Two Boys Two Beds...The Bunk Beds

It's Connor's birthday and for his 12th he asked for a bedroom-redo. I guess with all this new paint happening around here he wanted to get in on the action.

Since we moved in almost 2 years ago we have re-done both his older sister's room
(you can click the links on those to check them out)

Purple and Concrete, a bedroom make-over

Let The Fun Begin With A Blue And White Bedroom

He really didn't have any requests EXCEPT Bunk Beds.  He shares a room with his younger brother and they both really wanted them.  Of course, I jumped right on Kijiji to see just how much this was going to run me.  However the husband had something else in mind. He wanted to build them so we searched the internet for some inspirations.

And we found this:

It's a pin on one of my boards however the link brings me to a recipe blog (I would love to link up if anyone finds it)

  And that's how this all started :)

 Entertainment center/dresser.  Connor always wanted the old Xbox that was stored in the basement (that nobody ever played with) in his room. So that was a must on our list too: 1. Place for the bunk beds and 2. Place for the Xbox.

The paint we had :) The light blue is from his sister's room, Norther Wash and the dark blue called Secure Blue is actually from his old bedroom in a  house we once lived in. This was such a bonus, paint is soooo expensive.

The dresser was Connor's before and really just works perfectly for what we needed.

The chairs were on sale at JYSK for $5.  They had a few rust marks on them but I just spray painted over them and they are perfect. Also, we picked up the perfect window treatments at JYSK for $12...and it was super easy to hang.

Much of the accent/decor pieces are from my father, things he has had sitting in his garage/man cave for years.  Connor and him love to hang out outdoors, do a little fishing and maybe in a few years some hunting...the time that they spend together is so precious and this whole room reminds him of these moments every time he walks in the room.

A HOW-TO will be posted in the coming day :)

My husband built the bunk beds and stairs.  I will be posting a blog and linking back here with a how to build.

We used drop cloth both inside and out to line the structure.

There is a shelf at the head of the bunk in each bunk and a light.

Computer center.

Shelf purchased at HomeSense for $23

Gun rack from my dad and I spray painted it. Now hanging all his fishing rods

An old deer head toy that I recovered with burlap.

 My dad called me one morning telling me we saw 3 old crates siting outside of someones home and he went back to get them for me...and so so happy he did.  They make the perfect shelves for this room.

 

 And that's it's. So happy this room is done.  It really took a lot longer then I thought it was going to. Check back for link ups for the How To's.

Kijiji To The Rescue

Now that my front entrance was looking fresh and new  all done on a budget ;) There were a few loose ends I wanted to finish up.

 I painted our back family room doors Seal Skin, same colour as our stairway. (post of the finished stairway soon to come). (btw family room still needs to be done)

BEFORE

This whole house has very decorative switchplates, light switch plates and outlet covers ranging in colours of golds to platinum.  I needed to either work with them or buy all new; my husband liked the idea of buying all new sleek white covers BUT I kinda like the little whimsy in these covers.  So the decision was made to spray paint...I swear since the start of this make-over I have fallen IN LOVE with spray paint!! :)

After

 

 And I'm very, very happy with the way they turned out and yes...a lot cheaper then replacing all covers.

With everything that was getting done I still had the most important item at the very top of my to do list still to go.  The entrance way was not going to be finished until I had this item.  I still needed an  Entrance Table. I really didn't have an idea of what type of table however I knew I wanted it long enough to fill the outer wall to the hall closet and narrow enough not to take up too much room.  I searched and searched and every table I loved was over $500...not going to happen!!

So I took to Kijiji and guess what? I found it!!

This piece is made by Greaves & Thomas and was $75.

I loved the colour of the wood and the finishes

The length was perfect for the space

my find in the background :)

prefect! My husbands not to sure about it...but I love it!

 Getting one step closer to making this house our home.
 

Grey Really Does Matter

With the Chandelier looking new it was time to get this front entrance way into shape.  The first thing people see when coming over.

When pulling off a full house facelift, knowing your budget is the most important thing.

Once the budget is figured out the facelift can be planned out.

• Will this be a working with "the bones" of the house operation? 
• OR maybe a little extra pulls and tucks here and there?  
• OR is this a complete and total make over.

Unfortunately for us, this facelift is a on a tight budget a.k.a working with "the bones."

The first thing we HAD to give up on our wish list was new flooring.

Our house has (ugly) tile from entry way, to kitchen through the hallway, half bath and laundry room.  We do have beautiful hardwood in our family room, dinning room and a boarder of hardwood surrounding carpet in our front living room.  The stairs going up are carpeted with carpeting through out the entire upstairs with exception of bathrooms which are tiled.

Plan (with budget in mind)...Keep Tile and save money.  Let me just say, I hate this tile!
I did not want the tile to stick out, I wanted it to blend and work with the tile. Colour choice was extremely important for this. I literally took my colour wheel and sat in the middle of the entry way pulling colours and pairing it with the tile.

I wanted something soft and calming, however that made a big impacted. I was planning a focal wall that will be seen from the front door so I did not want to compete against or clash with that.

But most importantly I wanted something clean, fresh and new.

WE WENT WITH Grey Matters Sherwin-Williams  

But before we started painting, a plan for the gritty/dingy/smoker yellow wallpaper wrapped around the lower half of the front entry walls encased in gold trim was needed.

First thought...take it all down.  It was just so so hard to look at.  

 However once some of the trim (that was glued onto the wall paper) was taken down the wallpaper wasn't looking so bad. 

Before the paint but with extra trim removed

I did think about the possibility of installing all new wainscoting, more modern, a lot nicer but then...of course the budget came into play.  

And I thought to myself...maybe I can just paint the wallpaper, save some dough and time?  

Painted

Painted

 And it turned out GREAT!! I LOVED THE LOOK!!

Now time to add a little Grey Matters

Done! Well, kinda...

 Walls painted, Chandler rope in need of a little more black spray paint, and that door...it still needed an action plan.  But the wall colour, the white painted wallpaper and trim...I loved the way it turned out!

 

For The Love Of Spray Paint

As you all may remember the predominate theme is our house decor is GOLD...not by choice of course.
This house is covered from head to toe in wallpaper, trim trim and more trim and of course GOLD.

We have started-up again in making this house a home.
 We are DE-GOLDING with the help of some good old spray paint...

Yep!!  It's cheap, it's quick and guess what... IT LOOKS GREAT!!

Our first go at it with a bottle of spray paint was a huge chandelier in our entry way....which was, you guess it... GOLD .

There was NO WAY that we would have been able to afford the cost of replacing such a massive light fixture so we went with option B, black flat spray paint. (my husband wanted to go with high gloss however I won that battle and we stuck with flat for a rod- iron finish)

The Before.  

We did not want to get involved with taking down the heavy chandelier and the electrical so we spray painted it in place (I'm sure this is not ideal).

We opened the front door for ventilation and sealed off all other doors in the house.
**Warning, if you are going to do this a fine DRY black (or whatever colour you are using) power gets EVERYWHERE.**
It's a huge mess however a quick and easy clean up.

Before spraying we cleaned the light, removed the "candle sticks" and little gold caps that topped the "candle sticks"

and began to spray, 4 cans later, 

The AFTER:

As you can see we still have to go back to finish spraying the rope and cap on the ceiling.  We need to protect the ceiling before spraying so close to it.

 I LOVE THE END RESULT!

Now onto the rest of the house...

Around The Corner and A Rock Of An Idea

I know that we have taken a lot of the winter off from DIYing  but with spring just around the corner we are getting the itch again to whip this house into a home.  We have a few BHCH projects in the works.


First we are expending the laundry room. Our laundry room was the size of a closet and with 6 kids and 2 adults living in this house that was NOT going to fly! So the demolitions has started and I can't wait until it's done.

Second on our to-do list is our stairs and doors.  They are getting a makeover, we are de-golding and going a darker rout. I won't lie...a little nervous on the colour choice BUT I'm sure it will look great...right??

Now something to hold you over, something I was sooooo excited about last summer, that just did not turn out right!! I have not blogged about it because I was so upset it did not work out the way I wanted it too.

It all started with a rock...

This rock to be exact, look at it.  The second I saw it I knew, that was the rock for me ;)

Right under the window we had a musky water pond.  It was just gross, we thought about filling it in but what fun is that?  So we brain stormed and came up with the idea to do a rock pond, we had the pond, I found the prefect rock and we were a GO!

Step one: Clean out the pond.

 Step two: Take a pump, encase it in something to protect it from all the rocks but still allowing the water to flow freely.  You can buy a case specifically for your pump however they are a bit pricey so we just made one with chicken wire.

Step three: Attach tubing to your pump, which will then run up through your rock (make sure it long enough).  Of course, you can purchase the "proper" type of tubing for this project but as you see we used an old hose.  NOTE: the size of your tubing and power of your pump will control the stream of water that is flowing out of the rock.  (we learned that a stander garden hose may be too small.  We think a  3/4 to 1inch hose or tube may work better)

Step four: We then filled our pound with rocks we had left over from the front flower beds.  The flower beds were filled with rocks as ground cover, when we removed them to put in black mulch we saved the rocks for our pound.  We topped it off with new beach stone.

Step five: Fill your rock pond with water.

Step six: Once you have your main rock feature picked out have the rock yard (or wherever you purchase said rock) drill a hole through one end all the way to the other. (mark accordingly)

Step seven: Place your tubing (in our case the hose) in the bottom of the rock up to the top.  Stop just before the hose peeks out.

Step eight: Hide any excess hose and cords into the surrounding ground cover.

 

Step seven: Turn your pump on, sit back and enjoy your rock pond. 

And here it is...does something look awry?

YES! Our perfect rock is no longer PERFECT.

The second my husband came home with the rock I knew something was very wrong.  I told my him, that is NOT our rock.  He didn't believe me...until I pulled out a picture of the rock, and yes I was right (of course) this was not our rock...so we thought.  We called the rock yard, they were adamant that this rock was ours, it was labeled...they were 100% sure.  I was furious, I ran outside looked at the rock again and figured out that the hole was drilled wrong. It indeed was our rock however now our top and bottom of the rock were the sides and the sides were the top and bottom.  We had it marked as to what end we wanted to be the top and this was not it!! Look at that thing, it's soooo ugly. 

You can see the hole was drilled threw the sides of our rock (which then made it the top and bottom) That bottom peek, a the bottom of the picture is suppose to be the top.  NOT HAPPY! I'm still upset about this...