Tiny Nursery: Potato Print Curtains!

The windows in the tiny nursery are tricky, since they are very tall and include both a window and a functioning door that leads onto the sleeping porches (and the new office-ette).  I determined that the best looking way to cover them would be to run a curtain along the whole wall.  But after weeks of Internet and in-person shopping, I hadn't found Exactly What I Was Looking For, and the time to hang them was nigh.  In a fit of pique (and energy!) I decided to make my own curtains from canvas drop cloths and paint.

I first bought two large canvas drop cloths, then washed and dried them in case they had any kind of sizing or other treatment on them.  I next carved some simple triangles into three potato halves, using regular kitchen knives and a couple of chisels.

Potato stamps!

I wanted a simple pattern that would be forgiving of mistakes and variations, and easy to cover a large surface with.  I decided to use the same paint for both curtains and wall to keep the scheme in the nursery streamlined and not too busy.

Potato stamps and Benjamin Moore Natura paint, to be used for both curtains and walls.

Before working on my drop cloths, I tested out some printing methods on scrap fabric.  I poured a small  amount of paint into a roller try, donned some rubber gloves, and experimented with brushing on the paint vs dipping directly into it.  I needed to figure out how much paint was sufficient to get a good print, and how much would just turn into a blob.

After figuring out a strategy, I stretched my first drop cloth onto one of the big painting walls in my studio.

And I started to print!

After several hours of work, I produced this thing of beauty:

One finished curtain

Each curtain took me about a day to fully print, including breaks to do other things and rest my hands.  I learned the hard way not to just leave my potatoes in the tray with my paint: rotting will occur, oozy grossness will ensue!  If you try this at home, and your project takes more than a day, wrap up your potatoes and stick them in the fridge!

Finished product, in place.  Those happy smiles are worth my couple hours of oozy grossness.

Tiny Nursery: Closet Makeover

When we moved into The Ear, we had two small, crappy closets.  One was in our bedroom (improved upon last year), and the other was in our office-turned-nursery.  Both closets were used to run HVAC ducts, which is good for aesthetics but not for storage capacity.  

The nursery closet was a bit better off than our bedroom closet.  It had a couple of Home Depot supplied Closet Maid brand shelves, which, although they were hung ridiculously high, would hold some stuff; the bottom one sported a rod.  And much like with our bed room closet, we filled this space up with coats and luggage as soon as we moved in then focused on to other things, leaving its hole-y, unpainted walls and general dirtiness to fester.

At some point over the summer (maybe during the bathroom addition?), I realized that I needed to tackle this area sooner rather than later while I could still fit in there and turn around.  So I gave the space a good cleaning, patched all the holes and cracks, and tried out some leftover paint colors:

I decided on this unidentified yellow; the green was a little too bright and cheerful.

Better already!

I bought materials to hang two more shelves and two more rods.  As I mentioned earlier, the closet had been outfitted with Closet Maid wire shelves, so I stuck with that brand for uniformity and ease of acquisition.  I was not terribly happy with the hardware and installation process of this system, however.  It's really designed for modern 2x4 framed construction, not old lathe-and-plaster of unknown structure.  Hanging the new shelves took far longer, and far more patching compound, than anticipated.

Mistakes being made & fixed.

 Eventually, I got the new shelves installed and commenced shoving all the baby stuff we had been collecting from neighbors and family members and garage sales in there.

Disorganization!

Eventually, we got everything sorted, washed, and hung in its proper place.  We removed the closet door to save on space, hung some little hooks, and I made a curtain to match the others.  I wish my clothes closet looked this cute and happy!

Tiny Nursery, Part 1

About a month ago, Ma MJ came to town to help turn the former tiny office into a tiny nursery (Baby MJ is supposed to arrive just before Thanksgiving).  We painted, hung curtains, put together a crib, and generally got things in order.  It was a warm end to September here, so all our windows were open, our back porch was in use for relaxing, and lots of work got done.

Before Ma MJ arrived, we had to choose a paint color to replace the vivid coral (I loved this coral, and hope to use it again, but I didn't think it was restful enough for a bedroom).  We decided to use Benjamin Moore Natura, a VOC-free paint.  We narrowed our color choices to a couple of medium-dark blue-grays.  We chose the color on the right, Pike's Peak Gray, because of the way in complemented both the trim paint and ceiling/upper wall paint that was already present.

Once Ma MJ was here, we taped off the coral area, and then we primed.  Next, we primed some more.

After several coats of primer, we got to the new color.  The BM paint is lovely, goes on well, covers well, no smell, and is worth the $$.  Really nice to work with.  After two coats of Natura, here is our new Pike's Peak Gray room (upper wall and ceiling are still Behr Linen White).

The tiny nursery's tiny closet.  More on this space later.

I created some potato print curtains for the room (stay tuned for separate post), which we planned to hang along the length of the back wall.  This seemed to me to be the best way to deal with the variety of surfaces and openings here.  We used the Ikea Dignitet tension wire hardware to span the space.

Mr MJ making it look easy.  In reality, he was drilling into brick; the whole process took far longer than anticipated.

Two + hours later: not simple or easy, as it turned out, but worth it!

The next afternoon, Mr & Ma MJ assembled the crib (the ubiquitous Ikea Gulliver).  I minded the tools, sorted the hardware, and occasionally provided a 5th or 6th hand.

With the addition of a refurbished chest of drawers from Craig's List and a rag rug we already had, plus our week of work, we had a functional room!  It was still in need of finishing touches, one or two cute doodads, and maybe some artwork, but we knew if Baby MJ arrived early he would have a place to land.  Thanks Mom! (again)

Bathroom Boogaloo: Days 12 & 13

Full days of work have continued this week, despite some items being on the slow delivery boat.  However, the progress has been a bit hard to photograph, because of its nature (painting things white) and the current lack of light.  But here's a summary anyway.

Outside walls painted, tiling of shower stall and chair rail begun.

Subway tile in shower and on wall.

Wall around window and vents complete.

Painting done and shelving installed in storage closet (this closet opens into the rest of the basement and will replace the cruddy, left-behind armoire we were using for tool storage.  I'm looking forward to doing some super organizing in here!).

The Crappy Little Closet That Could: A Thanksgiving Project

On Wednesday, I got the interior of the closet all painted gray for a fresh finish.  I used leftover paint from some of our other projects.

And then, 'twas the night before Thanksgiving, and we went to Home Depot for plywood!

On Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, we made pies and ate them.

From a Basement on the Hill: More on the Floor

 We celebrated the 4th of July by declaring our independence from vinyl tile...at least in the basement.

There were two layers of vinyl tile on the floor in the back half of the basement: one self-stick (visible in the garbage bag below), one old VCT (same stuff we had installed in our kitchen, but much less beautiful, shown in the second photo).

Because we did not know the age of this flooring, we knew we needed to remove it with care because of the possibility of asbestos.  After some research, we determined that if we kept the tiles intact, did not sand, and worked in a damp environment with ventilation, we would be okay.

So, we filled our utility sink with hot water, soaked some old towels in it, and laid those out on the floor as we worked with putty knives and a flooring shovel to lift the tiles.  The heat and moisture from the wet towels was very, very effective at loosening the vinyl adhesive (which perhaps had loosened from age and wear as well).  Less than five hours later, we had a bare floor and 6 garbage bags full of trash.

The next day, I thoroughly vacuumed, wet mopped, and vacuumed the bare concrete.  Then I painted. (Behr Porch & Floor Paint in silver gray, low sheen finish.)

Here you can see the results of two coats of floor paint (minus a few spots where big furniture was in the way -- those will get touched up later), plus scraping the paint of the windows.  

I painted the stairwell between the basement and kitchen as well.  I used leftover yellow paint from our kitchen bead board.

Now for some electrical work...the professionals are scheduled to be here in a couple of days.  The end is drawing nigh! 

From a Basement on the Hill: From Gray to Great

A couple of weeks ago, after the demolition and trash hauling were complete, I cleaned the basement up and wrapped it in plastic, like so:

Every surface or object that I wanted to keep paint-free needed to be covered, since I began to paint with this new fun tool:

I got a small, hand-held paint sprayer to help me with this part of the project, after realizing that several days of renting one would more than pay for buying one.  After some experimentation, I figured out that I could thin latex paint down with water to a 30-second run out time (if you ever use a paint sprayer, you'll learn what this means!).  I also figured out that, like all the objects I covered up, I needed to cover myself up as well.  I wore goggles, a dusk mask, a bandana around my hair, works gloves, long pants, and long sleeves while using the sprayer.  I still ended up with a fine mist of paint on various parts of myself.

Much like the demolition, this was dirty, exhausting work, not to mention hard to document in photographs.  After the first coat of paint on the ceiling and floor joists (old, old wood that had never had any kind of treatment applied), which took two whole work days, it didn't seem like I'd accomplished anything but spreading around a lot of dust and paint.  But after 2 weeks and 2-3 coats of primer and paint, this is what I've got:

Wow!  What a difference from the first photo in this post!  A week into the painting, I thought it might take me a month to get to this point.  I despaired of having a proper workspace again before fall.  But the work took a turn for the better this past weekend, and now I think I can move on to the next phase.

And look at this beautiful, clean laundry corner!  Now if I can get some better lighting, I don't think we'll lose any more socks.

Kitchen Conundrum: Another Weekend, Part 2

When we decided to use beadboard panelling, we first thought we'd just do the backsplash area. But when we realized we could benefit from a lot more color in the kitchen, we decided to extend the panelling all the way around the room.

After cutting the panels down to size and painting them, we began installing them on the wall using construction adhesive and finishing nails.


Construction adhesive on the wall:


Panelling going up on the wall that will be behind the refrigerator (hence the bits-and-pieces approach -- it won't be too visible). Note our inept cutouts for the electrical outlets (we got better at this part).


Backsplash in place:


Finished panelling, with seems caulked and awaiting paint touch-ups and trim:


Cheerful, sunny, and bright!

Kitchen Conundrum: Over the Weekend

We worked hard on the kitchen over the weekend, but what we did (sanding, caulking, priming) doesn't make too much visual impact. Here it is anyway:



Today we were graced by some white stuff outside too:


The Professionals are back tomorrow for what we all hope is one last go-round. Then we can finish up with the painting, cleaning, and moving back in!

(Lesson learned: if you have the opportunity to paint your kitchen BEFORE the cabinets go up, do it. All that cutting in gets old fast.)

Wild Hair: Painting the Front Door

The dirty old dingy-white front door was not the most welcoming of entrances to the Ear. A couple of weeks ago, I finally decided to do something about it.



I cleaned it really well, and on a warm, dry day, got out a can of Rustoleum (always to the rescue, it seems) and some sponge brushes.



A few hours, spread out over a couple of weeks later, I got this:



Better, yes? Perhaps not the most optimal color, but when the mood strikes, sometimes you've just got to use what's on hand.