Craft Room Renovation

Earlier this summer the kids went to "summer camp" at Mimi's house. That bought me just over a week of free time and true to myself I picked a project to tackle. This time it was the craft room, well and Emma's room but that's a different post. Feel free to skip to the bottom and see the transformation
From the moment we bought the house I knew this tiny room, or extra large closet was destine to be my awesome craft room. I've been using it since we moved in and painted the original dingy walls with a couple (yes a couple) of free sample paints I had laying around.  It was fun but not really as functional as I originally envisioned.
So here it is with the door removed, a hideous but working fan we found in the attic (there is no air vent since it is technically a closet, the fan was a must,) and my sample paints. This is pretty much how I'd been using it.
So keep in mind (standing looking into the room) it is about 7.5 feet deep and 4.5 feet wide, angles of pictures are a bit awkward and the pics are pretty bad

This is how it looked, looking in from the hall. There was a bunch of clutter on that back wall but I had already started clearing when I thought about taking pictures. 

This is the desk that was there. It was counter height and about 12 inches deep. Impossible to use for sewing so I da to drag my sewing machine upstairs or to the kitchen table when I wanted to use it. Kind of defeats the purpose of having a craft room.

There was a light already mounted over the desk, behind the panel with the "R" hanging on it. Someone was obviously using this as some sort of craft room or office before too. Obviously at this point it was more of a glorified storage closet. 

So I started with the desk carefully taking it apart. I knew I needed to save as much as possible to reuse. like always I try to keep my budget small.

Once that was done I had to patch the wall and paint, which I found at Lowe's as a $5 mis-tint. Score! I always, always check Lowe's mis-tints. Every time I go in and sometimes I just go to check. It there is ever a color I think I may use at some point I grab it. Its so worth it. The white color was also a mis-tint enamel.  Next I painted and installed pegboard (tip: pegboard cannot be mounted directly to the wall if you plan to use hooks on it, don't ask me how I found that out) and the new desk on the back wall. The desk was two pieces of wood from Lowe's that I stained and and sealed (I think they were $12 ea). The brace underneath was "reclaimed" from the previous desk and the white panel on top used to be the pink panel on top of the old desk. 

The wonderful pegboard idea came from Traci over at Beneath My Heart, go check her beautiful make over out!  

I used this pegboard organizer kit to help get things moving, about $9

I love this thing, its so handy. 

I also mounted this thread holder on the wall so I can see what I have easily.

I used scrap wood and L brackets to make these little paint shelves and utilize that narrow wall next to the doorway. (Those are Eli's sweet little feet there)

To the other side of the door I scored these two baskets for only $6 each at Garden Ridge. Perfect as a paper drop for mail and school work) 

I bought a couple of jars to hang underneath the shelf they hold all kinds of things, buttons, beads, wall anchors... 

I used more sale baskets to hide some of my other things...

A long, long time ago, my granddad made each of the grand kids a giant bulletin board. It was huge and perfect for this wall. 

So here it is. Pretty basic but the desk is not 24" deep and the right height for sewing. And I really love the room. 

For those of you that skipped to the end (as always here are the before and after shots) 

Left wall 

Back wall

Right wall 

Before

After

So what do you think? It's been about a month since I've done it and I really love it.

My House got a Facelift

When we bought our house last year I had to work hard to get past its "elevation," our Realtor's word for the way the front looked.  It was over grown and had horrible stucco that  looked like a bad icing job. Not to mention, the color was pinkish in my eyes. Scroll to the bottom if you want to skip the whole process and just see the before and after

First things first I knew I had to paint that door and lose the rose bushes. They were pretty but I don't know how or like to deal with roses. Like everything else they were too big for the front door anyway. Unlike everything else, the porch lights were too small (and they were pineapples) they had to go too. 

So I went red, the only thing that seemed to make sense, and planted a couple hibiscus (the new porch lights were still too small.)

We spent a year here and I watched all the azaleas bloom across the front which helped ease the cringe I felt when I looked just past them, closely, at anything else. However, we had several people come take a look and inform me that there was no way to gracefully save the plants and get control of them at the same time. So out they went. We tore up a giant bed of weeds smack in the middle of the yard and re-sodded this spring, added some planters flanking the door, made a little seating area in front of the fire place, added 6 trees to the yard, and eventually put in some hedges under the big windows .

Next we decided to go ahead and replace the windows and get the stucco replaced before it became a problem. That's where the real face lift started.  I combined several windows in the front (the two on either side of the fireplace and the large picture window on the far right)  for a more updated feel.

Next the siding and paint. I decided to go with Sherwin William Texas Sage (green) for the siding, SW Creamy on the trim, and SW Naval on the door. I was so nervous to put color up on the house and drove around several times looking at other houses with similar brick color. In the end I'm glad I did. I think it looks beautiful. We still need a few flowers, a little sod, and some mulch, but I am sure happy not to have the ugliest house on the block anymore. 

 

For those of you who skipped to the bottom...

It looks so different we've had several neighbors stop while we're out front and tell us how much they like what we've done. I've even had people stop me while I was picking up Emma at school and tell me the pass the house everyday and like what we're doing. It makes me feel good to live in a neighborhood where people take notice and care about the way things look. Not to mention, are nice enough to stop and tell you. As for us, we love it!  

Your opinion counts!

Help me make my house pretty!
OK first let me back up a little. We've decided its time to put new windows in our house. since it makes the most sense to do the siding at the same time, we'll be taking one that project too.  The stucco actually needs replacing and not just because its (in my opinion) that horrible, very textured, cupcake frosting looking stuff...there is actual damage (aging.)

As for the windows, they are 40 years old and need to be updated but lets face it, the discomfort of summer here in Texas plays a big factor in that too.
Although, I am really excited to bring our house out of the 70's look and modernize it a bit, all these decisions have started to overwhelm a little and I'm becoming a little indecisive. I think I can only picture so much change at I time.  That, my friends, is where you com in. I need you guys to weigh in on this.
So here is the house as it is now

All the cupcake stucco will be replaced with regular siding running horizontally. The windows will look a little different because we plan on combining a few... 

That part is about all I have decided on.  Next I'm considering adding something to the gables.  We originally talked about doing either the two side gables in one material and the larger in a different material (ideally I like a wood shingles look but its just not in the budget) 

And lets be real, my house doesn't look like that. So I considered maybe doing a siding and a flat stucco. In the end we felt like just doing all three gables with a horizontal siding would be the best route. Then a rep with the siding company gave me this idea... 

Just a little wood detail at the top of the gables. And this house is actually siding so you can really get a feel for how it would look. 

What do you think? Maybe even just on the big gable? My mom didn't like the idea but I thought it was cute. Im worried the house will look really plain  having just siding across the top, we'll be losing that batten board detail. 

So that's the first thing I need your opinion on.

NEXT is the color.  They will be repainting everything but I am at a total loss in this department.  I am not a huge fan of the brick color

(what is that, pink?)

(or the roof) but nobody asked me when they built it 40 years ago and we obviously aren't about to take off a perfectly good roof just to change colors. 

So I decided I would go with a creamy white color for sure but on the trim or on the siding? I really love this combo and thought about doing cream on the siding and the trim in the teal 

1. I don't know if I am brave enough to pick something other than tan.

2. Does it go ok with our hideous brick? -painting the brick is not an option at the moment 

SO then I thought, maybe I could paint my door the teal and just use a nice cream and tan color combo on the house. Which brings me to one more decision what goes on the trim and what goes on the siding? BTW to throw one more thing into "picture this in your mind" the new windows will have white frames. 

As you can see I am in decision making limbo and I have to get it all approved by our lovely HOA before we can move forward so in other words...help please! I'll take opinions, color suggestions (if you have an actual name, even better) anything!

Oh and happy Valentines Day! My husband got me windows and siding - I'm not sure if its my personality, or if its because we've been married long enough now, that  makes me super excited about this!.

Deck the Halls

I truly LOVE decorating for Christmas, Its the Most Wonderful Time of the Year. While, I'd love to have a large gathering and have you all over to see the house, its just not happening this year. However, I'd still love to give you a tour of our Home for the Holidays. Had enough Christmas music references yet? Alright, alright, turn on your own music and come on in...

The kids helped pick out the tree, aren't they festive? 

Here, a little better? 

We've never had a window we could put the tree in so I was glad it fit here. You can see it right when you walk in the front door and I can enjoy it from the couch while I catch up on my mid season finales.

I love everything about sitting in the room. The light, the tree, the fireplace...

My mom made these stockings for the kids. It took her almost a year on each of them, but I am so glad she did it. They'll have them forever now and its pretty special.

Even the couch got a little Christmas cheer this year, and I'm not talking about the wine I drink there when the kids go down for the night.

Our dining room and my home coffee bar

Several of my windows have snowflakes hanging in them for some added sparkle.

I found these mercury glass snowflake lights and had to have them.

Leaving the dining room and heading into the kitchen 

The dish washing window got in on the festivities. Snowflakes make washing dishes not as bad and occasionally little bubbles will float up from the dish soap, then its a real party.

  

My small collection of Santa pics are on the sill. Now that I have space to put them out I am going to have to round up the rest -minus last year because the kids were terrified of the jolly fella and refused pictures with him.

What's the limit on strands of garland inside your home? I may be pushing it...it takes about 10 min to unplug everything before bed at night. 

 Some people make Christmas cookies, this year I made Christmas pillows.

I walk by the tree a thousand times a day and never tire of looking at it. 

That about rounds it out folks. Thanks for stopping by. 

Merry Christmas!!