Tuesday, June 15, 2021

Guest Room Reno... Downsizing? Start the process of staging your house!

This post is about how easy it is to change a few things and give a room a whole new look.  You have to think outside the box, if you will... move around some furniture, art, lamps.  Whether you need a new look or, like us, you are thinking... "why do we need this much space", it is always fun to update your home.  

A little background before I dive into the design stuff... ( you can skip to the bottom, but you might enjoy how we got here).

We have been "empty nesters" as most will call it for over 6 years now.  The home we purchased to raise our children was a mindful planned out venture.... best school district, close to your temple for easy car pooling to hebrew school, and their friends in both plus right here in our neighborhood.  I realize what a luxury this is!  Now this house has too many rooms... we keep their bedroom doors closed most of the time.  So basically we are living in our bedroom/bathroom and the first floor.

When each of our daughters moved out; whether it was to move into their first college dorm room, apartment on campus, locally or in NYC with friends, we always did what we could to help... and boy do we feel we have moved them enough for a lifetime!

The issue is that with every one of their moves, we gained more STUFF!  As they moved out on their own as adults, a lot was left behind... much due to the fact that one moved across country with as much of her belongings that would fit in her civic!  The other is in a NYC apartment... need I say more?!

We are both still working, so location for us is still really good for our commutes. Mine is down the stairs and to the left.  My husband; some of you know as my Handy Husband, has a reasonable drive to the Shore.  As we consider where to "move" where do we "want to be" we have started to "downsize our belongings"... and over time ridding ourselves of items we really do not need or have purpose for - such as VHS tapes of Disney movies!  LOL.  With Disney Plus, we can always access the kids old favorites for when the time comes to share them with their kids, if we are so blessed.  Old printers, an end table, hangers upon hangers... really trying to minimize what we keep.


OKAY - design posts... getting to it!

As we ponder these questions we have started looking at locations and some homes for sale.  This means we need to be ready to put our house on the market if we are to find something we love - we will need to act very quickly!

So, another bedroom renovation to show you!  It is the last room in the house that still had wall to wall carpet.  I mean... what else were we going to do on a rainy Memorial Day weekend towards the end of (we hope!) Pandemic?!!

We didn't fully re-decorate, this room was in pretty good shape.  We moved the furniture around, packed up the stuffed animals and books on the shelves and tore up the carpet!  We added this fantastic area rug we found online, changed the bedding, threw out the old ugly bedskirt and bought some new accent pillows.  

*Craziest thing is that this area rug is the same as one that we fell in love with in a house we saw when looking at options .... by chance, compared the images we took and it is exactly the same!  

How lucky was that!

Take a look....

A few new decorative pillows and it looks like a new room!  Minus the 30 year old TV!  Sorry, again I did not take true before photos - these before shots show the room a little after as we got started...


BEFORE SHOTS



Worst part was tearing the carpet out and all the staples that had to be removed from the floor.

The best part?  An amazing hard wood oak floor underneath, that we think was never exposed!


AFTER THE RUG WAS REMOVED.... same bedding, pillows, etc...



This just was not enough for me... I wanted this room to "feel better" so when someone walked in to see it they would think

.... I want to stay here!


We moved the dressers to one wall, will eventually hang the mirror.



FINAL SHOT

Moving around the dressers made a difference in how much larger the room feels!  

With the addition of new bedding (a quilt set I designed for a Wal-Mart private label program, new decorative pillows, a new cushion for the chair (actually the original red one I bought...) swapping the throws, nightstand and the lamp from another room, buying an accent rug... the room came to life!  

I am going to take down the shelving for a more open look and I did add that cute Frieda framed piece I found at Home Sense! 






Wednesday, June 2, 2021

Paint and Color Cures for Old Outdoor Furniture

 We all spend money on things that later we look at and think ... I wish this looked as good as when I first bought it!

As the weather improves, and people are able to start to "get back at it" being vaccinated from Corona virus and feeling a bit more free to socialize, our desire to be outside and with friends and family grows.  I feel it is a luxury to have outdoor living space; with my pots of flowers and a deck to relax and entertain.  I do not take these things for granted!  

I have these two white resin adirondack chairs and have always loved the "look" of them, as a relaxing seating area out in the yard.  Over time they have weathered... and we have power-washed them year after year.  When you look at the cost of replacing, you think... what????

I am all about "re-purposing, re-working and re-inventing" in every aspect of my life; my good friends and certainly my family can attest to this.  I am just thrilled with how they came out!

Here is the before images of the chairs and little side table.  We used Rustoleum Ultra Cover Paint and Primer.  You cannot believe how many colors are available!  

Taking my daughter's advice I watched a few You Tube videos and learned that there is a great tool that saves your "trigger finger"... it attaches to the top of the spray can and has an actual trigger that allows you to get an even coat and no paint on your hands!


We chose a color to match back to some of the accessories and decorative pillows we purchased for the deck furniture.... we wanted a POP of color!


Choose a spot to paint; lay out a tarp.  You can used one of the lightweight plastic tablecloths you get at the dollar store, or even an old shower curtain liner.

Place your items on the tarp - take note of the wind.... 
THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!  You want to be "downwind" of the paint as you spray the items you are re-purposing!

Be sure to move with the lines of the item; long steady strokes and as even as you can get them so you do not have any drippings. Have a paper towel nearby to "dab" them if needed - you need to do this right away before they dry.

You can see from the photo here that the table was very badly stained.  We powerwashed all of the items before we started and made sure to use a towel to dry them all thoroughly.






Once you have finished painting all of the items you are re-purposing.... let the items sit out to dry.  I love to see the lines from the paint; like shadows!  This restoration was quick and easy!  You can bring anything back to life with a little paint!

Now you can see below how pretty this color is in our garden and how well it goes with the new accessories we added to our deck!

We plan to put in some more flowering bushes behind these for a nice backdrop... for now we love looking out as this pop of color!