Farmhouse Ceiling - removing ceiling tiles

Last week I talked about the studio, but I am jumping over to another project that happened last weekend as well. If you follow me on Instagram, you already know we did a little exploratory demo in our living room.

The ceilings in the living area were clearly several inches lower then in the rest of the house and I assumed that the tiles were glued to the old plaster, so I wasn't thinking we would be touching them anytime soon.

BUT....Curiosity got the best of me ( a trait I am sure many DIYers share with me) and I just had to know what was up there.

It started with just one tile, which I soon discovered was stapled to 1x4 wood boards and they were very easy to pull down...

I could see the old plaster ceiling up above and it looked in decent shape, so we kept pulling tiles down. (my nephew was happy to help!)

This was completely impromptu so we didn't even bother moving furniture or rugs.

As we progressed, we realized that the ceilings would not be salvageable. It was pretty clear that when its time to remove the wood strips we are going to lose our plaster as well. Which isn't necessarily the end of the world because I have some ideas for this room anyways, but it does put a hold on more demo until we can determine what the insulation is sitting on (aka is there decking in the attic or is it just sitting on the plaster?) Either way, its going to be a mess so not the project for a snowy day.

This means we are living with this...

Its not pretty folks. Who wants to come over and climb up in our attic?


***Update***
My almost bro-in-law was kind enough to climb up and scope things out for us last night. It looks like the insulation IS sitting on the plaster. So that means it will all come down when we remove the plaster. He also discovered the original exerior of the house is still up there as well...siding and all. So  opening the ceilings just got a bit more complicated (not that is wasn'tt already). We knew the main living room was an addition in the 50's but weren't sure exactly how they had done it. It also explains all cracks in the plaster on the walls and on the ceiling. Fun fun.

Averie Lane Farmhouse : Studio Makeover Part 1

We are kicking off the New Year with a tiny project in the basement...the studio!

If we are being technical, its the "temporary studio" makeover. We have plans to build an actual big studio eventually, but for now it is a small bedroom in the basement. Even though it is small, it is leaps and bounds better than my old studio, which was just the kitchen table!

You may remember this room from the Farmhouse Before Tour....

Not exactly a bright and welcoming space to spend 40+ hours a week is it? 

Since we have a bit of a break between shows I decided to give it a makeover to not only brighten it up, but make it a lot more functional.

First up, paint! I decided to stick with the same color as in our Master Bedroom: BM Simply White. I intend to use it throughout the house so it was a no brainer. 

I used a brush to fill all the grooves and then rolled the flat parts. It took 3 coats and could've probably used at least one more, but I was kind of over painting so I just left it. 

Once the walls were painted I realized the ceiling and the door looked dingy, so they each got a coat of paint too.

Hopefully I can get my lighting right for the final photos, because the color of the door is a beautiful earthy blue green. (you may remember I used it on my laundry room cabinets at our last house!) Its pretty similar to the color Emily Henderson just chose for her new kitchen. Maybe she reads my blog? haha! Not. 

The paint is done and I'll leave you with this teaser of my future farmhouse style desk! Its going to be amazing!!! 

 

DIY Winter Wreath - Pinspiration Market Blog

I thought I would pop in today to share some fun news!

I am now a contributor to the NEW PinspirationMarket.com Blog! My friend Linda, the creator of The Great Junk Hunt and Junk Salvation is starting new market designed to bring makers together in a unique shopping experience. These markets will allow you to shop the latest Pinterest trends all in one place without the work!

For those of you who still like a good project, I'll be writing about simple DIY and home decor projects that you can do yourselves! My first post is up now and I would love for you to pop over to learn how to make your own DIY holiday wreath! Its the perfect wreath to leave up the rest of winter!

DIY Winter Rope Wreath - Pinspiration Market Blog

Rustic Wheelbarrow with interchangeable signs #DIHworkshop Virtual Party

*This Post is sponsored by The Home Depot #DIHWorkshop

Hello everyone! I'm so excited to share my version of the rustic wheelbarrow with you today! If you are visiting from one of the other blogs in the tour, welcome to Averie Lane!

If you read last week's post, then you know that I'm usually NOT the builder around here. I'm the one who dreams up lots up fabulous ideas and then send my husband off to tackle them (it usually requires bribes...like a cigar or two!), so it was quite a shock to me that he expected ME to build this wheelbarrow...something about it being a do-it-HERSELF workshop...I don't know!? 

But, guess what? I did build it!

Just to refresh, we were asked to take this basic wheelbarrow concept and customize it. 

To be honest, I had several ideas right away that were crazy ambitious just for the sake of trying to over customize the wheelbarrow, but I soon realized that this project should represent me, this blog and my main side hustle.... hand painted signs. 

Obviously, if I was going to paint a sign, just one wasn't going to cut it. 

I totally needed a sign for each season, right? 

This meant I needed an easy way of switching the signs out. The solution ended up being super simple, didn't require any additional tools or hardware (other than a bit of glue ) and utilized scraps from the original build!

Here's what I did....

The first thing I did was cut four 8x10" signs from 1/2 in plywood. (*tip: If you want to create something similar, you can buy small project sheets of plywood at The Home Depot and have them cut to size right in the store) Next, I stacked all 4 pieces of wood together and clamped them to one side of the crate I'd be using on my wheelbarrow. I made sure to position them exactly where I wanted them to hang.

Once clamped, I used a 1/2 drill bit to drill two holes, one through each corner of my stacked boards, making sure to drill through the crate as well. Once drilled, I removed the signs (*tip: mark which way is up on the signs if you eyeball drilling the holes like I did because the signs will only fit on one way) Next I cut two 1 1/2" dowels from the scrap material and glued them into the holes drilled in the crate.

After the glue set I slid my signs back over the pegs to test for fit. I ended up widening the holes just a bit by running the drill back thru the signs a few times. This allowed them to slide on and off easily, yet keep them snug enough to withstand the windy days we get around here.

After everything was working perfectly I went ahead and painted my wheelbarrow with white exterior paint and then sanded it heavily. The exposed wood looked too new for my liking so I watered down some gray paint and did a wash over the whole wheelbarrow. Wherever there was exposed wood it soaked up the gray paint and it immediately looked nice and old. Perfect for our old farmhouse!

Well, are you ready for lots of pretty pictures now? I hope so, because I took a lot since I created 4 different signs!

The first sign I made was for Averie Lane Farmhouse. We just bought our 1930's fixer upper farmhouse and I felt like it really needed a sign! Everything may be a hot mess around here, but gosh darnit, we can at least have a pretty sign!

The Farmhouse sign pretty much works year round, so I could've stopped there (seriously, that sign makes me really happy!), but it is fall, so I wanted a fall version too. I ended up creating two fall options because I couldn't decide between them.

First, Be Grateful....I love how the black background really pops off the white wheelbarrow. It may look like chalk, but since its paint, it will withstand the elements.

(this is my most favorite of my styled photos!!)

The other fall sign is a quote from Anne of Green Gables, "I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers." Every girl with an October birthday totally needs this sign (me!)

Last, I created a Christmas sign, because obviously...

This one was a chore to style because #1 its still basically summer here in southern Idaho and #2 I couldn't find any of my Christmas stuff thanks to that whole just moved thing. Thankfully I had a box of vintage ornaments in my show stash!

So there we have it! A rustic wheelbarrow with interchangeable sings! What do you think? Do you have a favorite? This was so fun for me, because I rarely show off my sign making skills here on the blog and I got to work with The Home Depot (its our fav...like we actually went on a date to HD the other night...!!) Plus, it was my first time getting to utilize our barn for a photo shoot! 

If you are interested in learning more about the workshops The Home Depot offers at all of their locations ( Workshops include Do-ItYourself (DIY), Do-It-Herself (DIH) and Kids where you can learn how to build décor projects, how to make easy home repairs and how to operate tools through demonstrations and step-by-step instructions. ) visit http://workshops.homedepot.com  and don't forget to register to build your own rustic wheelbarrow by clicking HERE! (seriously, if I can build this so can you!)

Now head over to these other blogs to see how they customized their rustic wheelbarrows!

NewlyWoodwards

Fix This Build That

Keeping It Cozy

The Chronicles of Home

House of Wood

Remodelando La Casa

Pneumatic Addict

The Home I Have Made

Chatfield Court

Homemade By Carmona

My Love 2 Create

Place of My Taste

DIY Huntress

UnCookie Cutter

Sawdust 2 Stitches

Cozy Little House

Love of Home

Duke Manor Farm

Field Treasure Design

Tinsel and Wheat

That’s My Letter

Build Basic

Addicted 2 DIY

Build Craft Love

Averie Lane

*I acknowledge that The Home Depot is partnering with me to participate in this Workshops Program. As a part of the Program, I am receiving compensation in the form of products and services, for the purpose of promoting TheHome Depot. All expressed opinions and experiences are my own words. 

The Home Depot Do-it-Herself Workshop + Virtual Party

*This Post is sponsored by The Home Depot #DIHWorkshop

If you have followed us here at Averie Lane for very long you'll know that we love to DIY ALL. THE. THINGS. so it shouldn't be a surprise that I'd be all over the opportunity to work with The Home Depot and their Do-it-Herself Workshops to build my customized version of a Rustic Wheelbarrow! 

Did you catch that "herself" part? Yea...I was all geared to pass this project off to my husband who does 90% of the grunt work around here, but then he spied that part of the title and was all like "guess this one is on you, babe. I'll grab a beer and watch this freak show happen!" (I'm not even kidding and he really did!)

Even though I had to figure out how to build this on my own, you don't have too! Did you know The Home Depot offers Workshops at all of their locations for do-it-yourselfers of all ages and experience levels? There are three types of Workshops offered – Do-ItYourself (DIY), Do-It-Herself (DIH) and Kids (my kids love these and if ever we don't have time to do one in the store we always grab a project to bring home with us!)  In the workshop you can learn how to build décor projects, how to make easy home repairs and how to operate tools through demonstrations and step-by-step instructions. Basically its like a real live DIY blog post or you tube video which means you can ask all the questions you need to right there as you build! Brilliant I tell you! 

Soooooo...you'll have to come back on Monday 9/12 for the DIH Workshop Virtual Party to see how my customized version of the project along with that of several other talented bloggers turned out! I'm can't wait!!

If you are interested in learning more about the workshops please visit http://workshops.homedepot.com to learn more and don't forget to register to build your own rustic wheelbarrow by clicking HERE! (seriously, if I can build this so can you!)

*I acknowledge that The Home Depot is partnering with me to participate in this Workshops Program. As a part of the Program, I am receiving compensation in the form of products and services, for the purpose of promoting TheHome Depot. All expressed opinions and experiences are my own words. 

Restoring Old Floors - Averie Lane Farmhouse

Hey Everyone!

I thought I would pop in for a short update about the farmhouse before starting on another big painting session...(oh hey, we will be in Kansas Ciry, MO for Vintage Whites Market THIS WEEKEND! yay!)

If you have been following on Instagram you might've seen that we decided to tackle the floors before moving into the farmhouse. We had a couple weeks before we needed to be out of the other house so it seemed like good timing.

I have to laugh now, because not so much! We severely underestimated what removing old flooring and restoring hardwood floors would entail! Justin got all the carpet out easy peasy, but under the tile we found another layer of tile and some other goodies like a LIVE plug in (gah!!) So. not. fun.

(btw...we assumed the black layer and tile contained 

asbestos so we took precautions to contain it safely.)

Luckily the second layer of tile was only under one 10x10 ft section of floor, but it set us back several days in our floor overhaul. You can see in the picture below that under the tile was also a patched in section of floor.

Once all the tile was safely removed, we rented all the sanding equipment from our local Home Depot. Our floors had been primed over by the previous owners so we needed to sand off the primer and level the floors. Again, we underestimated how long this would take us. We spent a day and half sanding and only accomplished the first round of sanding. We didn't even touch the corners of the rooms that will all need sanded and scraped by hand. We both knew there was no way these floors would get done before our looming moving deadline so we aborted the mission and decided we could live on them unfinished for awhile.

A fun time-lapse of Justin using the edger (which holy moly is a beast to run!)



Hey, look pretty floors!

I kinda love how the fir and oak meet up with each other. It was very common to put the fancy wood in the main living area and the less expensive wood in the private areas.

I'm so glad we decided to stop the sanding process and move in. Sure the floors are a bit rough and there is still dust everywhere (SO MUCH DUST!), but its actually turning out to be a smart move. The floor finish I really want to do would not have happened in our time frame so we were planning on using a poly finish (which is NOT what I wanted at all) instead. I just received some samples of lye and oil to play with and will be tackling each room on its own whenever we have a break between shows. I think the combination will help marry the two types of flooring together and also keep things light and bright in the house.

Here's a short video I shot for Instagram stories that shows how the floors look and the lay of the land before we moved our crap in.



What do you think? What would you do if these were your floors?

Also, if you happen to be in Kansas City this weekend, I would love to meet you at the market. My girl crush Ree Drummond will be there Friday night too!! So fun!!

Floral Dresser Before & After | Tones for Tots Little Piggy

 Well, hello there!

Its been awhile hasn't it? I knew going into the spring show season I wouldn't have much time to blog, but I didn't realize just how crazy we were to try and do 6 shows in 3 months during my third trimester (and while my husband works a regular full time job!)! My signage was way more popular than I could've hoped for, so I did tons of painting on the off weeks between shows just to keep up with demand.

Anyways, during that time I was sent the new line of Fusion Mineral Paint to test out. Its called Tones for Tots and is formulated to be 100% safe to use around your little kiddos! It also comes in the prettiest shades of nursery friendly colors.

When I saw the new line of colors, I knew immediately what I wanted to use it on and exactly what color I wanted to use.

This dresser has been hanging out in our closet for a few years. We used it for storing baby clothes, but his stuff has since been moved to his new room and I didn't really want to use the dresser as in anywhere in the house since it doesn't really "go" with our other decor. The thing is though, its not a dresser I'm ever going to get rid of. It just happens to be part of a nursery set that my mother-in-law bought when my husband was born. Basically a 1980's family heirloom.

Good thing I have a little girl in need of a dresser, right!?

So I picked out the color Little Piggy and gave the dresser 3 coats of paint (after a cleaning and a light sanding). Even though I used a crappy brush the paint went on beautiful! I think it would've covered in less coats had I not started with such a dark dresser.

At this point, I could've been done. This paint finishes beautiful and doesn't require a topcoat so all I needed to do was distress the edges slightly and pop the knobs back on to be done, BUT(...haha...there's always a but, right?) my girl has been BEGGING me to paint her a flower picture for weeks and it occurred to me that this dresser was basically a giant blank canvas, so I let her pick a few colors - a couple of Tones for Tots colors, plus a few to aid in the design and I started free-handing some flowers on the dresser.

Then I added some detail (you've all been getting teasers on Instagram!) in the style I do on my signs.

Ready for the BIG reveal?

Ta-dah!

(Forgive my poor photos! Not only was I using my iPhone because my camera tripod is broken, but I had to stage this in my bedroom because I couldn't get the dresser upstairs by myself. Our room doesn't get the best light and I had to work around our bed too. Oh well! We are actually working on a solution to make photographing projects much easier...I can't wait to share more about it!)

What do you think? Its a bit crazy, but I love it! Especially how the floral wraps around the side as well!

I had so much fun styling this dresser using some of the signs from my shop: Averie Lane Boutique and a few props from around the house! 

The best part is, my daughter freaking LOVES it. She picked out tiny pink glass knobs for the top drawer and I used the Tones for Tots paint color from the dresser to paint the original knobs for the rest of the dresser. I love how they just disappear and let the floral pattern shine.

I totally get that this style of painting isn't for everyone, but I think its the perfect thing for a little girls room! I plan on making a few tweaks to her Granny Chic Room (we've already changed out the bed) so the dresser fits in better and I have a sign project in the works to personalize her space even more! Eventually the room will become a shared space for our girls so I'm okay with giving it a little makeover.

Speaking of...maybe my next post will be introducing baby! She should be here any day!

(Disclosure: The paint for this post was provided to me for free, but all the opinions are completely my own and not influenced by the company providing the materials.)