bedroom, painting, Projects

Bookcase Bliss

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My beloved bed is already tall, and with my thick mattress and boxspring, it measures in around 33” from the floor. Although I have two end tables that I love and wish worked as nightstands, I quickly came to the conclusion that they looked like doll furniture next to my big girl bed. I searched for craigslist for a while to find something tall enough to meet the mattress height and wide enough to look reasonable in the space, but never found anything to my liking.
I’ve always liked bookshelves because they give space to display a combination of books and items that make a room look collected and personal. I also like the look of bookshelves creating a cove for a piece of furniture, making the furniture look like it was built for that space. While this look is better achieved with actual built-in, larger scale bookcases, I decided to try it with slightly smaller ones flanking my bed. This also gave me a good place to put my magazines and books, which I was lacking in my new room.
I bought two white bookshelves from Target for $19.99 each:
Target Bookcase
I’ve seen quite a few examples of bookcases with painted backgrounds, and I really like the contrast and depth that it adds. To make my cheapo composite bookshelves look more custom, I painted the backing of them gray using a color sample from Home Depot. Color samples are great for small painting projects – they are always eggshell and you can get any color you want for only about $3.
Painting the backing wasn’t as easy as I hoped it would be. The backing is just cardboard, but it has a glossy paper on the front that the paint did not want to take to. At first I tried to roll the paint color on, but it just pooled up and didn’t stick to the surface. So I tried priming it, which worked only marginally better. I determined that I couldn’t use a roller and instead spread the primer on with a foam brush. It took two coats of primer to completely cover the backing and create a surface that would take the paint.
I applied two coats of gray paint on each backing and had to touch up spots after it dried. I then let it dry overnight, since the cardboard had absorbed some moisture.
The next day I nailed the backing to each book shelf by laying the bookshelf flat and lining up the top and sides so that the gray didn’t show out on the top or sides. I put four nails along the top and bottom row: 2 on the corners and one right next to each seem of the backing (which was folded in the book). I spread three nails out along the sides between the corner nails. On one bookshelf, I threaded my clock radio cord between the shelf and backing so that I could place it on one of the bookshelves.
 
I still have some work to do when it comes to arranging the items on the bookcase, but here are a few tips I’ve come up with so far to help you organize your bookcase:
  • Try to alternate the side of the shelf that you put books and knick nacks on. For example, I put books on the left side of the bottom shelf, on the right side of the middle shelf, and the left side of the top shelf. 
  • Instead of standing your books upright, stack them and put a little accessory on top of them.
  • Play with the color of the books. I like to group like colors together when I can.
  • Use funky book ends to add interest to the space. I got the bronze horses from my grandma’s house, and I picked up that little owl from HomeGoods for $7.
  • Know that bookshelves, especially ones next to your bed, will like be a work in progress for a bit. It’s important to understand how you will use the space and what you want to be able to reach while you’re in bed. I’ll still working on the bookshelf to the left of my bed (top picture). You can see that it’s looking a little unbalanced with the magazines, books with kind of funny colors, and clock radio on a shelf.
The color is subtle, which is what I was going for. I’m very pleased with the result, especially knowing that I could potentially go with a more dramatic color if I choose. I also like having multiple shelves to place my items on, and a relatively clear surface to place my tv remote a glass of water before bed.
The materials I used for this project include:
·         2 Target Bookshelves, $19.99 each
·         2 mini paint trays (about $1 each)
·         Paint roller – had on hand
·         Foam brush – had on hand
·         Primer – had on hand
·         Gray Martha Stewart Sample Paint, $3

Total: about $45 for two nightstands

I don’t know if I’ll live with this solution forever, but it definitely works for me right now. It was one of the cheapest, most practical options for two matching nightstands, and I like that the bookshelves can look similar but aren’t identical like a nightstand would be.

Have you come up with an inexpensive option for nightstands or end tables at home?



Projects

From Bedroom Blues to Beautiful Blue Bedroom

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Well, I’ve managed to go a month without posting again. Although it may not look like it, I have actually been knocking out projects and doing plenty of other things. But for whatever reason, I’ve also had a hard time coming home and writing blog posts and posting pictures. Today I’ve finally found some motivation, so the next few posts will be about what I’ve been up to over the past few weeks home improvement-wise.
Remember my previous post that mentioned a certain plain white room? Well, I FINALLY painted it. Two coats. By myself.  And it’s the master bedroom, so it’s probably meant to be a two person job, right?
Here’s what the room looked like before:



Excuse the mess. I’d like to say that the clothes on the bed aren’t a regular thing, but that’s almost always what my bed looks like when I get home from work.



Like the paint samples on every wall in the room? For a little while I was paralyzed by indecision, trying to pick a color in the same family as my bedspread but not the same exact shade of blue-green. Let’s just say I’m still trying to figure out how to make the most of all my leftover color sample selection. Also, the paper over my bed is in the shape of a mirror I bought at Home Goods, and I was trying to see how the proportion of the mirror to the bed looked. More on that later.
I decided to paint the room Blue Bonnet by Benjamin Moore. I’ve used Benjamin Moore many times before, and even though it’s a little pricier, it covers really well and goes on easily, so I figured that the time I might save with it would be worth the price. BM Regal paints sell for $45 – $50 around here, and I really couldn’t spend that much money. I ended up buying the newer low-VOC Ben paint, which is on the cheaper side and a bit greener than the Regal paints. Rather than purchasing it from a paint store nearby, I ordered two gallons from myperfectcolor.com. Each gallon was $33, and I got free shipping since my order was greater than $50. Oh yeah, and since the place is located in New Jersey and I’m in Virginia, I didn’t have to pay tax. The price was good for Benjamin Moore paint, but the most impressive part was that I ordered the paint on 12:38 PM on a Tuesday, and it was on my front porch the next afternoon.

At first I intended to paint the woodwork in my room, and I started by priming one wall of it. Then I realized that I didn’t really need to prime, because I didn’t need to seal any stains or cover dark colors. So I just started putting color on the walls. It took two coats to cover the room and only one gallon of paint. Once I had finished the color, I was pretty pooped and made the executive decision that in this rental unit, painting the woodwork was not worth the time or energy. So I had to match the color the woodwork is currently painted and paint back the trim that I primed. This is the part where I say “Idiot” in my best Napoleon Dynamite voice. It took me longer than I wanted it to, but I finally finished the painting project.

Here’s the room:
No, my winter/Christmas decorations aren’t still up. As you can see from this snowflake pillow, this pic was taken a while ago.
Basically I love love love the color. It’s actually a more blue-green/aqua than it’s currently appearing on my screen.  The color is a lighter shade of the blue in my comforter and the shade of blue that makes me happiest.
I also LOVE the mirror, which I bought from Home Goods for $50 (an amount I consider a splurge for my wall art). I searched forever for some piece of art that I loved enough to have it hanging over my head while I sleep serenely in my princess throne/bed. But I just couldn’t find anything worthy. So I settled on a geometric reflective surface. I am quite happy with my new over the bed art…even if it’s breakable.
More progress updates to come!

Uncategorized

Giving Your Daytime Digs Some Style

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Hi friends!

Sorry for the month-long hiatus. I’ve been spending quite a bit of time in the office over the past few weeks and just haven’t been terribly motivated to do much else when I get home. I’ve also been drinking immature amounts of hot chocolate from my over sized mug with an identity crisis (are you sure I’m a mug? I might be a bowl) and trying to brave the arctic weather in DC.

Speaking of offices, it’s nice to add a few personal touches to your office. After all, you spend 8+ hours there, so you should enjoy the setting. The girls next door to me have a lovely display of paper snowflakes and a white board on which they can display their lovely handwriting, even if it’s just a to-do list. Another girl in the office has a Paris in a bag block set on her desk.

Last week I was looking at Martha Stewart paint chips at Home Depot and thinking about ways to use them for things other than deciding on a paint color. I grabbed a bunch of the green/blue/turquoise chips and a few grey ones, put them in my purse, and forgot that they were there until I got to work on Monday. After a particularly long day, I decided to put the paint samples up on my bulletin board to brighten my room and give myself something to do that involved prettiness and immediate gratification.

This is what I ended up with:

I actually had three Benjamin Moore paint samples on my bulletin board before while I was trying to decide what color to paint my room, so I cut each color out and mixed them with the rectangular Martha Stewart paint samples to a little more geometric interest. Fun and free, and a nice complement to my graphic West Elm monthly calendar.

This project made me temporarily obsessed with the all the other things I could do with paint samples. Make a cool notebook cover? DIY art? Think of the possibilities.

I’ll be back soon with details on some recent changes to my room that I’m pretty excited about.

Uncategorized

Welcome Back

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I realize it’s been a while since I posted anything here. I actually wrote something about plans for the New Year and the like, but I still don’t have the pictures for it so instead I’m updating with this measly post. Even though I told myself I wanted to post things here consistently, I haven’t so much been motivated to do so this week. Instead, I’ve spent a week reading blogs that take me on an exhausting and somewhat inspirational path through the internet, and listening to Mumford and Sons and Broken Bells and the new Decemberists Album on repeat. I do this combo reading/obsessively listening to certain music from time to time, but especially during the winter when I’m feeling especially existentialist and introspective. Oh yes, I’ve also been doing my grownup job, which is soon to involve travel to Atlanta and possibly Seattle (big smile!).
I have some projects planned for this weekend involving my room and the ugly color it is and paint that I ordered online. So hopefully I’ll have something to tell you about by Monday. Stay posted.

holiday, home decor

Easy Christmas Decorating Ideas: Ornament-Covered Tree

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I bought a cardboard cone from Michael’s in November with plans to make some kind of tree out of it. I determined late in the game that I wanted to make an ornament tree, and am slightly ashamed to say that I didn’t finish this process until Saturday. At least it’s done and sitting beautifully on my coffee table in time for Christmas.
After waiting too long to determine that I wanted to cover the cone in glass ball ornaments, I ended up going to multiple places looking for mini glass ball ornaments to make the tree. I ended up snagging some small ornaments from Michael’s, some from Target, and some from Merrifield Garden Center, a local nursery that has a beautiful Christmas shop in season. At first, I was just going to do red, silver, green, and white. After purchasing ornaments in these colors, I called an audible and decided to add some color to my tree. This process resulted in an ornament assortment of different colors and sizes.
First, I prepped the cone by painting it with silver acrylic paint, which was only about $1 from Michael’s. I applied the paint with a foam paint brush and let the paint dry overnight.
First, I removed the “crowns” of the ornaments, which are the little metal pieces at the top that hold the metal loop on the ornament. You can usually just pull these right off. Be a little careful because the ends of the metal loop are compressed into the ornament and will expand when you pull it out of the ornament. I only removed the crowns two or three ornaments at a time because I didn’t know how many ornaments I would be using for this project.
I used a glue gun to attach the ornaments to the cone. For the first row, I picked two different sizes and alternated them around the bottom of the cone. To attach the ornaments, I put glue around the surface that the crown was attached to and held it to the cardboard cone until the glue solidified enough to hold the ornament on.
On the second row, I tried to alternate sizes, but wasn’t quite able to stick to that pattern. I made an effort to place ornaments so that I created as few gaps in ornaments as possible, but that wasn’t always doable, so the tree did have some gaps. I kept going around the tree, attempting to vary size, color, and texture of ornaments close together. To make some ornaments closer together or fit better, I glue the side or the ornament directly to the cone, rather than using the end of the ornament. I also glued some smaller ornaments to each other rather than to the cardboard cone.
This process proved to be a lengthy one, and took the better part of an entire evening. I have to admit, I was a little discouraged when I was only part way through this process.
I kept plugging along, being mindful of which colors I was using most frequently and which ornaments I needed to conserve.  As I neared the top, I paid close attention to the way ornaments were fitting. Once I got to the top, I clustered ornaments to eliminate as many gaps as possible.
After covering the tree with ornaments, I used the same silver beads that I used in my tree-topper to cover large gaps between ornaments on the tree. This actually added another dimension to the tree.
To make this project, I used a ton of mini ornaments, which included about 34  larger ornaments and many more small ones. If you wanted the tree to have a more uniform look, you should choose two different sized ornaments and stick to them. I ended up using four different sizes altogether.

I’m quite happy with the festive finished product!

holiday, home decor

Last Minute Christmas Decorating Ideas: Cheap and Easy Wreaths

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Looking for a few last minute decorating ideas of before Christmas? I’ve seen a number of really cute wreaths this year made of all sorts of different materials.



Via Apartment Therapy



Via Design*Sponge

Via Design*Sponge

Via Apartment Therapy

While I would’ve loved to attempt some of these more complex wreaths, based on my limited time and budget, I had to go for two cheap and easy options. Below are two very easy examples of wreaths you can make to add some quick Christmas cheer to your humble abode.
Tinsel Wreath
I chose to make a tinsel wreath because I love the vintage look of tinsel garland, and I already had a bunch of tinsel garland on hand. If you don’t have any, it’s available super cheap at the dollar store.


Our large pile of tinsel garland that came from Roomie 1’s dad’s house

Making a tinsel wreath is incredibly simple. You can use pretty much any kind of smooth wreath form. I choose a wire one since it was only about $3.50 at Michael’s and I knew it would be easy to hang (even though I didn’t end up hanging it).

I wrapped the garland around the wreath form twice and then used floral wire to secure the end of the garland. Tinsel garland is pretty fragile, so it’s nearly impossible to secure the end by tying it. After the end was secure, I wrapped the garland tightly around the wreath, making sure not to leave any gaps. I used two pretty long pieces to cover the entire large wreath.

The beginning of my metallic creation.
I put the wreath on a washstand in our living room and leaned it against the wall. I like the way it adds a metallic element the room, and it helps vary the heights on the little Christmas toy vignette I created.

I made my washstand (that I picked up from a craigslist curb alert!) into my toy table.
I actually started collecting German smokers while working at the Christmas Attic.

Personally, I like the tinsel garland simple without any adornments. But if you wanted to jazz it up a bit, you could add things to it like ribbon, glass ball ornaments, or even lights.

Yarn Wreath
I’ve seen yarn wreaths everywhere this year, and really liked the texture and and winter sweater-like feeling of them. We needed something Christmassy for our kitchen, so I decided to pick up a straw wreath form and some yarn from Michael’s and try my hand at making one.
The yarn was on sale at Michael’s and only cost me about $2.50 per roll, and the wreath form was about $4. I used 1.5 rolls of red yarn for this project.
To make the wreath, I tied the yarn around the wreath, securing the knot on the back.

Straw wreath form with a couple rounds of yarn on it

 I then wrapped the yarn tightly around the wreath. Because the straw made the wreath an uneven texture, I didn’t worry about covering the entire wreath solidly on the first time around. The most difficult part of the process was looping the roll of yarn around the wreath so often, which was taking FOREVER. To expedite this process, I unrolled a portion of the yarn roll, and then wound it tightly around the rest of the yarn roll. Because the yarn was wound tightly in a circle on the roll, I was able to quickly roll the yarn tightly around the wreath and prevent the yarn from getting tangled.


After one layer of yarn, the wreath was almost covered. It had a few gaps because of the uneven surface of the straw wreath form. I went over it a second time to fill in the gaps.

 I went around the whole wreath twice with the yarn. The second time, I made sure every surface of the wreath form was covered. While I loved the examples of yarn wreaths that had felt flowers on them, I didn’t have any felt on hand, so instead I tied some leftover ball ornaments to the wreath with yarn. Once the ornaments were on, I took a piece of tinsel garland and wrapped it around the area where the ornaments were. I used a piece of yarn to secure the ends of the tinsel garland to the wreath.

To hang the wreath, I took a wide ribbon, cut it about a yard and ½ long, and used small nails to secure the ribbon above the bay window in our kitchen.

I hung the wreath in our kitchen window with ribbon leftover from the bow on my frontdoor wreath.
The ornaments I used were leftover from my outdoor garland.

Even though I would have loved to attempt some of the really cool wreaths that I’ve seen this year, the ones that I made were cheap and easy ways to make our house look a little more festive, which is exactly the kind of decorations I’m looking for when Christmas is less than a week away.

DC, Food

Cheese on Wheels

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I pretty much love all foods that involve melted cheese, so when I found out through my Urban Daddy email that there is now a food truck that sells gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches in DC and Arlington.

And you can track their location on twitter @bigcheesetruck! Is this real life? I wish this rolling piece of heaven would show up around 2 or 3 am on the weekend.

music

Let it Snow!

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It’s been over 5 years since I’ve attend a Fairfax County Public School, but I still get giddy when I see or hear messages like this one…

Yes, it’s snowing in NoVA! Naturally, the entire metro area has overreacted to the Nth degree. **Fingers crossed that I can still make my haircut at 5:30.**
But seriously, the snow is beautiful, and it’s actually the first one of the season. I haven’t done a song of the day in a while, I think this is the perfect occasion for one. Happy snow!

holiday, home decor

How to Make a Christmas Bow

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Using bows and ribbons in your home is one of the cheapest, easiest ways to add some Christmas to every room. You’ve probably seen bows in stores before, and you may have even noticed that Michael’s charges quite a bit for them. But, as I am about to show you, bows are actually quite easy to make yourself. And with all of the Christmas ribbon at Michael’s 60% off this week (at least in NoVA), now is a great time to add a little last minute cheer to your home and your presents.
Bow on my wreath
For this type of bow, you will need some wired ribbon. Wired ribbon is good because it lets you form the bow so that it keeps its shape. Home Goods and Michaels are great places to look for ribbon right now because most holiday ribbons come in longer rolls than the regular ribbon, and it’s pretty much all on sale right now.
First, cut two pieces of floral wire about 6 inches long and keep it nearby.
Once you settle on your ribbon, unroll a little over a yard (depending on how big of a bow you want). Leaving enough material for a tail if you want one, take the ribbon and fold it over, pinching it where you would like the center of your bow to be.



First loop

 Where your finger is pinching the ribbon, twist the ribbon so that the wrong side is showing.





Then, fold the ribbon over in the other direction, trying to make the loop about equal to the other side. I find it easier to eye-ball the length more accurately when the ribbon is flattened out.
Once you have folded the ribbon over, twist it in the center and continue the same process on the other side. Continue this process until you have the amount of loops you desire on both sides. I have been using 3 loops per side.
After you’ve made your loops, slip the tail from the most recent loop over and around the back so that the right side faces the same direction as the bow. Then, take a piece of floral wire and secure it around the middle of the bow. Wrap it around the back and secure the wire tightly.
Next, fluff the bow, pulling the loops out to the sides and giving them shape. This is kind of a trial and error process, so just play with the loops until  you’re happy with the look.
After you’ve fluffed the bow, cut a small piece of ribbon, about 3 inches long depending on the size of the bow. This piece will be for your center loop that hides the wire. You can you the same ribbon for this loop, or you can use another ribbon if you want to give the bow a two-tone look.
Make a small loop with this ribbon so that the ends overlap. Place the loop so that the open ends face vertically on the bow and the closed ends face the loops. Thread your second piece of wire through the center loop and secure it tightly around the back. Wrap the two pieces of wire for the bow and the center loop together a few times.
Continue to fluff the bow and mess with the tails until it’s the shape you’re looking for, and use the excess wire ends to attach the bow to your tree, the top of a picture frame, garland, or another creation.
Bows were a cheap way to bring Christmas into our kitchen.
One great thing about bows is that you can make them for all kinds of occasions — other holidays, weddings, baby showers, etc. Go pick up some inexpensive ribbon and master this yourself!