Today I am sharing a tour of our Playroom- which is the loft space in our home. It is at the top of our stairs and doubles as a second living room and play space. In the video below I share the process of decorating/creating the "Play Hard Be Kind" wall.
On this wall I first hung the letters to create the saying "Play Hard Be Kind" I started with unfinished wood letters that I painted with matte black acrylic paint then hung them on the wall. Next I created a magnetic chalkboard for the space below, I have a post and video on how I did that here.
Along with the chalkboard we have a small table and chair set and a basket of stuffed animals. On the other side of the door we have our TV and a cube organizer where we keep most of the books and toys. Around that area we also keep baskets of more stuffed animals and toys.
On the other side of the room we have a small loveseat and a storage ottoman, a relaxing space where we can sit, read books and occasionally watch tv. However we honestly don't use this tv much anymore since it became a playroom.
Today I am excited to share with you my latest DIY project, a large magnetic chalkboard for my sons playroom. This was an easy project that makes a big statement in the room and is a fun activity. I have the video tutorial below, but will also walk through the steps here for reference:
To start I took a trip to Home Depot for supplies here is my shopping list:
1. First I set up my station outside for painting- TIP if you can do this inside or in the garage it will come out much smoother, alot of dust got in my paint from doing it outside.
2. Take your foam roller and paint one thin coat then let it dry completely- this is where I messed up, between my first and second coat I didn't let it dry completely and when rolling my second coat it took up pieces of my first coat making some rough spots.
3. Do a total of 4-5 thin coats (letting them dry in between) until you get the coverage you want.
4. You then must let the paint "cure" for a few days- based on what the container says, before it is ready for use.
5. While the paint was curing I stained my hobby boards I was going to use for the frame, I used the rustoleum glaze because I already had it from a past project.
6. Once the stain was dry and paint was cured I used liquid nails to attach to wood frame. I applied pressure and put rocks on it to set overnight.
7. Then it was ready to be hung up, we used cabinet screws in the studs (the metal sheet it very thin and light weight).
8. Lastly I set up the board to have a large paper roll on one side for coloring, and chalk and magnets on the other side for play.
I love how this turned out the size makes it a great statement piece on the playroom wall and gives plenty of space for creativity. My son absolutely loves the magnets and I see him using the coloring side more as he gets older.
You can make this project in any size for any space. You can also get this version of the chalkboard paint, that allows you to tint it any color you want so you can have a white or colored chalkboard instead of traditional black.
We recently completed a home project that we have wanted to do for the last couple years, we added stacked cabinets in our kitchen and extended our trim all the way to the ceiling. I did film a video of the process that will give you a look at the whole process but I thought it would be helpful to write out all the steps here as well.
The back story on our kitchen: When we purchased our home 2.5 years ago our kitchen looked like this: brown wood cabinets, white appliances and no backsplash
Pretty quickly after moving in we painted the cabinets white, I also filmed a video on how we did that here. That left the space looking like this:
Over time we also installed a backsplash, changed out the hardware, light and eventually got new appliances, leaving the space looking like this:
Our "last" project was filling in the large space above our cabinets, we actually have very high ceilings in our kitchen but only had 24" cabinets. This left an additional 24" between the cabinets and the ceiling. The gameplan was to add a layer of stacked cabinets, these cabinets were 12" tall, leaving 12" left between the ceiling and cabinets. This is the area we decided to fill in with trim. Here is a look at the process
Step 1- Buy, Paint and Install Stacked Cabinets:
I purchased these stock cabinets from Lowes for all cabinets except one that was an odd size. I actually purchased them one at a time as budget allowed and painted them with the same paint as the rest of our kitchen cabinets. Once they were all painted it was time to install them.
To Install:
We took off the original crown molding at the top of the cabinets, then found the studs that our existing cabinets were installed in and simply drilled them into the same studs. ** However once we got all the cabinets up there we realized our wall was actually uneven so we had to put wood shims behind certain cabinets to make them all line up. I have heard an uneven wall is very common so just keep this in mind*
Step 2- Build Box
Most people would likely be able to skip this step but all of our cabinets were the correct size to buy stock cabinets, except one in the corner. So we decided to just build a box in that space that we could use to display decor and cookbooks. This was probably a far from professional job but we built the box with MDF. We built the box in place since again the wall was uneven and we could tell building it elsewhere and trying to install it wouldn't match up. I used wood glue to put the box together and then used nails to secure and drilled into the studs.
Step 3- Wood fill seams
After getting all the stacked cabinets up I used wood putty to fill in the seams between the lower and upper cabinet rows to make it look more seamless. Let it partially dry and then sand to smooth. Eventually I painted over these seams as well.
Step 4- Build Frame for Extended Trim
We decided that we wanted to build a small frame from the cabinets to the ceiling to make installing our trim much easier and more secure. We simply used scrap pieces of wood and drilled them to the ceiling then ran 2x4's vertically attaching to the pieces on the ceiling. Then this would be what we attached the MDF sheet to directly
Step 5- Prep MDF- Attach to frame
We purchased a sheet of .5" MDF and cut it to size to fit the space between our cabinets and ceiling. Once we had cut it we used liquid nails on the frame to get it attached. Once it was up there we added some nails to secure it to the frame.
Step 6- Prep and Attach new Molding
Once your MDF sheet is up it is time for the trim, now what you do here all comes down to preference. I wanted a big chunky piece of crown molding at the top, so I bought the biggest piece I could find at Lowes. Then we also added an additional piece of trim to the lower section of the MDF. I love how it turned, the molding and trim brought the whole look together and made it look like a custom kitchen.
Step 7- Sand, Putty & Paint
After everything has been built and attached it is time to give any rough areas a sand, fill in any holes, nails or seams then paint. I ended up needing to do two full coats of paint and one coat of touch up.
Here is the current look of the kitchen, we absolutely love how it turned out. It completely transformed our kitchen for a low cost and a minimal time commitment. We worked on this one evening and one morning so less then one full day of work minus some of the painting I did later.
The last thing we would love to do is buy new cabinet doors for some of the top cabinets with the rounded molding at the top to match the rest, here is a little look at what it would look like
I don't know about you but this family loves their coffee. We have had a coffee bar set-up in our house ever since we bought our first house over 4 years ago, when we moved we built one right into our new house.
In the midst of decorating for Fall I decided not only does this space need its own special decor but I would take this excuse to make some of my own syrups. I recently was told I needed to cut all artificial sugar and if I am being honest I didn't realize just how much I was consuming. My favorite one? Our sugar free Vanilla coffee syrup for Americanos and Lattes.
So in the video below I show you how I decorated our coffee bar for Fall and how to make a pumpkin coffee syrup, a vanilla coffee syrup and a honey simple syrup. I am sharing the recipes below so you can pin them for later. Please let me know in the video comments what your favorite fall coffee flavor and if you tried making the syrup.
Pumpkin Coffee Syrup:
1/3 cup pumpkin puree
1 1/4 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 TBS pumpkin pie spice
1 Tsp Vanilla extract
Mix all items in a pot and bring to a boil
Lower heat and let simmer for 8-10 minutes until sauce has thickened
Cool and pour into airtight container
Enjoy :)
Vanilla Coffe Syrup:
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 TBS vanilla extract
1 Vanilla bean- optional
Mix all items in a pot and bring to a boil. I scraped the vanilla beans and added them and the pod.
Lower heat and let simmer for 8-10 minutes until sauce has thickened
Remove vanilla beans if you desire
Cool and pour into airtight container
Enjoy :)
Honey Simple Syrup:
I wanted to add this one for multiple uses, making honey into syrup makes it easier to use in tea and coffee because it dissolves better. My doctor also mentioned that honey is the best sweetener for me to use right now. This is the simplest of the three.
We recently completed a makeover on our dining room space and I am so excited to share with you. I will have the video I put together linked at the bottom of this post, that will show the space when we moved in as well as what it looked like a couple months ago. It also gives sources for everything in my dining room.
The lower level of our home is a completely open concept space. The kitchen dining room and living area are all completely open to one another. Since it is so open our dining space is more of a "nook" so we wanted to do a couple things to define the space better, as well as add more storage.
To do this we started by adding in a row of cabinets along the wall for extra storage. We purchased these cabinets as stock unfinished cabinets from Lowes. We actually used upper cabinets because they are shallower which is what we needed for the space. Our contractor installed the cabinets for us then we painted them to match the cabinets in the kitchen and stained wood to use as the topper. This created a buffet style addition that we use as our coffee bar.
Above the cabinets we built some Farmhouse style open shelving, see post with video on how we built them here. The addition of these shelves was great for again some extra storage but also to decorate and really make the space homey.
Our dining room table is still the same table we had at our last home, we love its unique look. We got it at Nebraska furniture mart, it is a faux concrete top, that apparently has some concrete in it because it is very heavy. It is paired with 4 of the chairs that came with the table then the two captains chairs on each end we actually purchased separately from At Home and they somehow matched perfectly. I love the look the white fabric brings into the whole table.
All these additions made the dining room a completely different space, both aesthetically and practically. We are so happy with how it came out, it met all of our expectations. Something else to note is we did this makeover for a very reasonable budget. We purchased the 4 cabinets, on sale at Lowes for $75 each, the wood top we did for about $30 and the shelves we did for around $40 total, so everything was done for less than $400. This is an amazing cost, my in laws actually priced doing similar addition of cabinets in their dining room and got a quote for $4000 for that only (with granite counter top) so we did this for 1/10th of the cost.
Watch Full Makeover Video Here with Before & After
Today I wanted to hop on and share with you one of the latest home projects we completed. Which was some DIY shelves for our dining room. This also completes our dining room so full tour of that will be coming soon as well.
When we purchased our house we loved the open concept of the main floor, the kitchen opened up to the dining and the living room. Our dining room is less of a room and more of a "nook" since everything is so open. We decided to make a couple updates to make it a more defined space and more functional. First we added in some cabinets along the wall for storage, more on this in the dining tour.
Originally there was a large painting above the cabinets but what I really wanted was to add some shelves above for some additional storage and to decorate. My husband wasn't 100% sure when I pitched the idea but agreed I could go ahead and try it out.
To start this project I went and got the wood for the shelves from Lowes. I got the same wood panels from Lowes that we used as the cabinet top in the dining room. I then had them cut the panels down for me to correct size. The man in the lumber department actually said they are typically not supposed to cut anything that small but was super nice and did it for me anyway.
Once the wood was cut and I got it home I stained it to match the cabinet tops as well with the decorative glaze that came in our Rustoleum cabinet kit. It is super simple to use, you just brush the glaze on then immediately wipe off the excess. I did two coats of glaze on the shelves.
For the brackets, I actually found exactly what I was hoping for at Hobby Lobby by accident and was thrilled. Especially because they were a killer price point, making this a very affordable project.
Once it was time for install I handed that over to my hubby. He found the studs and drilled the mounts into the wall then attached the shelves. On the bottom shelf he also mounted on these coffee cup hooks on this bar we had at our old house so we can hang up all of our mugs.
After all was installed it was time for the fun part, decorating! A lot of what is on the shelves are things I already had at the house but I did add a few extras from Homegoods.
How to Video:
Stay tuned for the full dining room tour next :)
Decor on Shelves:
Shelf Brackets
Letter B- Hobby Lobby
Blue Plaid Canisters- Rae Dunn from HomeGoods
White Shiplap Board- At Home
Magnolia cotton wreath- Similar
Mercury Glass Vase- HomeGoods
Corbels- At Home- Shanty to Chic line
Cook books- Joy of Cooking & Magnolia Table
Cutting board- Custom wedding gift, from etsy
Glass Apothecary Jar- HomeGoods Lemons
White Pitcher- Homegoods
Mugs- Rae Dunn- Homegoods/ TJmax
Cake Stand- Target Dollar spot
Cream and Sugar Canisters- Rae Dunn- HomeGoods/TJmax
Last month I was blessed enough to host a baby shower for one of my great friends, Lynda. She is pregnant with her first child, a baby girl. Putting together this shower and the details was so fun for me, I thought I would share some of the details with you all.
Decor & Theme:
I based the theme and decorations a bit off how Lynda had decorated her nursery. I used that as a jumping off point. Fist with the invitations, we used these below featuring a floral cow skull, a real version was also included in the nursery created by mama herself.
Play off the invite and theme I wanted to DIY some dreamcatchers to use as decor for the shower, but also to match the nursery colors so Lynda could take them home. Along with the dreamcatchers I wanted to create a "backdrop" for the food table with the majority of the decor for the party. I also added a rose gold "baby"balloon as well as a balloon garland. Then I also hung a gold dipped feather on the table.
Here are the pictures while we were setting up and preparing the food.
Here is another once all the food was ready.
Food & Treats:
For the shower food we wanted to stick with finger foods and snacks, small and easy things for the guests to eat. Each of my friends helped and pitched in with food so we had lots of yummy goodies to choose from.
The Menu: Fruit tray, veggie tray, caprese skewers, salmon puff pastries, apple slices with chicken salad, taco cups, jalapeño poppers, TJ's pigs in a blanket, TJ's macaroni balls, TJ's puff pastries
The Drinks: Champagne punch, Tropical punch spritzer, water, la Croix
The Treats: Berry Chantilly cake from Whole Foods & Mini Rebel Donuts
Balloon Garland:
I knew from early on in the planning process that I wanted to try and create a balloon garland for the decor. I looked up several tutorials and they made it seem pretty straight forward and doable, I hoped that was the truth and it was something I could pull off.
Well in the end it was pretty simple and I absolutely love the way it turned out. The video below goes into full detail on how I created it and the steps I took to get the final look.
Watch Video for Full Tour and Details & Balloon Garland Instructions:
When we purchased our house we knew before the offer was in that we wanted to do some updates to the kitchen: Paint the cabinets white, change the hardware, get new appliances and install a backsplash. We budgeted the money to do these projects and planned to get started on them as soon as majority of the boxes were unpacked. One thing we learned with our first home is the longer you wait to get started on a home project the less likely it will actually get done.
So about a month after we moved in, maybe a bit more we had some local companies come out and give us quotes for ONLY painting the cabinets white. You would not believe these quotes, we were in complete shock. After getting these quotes going all the way up to $7000, for yes only paint and nothing else we realized this was a project we should probably take on ourselves.
I had several friends who had used the Rustoleom kit to redo their kitchen cabinets and they had recommended it to us so I started researching and watching videos. I felt pretty confident this needed to be our route. Here are the before pictures of our kitchen, from the listing.
As you can see there was nothing wrong with the kitchen it was just not our style. The whole kitchen, with the floors was just too much orange tone wood for us. We knew how much just simply painting the cabinets would change and brighten up the space. We also had the exact same granite in our last house with white cabinets so we knew it would work.
For the actual process of painting the cabinets I filmed the process along the way, the video is below at the bottom of the post so you can get a better idea of the steps.
Part of the reason we were hesitant to take on this project originally is because we were afraid it was going to take weeks and weeks. However we were pleasantly surprised that it did not, we committed to cranking it out as fast as possible with everything else we had going on. We spent about a week and a half total painting and split it up between the upper cabinet and the bottom cabinets. The use of a paint sprayer also was a time saver and gave a really nice to the cabinets. Here are the after pictures:
We are so happy with how the cabinets came out and that it only end up costing us a couple hundred dollars to do the work rather then thousands. Next we will be installing the backsplash, changing out the light fixture, and the sink faucet, we will be having someone else do this work for us. Then lastly we would like to replace the appliances with stainless steal. I will come back with updates and show you the progress along the way.
Watch the Full Tutorial and Process Here:
Sources:
Get Rustoleum kit- here
** We used the color Linen for our cabinets
