Rogers Room Redo {Part 2}

We're continuing on with part 2 of the master bedroom makeover at the Rogers house (If you missed part 1, check it out here). 

Pulling out the carpet enabled us to de-clutter at the same time. We took out everything that wouldn't be staying permanently and found it a new home, then we tossed anything not worth holding on to.

Here's the room after our first day of working.

Next up was painting! I love painting. It's pretty much instant gratification, which is always fun in a makeover project. We ended up settling on a nice medium gray for the wall (Benjamin Moore Greyhound 1579). After gathering painters tape, brushes, rollers, and edgers, we got to work.

We started by pushing all the furniture toward the center of the room. Then we wiped down any dust on the walls and began to tape away! 

We took turns cutting in on the walls with our handy Shur Line trimmers. If you have never used these before I highly recommend them, they almost eliminate the need to tape a room off. Maybe I'll do a little tutorial on how to use them best??

Once the walls were all painted, we decided to start on the dresser while waiting for the paint to be dry enough to peel the blue tape off. 

Kristin found this dresser at my thrift store for about $40. I actually almost bought it to redo but I couldn't get it home alone and I ended up forgetting about it... till she snagged it!

It was missing one drawer pull, but we have plans for fixing that problem.

We tossed around several ideas for dresser colors; yellow, emerald green, and teal (Benjamin Moore Bahama Green 2045). Kristin loves teal, so naturally it seemed like the way to go.

We took off all the hardware and began painting the drawer fronts. They all got two coats of vibrant teal paint. 

**When redoing a dresser (or anything with drawers) don't paint the sides of the drawers or they'll stick when you move them in and out.

Then we moved on to the dresser (by now, it's well into the evening as you can tell by the dark photos). It also got tw pretty coats of paint. Kristin decided she liked the dresser top left unpainted, with the old worn wood exposed. In the end it  worked well in the room and fits their style much more.

The room and the furniture were looking all freshened up so it was time to move our attention to the collage of photos on the wall.

Pretty much the second we decided on redoing the picture wall in their room we both knew we wanted to do something different and funky, something asymmetrical and a bit more whimsical. 

I always start by collecting everything I have that can be used on the wall and loosely laying it out in the arrangement I have in mind. Once it has a good flow to it, the hammering begins.

I don't have a single picture of the photo wall being hung up, so you'll just have to wait until tomorrow to see it all come together!

Also tomorrow... a total breakdown of the cost for the whole room makeover!

Finally!

It seems like it's been forever since I posted something on here. I've been so busy doing lots of fun things, I just can't seem to find the time to actually sit down and blog about them.
The other day I helped a friend paint her room gray (more on that soon). I loved looking at those gray walls so much I needed to paint something in my house a similar color asap! So I ran to Home Depot the next morning and got to work.
I've been wanting to repaint the buffet in our dining room for quite some time. I originally thought I would paint it yellow, but now that I'm toying with the idea of moving the yellow rug from my office into the living room, painting the buffet yellow as well would be overkill.
Here is the buffet before. It looks just fine, especially considering the state it was in when I found it.

I grabbed a few supplies from Home Depot. I wanted to keep the project as cheap as possible so instead of spending about $15 on a quart of Behr paint and primer, I decided to buy two 7oz samples; which set me back about $6. It ended up being plenty of paint to do this small project, and I still have about 1/2 jar left over!

First thing I did was clear out the buffet (which mainly stores cook books), and wipe it down.

Then I put down a drop cloth (I use an old table cloth), and propped  up the buffet on four cans of old paint. Best part of all... I only needed one coat of paint, and the whole thing took about an hour to finish.

Here it is, along with all the new picture frames I just put up that still need... uh, pictures!

I'm really liking it against the wall with all the frames, and the change of color helped break up all the white and beige going on in my living room.

Buffet- Found with a "free" sign on it while driving through a neighborhood.2 Behr Premium paint samples- $6.00New roller & sponge brush- $2.00Small Paint tray- $2.00Drop cloth, screwdriver, roller- already owned
Total- $10

Kitchen Cabinet {Refurbished}

I had originally purchased this cabinet for my little workroom, but  it was too large for the space so I started searching for somewhere else to put it. We have the most awkward nook in our kitchen. If you look at the picture below, it's on the right side between the fridge and the wall by the sink. In this photo we had two small butcher block carts to fill the space, but they were just too small. So, when we realized the cabinet would fit perfectly in that spot I was all too excited.

Here is my $5 cabinet. I forgot to take a before picture so I quickly stuck a couple drawers back in just so you could get the idea.

It has two cutting boards built in as well. Look at that lovely mixture of random white paint and old, chip-y stain.

Before painting I laid down a drop cloth and propped the cabinet up with four paint cans so I could paint all the way to the bottom.

I lightly sanded the piece. I'm not a big fan of sanding projects but all the chipping stain made it mandatory for this job.

 Then I got to painting!

I painted it with two coats of paint. *Hint* Don't paint the bottom of the drawers or the track, it will likely get sticky and not slide as easily if you do.

And here it is in its new home! We plan on adding a new butcher block to the top to extend the piece out. I think it would make a nice little spot for the girls to sit and help me while I cook. 

By the way, the cabinet hardware is by Martha Stewart, you can get them at Home Depot for about $5. I love these, they make me want to add pulls to everything! Kinda funny to think that each pull cost the same amount as the whole cabinet. 

For those of you who like all the nitty gritty details, here it is!

Cabinet, thrift store (half off from $10)- $5.00
Paint, Behr Premium Plus Ultra- I bought a gallon but used about $10.00 worth
Martha Stewart Pulls- $32.00


Total= $47.00

Office Cubbies {Reurbished}

One of my favorite things to see is an old, ugly piece of furniture given a face lift. I knew I wanted some cubbies in my workroom the second my husband said the room was mine. So, I searched online stores, thrift stores, and Craigslist extensively till I could find something in (or under) my budget. Eventually I found a school on Craigslist that was selling their old school cubbies. We picked them up at the school, and I thought they were a good deal at $15 a piece. Then came the long, hard, relentless, exhausting part of it all... Painting them!!

Here are what the cubbies looked like when I got them home. I cleaned them up, wiped them down, and prepped the area to get ready to paint.

Now, I know I should have known better, but I did buy paint from Walmart for this. I will never do that again! Each cubby took over 1 hr to paint, per coat, due to all the corners and awkward angles in the cubbies. Here is what cheap paint looks like (I actually think my iphone pics don't even show how translucent the paint really was). Below on the left is the cubby painted with one coat all over and two coats in all the edges. On the right is three coats on everything...

Here is what they looked like after four or five coats. Like I said, the iphone pic isn't very clear so it's hard to tell, but there is no smoothness or consistency in the paint, it was very blotchy with tons of paint brush lines. This is where I caved. After using nearly an entire gallon of cheap, Walmart paint, I went to Home Depot and purchased a gallon of Behr Premium Plus Ultra paint. At this point one cubby had 4-5 coats (seen below) of paint and the other had 1-2 coats (above left), both cubbies only needed one additional coat of the Behr paint to cover them sufficiently. I've learned my lesson.

And here they are! This picture was not taken with my iphone, it was taken by my friend, Kristin.

Here's the breakdown:

Cubbies- $30.00 (total)

Cheap paint from Walmart- $20.00 (I can't remember the price, but whatever it was, it's a waste of $$)

Behr Premium Plus Ultra- $33.00

Misc supplies, drop cloth, paint pans, small brush- $15.00

Total= $98

Dining Buffet Gone Bad {Refurbished}

I mentioned over here that I would show you all some pictures of the dining buffet we found on the side of the road for free. About two years ago when we found this gem I had no idea I would be blogging about it one day; hence the odd before photos. I knew that under the funky paint and murals there was something worth fixing.

Originally the pieces had green and gold crackle paint on the sides and top, and 3 doors painted with various food related images on them. Here is a picture with the top already painted. The inside of the piece was a subtle beige color, which I appreciated because subtle color = less coats of paint = less work for me!

If you can't see that unique green/gold paint above, here is a

 close-up of what it looked like. It was bad.

The piece originally had 3 doors on it. I chose to take the two outer doors off to make way for some baskets. I left the middle one on to store my cookbooks and junk I don't want people to see.

Once all the paint dried, I roughed up the edges and top a bit so it didn't look so perfectly painted. And there you have it! I definitely think it was worth $30 in paint and supplies and a few hours of labor. 

 P.S. Ignore the yellow paint test strip on top, it's about to get another update.