by Wendy Scheel | Dec 6, 2016 | DIY
I don’t know if I have ever told you this, but we don’t have a basement. I know, not earth-shattering news, but when I show people our house they seem to be waiting to see the basement. And then when I tell them that we don’t have one, they always look surprised.
I was surprised too when we first looked at the house, but when you realize how close we actually are to the water, it makes sense.
Because of the lack of a basement, what we do have is in-floor heat, even in the garage! And it is wonderful, a little pricey to run, but wonderful.
The floor heat in the garage is set at 44 degrees, it’s far from tropical but just enough to take the bitter cold out. The best part is, along with a the circular space heater I bought from Costco, I can work out there in the winter.
Today it was a bitter 23 degrees outside with snow flurries and a strong wind, but inside it was time to get to work on this.
When I last shared the makeover of this dresser, I had put putty in the center crack and in the old drawer pull holes. Today, I sanded off the extra putty and stained the drawer front.
I was not happy how it turned out.
The holes look great, but the center did not stain to my liking. But no worries, I have already figured out a way to fix it. I’ll leave it for the final reveal.
The first round of sanding on the drawers was with a 60 grit sandpaper. 60 is very rough and makes for quick removal of old polyurethane and stain. The next round was with 220 grit which has very little grit and leaves the wood as smooth as a baby’s bottom. 🙂
The holes on these three drawers will not be filled with wood putty because the new pulls I bought will work nicely in the existing holes.
I choose to use the same Valspar paint on the dresser that I used on this bench I made a couple of months ago.
When I laid the dresser on it’s back to start painting, I noticed these holes on the bottom of each leg.
To say I was overjoyed would be an understatement!
When Wade and I were coming back from Chicago, we stopped at a humongous antique shop that was previously the town’s high school. After walking through all of the rooms, I found these casters tucked in a corner display in what was the gymnasium.
At the time, I had no idea what I was going to do with them, but I knew they needed to come home with me.
So today, when I saw the “teeth marks” on these legs, that could only mean that at one time, this dresser had been on casters. I dug up my casters and was amazed that they fit perfectly.
I am going to pretend that they are originally from this dresser and have now found each other again.
So where we are now, is the dresser needs a second coat of paint, the 3 other drawer fronts need stain, everything needs a coat of polyurethane and the new drawer pulls need to be attached.
The big reveal will be on Thursday.
~Wendy
by Wendy Scheel | Nov 29, 2016 | DIY
Blogging around here has been frustrating lately.
Let me explain.
Last week, Wade and I went to Chicago to visit his parents for the holidays. Knowing that we would be out-of-town, I thought I was being so smart and organized by writing blogs days ahead of time.
Plan foiled.
WordPress is the website that I use to write and post my blogs. I like to be somewhat consistent with the timing of them, but as you may have noticed that hasn’t happened recently.
WordPress hasn’t been posting my blogs when I have scheduled them. Ugh.
So, blah, blah, blah, please be patient with me for the next couple of weeks as we get all of the kinks worked out.
On to more productive things.
This afternoon I got to take my frustrations out on that dresser I had started earlier.
As you remember there is lots of work to be done. I got those scratches on the top all sanded out, which took a lot of energy but I think it looks great (not to toot my own horn).
The old handles have been removed and the holes are now filled with putty because the new handles I ordered are a different size which calls for new drilled holes.
The cool thing about this project is that it is a work-in-progress, kind of like my blog currently.
I want the top drawer to not look like it has two separate drawers to it. I want it to be one solid drawer all of the way across like the other three drawers. So, I put putty in that fake crack.
The wood putty I used is for staining. Some wood putty is for staining and some is for painting. I want to stain and paint this piece, but the drawer fronts will be stained.
Now as I wait for the putty to dry, I can work on removing the other handles and sanding the other drawer fronts. I have to sand the putty after it is all dry too, but don’t worry you won’t have to read about that. (Reading about sanding is boring.) 🙂
This dresser could turn out great, just like my inspiration (check it out here), or it could turn out not so great and I have will start all over.
Cross your fingers that this wood putty is amazing!
~Wendy
by Wendy Scheel | Nov 28, 2016 | DIY
I saw an idea somewhere on how to make a wooden three-dimensional Christmas Tree.
Can I remember where?
No.
Can I find it on Pinterest?
No.
So I decided to wing it and make one myself from memory.
If I can remember how to make something from briefly looking at some pictures, it must be easy to do.
Stick with me on this. There is twist at the end of the story that will make you happy you stopped by today.
Here is what my Christmas tree looks like:
The first thing I did was make a template of the tree. I once again used a cutting board I had as an outline and traced it onto a ¼ inch piece of plywood. You will need to trace two trees.
Then, easy peasy, I cut out the trees using my scroll saw.
I needed a slot on each tree—-one at the top down to the middle and one from the bottom up to the middle. The slot needed to be the same width as the width of the wood, in my case ¼ inch.
Next came a quick sanding session on the edges, and now it can be finished with paint and decorations. I wanted my trees to remain natural this year. Maybe next year they will be fancy.
Here’s the twist that I was talking about. I was in Target the other day and found this in the dollar section:
As simple as this project is, Target has made it even easier. Tear off the outside wrapping and stick the tree pieces together. No mess and all of the glory. No one will ever know that you didn’t break out your scroll and table saws to make these.
Well, Santa will know, but take a chance that he can keep a secret.
~Wendy
P.S. These tree sets were $3.00 each. Yes, I put the decimal in the right place. $3.00. 🙂
by Wendy Scheel | Nov 16, 2016 | DIY
If I say I am going to do something, I do it. So, I mentioned on Monday that I would show you the numbers (how much it cost) to make Jack’s bedroom into a guest bedroom, let’s be honest, it makes for a pretty boring post. And besides, depending upon where you live, the cost would be completely different. So for those of you that love numbers like I do, take a look below. For those of you who don’t skip past the numbers and onto some Christmas shiplap cheer previews.
Let me break this down as if you lived in my neck of the woods:
Wall Paint: $28
Trim Paint: $14
Bedspread: $35
Curtain Fabric: $40
Headboard: $18
Lamp: $20
Total: $155
Considering I had the bed, the loveseat, the dresser, the cornice, the rug and all of the littles on top of the dresser, that’s not too bad.
Moving on to more cheery things. 🙂
One of the next projects I will be working on is decorating the house for Christmas. Spencer is coming next week to take pictures, so I need to get my poop in a group and get started on that.
Wade asked me if I was going to decorate every room. I thought about that for a second and decided that my main decorating focus will be in the family room and kitchen, but I want to have a little holiday something in every room.
After sewing up several pillow cover orders this morning, I made this.
Some of you might be thinking…that looks familiar. And you are correct. This dresser use to be in the family room and the shiplap looked like this:
Sanding the shiplap not only served the purpose of removing the previous saying, but it gave the boards a great distressed look.
Knowing that drawing skills are not my strong suit, I traced a Christmas Tree cutting board I had onto the shiplap. From there I traced the pencil marks with a silver paint pen, and filled in the tree with several small strokes.
I had Dana from Decals N Decor (https://www.etsy.com/shop/decalsNdecor) make me a “It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year” stencil that was originally used for stenciling onto pillow covers. It worked great for this project too.
After tracing the saying onto the wood, I filled in the letters with a white paint pen.
Now the new bedroom has a little bit of holiday cheer for our guests.
So there you have it. A little numbers review and a little holiday shiplap cheer for all!
~Wendy
by Wendy Scheel | Nov 14, 2016 | DIY
Just because I have had Jack’s stinky boy bedroom completely decorated in my mind for over 18 years, doesn’t mean that I was pushing him out of the nest.
EEEERRRRRKKKK (screeching car tires)
Okay, that’s not entirely true. I could not wait to get my hands on that room. The change from a 144 square-feet of stinky clothes, food wrappers and crusted over cereal bowls to a soft, calming, fresh-smelling place for guests to lay their head couldn’t happen soon enough.
Let’s review where we started.
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Updating a guest bedroom from mossy green to gray and white
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I have received several compliments about my ability to decorate, and the question that people always ask is, “How did you know how to do that?” My response is, “Visions come to me in a dream, then just like a great song writer wakes up in the morning and writes down the lyrics to a song, I go and decorate.”
Bahahahah. That is a huge stretch on the truth. 🙂
How I decorate is very, very simple. I know what I like. I know it when I see it in a store or magazine or online. Then I put those things together.
Done. Decorated.
And that is exactly how the guest bedroom came together. Let me show you.
First let’s talk about the trim. I love white trim. If it was up to me, I would repaint all of the woodwork in our house white. But since Wade lives here too, and did not want white trim, we compromised. Now, the guest bedroom is the only room in the house that has white woodwork. Best of both woodwork worlds.
The next item was to change the wall color. Painting over the mossy green not only softened the room, but I swear it added 24 square feet of real estate.
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Making a curvy headboard from a piece of paneling
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After the biggest changes and longest part of the makeover were done, I could finally start on the fun part.
The windows needed a face lift. There was, and still is, a venetian blind on the window but it needed to be more of a focal point for the room.
I painted a wooden cornice that I brought from our previous house and made a pair of curtains from fabric I bought at IKEA.
We had replaced the mattress and box spring, but the bed itself was a little bit short in the headboard department. I shared with you how I made a headboard from a piece of paneling, but on the day that I was putting the bedroom together, I didn’t like the curves of the board so I flipped it upside down. Now the square headboard, matches the square cornice, matches the square pillows on the couch. A perfect square trifecta.
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Making a curvy headboard from a piece of paneling
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Making a square headboard from a piece of paneling
Since the pattern of the curtains was strong, I did not want the pattern of the bed spread to fight for attention. I bought this spread from Target.
The final decorating steps were to add “the littles” as I like to call them. You know, they’re the little things that make your house a home. I added a little lamp, some candles, a picture, some bed pillows and a wrought iron piece behind the loveseat.
Now, if you are here today to see the before and after pictures, thanks for reading through my chitting-chatting. Here is what you have been waiting for:
One before picture from each corner of the room beside one after picture from that same corner.
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Updating a guest bedroom from mossy green to gray and white
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Updating a guest bedroom from mossy green to gray and white
And a couple of detail shots. What do you think?
If you are interested in the numbers part of the makeover, I’ll share that break down with you on Wednesday.
~Wendy
P.S. Jack, if you are reading this post, I love you. The fact that I wanted to makeover your room had nothing to do with you leaving the nest, but everything to do with my passion for decorating. 🙂
by Wendy Scheel | Nov 10, 2016 | DIY
Here’s where we are at on the guest bedroom makeover list:
Select wall and trim colors
Buy supplies
Prep walls
Sand trim
Paint trim
Paint walls
Paint closet doors
Paint back of bedroom door
Paint window cornice
Make curtains
Buy bedspread
Make a headboard
Rearrange furniture
It just so happens that I had a super productive day and crossed three of the things off that list. I bought a bedspread at Target, painted the window cornice from black to white and made curtains between drying coats of paint.
BAM!!
Picking the bedspread was quick and easy and painting the wood cornice was therapeutic. So let’s talk about making curtains with grommets. I chose this fabric from IKEA.
This linen looking cotton fabric was only $7.99 per yard. Seriously, $7.99 per yard. I needed 5 yards which calculates to roughly $40.00 for a pair of floor length custom-made curtains.
That makes me smile. (Don’t be thinking that I am going to post a picture of me smiling. I am one who enjoys being behind the camera, not in front of it.) 🙂
Let me show you how easy these curtains are to make. If you can sew a straight line or if you have an iron and a roll of Stitch Witchery Fusible Bonding Tape, you can make a pair of grommet curtains.
The window in the guest bedroom is 64” wide from the outside of the trim. The length I needed was a minimum of 80” long.
The width of my fabric was 60” wide. Knowing that I wanted a little bit of fabric between each grommet, I called it a day and did not trim the width. I did however sew a ½” seam on each side and a 2” hem on the bottom to create finished edges.
From here, I ironed a ½” hem at what will be the top of the curtain just to hide the unfinished edge, and then folded that over again another 2 ½ inches. This is where the grommets will be placed.
You can find these grommets online, Wal-Mart or various fabric stores. They cost about $8-$10 for a set of 8 grommets.
After making your 2 ½” upper hem, evenly space the grommets across the width of this area. There is a template that comes with the grommets. Simply replace the template where you had your grommets and trace.
Cut out the center circle.
Grommets come in two different pieces and snap together. No tools are needed. After completing these simple steps, you are done.
Easy as that.
I am hanging the curtain from a spring rod which is placed inside the white-painted cornice. There are a lot of great YouTube videos on how to make a wooden cornice. My nephew Tyler made two of these cornices for me years ago, as in probably 5-10 years ago. (Tyler is the brother of Spencer my photographer and media expert for the blog. Yet another talented family member.)
What do you think about the curtains?
Now the fun part begins. Putting everything back together. 🙂
~Wendy
P.S. I’ll have the full before and after reveal of the guest bedroom on Monday. It looks beautiful, if I do say so myself.
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