Oh boy, never did I think that I would love curtains like I love the boy’s room curtains.
First…you already know that the room was painted with the lower 33% a darker blue and then the upper third white. So the curtains by default needed to be more white. I don’t know why I thought that but I did. I guess I didn’t want the whole space to be crazy dark.
And then I found it. The perfect fabric for my boy’s big boy room. It’s Lacefield Designs Zoe Navy fabric and I instantly was completely obsessed. It’s normally $40 a yard and I saw some at my local discount fabric store. I FREAKED THE HECK OUT. Like seriously made a scene and was throwing fabric this way and that just to get to it. Think fat girl in a donut factory….except pregnant girl in a fabric store. Since the discount fabric store only has remnants, I took the giant wad of it to the measure line and prayed that there was ten yards.
Nine and a half. SOLD TO THE GIRL CRYING ON THE FLOOR. (because that is what happens when you believe with your whole heart that you can make four panels out of nine & a half yards…you cry….in public….as your children pretend they don’t know you.)
The best part? The discount fabric store sells all remnants at $3 a yard. So my $400 dream fabric window coverings cost me a whopping $30. Seriously. I am not kidding. Don’t kill me out of jealousy. My newborn needs to eat and my boobs won’t work without me. IT WAS CRAZY. Best day ever.
So this picture is with my cell phone….all these crappy ones are….and you can see how well it ties in with the new wall color and the bed and the bedding.
I did the lazy way out when it came to doing the panels. I actually used the $10 panels that were already there as my lining. They were from Ikea and I had already sewn the little hooks in the top so I didn’t want to redo them. I simply laid the new fabric out and put the panel on the back and marked/pinned where everything needed to go.
This is a confusing picture because I had the liner on top of two pieces of fabric….but you can see where I folded the fabric in and pinned it in place. I did that with both sides before ironing and then sewing the sides. Then I just sewed the tops together and hung them up.
I seriously need a new machine though. This one is the cheapest one ever and I can’t adjust anything anymore without it eating my thread. Seriously…the tension doesn’t even work and I don’t wanna pay $100 for a ‘check up’ when I could buy a new machine for that much. Do you guys have any recommendations for an inexpensive but decent machine? I need to know.
After it was all said and done, I hung up those bad boys and I LOVE THEM WITH MY WHOLE HEART. I didn’t have the guts to hem them so I puddled them on the ground and I gotta say…I like the puddles.
So that is where we are at now….knock curtains off the list. Next up…those costume boxes I promised! Can’t wait!
We had the baby! Our little Maxwell is doing awesome and we all are so hard in love with him it’s kinda crazy. I honestly did not expect to go into labor on my own and was counting on this past week to prepare for his arrival (hence no posts were ready!). We still have some small tasks to do for him to get fully settled in but thankfully it’s not my first rodeo and I have plenty of boy stuff The funniest part of his early (can I say one week late is early?!) appearance is that we are still getting used to his name. We actually decided to go into the hospital with two name options and he came out with neither one. I’ll share more on that later as well as a whole bunch of other pictures and I really wanna knock out his birth story fast this time…so be on the look out for that in the coming weeks.
Until then, I really am so excited to continue sharing the big boy’s room makeover. It was one of my biggest goals to finish this space before Max arrived and I love how it ultimately turned out. If you remember, this was the space before…
Some of you may be thinking “WHY THE HECK?!”….and you might be right. Why the heck would we go through the effort to redo a perfectly good room when we have so many other spaces that need addressing? I mean…their sink nook is still PINK and has cracked tile. Well….it’s simple really. This room is now Will and Weston’s room. And I wanted to make sure that both boys understood that this room was their shared space. One of the best ways to give a space a different meaning to a five year old (because let’s be honest, Will was the one that we really wanted to make understand) is to make it DIFFERENT. We didn’t want Will to feel like it was his room that Weston slept in….it was both their rooms. It was equally both boy’s. It may be silly but to us, this is the best way to get them to understand.
Another question might be “Why are you making them share?”. Well…we feel like the kids could benefit from sharing. I shared with my sister growing up and look back at that as a learning experience. In our home, we have plenty of space inside and outside and we feel like it’s not a big deal to share a room which is basically just a sleep space. Also, with only three bedrooms upstairs besides the master, and four kids now….Bower’s gotta share. It’s simple math. This is going to stay their room for a very VERY long time. Dear Will & Weston…love you, get comfortable
So one of my favorite things previously about the room was this burlap wall. It added so much texture but ultimately I knew that I would have to remove it when we repainted. I am in the process of trying to narrow down all the paint colors in the house so that they keep with our “house color scheme” and that meant that this room (painted Martha Stewart’s Sisal in the photo above) would get a fresh coat of paint and the burlap would say goodbye.
I put together this photoshop pic a long time ago when we repainted the beds…I still was a huge fan of the 3/4 wall look so I told Jeremy that I wanted to redo the paint but use this as a fun wall treatment. Thankfully Jeremy didn’t hate it. That happens and then I have to pull out my “I’m pregnant and crying” card. Just kidding….that never happens….kinda.
The burlap was pretty technical when it came to uninstalling it.
Yeah. I literally had to use brain power to rip it off the wall…with BOTH HANDS. I used needle nose pliers to get the staples out.
The holes weren’t that bad actually. I used a little drywall filler to fill each one and then we sanded till smooth.
I like the joint compound that is pink in the can and then turns white when it is dried. It’s the best way to not waste time.
Then we whipped out the white paint and painted the upper third of the walls. It only took us one can of paint to do the entire room.
I use eggshell finish on all the walls in the house. It’s not as cheap as flat paint but it cleans up better.
In this case, I just went with untinted brightest white paint (Glidden brand since they were having a sale). This helps me in the long run because I won’t forget the color for touch ups.
LJ really wanted to help.
The story behind this photo is that he is like a ninja going up the stairs. He is seriously the quietest kid when he sneaks upstairs and it is always to get into trouble. We need a baby gate BAD. Jeremy had called me downstairs to help him address a diaper situation with Weston….and we heard him….this was pre-support-belt for me so I was slow as a snail….I yelled “JEREMY! LJ IS ON THE STAIRS! THE DOOR IS OPEN TO THE PAINT!” and Jeremy SPRINTS. It was like code red, def con one….and sure enough, as Jeremy reaches the boys doorway he sees LJ reaching into the paint can. The thing you can’t see is the other sock is at the bottom of the can. I found that gem later. Thank goodness for drop cloths.
After the paint was dry, Jeremy went around the room and marked 26″ from the bottom of the crown molding with a little pencil mark.
He did it every three feet or so. This helped us when we went to put up the tape.
Since this was freshly painted surfaces, we used sensitive painters tape on the top and regular painters tape every where else.
The sensitive tape doesn’t stick as well….but it also doesn’t pull off the fresh paint either. Fresh paint might be dry to the touch but it’s not fully cured so that means it can come off.
I made the line extra sharp by doing a little pre coating. Basically you paint the edge of the painters tape with the previous color (in this case white) so that the new coat (blue) will have no chance to bleed through. Most painters tape is so advanced that this isn’t needed but honestly, I feel like this isn’t extra work and it absolutely ensures no touchups. #worthit
Also…don’t ask how I got paint in the armpit of my shirt.
After I went around the room with the white, it was time for the blue. I used the same color as in the laundry room….Martha Stewarts Kerry Blue Terrier.
I cut in first….I knew that if I tuckered out, I could count on Jeremy to do a good job rolling so I just did this task first.
I love this color. It’s kinda like a denim color in a way….blue but not in your face and not too crazy saturated….it’s kinda like the perfect pair of jeans….goes with anything.
Speaking of going with things….it really goes well with the fan. We did the makeover with gray stripes and they even have this blue undertone that matches the walls.
So after the walls were done with two coats, it was time to peel off that tape and start putting the room back together.
And that is where I leave you. Isn’t it amazing how a little paint can make a room feel so different?!
Before, Will asked me if I was going to paint the walls red (his current favorite color). I told him that Weston’s giant “W” was going to come in here and it was already red and he seemed satisfied with that answer. Crisis averted! And then after we painted it blue, he told me that blue was good and that he was going to “love it forever”. (the picture below is crazy and shows the rug as having bright blue stripes but they are actually dark navy. I don’t know how that happened.)
Next up is the curtains and a quick furniture rundown for the room (we had to tweak one piece and it’s so cute!). After that…adding headboards to the beds, costume boxes, art, and finishing touches! Then the final reveal!
Warning you now: there are a LOT of photos in this post!
On Monday, I shared some “before” and “progress” photos of turning my cramped one-car garage into an organized workshop. I have a bunch of plans for different sections in this space, but two of the items already crossed off the list are the DIY lumber rack on the right side, and my brand new pegboard storage wall on the left:
But let’s go over some backstory for why I chose a narrow pegboard wall in the first place: I’d love to trick out every inch of floor space with what I want to use this garage for (building, painting, etc.), but this is also not my forever home. So when it comes to home improvements in general, I also want to keep in mind that this home will need to sell to a new owner someday… who might not want to lose the ability to actually house a car in here.
Even though the garage is long enough to have a small nook in the back near the water heater, I have less than 10 feet in total width, which means anything I install on the sides has to either be very narrow or movable (like my DIY work table on wheels). If I were to install anything fixed along the wall that was too wide (like cabinets), I might have to rip it back out again before putting the house up for sale. And while there could be the argument that I should customize the house to my needs, I don’t want to create that kind of work for myself when I know I could be moving out in just a few years.
I’ve been searching for narrow organization plans for a while now, but haven’t had a lot of luck until I stumbled onto this amazingly simple idea from The Creativity Exchange. I tweaked the design plans slightly for my space so that it only required the use of 8-foot boards for the entire wall… and without needing to make a single cut.
What you need:
1 – 4′ x 8′ pre-primed white pegboard
5 – 1″ x 6″ x 8′ pine boards
6 – 1″ x 2″ x 8′ furring strips
Total cost: $62.94!
The entire structure is supported by a series of 1×2 furring strips. For those that aren’t familiar with the term, “furring strips” are simply inexpensive 1×2 boards that are usually sold in a separate area from project boards at the home improvement store (in almost every store I’ve ever been to, it’s the next aisle over and toward the back). Where nicer pine boards of the same dimensions may cost a few dollars apiece, an 8-foot 1×2 furring strip is considerably cheaper (only 98 cents). I usually have to look through the entire pile just to find boards that are straight enough for my project, but the savings is totally worth the effort. And in the end, you can’t even see them in the finished look.
In these plans, there are two usable shelves that support various building supplies (like spray bottles, spray cans, and caulk tubes) and paint cans underneath, and one additional shelf up top for tools and hardware cases I use less often.
To determine spacing, I simply measured the height of the tallest items and made sure they fit (so two gallons or three quarts of paint high on the floor, then caulk tube height for the shelf).
In truth, I actually got started on this project a couple of weeks ago when the garage still looked like this (which, thankfully, is not at all the case anymore!):
After the furring strips were screwed into studs, I then added 1×6 boards on top so that the furring strips supported the weight. The sides are also 1×6 boards screwed and nailed into place as well (screw them into the horizontal 1×6’s and they’ll stay perfectly secure). Cyndy did a great job in her tutorial for explaining how she created the original plans, so you’ll need to check those out first and then read the modifications I made below:
Install the first furring strip that will support the first shelf under the pegboard (screw into studs). In my garage, this came out to around 30 inches from the floor (there was another reason for this height as well, but I’ll reveal that at a future date when the project is finished).
Install a 1×6 board on top of the furring strip.
Install two 1×6 boards vertically on both sides with screws (like an H). Check for level, but do not secure the top… this will allow for adjustment when you add the top shelf and pegboard.
Install furring strips in a 4′ by 8′ rectangular grid with two strips evenly spaced toward the middle (see pic above) to support the pegboard. Try to screw into studs whenever possible (your tool-laden wall would probably qualify for America’s Funniest Home Videos if it all fell right out of the drywall… and slice off a toe).
Install another furring strip toward the bottom, about 12 inches down from the first one you put on the wall (about the height of a caulk tube + a couple inches of space). This will create the support for the lower shelf.
Add a 1×6 on the top for the top shelf, and a 1×6 to the bottom furring strip support for the lower shelf.
Screw the pegboard into the furring strip 4×8 grid (screwing through the holes makes them virtually disappear).
Secure the sides with screws and a nail gun.
Done!
Prime, then paint. I used leftover paint from the office (a custom white paint match and Hale Navy by Benjamin Moore). For fun, I taped off the division between the two colors at an angle on each side. I thought it looked a little nicer than a straight line between the top and bottom.
And then, the fun part: loading ‘er up with all of the tools I’ve misplaced and found again during the garage cleanup project. Cans of paint sit on the floor, but everything else goes on a shelf or on the pegboard with hooks.
Unlike the inspiration pegboard wall, I kept the top shelf without a lip so that I could stack various tool cases and boxes out of the way. Since the height of this shelf is above the usual height of a car, there’s really no interference if I were to try to still park a car in here.
As for the other organizational items, I recently found these gray bins as part of a stackable container at Harbor Freight ($9.99), but broke them up for additional storage along the shelf along the pegboard.
The bins have a small lip along the back that hooks into a plastic rail mount, so once the rail was screwed in, the bins easily hook into place and don’t slide around.
It isn’t as organized as I’d like to have it eventually (which is also why the bins are currently label-less), but it was great to have while I cleaned up the garage and could put miscellaneous screws, bits, nails, spacers, and other tiny items in an accessible spot.
I’ve been figuring out placement as I go, but one idea I wanted to share are my eye protection hooks: I’ve placed one at either end of the wall, both because I have a lot of eyewear (I have picked up at least 2 free ones each year from going to the Haven conference) and because this way, I can easily reach a pair whether I’m heading out the garage door or heading back into the house. It’s come in handy a lot already!
The pegboard shelves also helped me to quickly convert the back nook to a useful space for gardening supplies and spray paint — snowball-effect organization at its finest.
I haven’t yet installed anything on the sides, but I plan to add some larger hooks later to hang other items like extension cords and my grandfather’s old wooden level (you can spy it in a few of these photos).
Now, I have even less to trip over in the UDH workshop, can find what I need with ease, and have a place to put things when I’m done. There are still more projects yet to be finished in the garage, but thanks to these last few weeks of effort, I feel like the entire house has room to breathe again.
The funniest part of his early (can I say one week late is early?!) appearance is that we are still getting used to his name. We actually decided to go into the hospital with two name options and he came out with neither one. I’ll share more on that later as well as a whole bunch of other pictures and I really wanna knock out his birth story fast this time…so be on the look out for that in the coming weeks.
