Project 365: Day 4 Home Decor!

 For Christmas, Daniel and I got some really exciting additions to our bedroom.

We've been doing without a dresser for the past 2 1/2 years, but did I spend $40 to get a used one on Craigslist? No, I'm too cheap. His mother is finally getting around to redoing her kids' old bedrooms and graciously gifted us this dresser that's been in the family since his father was a child.

A little elbow grease, 2 or 3 sanding belts*, and lots of layers of fancy paint have left us with quite a lovely piece to start off the master bedroom decor.

*Yikes, it was a pain to sand. We thought we could just take the finish on the top right off, but it turned out that power sanding melted a smooth, plastic-y finish onto the belt. Instead of borrowing some stripper from Daniel's brother, we just powered through a few belts.

To match, we got a beautiful cedar chest that was once Daniels great-grandmother's. Its finish had yellowed, but it still smelled delicious, and we needed a toy box. However, by the time we got it all painted and stained, we had fallen in love and couldn't let Gideon distress it any more past what we already added around the detailing. He's pretty rough on furniture... No doubt there's something about the sound it makes when he beats it.

So the foot of our bed get a crown jewel of a cedar chest, which was fabulous because the dresser doesn't quite hold all of our clothes.

Then there's this:

My Singer gave its all for this duvet cover

I slaved over this for hours and hours. I've seen the ruched trend going around and find myself oddly mesmerized, despite my utter dislike of following anyone, ever. Also, Daniel said he wouldn't mind a ruched bedspread, and it's the only duvet cover we both like that I can realistically make. Turns out he loves it! Hooray! (Note: be very careful if you ever decide to use a ruffler foot on your sewing machine. I broke two needles and really screwed up my timing learning that lesson... I may write about that one day when my baby gets back from being re-tuned.)

Floating Shelves--Done!

The floating shelves are done! We're trying to figure out what to do with the wall, now. I don't know what to do with decorative shelves since I have nothing to put on them.

But have no fear! I have a few things in mind that I'd like to try. We found a box of antique books in our attic when we cleaned it out (one of the few non-junk items) and I have some vases that might work. I'll be switching those items and more in until I find something that looks like it might actually belong.

In the meantime, here's a photoshopped version of what our room could look like in the future. We'll be working on it.

And for my next trick, I found a sign that I think would look very nice in my newly-painted beige laundry room.  I'll be making it while I try to figure out how to fix my sewing machine.

Source

Floating Shelves

Our living room needs some decor. It's beautiful, but plain. Since Daniel and I are new to home ownership, we don't know much about decorating. I decided to trust the Rule of Thirds for the long wall and knew I wanted floating shelves in my last third.

Scouring the internet brings up options from $20-$200. But here in Ruraltown, USA, the nearest IKEA is three hours away, and I want something a little better quality than the blue store's finest without spending a fortune. So the project got put off. Maybe when we have more in the budget.

Cue my discovery of Ana White, HomeMaker: she has actually built a house. With her husband. They built their house together. She knows how to build floating shelves! And she does it with super cheap cuts of wood! And my husband loves woodworking so he can teach me! I pretty much ran into the trifecta of project get-up-and-go. I went to the lumber store and had them cut all my pieces for me. What gentlemen! Then I got home, measured the cuts with Daniel, and we re-cut every piece. So much for saving time on the saws! Together, we sawed, glued, screwed, nailed, puttied, and sanded.

Gideon even got to help!

But he's easily distracted.

The fully assembled setup, ready to paint and install.

We'll screw the frames into the wall then slide our box-shaped covers right over them. I'm sanding and putting the final coat of paint on today, then Daniel will help me install them tonight. Pictures soon!

New Face!

We're in the process of slowly redoing our whole house, it feels like. Adding a shelf here and there, painting this wall and that; the work will probably never be done (at least not with the current home improvement budget!).

One of the projects I am really proud of is our front door. When we moved in, the door was a rusty brown color, complete with dents and scratches--complements of the years of life the door has seen.

 I contemplated replacing the whole shebang with a brand new door set, (hah!) but the price of a new entry door and window ensemble would about equal what we have spent on home improvements in the last year. My solution: paint it!

I love daring doors. I have always had a soft spot for glossy red and funky purple doors. My husband, though, will have none of that on his front door. The next best thing? Black, for sure. I told the husband, then forgot about it for awhile while we demolished the jungle that was our entire yard:

Then one day after the yard had been barren for a while, the itch got too much to bare. I had to get rid of that awful door color! So off to the paint store I went. While I was there, I called the husband at work to confirm: "Honey, you remember how I mentioned wanting to paint the front door black? Well I'm at the paint store. Did we want eggshell or semigloss?"

"Um, you want to paint the door? Black?" Whoops. Should've communicated better on that one. "...sure, I guess. Probably eggshell is best. It's an old door."

And so I gleefully told the paint man to give me a quart of his blackest black. After a morning spent sanding, (in the freezing cold! why didn't I get to this in late August or mid-Septemberish?) we carefully filled, sanded some more, then finally painted that old door.

Me, 7 or 8 months along with Gideon

The result is phenomenal!

Those windows will get a makeover someday.