The Most Ridiculous DIY Project I've Ever Attempted.

Normally, when I'm thinking about tackling some kind of DIY project, here's how the process goes:

1. Google "how to do Project XYZ." 

2. Find a few official-looking pages, like from Martha Stewart or HGTV, detailing in 25 steps how to do the project like a professional, with the help of multiple power tools, an unlimited budget, and an army of helpers.  I skip over these pages, because they make it look hard.

3. Find a handful of bloggers who have tackled Project XYZ. These are the pages that make it look fun.  It's usually a blonde, gorgeous housewife whose blog picture features her holding two small children, looking like she had a professional do her hair and makeup.  She will then describe how she did the project in 5 simple steps, with strategic pictures illustrating the most glamorous parts of the process.  

4. Repeat step #3 until I'm delusional enough to think that this is a fun, easy project that I can tackle in one afternoon.

5. Spend my afternoon wandering around Target/Hobby Lobby/Michael's gathering supplies for my project.

6. Come home, tired from the shopping, and turn on the TV.

7. Start project after getting distracted by 30 Rock reruns for an hour.  

8. Give up on project approximately one hour after starting; it's late/my fingers hurt/I'll finish it tomorrow are common excuses.

9. Possibly finish project over the course of the next 3-4 weeks, only because I'm guilt tripped by my supplies lying around the house. 

When thoughts kept coming up about the possibility of reupholstering my green wingback chair, I immediately started Googling.  But I didn't like what I found.  There are a multitude of blogs out there that discuss recovering a wingback chair, don't get me wrong.  But not a single one of them uses the word "easy."  In fact, every single one I read talked about how HARD it was.  And how it was grueling work, and took them weeks longer than they expected, and how their fingers were so sore they couldn't do anything afterwards.  Some of them even said, "I'll never do this again.  I will hire someone to reupholster things in the future."  Considering a reupholstery job professionally costs upwards of $500 for a chair, this is not a good sign.  Initially, I decided I wasn't even going to try.  

Every time I looked at the green chair, though, I couldn't get it out of my head.  It's a great chair -- comfortable and in really great shape.  But the green just doesn't match! I mean, it doesn't look horrible, but it doesn't go with the feel of the room I have in mind at all.  I wanted it to be grey -- a dark charcoal, or a tweed pattern, or maybe even a rich navy blue.  A color that's traditional but goes with the palette I already have in the room.  (And coordinates with my curtains, because those are here to stay.) 

So while I was at Target on Sunday, I looked at different sources of fabric.  I had read that someone on one of the blogs had used a velvet curtain as upholstery fabric.  This intrigued me, so I wandered through the curtain section.  There were a few possibilities in varying shades and textures of grey that I made mental notes of.  Then I stumbled across a clearance aisle in the bedding section full of stuff at 50-75% off.  And there it was.  A sheet set, on clearance from the holidays, in grey "flannel" with a subtle herringbone pattern.  Normally, I wouldn't think a sheet would be thick enough fabric for upholstery, but these are literally the sturdiest sheets I've ever felt.  They're even thicker than the flannel I associate with a flannel shirt, and less fuzzy.  It was $12 for a twin full sheet, fitted sheet, and pillowcase.  I bought them.  And I'm using them to recover my wingback chair.  

This is by far the most ambitious DIY project I've ever faced.  Fair warning: I plan on completely cheating.  In fact, if you have any integrity or care whatsoever about furniture being upholstered the "right way" please don't read any further posts on the topic or you will probably lose all respect for me.  The green fabric is solid, and my fabric is thick enough that there's no risk of anything being see-through, and the foam is in good shape, so I'm recovering it on top of the old fabric.  I briefly thought about making a slipcover, but slipcovers are generally hideous and it looked even harder than just stapling the fabric right on there, so that's what I'm doing.  There's a chance this could turn out terribly, but if it even looks KIND of good -- hey, I'll be able to say I reupholstered a chair for $12!  

Stay tuned. 

xoxo,
allison

March: Front Room

When I was house hunting, there seemed to be several common themes among the various old homes I looked at.
1. Zero closet space.
2. Tiny bathrooms with pedestal sinks and no storage.
3. Multiple living rooms.

Seriously -- I'm not sure exactly how people spent their time back in the 1920s/30s/40s, but judging by the houses they built, they did so much entertaining in all their various living and dining spaces that they never had time to take showers or go shopping.  But I digress.  What I'm getting at here is that I am one person, with a large amount of clothes crammed into tiny closets and a large amount of hair, makeup and beauty products crammed into a tiny bathroom, but I cannot for the life of me figure out what to do with an extra living room.  This room, affectionately termed the "front room," has morphed into a de facto study space for me over the last 6 months or so.  I actually have a desk in the kitchen, but it's so cluttered with bills, to-do lists, etc. plus it's in the middle of a usually-messy kitchen, so it's not the most calm space to focus on studying.  I've also been figuring out that I need to be doing a lot more studying for work while I'm at home, so my goal is to try to make this room a gorgeous and peaceful study space so I can actually focus and get something done every once in awhile.   I just snapped some pictures of what it looks like right now, with zero cleaning or decluttering, so get ready...

Study corner. Notice the pile of random mail on that end table that's awkwardly in front of the window.   Also notice the Clorox wipes (why?) and random cups everywhere.  This stresses me out just to look at it. 

Comfy chair in the corner.  This desperately needs an ottoman and for that side table to be moved next to it.  Also I really want to recover the chair one day...

This is my knockoff Closetmaid version of the Ikea Expedit shelf.  I kind of hate it.  The cubes aren't big enough to store magazines or papers or anything useful, and I just have random crap in there now.   It looks terrible, I know.  Also, I feel like the lonely poster just doesn't belong up there... 

Instead of a list of goals, I'm going to make lists of things I love about the space and things I hate about the space.  

THINGS I LOVE

1. The curtains.  I'm obsessed.  They may be the single house-related purchase I'm most proud of in the entire world.  I was randomly looking at the scrap fabric table at Old Time Pottery about a year ago and came across this Jonathan Adler fabric (!!) for $5 a yard.   FIVE DOLLARS A YARD, YOU GUYS.  This stuff retails for like, $60 and above per yard.  And there was just enough to make curtains with a little leftover.  So I did, and they're fabulous, and they make me feel like I deserve a whole room full of designer things so they don't pale in comparison to these curtains. 

2. The Prada sign.  If anyone watches Gossip Girl, you know what this is about.  My friend Kandace and I decided to make our own versions, so we did, and it was basically the first thing I put on the wall after I moved into this place. 

3. The cute little mini crystal chandelier. 

THINGS I HATE 

1. Clutter. Enough said. 

2. That my cube shelf isn't an Expedit.  I go on Ikea's website and drool over the white Expedit at least once a week.  I'm already brainstorming a way I can get one here for less than it would cost me to drive five hours to Atlanta to buy this. 

3. That I am afraid to try reupholstering that green chair.  It's great and super comfy, but I wish it was a charcoal gray color or a navy blue.  But even the "super easy" Internet tutorials on how to do this give me heart palpitations. 

4. That I have no good system for storing office supplies.  I have the file cabinet for papers, but I don't have a good place to keep the random stuff you need like staplers, hole punches, etc.  Or do I really need that stuff? What do I actually NEED in my home office? It's probably a whole lot less than whatever is filling up that giant "OFFICE" box in my guest room, I can tell you that much. 

That's all for now.  I'm brainstorming a few fun things to get started on this week, so I will keep you posted!  And stay tuned for a post summarizing my February mini-project in the next day or two! 

xoxo,
Allison

January Recap

Yes, I realize it's halfway through February. I've been working 14 hour night shifts all month, so forgive my late blogging! I finished about a week ago with several more room updates! Here are pictures.

Slightly simplified mantel - I'm not 100% satisfied, but it'll do for now. The framing around the fireplace has SO much white -- I'm not sure what to do with it!  Also, if you're wondering what that black thing underneath the candles is, it's my TV antenna. I need to get one that is able to be camouflaged a little easier. 

My newly updated dresser area! I put a mini-gallery wall surrounding the mirror, then moved my full length mirror into that corner as well.  I also moved all my jewelry into the bedroom as well, instead of in the super-cluttered bathroom where it was living before.  I picked up that vase at an antique store a few weeks back -- won't it look cute with a hydrangea in it?

It is WAY harder to write in chalk than Pinterest makes it look. 

Jewelry and full-length mirror.  The necklaces are hung on a key rack I got at Target for I think $6.99.   The earring holder I made myself a few months back and was originally in my bathroom. I painted a random picture frame white, and used a staple gun to attach screen door fabric to the back of the frame.  

A fun game to play in a charming old house is "guess where the electrical outlets are in this room?" Hint: They're never where you want or expect.  I actually have three outlets in my bedroom: two on the left side of the bed (yes, two outlets, with two plugs apiece, directly next to each other) and one behind the dresser in the opposite corner of the room.  Everything else is rigged up with extension cords. I had a pretty ghetto setup for charging my phone that involved a single-plug extension cord going from one side of the bed to the other, but I bought this 8-foot extension cord with a power strip built in and stuck it to the windowsill with Command strips.  (Without them, my life would be so much worse.) The nightstand, obviously, lives in front of this so it is not visible, and this way I can leave the lamp plugged in and also charge my phone, iPad, and/or computer whenever I need to.

I have something in mind that I might do with this transom later on, but for now: mirror tiles. $9.99 for a pack of 6 at Lowe's. I'm going to attach them with 3M Command Strips once I get a chance to pick up some that are big enough.  (I don't want to take any chances of mirrors falling down and shattering in the middle of the night...)

So there you go! I'm only two weeks late in posting this... not bad for month 1, right?  I'm going to try and tackle my bathroom over the next couple weeks since I switch back to day shift and will hopefully have a little time to occasionally work on something at night.  

xoxo,
allison

Bedroom Progress Update!

Man, the past couple of weeks have been crazy!  Just the typical kind of random craziness life seems to throw at you all at once.  My dishwasher, which has been broken for a couple months, is still not fixed after 3 trips from the appliance repair company.  I took my car in for an oil change and alignment, and it ended up a $400 adventure after being told my front two tires needed replacing.  (Thankfully James was in town to help me with that one!)  And Sunday night, to top it all off, I thought my iPhone was broken! The speaker and mic wouldn't work on any phone calls.  Thankfully, when I updated to iOS 7, which I still hadn't done, the issue seems to have resolved itself at least temporarily.  (I'm knocking on wood right now -- I'm not due for an upgrade until the summer, so I need this to last me till then!) In between all the chaos, I've found a little bit of time to work on my room.  I actually have this afternoon off as well as tomorrow afternoon, due to winter weather, so hopefully I'll be able to spend some quality cleaning and decorating time!  Here's what I've done so far! *

*There appears to have been some dust or something on my phone camera lens, because these pictures all look kind of smudge-y and poor quality.  My apologies! 

Window Film 

Here's a great lesson that I learned from this project: Read the instructions three times.  Maybe four.  I ended up wasting probably half of the film in the kit because I thought you were supposed to put the application tape directly on the film -- this does not work.  It's like trying to apply double sided tape to Saran wrap.  Not a good plan.  Also, cut generously -- I had to discard one set that I cut because they were about half an inch too narrow once I tried putting them on the window.  But luckily, there was enough left to cover my bedroom windows.  Once I figured out the correct way to install it, actually, it's quite easy!

The supplies needed for this project:  pretty simple. 

The cardboard that was hiding behind my blackout curtains.  Hopefully I won't need this anymore!

Hemming the Curtains
Thanks to Stitch Witchery, this was a pretty easy job.  Measure, fold, get a damp rag, put the Stitch Witchery where you want it, and hold the iron on each section for 10 seconds.  It worked really well on the decorative curtains; not so well on the blackout curtains.  It stuck in some spots but didn't work at all in other spots on that thick blackout fabric, so I just threw 3 safety pins in each and called it a day.  They don't show behind these, anyway, so it's okay, right?


Why does anyone sew when they have this stuff???


Action shot.  Side note: don't you love these curtains?  I ordered them on clearance from Urban Outfitters about a year or so ago, and I think they are perfect for my room! 


Putting Up the Mirror! 
Okay, so this is probably what I'm most proud of so far. I picked up this mirror from HomeGoods a couple weeks ago while I was in Huntsville on vacation.  I love that store! It was only $30, which I thought was a pretty good deal for the size it is.   I was pretty nervous about hanging it, because I have plaster walls.  If you're unfamiliar with plaster walls, they're weird.  And finicky.  And can crumble into bits at any given moment if you hammer a nail into them.  I haven't had as many problems with mine as some people on the Internet seem to have, but they're still unpredictable, and you can't use things like normal drywall anchors to hang stuff.  Also, it's nearly impossible to find a stud because there are strips of wood called lath all throughout the walls; that's what holds the plaster together.  But it means you can't use the "tapping" method I used to do all the time in my previous apartments. You also can't use a fancy stud finder tool, because all that does is find wood (I think) and that doesn't work here.  The best products for hanging stuff on plaster walls I've found are made by a company called Ook.  The nails in these kits are SUPER DUPER sharp at the ends, so they are supposed to cause as little crumbling as possible so that they can maintain a firm hold in the wall.  I went to Home Depot and found an Ook Mirror Hanging Kit for about 8 bucks or so.  It claimed you could hang 9 mirrors with the supplies in the kit.  Well, that's technically true if your 9 mirrors are all different styles of mirror -- it actually has an assortment of different ways to hang different types of mirrors, including clips that you would use for a frameless mirror.  But it did come with two picture hanging hooks that claimed to hold 50lbs, so that's the route I decided to go with this one.  The mirror had two hooks on the back, one on either side of the frame.  I measured the distance between them, used Ook nails to fasten the two picture hangers on the wall, and hung the mirror!  It was super quick and it feels really strong.  Of course, I was still really nervous the first night, thinking surely I would be awakened with a crash, two giant holes in my wall, a broken mirror -- but it's been up for a week now and seems pretty sturdy!

That smoothie cup is not a permanent fixture on the dresser.

For some reason it is hard to capture the true finish of the mirror with the camera, but it's less brown than it looks here.  I would call it pewter in color. 

The next step is to finish going through all my clothes.  Which seems like it is taking forever!  But I already have a decent sized box filled up with things to donate.  I also need to figure out a cute way to accessorize the dresser top.  From what I can find online and on blogs, it seems like I'm expected have a lamp on one side and fresh flowers on the other.  We'll see what I can come up with.  :)

xoxo,
allison

A Wood-Staining Success Story!

Here are the frames I made for James’s place last week!  I think they turned out pretty well.  I started out by using Rust-Oleum’s Driftwood wood stain, which I painted on with a brush and then rubbed off with paper towels.  I went through a lot of paper towels – sorry Mom, I probably owe you a roll.  It was a little lighter and greyer than I had pictured, so I ended up finding a partially-used can of a dark mahogany stain in the garage and mixing a little bit of that in with some Driftwood for the second coat.  I probably experimented too much, because if you’ll notice the frames are all slightly different in tone from each other, but I think it works pretty well! 

The finished product!

Close up of what the finish looks like

Our prototype of the gallery wall.  I have to say, this works way better than just randomly sticking nails in the wall and hoping the pictures  look okay. (Not that I've ever done that before or anything.)

The picture frames up in their new home!  They're all filled with photos, too, except for the 8x10s.  I'll get him to snap a pic once there are actually pictures in there to show you guys! 

*Note: Right before this step in the process, I suffered a devastating injury -- I sustained a second-degree burn to my pointer finger from a Pop-Tart.  So every bit of nailing and frame-hanging was done by the handsome guy who lives here, who deserves all the credit for this!

Close-up of the frames in their new home! 

I've made a little progress on my room this week! Keep an eye out tomorrow for a post on my new mirror and how the window film applying experiment turned out! 

xoxo,
allison

Procrastination, Pilot Lights, and Picture Frames

Last week was supposed to be my productive week.  Monday there was some football game on TV (I don't want to talk about it), Tuesday I worked on the kitchen and did some laundry, and Thursday I had a dinner to attend, so I had grand plans of Wednesday being my day to tackle a couple of the projects in my room.  I ended up getting done with my morning rounds in time to take an hour long lunch break before my afternoon clinic, so I came home, walked in my house around 11:45... and I smelled gas in the kitchen.  It was faint, but it was definitely gas.  If you recall, this was day 2 of the polar vortex (best weather name EVER, right?), so my gas heater had definitely been working on overdrive for the past couple days.  Luckily, I had already packed a PB&J sandwich that morning to eat since I didn't know if I'd have a chance to come home, so I brought my sandwich back outside to my deck and called the gas company.  They were oh so helpful and informed me they would have someone out within an hour and a half.  This phone call happened right around noon, and true to their word, at 1:20 pm my friendly Mobile Gas man showed up.  And luckily my new winter coat I'd ordered had arrived the night before, so I wasn't completely frozen to the bone after sitting outside for an hour and 20 minutes.  Anyways, the good news is that there wasn't a gas leak in my house.  I'll save you the long story, but a vent had popped off the top of my water heater and due to wind or cold or something, the pilot light was out.  The gas guy asked if I had someone who could fix this for me, and I told him my boyfriend definitely knew how to do this stuff, no worries.  I neglected to mention the fact that my boyfriend had recently moved six hours away, but I figured I could do it myself.  I mean, how hard could it be to light a pilot light.  Right?  

I came home from clinic that evening full of excitement, hope, and possibility.  Okay, not really.  I was slightly terrified.  Being a really conscientious homeowner, I'm not sure I had ever looked at my water heater before this week.  I mean, I know where it is, which is more than I can say for my sister. (Direct quote: "there's a water heater in my apartment?")  James had explained to me that some water heaters require you to actually use a lighter or an extra-long match to physically light the pilot light, so that's what I was preparing myself for.  Imagine my relief when I read the instructions on the side of the appliance which revealed to me that there was no need to supply my own flame for this endeavor.  According to the instructions, multiple discussions with James, and about 400 webpages I found after googling "how to light a pilot light without blowing my house up," all I had to do is turn a dial, turn another dial, hold down a red button, and rapidly press a black button, which would activate some sort of magic crystal, and the flame would light.  Piece of cake. 

Black dial, blue dial, red button, black button. No big deal. 

Guys, I literally tried this probably 20 times.  I would turn the dials to their proper settings, hold down the red button (which was sticking at first, but I got it working), then press the black button.  I tried pressing it once.  I tried pressing it 4-5 times in rapid succession.  I heard the "loud click" every single time.  But there remained no flame.  I would try several times until my hands got cold and stiff, then go inside and warm them under my now-lukewarm hot water, then go out and try again.  I took a brief break to watch Modern Family and tried again.  Finally, around 9:30 pm, I gave up. James, because he is awesome, called a handyman to come out the next day while I was at work, and he apparently lit it within 60 seconds.  So there's the story of my super-productive Wednesday, how I apparently am incapable at pressing buttons, and why I didn't get much work on my bedroom done last week.  

I'm on vacation from work this week, and I left Mobile on Friday to come up to Huntsville for the week.  I spent Saturday helping James move into his new apartment, which I love!  I'll put up some pictures of the apartment later this week.  He's driving back down to Mobile with me on Friday night, and I plan on roping him into helping me put up the window film and maybe tackle a few more of the bedroom projects.  So stay tuned for that!  

I know this blog is supposed to be about my house, but for my first documented DIY project, I'm going to stain some unfinished picture frames I got at Hobby Lobby to make a gallery wall for James's living room.  I love doing projects here at my mom's house because all the random stuff you need but don't think about is already here -- sandpaper, rags, brushes, etc.  These are the things that always make me have to run out to Michael's at 8pm on a Friday night or something when I'm at home.  

Frames, sandpaper, and stain laid out on Mom's kitchen table 

Driftwood colored stain -- how fun! 

I bought 2 8x10 frames, 2 5x7 frames, and 2 4x6 frames, as well as some Rust-Oleum Driftwood stain.  I also found this little tray for 5 bucks that I plan on staining to match; I think it'd look cute on a coffee table or end table to help tie the room together.   I'm excited to try this; I hope it turns out well!  My only wood-staining experience didn't work so well, but it involved re-staining an already finished coffee table that I didn't sand enough.  I think these unfinished wood frames will take up the stain well and hopefully have that greyish "reclaimed wood" look!  I love all this greyish-brown aged wood that I'm seeing everywhere lately. I'm afraid to try it in my house, though, because I have 1900 square feet of warm cherry-colored hardwood floors and I just feel like it wouldn't look right.  So what better place to try it than an apartment with carpet and beige walls?  I'm heading out right now to the garage to start sanding, where I've set up a folding chair and my iPad with a couple episodes of Pretty Little Liars to watch while I work.  I love vacation! 

January Goals: Master Bedroom

Hello, friends! During January, I'm tackling my master bedroom.  As promised, here are some "before" pictures, along with my list of goals for the month!

 View from the bedroom door. My friend Christen made me that painting when I moved in; isn't it awesome? She even sneakily found the exact shade of grey paint I used to paint the walls and used that to make it!

 Fireplace and my two (tiny) closets on the left wall.

 Dresser full of clutter and a window (used to be a door in a previous life) on the right wall.  Note the weird space above the door -- it used to be a transom, I think, but is now covered over with wood and looks awkward. 

 One of my overstuffed closets.

 Left nightstand

 Right nightstand. 

Closet door that doesn't close (isn't that fun!) and my awkward shoe rack.

GOALS FOR THE MASTER BEDROOM:

1. Hem the curtains on the windows behind my bed.  I have two sets of curtains on these windows -- one set of "blackout" panels and the decorative ones on top, both hung by tension rods.  They are both about 4-5 inches too long for the windows, and right now I just have them kind of bunched up on the window sill. Which means they never hang right.  I have a sewing machine, so I should be able to knock this project out in an hour or so. 

2. Put energy-saving window film on the windows behind my bed.  Apparently in 1928 glass was a lot thinner than it is today or something, because all of my windows are sealed shut and I swear the cold wind just blows straight through these onto my face while I'm sleeping.  I found some insulating window film at Home Depot that would have cost $50-60 with the "installation kit" you had to buy with it, but then I looked on Amazon and found a different kind for $10 that actually got pretty good reviews.  You are supposed to somehow use a hair dryer to seal it to the windows.  I figure for $10 it's worth a shot, right? I ordered it with Prime, so it should be here by Tuesday.

3. Find something to put in the weird little space above the awkward door/window. Framed picture? Something? I don't know. 

Hello, empty white plywood.  

Also, the blinds are a little too short.  That's a story for another day.

4. Do something with the fireplace. I know I want to rearrange the mantel because the stuff on there right now is kind of blah.  The actual fireplace, which is non-working, is too shallow to put much in, but I would like at least something to distract from the crumbly stones. 

5. Get rid of some clothes.  Okay, a LOT of clothes.  This one's pretty self-explanatory. 

6. Figure out something to do with my shoes.  They currently take up the floor in one closet, a door rack on a closet door, and a random shoe rack in the middle of my floor.  I have a shoe problem.  Obviously I plan to go through and get rid of some (hopefully while I'm also working on #5), but I'm brainstorming ways to store the remaining pairs that are slightly prettier than what I've got going on now. 

Fun fact: this closet door does not close because the latch doesn't work. Yay!

7. Give the nightstands and their drawers some organization and purpose. Right now the shelves are just random piles of books, and the drawers have things in them but are not organized well or used to their full potential. 

8. Get matching lampshades for my two white lamps.  I just bought the second lamp base the other day.  I think the two bases coordinate well but I hate the plain white cone-shaped lampshade on the old lamp, so I want to get two drum shades that are the same as each other to put on each base.  Maybe something with a gray and white pattern, or even a solid color.

9. Put up the 3-4 picture frames I have laying around.  And actually put pictures in them. 

10. Move full-length mirror from hallway into bedroom.  In addition, find a mirror to go above the dresser.  I may possibly do a smaller-sized mirror clustered with a few photo frames around it instead of a traditional dresser mirror.   Since I will have the full-length mirror in here I don't necessarily need a huge mirror to be functional, but I want the wall above the dresser to look interesting. 

11. Put a bed skirt on my bed. I had/have one of these somewhere; I washed it a few months ago, it ripped a hole, and I never put it back on.  I need to either repair it or find a new one. 

I'm sure I will think of some more things to do as I go along, but I feel like this is a pretty good start!  Stay tuned for more updates and some pictures. Comments and suggestions are welcome!

xoxo,
allison