Kitchen Chairs upgrade

We inherited some chairs awhile ago, and they were sturdier than our current ones at the time, so we considered it an upgrade.  There was only one problem : the fabric seats were not my ideal choice (not the worst thing in the world) however I hated the fact that they were also covered in plastic. It reminded me of a friend's house growing up - whose living room furniture had plastic on it. It just seemed weird to me. Plus they were the only blue thing in the room.

Anyways, once my daughter started eating at the table, and spilling at the table, I realized that maybe covering your chairs in plastic wasn't as bad as I first thought. Then I saw that ikea sells plastic coated fabric. With less than an hour of time and two small assistants, we had drastically transformed chairs!

Now I am one step closer to a kitchen that I don't hate.

I have been trying to decide what to do with the rest of the wooden table and chairs.
I plan to leave the table top wood, and paint the base. The only thing stopping me (other than two tiny assistants) is what colour, black? charcoal? red? And then do I paint the chairs to match?

Red table with black chairs? Black Table with red chairs? Red table with wooden chairs? Black table with wooden chairs? I really like the idea of red in there somewhere, I know it will be quite a bit of colour compared to what it is right now, but I imagine something will be painted black or charcoal - only because I know I have some paint in the basement.

- Lauren

Jewelry Storage

A few years ago I got a mug stand to use to hang my necklaces and bracelets from. This has worked okay, but I never really knew where to display it. There was never enough room in the bathroom, and I don't currently have a dresser. Also it seemed to be a mess so you had to remember what necklace you wanted, so I generally just wore the same ones all the time.

In my bedroom, there is a narrow section of wall in our bedroom between two closets which I have been thinking about how to use it for about 5 years, I had always kept my eye out for a narrow mirror, until I came up with the idea of using a shutter to hang my jewelry on.







Last week I found the perfect shutter from Timeless Materials in Waterloo. After a quick wipe with a damp rag, I hung it on the wall. I also put some screws in to position the shutters at a good angle so that I could hang hooks from.

I guess it should be no surprise that I wear similar colours to those that I decorate with.  I love the result and and I can easily see options as well as remember events that I wore certain ones to.

Now the only question is will my necklaces end up on the floor?

- Lauren

Laundry Room Before and After

The furnace room of our house is huge (almost 12 by 16 feet), so we decided to move our laundry into that space to allow for more livable space in the rest of the basement. The room started with furnace, water heater, water softener in an un-insulated room.

These before pics show the dryer moved approximately into place, and the water softener didn't move, and a new furnace replaced the old one. Otherwise everything else is pretty much changed/new. (note to self : take better 'before' pictures).

First picture: Looking into the room, furnace on the right and then the water heater (just made it into the pic) and then there is a door past there leading to the cold cellar. On the left there is the water softener, then exhaust going up the chimney and then the dryer.

Second pic is taken standing in front of the cold cellar door looking out of the room (you can see the water heater/furnace exhaust and the water softener in the corner.

So now what we did with the room

When we got the new furnace, we had the water heater moved next to the water softener (under the big water rust stain - I believe this was a result of a old damaged chimney liner, we have a new one so no more damage will continue). This also got rid of the exhaust pipe that went across the room which makes the room instantly feel MUCH bigger.

We used the furnace install as an opportunity to  put down a piece of vinyl flooring. Its cheap, washable, and has no seams to deal with for install. We choose a in store option from Home Depot, the pattern looks like tiles.  We might have been able to get something awesome if we special ordered it but we wanted to take it home with us right away and its fine. Sometimes less choice is better because then you can make a decision faster based on the two available options.

We framed and insulated the two exterior walls. We left the two interior concrete walls as is.  We choose not to finish the ceiling since its a utility room and then we still have access to plumbing/gas/etc.

This could still be done at a later date.

New plumbing was added for the laundry and relocated water heater. This allowed us to slowly start replacing some of the old steel water lines and replace them with copper. They were pretty corroded and we have been told that by replacing them we should be able to improve our water pressure (once the pipes aren't full of gunk).

New electrical was also added for the laundry, dryer and some regular outlets.

While we were doing the work in the laundry room, the rest of the partially finished basement was being demolished. The room had 1inch white styrofoam 'insulation' behind wood paneling. I took this opportunity to put some sweet wood panelling in the laundry room.

1) It was free. 

2) It prevented it from going to the dump. 

3) It was essentially already cut to size.

4) It was easier than drywall since we wouldn't have to tape/mud/sand. 

5) I was going to paint it.

6) Its a laundry room so it doesn't have to be a show room

Result - I love the painted panelling!

I have decided to paint the main part of the basement (currently under construction) a charcoal grey. So I painted the laundry room a nice light warm grey. The two colours are 'revere pewter' and 'kendall charcoal' from Benjamin Moore - and then colour matched and mixed at Home Depot.

The cold cellar door - was doctors office green, now charcoal grey. Love it.

The baseboards are wood, and not mdf, just since there is potential for flooding since its a basement and a laundry room. Once mdf gets wet its over. We bought primed finger joint pine and it seemed in the comparable price range although I can't remember the prices and might have just convinced myself. Buying primed was so much easier. Its pretty substantial baseboards but we are trying to match with the era of the house and the original woodwork on the main floor. (the new stuff is just 1 x 6 's with a quarter round along the floor but its pretty close).

Currently there is a square folding table with some boards on it. Still not totally sure where a table should go in the room. where it is or as a continuation to the sink. So thats still in process. I plan to build some table something with the wood - which matches the shelves on the wall.

We hung some shelves on the far wall. They were in the pile of stuff to potentially be thrown out and so I used them. They have a nice warmth to the stain and work perfectly. The brackets seemed kinda expensive for free shelves but probably still cheaper than buying the whole assembly. (I think they were $9 each).

The stuff on the shelves doesn't look too pretty, maybe I should have opted for closed storage, then again this is a utility room. I plan to get a few more boxes/baskets for organization and appearance.

Hung the ironing board - kinda looks like art. Not a whole lot of ironing gets done in our house but when it does, it will happen in here.

 We used our old dirty laundry sink. We thought about buying a new one but since the laundry room is for messy things like washing paint brushed and etching mirrors. There was no need for a shiny new one that we might be mad at ourselves once we make the first stain. I don't think I have ever soaked clothes in it - which I assume was a previous use. I just put something right in the washing machine if I am worried about a stain setting in.

You probably notice that there is no faucet on the laundry sink. Its not a priority yet, so nothing has been done. I don't want a basic utility one and the thought is to use the one from our current kitchen when we upgrade it. Yes I love re-using thing.

The window should be replaced in the near future, complete with window ledge and trim.

And of course my new etched mirror is hung.

So there is no door yet, we haven't made a final decision about what we will put there, re-use a door from the main floor? buy a new door? make our own barn style sliding door? 

There is still some finessing that needs to be done, but if I waited until it was perfect then you would probably never see it!

- Lauren

Mirror Makeover - DIY Laundry Room Art

In a combined effort to clear the basement of stuff as we renovate (an old mirror from a old medicine cabinet) and to add some finishing touches to my new laundry room (full blog reveal soon).

And with inspiration from here and here. I etched a sign into the mirror that otherwise would have probably headed to the garbage soon.

First I covered the mirror in painters tape, then wrote my stuff with a marker, and then used a razor blade to cut away the letters, leaving a stencil with the exposed mirror the part that I wanted to etch.

I bought some glass etch cream from Michaels (using a 40% off coupon of course). My stencil wasn't one of the listed types, so I just applied with an old paint brush and then washed it away.

I was worried that the acid would eat away at the tape, so I applied it as fast as I could and then immediately washed it away. It didn't seem to do much so I re-did the process (waiting alittle bit longer - although I didn't look at a watch at all so not sure how much time actually passed) and after the second application, I washed it and removed the tape.

The finished product isn't super crisp or even but it also makes it look kinda aged which I liked. Its fairly subtle but I am happy with the result.

Soon I will show it hanging in our new 'almost' finished laundry room.

-Lauren

DIY up-cycled headboard

Projects. It seems that a lot of projects get started in our house, and before you are finished - a new one is started. This often means that it takes along time to finish things due to excitement/focus/motivation.....

About 6 years ago I thought it would be cool to turn an old door into a headboard. I was living in an old house at the time and found a door in the attic. For awhile I had the door leaning behind my bed as I tried out the idea. Then I spent some evenings scraping the varnish from the door. This was done on my tiny little balcony, in half hour increments over the summer of 2006. I never quite finished sanding it down to the bare wood before I moved in May 2007. I then moved in December 2009 and again in February 2011.....each time the door/headboard moved with me and was stored in the garage.

In July, as I was trying to make sure everything was 'unpacked' and put away from our move a few months earlier, I decided enough was enough and that I would finish my headboard project.

I have spent many hours looking at various DIY woodworking blogs, and have grown to love ana-white.com and she has definitely been motivation for finishing this project. She makes fantastic furniture, and shares the plans on her website.

I don't have a 'before' picture, well I might but unsure where that would be 6 years later...... and to be honest, the project isn't completely finished, its just leaning behind the bed. I still need to attach it to the frame.

I chose the dimensions based on the size of the door, not the size of the bed. Now the question is - do I centre it with a little extra headboard on each side? or centre the bed on the vertical portion of insets, and have it off set as in the photo?


-Lauren