Master Bedroom... Doors and Closets, Oh My!

While we were cleaning up from dinner tonight (turkey chili with basmati rice) Drew decided to do his part:

After dinner we put Drew to bed and then I worked on an application for Lowe's to win $100,000 for a home makeover. I'm not sure why I spend time doing things like that but I figure someone has to win, so why not us? You had to write in 300 characters (less than two text messages!) why you need a makeover and how MyLowe's could help. And then you needed to submit a photo. Here is the most pathetic one I could think of... our future master bedroom (it's the only one we've sort of started destroying without putting it back together!) and it's how the bedroom looked (without the vaulted ceiling) before we started this whole project.

In an effort to continue making progress on the master bedroom I gave our sliding door to the bathroom a second coat of spray paint (Rustoleum's Glossy White). You should have heard AJ freak out about me using aerosol spray paint in the bedroom. I guess he's right, it was sort of stupid, but I did want to finish the door so I could shave off the paint drips and clean it.

Here is what we started with:

And the view of what that side of the room looked like last week, yep that's a giant pile of clean laundry on my bed:

Here's a better view of the bottom of the door before AJ finished painting it:

Note that now the joints are patched above the door and the door is fully painted. We obviously still have work to do but it looks a little bit more finished... and we love the color of the paint (Benjamin Moore's Moonshine). It just feels so restful when you walk into the bedroom.

Remember how I based our paint and headboard choice on the curtains I planned on using for the closet you saw above on the side of the door? Well, sometimes even the best of plans fail. I didn't like it. Onto the search for wood doors that we will paint a crisp white!

An outtake once Drew figured out AJ was holding up the curtain... :)

What have you got planned today? We are going to a fabulous building outlet near us to search for solid wood pre-hung doors for the closets, grocery shopping, doing endless dishes and going on a walk with Jade.

Fill me in... what fun projects are you working on this week?

Sisal Wrapped Bucket

I'm sitting here sipping a delicious mug of hot chocolate while my cousin, Lauren, has taken Drew for a couple of hours to the playground and then to the beach... all the dogs and their owners are there now so I'm pretty sure Drew will be in heaven. He doesn't even mind it when they lick his face... I'd have a wipe out so fast if that was me... sort of like Monk from the TV show.

Speaking of Drew, he, and his endless diaper changes inspired today's project. For his baby shower my mom and sister used this adorable bucket to hold flowers and today I use it to hold Drew's diapers (the Diaper Genie broke).

Cute, right? I think it's adorable but I had another vision for it. Remember how I did Drew's nursery with a sailboat theme (and made the stripped duvet here)?

Well, I wanted it to be a little more nautical than it was. Enter Kate from Centsational Girl. She recovered a bowl in sisal rope and I thought it looked incredibly easy, and, to suit my purposes, nautical. So I decided to do the same. I bought a 50 foot roll of rope at Home Depot for around $8.50... I was brainstorming all the things I'd do with the leftover rope, because, after all, I didn't need 50 whopping feet to cover my little bucket.

So I started at the top and wound my way around the bucket with the rope and a glue gun (greatest invention ever!). Drew kept walking around me trying to figure out what I was doing.

I wasn't a 100% sure what to do with the top where the end of rope would meet the rope the first time it came around but it ended up like this, and I'll just put this side at the back.

Remember how I was dreaming about all the things I'd do with my extra rope? Yeah... I was crazy. Here is where 50 feet of rope got me. Drew was just as dumbfounded as I was it didn't work out. Why is it that I always seem to have him in his mismatched comfy clothes for photos? :)

After buying another 50 foot roll at Home Depot yesterday morning this is what Drew's new diaper bucket looks like:

Up close and personal:

And last, but not least, here is how the finished product looks in Drew's room:

Things I still want to do in here:

1. touch up the paint on the baseboards

2. make the curtains longer, maybe with a block of navy fabric?

3. make a laundry bag out of a crib sheet (you'll see this next week)

On a completely different topic, I got the most wonderful email in my inbox this morning from My Home Ideas, a This Old House publication and it had 50 Built In Storage ideas... I've been in heaven going through it and will be pinning every other idea in a few minutes. :)

Have a wonderful, and hopefully relaxing, day!

Makeover Monday: A Place to Makeover

Before we talk about anything house related let's talk about the outfits at the Oscars. What were your faves? Here were mine... taken from Oscar.com.







All right, on to house things... We went to see this amazing house in Hamilton, MA yesterday. It is a foreclosure and it's listed for just under $800k. I want it. With about a half a million in renovations I can see it making the most incredible event venue. And AJ can see it as a bed and breakfast... you are going to die at how someone let it go like this because it's incredible.... oh, and just so you know, there is no chance in the world we could afford this house. :( Bummer summer. So, since we can't afford it, I'll do a virtual makeover with a lot less money spent. :)

We can picture the front of this house with zero gigantic bushes and a circular drive with an amazing garden and maybe a fountain in the middle. And picture a valet service for events. :)

Our vision would look something like this:

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This is the back of the house. Check out that amazing marble patio:

Picture it cleaned up, looking sharp like this, but still with the gorgeous gray marble and with new white french doors:

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This needs a great new paint job and some fabulous landscaping. After all, a couch is sitting in the backyard with an old record player and records on it (built in DJ and seating for my events? :)).

Wouldn't this barn be fun for more casual events?

Maybe a little something charming like this?

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Look at these amazing stalls in the barn. Maybe offices for AJ's real estate business someday?

Here is the front entryway... it's enormous and has a huge dining room to the left and a ballroom to the right.

I'd probably make the entryway a little more dressy to suit the style of the house but picture a welcoming table like this:

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Okay, back outside for a minute... check out the floors in the potting shed... I'd make it into the bar area for outdoor events.

This was pretty much the most disgusting kitchen I've ever seen (and we've seen some pretty bad ones). There was mold and mildew everywhere but the size of it gave it so much potential. There was a maid's kitchen right next to it that the current kitchen could be expanded into.

I would make it into something like this... I know normally dark woods aren't my thing but I think this would look really great with some dark wood lower cabinets and no uppers or just glass uppers. Probably no uppers and just tons of windows. Then envision it with a gorgeous tan veined marble countertop....

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This is the mini ballroom... It would make the most incredible space for a bridal or baby shower, or a small wedding.

I could picture an event like this in here... too bad the ceiling isn't vaulted. But wouldn't this be perfect for a small party, maybe 65 people or so? I wish I knew where this picture was from, Pinterest just said it was upload by user.

And just so you can see the icky, scary bathrooms that are at least double the size of ours (there were 6.5 baths!):

I can picture something like this in here:

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And in this ultra creepy bathroom with a blue and gray shag carpet I'd do something like this:

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Now, tell me, how would you transform this space?

I'd love to hear your ideas!

Henri Nouwen and Lenten reflections

AJ and I are working our way through Henri Nouwen's mini booklet Renewed for Life during Lent. I wanted to share this excerpt from Friday, it definitely challenged me as I get annoyed at the seeming "interruptions" of life.

While visiting the University of Notre Dame, I met an older experienced professor who had spent most of his life there. He said with a certain melancholy in his voice, "You know, my whole life I have been complaining that my work was constantly interrupted, until I discovered my interruptions were my work."

Don't we often look at the many events of our lives as interruptions? But what if our interruptions are in fact challenges to an inner response by which growth takes place? What if the events of our history are molding us as a sculptor molds his clay, and if it is only in a careful obedience to these molding hands that we can discover our real vocation and become mature Christians?

Lord, you come secretly into my life in so many ways. This Lent, give me a new sense of vision to notice your ways I had overlooked before. Renew me with a special sense of your presence.

Gilded Mirror no more

I know for people like Annie this post is a travesty, I'm getting rid of the gold on a mirror... don't get me wrong, I think this mirror could work beautifully in some spaces. It's from my Nana's house, but when she died three days short of her 108th birthday (crazy, right? And she ate lard when she was younger... I don't get it) no one else wanted this mirror except for AJ and I. 
Before I get into painting it, let me show you that I fully appreciate a well placed gold mirror (just not in our master bedroom):


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{images: 1 - red ticking; 2 - scan by haute design, photography by h. del olmo for côté sud, june/july 2008 via sacramento street}

or, this gorgeous room and mirror:


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Ever since we got the mirror I was thinking of using some of Rustoleum's metallic spray paint to make it silver to jive with our space but then, after looking at our walls painted Benjamin Moore's Moonshine we thought it may blend in too much if the mirror was painted silver... and then inspiration from Country Living magazine this month hit:


I could do our dressy mirror in glossy white, right? That's a hesitant 'right'... I was a little nervous but figured I could always re-spray it the silver look if it looked hideous (ahhh, the glories of spray paint). And you know me, I think white paint covers a multitude of sins. Here was our mirror before:



Between what it looked like above and what it looks like right now I used the highly recommended Zinsser's oil-based cover primer and then Rustoleum's Glossy White Spray paint. I covered the mirror with old paper and then was able to easily scrape, with a razor, any paint that managed to get onto the mirror. Here it is with one coat of primer:

Here it is in our IN PROGRESS bedroom. :)

After that zoom in, let's do a zoom out... just so you can see what we still need to do to the master... as you can see from nearly every photo above we still have some painting to do:

Okay, now let's talk about how fun, and inexpensive, paperwhites are? Aren't they great? We got these bulbs and in a few weeks they were looking like this, basically someone who could only handle a cactus could handle these.

Let me show you one of my outtakes... my little rascal loves to weasel his way into photos. And yes, I have him in his PJs and a completely mismatched sweater. Our house is cold. Don't judge me for my son's outfit, normally he looks much more put together, but probably less comfy. :)

What are you working on this weekend?

Tell me... you know I love comments even if I don't know you. :)

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Between Naps on the Porch