MOUSE HOUSE

A few weeks ago I took Sophia for the first time to ABC Carpet.  For some reason I had never taken her, even though I had been to the children's floor a million times.  Each time I enter I am so inspired, and she was too.  So, when we returned home, we had so many fun ideas running though our heads.  We focused on her doll house and reinvented her sweet doll space to a bright and more imaginative space.  I think the space turned out just right for S and her tiny mice she LOVES to play with. 

BEFORE

We decided to neutralize the look of the house.  The bones of the doll house are great, we just needed to update the look and highlight the fabulous furniture the house came with, not to mention other fun little pieces we have collected over the years.  

We began to paint the house pencil gray, neon pink, white, and turquoise.  

As we neutralized the look, Sophia added her own personal touch to the house. The space is coming together and the mice seem very happy. 

Mil Besos,

Mel

Dining Room Revamp: Louis Chairs

I have always loved Louis style dining room chairs, and someday upgrading our mismatched hodgepodge of different seating has long been on our wish list for the future.  Over the years I've kept an eye out at furniture stores and antique malls but have never found a large enough set (3 chairs does not count!) or a price that was low enough to justify them.  Until a couple of weeks ago.  While scouring Craigslist for another project, I found a guy selling a bunch of dining chairs from a church that no longer used them and needed the extra space.  Always up for a road trip in search of a great deal, Jady and I jumped in one of our church's 15 passenger vans and got on the road to Indiana.  

The crazy thing is, by the time we arrived, our guy had discovered even MORE of them, so that all told we came home with 18 Louis chairs!  And since he really wanted to get rid of all of them at once, we were able to negotiate a low price--  just about $30 a chair!

They are all in perfect condition and super sturdy, but they definitely need a makeover before they'll be ready for us to use.  Since we don't have a dining room table or a dining room space that can seat 18 people, I'll be dividing the chairs up into groups-- 4 for the kitchen table, 10-12 for the dining room, and a couple for extra seating around the house.  

Now we just have to pick a design!  Not painting the frames and leaving them as they are would obviously save me quite a bit of labor... so it's tempting.  But the light, yellowy wood isn't my favorite, so if we keep them as is I'll want to choose an upholstery color to downplay the yellow.  What would you do?  To paint, or not to paint?

Ballard Designs

etsy

The House Face

House & Home

Apartment Therapy

Savvy Home

New England Home

The Designer's Attic

Carla Aston

La Dolce Vita

J. Wheeler Designs

xo

Liza

Glamming up an 80s machine……..

Sophia received a new typewriter for her birthday a couple weeks ago, and she loves the machine. I found it in need of a little personalizing, so I pulled out the Mod Podge and picked out some beautiful rice paper to do the trick. 

BEFORE

 READ MORE

Garage Chic: Cheap Shelving DIY

At the back of our first floor we have a small extra room that can technically be counted as a bedroom, since it has a small closet and a bathroom nearby.  We don't really have much need for another bedroom at the moment, and honestly it's too small and awkward to lend itself to that use on a daily basis.  Until recently it was a catch all space for my painting supplies, wrapping paraphernalia, and even a few boxes that I just couldn't find the energy to unpack (yes, from two years ago!).  

Thankfully I knew once the rest of the house had been pretty much finished I would inevitably feel a surge of motivation to tackle this random little room and turn it into an office and painting studio area.  The first step was clearing out whatever junk had accumulated over time from laziness, and then I realized exactly what we needed: storage.  My painted gray desk from our Vienna days helps organize quite a bit of office materials, but it wasn't enough.  Not wanting to spend a bunch on mediocre bookshelves for this room, and also not interested in a two hour drive to IKEA this time, I decided to stop by our local Habitat for Humanity ReStore center, which sells a huge range of second hand home items.  This place offers a treasure hunt, with plenty of junk to rummage through but also the possibility of finding a cool light fixture, old french doors, a fireplace mantel (like I did here), or in this case, a shelving unit.

These basic metal shelving units you'd see lining the walls of a garage or basement seemed more interesting to me than a basic wooden bookshelf, so I brought home the largest one-- for 10 bucks.  

The whole thing was pretty grimy, and some sections of the shelves and the side rails had been rusted over time, so first off I used dish soap and water to scrub each piece well to remove any residue or dust.  I decided to spray paint it, and it's always hard for me to make myself do the cleaning/prep step in this process, but it's important!  So I waited (im)patiently while all of the pieces dried before beginning to paint.

Normal spray paint is wonderful at covering a multitude of problems, but with this much rust, I decided to bring in the big guns.  Rustoleum makes a special primer for rusted metal that seals in the problem and protects from further corrosion.  So all of the rails and shelves got a good coat of primer first.

I wanted to play with a more formal look as a foil for the industrial nature of the shelves, so I settled on a black and gold color scheme.  For the shelves I used a basic Rustoleum black matte spray paint, and for the rails I decided to go metallic with Krylon's "18k Gold Plate." 

Once everything was dry to the touch I tried to remember how to reassemble everything (the before photos I took were key here!), and I'm happy with the result.  I now finally have a place for our stationary and my oversized painting supplies, and our printer is no longer on the floor!  

The whole project took me a couple of days since I spread out all the steps, but you could definitely finish it all in one day, including dry time.  With all the spray paint I used up, my total came to about $35, including the original $10 for the shelves-- a pretty good deal!  And if we ever don't need them in the house, they can always glam up the garage a little:)

xo

Liza

The Look for Less: Fancy Finials DIY

I always find little surprises in a room extra fun, like a pair of these powder coated brass finials atop a couple of lamps.  As much as I love these, at $40 a piece I'm thinking maybe a DIY project could come close for less of a chunk of change.

Keep

A quick search on Etsy and eBay turned up a couple of good knockoff options, like this pair of chinoiserie brass finials at $17 ($25 with shipping).

Etsy

Or you could take it up another style notch with this gorgeous pair, selling on eBay for $36 including shipping.

eBay

You could go with either of those sets of finials (or find your own!), plus a couple of coats of mint spray paint (on sale for $4.19), and you've created the look for significantly less-- at 1/4 to 1/2 the price!

xo

Liza

Summer Tents

You remember back in the winter months when Los Smiths built easy A frame tents (HERE). 

We loved having them all winter long.

Yard Work is Hard Work: Part 2

Since we arrived home again after being gone for a month this spring, I have spent quite a bit of time working in the yard, trimming, planting, and overall attempting to tame.  The weather has been nice, and our frequent summer thunderstorms have kept the plants AND the weeds happy and me busy.

We planted most of our landscaping plan last fall before the polar vortex hit, but a few shrubs we couldn't source at the time were left until this spring.  One major eyesore I couldn't wait to give a makeover was the corner where the fence meets the neighbor's garage... 

Lovely, right?  As much as cinderblock walls, climbing vine weed things, and a section of chain link fence are all my style, I couldn't wait to get this area cleaned up.  Our plan has always been to plant a Little Gem Magnolia tree in this spot, partly because its tall, slender shape and reasonable maximum height will prevent it from dwarfing the rest of the yard eventually.  Thank goodness we didn't plant this magnolia in the fall, since they're some of the more sensitive trees in the yard and almost definitely wouldn't have survived.

After calling just about every nursery I could find, this guy was the tallest tree available at a respectable 6 feet.  Before planting it, though, the eyesore corner had to be dealt with (finally), so I dug through our scrap wood/plywood pile and found an extra section of fencing from when we built the privacy screen on our deck.  

By some miracle, this leftover fencing section was exactly the width I needed to cover over the corner and connect the existing fence to the side of our garage, so all it needed was a few decking screws to fasten it in place, and problem solved.  Why didn't I do this months ago??

I realize that the width of the fencing boards and the color from the new section don't coordinate with the old part, but hey, it was a free, easy fix, and the color will fade to match over time anyway.  

This week I finished up the other section of our landscaping plan that had to wait until spring.  In the fall we installed some dwarf hollies that will grow a few feet taller (again, eventually:)) to create a medium hedge distinguishing the main part of the yard from the back, more secluded garden.  But you can see in the photo below, the center section was missing more plants and an arbor to make a doorway to the back garden.

I really did not want to spend a lot on the wooden arbor and even started researching plans on how to build one myself-- until I discovered this one on Amazon for just $135.  Just a few minutes assembling and done.  After more phone calls to nurseries across town, I settled on a pair of boxwoods-- the biggest ones I could find-- to go on either side of the arbor, and two climbing clematis plants that will make their way up the arch and soften the whole look.

Once I had everything laid out and in place I first needed to secure the arbor in concrete footings. 

I love fast drying Quikrete concrete, especially with smaller holes like this.  You don't have to premix it in a tub beforehand, which isn't difficult, but it makes a mess.  All you do is just pour it straight from the bag into each hole, spray some water in there and mix it around with a trowel (or a paint stirrer, if that's all you have on hand:)).

The last area that desperately needed some TLC was the side yard, connecting our side screened porch to the back.  It was just sad looking, with pretty much nothing there at all in the way of living things.  Grass has never grown here, so eventually I would like to cover over the dirt path look we have going with pea gravel or pine straw from this screen porch door down to the back lawn.  But one thing at a time, right?

Last week I bought a few more Nikko Blue Hydrangeas to match the ones already in place nearby and continue the line of them around the corner of the deck. Once the bed continues past these new bushes, the area becomes a true all-shade section of the yard because of some mature trees just overhead.  So I picked out a variety of shade perennials and filled out the space a little and give it some sense of intention.  It's amazing what a few little plants can do!

By the way, after a few days of digging all of these holes, I'm still sore and exhausted!  Landscaping crews definitely earn their money:)

xo

Liza