We Are Going Gray! (And We're OK With It)

The weatherman was forecasting cold, wind and rain for the upcoming weekend - which meant Brent and I were going to have to put our outdoor projects on hold.  With all the beautiful weather we have had as of late, it's been easy to push some important indoor jobs to the backburner.  Mostly I'm referring to this little snafu.

Yep, that's our basement shower floor.  I'll go into much more detail later on about what's happening here...but what you need to know at this point, is that it has looked like this for about 2 months now.  We weren't incredibly motivated to repair it right away because there were other, much more exciting things to work on.  So the four of us just moved into the main floor bathroom and we've been there ever since. 

But four Kruse's can barely fit in one small bathroom at the same time, and yes, I did say at the same time.  Those of you with small children understand that for whatever reason, if there's one person in the bathroom (for WHATEVER reason), the rest of the family will soon follow.  And it's tight, guys.  There have been many evenings where all four of us are trying to brush our teeth around the same tiny sink.  It's borderline comical.  Fact is - we really needed to get that basement bathroom done - if even just for our sanity.  

Problem is, fixing the shower floor is a one person job, and by one person, I mean Brent.  Which meant I was going to need to find a way to stay out of Brent's hair for an entire weekend.  Not easy.  There was only one thing I could think of that I could do with complete independence and would keep my focus for two days straight - PAINT!  

For months, I've been toying with the idea of changing the paint color in the living/dining room.  It was becoming more and more evident that everything in the room was brown.  Brown floors, brown furniture (dining room table/buffet), brown paint.  It was a nice, cozy color, but my heart ached for more contrast #firstworldproblems.  So with $50 bucks in my pocket, I wasn't planning on poppin' tags - I was gonna buy some gray paint.

It took me a few days of deliberation to decide between Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter and Edgecomb Gray but in the end, I went with Revere Pewter so I could have a little more contrast between the walls and the white woodwork.  Home Depot color matched it for me with their Behr paint.

Of course, the before and after is the best part of any transformation, so I'll break this down into immediate before/after photos so you don't have to scroll all over to detect the changes.

The colors from this photo I took in my backyard, would tie in well with our living room.  

I think the dining room underwent the greatest transformation - that heavy brown paint below the chair rail weighed down the room.  Painting it white made it feel lighter and a little more cottage-like.  To cover the semi-gloss brown, I first applied a coat of white primer and then two coats of semi-gloss white paint, the same that I use on all of our trim.  It's called Cotton White by Diamond Vogel.

 A rug under the dining room table would look fantastic - but until Owen can manage to get the majority of his breakfast and dinner into his mouth, a rug is just not practical.  His chair, the one closest to the camera, is literally stuck to the floor most of the time.

I also like the contrast of the oil-rubbed bronze hardware on the gray paint, as opposed to the brown.

 

 Even my beloved Kirkland's clock looks amazing with this paint color!

In short - we absolutely love (lets be honest, Brent could probably care less either way) this paint color. Everything feels lighter, fresher and a bit more modern.  It was $50 and weekend well spent.

If you like this project, follow us on Facebook to see what else we're up to!

RE-Upholstered Headboard

Tension has been running high around the Kruse house - I have officially been cooped up in the house for too long, with nothing to do but housework.  For a couple days, I shrugged my responsibilities by becoming completely absorbed in Scandal, but when that ran it's course, I was left with nothing to do.  I told Brent that if we didn't find SOMETHING to do, right this insant, I was going to start ripping up carpet in Emma's bedroom or tearing out bathroom tile.  We needed a project, pronto.

A year and half ago, my sister's bridal shower was held at our house.  For the special occasion, I made my own tablecloth because I couldn't find anything else that I loved.  This fabric was so gorgeous that I bought an extra 2 yards of it, knowing it would be perfect on a headboard.  Here's what it looked like at the bridal shower:

Photo by Robin Long {LonglensPhotography.com}

So of course, if it looked good on a tablescape, it was definitely going to look good on my bed!  Today was finally the day to re-upholster our headboard!  Here's what it has looked like for the past 10 years - my dad helped me build it when I bought my first house.

This whole process took less than an hour, since we were basically just re-covering the old fabric with the new.  A couple bolts secure the frame of the headboard to the bed frame, so we started by removing the bolts.
Then we had to take a 10 minute break to clean all the dust bunnies from behind the bed - it was borderline terrible.  That's the good and bad part of hardwood floors, good being, at least you can see them and sweep them up so they aren't getting ground into carpet.  Bad, because you can actually see them and you can't ignore them.

While Brent was disconnecting the headboard, I headed downstairs to iron the fabric - best to do this step BEFORE attaching it to the headboard.  I used the highest heat/steam setting, as this fabric is very thick.

I had to chuckle and this little "warning" printed on the fabric.  Only because our children spend a fair amount of time in, above and around our bed....and their hands are rarely clean.

 After ironing, we cleared some room in our living room to work.  First I layed it print side up to admire it and pet it for a bit.

Then it got flipped over to prepare for application.  Wow - blurry photo - sorry.

We hauled the headboard out to the living room - this picture gives you an idea of how it was originally constructed.  My dad and I made a frame out of 2x4's, then screwed plywood over top.  Next we glued thick foam to it and then covered it with a layer of batting, to soften the edges.

I tried to tell myself that those are just shadows on the headboard when you see those dark spots - but I'm definitely not convinced - you can see perfectly where our heads have been for the past 10 years!

Here's another shot of the construction.

We laid the headboard on top of the fabric and positioned it so that the fabric would wrap around all sides.

Brent stapled while I pulled the fabric tight.  And tried not to get my fingers stapled.
**************It should be noted that I had to have Emma take this photo and I told her to make sure she didn't get my head it the picture.  Mommy needed a shower.  And some make-up.  But she didn't feel like doing it.

Not all of our staples went all the way in - as is evidenced in Exhibit A.

We tapped those in with a hammer - and in case you don't know what that looks like, here's another pic.

Corners are tricky.  From the front of the headboard, everything looks good, but if you look at the back, its a tangled mess of fabric.

The walls are looking very green in this photo - they are actually much more of a blue.  This photo was taken in the evening - as you can see by the blue light in the window.

I got a new comforter to compliment the headboard.  It's like crushed velvet on one side and sherpa on the other side - I may never get out of bed again!

The sherpa reminds me of the Downy bear....

So this ended up being the most versatile headboard in the world!  Whenever we want to change it, we just need an hour and 2 yards of fabric!  Don't tell Brent that we'd also need a new comforter, pillows, throw pillows and possible a bolster pillow.

DIY Mother's Day Gift

Last year, I actually had the foresight to think about a gift for my mom for Mother's Day.  And this time, it wasn't just the night before!

We had all of this barnwood laying around that Brent had picked up with some friends.  It had mostly just been collecting ants in our backyard but I was prepared to repurpose it.
After cutting a board into three equal pieces, I used a Kreg Jig to fasten the boards together from behind.  Hobby Lobby sells pre-cut wood letters in different sizes and fonts, which are easy to paint.  I painted mine with a coat of blue and then rubbed some dark glaze over the top.  For the small lettering, I used oil rubbed bronze spray paint.

Mom loved it and it hangs over her fireplace to this day.

Total cost was $22.