Painted Claw Foot Tubs

Forest Green

When we first found our house there was two things I immediately loved about it. The first was the built-in cabinets in our dining room and the second was the original 1920's claw foot tub in the one and only bathroom.  It was in bad shape, so we painted it a fresh coat of white paint when we moved in 13 years ago.  But, for the last 5 or so years, I've been itching to paint the outside of the tub a fun color.  This first one, the forest green is probably my favorite.  

I also would love to take out the little corner shower unit and add a curtain surround and a shower head to the tub.  This would free up a lot of space in the bathroom and we would be able to add a second sink and some much needed storage.  

Mint Green

Navy Blue via 

Yellow

Teal via

Black

Metal Cabinet Makeover

I've been storing this little metal cabinet in my garage for a couple years now.  I finally gave it a well over-due makeover.  I love how it turned out.  Now I'll proudly store all my crafting supplies in it at the studio.

As far as I'm concerned, you can't go wrong with pastel colors, geometric shares and metallic gold accents.  This piece has it all!  Check out the BEFORE pics and the full how-to on Curbly today.

Do you have some junk sitting around collecting dust?  Maybe this will inspire you to customize something for your home.

A New Year and A New Closet

This post is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group® and Newell Rubbermaid, but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #HomeFreeLowes http://my-disclosur.es/OBsstV

Now that's how you start the new year, A SUPER ORGANIZED closet!!!  Living in a small 1920's bungalow, maximizing your storage spaces is a MUST. The tiny closet in Dylan's room is home to a whole bunch of Lego, Dylan's clothes and my sewing machine and sewing stuff.  I was so tired of temporary plastic storage drawers and having to dig my sewing machine out of a corner on the floor of the closet.  I've had those custom closet companies come out and give me an estimate on how much it would be to add shelving to this closet.  The last quote I got was over $900 - ouch.  But, can you believe that I (all by myself, me!) installed this amazing Rubbermaid HomeFree Closet System in just a few hours and for about $200?  

I fit everything back in this closet and more.  And now we can actually get to all the stuff. This closet might just be my new favorite room in the house. 

This is so embarrassing. I can't believe I'm showing you my mess. But, this is an really what my son's closet looked like just a couple days ago. Yikes!  Our house has small closets with regular doors on them, so a lot of the usable space is tucked into the two sides of the closet. The original shelves and hanging rails were just not providing enough storage. I had purchased many plastic drawer thingys trying to help the issue, but you just couldn't easily access everything in that tiny closet.

Before I could install the Rubbermaid HomeFree Closet System, I needed to remove the existing shelves and patch a few holes. I bought a little jar of spackle thinking I would just need to cover a few screw and nail holes. Nope, I had to go back to Lowes for 3/8" dry wall, mud and tape. After a day of patching, mudding sanding, repeating, and then finally painting the closet at 11pm, I was finally ready to install the new Rubbermaid HomeFree series.

Now, if you know anything about the lath and plaster walls that come with an almost 100 year old house, then you know that they are a huge pain in the rear. These houses don't have the usual studs that are found in newer homes, so attaching the rail system to old house's walls can be a bit tricky. You are going to need different anchors then the ones provided with the kit.  Other then that, everything you need is in the kit.

This HomeFree system is so easy to install, once you attach the top rail to the wall, you simply hang the vertical rails from the top rail and then secure them to the wall.

There is NO cutting of any of the rails, shelves, or rods. You can fit this closet system in any odd shaped closet, like mine, with ease. All the pieces overlap to give you a perfect, 100% customizable fit.

Once the rails are in place, you simply clip in all the brackets and shelves.  I added some extra pieces to the 6 Foot Adjustable Mount Wire Shelving Kit, like these White Wood 3 Shelf Units, Upright Extensions, and a couple extra shelves. I wanted to use every inch of this tiny closet.

The shelves all lock into place with a simple flip of a button. 

 And now to fill the closet!

Everything has a home and a specific place.  I even added hooks for hats and school backpacks to get things up off the floor.

I shopped at Lowes for everyday low pricing on Rubbermaid and home solutions including the HomeFree Closet System. For more information about these products be sure to check them out on Facebook. 

Do you have a problem area in your home that needs tackling? Maybe a closet or laundry room that needs to organizational help. If this closet system can work in our tiny, old closets, I guarantee they'll work in yours.  

White and Wood Chair

I spent the weekend getting ready for the first day of school (which was today) and refinishing a couple pieces of furniture. This little chair was a fun, quick fix. I bought this chair for $4.99 at my local Goodwill. The yellowy light birchy wood look is so very 90s to me.  Light wood paired with the silver colored metal seems dated as well.  

I bought this chair for the bent plywood and the airy shape of the metal frame.  At first I thought I might just paint the whole thing a bright color.  But, then I decided that with a little stain, the grain in the seat and back might look really sharp.  So, I sanded the seat and back down to the bare wood and then used a dark walnut colored stain.  I sealed the wood with a almost matte finished water based varnish.  The frame got a good sanding and a fresh coat of flat white spray paint. 

I replaced all the screws, most of them had been pulled out. When I replaced the stripped screws, I used a couple broken off toothpicks in the holes to hold the screws in place. It's a great trick when screws get pulled out of hingers or cabinet doors. 

See what I mean about the shape? It's modern and clean. And now with the white and darker wood, I love the higher contrast.

Before

After

Coral and Kelly Green Home Office - Furniture Fixes

Ok, here's more of the Coral and Kelly Green Home Office.  These two pieces of furniture are what anchored my color scheme.  Both were well loved pieces that needed some TLC.  And yes, I spray painted both the chair and the desk to get this great look.  Although both of the desk and the chair were wood, I used my How to Paint Laminate Furniture technique to refinish both of these.  

Let's start with the desk.  I found this beauty on Craigslist, but about a 2 hour drive away.  That didn't stop me, Olivia and I hoped in the car and make the trek.  Some of you might be wondering we I would paint such beautiful wood desk.  Well, it was a struggle for me to make the decision.  I even considered just painting part of it and leaving the rest it's natural wood.  But, the truth is, it was in pretty rough condition and I would have had to refinish it, so I decided to take the risk and paint it coral.  I'm so glad I did.  I love this desk.  It is sooo heavy and well made and has an amazing shape.  It is perfect for the space.

Before

After

This is me trying to decide if the drawers could just be painted.  I decided that there wasn't enough color contrast between the coral and the wood color for it to work.

I kept all the original hardware.  I love the little brass trim piece around the bottom of the dresser.

And I found the perfect chair at Homegoods for this little desk.  

The side chair I found in an antique mall.  I paid only $20 for this sturdy little school chair.  My client is a teacher and so I felt that this chair would be so appropriate.  It had a great shape, but is was rough.  I think everyone that had ever sat in it had carved their name into it.  But, with some good sanding, primer and a few coats of paint, this is one of my favorite things in the whole office.

After

Before

See what I mean about the shape?  It's such a good looking chair. 

I really enjoy giving furniture a whole new look.  And with spray paint, you can have results in just a day.  You've probably seen this color scheme appear on my blog a lot lately.  I can't get enough of it.  

Coral and Kelly Green Home Office - Expedit Bookcase Makeover and the BEFORE pics.

I'm sure you'd like to see the before pictures of The Coral and Kelly Green Home Office.  I made sure to take the befores on my iphone so that there would be an even more dramatic transformation in the after pics.

image credit - NY Fotography

image credit - NY Fotography

But, before the befores, I want to share with you an easy update I made to my client's existing IKEA Expedit bookcase.  I'm sure you've owned this shelf at sometime or know someone who has, I had one in dark brown.  It's a great piece that offers a tone of great storage and display space.  This is the one of the pieces in the room that I decided to keep.  It has such great function and really it's design is simple and clean.  I don't love the Expedit on the ground as is though.  So, I decided it needed some sort of legs to give it a little breathing room underneath and make it look more like a real piece of furniture.  I thought about heavy duty casters, which still would be cool, but decided it's boxy shape needed a little feminine touch.  Curvy legs to the rescue.

I purchased all the supplies for this project at The Home Depot.  It cost me only about $25 to add style to this very plain bookcase.  I bought four leg brackets and 4 wooden furniture legs (see image below).  There are a few options of leg styles, but I really liked these curvy angular ones.  

To pull in the kelly green of the side chair and to draw your eye down to the legs, I decided to spray paint the legs the same color.  I started by painting the legs kelly green.  I used Rust-oleum Painter's Choice in Gloss, Meadow Green.

Then, using the screws provided in the packaging, attach the leg plate to the four corners of the bookcase.  And then, this is the easiest part of all, screw on the legs to the plates - no really, it's that easy!  I'm sure you can think of a couple pieces of furniture that could use a set of these legs.  I just helped my sister in law add some cute taped gold legs to a little thrifted shelf for my nieces bedroom, it made a huge difference.

And now the befores!!!

The original wall color was a yellowish beige (that's my best description).  We painted the walls a nice crisp white.  I know white it pretty hot right now, but I think folks are still afraid that white might feel like a hospital or school.  But, as you can see, a space can still be warm and inviting with all white walls.  It gives you a clean blank space to let colorful accessories play.  I still love my all white living room, and it's doesn't feel cold or sterile at all. 

As you can see, we repositioned the Expedit shelf on the wall beside the door (opposite the window).  I  had a lot of fun filling the shelves with my client's favorite pieces (especially her mom's amazing book collection) and some fun pieces I bought, made and thrifted.

To check out the whole room and all the detailed pictures of the finished space, click here.