Master Bedroom: Built-in Reveal

It's finally done. Although I have already declared this the worst documented project in the 3 year history of my blog, it was all worth it.  In the end, these projects are not for the blog, but for own enjoyment and use (although Handy Hubby may think differently).

So, without further ado, here it is...

And here's where we started as a reminder.

The styling was not very thoughtful but I grabbed something that I had nearby and that worked with the colors in our master - cream, blue, gray-green.  I'm not going to lie - I did carefully choose which books to put in here based on their color - not their content!

The hardware is from the Martha Stewart line available at Home Depot.

Once again Handy Hubby out did himself. I love the Shaker-style doors that he made.  Also the crisp white paint which matches our trim, makes me less itchy to paint another large piece of furniture in there. Handy Hubby will flip out if I even mention painting more wood so I have to keep those dreams under wraps!!

Hope you had a great 4th of July. I loved having the 4th in the middle of the week - most people were on vacation but we were here.  We were also fortunate to have power when a lot of people in Northern Virginia did not. Thank goodness for small miracles!!

What fun projects are you working on?  Are you taking a break for summer?  I think this is our last large project for a little while but you never know!

Linking to: A Bowl Full of Lemons, Primitive and Proper, Miss Mustard Seed, Savvy Southern Style

Master Bedroom: Built-in Television Cabinet

This may officially be the worst documented semi-major project we've done in the house.  Not sure what happened but I think it was partly because Handy Hubby worked on it at random times or when I was away for work so I didn't get to take too many in progress shots.

So, we left off here last time. I think.

So fast forward 2.5 months and we're here.

Handy Hubby added the crown molding to dress it up a little bit.  He also wrapped the baseboard around the base so it's a true built-in.  

 Handy Hubby made the Shaker-style doors using a Kreg jig with a panel inset.

Next up I need to get some hardware.  I think I am going to get something dark to match the curtain rods and dresser hardware.

I first mentioned this project to Handy Hubby over a year ago and it feels good to be almost at the finish line!

Rec Room Progress

I have finally made some progress getting our basement rec room together. Slow progress, but some progress.  It still needs some more toys purged from it but generally it's getting much closer to what I want it to be.  Of course, I should be spending more time on the treadmill and probably a little less time thinking about the decor!

So, here's where I started back in December.  Actually, this picture was from July but it looked the same even in December.

This was way too much furniture for this space.  The red leather chair on the left found a new home in Alex's big boy room.  The chair and sofa were sold via Craigslist.  (Hello $450!)

Next we moved the family room sofa down to the rec room.  Our sofa looked like this...

 Until I got a slipcover for it and then it looked like this...

Next I brought in one of a pair of chairs previously in the family room (the other is still in the family room), moved in some end tables (one was already here and the other was in the attic), and hung a great new canvas-mounted picture of my kids.  Finally my lamps came back fitted out with their $15 Target shades which happened to fit perfectly without a harp.  Hooray for happy accidents!

After a little bit of tweaking, the room now looks like this.  

More accurately maybe like this...

The sofa works so much better here than it ever did in our family room.  Maybe this was all part of my original subconscious plan! 

Those end tables work well here as well.  They were a hand-me-down from my parents and they have lived in my attic for a few years.  They are perfect down here because they have drawers and storage. Need to brain storm the options...

Also, think I need a couple more canvas prints of my kids.  Looks like I'll be back on the Groupon hunt!  This all leads me to my new color scheme which was previously (in my head only) beachy cream, yellow, blue, and green. Now though I think I am heading in a more colorful playroom direction.  I'm not saying wild color everywhere but a few fun pops of color might be in order.  It's time to stop fighting the toys which dominate this space but embrace them and their wonderful color!

Doing any furniture swapping in your house?  Amazing how different and perfect a piece can feel in a different space.

Lamps Transformed

I have had these brass lamps since we moved to Arlington 14 years ago.  They have followed me through several apartments and now our house.  They used to be in our living room but eventually they made it back to the attic where they have lived for several years.

I had contemplating spray painting them for a couple of years.  I finally got up the guts to do it last weekend.  Enter Rustoleum Harbor Blue.

The lampshade is from Target and just happened to fit over the existing lamp works so I didn't have to get a harp.

More to come tomorrow...

Master Bedroom Built-ins Progress Report

Sorry about the lack of posts over the past few weeks. Not sure anyone actually notices when I don't post but we were knee-deep in party planning for Elizabeth's 6th birthday party.  More on that to come later this week I hope!

I keep forgetting to update you on Handy Hubby's progress on the master bedroom built-ins.  That's probably because he is working on them solely in his shop so they aren't in my face every day!  I love this part of the process since there's no mess in our bedroom.  That will likely change this weekend.  

So, now Handy Hubby has pretty much finished the base box and doors so you can get an idea for what they look like.  

The open top space is for our cable box and DVD player.  Our TV will go on the shelf above that, and then a bookcase will surround the TV with a few shelves above that.  

This weekend we have to try to find some hinges and I'll try to get this part primed and painted so Handy Hubby can install it and then get started on the top.  I haven't decided what kind of metal finish I want on the hinges and I'm not entirely sure I'm going to paint this one white. {Gasp}  I'm leaning towards a blue-gray color.  At least it's not a large piece so repainting would not be the end of the world!

What do you think?  

Looking forward to getting it 

Master Bedroom: Built-ins (yes, I'm addicted)

It's official - no room in our house is safe from built-ins! The master bedroom is no exception. Our television needs a home and this messy corner is the only real option. 

Much like the other built-ins around our house, we'll have a cabinet with doors below and some open shelving above. The TV will go in the open middle and sit a few inches higher than where it does now.   Handy Hubby has already made a good start on it thanks to a rainy, cool weekend.

Why do I love built-ins?  I love that I don't have to hunt down the perfect piece of furniture to fit in the exact right way into the space - custom built-ins always fit perfectly.  I also love that you an maximize the the space in the way that you need it to work - and it can flexible when you need to move shelves, add doors, etc.  Finally, the cost of building them is rarely more than a few hundred dollars, but the value-added to our house is certainly as much.

More porch updates tomorrow hopefully.

Happy Birthday to my Dad!!

Living Room: Bookshelf Styling

After last week's book shuffle to accommodate our new home office, I was left with some shelf space in the living room. This made me so happy and I think the shelves were happy to be a little lighter too.

Our double-stuffed bookshelves looked like this

And after 20 trips up and down the stairs with books and accessories, they now look like this...

The best part is that this transformation didn't cost a penny! I already owned everything on the shelves. The ivory ceramic artichoke set came were a great Goodwill find last summer. I think I paid $7 for both. I love how they really lighten the look because the books are so dark.

So much better I think. What did you do this weekend? Any big projects in the works? Little projects? I have so many projects to write about that I'm feeling a little behind... Hopefully I can catch up this week.

Den: Styling the Bookshelves

We have a lot of books. A lot. I cannot even begin to estimate but the numbers are in the thousands. We've moved these books from one end of the house and back through the years. Many of the books (pretty much all of the "nice" books) were inherited from my grandfather, but we also buy some books but nearly as much as we used to.  As a result of having so many books, bookcase styling was never a priority. The books had to fit wherever they could and styling was not a priority. Generally, ever bookshelf was jammed with books. Here are some examples:

Basement Built-ins

Living Room

See? Filled!  This is about 3/4 of our book collection. We had more in the attic in boxes, in our room, and in the family room. The family bookshelves were the only remotely styled bookshelves we have.

Now that we have our office back (more on that here), we could finally unpack the last few boxes of books from the attic and spread out some books in other places so things don't seem so bookstore/library-ish. 

Stage 1 was moving some living room books to the office. Here's how it looks now. 

Not at all finished but a good first step. I'm going to add some more layers over time but it's a good first start.  I've some plans for the two spaces on either side of the desk, although nothing totally ready yet. I was anxious to share because this room is coming together. The rug is definitely not staying and the roman shade needs a make-over but all in good time!

I have so much more planned for this room that I don't know quite where to begin.  At the same time, I don't have a real vision yet and I try not to decorate without an ultimate goal in mind. When I browse for things, I seem to be all over the place.  All the more reason to take a slow decorating approach, not a 2 weeks and we're done process - unless I find things for cheap or free!  

Next up is a window treatment and a desk chair, and then we'll probably be on pause for a month or two while we deal with and pay for other projects (like the screen porch!).  I have lots of organizing (free!) to do in here in the mean time so I'll feel like we're making progress even though we won't be making any more big changes.  I wish the progress was going to be quicker so we'll all just have to hang in there.

House Tour Room-by-Room Link-up Party: Play Rooms, Rec Rooms, Lofts & Bonus Rooms

I've lost count on what week we're in and I too need to check the schedule when writing these posts. Hopefully everyone hasn't disappeared for vacation! This week we're talking rec rooms, play rooms, lofts, and bonus rooms. Here are a few new shots of our basement rec room. This are is affectionately referred to as "downstairs" by my 2 year old since most of his big (and favorite) toys reside here.  As a result, our space often looks like this as you enter.

I'm not sure I've ever shown either view of this room. Probably for good reason. This is our furniture graveyard where furniture goes to finish its life. Fortunately, it doesn't take long to clean up this space thanks to the awesome built-ins that Handy Hubby finished up earlier this year (more about those here)

Here's how the space looked after 10 minutes of much-needed toy put-away time. Honestly, I don't mind seeing the toys because this is the rec room.

I hope to change the hodge podge feeling over the next year or so by moving the red chairs out and some blue chairs in. I want this room to have a beach feeling although without being kitschy beach. Of course all of that will take a lot of furniture moving up and down the stairs which may require lots of begging for Handy Hubby to find a friend to help out.  At this point, I'm planning to make these moves next winter. Hopefully. The couch will likely stay and the coffee table is actually my grandmother's cedar trunk. It needs some work but it will work in the space I hope.

p.s. In case you are curious about the toy train set, it's Fisher Price GeoTrax and any 2-6 year old boy or girl would LOVE it.

Your turn! Please don't forget to link back here or add my button below.

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Built-in Bookshelves: REVEAL!

YES, FINALLY!!!!

The basement bookshelves are done!! Although there are some little things that still need patching and another coat of paint but it is now 99% done and ready for pictures! If you are just starting the tour, we use this as a play room for the kids so toy storage was a top priority. We also have a TON of books so we had to incorporate bookshelves.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

 

 

Here's a close-up on the doors that the hubby made. The hardware on the doors is basic Home Depot hardware.

See all of the Playmobil stuff on top? Yup, more in the cabinets. I'll do a post on organizing the toys at some point. We started with a major purge of toys that weren't being played with and then organized the rest. I think we did pretty well!

Hubby also made some pull-out shelves which can be used as a desk or additional play space. I scored the hardware for those little pulls at the Restoration Hardware Outlet for $1.50 each. It was actually hard to find something like that at the big box home improvement stores because it had to be super skinny and had to attach from the front.

The cost was relatively little especially when you consider that we sold our old TV cabinet for $100, the old Ikea bookshelves for $50 and our old tube TV for $50 (!). Thank you Craigslist. Our new TV was an Amazon cyber Monday purchase, and the plywood we used for the cabinet and bookcases is very affordable.

Now I have to start working on hanging some more things on the walls and getting the rest of the room organized.

Can I get a round of applause for the handy hubby!?!

Built-In Bookshelves (Update 8)

I wish I could say we're done but we're not.  BUT, we are soooo close. It's really down to the right hinges. Yes, hinges. Hinges for the cabinet doors. I cannot wait to show you the doors that hubby whipped up for me in his shop. Lots of magic happening down there (along with dust and noise!). Fortunately we are ordering the hinges we need today so hopefully we really will be done by the end of the week.  HOPEFULLY.  It's really time to move on to other projects.

Now I'll stop talking and show you pictures because I know that's what you really want!

We unpacked 10 boxes of books which is amazing.  We still have a few more to go but I think we'll be able to find space for them elsewhere in the house. We are trying to be better about letting go of books that we know we won't again or which we just don't love. Hopefully that will help us keep our massive book collection under control.

This has been our biggest built-in project so far and it has been a beast but I think so worth it and has such a big impact on the feeling of our playroom. We're sure the kids will enjoy this room for years to come, as will we. I can already see many years of kids' sleepovers happening down here!

As a reminder, here is how this room started -

First with our old stuff.

 Then with no stuff at all.

We've come a long way!

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Is it sad to love appliances?

Not when it's a new LG front load washer and dryer and you have 2 kids and a husband who wears t-shirts and jeans to the office and plays with sawdust at night.  Until Wednesday, here's what we had -

They are about 7 years old.  Nothing wrong with them except that they are not efficient, fairly small (even at the time we bought them), and make a racket whenever they are on.  When we did the addition, we decided to save some much needed money and keep these instead of replacing them.  Our original laundry room was in the basement (of course) so moving it upstairs felt like a huge improvement all on its own. 

So, we were planning on keeping these for a few more years until I got serious washer jealousy when we were visiting my parents over Christmas.  They got a new LG stackable washer and dryer last year and of course I loved it.  So, I started doing research and I liked the LGs.  They have a slightly smaller footprint than the Samsung (my second choice) and we needed the space as you can see from the size of the laundry room above.  But, I was still waiting for a good sale.  January was pretty much sale-free.  I guess it's TV time, not sale time.  I was watching Best Buy and Home Depot mostly, since Lowes doesn't seem to sell LG.  The price was always 10% off but that didn't seem like a good enough deal to jump on it.

Then last week, Best Buy sent around a nice little coupon book for RewardZone Silver members (we are members because of our TV and fridge purchases during our reno).  Wouldn't you know... a 30% off coupon for LG washers and dryers!!!  Holy moly.  I had to stop myself from jumping in the car right then and there!

Last weekend we finally went and ordered them.  That was a bit of a process because they only had one (very nice) sales person in the appliance area so it took about 30 minutes longer than it should have.  And the original dryer model I wanted was discontinued. Phew...

They were delivered on Wednesday and we had scheduled the dryer installation for Thursday.  The delivery guy was doubtful that we would be able to fit both. I told him that clearly he doesn't know us very well. He chuckled (but clearly thought I was crazy). Fortunately, we came to our senses and realized we do the installation ourselves. 

So, Wednesday night, Jim got out his wrench collection and went to town on the installation. The dryer went in without a hitch thanks to the new gas line kit and dryer vent.  I wish we could push the dryer back another 3 inches but maybe we can figure that out some other time.  Next we did the washer which is a story in and of itself.  We were able to carefully push it into the room and then turn it 90 degrees.  It barely fit but we made it.  Then we had to figure out how to get the metal overflow pan under it (essential for second floor laundries).  That's a whole story unto itself but we did it and we opened a bottle of wine after because we were so proud.

 

 

Jim hooked up all of the hoses and then voila! I started doing laundry immediately.  Notice the laundry on the floor!

 

No more appliance envy.  I know Jim is relieved.

And, the winner of this month's CSN $35 giveaway is....nape!  Congratulations!