Desk Redo

I wanted a desk for my sons room so headed to the thrift store to see what I could find.  I ended up bringing this lovely laminate piece home for just $20.  My only advice when looking for used furniture is always give it a good shake to make sure it is sturdy!

BEFORE:

You can paint laminate pieces of furniture just like wood pieces.  One added benefit is that laminate pieces general don't have a lot of gouges or scratches that need to be sanded out.  I did run sand paper over the whole piece before painting it, just to make sure the paint gripped well but it didn't require too much elbow grease.  I followed these great tips for painting laminate furniture found at Centsational Girl.

Once the paint was finished and fully cured I used this stuff to give it a nice clear protective coat.  I love that this stuff comes in a spray can now!

AFTER:

Here it is sporting a lovely coat of Benjamin Moore's "Hale Navy" 

and some new hardware from Hobby lobby.

DIY Floor Pouf

If you have ever sewed a pillow you can definitely handle making a floor pouf.

I got this fabric from Hobby Lobby - regularly $40 a yard but with a 40% off coupon it was $24.  I plan to make another one of these so the total fabric I needed for 2 cubes was 4 yards or $96.  Obviously you could do this for a lot less with a different/cheaper fabric.  Most of the poufs I have seen for sale range in price from $200 to $250 so I felt ok about each of mine being around $50.  I wanted my poufs to be 18"x18"x18" so I cut out 6 squares of fabric 21"x 21" for each pouf.  Then simply sew all your squares together to create a cube, leaving one seam open for stuffing.  I wanted the seams on the edges to "stick out" a little bit so rather than sewing the "right sides" of the fabric together to create a basic edge, I turned each of the fabric edges over about an inch then sewed those edges together about a half an inch in (with the two wrong sides of the fabric together).  Don't know if that makes sense - but it's the best explanation I can give!

To stuff the inside for cheap I went to my local goodwill store and found a camping foam pad for $3 and a VERY large stuffed pillow for $4.  I cut up the foam pad into 17" squares (using an electric carving knife) and then stacked the pieces on top of each other.  Next I put them in the fabric cube and filled in the sides and top and bottom with some of the fillings from the large stuffed pillow.  I ended up using the entire foam pad and pillow contents for one cube so I'll be headed back to the thrift store to get another foam pad and pillow for my other pouf.  It really doesn't matter what filler you use, I guess some poufs are filled with scraps of fabric.  I would just recommend not spending your money to purchase a package of brand new foam or fiber filling since there are plenty of ways to do it cheaper.

Once it is stuffed, sew your last seam up by hand and ENJOY!  This is the tv area my kids primarily use and so I haven't ever wanted a "hard edged" coffee table down here - it just seems like it would be a bit of a hazard with three boys jumping around.   This is a great solution for me, a nice soft spot to put my feet up on when I am sitting on the couch and it easily moves out of the way when I'm not using it.

Now I'm off to finish the other one!

Family Room Transformation

BEFORE:

The walls stayed plain white for quite a while!  I was also tired of the red, green, and gold color scheme so while we were making changes I changed that up too.  

AFTER:

The new color scheme is Navy blue, white, grey, and apple green.  The grey on the walls is Benjamin Moore's "ozark shadows".  In this room I left it full strength (not 50% like the hallways and my upstairs living room).  We continued our "racing stripe" trim work look in this room as well as in the Kitchenette.  I got the rug from RugsUSA, they have sales quite often and so I ended up getting it for $300 (size 8x10).  All the blue pillows I found on Etsy (love my octopus one seen above!).  The grey pillows are from Target.  I'm still on the hunt for some more fun pillows for this room.

I got this side table on sale at Homedecorators, with shipping it was around $200.  It came in a gray-green shade and I just spray painted it white.  The lamp and silver coral accessory are from Homegoods.

My next post will be about my DIY floor pouf!

So the walls finally have some color and character - however as you can see they are still bare so there is still work to be done!

Kitchenette Transformation

Here is the final area that we recently finished downstairs.

The Kitchenette

I had the walls painted in Benjamin Moore's "Hale Navy."  For the white trim work on the bottom half of the walls we used 3 boards (8" wide) and placed them about 8" apart to create a "racing stripe" that goes around the whole room.  I also had the trim guys work some magic on the columned opening to the room and it turned out great!

The cabinetry was once again done by McKean Woodworking.  Wall Sconces from Wayfair.  The Blue and white stripe pillows on the chairs I found on Etsy.

 For the accessories, I picked up the artichoke at TJ Maxx Homegoods, the green vases and tall white vase with numbered measurements going up the front are from a new store called "LIV" in Bountiful.  I plan to shop thrift stores for a few more white ceramics.

The table I picked up at the DI (a local thrift store) for $25.  I used the same "Hale Navy" color to paint the legs and the stenciled top.  The chairs I had from my old dining set, I'm glad to have a place for them down here - I think I'll be finding a cute blue and white fabric to upholster the seats in someday!

BEFORE:

 AFTER:
(the cute little silver octopus on top of the table is from Zgallerie).  Sorry I cannot reveal YET where I got this stencil but I promise I will soon!

The floors look like wood but it is actually tile.  We had the tile laid in a herringbone pattern which really looks cool.  The tile is made by Arizona tile and is called "Misingi Suber".

I choose a navy blue palette because I also wanted to change things to that color scheme in the adjoining Family Room, I'll show you those changes next!