Guest Bedroom Reveal

Before:

The upstairs guest bedroom is a pretty small space and gets lots of morning light especially in the summer (those windows are east-facing). Its major redeeming quality are the hardwood floors.  For reference, the door in the first and second pics are the same one - access to a tiny walk-in closet.

One drawback:  that ceiling fan. See how there's a dangly stem above the motor housing and big ole' lights below? Now, don't get me wrong - a ceiling fan in a second-story room on a hot summer night? Brilliant. But this one I could easily reach without stretching (I'm 5'2"), and it made a short room feel entirely claustrophobic. As in,  'when are those flowery frosted glass thingies going to fall on my head'   scary. 

And by the way, that closet? one little teensy 12" shelf.  Folks, this is a 40+ year old house! How can you live without either closet rods or shelves?

      

After:

Knowing that my budget was smaller than the room, my goals were two-fold. First to make the room seem livable - enough space and storage for all that people normally want in a bedroom, some way to control heat/light. Second to showcase that beautiful floor, since nothing else I could add would compete in quality.


Wall color: April Sky in Olympic Flat (this is a really light color that works well because my house has short walls and small windows. With newer construction I would go 1-2 shades darker on the paint swatch)
Trim color: Olympic semi-gloss base 2 with floetrol
Light fixture: Krylon ORB and Valspar frosted glass
Heat registers: Kilz Primer and Rustoleum semi-gloss white
Closet rods: Minwax

 

I'm not a huge fan of boob lights, but I am cheap. This one was originally residing in the hall, and after a few coats of orb on the metal bits and frosted glass spray paint on the dome (see more here), it looks pretty good for free!

The width of this closet  - less than 4' - meant that doubling the shelving/closet rods was an absolute must to increasing capacity (each one holds a mens XL fleece jacket with plenty of clearance). However because this closet is pretty much a square, there was space to add hooks along the right and left for longer items.



What I did / cost breakdown:

1. Removed the surface wiring system (there were already four outlets in this room, one on each wall): free
2. Added a battery-operated light to the closet: $13
3. Painted ceiling, walls and trim: free, paint from previous projects
4. Removed vinyl mini-blinds and installed two curtains, including a roman shade lined with blackout fabric: ~$75 for both layers, including curtain rods.
5. Installed shelves, closet rods and hooks: $35
6. Spray-painted heat registers: free, paint from previous projects 
7. Installed a door stop: $3
8. Removed the ceiling fan and replaced it with a boob light: free
9. Replaced all the outlets/switches and covers with white ones: $5

                                                                           Total Cost: ~ $131

Work still needed:

1. Install smoke detector done
2. Add molding to and paint doors (satin white) or just replace the doors
3. Hang art done
4. Build/find/buy a side table
5. (optional) build a headboard
6. Bring in the dresser from our room (originally in downstairs guest room)
7. (optional) Find a better rug
8. Find an oscillating fan that looks nicer.
9. Add hooks or full length mirror to inside of closet door

Couldn't have done it without you!

Remember this shot?

After all that work on the door, the grody 70s iron porch support was in serious need of tlc. I was having some work done on the overhang which required my contractor to remove the support for access so I just asked him to leave the 4x4 treated post, which I then wrapped with cedar boards and stained black.

I all honesty, I would never have attempted this project if it wasn't for a tute on porch column construction published by Traci @ Beneath My Heart. You can find it here. (Traci and Cy also just did a brilliant remodel of their kitchen top-to-bottom in record time - check it out!). My initial thought was to chemically strip the many many layers of rusting paint (lovely, right?) and spray paint the thing with a few coats of Rustoleum's hammered metal finish. Soooo glad I did this instead.....

Thanks for the inspiration, Traci and Cy!

Front door love

That title sounded way cooler that this post warrants. A more accurate title would be: "How many unfinished things are in this picture?"


Last year I painted the front door black. No, I do not have a before pic. It was a chalky white that collected dust in every crevice. And who paints a front door with flat paint?? Basically it was grody and I couldn't get it clean. Since the shutters are black, I thought it would be dramatic to paint the front door to match. (well actually I wanted red, but it would have clashed with the brick).  Have you ever painted anything black? I knew it would take a few coats, but .... I'm not sure if I was doing something wrong or what. Two coats of grey-tint primer and 3 coats of valspar paint later ...

In hindsight I think the problem was using valspar. I should have stuck with Rustoleum. The valspar stuff took forever to cure and isn't black-black as I would like it. ("black magic" if anyone is wondering)

We also installed a Pella storm door. I *heart* this storm door. The wide expanse of glass unmarred by a horizontal divider, the fact that the handle is on the same side as the main door handle, the sturdy closers that are unfazed by gusts of wind, the nifty little button on the bottom that lets me lock the door in open with my foot.... swoon!! The solidity of this door is well worth the upgrade in cost (I say this after a year of use). Let me put it this way - the "structural integrity" of a $100 door is in the glass insert. This door (approx $215) is sturdy even without the insert.

Let's look at that bad boy again:

Finally, decorations. I have a very very tight budget, an aversion to clutter and little sense of "staging" or "decor" (don't ask about the teasing I used to get working in retail). This wreath gets used for all seasons, and I have no desire to de/re-construct it four times a year. Hence the ribbon. This year I added a knitted strip (too short for a scarf) for some extra texture. tada!

I did take the wreath down during the week of Halloween to put up a spiderweb. The purple looked great inside (with the wood finish), but for the outside I think orange would be better. Maybe next year I can use twinned strands of orange and purple?



Bonus round #1 - the unfinished business

• threshold and jamb need (re)painting
• touchup paint around door knob
• remove excess paint on (wood door) glass (from previous owner's paint job, thank-you-very-much)
• weave in end of yarn on scarf

Bonus round #2 - stuff I haven't even started that is in/near this pic

• replace house numbers with something that is readable from street.
• replace/refinish porch light.
• seal/paint concrete floor.
• come up with better seating. maybe an adriondack chair?

Linking up to the February Linky Party at Beneath My Heart

Updated chandy

How many of you have one of these guys? Mine is the el-cheapo model, which meant the brass coating was already wearing off. I'm not really sure how something hanging in mid air can wear off, but anyways.

Oops...

As documented here, I am on a mission to be rid of all brass in my house.

Enter one brassy fireplace:

An oldie but a goodie

So this was actually my first second third real project in the house. At the time I just took pics for Mom and my memory. Sorry for the poor lighting. My photog skilz are mad limited [okay, I'll stop ...], and this room doesn't have any windows nearby, plus, knowing me it was after 10p.


This tiny powder room on the main floor had those ugly peel 'em stick 'em tiles that did not match the rest of the house. And when I say did not match I mean to the left beige diamonds, to the right green boxed. See for yourself:

Den Reveal (just don't look too hard)

This room is the den/guest bedroom. It is off the eat-in kitchen and provides the sole point of access from house to backyard. When I first moved in, there was lots of brass, and two walls covered in orangy wood paneling.

Dresser Reveal

My apologies for the lack of before pics. I was too excited to start!

In this project I used paint conditioner for the first time.

(image via homedepot.com)

It's a must for getting a really nice finish on your final product. I found that I had to give my project an extra coat, though. Floetrol is for latex paints, and Penetrol is the version for oil-based paints.

Fan reveal

I am a frugal person. So, while I was not aesthetically pleased by my shiny brassy den fan, it works well. Plus a replacement of the same quality with an updated appearance would cost ~$150.

This is not my fan, but you get the idea

(image via homedepot.com)