do it yourself

Wood Crafts

| The Bee Life

With our recent attic project (see here) we have a lot of old wood that we’ve replaced, meaning we have a lot of old wood sitting in our garage waiting for something amazing to happen to it! So I have a few projects brewing in my head that I hope to start working on for the upcoming holiday seasons for some nice holiday decor. I also have a few projects/presents in mind for family and friends. Here is just a few sneak peaks of a few of my ideas…

I might even brainstorm and create a few ideas of my own for more holiday-esq door signs and decor.  That is one thing I love having year round, and with the front door about to be painted within the next month – yes a color has been chosen, (you have to wait to be surprised) we will be able to showcase some of those new ornaments.

Hope you have a crafty, inspiring weekend!

Front Door Dilemma

| The Bee Life

Ever since I realized I was able to paint our beautiful original front door … I say realize because the inside is still original but for whatever reason the previous homeowners decided to paint the outside facing 100-year old door! And because of that, I now have had the ongoing dilemma on what color to paint this door.  We have a neutral colored house (tan with off white trim), so I feel like we have a pretty wide range of options… which also makes the decision much harder.

So beyond going on Pinterest for inspiration, I used the Sherwin-Williams ColorSnap app to look at a range of colors that I’ve been gravitating too. Finding the right shade of whatever color we end up choosing is important, and ColorSnap allows an ease of browsing along with saving the color swatch right on my phone!

The Color

I have looked at a few fun colors too, like a bright orange, or even a deep purple.  But I think going with something more practical.  But just when I think I am leaning towards one color over the other I change my mind.  I think I am just going to have to go for it!

Help! Any suggestions? Advice?

Thanks in advance,

Transformation Tuesday no. 8

| The Bee Life

This past week, B and I did a quick and easy DIY makeover – this has been in the works for a few years now.  B had these sort of hideous black shiny dressers with golden knobs.  Although not that pretty, super functional and great to have. So we finally refinished and painted them!  The knobs got updated too, the cheapest route – because if any of you know knobs/light covers, etc. are the most expensive items that add up quickly!  If we wanted to replace all of the knobs it could cost almost $200 (on the high-end)… not the point of an easy, inexpensive DIY.

We grabbed some spray paint and started sanding to get as much of the shine off as possible.  The sanding was probably the hardest part – B tackled this like a champ.  I was the go-to spray painter – after two coats they were good to go! Not only are they more our style, but they open up our room so much more, we no longer have these glaring shiney black pieces staring at us! I bought a table runner to place on top so that our TV and items won’t mess up the new paint.

It was such an easy, and relatively inexpensive update, we are both so happy with the way it turned out.

House Hunters – Bathroom Retreat

| The Bee Life

Bathroom’s are always something to marvel over, they’re second best to the kitchen when it comes to a top-selling point for a house.  Well for B and I the kitchen and bathroom’s could both use a good overall.  Although I don’t see the bathroom being for awhile, as it’s a big space and functional, all the upgrades found be purely for our own reasons, not because anything is broken, which I guess isn’t necessarily a bad thing. *smiles*

We have a ‘claw foot’ tub (without the claw feet) and I love it, however I am thinking if we ever remodel our bathroom, we would ditch the claw foot and do a stand-up shower. We would gain so much more space for a vanity. But then people argue, that the resale value on the house is lower because people want bathtubs (especially families)… I feel like it’s a lose-lose regardless, just do what we want, right?

Here is the wishlist:

  • White subway tiles
  • Double vanity or an extended counter
  • Larger mirror
  • Accents of color with flooring or tile work
  • Lots of shower heads
  • Chandelier light fixture
  • Stand-up shower and claw-foot tub

Some inspiration…

http://www.houseofturquoise.com/2014/09/casabella-home-furnishings-and-interiors_5.html
http://houseandhome.com/design/photo-gallery-jillian-harriss-vintage-inspired-style?page=8
http://jensawesomeworld.tumblr.com/post/66268620778
http://www.bhg.com/bathroom/color-schemes/colors/bathroom-color-ideas/#page=3

I think our kitchen remodel will come first before the bathroom, but you never know! We might just go crazy and tackle everything at once one of these days. This bathroom certainly won’t be a DIY project… maybe parts but not all. Until then I will be looking at lots of pretty pictures building and dreaming of our future bathroom.

Transformation Tuesday no. 7

| The Bee Life

A little over a month ago, I was brainstorming some ideas for our empty, yellow and brown sun room. Well we ended up going in a completely different direction, but I absolutely love it. We ended up painting the room white, and adding some base and crown molding to give it more of a finished look.  Since we got new furniture, the big debate was what to do with our old leather couch and our super comfy, yet not so cute recliner. Solution? The sun room! Not to mention I had some fun colorful pillows that just didn’t go with our new furniture – B had the brilliant idea of re-purposing in this new space.

One of my favorite parts is the curtains, we used PVC pipe and little hooks to make the curtain rod, it goes around the entire window frame, it was super inexpensive and all custom. I also love our Jackson Hole pictures topping off and making this a true retreat. I love all of the color and patterns, I realize it’s not everyone’s taste but I love to mix it up and have some fun.

Transformation Tuesday no. 4

| The Bee Life

This TT (Transformation Tuesday) is one of my favorites yet. I totally underestimated what a change this would be, especially to such a small space. Our side entry aka ‘mud room’ was a huge eye sore, dark paneling, layers of old flowery wallpaper, and crackling ties.

Before

When we first got our keys in November, starting to tackle taking down the wallpaper was a random project that I worked on for one afternoon and then just stopped as I got to the third layer! And then it sat like that for weeks until finally I had the white paint open for another little project and I decided to paint over that wood paneling! Then B got into it, and we removed the rest of the wallpaper one afternoon … then I tore up all the floor ties, curious to see what was underneath, and after a few more rounds of paint… wah-la!

After

Rug / Roller Shade / Hooks / Shelf

We had all left over paint for the white and even the walls, which just looks so crisp paired together! The wall color is the same color we used in our hallway stairs going up to the second floor. Underneath the tiles was wood that was half painted and half not, so we decided to go all white again, eventually we would like to get some stone tile down. We bought a decent size rug, new roller shade for privacy and sunlight, and a floating shelf and some hooks to complete the coat area.  I grabbed the white standing shelf from another closet to finish the look. I truly can’t get over this, it’s so bright and big, for a small space, (it looks even better in person).

More things will be added along the way, of course, but this is one of my favorites so far!

DIY – Race Medal Display

| The Bee Life

I am excited to share with you my adaptation and more affordable DIY version of a Race Medal and Bib display for our home office.  I first saw the idea at a friend’s apartment, she had a cute single-bib holder with some text and hooks for metals.  As the weeks wore on and our race medals sat in a box in our office, I remembered the idea and went online to see how much these were! On Etsy, they range anywhere from $30 – $50, which while affordable, I knew I could do this much cheaper!

Step 1: Find a piece of wood that fits the desired size. Since B and I both run, I wanted to be able to display both of our bibs, separately so this had to be long enough to accommodate two 8-inch race bibs. I also wanted to have a catchy/cute phrase on the board too… more room needed.   It just so happened that we had a wood piece from our table that we got to sample stains from the carpenter… turns out this board was the perfect size to a T.  Cost = $0

Step 2: Measure + determine design.  I grabbed our race bibs, placed them on either side and penciled in the top holes for place makers and then eye-balled where I would want the hooks to go along the bottom for the medals.  The phrase I decided on was borrowed from one I saw online; “Soul Mates in it for the Long Run.”  This phrase is so fitting for B and I and goes back to the roots of when we started dating, four years ago.  It was maybe a week into dating and I was running my first half-marathon, while B was running a 10k.  The first person I ran into, in the crowd after the race was B, literally ran into each other, and if you have ever been in a race before you know how crowded they are! I knew it was something special when that happened.

Step 3: Paint backdrop. I had some left-over acrylic paint in grey and white (just what I needed) so I grabbed those and started to paint! Cost = $2.50

Step 4: Buy hardware. I needed little hooks for the bibs and then larger hooks for the metals.  The hardware store is literally 5-houses down the street and around the corner so a quick trip there and I was in business!  I ended up needed 1-pack of the smaller hooks  ($1.29) and 3-packs of the larger hooks ($1.35 each).  We also needed sawtooth hooks for the back and other hooks for the wall (about $5). Cost = $10.50

Step 5: Stencil + paint phrase. I wanted this to look better than all free-hand painting, so I printed out the phrase and cut the letters, traced in position to make sure I could fit everything, then painted! I then free-handed the other writing and added a cute personal touch of “est. 2011” – not perfect but it works!

Step 6: Apply hardware. This was a little tricky getting the square bent hooks into place and definitely took some patience, after starting a hole with the screwdriver we were able to get these screwed into place.  Afterwards I placed two large sawtooth hangers onto the back and then nailed 50lb weight picture frame hooks into the wall.

Step 7: Hang up + decorate with metals + bibs.

Total cost: $13.00

Now our race bibs and metals have a nice home… and plenty of room for more to come in the future!

Transformation Tuesday.

| The Bee Life

It’s my inaugural Transformation Tuesday! Are you excited? I am, this means we are starting to wrap this up! But since we aren’t quite finished or moved in, here are a few of the projects we’ve completed, although small in tow, have made a huge difference.

1. Carpet Removal – Hardwood Please
This one was simple… as soon as we saw this carpet, and the gorgeous hardwoods in the rest of the house we just had to tear this up. So we did, the first weekend we got in the house.  And with Moz’s help, poof! The carpet disappeared… luckily it was in a small area of the house.


2. Wallpapered Built-In’s
My first initial instinct was to add a little more life into these beauties by painting the inside yellow so they would pop! Then I remembered I had some left-over embellished wallpaper from when we made our bar (I’ll share in a future post).  After some measuring and cutting, I soaked the pre-glued wall paper, waited 5-minutes and then placed into the built-in’s… wah-la! Instant character.  I love this patterned wallpaper because it reminds me of tin ceilings, without actually having dark tin ceilings in your house. The pattern is subtle enough that it isn’t too distracting, and it brightens the cabinets up just enough, I love it.

I can’t wait to share more before and after pictures with you! Honestly, I have to keep reminding myself to take the before AND after pictures… hopefully we can get the majority of the work finished up this week.  We have been putting in long nights after work, and full weekends for the past three weekends. It’ll be nice when it’s all over.

Happy Homeowning!