Nightstand Makeover

Part 2 of our dream closet makeover is coming up (as is more progress on the stairs), but I wanted to share this little bedroom makeover with you in the meantime.

A while back I found these perfect nightstands (end tables) for our master bedroom. We have a fairly good sized bedroom and I knew we needed substantial sized pieces for the space.

First we attempted to incorporate these:

Via

The beloved Ikea Hemnes dresser. However, it was too tall and just a bit too large for the space. So back to the store they went.

Then we found these:

Via

 

 

Although we loved them (perfect size, perfect design and they were meant to act as nightstands), they were WAYY out of our budget.

 

So one day I was out shopping with my mom and I came across these:

 

 

 

Perfect size, perfect height and just the right price...plus there were 2 of them. I even factored in the cost if we decided to get them professionally sprayed and they were still within budget- sold. They originally had black hoop knobs on them, but I quickly replaced those with crystal knobs to match the decor in our bedroom.

 

Although they were green, they were not the right shade to match our decor, and we finally decided to give them a makeover.

 

We picked out a colour that we found in our headboard fabric, called "Polar Jade" by Benjamin Moore and it matched the curtains, fabric and all other decor perfectly (its the same shade we re-painted our vanity chair in here):

 

 

 

 

We had each of the nightstands sprayed professionally (we figured it was worth the cost since we didn't spend a ton on the pieces themselves), and they look awesome!

 

Here are the finished pieces:

 

 

 

The colour in the photo looks a lot brighter than it actually is (I would say its truer to the swatch above), however it matches perfectly with our new headboard (which you can see a sneak peak of beside the nightstands). (p.s I really need to replace my childhood alarm clock...yikes!)

 

 

 

 

 

So there you have it, our updated nightstands painted to match our space. We love the size of them, the number of drawers and how the style matches our dresser- they fit perfectly. We'll be posting about the finished space soon, but for now this gives you an idea of our colour scheme and how we went about it. Hope this inspires you to think outside of the box for nightstands...there are so many options out there!

 

Melissa and Ian

Wallpapered Closet

Some of you may have seen our sneak peek on our Facebook page of the Wallpapered closet that we finished a few weeks ago, and here's how it all went down.

Ian and I are pretty much able to work together on almost every project in our house. We've done it all- building, painting, designing, etc., but wallpapering has not yet been one of those projects. Although we could have attempted to try this incredibly 'bonding experience' together, we decided to bring in the experts. Call mom.

My mom and I had wallpapered a room in our house together before- the dining room, which we haven't posted about much since that room is still a work in progress, but here's the wall we worked on together:

 

So I knew mom was the perfect person to call when I decided to wallpaper our small bedroom closet. 

 

Our master bedroom has 2 closets (I know awesome eh?!) one walk in and the other just a small hanging closet.  

Its a bit difficult to get a picture of the 2 closets since they face each other and there isn't much room for photo-taking, but here's a picture of the small closet so you can see what we were working with:

That picture also gives you a sneak peek of our Master Bedroom (which I will be posting the reveal of soon!), and shows your our wall colour, so I wanted to choose a paper that went with that.

We didn't need to wallpaper this closet, so this became more of my project...mainly since Ian has never wallpapered and didn't really think we needed to.
I chose to take on this project since a.) it was an easy space to wallpaper, b.) an inexpensive project - since we only needed 2 rolls  c.) if we messed up in the closet no one would probably ever know. Well except you all of course, but I'm sure you wouldn't judge :) So on with the wallpaper!

We chose "Blue Mountain Blue and Silver Strippable Non-Woven Paper Prepasted Wallpaper" that we found at Lowes. Between the 2 papers that my mom and I have worked on in this house, this paper was by far the best. The paper we used in the living room cost more and was much more difficult. The paper from Lowes was easy to install, less expensive and appeared to be good quality. I would definitely recommend this paper.

The first step to wallpaper this closet was to set up the room. I used old sheets and drop cloths to cover the floors and actually taped a drop cloth to the baseboards in the closet (with painters tape), to avoid any drips or anything getting on the floors.

I also 'sized' the walls with wallpaper size. For any of you who have wallpapered before you may know that this step is considered optional, but makes putting up the paper much easier in the end (and easier to take down). This isn't the exact size we used (the one we bought isn't available to view online), but this one from Lowes gives you an example of what the size looks like and does.

The room then began looking like this:

We also made sure to patch any holes in the wall and sand everything down first before sizing.

After measuring and cutting all the pieces first, we put up our first piece:

And after smoothing it out, it looked much better. It took us about 3 hours to finish the closet and in the end, we ended up with this:

 

 

So once again the mother-daughter team did pretty well! (I think we wallpaper pretty well as a team!) When Ian came home, I can honestly say he was very pleasantly surprised.

 

The next step was to build shelving and a hanging rod. Since the other closet in this bedroom (the walk-in, which I will be blogging about next) has tons of shelving and drawers, we decided to dedicate this smaller closet to just hanging.

 

We went to Home Depot and had some melamine particleboard sheets cut to the size of the closet. We then brought home the scrap pieces to use for building support for the shelves. Up first went the side braces:

 

 

 

Then the middle and the other side:

 

 

 

Then we attached the hanging rod to the side braces:

 

 

 

 

placed the wood shelf on top and done!

 

 

Finally time to move our clothes back in:

 

 

So there you have it!

 

This closet has been waiting to be finished for almost a year, but in the end it only took us a weekend to finish it. We now have ALL of our clothes in our bedroom instead of spaced out throughout the upstairs closets (yea!) and its a nice surprise when I open up this closet and see the beautiful wallpaper poking through.

 

Have any of you wallpapered lately?!

 

Melissa and Ian

*The opinions on this post are entirely our own. We were not endorsed by Lowes to recommend any of these products*

Vanity Reveal

Hi Friends,


So lots going on lately, as you probably remember from my 'blogging note' post, however, this weekend we've been working away once again, and I managed to finish my vanity and vanity chair. I love it, and I can't wait to be able to actually use it now!


You might remember me introducing you to my $10.00 vanity that I "picked" from Kijiji last summer, here, or my antique vanity chair that I also found on Kijiji for $10.


Let me remind you of the "Before's" anyways...


Here's what I started with:

and here's how it turned out:

I sanded, painted and reupholstered it in new fabric. I actually ordered that fabric for our Master Ensuite curtains and used what I had left for the chair- worked out perfectly. The fabric I used was 'Bethe-Robins Egg' from Tonic Living and the paint colour is a light sea-foam green called 'Smokey Slate' in a satin finish by Behr . I actually didn't even need to prime the chair- I used Behr Premium Plus Ultra paint which has a built in primer. It worked beautifully. I honestly might have gotten away with 1 really good coat- its that thick. I did 2 coats though, and that was more than enough- the paint went on really well. 

Now, here's what the Vanity Table looked like before:

I spent some time fixing it up and painting it ("Simply White" by Benjamin Moore). I also added some new hardware to the drawer that I found at Home Sense:

and now it looks like this:

Added a few accessories for now...

I found this mirror at a second hand store for $7.00. Its super heavy and has a solid wood frame- someone had painted over the previous finish, but I think that with some paint, it will look perfect over my vanity....

I'll update you all once I've painted and refinished the mirror, but for now, I'm looking forward to having a nice spot to sit in our bedroom to get ready :)

Total cost for the make-over:
Vanity Table (Kijiji)- $10.00
New handle for drawer (Home Sense)- $11.00
Vanity Chair (Kijiji)- $10.00
Fabric for Chair (Tonic Living)- remnant from curtain fabric
Paint (Home Depot)- $10.00 (HD coupon)
Mirror (second hand store)- $7.00


Total: $48.00


Other Accessories (already owned):
Flowers (Home Sense)
Jewelry Drawer (Home Sense)
Vanity Tray (Second Hand Store- $0.99)

All I need now, is a light, a small mirror and to fix up the drawer, so I can actually put all of my make-up inside :) I'm planning on using some wallpaper that I'll have left over from our bedroom closet make-over (post coming soon!), to do the drawer (I know no-one will ever see it but me, but that's ok right?!)


So what do you think?!
What else would you make sure to have on your vanity table?

Linking up to:

Featured on:

Thank you and Reclaimed Fence Wood

Happy Monday everyone, and a Happy 4th of July to all of my readers in the US!

I hope everyone is having (or had) a great long weekend and got a chance to relax and enjoy the amazing weather we had here!

We got up to a few projects this weekend, but before I blog about that, I just wanted to send TWO huge Thank You, to some of my fellow bloggers!

The first is pretty much a mentor/inspiration of mine that recently mentioned me on her blog.

Jennifer, from Rambling Renovators:

was the FIRST Canadian blogger that I started following, and was a true inspiration to me in getting my blog up and running. She is incredibly creative and somehow manages to do it all, even with an adorable little one running around! Thanks for keeping me on your radar Jennifer and you will always be an inspiration to me!

Make sure to check out Jennifer's blog and see some of the amazing projects (including the Panelled Wall, I absolutely LOVE!) she's done!

As well, a huge THANK YOU to Chris over at "Just a Girl".

Love her blog!! She features so many awesome projects and ideas and shes definitely on my blog roll daily views! Thanks so much for featuring me Chris!! :)

~~~~~~~~~
So last weekend, we were in the midst of dealing with a few issues with the bathroom reno's while still trying to relax and work on other things around the house, all while entertaining for friends and family. To say the least, Im exhausted!

Yesterday, Ian decided to start fixing the fence door that desperately need to be re-done. The previously owners had created a huge fence door- around 70 inches wide (HUGE) that was hanging by 2 brackets on 1 small piece of wood. Literally, the first time we opened it, it broke right off the wood.

So Ian went straight to work, taking off the old door and building 2 new doors to replace it. That will help to balance the weight properly, but give us the same large opening into the backyard.

So far, the first door has been hung and completed and he is just about to finish the 2nd door (post about this to come soon!)
However, as the original door was being taken down, I asked what the plan was for that door. I got a response with the words, "garbage, who cares, dont need it" somewhere in there.
AHHHHH!! No! I want that wood, I insisted. The wood from the old fence door, has a great worn look to it. I neeeeed to do something creative with it.

So, Im open to suggestions, but here are a few ideas of what I might do with that wood:

DIY Factory Cart, from "Addicted to Decorating":

a neat storage idea from Kate at "Centsational Girl":

or try something a little more gutsy (although I would need a lot more than some fence boards for this!):

We'll see...maybe after I look at the wood more closely a decision will be made for me :)

Happy Monday Everyone!