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!

Baby on Board: Gender Reveal & Showers

When I found out I was pregnant, my husband and I had just booked our late honeymoon cruise to the Bahamas. What timing, so after cancelling and postponing the trip a little longer we went straight into baby mode. I was so excited for this new chapter in our lives to begin and tried not to get my hopes up that our baby would be a girl! We found out our due date would be in December YIKES! We already have my birthday, my brothers, my moms, my best friends and Christmas $$$ looks like we'll be putting a little more into our December fund this year. I already knew I wanted to do a gender reveal party, and as it approached I could barley contain my eagerness!

 

The cake is from Crème De La Crème Bakery in Riverside, CA.

 

I couldn't believe we were actually going to have a girl! My whole family is filled with boys, I thought I might never get a girl. I couldn't be happier. Chase was hoping for a boy of course, so instantly the dreams of a hunting buddy vanished. In came the bows, pink stuff and all things girly! Hip-Hip Hooray! Now we're just praying the next one will be a boy!

 

 

My mom, Christine and I made these invitations for the shower, it was by far the cutest we had come across and although they did take some time and effort we loved the way they turned out. After sending them, we got so many calls with compliments on the invites! We purchased the template from zoocutieprintables on Etsy for $12.00, and the sparkle paper and ribbon along with the other supplies came from Michaels.

 

 

Pass the prize was the best game at the shower. We made up the last few lines since we couldn't find any online that we liked. The game was fun and it gave all our guests something to talk about.

 

Cute, Unique and Easy Nightstand!

When we moved in to our first home I was least concerned with our bedroom, seeing as the house needed a lot of attention in the living room/ dinning room and other high traffic areas. But lately i've been noticing cute bedrooms on Pintrest and decided it was time to do some sprucing of my own. I thought, I'll start simple....new nightstand. Between price range, storage needs and size I found this plain jane "chest of drawers" from Ikea.

For $69.00 I thought how could I go wrong (quality was suprisingly good). Some new hardware and I could picture this dresser in a whole new light. I decided on a trip to Anthropologie for knobs. They were a bit more than I had planned on spending ($12.00 ea) but I figured I got off easy on the dresser. They were exactly what I wanted, vintage looking, sparkly and classy. 

Supplies:

Ikea Dresser

Knobs

Tools:

Cordless Drill

Drill Bit (1/4 in. for the knobs we used)

Tape Measure

Pencil

File

Dykes

Cresent Wrench 

For this size dresser we decided knob placement was perfect at 8 inches in from each drawers edge and 4 inches down from the top of each drawer. Measured and marked where holes were to be drilled. Drilled carefully through each mark. Installed knobs, straightened and tightened. Cut excess thread off, that was exposed in the interior of the drawer. Filed remaining backing to remove sharp edges.

I'm happy with the turn out, simple, fun and looks much better than the lonely shelf I was using as a nightstand previously! 

Painted Fireplace

After the chevron wall was done, our brick fireplace stood out like a sore thumb. Unfortunately, many projects create the domino effect in our house! So after a couple weeks and some research we decided to paint our brick fireplace. I found a tutorial on Lowe's site, picked up the supplies and had at it.

I began with cleaning the fireplace. I scrubbed each brick with sponge and water.

Click this link to see the tutorial I used from Lowes
 

I started with a coat of primer. This was the longest step. I made sure I had full coverage of all brick and grout. 1 ruined paint brush later (frayed from pushing between bricks to reach grout) , and the first step was finished!

The next day I started with the base color (Desert Fortress) , recommended by Lowes. This did cover much easier than the primer. The color looked a little pink but I was hoping the final sponge coat would make it look closer to the picture I was referencing.

Lowes tutorial pic

Finally, I was ready for the last step. Sponging the darker color to the brick face (smoked oyster) . I cut the large sponge to fit my bricks and began dipping in the darker color and lightly pressing on the fireplace. I was anxious to begin getting a sense for the final results.

Here is the final product...

My Inspiration pic

I am so happy to have that dark red brick gone! The color blends much better with our wall color and home decor. The project did take a few days but was very cost effective and made a big impact!