Chalk it Up to Goodwill

Have I told you about the Goodwill stores here?  They are amazing.  I hated the Goodwills where we used to live.  They were skanky and gross and expensive.  But here?  They're still skanky and gross, and sometimes expensive, but they've got good stuff.  What kind of stuff?

Well, for one, Target donates all of the clearance items that don't sell.  Yes.  You read that correctly.  It's amazing.  So the kids and I swing by the local store at least once a week.

When we first moved here, we didn't have any of our furniture.  Still don't, actually.  We're {patiently?} waiting for our house to sell.  We lived for 27 days {not that I was counting} in the 'resort camping' lifestyle.  I'm not a fan.  We now have a king-sized bed and a lovely new sofa.

Before that lovely sofa arrived, I wanted to DIY some type of coffee table.  I decided that I'd know it when I saw it, and headed off to the old GW.  That's what the cool kids are calling it these days:  GW.  I came home with this beauty:

MacGyver did not share my vision.  Also, that is not our lovely new sofa.  That is a crappy Ikea thing we got years ago.  And a lawn chair.  Ah, memories.

But I knew she had good bones, and decided to make the top a chalkboard.  I knew the adults kids would love it.  I scampered off to Lowe's to grab some chalkboard paint and nearly had an aneurysm.  $25 for an itty-bitty can?  No thanks.  I decided to try Martha Stewart's method for chalkboard paint.

 I very much suggest using a throw-away container for mixing.  The obvious choice for mixing would be a paint stick.  I didn't have one, so I used both a straw and a plastic spoon.

Since I really wanted the actual look of a chalkboard, I went with a classic gray color, but you can do any color you want.  I bought the 94-cent carton of grout, and a little $2 trial size of gray paint, so this was a pretty cheap project.  For the legs, I decided to add some color and go bright yellow.  I had a coupon for a free tester from Benjamin Moore, so I scouted out the local Benjamin Moore retailer for that.

The whole project was pretty easy.  Here's the finished table:

The verdict?  We all love it.  The Sunbean loves drawing on it, and we think it will be great for keeping score while playing games with friends.  The space still needs some serious work, but we're happy with what we've got so far.

Here's a cost breakdown for you:

table (Goodwill):  $10
grout (Lowe's):  $.94
gray paint (Lowe's):  $1.94
fresh foam brush (Lowe's):  $.98
yellow paint (Creative Paints):  free
supplies:  already owned

total:  $13.86

Winning!

The Kids' New Room

Last week I debuted our new master bedroom, so here's another big project we've been working on:  the shared sleeping space for our kids.  I didn't realize how big of a challenge this would be.  We explored every option that our 1,000 square feet have to offer, and a shared room seemed to be the best option for us.

In addition to the challenge of beds, toys, and clothing for two crammed into one small room, we have a boy/girl combo here.  So that kind of rules out a ton of design schemes.  I wanted something that could look a little girly, but not too bad for Little Dude.

When I first found out I was pregnant, I saw an ad for Sherwin Williams that used the paint chip Aquatint.  I fell in love with the color, and wanted to use it somehow in the room.

We ended up using 50% of the color, and love the way it looks.

 

The first thing I decided on was brown accents.  I picked up a few of those brown polka-dot crib sheets at Target {on clearance}, and was then on the hunt for the Sunbean's bedding.  I knew it needed to have aqua and brown, and I wanted something undeniably girly, since the rest of the room would be more neutral.  I found this at Pottery Barn {clearance + free shipping!}.  It was the perfect piece to pick up some more color for the room.

I really love the reading nook we made for the Sunbean {and Little Dude, I suppose}.  It's the old elementary school teacher coming out in me.  We used this tutorial, and really didn't change much.  The wonky part of the wall?  That's the Sunbean's actual name spelled out in wooden letters.

I totally scored this white dresser at Target one day.  Loooooong story, but it was clearanced down, we bought and started to put it together, only to realize it was damaged more than we thought.  I called back and spoke to a manager, and I got to name my own price.  A brand-new white dresser that needed minimal repairs for $50?  Yes please.

The outfit is Little Dude's blessing outfit.  I've never had anything monogrammed before.  It was exciting.  The poor little guy has quite the girly stack of cloth diapers up there.  My favorite part is the number knobs.  Originally from Pottery Barn, we found them on eBay and painted them turquoise.  I made the changing pad cover.

Here's Little Dude's space.  Love, love, love this crib {from Walmart, of all places}.  I love the modern lines.  It doesn't have a huge presence, so it's perfect for a small room like this.  You can't see it super well, but I made a crib skirt that matches the stripes on the changing pad.  I also DIYed the lamp shade cover.  Little Dude's name is hanging to the right of this picture, but I cropped it out.

Our DIY light is probably one of my favorite parts of the room.  It's just three chinese lanterns from Ikea + three light kits {also Ikea}.  MacGyver is super skilled, so he rigged it right up to the light-socket-thing, and we added that little cap {just a few bucks at Lowe's}.

This is probably the most accurate picture of the colors, too.  We added crown moulding {my new obsession}, and painted the ceiling with the leftovers from the bathroom.  I think it's called Limelight.

For the main artwork, I picked up a pack of cute flashcards at a boutique when we were in Florida.  I've seen them other places, though...they're called Alphabeasties.  I mounted them on scrapbook paper, and framed them.  They are hung all around the room, accented with those white flowers that I can't get enough of.

I DIYed these in Photoshop {heavily inspired by something I found on etsy} for above Little Dude's crib.

We all love the way it turned out, and the Sunbean claims that she's excited to share her room with Little Dude.  It has been a fun project to satisfy my nesting needs!

Master Bedroom Re-Do

We had quite the lengthy list of things that we wanted to get done before Little Dude's arrival.  On the top of the list was figuring out a plan for our master bedroom.

We live in an 80's ranch, which is to say, we have small bedrooms and small closets.  It makes planning any sort of decor difficult, because so much of the space is taken up by dressers/nightstands/beds.

When we got married, MacGyver's parents gave us a beautiful bedroom set.  Dark cherry wood, a sleigh bed....perfect.  It had two nightstands, a dresser, and a chest of drawers.  Just one problem:  it really didn't fit in our room.  With the headboard, footboard, and the rest of the matching pieces, we could barely walk in our room.  Not good.

Then we started the whole "Less is More" philosophy, and committed to loving every single thing in our home.  If we both didn't love it (or use it!), it was gone.   While we loved the idea of our bedroom furniture, it just wasn't working in a house our size.  And since we don't have plans to move in the immediate future, that left us with one choice:  get rid of the furniture.

This actually worked out well.  MacGyver's parents wanted to use it for their master bedroom.  That made me happy.  So here's a 'before' picture of our room.  It's not totally accurate, because we'd already removed the headboard and footboard.  Also, we are not pigs.  It's trashed because we didn't think the snap a picture until we'd already starting taking all of our clothes out of the dressers.

We really didn't have a design scheme going on.  We prefer modern decor, and our bedroom set was a little more traditional.  We were stumped trying to come up with a good balance between the two.

Then I saw the bedroom renovation that these cute people did.  It sounded perfect for our needs, so off to Ikea we went for some stand-alone wardrobes.  Rather than using any type of dresser, we planned to use the wardrobes for all of our clothes.  Instead of getting the pricey doors, we opted for some curtains (also from Ikea).  Behold, the finished product:

MacGyver added a header at the top of the wardrobes to make them appear to be 'built-in', rather than big ol' white boxes (I trust him, but I'm not gonna lie.  I took Tylenol PM for a solid week before I believed the header wasn't going to come crashing down on me in the night).  We love the paint color in our kitchen so much that we just brought it into the bedroom.  We already owned the bedding and artwork, so that was easy.

One big change was adding the crown moulding.  This is the first room we've done that to, and I love it.  I can't wait to continue it through the house.  I thought it would make the ceiling look short, but we love to paint our ceilings a color other than white, so I don't think it shortened it at all.

Here's a view from the foot of the bed:

I love how soft and romantic it feels.  I made the headboard out of some MDF and canvas.  Super simple and it cost less than 10 bucks.  Every single piece of clothing we own is in our wardrobes.  We have some drawers and shelves, as well as hanging space, so everything fits well.  We do have a closet in the room (to the left in the picture above), and we keep longer items (dresses, tunic, etc), shoes, bags, and our laundry basket in there.

Here's a shot of the other side of the room:

We'll have to come up with another plan for that corner after Little Dude starts sleeping in his crib.  Maybe a parson's chair or a large mirror?  Or some type of plant?  For now our (homemade) bassinet fills the space nicely.  I DIYed the art on that wall with Photoshop, personal mementos, and family pictures.

We really love our new room.  It is really easy to keep clean with the wardrobes containing all of our clothing, and it just feels light and airy.  With the floorplan of our house, just about everyone that comes over sees our bedroom, and now I'm proud to show it off!

Design Challenge: Boy/Girl Rooms

Have you ever had to design a space for both a boy and a girl to share?  It's tough!  Especially since they aren't the same age.  It's been a fun challenge, though.  Last weekend, we got the carpet down in the bedroom, along with fresh baseboard and crown moulding.  It looks so great!

I kind of want to wait until I'm all done to share pics, but here are some things I've been gathering this week.

These adorable knobs I found on eBay.  I've been looking for them for months, and they finally showed up.  I'm so excited to get them!  They aren't going to stay red, but I'm not sure what color they'll be.

This fabric from etsy.  I've got something super crafty up my sleeve with this stuff.



And this beauty should be arriving this week.  Just so we're clear, the bed, not the bedding.  It goes so well with the bed that MacGyver's mom made for the Sunbean (his resourcefulness is hereditary).  I love that it doesn't have a raised back, and the drawer underneath is a plus since space is at a premium in our house.

By the time all of these supplies arrive, hopefully I'll have filled, sanded, and painted the holes in the baseboards and moulding (from when we hung it).

Oh, and this cute little thing is on my Target list.  I'm freakishly obsessed with preventing SIDS (when I was a social worker, one of my clients died from SIDS), so a fan is a must-have.  We've always gone the ceiling-fan route, but the fan we have has got to go.  Sooooo ugly.  I can't find one that I like/want to spend money on, so we're trying the table fan this time.  We have a great idea for the ceiling light, so hopefully it pans out.  It's homemade, and you never know about these things.

I guess I can share that the room is painted in this color, though only 50%.  It's Aquatint from Sherwin Williams.

So those are the plans for the joint sleep space for now.  It has changed 100 times so far, and I'm sure it will change a little before all is said and done.  We've got less than 8 weeks until the official due date, so it's time to get moving!

Our Dining Area

A few months ago I blogged about our 'new' kitchen.  We finally finished up some odds and ends of the other side of the room.

We've had the table and chairs for about 4 years.  We got them for Christmas from my parents one year, because 3 of the 4 chairs of our ancient set broke in just one week.  Talk about an expensive week.

I made the artwork with scrapbook paper and mod podge, and the frames and art display thing are from Ikea.  The lights are from Ikea, too.  See those nice white curtains?  I made them with canvas and some grommets that I got at Joann's.  What you don't see is that I had to do them twice....measure twice, cut once.  Lesson learned.

And here's our mini-mudroom.  This used to be a half wall, but when we put the fireplace in, we extended it up and added a cubby.  Perfect for cookbooks and dishes.

We're so happy with our fresh new kitchen!

Our Free Ikea Couches

Our house is going through a major reno, and the family room/living room/only large space in our house was one of the first places we started.

See, we have a three-bedroom home.  We have 1 (and a half) kids, and a home-based business.  So, we've got a kids' room, an office, and our bedroom.  Translation:  no place for guests.  We actually have guests come pretty often.  My mom watches the Sunbean for me on Wednesday mornings, and so she spends the night on Tuesday nights.  We used to have a twin bed in our office, but I booted it out in favor of more space.

I was making my poor mom sleep on the sofa every time she stayed, and MacGyver and I ended up sleeping on the sofa or floor if we had other guests.  Really not ideal.  We bought a basic sofa bed at Ikea a few months back, and it took us exactly 10 seconds to realize it is N.O.T comfortable.  It looks great in the office, which is a plus, but you couldn't pay me to sleep on it.  Back to square one.

We really needed a decent sofa bed.  By this time, MacGyver was so sick of me lamenting about our need to have space for guests, that he told me I could do anything as long as it didn't cost money.  In the words of Barney Stinson, Challenge Accepted!

Four years ago, we bought some decent microfiber sofas in a neutral color.  They were ultra comfortable, and never stained.  I really loved them, but lately I'd really been wanting white furniture.  With children.  Call me crazy.

I got the crazy idea to list our perfectly-good sofas on Craigslist, just to see what they would go for.  I listed them at $100 less than what we paid 4 years ago.  My jaw dropped to the floor when they were gone 48 hours later.  Seriously?  I'd just sold 4-year-old furniture for just $100 less than what we'd paid.  Hollar.

That left us with one giant room and nowhere to sit.  The Sunbean was seriously excited.

That very afternoon, we loaded up MacGyver's mom's minivan and made a pilgrimage to Ikea.  Our sofa money netted us lunch, dinner, 2 Starbucks trips, gas there and back, new dishes, AND new family room furniture.

We got this fabulous fold-out sofa and a simple parson's chair.  Both have slipcovers that can be removed and washed, so I'm not totally stressed about staining them.  The bed is ultra-cozy (we both like it better than our own mattress) and the sofa is great, too.

We do have limited seating, and we plan to get a few more chairs when we have more money.  You know, when we win the lottery.  Or some unknown rich uncle dies.

I'm LOVING the new look.  The best part?  Totally free.

I'm a Granite Girl

 Our poor kitchen has endured oh-so-many changes since we've lived here.  First, we painted her yellow:

 And accessorized with red?  Why, oh why?  What were we thinking?  No one knows.

Let's not forget the absolutely horrible granite tile countertop:

See, when we moved in, there was one of those fake wood formica jobs.  We didn't like it, and MacGyver's mom had some granite tile laying around (she's the original MacGyver, if you didn't know).  She offered to help me tile it, and I was pumped.

Sadly, it didn't turn out:

I've been wanting to re-do it since the second it was done.  Was it the uneven tiles?  The yellowing epoxy grout?  My perpetual fear of all manner of germs living in the cracks?  Hard to say.

Herein lies the problem.  Once you've had granite, if only for 5 seconds, you can never go back.  Despite our counter's fatal flaws, I loved its heat-resistant properties and gleaming surface.  I just couldn't bring myself to pay money to get something that I didn't even want.

Then, one fabulous evening (four years later, mind you), we got a call from MacGyver's mom.  She knows a granite guy.  He could install new countertops for a fraction of the cost the next morning (we're talking less than formica).  Take it or leave it.  And take it we did.  11:00pm, and we rolled up our sleeves and tore out that wretched granite tile.  Oh, the joy.

Us being, well, us, we couldn't just stop there.  The new solid-surface granite counter inspired an entire renovation.  Behold, our new and much-loved kitchen:

 Is is not fabulous?  I love it.  Love it.  This is one of the first projects that we've completed that I've absolutely loved.

And a close-up of those fantastic counters:

 If only I could cook...