Collette's Room

Having a girl is such fun, I loved decorating her room. I love grays at the moment and most of the walls in our home are gray so it kept with the scheme. I knew I wanted a chandelier for her room but couldn't afford most of them! My mom and I decided to head to Ikea and I finally found a chandelier in my price range! It was $99 and super cute. Ikea SODER chandelier. I was worried about the light output, but once we had it installed it was definitely bright enough.

 

 

We picked up the pink crystal additions at the Rosebowl Swapmeet for $2 a piece. The shelves are from Ikea, the crib is from Potterybarn as well as the bedding for it.

 

 

Marie decal from Disney's Aristocats Movie is from Ebay. I'm a sucker for kitties.

 

 

We love the video monitor. I can't imagine life without it. It's from BabiesRus. The bunny bookends are from restoration hardware. Almost everything else is from TJ max.

 

The eterge is from Ikea, I just spray painted it gold. We replaced the top and bottom with glass and mirror.

 

The dresser we bought off of craigslist. It was the first purchase for the babies room and an exact copy of the one I had when I was little (wish I would of kept it). The ottoman I also found on craigslist and had it reupholstered in this sweet girly fabric. I spray painted the C above her crib white and used some of the fabric to match.

 

 

The tree decal was the last addition to her room and I love the way it turned out. I ordered it from Etsy from Thewhitetreestore. The decal comes in long strips and you cut the branches into sections and apply one at a time. It sounds like a long process but it was done in about and hour, maybe an hour and a half.

 

 

 My mom came over to help. She is very handy, and knowledgeable on many DIY projects. I can always count on her help and I know the project will turn out great.  Its so nice to have a project be fun instead of work.

We started at the base and worked our way up.

 

 

This decal came with almost all the tools we needed.

We did use our laser level to make sure it started off straight. Then we applied the decal and used the tool it came with to make sure its adhered to the wall, then peeled the see-through layer off. A few of the leaves wanted to come up with the paper. They give you extra leaves so we replaced a couple, everything else, as long as you move slow, adhered perfectly.

 

 

The baby is never far from our projects.

 

 

 

We had to cut some of the decal since I had a doorway. We also off set the decal a little. On the left we let it wrap around on the next wall. We were going to cut it to match the right side but liked the way it looked!

 

 

Easy project that gives great detail to her room!

 

 

My husband asked after the decal if Collette's room was done now ...that's a good question. I can't say because i'm always rearranging things, finding new things I like better so lets just say done for now.

 

To be continued...perhaps.

 

 

 

Travel Trailer Remodel

My parents gave us their 1993 Prowler travel trailer when they upgraded to a larger fancy trailer with slide out. My husband and I really wanted one but we just weren't ready to make an investment, especially with our little one only being 8 months. So when my parents gave us the Prowler we were so happy and saw the possibilities roll out in front of us like a red carpet. Hunting, beach trips, weekend in the mountains and many nights near Disneyland came to mind. The trailer was in great condition...it just looked, old. Chase wanted something masculine so I started looking into color schemes for just that. Between a little paint, some new light fixtures, and eventually reupholstering the sofa and dinette the trailer will really start to feel like our own.

We started taking down all the window covering and cabinet doors on day one. It took longer than expected so we only were able to start priming the first coat but didn't finish. We used Zinsser 123 Oil based primer.

 

 

It was time consuming doing the primer coat but I felt like it already looked better, getting rid of all the ugly faux wood. We primed everything, we took the counter top edging off since we are going to spray paint that (not shown in this picture). We also took all the speaker covers and a/c control box down and spray painted with a white plastic spray paint from Home Depot.

 

 

 

After we were done priming we started with the wall color. Which looking back I wish we would have done cabinets and then walls. It has been challenging to cut in on the cabinets and not get the dark gray on the walls. If your not going to tape off then do cabinets first. The wall color is Valspar Montpelier Ashlar Gray in Eggshell. For the wall application we used a foam roller and small brush. My husband does the rolling and I do the cutting in when the baby is taking her naps. Excuse the mess please!

 

 

Here is a shot of the gray going on! Soooo this is where we hit a huge road block. We applied the cabinet paint, Valspar Rugged Suede high gloss latex paint. Waited a night and another night and ...it NEVER dried. It stayed a tacky consistency. We sanded it back down, primed again and had Lowes remix a new gallon for us since the first had many air bubbles as well. We thought maybe the paint was defective. We tried again...and, still tacky. Ugghh the frustration of working and working and making no progress. So after sanding again and priming again we went to Dunn Edwards for some professional advice since Lowes had no idea what to do. Dunn Edwards recommended an oil based paint. They said latex in high gloss sometimes has trouble drying especially in hot humid weather, which we were experiencing this week. So we had them color match the one from Lowes and we picked up the new oil based rugged suede in high gloss and began painting AGAIN. and.....It worked! Yes, we were so relieved. It dried completely overnight and looked great.

 

 

The project has come out of the nightmare stage and being able to see the progress is motivation. We started the first coat of gray and the second coat went on even quicker. We decided to do bronze hardware. We were contemplating black but loved the bronze against the gray cabinets. So we bought pulls from Lowes. 4 inch Center-to-Center Oil Rubbed Bronze Modern Rectangular Cabinet pulls. We spray painted everything else that was gold to match. The cabinet railing, the countertop edging, the bathroom towel holders, toilet paper holder, heater vent and a few other little things. It took us 3 cans of bronze spray paint. Home Depot had 2 choices for bronze, we went with the one on the left since we didn't want a gloss finish.

 

 

Once the second coat was dry we put on all the hinges, attached the doors, put the railings and countertop edges back on. We are starting on the floors in a day or two!