Tag: paint

Baby H’s Nursery: Getting Started

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Well, this blog has been on a loooong hiatus.  So long in fact, that I’ve gone through an entire pregnancy and now have a 4-month old son since my last post!  Oopsie.   Umm…time flies?

But, there’s no post that has excited me more than this one, so let’s get things rolling again on here!  It’s time to share the story of Baby H’s nursery (in several parts, because there’s far too many details to share in just one post!)

It took zero time to come up with the theme for this room.  Yes, I decided on the nursery theme of our future child long before he came along…err…dare I say, long before he was conceived!?  Seriously, I think I’ve had this theme picked out for about two years.  Those of you who know me know I have a love for major obsession with all things nautical.  Perhaps it is a sub-conscious nod to my west coast upbringing?  For whatever reason, it had to be addressed, and what better room to address it in that a sweet baby nursery.

Nautical can be done in so many ways.  You’ve got your “Nantucket Nautical” with navy blue, red and white and lots of lighthouses and lobsters; you’ve got “Beachy Nautical” which is very soft and neutral, and I came up with “West Coast Nautical” as the type for this room.  Think Nantucket-meets-Beachy-Nautical 🙂

Enter my Pinterest Board, which slowly evolved into the style that we landed on many months ago.   This lovely collage is the one that caught my eye as the overall “look” we were going for:

Baby H nursery inspirationOne of the first things I bought was this amazing stencil from Cutting Edge Stencil, appropriately named “Perfect Catch”.  It seemed like a good idea at the time, stenciling the entire room.  But then my brilliant husband came up with the idea of add some wainscoting into the room as well.  He’s been wanting to try his hand at DIY wainscoting and this provided the perfect opportunity.  Yes, I love that he gets excited about this stuff too.

After we cleared out the stuff from our “home office” (which we quickly realized we never used…no harm done making room for baby!), the first step was to measure out the wainscoting.  Christian used basic, pre-painted MDF trim from Home Depot.  Starting in the centre of each wall, he measured out to determine the distance between each piece of trim.

Taking time with measuring is KEY.  It’s all about the prep work.  Christian also used a level and a chalk-line to ensure that everything was straight as an arrow.

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After filling in all the nail gun holes, it was time to paint the lower half of the room in good ol’ Benjamin Moore CC-40 aka “Cloud White”, which is the colour of all the trim in our house.

What’s clever about this method is that it gives the illusion of actual wainscoting but costs waaaaay less as you’re not actually covering the entire bottom on the wall in wood panels.  (If you’re really interested in some home decor nerdery, here is the wikipedia definition.  FACT: I knew what wainscoting was by the time I was 10 years old…missed my calling?  Perhaps).

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For the top half of the room, we chose a neutral blue-grey: CIL Paddlewheel Grey.  We agonized over this colour because of the next, and very tedious step (no, no, wainscoting was not enough for baby H…we also stenciled the upper wall!  And by “we”, I mean Christian).

Now, let me warn you: stenciling is NOT for the weak, procrastinators, or the impatient.  In fact, it’s not for perfectionists either, which is an adjective that could be used to describe Christian.  He.  Spent. Hours.  And I mean HOURS, stenciling this room.  I think it took him two full 8 hour days to just get the stencil done.  He vowed we were NEVER using a stencil again and I would have to agree, but I might try to convince him again (don’t tell him I told you that!)

But oh, the finished product…worth it!?  We think so.  I mean, I endured 10 months of being prego, PLUS labour, so I’d say we’re even now after the stencil incident.

Check out this beauty progress shot:

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And no, we didn’t just opt for a feature wall.  Christian stenciled the ENTIRE room.  Initially we were worried it would be too busy (hence the concern over finding just the right base colour), but we were over the moon with the final result.  I kid you not, everyone comes over and thinks its wallpaper, and Christian can’t help but beam with pride (how to compliment a perfectionist 101).

….looking for the final reveal photo?  Sorry, you’ll have to wait until a few more posts!  So much story to tell about this little room before I share the final result!

Come back and visit soon.

M

The Power of Paint

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A few weekends ago, Christian and I decided that it was time. It was time to deal with the unfortunate disaster that is commonly referred to as “the garage”. 

Now, let me fill you in on something: in downtown Toronto, if you have a garage, that is pretty awesome.  When our area was built in the 30s, the houses were made to back onto a laneway, and little free-standing garages face said laneway.  Over the years, some garages started to…well….desinigrate.  And the rule is, if your garage falls down, there’s no rebuilding it.  It’s a by-law.  So, I will just reiterate how excited we are to actually HAVE a garage, however, we were over it being a disaster zone, both inside and out.  We actually do have plans to restructure the garage in the future: new siding, replace the rusted out eavestroughs, put in an electric door opener, and one day actually park our car in there (what a concept).  We park on the street.

Baby steps, people. It’s all about baby steps (side note: I think that is the 3rd time this week that I’ve quoted “What About Bob“)

First of all, we tackled the inside.  Unfortunately, we decided to do this on one of the hottest days of the summer, but not to worry – we forged on!  I will spare you with the organizational details, however, here is one snap shot of a newly reclaimed shelf for all of my gardening supplies and our lovely (and properly labeled) seasonal storage bins!  Yes, it’s the little things that make me excited:

You also might notice some stereo receivers on the upper right-hand shelf.  This was Christian’s little project.  He picked these up at our Annual Lane-way sale for about $15, re-worked the wire, integrated some old speakers, and voila!  We can plug in our I-Pod and rock out in our back-yard.  It’s amazing what $15 and an hour can do.

Once our interior organizational overhaul was complete, we (well, I) decided that the exterior wall of our garage wasn’t very inspiring when sitting at our backyard patio set.  So, until we have the budget to do the massive overhaul, I decided that a little coat of paint could go a long way.  First, I cleaned the surface:

And pulled out my trusty rollers and some leftover paint…

While cleaning and organizing the garage, we came across some cute butterfly iron outdoor decorations that had been stored in the garage for “when things looked a little prettier” – well, we found a home for them!  And I used a Groupon I had scored for a garden centre to purchase some beautiful hanging baskets….so, $20 later (the amount we spent on the Groupon about 2 months ago), our backyard went from this:

To this….

It’s not a super dramatic before-and-after, but the point is that a few hours, some elbow grease and a can of paint can really make a big improvement.  We have a long way to go in order to achieve that backyard city oasis that we dream of, however, this mini-makeover, coupled with a string of Christmas lights and recycled Chinese paper lanterns from our wedding day, strung on the clothesline, helped to create a welcoming outdoor space for a BBQ with friends last weekend. 

And, oh yeah, we were certain to rock out all night under the stars thanks to Christian’s McGruber-ed outdoor stereo.  Three cheers for my crafty husband: hip-hip hooray!

Starting small: a little bit of DIY inspiration

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My husband and I are often asked: “How do you learn the ways of DIY?”, and for those of you who are well-versed in this past-time, you will know that it is purely trial and error.  Christian is Mr. Handy, and was fortunate enough to learn many of the tricks of the trade from working with his dad growing up.  Me on the other hand, well, my mother likes to shop at Ethan Allan and Restoration Hardware – HA!  Yeah, not in the budget for us.

The problem: “I want pretty things in my home, but should really put my money towards renovations/ fixing broken pipes/ leaky roofs/ etc!”

The solution: Furniture DIY.  I’m addicted.  It’s my new-found favourite past-time and it is sooooo satisfying.

Allow me to share with you some wonderful before-and-after shots of various items that we have spruced up for next-to-nothing.  Who doesn’t LOVE before-and-after shots!?

First up, the dresser.  Well, it was a dresser, passed on to Christian waaay back in University.  Then is was repurposed into a bar for him and his roommate for another 3 years (glass ring stains and all!) and found it’s way into our Leslieville home.  I hated it.  But, we needed it and again the little-dresser-that-could found itself in the starring role of: entry-way table!  Time for a face-lift. Here’s our over-loved friend before:

I used some left over grey paint (from our Master Bedroom walls), white trim paint, and knobs from Lee Valley Tools (the best location in the city for knobs, pulls and handles, in my opinion).  Total cost for the project?  One long weekend and 40 bucks.  Voila – my masterpiece:

Well, I was on a bit of a roll after this.

Next up, we have our rescued-by-the-roadside night stands.  Yep, we were driving somewhere near Gerrard-ish and Christian hit the breaks and started backing up.  It was like the heavens had opened and revealed two night-stands, just waiting for some TLC and a new home!  It was love at first sight…well, almost.  We had a vision.  I actually wrote a quick thank you note for the previous home-owners because I felt it was good karma to share my joy…

Here are the orphan night-stands before (well one of two – they looked the same!)

Remember: we had a vision. A vision of glossy pops of red in our bedroom….BAM!  Here is the after:

Total cost for these babies?  About $35 on paint + $10 on knobs (these ones are from Central Fairbank Lumber).  We splurged and bought High-Gloss red paint and a can of Varathane.  TIP: do not, I repeat, DO NOT use anything but foam rollers for this stuff.  We used a sort of synthetic roller and got little bits of plasticy-fluff in the paint. So frustrating.

Now onto my vanity bench.  Yes, I LOVE my vanity.  Ladies, for those of you with the my-house-was-built-in-the-30’s sized bathroom, the in-room vanity table is your best friend.  We picked ours up at IKEA for about $200 and it looks pretty awesome (no one believes it’s from IKEA).  But, when it came to a seat for said vanity, I felt that it needed a bit of flair (on a budget, of course).

Here is a before(ish) – I didn’t actually take a before…isn’t that sad?  But you get the idea…the legs are a different style, but this is pretty much what it looked like: Grandma’s old sewing bench (which is what it was, so it was free):

And the after – yes, it’s all about the pops of red in this room!

Cost?  Can of spray paint @ $6.00 and a steal of a deal on this bold-striped Marimekko fabric from a bin at Crate&Barrel.  For those of you who aren’t family with Marimekko fabric, it’s very bold, fun and pretty mod…and also pricey!  Crate&Barrel collaborates with Marimekko on a bunch of stuff in the store and what’s cool is that the fabric ends and extra yards are available for sale at a super low cost (I think I paid $10 for 2 yards of this stuff).  I. LOVE. DEALS.

And finally, the most simple face-lift of all – recovering a chair seat.  We picked up this adorable diner-inspired kitchen set off of Craigslist for $25:

It sat happily in our kitchen for about a year, but I was inspired while on a recent trip to Fabricland during their closing sale (*sniff* the only downtown location is CLOSING!) and found this killer black-and-white geometric, very durable, indoor/outdoor fabric for a steal.   The best part? They had an end that was more than enough for this project, but not quite a yard, so I paid $4.00 – whoop!  Here’s a close-up of the new seat cushion:

I completed this project in under an hour, seated on the living room floor whilst watching Ashely cry her way through another *heartbreak* on the bachelor.  All you need are scissors and a staple gun.

Here that?  That’s the sound of my heart singing.  It’s a sickness, people.

Next up on the furniture DIY hit-list?  Upholstered headboard for our master bedroom – stay tuned!

What are you guys working on?  Any quick and easy DIY projects that you’ve tackled recently?