret board on Pinterest. (Have you tried that? It's amazing!)

So here are the before photos of the space. Their biggest concern was the paint. The pale yellow is so not them. They want to add color, but aren't sure where or how much. So my goal is to add punches of color within a neutral palate.

As you walk in the front door, this room is on your right. It's a dining room/formal sitting room. You can see that they started to paint the ceiling white, but it made the yellow-ish paint look worse. So right now that's on hold until we pick a paint color.

 

This is the couch (with a matching chair) in the front room. We'll work with this, just switching up the placement and pillows.

 

This is the dining room view. The table is cocktail height. The light fixture is change-able as well.

 

The next room you walk into is the open, spacious kitchen. The granite color is great. They don't love the tile floor or backsplash, so I'll come up with some ideas for that as well.

 

From the kitchen you can see into the family room, where they spend the majority of their time. We'll work with all the furniture in here. Paint, window treatments and some punches of color will finish this off nicely.

 

This is a piece of art Marie recently bought. I am actually using it as my inspiration for the pops of color I'll use in the entire space. I'm thinking of hanging it on a wall you see right when you walk in--a point of view where you can see all the rooms. It will all make sense from that vantage point.
 

Mom and I were putting finishing touches on our design boards this weekend. I'll present them to Marie and Travis and get their feedback so we can make any adjustments before they're considered final.

This is SO fun!

Stay tuned for more,
Karli

Karli's Exterior Project Done...For Now

Ok, so here it is! The big reveal of our exterior project. By now you know all about the tree projects, the trim projects, paint choices and flower bed plans. It all came together in something I am really proud to call ours!

After all the old evergreen shrubs and bushes were removed (and the giant cottonwood stump was ground out), we started planting flowers. Finally, the flower beds are making all that effort worth it! The flowers are blooming and spreading and, hopefully, growing strong roots. I picked mostly perennials so those beds won't require a ton of work to look great year after year. Here are a couple of progress pictures of the beds.


After the sidewalk was poured we had an even larger space to fill next to the driveway.



 

Earlier in the summer, this pic was taken before we put in edging bricks to define the bed. We also planted a couple more things on the left part of the bed.

We picked Sherwin Williams Pewter Tankard for the body and it is exactly what I wanted. While we were painting my sister and brother in law kept calling it brown. I called it gray. PERFECT. I wanted a gray that didn't turn blue or pink. I wanted it to be almost brown.

This shows that side flower bed filled in. The plants are still growing.

We used Sherwin Williams Extra White for the trim for a really nice crisp pop. And then I ordered black shutters from Home Depot, so we didn't even have to paint those.

And I got my lime green door!

The bench mom made looks amazing on the front porch. As do the black chairs I picked up earlier this summer.

Love that bench! You can also see the door better here too.

I can't wait till the flowers fill out a bit more. (And it will be nice when we re-sod the lawn next year)

Here's the full "after" view with the before picture too. What a difference!

We still have all that empty space where the tree stump was. You'll probably see more posts about that next spring!

Just a reminder of where we started. It was all worth it!