Room Tour: My Studio/Office/Closet

I’ve shown a couple of the projects in my back room/studio/closet/office (I have trouble labeling this room) before… The scarf wall, and my simple closet updates. However, I don’t think I’ve ever posted a look at the whole room. I happened to clean up all of my half finished projects today so it was the perfect time to show it off. Lets start with my favorite wall which is what you see when you walk in the door:

I need to hang something under the house, it looks lonely by itself.

I store all of my makeup in the mini dresser on the server. I got it unfinished from Hobby Lobby, stained the sides and painted the drawer faces white. The hardware is from Hobby Lobby as well. As you can see, I need a light switch plate. I hate the white plastic ones. I’ve been thinking of making one in the shape of a cat or a bird or something.

The pictures in these frames are all vintage black and white photos I got in a box of ephemera from a flea market in Arizona. I still need to add one to the top frame.

I think often of putting up some kind of cloth line or wire behind the door for art in progress. It would be especially useful during gelatin printing, since I run out of floor space for drying paper pretty quickly.

That’s the grand tour, like I said this is waaaaaaay cleaner than it ever is. Plus there are usually more visitors if I’m working in it:

 

Easy Cheap Closet Updates

In Matt and I’s grand master plan for the house, we want to add a walk in closet to the master bedroom in the basement. With big wardrobes, and lots of shelves. However, since there isn’t even the bedroom part of the plan done yet, our clothes are in separate closets. Mine are in my studio/workshop room with my dresser and scarf storage wall. When we moved into this house a year ago, the closet looked like this:

I couldn’t stand the sliding doors. How is anyone suppose to get dressed looking at half the closet at a time! The first little update was taking the doors off. I’ve done this mini update to a couple of ugly rental closets too, since it’s easy to put the doors back up when you move out. If you don’t keep your closets tidy though than the interior might be just as much of an eyesore as the ugly doors!

As you can see removing the doors didn’t solve the too many shoes for this closet problem:

The shelf and rod were really low, so I busted them both out, and moved them higher:

I repaired all the holes I made in the walls, and painted everything white. With the rod up higher there was room to install shoe shelves:

I already had the two shelves in the picture above on hand, and bought another than painted all three white. They are the Fabian wall shelves from IKEA, they come with the metal brackets and are only $8. I also replaced the top shelf and here it is done:

Since I had the paint, and two shelves on hand all this update cost me was $8 for a third shelf. Easy-peasy update for a too small closet!

Tiny Bedroom – 1 Wall = Sitting Room

The day Matt and I moved into our house we decided the wall separating the front room and the small third bedroom needed to go. A couple months ago we got around to doing it. I drew you this sweet picture of the doomed wall in question:

Here is Matt cutting out the first pieces:

At first we only cut an opening, instead of removing the whole thing. It made you feel like something was blocking your vision of both areas, so we took it out the rest.

After much mud work:

It was ready for primer, I didn’t actually buy primer since I had buckets of flat white and used that instead. The mud soaks up paint so it took several application until it was a uniform white:

We also took out the ugly brass wall sconce and added the wiring for a pendant light. The color we chose is Deep Twilight Blue (Valspar).

Do you know the secret to really straight paint lines? Tape them out then paint with the first color in my case bright white and then paint over that with your actual color. All the bleed through will be of the white paint, leaving the blue in a perfect line! Check out this tutorial with pictures if it still isn’t clear how to do it from The House of Hepworths.

My beautiful new sitting room!

Bathroom Renovations

When Matt and I moved into this house our first priority was the bathroom. It was atrocious, not just ugly but also so disgusting. The pink carpet had gotten so filthy it always felt kinda damp. Anyway we got on fixing it up so fast I can’t find a before picture. Here it is with demo already in progress:

Brown tub and toilet, light oak accents, lime green plastic tiles, pink carpet and lavender walls…

First thing in was our new tub:

And then new surround, we chose simple white subway tiles because we had big plans for the floor. This is before grout:

And after grout:

Next up, more demo I removed the vanity over one long afternoon:

And then it was time for the fun part of playing with the floor tiles!

We bought several boxes of these 2 x 8 slate tiles from The Tile Shop. Over a week or so Matt and I worked on the floor together most nights. He cut tiles and I laid them:

We had a few tiles pop off the mastic when I removed the tile spacers, I think this was because we didn’t wet the tile back first. After we started dunking them in water no more popped up. You can also see the last of the brown toilet in this picture!

Here is Matt laying the last intricate cuts:

We added half inch back splash tiles around the walls and tub to finish off the edges:

Here is the whole thing done without grout:

I grouted it myself one day while Matt was at work, it looks almost white in these photos but is actually light grayish silver.

Beautiful herringbone!

We bought the new vanity when we bought the toilet and tub but that will be in a whole different post for now look at Todd checking out the inside of it:

With the bathroom usable and so much prettier our attention shifted to other sore spots around the house. Among the things still on the to do list, painting, a medicine cabinet or mirror or both, and curtains for the window.

My New House… Sort of

I wanted to do a little tour of my house since I haven’t yet, even though we moved in a little over a year ago. It was built in 1956, and only had one previous owner they paid $11,000 for it in 1957. Most of these pictures are from the first time we saw it after buying (the old pictures of the house are from the owners daughter who was nice enough to bring them to closing) here is the front:

I’m not sure what year this was taken but those bushes look tiny:

This is what you saw walking in:

The other side of the half wall has these metal planter box inserts (check out the pale pink carpet):

Here is the front room (after many coats of primer) looking out on the street:

This is the front room as the sellers daughter remembers it, got to love those curtains huh?

This is the kitchen as it was when we first saw it… a tad cramped:

Here is another view of it, with plenty more faux brick:

Here it is back in 1957:

The backyard:

And me in the backyard (with our jute rug drying in the sunlight, and basset hound making trouble):

There is plenty of work to do (even a year later), but I loved it so much as is there is no where to go but up.

Moving In… Finally!

It’s been forever since I’ve had a chance to post some projects! Matt and I finally settled for and moved into a place. It’s a cute townhouse in Aurora with tons of room and alas nowhere near downtown. Anyway I have been crazy busy moving and unpacking and cleaning. Now that we have a home though I’ve got thousands of projects waiting to be given attention and posted on my sweet blog!

It’s Nearly Fall Again

It’s nearly time for all the pretty flowers and greenery to go away for another Autumn. All the kids are going back to school, Matt is getting ready to go to school. I am looking forward to the temps. cooling down mostly because I have lots of adorable cardigans and jackets that I can’t wait to wear.

Matt and I unfortunately will not be purchasing a home this year. Our lender, who swore up and down that we would get a loan, and who wrote several pre-approval letters, pulled out at the last-minute. So we are looking to find a rental, but it’s been hard to shift focus to something temporary. The ugly, crummy, dirty duplex we saw today costs waaaaay more a month than buying a house and you have to deal with a landlord. I think we are just going to have to find an apartment complex close to downtown and resign ourselves to taking Copper for plenty of walks. Here are some nice shots of my Dad’s garden, enjoy the good weather and green plants… they are on their way out!

House News

Matt and I have put an offer in on a house, it’s been accepted and we are waiting to finalize the loan! Pending any disastrous problems with the home inspection… we have a house!!!

Gorgeous right? It needs a facelift and plenty of work inside as well. It also come with a truly hideous 6 car car-port jutting out the back of the house, which I am all for knocking down. In any case I hope everything goes well and by the end of summer we are living here happily.