Red and Co-Ed: Creating a shared kid's room

 

When we moved into our house in 2010, we had two parents, and Auntie, a son, and a dog.  Now, three years later, we have two parents, no Auntie, a son, and a daughter.

I think a house is really always a work in progress.  A standing piece of work that reflects your place in life at that very time. Just think of how much a house says about a person.  Is it neat and organized? Comfortable and loungy? Modern? Void of live things? 

So when our daughter was born, we had to figure out just exactly where should would fit into our work-in-progress home. 

Though large, our house is only a three bedroom, and the third bedroom is a second master which doesn't make much sense for a toddler.  We had two other options: convert the loft to a livable bedroom, or have my son share his room. So, we asked our son where he thought she should go, and he was thrilled with the idea of having a roommate.

The only problem? Well, our son is ALL BOY, and we wanted this room...

To look like these rooms...

Here's where my mistakes have been made in the past: I always choose a theme that the kid's outgrow.  For Noah, first we did the monster theme...

 And then we did the Cars theme...

But this time, the theme was going to much simpler: RED. Yes, just a color.

So, here's how we turned a boy room, into a red co-ed shared room...

First, we had to make more room, so we turned the "L"-shaped bunk beds into stacked bunk beds.  This freed up a lot of floor space - AND - bonus! after the conversion we were left with practically a whole other bed frame which we put into to the loft thanks to hubby's handiwork.

The beds had to be retrofitted to go from a "L" shape, to a stacked set of bunk beds

Once stacked, there was so much more room!

I really like older homes because they have so much character.  That's so hard to find in a new home. I noticed that a lot of the rooms I liked so much had sort of a barn-like feeling from painted paneling, so I thought, "we can fake that!"  I found sheets of plain paneling at Lowes for about $9 a panel and had my husband nail them to our bland drywall walls.

Paneling was $9/sheet. Perfectly cheap, but it did require sanding and a primer in order to get the paint to stick.

We cut the paneling 7' tall, and added wood trim to the top and seams to give that sort of barn/attic look.  The wood trim was from the fencing department at Lowes, and only cost about $1.50 each.

Paneling and trim is up and ready for paint.

Great find!  This corner shelf was at Goodwill for $7.00 and fit perfectly in the corner.

Once the walls were finished, we sanded, primed, and painted the paneling and trim to match the antique white satin trim that already exists in the room.

A red candy-cane-striped rug became the inspiration for the decor.  I spotted it for $129 at Home Goods and couldn't resist.

I started placing items back in the room but noticed it still felt a little crowded.  The configuration of the room does not allow for a bed without at least partially covering the window (and, incidentally, it's the best view in the house). I experimented with a few things...

By pushing the bed away from the window a couple feet, I found that there was a whole new open feeling.  The room now gets more light, and the view is much less blocked.

Pushing the bed away from the window made a huge difference in the way the room felt and how much light comes in.

The final touch was adding the details.  I bought some pre-cut wood letters in both a girly font (for Nicollette) and a boy-ish font (for Noah) and painted them red.  Since Nicollette has 10 letters, this was a pretty spendy part of the makeover--almost $20 just for Nicollette's name.
 

 I finished off the look with two Pottery Barn comforters I found on Ebay, some flannel holiday pillowcases, a festive throw pillow, and two lanterns from Lowes.

 

Add some red canvas toy bins and some old-school antique toys, and you've got yourself a co-ed room that both kids can grow into.

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One Hour and 30 Dollar Craftsman Garage Door Makeover

What can you do to improve the curb appeal of your home in less than an hour and with about $30?

I have been wanting to do this for YEARS...I don't exactly know why I haven't.  But finally, while walking the Home Depot clearance aisle--one of my favorite bargain bins to rifle through--I found a garage door hardware set for $6.  Yes, $6!!!  So, there was the motivation.

In a few minutes, my hubby was able to attach the hardware to the garage door.  It instantly looked great, but it was still missing something.  So I had my hubby pick up some vinyl trim and he created faux window grates in the four small windows of the garage door.  Tah Dah!  Love it!

Now don't fret if you've missed out on the $6 clearance hardware kit.  The pieces can be found in the gate section of Home Depot, or you can just buy a whole kit...they are anywhere from $12 to $39 and even include instructions on how to place the hardware for various two-and three-car units as well as gates.  Very cool!

Trick and Treat: Copycat Pottery Barn Stratton Bed

What's the trick? Fooling people into thinking we would spend $1200 on a Pottery Barn bed.  What's the treat?  Check out this beautiful knock-off my husband made for my sister for her birthday.

Two months ago, I was at a complete loss of what to buy my sister for her birthday.  Afterall, she deserves something good because she's my live-in sister, babysitter, friend, and sous chef.  She has been talking about this bed in the Pottery Barn catalog for years, and kept saying it was going to be her "one big splurge" someday to go with her Tiffany-Blue Bedroom.  And I got to thinking...there's nothing really to that bed, is there?

So I gave my husband the challenge and he succeeded with flying colors.  Here's the look we were going for:

The Pottery Barn Stratton Bed $1200

And here's the finished product:

Our version of the Stratton Bed ($182 for supplies plus $90 for baskets)

The best part is the bed can be modified to accommodate a King mattress in the future

It was a long, three week process, but I think it turned out great.  So proud of my hubby who built it, and my dad who painted it (he's a professional painter, so we kind of lucked out).  All the lumber for the project was less than $180, and the baskets were on clearance at World Market, so I got all six for about $90.

Here are the resources we used to build the frame:

Pink Toes and Power Tools
Snug as a Bug Baby

So this week's challenge?  Go out and find something you love...and then make it yourself (or make your husband!).  Happy Friday!

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Paver Patio Update

Ten looonnnggg days later this is where we stand!  My husband recovered with a bath of Epson salts, a big meal, and 10 hours of sleep.  Not only did this project give me a new backyard, but a new husband, too!  He's lost a whopping 25 pounds!

The weather permitted the last pavers to be set yesterday morning.

Once the pavers were set, the sand was brushed on the top and into the cracks.

Using a rented compactor, the sand was compacted down into the pavers.

Then the sand was brushed off, leaving a paver patio that is up to five times stronger than concrete (according to the cement warehouse we bought the pavers from).

 A big thanks to Cement Manufacturing Products in Redmond, Oregon, who delivered the pavers, showed us how to do the entire project, and even came back to move the pallets for us to a more convenient location.  What an awesome crew!

Also thank you to Jesse Anstat who helped my husband excavate the entire thing.

Thanks to my husband, who worked his butt off to do this whole thing!

I only have one "no thanks" for you.  A big "no thanks" to Hooker Creek Equipment who we rented the excavator from.  They asked us for $300 to repair a toe that broke on their excavator within the first hour (hmmm...do you think it was cracked to begin with???).  We argued with them that if we were renting a car, and the tire blew, we wouldn't be charged for that, so we shouldn't have to pay to weld a toe that broke on a excavator, especially since they do not offer insurance on the equipment.  They did not give in, but did lower the repair cost, so it only cost us $180 for the fix, plus $350 for the rental, so over $500 to rent an excavator for the weekend!  No thanks!

--

Now for decorating the darn patio, which I haven't a clue on how to do.  Can anyone offer suggestions?

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Patio Project on a Budget

I always watch these shows on HGTV where they go out hunting garage sales and garbage cans and find these fabulous pieces of furniture they restore for next to nothing.  I've always wondered how that happens, because it seems every time I go to a garage sale, I generally just find worn out kids stuff, clothes that reek of moth balls, and furniture that's dated, worn, and unstable.

I have had luck, however, on Craigslist.  My latest prize?  A $50 teak patio set.

It wasn't even a week prior when I was paroling the Pottery Barn catalog and I saw this patio table.  I loved it, but thought $1,900?  Not on my budget!

Later that week while doing some searches for outdoor stuff on Craigslist, I came a cross an ad for a "wood patio set."  I immediately called them and asked when I could pick it up.  This is what I got:

 At first glance, it wasn't much to look at.  But as we brought it in, we realized it was actually teak.

So, my husband (with the help of my son) began sanding it down to it's beautiful bones.

Days (and lots of dust) later, it was ready for some teak-friendly stain and protectant.  I chose Behr Cordovian Brown in Semi-Transparent.

This is the finished product.  My husband surprised me by adding decorative stenciling throughout.  I'm pretty happy with my $50 find!