Chair Ideas

As if I need another project to remain unfinished (ahem, sewing room dresser, bathroom, nursery, etc), I’ve been thinking about what I can do to update this chair.

 Forgive the cell phone pic!

With new baby in the house, this chair from my mom’s has been a godsend. It’s in great shape (my mom had gotten a new cushion for it a while ago, so it feels new), it’s comfy, and it’s easy to get in and out of while carrying a heavy baby. :)

I think a getting it totally reupholstered in a silver-gray, keeping the tufts, would be gorgeous.  Something like this:

 image via

But truthfully, that is probably not going to happen. So I have been dreaming about a DIY-type covering that I could do. I’ve been toying with the idea of smocking. Wouldn’t something along these lines look cool on the back?

Image via

Or something like this…

But, truthfully again, with a little baby in the house and trying to find that baby/work/life/life-with-baby balance, this project will probably remain one I am just dreaming about for a while…while I spend my time looking at/sitting in this old green chair. :)

So for fun, here is a baby picture. :)

What projects have you been dreaming about lately? I should also attend to my yard at some point…I have big dreams for out there, too. :)

Bathroom Plans

As we’re constructing things in the bathroom, I’ve been really having to make choices on what will be going in there since we have to plan for everything to make sure we rough-in walls and plumbing and electrical in the right places.  It’s totally fun, of course, but a little nerve-wracking since these choices will be pretty permanent – bathroom stuff is expensive and not easy to change out! :)

I’ve been using an Amazon Wishlist to gather all the different items I’m finding.  It’s nice because you can use the universal wishlist button to find things from other sites, and Amazon will also tell you if it’s available on their site as well. The Invisible Hand plug-in is amazing for this project, too, because it’s helping me shop for the best price with minimal effort.

So, here goes. Here’s what I’ve picked so far.

We’re so far sticking with this vanity from the Home Depot.  The sink isn’t as deep as I’d like, but it’s the same depth as our sink now, so I know it will be fine, and coupled with a nice faucet, I think it will work out really well. We’ll have two of these vanities with some sort of drawer unit in between.

For above the vanities, I bought these recessed medicine cabinets from Lowe’s. I love that they have mirrors on the inside as well! They’re nice and large! I wanted a larger version, but Brian’s stepdad made me worry that cutting out too many studs might compromise the drywall and shelves in our closet on the other side. If I feel like I need more mirror space, I know I can creatively hang another one in between the vanities or something.

Right now, these are my first choice for above-the-vanity light fixtures. :) I just like them. But I’ve found a few similar ones just in case these don’t work out for some reason.

In our master bath, we’re going to have a nice big shower with two showerheads and a handheld shower.  I ordered this unit from Lowe’s.  It looked pretty sturdy in the store, so I’m curious to see how well our installation will go. :)

We love Delta shower fixtures because you can control the temperature separately from the flow – meaning you can set your favorite temp and then not mess with it when you turn the shower on or off…so it’s always ready to go for you! I love it so much. We’ve had these kind of showers for years and won’t go back!

(Note, when you get a Delta shower fixture, you have to buy the valve separately.)

At our last place, our plumber recommended Toto toilets to us and they’re amazing! I know it’s weird to talk about a toilet, but seriously, these toilets are amazing.  They have a larger flush valve than most toilets meaning they rarely get clogged, and they use less water!

We’re deciding between an elongated bowl and a round bowl. Haha, do you have any thoughts? Grandpa says he likes the elongated. :)

I chose these bath fans from Menards because they have a light (it uses 2 bulbs – and mini CFLs fit!) and they’ve got a pretty high CFM and are pretty quiet. And they’re pretty, of course. :)

I’m still looking for sink faucets – but they’re not a top priority currently, and it will just come down to them being the right dimensions to make the best use of our sinks…and the right price of course!

So far, almost all of the plumbing and electrical is roughed in! Woohoo! I can’t wait to actually be able to start installing these fun things!  And to pick a paint color…

What have you been up to this week?

How Should I Refinish This Dresser?

Wow, I’m just asking for all kinds of help lately, aren’t I? But isn’t that what blogging is all about? :)   So, do I paint it or stain it?

Images from here and here.

Okay, so here’s what’s going on. As a part of the great sewing room organization of 2013, I figured I should actually start working on this dresser I got from my aunt.

See all that junk on top? Yeah, this dresser’s just been sitting here collecting junk, which is pretty much the opposite of its intended function. (The junk is supposed to go inside the dresser, not on top.)

Last year (or longer ago than that?) I got this dresser from my aunt. It used to be my lola’s (Filipino grandma) and it’s just been sitting in my aunt’s garage.

I generally don’t love dressers for sewing room storage – they’re meant to hold clothes, not sewing gear. The drawers are usually too deep, don’t slide easily enough, and the dimensions of the dresser itself is usually all wrong. My dream is to have kitchen-type cabinets of all shallow-ish drawers. (I had something pretty much ideal when I was living at home with my parents, so I’m spoiled!)

But this dresser actually is pretty great. It’s 6 feet long. Yes, 6 feet long. So its proportions are more along the lines of something you’d special order in the kitchen department. And it’s just over 29” tall, which is almost exactly the height of my sewing table – so as an added work surface it’s going to be ideal. The drawers are still a little deeper than I’d like, but they generally slide very well, so I think I can make this piece work.

You can see that the style is such that all the drawers touch. Well, over time, they’ve sort of started to stick to each other, probably from swelling and expanding and whatnot. So I’m getting on sanding and planing down the drawers a bit.

I'm using an old planer of my dad’s that I found in the garage. :) Hey it works! I think the blade could use a bit of sharpening, which I’ll get on. I learned all about hand planes from Tommy on Ask This Old House.

This is my first time using a hand plane, and I’ll admit I’m making a mess of it in some places (from not following Tommy’s advice. Oops!).

Anyway, as I’m working on the dresser, I’m finding it’s made of some nice wood. I thought at first that the finish was that really thick plasticky finish that I’d basically have to paint over. I planned on using Valspar’s Pacific Pleasure (color #5009-10) for the body and keep the top nice and white. Something along the lines of this color:

Image from here.

Really gorgeous right?

But like I said, it’s a nice piece of furniture (Thomasville), and I’m finding it’s not hard to sand off the finish down to bare wood. So, then I thought, should I do something like this? And refinish and stain it something gorgeous like Clara’s changing table from Young House Love?

Thoughts, ideas, questions, comments? I’d love your advice! 

The sewing room is painted a neutral gray, and I’m generally trying to keep all work surfaces white. (Don’t want colors clashing or affecting your judgment while you’re working!)  I do have another desk that is blue and I plan on updating with Valspar’s Pacific Pleasure. 

So do I go with two blue and white dressers to keep things cohesive? Or bring in some nice, neutral wood tones? Opinions? Help!!

What Color Should I Paint This Cat?

Yesterday, in my photos of the living room, you got a sneak peak of my current attempts at mantel styling (oh wait, there were also sneak peeks here and on Facebook).  I’m definitely still working on this one…playing with frames and accessories, thinking of staining this awesome mirror an ash brown…just normal stuff I like to think about :)

But I think the most important question right now is, what color should I paint this cat?

I’ve had it for ages, and while I was always tempted to paint it, until now, white seemed to work wherever I put it. But now it’s just getting lost in all the other white/beige around it. 

I could put something behind it of course…what do you think? Tack a wall hanging up back there?

Or paint it. Opinions? A fun aqua? Some sort of blue? Gray? Oil-rubbed bronze? Some other color entirely?  Give me your thoughts!

Things I Love Thursday: Cute Dry Erase Boards!

I was doing errands at Target the other day when I saw these cute dry erase boards in the $1 bins.

I love that they look like paper! They’re supposed to be for kids to practice their handwriting, but I think they’ll be so cute for lists all over the house! For $1 each. You can’t beat that.

For grocery lists:

For to-do lists:

I really bought quite a few ;) and I will be putting them in various places all over the house. :)

And then, I was so inspired by cute dry erase boards to keep things organized, that I took the photo dividers that always come in photo storage boxes, laminated them, and put them in my pantry to label what’s supposed to be behind each door.

No excuses for not putting things away in their proper places :)

An organized pantry makes for a happy lady.

Kind of cute, right?

So, go to Target and get some cute paper-like dry erase boards!

Living Room Color Update

So after all that debating in a previous post about picking a new living room color…

I think I’m going to keep my current creamy color.  It’s Sail Cloth by Benjamin Moore.

I don’t know if this is the best representation of the color, so you can see more here.

My friend, Janis, sent me this link to an article on Apartment Therapy about picking wall colors and it sort of sealed the deal.  I spent a lot of time picking this color the when I started decorating my living room, and even as I’ve been changing it, I’ve known this was my backdrop. I like that it’s light and airy with a subtle touch of color.  I can definitely use art and fabrics (like the curtains I’ll complete one day) to bring in some more color, as well as texture and pattern.

As always, I’ll keep you updated!

Living Room Color Choices

Although it may seem I’ve been neglecting the living room project, I haven’t been (entirely, anyway).

I got some lamps from Goodwill that will be wonderful after some DIY-love and new drum shades.

They were $10 each and they’re a pair. (I was sad it wasn’t 1/2-off day, but they were still a good deal.)  The brushed nickel looks new, and I plan on painting/doing something creative to the light wood middle.

I got a perfectly-sized round end table for the corner between the couches at The Comfy Couch in Highland, IN.  It, too, will need some DIY-love of some sort, but I’m so happy with it. The size and shape couldn’t be better.

And, I’ve finished the mudding of the never-ending mudwork of the fireplace (didn’t really think it’d take me 3 months, but mudwork is boring and frustrating and messy and dusty!)

The wall around the fireplace is finally ready to be primed and painted before I start working on the mantel.

Which leads me into the real topic of this post, which is picking a new living room color. As much as I love the current creamy color it is, it’s time to move in a new direction to keep up the uniformity and style of the living room (or so says my friend Valerie, of Vj Interiors). :)

She showed me a few options, Pittsburgh Paint colors, that she gets in these huge swatches.

The colors shown here are: top left: Blue Willow, bottom left: Gray Stone, top right: Steel City, and bottom right: Babbling Brook.

Valerie liked the idea of the teal-ish colors to blend with the bookcases and bring some color and happy to the living room. I like the idea of happy, but I’m not sure if I love the idea of the teal living room. I love the color…I just don’t know how much of it I will love. :)

We narrowed it down to Gray Stone and Babbling Brook.

Besides how they’d look with the trim and the couch, I also wanted to see how they’d look with the bookcases and the blue color we have in our kitchen and bedroom, so we moved the swatches around the room.

I really love the lightness of my current creamy color, and I like that the Babbling Brook is also light and happy, but I think I feel more comfortable with the Gray Stone. (I think it looks a little darker in these pictures than it does in real life.) I like the contrast it brings to the trim and the bookshelves, and once I hang curtains and artwork, there really won’t be that much of it showing.

(Although, as I’m writing this post, I’m wondering about whether or not I should just keep my creamy color! (I’ll find the name for you, it’s a Benjamin Moore color.))

What about you? Do you have trouble with paint choices? Do you prefer neutrals over something more colorful?

Knit Awesomeness

Really, I’ve only knit about 10 inches in my life. I sometimes crochet, and I definitely sew, but I haven’t really knit.

This amazing map-of-the-United-States blanket makes me want to knit:

How cool would that be in a kid’s room? Or really any room?? A knit version of the United States!!! I am in love!!

But if I were to pick up knitting, maybe I should start cute, but simple, like this:

I’ll let you know if I ever start knitting.

Or maybe I just need to find a friend to make these for me…or a place to buy them. :)

Patterns  and images from Lion Brand.

Another 20x200 Deal

I found another Groupon-type deal for 20x200 artwork here.

I’m thinking of getting this piece of art, another one I’ve been admiring for a while now.

Encyclopedia 2 by Valerie Roybal

And maybe I can convince my mom to buy me its mate. ;)

Secret Language 3 by Valerie Roybal

Available at 20x200.com

Another DIY Lamp Idea!

Just a quickie today! This June weather in March is exciting, but it's throwing off my life. ;)

Here's another great and amazing DIY lamp idea, found via Pinterest.  I actually got some lamps at Goodwill that I'm hoping will work (with transformations, of course! I'll keep you updated.), so I might not be doing any of these DIY lamps (at least not right now) ;) but this one is so cool, I just had to share! You may have seen it already (she posted it last year!), but if you haven't, you're in for a treat!

This amazing blogger made this lamp:

from this lamp:

Isn't that incredible? She used Coke bottles! And spray paint and duct tape. Amazing.

Check it out at her blog!

More Tile Choices (again!)

(I hope you don’t mind being on this living room journey with me, watching/reading as I go through the decision making process…I do have some before and after posts of other things in the house to put together for you, but this is what I'm in the middle of right now, so it’s on my mind all the time!)

Well, apparently being "settled on a final tile decision" really means nothing, because of course I've changed my mind. Brandon says if you're reading my blog, these changes of mind will just help you get to know me, because apparently this is what I'm like.

So even though I was loving the octagon tile, I just keep going back to doing some kind of subway tile. Either the cute 1"x2" mosaic-type subway tile, or the slightly bigger 2"x4" subway tile.

Lowe's has white, 2"x4" white subway tile, in stock, for about $3 a square foot. Let me tell you, the price is right and the style is right.  I just feel like the subway tile is a look I won't get tired of and will be pretty versatile!

from Lowes

I know the picture’s kind of hard to see, being white on white. :) Here’s a great image of white subway tile with gray grout – in a kitchen, but you get the idea.

White subway tile with gray grout from here

So, we’d have to get and learn how to use a wet saw, which will be a fun adventure. But luckily, learning on inexpensive tile is less stressful than learning on pricey tile!

I’m also wondering if I want to just go for that Lowe’s subway tile, or if I want to take a trip out to the tile outlet to find something that looks like this:

Gray mosaic subway tile from Caitlin Creer Interiors

And, in decorating/fabric news, now that I’ve decided to keep that rug, the fabric and art choices I made here might not really work any more :) but I found this great light blue chevron fabric via Pinterest, and I feel like it’d be a great accent fabric, right?

from here

Yum, man I hope so! I know I just keep pulling things I love and throwing them onto this blog, and I know a lot of them are going to get nixed, but I hope you love them along with me anyway! :)

Things I Love Thursday: Presidential Artwork

So the title sounds funny and pretty nerdy, but I figured it was timely with President's Day coming up.  Remember when people used to have framed photos or paintings of the president in their houses? Do you think this really happened? I just feel like in old movies or TV shows, you'd see the unfinished Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington over the fireplace or large writing desk, or a photo of Abraham Lincoln in the dining room.

Whether it really happened or not, I want to bring that trend back. In my future gallery wall, I totally plan to have some representations of Father George and Honest Abe...with modern, pop-art interpretations like this:

"Honest Abe" Pop Art

Because while photos of Lincoln like this:

President Abraham Lincoln Portrait 1863

are amazing, iconic, and traditional, (and really, I might sneak this one in there somewhere) I am thinking it'd be totally awesome to adorn my walls with Lincoln portraits like this:

Neapolitan Abe

or this:

Lincoln Memorial Pop Art

And when we think of father of our country, I know we're all thinking of this:

Unfinished Portrait by Gilbert Stuart

or this:

Landsdowne Portrait by Gilbert Stuart

But the winner in my personal gallery is going to be this:

George Washington on a White Charger Horse folk art

and maybe this:

George Washington Book Print

So here, here! to some American history in the house and a tribute to our forefathers every time I walk down the hall.  Have I convinced you to incorporated the presidents into your home decor?

Happy President's Day!