New carpet revealed!

Last week we had new carpet put in the house. The carpet in this house has never been replaced. That's 14 year old carpet! Yuck! Anyway, with a new baby on the way I decided that it was time to replace it. I didn't want another baby rolling around on the nasty old carpet. 

My husband and I were at odds about the color choices. All I know about carpet is that the foam mat placed underneath the carpet is really important to how the carpet feels and wears over time. Also, the darker the color the smaller the space feels. When I picked up the carpet samples, I found the perfect color, I didn't even feel like I needed to see other options once I saw it. Problem? Trevor didn't like it. He liked a much darker color. A couple weeks went by and we were nearing the date to have the carpet installed so a decision had to be made. Trevor told me that he was going to let me choose the color, he just wanted to get the new carpet in. So my color it was!

I have to admit, on the day they came to install the carpet I was pretty nervous. What if I chose the wrong color? Well, as soon as I saw it I knew I chose the right one. It was perfect and even darker than I thought it was going to be- which was one reason Trevor didn't like the sample, he thought it looked too light.  

Here are some before pictures of the old carpet:

                                                      

James running around his room :)

Master Bedroom

 Hallway

Stairs

Nursery after Trevor pulled up the old carpet and padding

After we pulled out all the carpet and padding I hurried and taped everything off and gave all the baseboards a new fresh coat of white paint- they were pretty beat up and in desperate need of a paint job after years of wear and tear and paint drippings.

James's room with the new carpet!

The Nursery

The Hallway

The Stairs

The Master Bedroom

The color is called Fossil. It is gray- some of the pictures it looks sort of brown but it's not at all. I am in love! It complements the walls and furniture perfectly. It feels like we got a new house!

Cushions for the Breakfast Nook

Well, I think the hard part is over. Last night and this morning I finally tackled putting the fabric on the cushions. I think I got WAYY too much fabric- thanks to my handy husband we were able to use the whole piece we cut. Guess I will be making lots of pillow case covers and maybe some drapes?? It's a good thing the fabric is pretty!

I originally bought two 3" foam pads meant for camping at Home Depot- I looked everywhere for a foam pad that would work for this project that wouldn't cost an arm and a leg. The pads at Home Depot were only $20.00 and they were perfect!

After doing some research online I discovered the best way for cutting foam pads. An electric knife! Who knew? Some ladies attempted using bread knives and I'm sure that took forever and looked like a hack job. I decided to look for an electric knife. So the hubs and I took a trip to one of our favorite thrift stores, D.I.! Low and behold there was an electric knife there for $5.00 with three extra blades. Score.

My husband did pretty much everything for the next few steps. He measured the foam pads and discovered that if he cut them just so he would only need one foam pad for both seats! So I returned the second pad. 

Trevor used spray adhesive to attach the foam pads to the wood, let that dry and started to trim the foam. I helped with some of the cutting and seriously, that knife cut through the pad like butter. Don't ever cut a pad with anything BUT an electric knife!

After the pads were cut to size, I sanded all of the edges of the wood, especially the corners- I didn't want years of wear and tear to make holes in the fabric. 

 

We rolled the fabric out, measured and started cutting. 

I cut two strips of ribbon to attach to the end of each cushion so I could lift them up to access storage underneath.

The fun part, stretching the fabric over the cushion and stapling. 

Fabric in place, added the ribbon tab.

 

Yes, it's not too pretty or finished looking yet- I plan to paint most of the wood and work on a way to organize it better.

All covered up and in place.

 I like how the tab turned out. :)

Fast forward to the part where both seats are covered and in place:

And just because I always love a good before and after:

If you want to see the entire step by step process go here:
http://paintmeshabby.blogspot.com/2012/03/update-on-dining-nook.html

Thanks for stopping by!

Vinyl for the Kitchen

I have seen so many cute CUTE pictures of kitchen canisters with vinyl wording on them. 

These are a couple of my favorites:

The Painted Hive

Crafts for a Rainy Day 

My canisters are definitely not as cute as these, I would love to find some neat glass ones but these are going to have to do until I find some:

Fun with Vinyl

So, my sister bought a Silhouette SD for her daughter and it hardly got used so she lent it to me to figure out how to use it and then teach her. I had to have my sister in-law help me because after watching a few Youtube tutorials I wanted to send it back from where it came!

Last night she came over and helped me learn the basics.  

It is lots of fun! I started slapping vinyl all over my house! 

Here is a project I just did today:

There is a story that goes behind this one. I had a frame on the wall by our bed that said: "Always Kiss me Goodnight". I loved it. Well, for some unknown reason Trevor knocked it off the wall one morning and the frame and glass shattered. I'm not sure as to how he managed to do it but I have wanted to replace it ever since. 

This is all that was left so I kept it to remind me to re-make it.

As you probably know I have a lot of these old windows and I love them so I decided I would add vinyl to this one.

So this is how it turned out.

It was hard to take pictures of but I promise you can read it even though the wall is a cream color. 

 

DIY Coat Rack

So, yesterday I decided that I wanted to make a coat rack. 

Earlier this week I was at Hobby Lobby and had some birthday money and decided that it was burning a hole in my pocket. So I thought "I'll just buy some cute hooks and let inspiration flow on how I'll use them." They were all 50% off so that also helped me break down and make the purchase. 

I looked through my pile of scraps for some wood that I could re-use. I found a piece of bead board that was the perfect size, and because the bead board was too thin, my hubby cut out a piece of wood to glue to the back of it to make it more substantial.

Here's what I started with:

I found some wood glue in the garage and some clamps...

I glued the wood and clamped it all together making it flush:

Let that sit for about 30 minutes and got started on the paint.

I have a few sample sized paints from Valspar that I have for small projects.
For this project I used Reflection Pond and Piano Brown:

 First coat of dry brushing with Reflection Pond 

(I wanted to keep some of the black showing through)

 A bit of Piano Brown:

Second coat with Reflection Pond:

 Dried and ready to sand...
(Ps. Say hello to my little friend! Trevor bought him for me as an early Christmas gift a few months back and we have become the best of friends ever since!!)
 

Sanded with hooks in place for mounting:

I changed my mind last minute and decided to add another hook

All finished and ready to hang, I just need to run to Home Depot and get some brackets that will hold it up- it's a heavy little sucker!