Saturday, November 27, 2010

Alicia's bedroom

I finished my friend Alicia's bedroom finally and here's the end product. I didn't take any before pictures so you'll have to imagine it. Let me set the "before" scene. Imagine white walls... and a king sized mattress. That's it. We got rid of her old furniture she'd had since she got married so I had to find all new stuff. Here are a couple before pictures of the furniture and other items I got on craigslist and thrift stores. I also used a few accessories she already had.




I painted her room Gobi Desert from Behr. It's absolutely my favorite neutral tan. She really wanted a relaxing retreat so I knew I wanted to do a ton of white. And blue's her favorite color so the palette was the easiest thing about this room.

The damask print on the focal wall was done using a stencil my friend cut out of vinyl lettering. I stuck it onto a blank stencil I bought at hobby lobby and used an exacto knife to cut it out. Then I just drew it on the wall and painted it by hand.

The chandelier was from my lovely sister Tara. We spray painted it white and made a white cord hider from an old sheet.

I got the mantel from my Mom. She was kind enough to donate it to the cause and we painted it blue.

My carpenter/husband built this amazing storage solution/reading nook. Did I mention what a hunk he is? I guess he will think twice before coming with me on a job! We built the window seat with a door at the top you can take off and store stuff you don't want out. Plus it makes a great nook for reading or watching the kids sword fight in the back yard.

I got the bench at the foot of her bed on craigslist. It was a beautiful mauve color. Ok, maybe it wasn't so beautiful. After a quick slipcover made out of duck cloth for %50 off at joanns, it fit much better in the room. And I didn't have to use a seam ripper once. Which was a first for me.

The art piece was my favorite project. I've never painted on canvas before and it was really fun. I don't know if you remember me talking about Alicia before but she recently lost her sweet boy. She has 5 children still here so I wanted to do an art project that reminded her of her family and the one who "flew" away. When I gave it to her she started crying and said she loved it so I think she got the message.

She wanted a little memory box made for her son. So I made a shadow box from some kind of antique sifter. We pinned his blessing outfit to it and put up a picture of him.

The headboard was out of that door in the "before" shots. I used some 1x4 pine and a little molding and then painted it blue.

Now here's a breakdown of the costs. Once I wrote them out, I was surprised by what I spent the most on. You'd think the furniture would be the most expensive.

$250 on bedding (ebay and home goods)
$100 on furniture (end of bed bench, dresser, night stands, mantel and headboard)
$100 on paint and accessories
$ 50 on lumber for the window seat

That's a grand total of $500. Yes I spent every penny of our very small budget. Yes I shopped at Goodwill and dug lumber out of the cull bin at Home Depot. But I stayed on budget. One more image just because...

Friday, November 26, 2010

Home made Christmas presents

We have a policy of getting our kids 2 presents for Christmas. One from us and one from Santa. This is probably the last year I'll get away with making presents because my kids are all still pretty young. My 3 year old will probably be getting into leggos or something by next year and I don't think I can make those. So meet their Christmas presents. The boys are getting monster dolls. I made them out of scrap fabric and stuffing from a pillow I got at Goodwill.

And Paysen gets a cloth doll. I had extra fabric from some aprons I made family members for presents. I used craft paint mixed with fabric medium for the face so I can wash it and it's not hard. The clothes were going to be the death of me though. I'm sure I could have downloaded a pattern off etsy but I wanted to try and figure it out on my own. Thanks for the stubbornness Mom.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Ornaments

I decided to do a "these are a few of my favorite things" Christmas tree this year. The ornaments were inspired by the things I've been somewhat obsessed with the past year. I'm waiting to get one more thing in the mail, I'll post pictures when I get it. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...





Paysen and I are going to make sheet music paper chains later to go around the tree. And a ruffle tree skirt. Because I love all things ruffly.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Un-privatized

I un-privatized my family blog since my husband's home now if anyone wants to get to know me a little better...

calebgrandy.blogspot.com