A few DIY blunders

I don't know about you, but whenever Joe and I have holidays together, it usually means tackling a home project or two while we have the time. Unfortunately, this holiday, our projects weren't completely successful. (Don't worry...there are some successes among the mistakes!)

Let me tell you about the first blunder. Although the colours of the house were mostly neutrals when we moved in, both Joe and I felt that we needed to freshen them up and make them more "us". I vowed in this house NOT to paint everything beige and grey. 

When it came to our living/dining room (the biggest room in the house, which was painted a yellowy-beige colour), my biggest challenge was to find a paint that matched the original, oak trim in the windows, and that wasn't one of those light neutrals (even though in my heart I knew that would probably be best).

The "before" colour

 

So, I spent a lot of time going over inspiration photos online and looking at paint samples before I decided to go with a light blue-green called "Amusement Park" by Beauti-tone. We had already decided to paint the trim on the doors and baseboards white and started with that. Then we started painting. It became clear almost immediately that the colour was NOT what I had envisioned. It was coming out a light, frosty blue which came across as quite cold... definitely not the warm look I was going for. But, we kept going in hopes that once the original dark yellowy-beige colour was covered it would look right. Well... it didn't! It still looks quite cold looking.

Somehow...this photo makes it look how I wanted it to look!

Which brings me to my second blunder. Although I did spend too much a lot of time choosing the colour for the living/dining room, what I didn't consider was the rest of the main floor, or how the blue-green would look next to them. Not only was the colour not at all what I had envisioned, but it looked even worse next to the hallway and kitchen. Oh man. Unfortunately I was in such a painting frenzy that I forgot to take photo evidence of the mis-matchedness (although you can see a little bit in the photo above. And I'm too lazy to go photograph the kitchen mismatch.)

I thought that maybe painting the trim in the hallway would brighten things up and at least make the blue a little bit better.

Hallway before

Hallway before

When we bought our home, I always envisioned painting the trimwork. I know... painting original, almost 100 year old trim would seem like a HUGE no-no to a lot of people. In fact, I heard so many strong opinions against painting it that I doubted myself. However, I love the look of white trim (and really love the look of big, old trim that is painted), so I decided "this is my house, I want to live here a long time...I'm gonna do what I want!" And... well, I am quite happy with how the trim looks painted. Don't worry, that wasn't one of the blunders. (And I think I'll do a how-to post on painting the trim soon).

Hallway after

Hallway after

We also decided to take out the large, oak wardrobe that we had since it made the entry feel so much smaller and darker. And it was becoming a catch-all. So, we moved it to the back playroom to see if we can make it work. I'll give more details about our plans in my next post.

Fortunately, painting the trim also helped the blue look better next to the hallway. So there, one little success. (Although I'm still thinking about repainting the blue... we'll see)

Now let me tell you about the last blunder. I had always been up in the air about whether or not to paint the window frames white in the living/dining room. Quite frankly, the two larger windows are in beautiful condition. I mean, really, even for someone who doesn't love the natural trim look, they are so nice.

You can kind of see the trim quality in this terrible photo.

However, the smaller, stained glass window's frame is in not-so-good shape. It is full of nail-holes and has a lot of random paint splotches, and is generally just bad looking. So, while we were putting wood-filler in the trimwork of the hallway, I told Joe to do the same with the small window in hopes that it would look a little less ratty.

Well, apparently once you put on the wood filler, you are supposed to paint or stain it to match the trim and it is basically impossible to wipe away the excess filler. Basically... the wood filler made a hot mess of the trim, and we may need to paint. I may try one more time to get the excess off before doing so, but it is a little frustrating. Although, maybe it solved the painting debate... paint it is! (Or is it?)
Stay tuned.

Basement bathroom makeover!

When we moved into our house, the basement bathroom was kind of the house's dirty little secret. It was in definite need of some help. The previous owners had done some patching in there and I didn't repaint. On top of that, it had an old claw-foot tub that had been painted a textural pink, the existing wall colour was a soft peach, and the vanity brought back memory of our previous kitchen with it's melamine/oak cabinets. Joe said it was maybe the ugliest bathroom in the history of the world. (But really...did he forget our old bathroom in our old place before we painted it??!)
 

The strangest thing of all might have been the window... or lack thereof. Instead of a window there was a piece of Styrofoam in front of a storm window. For some reason it glowed red. It reminded me of Amsterdam come nighttime. Definitely not the vibe I generally go for in my home.

I didn't think the bathroom was going to be anywhere near the top of my to-do list, but then we got the basement windows replaced and I felt like it wasn't an impossible task. Then, I was going through all of the paints we have (leftovers from previous projects, and paints left by the previous owner) and realized that we could easily improve the look of the bathroom for free. With paint. So I did.

I started by painting the tub with a shiny black that was leftover from a previous project. Then I painted the trim and ceiling with the white I used in our old bathrooms, and the walls with leftover gray from the upstairs bathroom. I also painted the oak trim on the vanity, which hugely improved it's look without needing to replace it quite yet.

I put up some art we had and some matching hand towels, and voilà! It actually looks decent. 

Of course, if I actually want it to be a nice washroom I would still need to replace the yellowed floors, the vanity and the old toilet, but for now it is just right!

2nd Annual Christmas Crafting Weekend

You might remember that last year, my Mum had my two sisters and I over for a Christmas Crafting weekend. Well, this year, she invited along her sister, Corinne, my two cousins, Kristen and Lisa, and my brother's girlfriend, Micaela. We had SUCH a blast! We each brought a craft to share with the group, and worked on them all weekend. It was a huge success, and I love all of the crafts that I got to bring home! 

Of course, we found most of our inspiration from Pinterest. For example, this was the craft I brought:

link

I love the yellow so much that it "inspired" me to do yellow as well.
Here are some of the other beautiful crafts I made! It was so much fun, and definitely got me in the Christmas spirit!

Cottagy Porch Décor

We spent our last week of summer here:

This is the lake at my mum and her partner, Rick's, cottage.
I love being at the cottage. It is so relaxing, and it is amazing living by the lake. Since summer holidays are over, I knew we'd be missing the cottage so I thought I might try to recreate the cottage feeling in the outdoor space at our house: The porch. While we were at the cottage, Joe and I kayaked to the island (on the right side of the photo) to go driftwood hunting. We came back with 3 great pieces. When we got home, one was a clear winner as it perfectly fit the space we had wanted to fill. It didn't even need anything to help it hang on the nail... it just worked! Best of all, we had been wanting something to hang there since we moved in, and this was free!

One problem with our porch, however, is our old wicker chairs. This might be the last season for these babies. To be fair, I have used them for 4 summers (mostly outdoors, uncovered) after scoring them for free off of Kijiji. And the chair pads were a thrifting purchase for a few bucks a piece. Needless to say, they are starting to look pretty sad, and aren't really too comfortable anymore.

So, back to my cottage inspiration. My mum bought these amazing faux-wicker chairs a few years ago at Winners for the covered porch at the cottage. Joe and I would LOVE a comfy style chair like that for our porch, especially considering we have spent most of our down time out there since we moved in. We love it! I think it might need to wait until next summer, though. That is, unless we find something great on clearance! 

Thrifted and DIY Art Work

One of the things that has been missing in our house is art on the walls. In my opinion, getting art up on your walls is one of the most challenging things in a home, but also one of the most important since it can make a room feel complete. Art is so personal... and for myself, as an artistic person, I would have trouble putting "big box" art on my walls. So, our house has had empty walls since moving in for the most part.

We have lucked out at thrift stores on a few occasions. For example, we found our large art piece in our sitting room at a local thrift store. It is totally my style, and an original.

Before we met, Joe found (and framed) the bike art that is in our kitchen.



More recently, I found a couple of matching pieces that I put in our guest bedroom. I think I might eventually paint the frames to make them a little more interesting.

We have found a bunch of other, small pieces that are around the house as well.  However, despite months (even years!) of looking, we weren't finding anything that would work in our room, or Henry's nursery.

So, I decided to go the DIY route.
About 7 years ago, I pulled a large, framed, ugly canvas art out of a pile of stuff my neighbour was taking to the dump. I had plans of reusing the canvas to make something for myself. Unfortunately (fortunately?) I forgot to take a before picture... but to give you an idea, it was a brown/orange/beige, swirly, 70's, failed attempt at abstract looking thing (70's DIY!). It kicked around for all of those years, mostly in my Mum's house. Finally, I got around to using it! I painted the back white and chose a few accent colours and painted strips with a large paintbrush. I don't love it, but it definitely adds colour and interest to our room! And ties everything together.

For Henry's room, I wanted some fun animal art. I am lucky to have some artistic ability, so I simply drew some animals by using Sharpie paint markers. I bought some patterned paper for the background and cut and paste the animals on. I *may* have gotten my inspiration for these from photos I found online, so they are in no way original. But, they definitely spruce up the nursery. I am now on the hunt for a big poster to hang over his crib in the orange/gray-brown/brown/yellow colour scheme I am going for in there. His room still needs a lot of work to get it where I want it!

Things are starting to really shape up around here and it feels great!

Good-bye Clown Bathroom!

As I have already mentioned, Joe and I got a lot done over March Break.

One of the projects that we tackled was the downstairs bathroom. This was definitely the project I was the least excited about doing, especially after painting the upstairs bathroom (which you can read all about here). Painting tile is very finicky, and this bathroom had enough tile to sink a ship!

For  those of you who haven't seen our lovely basement bathroom, it earned the nickname "clown bathroom". I think the pictures speak for themselves on that one:

Isn't it frightening?! I have definitely questioned how that bathroom ever came to be on multiple occasions.

After having so much success painting our upstairs bathroom, I decided that I would do the same for this one. I needed Joe's help though... I mean, there was even colourful tile on the ceiling! Come on!

So, after a couple of days of elbow grease and 4 coats of primer and paint, it is finished! And we are Soooo happy it is done. I'm not going to say it is now a dream bathroom, but it is definitely livable. The best part was that we were able to reuse the primer and paint that I used in the upstairs bathroom, so this transformation was free!

We decided to keep the red door, mostly because we were sick of painting. But, maybe one day that will change.

Since it was a free makeover, I think I will splurge on a carpet and maybe some new hand towels to spruce things up. I will show you if and when that happens! The best part of this whole thing is that now I can go into the basement without being afraid!

As of now, the only thing we haven't repainted in the entire house is the basement itself. It is the last remnant of barfy yellow paint. For now, I think I'll focus on adding more interest to the rest of the house since we really don't use the basement.

To end it off, I leave you with a glorious before and after shot! (Ignore the bad quality... I couldn't be bothered to fix it today. You get the idea!)

Kitchen update

Luckily for me, Joe is on March Break this week. That means we were easily able to finish the rest of the kitchen.

When we were given the estimate for refacing our cabinets from the guy who did it, he had put an extra $900 to paint the remaining surfaces. That put the estimate from $2100 (which included taking measurements, making cabinet and drawer fronts, painting them, installing and putting on hardware) up to $3000 (to do the painting on top of that). Since I am pretty comfortable painting, and on maternity leave income, we decided to do the rest of the painting ourselves, especially since the painting seemed a little expensive. I'm definitely glad! It took the two of us about 9 hours total (Me: 6 hours; Joe: 3 hours). And the finished product looks amazing! I was a little nervous doing the painting since there was no room for mess-ups, but we took our time and it worked really well. Plus, it saved us $100 per hour! Yes, please!

I am so excited to finally have my white shaker kitchen. I have been dreaming about it for a long time! Here are a few photos! We will probably add a window treatment of some kind to add a bit more colour. Otherwise, we are loving the way the granite and backsplash look now.

The only thing that is unfinished is the cabinet above the desk/ beside the fridge. Unfortunately they were measured wrong, so there is about 3/4 of an inch gap between the two cabinet doors. This is where we decided to add a large cabinet door to cover up the awkward shelving that was there before. Our cabinet guy said he should have it done in about a week. 

And here is a little before and after for your viewing pleasure!