Thursday, August 29, 2013

Late Summer Touches

I did some other freshening up at the farm while we were there while waiting on the paint to dry on the dresser...

I had this large clock. It needed new works. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the old hands to work and got stuck with these gold ones...I probably should at least spray paint them. ha.


I then put crackle medium on it and painted it this lovely shade of blue from Benjamin Moore called Palladian Blue. It is a soft aqua-y blue. Love it.

It went on the mantel along with a late summer touch of Sunflowers and other late summer/Fallish flowers...





A girl can dream of cooler weather with bonfires, a cozy fire in the fireplace, warm quilts, and hot chocolate, can't she? Even if it's months away still...
sigh.

The entry table also got an update:

Back to reality and the 100 degree heat. Boo.

On a more exciting note, with the laundry room done, I have officially done every room in my lovely little farmhouse. Sure, there are some small things to be tweaked. Always will be. But I'm done for the most part. And finally, we're getting internet so Bruce can work from there a few days out of the month. Which brings up an issue - he says he has no office since I took the 2nd bedroom and made into a guest room. He has no desk so plans on working at the kitchen bar. uh...I'm not sure why he needs a desk or lots of space for one day a week, twice a month??? I guess I'll find out. Then there might be some serious tweaking going on in the guest room. ha. He did threaten me with taking up some room in the barn/art studio. I'll let him if that means my art studio gets done sooner. :o) It still looks like this:


There are no walls or door across the front so leaves and dirt are always blowing in. I think it needs some work...


Ah, the joys of a smaller house. Time to think about adding on? ;o)
Linked here:
The Dedicated House /anything-blue-friday-week-23

Monday, August 26, 2013

Laundry Room Mostly Done

I won't say the laundry room is finished but the major work is done. Here's the rundown on the last big projects.

The beat-up, plain-jane, hollow core door replaced with an old door with peeling paint and windows:


Frosted windows  to read "Laundry Room" and "Staff Only":



I used etching cream and got so-so results. Too streaky for my liking. Bruce got the Frosted Glass spray paint and went over the windows giving me a nice even finish.... have I mentioned before how awesome my husband is? He's the best!

Replaced the modern door knob with something with more character. I found these on EBay and much to my delight, won the bid.


The white porcelain knobs and plates are just what the door needed to finish its makeover. Now the entry to my laundry room looks like this:


Painted the little dresser and made a window covering. The dresser was pale yellow and smelled. I painted the whole thing inside and out to seal away the odor. Mission accomplished! I wanted a crackle finish on the outside but it was a colossal fail. It looked awful. Too much crackle. I scraped as much of the paint off that I could and put it aside to dry.

Pondered the window....it sits right next to the shelves so I knew fabric wouldn't work well since there was lots of fabric next to it. Wood shutter? Roman shade? Or how about wood and tin? Yes, that's it!...I told Bruce my idea. He said I should be able to do it. I laid it out and ask him to cut my wood. Next thing I know he's building it for me. (I told you, he's awesome!) Now I have this:
Closed

Opened

A few things hung on the wall - glass etched sign and old wash board:


and the change jar and new clothes pin bag:

Back to the dresser - it got painted in Behr's "Red Pepper" and it crackled just enough. Rustic wood back added so I can hang stuff on it like my old funnel to hold string:
Yellow inside!


Old funnel to hold string


For fun lighting - Lantern with twinkle lights:

I am recovering my mom's ironing board my grandfather made her and pulling out some baby clothes to hang on the wall.  I also plan on making a large laundry sign, adding a shelf above the washer, and a screen to place around the water heater. But on the whole, it is done. My laundry room makes me smile now. It is organized and clean but most of all fun!

To read about the whole process, go herehere, and here. To see the final projects,  read about it here.

Party links here:
A Joyful Cottage: Every Room In House Party
DIY Showoff that-diy-party
Life On Lakeshore Drive Bouquet-of-talent-link-party
Farm House Porch Welcome-to-scoop-84
A Stroll Thru Life 179th-inspire-me-tuesday
The Dedicated House Make-it-pretty-monday-week-64
Coastal Charm Nifty-thrifty-tuesday-no177-and-my-four
Kammys Korner trash-2-treasure-tuesday-link-party_26
The Shabby Creek Cottage Transformation-thursday-no-219
French Country Cottage feathered-nest-friday_29
Rooted In Thyme-simple-sweet-fridays-78

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

The Continuing Laundry Room Make-Over

The make-over continues:

I decided the shelf area needed a curtain, so in keeping with my color scheme, I bought a grey full-sized sheet, cut it in half, hemmed the raw edges, and then stenciled words in yellow:



Sorry about the wrinkles - I still don't have an iron at the farm; after all, who wants to do "real" work?

The broom "closet" also got a curtain. I found the fabric at Wal-Mart - it's really more yellow than it shows in the picture...


I found these great red fabric bins at Garden Ridge; some were even on sale. I added my chalkboard tags, tying them on with twine. I am currently looking for a chalk marker so I can write neater than the chalk stick lets me write. Hobby Lobby carries what I want but they've been out.




I can clip the curtains open with my cute decoupaged clothes pins:



I'm excited how it's coming together. I really like that I can hide the broom, mop and ladder away.

And this finally came in the mail:


I'll be adding it the next time I go. It's going on my "new" door. Here's a sneak peak of it:

Nice chippy paint, frosted windows...


I'm getting down to the fun part of the room makeover. All I can say is I am gathering quite a bit to take up with me the next visit and working like crazy to finish what I can here.

Still more to come!

:o) ,
Cecilia
The Shabby Creek Cottage transformation-thursday-no-218
Posed Perfection All-things-thursday-blog-hop-7
Savvy Southern Style wow-us-wednesdays-132
Life On Lake Shore Drive lets-party-at-bouquet-of-talent

Monday, August 12, 2013

Farm Laundry Room Wall

This weekend I got the laundry room painted - walls, trim, and shelves. Yay!! It looks fresh and bright.

And because I got all the painting done, I was able to get the accent wall done ( thanks to my husband for his help!). When I began planning, I wanted to do something to the walls that would give it some interest. I thought of beadboard or a rough plaster texture but I wanted a more rustic look. Rough wood planks (as in old fence pickets) or what I really, really wanted was rusty tin. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough old fence pickets or somewhere to get rusty tin for either option.

I had just about decided to go with beadboard when I just happened to mention the rusty tin idea to one of my sisters. She said she knew where she could get some, so how much did I need? Yes! I quickly measured, told her, and in a few weeks had some tin panels. Perfect...only they weren't rusty. She told me the rusty ones were too far gone so she decided to bring me these. Ok, I can rust them myself. So I googled "how to rust tin" and got started.

I must admit most sites said the best way to rust them was to use muriatic acid as you have to get rid of the galvanized treatment first. I was stubborn though and (can you read scared of the acid?) decided to proceed without it. Fail - no rust. Ok, so what is corrosive yet "safe"? I know! You read about how cola can eat through all sorts of things so I promptly took a small piece of tin and sprayed it with cola, reapplying it to keep it wet for a day. Rinsed it off and sprayed it with the vinegar, hydrogen peroxide, and salt mixture and set it in the sun to bake. It actually developed some rust. Hurray!

That weekend at the farm,  I laid out all the big pieces and sprayed them down with cola.


No rust. Had to come home. Next trip sprayed them again. Again, nothing although they were losing their shine.  It was time to leave. Sigh. By now, I was getting impatient. I wanted to get them rusted so I could put them up - yet I really wanted this method to work. So I sprayed them one last time and left them out to bake in the sun.


When we got to the farm this past weekend, I ran out to look at my tin...no change. Rats! I then told Bruce to go get some muriatic acid. He did a happy dance. (Ok, not really. But he was nice enough not to say "I told you so"). And he was nice enough to spray the panels for me. It works quite well and very fast. The next step was to rinse it off and spray it with salt water and ta da! Rust! So if you want to rust galvanized tin panels, take my advice - just start with the muriatic acid. Save yourself some time.

Of course, while he was doing that, I was painting and getting the room ready. I pulled everything out (yikes):
Was I planning on using the kitchen?...must not have been as I piled everything in there!


A big mess
And painted away:



Walls, trim, and shelves all got a fresh coat of paint.

Here's the tall shelf unit with the bottom 3 shelves knocked out to make my broom "closet":

broom "closet"

With that done, we started putting the tin up ( or Bruce did with a little bit of help from me ). We finished it off by topping it with some old fence pickets. Now I have the coolest looking wall!



Bruce actually found a tin outlet cover but he had to extend the outlet out first. I forgot to take a picture of it after he was done. Of course.

I really do love the way it looks! It is the perfect rustic look for my farmhouse laundry room. Next up is the "new" old door, organizing the shelves, painting my small dresser, plus some artwork for the walls. I am also trying to decide whether or not to build a screen to hide the water heater...what would you do?

Until the next visit,
:o)
Cecilia

Linking to these fun and fabulous parties:
The Dedicated House Make-it-pretty-monday-week-62
DIY Showoff That-diy-party
Life On Lake Shore Drive A-bouquet-of-talent-linky-party-time-48
Coastal Charm Nifty-thrifty-tuesday-no175
Lavender Garden Cottage -Cottage-style-party-worlds-longest-yard
A Stroll Thru Life 177th-inspire-me-tuesday
Farmhouse Porch Welcome-to-farmhouse-porch-and-scoop
Brag About It Link Party on VMG206
Savvy Southern Style Wow-us-wednesdays-131
Lewisville Love Tips-and-tricks-tuesday-link-party
Stone Gable Tutorials-tips-and-tidbits-61
Posed Perfection All-things-thursday-blog-hop-6

Monday, August 5, 2013

Laundry Room Redo A Bit At A Time

I am in the process of painting, organizing, and decorating the laundry room at the farm. I scraped the popcorn off the ceiling after Bruce removed the cabinet above the washer (you can read about that here) then Bruce painted it this last time we were there.

I also knocked out two shelves on the tall cabinet to create a broom "closet" of sorts. I made a curtain to hang over it, because let's face it, some things just aren't pretty to look at. :-) Here is a before:

removed the bottom shelves
As you can tell, I have loads of organizing to do.

The walls are getting a fresh coat of paint too. After going back and forth on what color to paint it, I decided to go with Ivory Palace which I used in the kitchen. The room is fairly dark so it should help brighten it up. I will also paint the trim white. All of which should get it ready for an accent wall!

The old yellow dresser from the master bedroom is going to be repurposed in here to make up for lost storage from the shelves I removed. I've completely painted the insides to kill the lingering smoke smell. (From now on, I will do a smell check on all used furniture!) The outside will also get repainted. Red, I think. I will have a picture of it soon.

In the meantime, I've been working on signs and gathering other things: some clothes pins covered with scrapbook paper,



These will get used to hang some of my old baby clothes up or as tie backs for the curtains. Can you tell what my color scheme is going to be? Yep! Red, yellow, and grey. I am in love with that color combo!

scrapbook paper I'm using

 a change holder,




 I used the yellow paper to cover the board, painted the edges and the words, then screwed on a clamp to hold the jar.

Last but not least, I added some scrapbook paper to plain white tags and painted some chalkboard paint on for my baskets and jars:



I am going to recover my mother's old ironing board - maybe in burlap or perhaps one of my fabrics. I'm not sure yet. I also want to make a large laundry sign if I have room for it. The hollow core door is getting replaced with an old door that has character. I've been working on it getting it ready. And I am really excited about my Craig's List score that will dress up my "new" door.

I am really having fun with this room. Who knew doing a laundry room could be so much fun?

I'm linking up at these great parties: Coastal Charm Nifty-thrifty-tuesday-no174
DIY Showoff diy-party
Life On Lake Shore Drive Lets-party-at-bouquet-of-talent-47
Kathe With An E Youre-gonna-love-it-week-66
Farm House Porch. welcome-to-scoop_5.
A Stroll Thru Life inspire-me-tuesday-300-birthday

Springtime Projects 3: Have A Seat!

It might still be Spring, but here in Texas, things are starting to heat up and feel like Summer. I knew I needed to get the last of my Spri...