Farmhouse Love Episode #15

I am a wee bit behind on my Farmhouse Love posts. Mainly that's due to several rooms not being 100% finished, and me not wanting to show them until they are perfect. Well, this house has a long road to go, and it is constantly evolving, so I just decided to post what I have and then when/if I make updates, I can share them then.

Our master bedroom is one of the last rooms I chose to paint because people don't see it like they do other rooms in the house. I have been itching to paint it since we moved in, but the same can be said about every other room in this house, so it had to wait for its turn.

Before I show you the rest of the after pictures, I'm going to show you what we started with.

We looked at this house on two separate occasions, a few weeks apart. The first time we came this is what the master bedroom looked like. The owners were obviously in the process of stripping the wallpaper. If I had to date this room, I would say late 80s, early 90s. What do you think?

When we came back the second time, it had fresh paint. 

What we didn't know is that they mostly painted over the wallpaper they weren't able to strip, and even covered some of it with drywall mud. It was a hot mess.

The master bedroom has two closets on opposite sides of the room. This one is mine.

This bay window is nice. On move in day an observant friend noted that this room likely used to be a garage. It makes sense because the floor is concrete and it steps down from the rest of the house. This window was probably where the garage door was.

Here is Peanut Head's closet, with these odd little Hobbit drawers underneath it. The drawers are deep, very heavy, and not equally spaced apart. They make me twitchy.

Therefore, I covered them with drywall.

Now we can scarcely tell they ever existed. 😊

I started painting the ceiling and walls last May, and once we had consistently nice weather,  I dropped the project like a hot potato.

I picked it up again in October, at Peanut Head's insistence. I had been pinning faux brick walls on Pinterest for the last year or more, and Peanut Head went along with my crazy plan. He usually does, even when he thinks I'm cray cray.

We started by putting up these 4' x 8' panels which we found at Lowe's for $35.98 each. We used four panels for this wall, and they were a gigantic pain in the rear end to put up. After reading various tutorials, we went with the suggestion to cut out the half bricks on the ends. It's not a super precise process, so there was a fair amount of cussing involved. Peanut Head has a potty mouth.

Once they were all cut to fit, we slapped them up with some Liquid Nails and drywall screws. Some of the screws were removed once the adhesive dried.

The next step was to come in with drywall mud and a drywall taping knife to apply a German Schmear. It took a few evenings, but not near as long as it took me to retexture all the walls from the bloodbath that removing the wallpaper was.

I will say I was happy to have that nasty green carpet as a drop cloth. I was not careful at all.

Once everything dried, I sealed it all with a coat of watered down white paint. You can use a clear coat, but I was worried it might yellow over time.

Also, I caulked the corners and where the paneling met the ceiling for a cleaner look.

After this wall was done, we ordered carpet. That was in November.

Throughout this past year working on this room, I was always working on something to go with my final vision. One of those things was to make a half dozen or so dog bed covers. The dog beds get stinky and dirty so fast that I wanted to have a quick way to change out clean covers, so I started making very simple covers using this 10-Minute Pillow Cover tutorial. The only change I made was to add an opening for the handle of the dog bed for easier moving.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I've been a pillow cover making fool this past year. After my first cover I was hooked because it's an easy way to change your pillows without having to store a bunch of pillows. Of course we still have more pillows in the house than Peanut Head would like. What is it about men and pillows? I love my pillows.

In the making of so many dog bed covers I decided that I really like fleece for the covers. It's super easy to work with and it still looks nice after washing.

Plus, it's soft like my babies.

This one isn't fleece, but I fell in love with the pattern and the color is the exact shade of yellow that I wanted for my accent color in this room.

I also refinished our dressers and nightstands. This particular dresser was a hand me down, and although I don't love the way it looks, the drawers open and close like butter. It's hard to find good quality dressers with drawers that open and close smoothly.

I painted it with some cabinet paint and put some drawer pulls on it and it's a completely different dresser.

I've started folding all my clothes with the Marie Condo method and I will never go back. It's so easy to find what I'm looking for, and my drawers are never messy. I still think Marie Condo is a little whackadoodle, the way she talks to inanimate objects, but she nailed this folding method.

When Peanut Head goes out of town, or Stinkerbell goes to one of her various Civil Air Patrol camps, I sneak into their drawers and Marie Condo fold everything. They don't appreciate it, but it calms me.

I don't have a before picture, but I painted this dresser and the hardware, distressed it, and added some trim and decorative accents. I've had this dresser since I was in high school. It even survived a house fire back in 1984. It used to have a mirror, but that didn't survive the fire. I've been looking for a mirror for it ever since and I finally found one at a consignment shop.

Isn't it beautiful? It's larger than the dresser itself, and it probably weighs more too, but it's perfect. I didn't change anything about the mirror. I fell in love with it and I painted the dresser to match the mirror.

The previous owners left this shelf unit in my closet when they moved, but it needed a little TLC. Even though it's basically particle board with a laminate coating, it took regular latex paint just fine. A couple coats of paint and some contact paper and I was pretty happy with the result.

This area for my jewelry isn't finished yet. I want to make an earring holder and I haven't gotten around to it yet.

After the carpet was installed, it took awhile for Peanut Head to start on the trim. Neither one of us was in a hurry as there is always something to be done around here. He even made my closet door look like a little barn door.

We've had these mission style nightstands since the late 90s, and they needed a little refreshing.

I painted them and added new knobs. Each nightstand has nine knobs, so I just went with a cheap contractor's pack of knobs and they look just fine.

This is Peanut Head's closet and it still needs a major overhaul, but he ran out of winter days to work on it. That is not a problem. Ain't no one ever complained of running out of winter in Idaho. He'll get to it next year.

He did make this little hook board to hang his farm pants on instead of laying the nasty, dirty things on the window seat all the time.

It took me awhile to get things hung on the walls. I think that's one of the hardest decisions to make in a room because it takes some playing around with and holes.

Here's our new and improved window seat. You know I bought some pillows for it and made some new covers for them, don't you?

I also ordered cushions from Patio Lane and I love them. They're made with Sunbrella fabric so they won't fade and they have zippers! Now I can take the covers off and wash them. That makes me happy.

The folks at Patio Lane were super nice to work with and they called me when they had questions and to let me know when they shipped. I wasn't paid to say any of that either.

The buffalo check bedding came from Bed, Bath, & Beyond and the grey quilt came from Pottery Barn before it was on sale. I actually got it for my birthday over a year ago, and I stored it in my closet until we had the new carpet installed. Originally I had them switched so the buffalo check quilt was folded at the foot of the bed, but the grey quilt is slippery because the fabric is velvety. We'd be sleeping at night and the buffalo check quilt would just slide right off the bed like it was catching a wave. Not fun in winter.

I made the bed skirt using another Pinterest tutorial, and yes, I made some more pillow covers. Peanut Head complains when he has to take them off the bed at night, but we're not super dependable about making our bed every day, so he doesn't complain that much.

I still need to post about our home gym and our living room which are also mostly finished, so look out for those soon.

Farmhouse Love Episode 13: Sewing & Craft Room

Like most of my Farmhouse Love episodes, this post is long overdue. I'm over the late post guilt though. Ain't nobody got time for that. I'm just happy to have this room functional so I can use it for my ongoing projects.

Like always, let's start with some before pictures.

This is what the room looked like when we moved in. It's a long, narrow room, but it's really quite perfect for my crafty needs. 

The work surfaces and storage units were left behind. Thank you very much.

The former owner of this house used this as as a sewing room, as indicated by the themed curtain and painted drawers. Once upon a time, I would have loved this particular decor, except that I like color on my walls. Too many years spent as a renter have caused me to crave color on the walls.

So I scrubbed everything down and got to work. I went around and around about what color to paint my space, but finally I decided on pink. It makes me happy.

It really could have ended up being just about any color because I love all the colors. Color inspires me.  

My pegboard got a new coat of paint too.

After scouring Pinterest for thread storage ideas, I smacked myself in the head because I had the perfect storage solution right in front of me all along.

I love having my sewing thread on my pegboard, and I wish I would have done it a long time ago. It's so accessible now, and easy to put away. Which means I'll actually put it away.

This is the Making Memories unit that I tweaked way back when. That little letter board above it is a reminder message for my pink hating family. They do not like my pink room, and I don't care. It's mine. 😊

The four bins I have on the top shelf are for my current projects. They are full up to the tippy top. You might laugh, but my new rule for myself is that if I don't have room for the supplies for a new project in one of those bins, then I can't have a new project. 😟 It's for the best.

My dirty little secret is that I have a couple moving boxes underneath the work space which are also stuffed to the gills. It's the thought that counts. Regardless, it's good to have goals.

I've had this chair for at least twenty years. I painted it and added the stencil to coordinate with my new space.

I also painted and stenciled the storage unit and swapped out the hardware with these nifty cup drawer pulls.

I do have a a little problem with this unit, cute as it is. Before I painted it, the inside reeked of mouse droppings. I scrubbed it, and painted it with multiple coats of stain-blocking primer and multiple coats of paint.

Still it reeks. I put air fresheners inside several of the drawers but still, the drawers are stinky. I don't know what else to do besides drag it outside and light it on fire. That seems like such a terrible waste though.

If you have any ideas for me to try, please share.

I'm happy to report that these drawers are not stinky though.

This is my scrapbooking paper stash. I no longer paper scrapbook. I am 100% digital now. This stash does come in handy when the girls have school project boards to do though.

These shelves hold all my Cricut supplies, stamping supplies, and other miscellaneous things. The labels help me to find things when I'm maniacally crafting.

The other end of my room has turned into food storage and paper supplies overflow. It's okay. I'm not bitter about it. Really.

I made these little curtains for the window. They stay open most all of the time. Otherwise the laundry room, which is right next to this room, is as dark as a cave.

Right outside this window is a spooky shed which we haven't used. It's a dark, creepy place where I imagine a serial killer might like to bury the body parts of his victims. 

Sorry. I read a fair amount of Stephen King.

Happy thoughts only. This is my happy place.

Farmhouse Love Episode 12: Family Room

It might appear that I actually have my ducks in a row with two posts in two weeks, but that is definitely not the case. It just so happens that I completed both my kitchen/dining room and my family room over the summer, and I wanted to take the pictures and get them posted so I could cross them off my summer list.

Lame, I know.

Before I show more after pictures, let's revisit the before pictures. These were taken right after we got the keys to our house, and this particular picture was taken from the dining room.

This is just a straight on view. My biggest complaint about this room is that it is too narrow, and there are too many doors so it's basically a high traffic area without adequate room to travel and have furniture at the same time.

Yes. It's basically a very wide hallway.

We need a family room though, and nothing can be done about it, so we just plunked our furniture down and we're living with it.

I didn't hate the fireplace brick, but it didn't really go with my vision for the room. I spent a lot of hours staring at this brick and trying to decide what I wanted to do with it.

The wood stove gets a lot of use in the winter, and we have really enjoyed having it.

This area is outdated, but there's not a lot that can be done about it right now. Eventually we'd like to move the door directly to the left over and put a sliding barn door here. That's down the road though, in a major reno project which we do not yet have the funds for.

Story of our lives. It's called reality.

In the meantime, we'll make use of this space as best we can. The first thing we did is to recycle the television which the former owners so kindly left for us. It cost us $25 to unload it at Best Buy, and it was worth every penny just to see it go. And that only took us two years to do.

Now we can start with the after pictures. As I mentioned before, paint goes a long way.

I painted all the interior doors in the house pretty early on. I was craving something besides off white, and painting the doors helped me live with the rest of the house when I didn't have time to paint.

This is a picture of Rey, the Mustang we've been lucky enough to board for the past eighteen months. Zoë took some amazing pictures of her last winter, and I've been wanting to get a print made with this picture as soon as I saw it. I made this canvas at Canvas on the Cheap. It was easy to make and it was delivered to me quickly. The quality is good, and I would definitely do it again.

Sadly, Rey's owners moved to Boise and she is going to be leaving us very soon. We are going to miss her so much. She brings so much sass to our little herd. One day she even chased a coyote off our property! I love her sweet little heart.

The only reason this family room got painted this summer is because we bought a new wood stove. It's kind of different, isn't it? I like it because I don't have to get down on the ground to load it up. Getting down on the ground isn't so much the problem, it's the getting up off the ground that I don't like.

Anyway, since we were going to have a new stove delivered, I had to paint the ceiling and walls around it, and since I was doing that, I'd better figure out what I was going to do about the multi-colored brick. I had been pinning white washed fireplaces for over a year, so I just went for it.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

And once I painted that little corner, it was like my green light to paint the rest of the family room and it was on.

That spot where the television used to sit is what I am now calling my wood hole. I think it's going to be the next sought after feature for homeowners. I'm going to stuff it full of firewood, and then Peanut Head won't have to traipse back and forth to the garage for firewood all winter long.

Won't that be nice for him?

I really had no business doing any work inside the house over the summer since we have so much work outside that needs to be done. As you can see, that didn't stop me.

I carried my blue from the dining room onto the opposite wall in the family room. It makes me happy.

More doors! Can you even believe that? There is basically only one way to arrange the furniture in this room, and you're lookin' at it. If you see another one, please tell me, because I could use some help.

We probably shouldn't even have an ottoman in here on account of the fact that there's no room to walk, but we like to put our feet up.

I must tell you about these shelves.

We desperately needed an up high place to put two of our surround sound speakers, so originally I bought two cute little farmhouse picture ledges at Fred Meyer's. That was an extreme fail though, because they were very cheaply made, and I ended up having to return them.

So after we put the holes in the walls and I had to fill them, Peanut Head started grilling me about what it was exactly that I wanted, and then he showed me this piece of wood he drug in from the field.

Isn't it beautiful? Okay, maybe not yet, but can you see its potential?

I hosed it off, lightly sanded it, and then stained it. I didn't want to go too crazy with the sanding because I wanted it to retain it's original character, but minus the dirt and bugs. I'm all over farmhouse decor, but not the dirty kind. 😷

Originally I envisioned more of a barn wood grey, but there was something about the wood that compelled me to stain it. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out.

And that completes our family room. Next up is my sewing and craft room. It's 95% finished. I just need to make some curtains, clean the cat vomit stain off the carpet, and then finally take some pictures. With any luck I'll have three posts in three weeks. Look at me go!

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