We have been in our beautiful new home now for almost 18 months. It's easy for me to remember that because we moved in on March 21-23 and had Easton March 24. I can't decide if that was the best or worst decision for how and when to move…on the upside, I didn't have to help; on the downside, I didn't get to help. Ha!
We purchased what is considered a "cookie cutter" home. It has taken over a year, but we are finally starting to make it our own. Some things we have already done are add a backsplash to the kitchen, and add some bead board under the bar. Here are some pictures of the backsplash:
The completed look.
I did most of the work on this one.
Of course we've done little things like get some fun furniture:
My favorite space.
And paint some furniture, too.
This was a piece rebuilt and refurbished by my mom -- very special and sentimental to me…so rather than just discard it, I gave it a makeover!
But making this place OURS has definitely been a slow moving process. Marc and I are both very impulsive. The projects pictured above all came about after one of us mentioned in passing that we wanted them to happen, we decided to go to the store "just to look and check out prices" and then we upped and decided to start them THAT DAY. Ha!
So it was no different for the actual projects that inspired this blog post. (Nevermind that I haven't blogged in 8 months. ;) ) A sweet friend of mine, Jen, texted me a picture of her "mudroom" that her step-father had built for her. It was pretty much EXACTLY what I wanted, only I wanted mine to be a permanent fixture that looked like it came with the house. So I pulled out the graph paper and drew a picture of what I wanted.
I proposed my idea to Marc, and he thought I was crazy. I suggested we sell this piece that we had bought to go in that space that just wasn't working well, and use that money to pay for the project. He took the bait. ;)
So we went to the store and got bead board, a window sill ledge (for the top shelf), a piece of crown molding to go under that, another piece of baseboard molding to go under that, and 4 pieces of white wood that were 7"x1"x8', and caulk. We decided to start at the bottom and work our way up. The cubbies at the bottom were the most difficult part, but we pieced them together with the long pieces of wood. When we cut the bench for the top, there was a large gap at the back, so we opted to get another piece of wood (10"x1"x8') for the bench, and cut it down to size.
The final product!! It was lots of work and took a couple days to finish. We are in love with how it turned out!
While we were in the middle of this project, my bestie Paige tagged me in a post on Facebook about a pallet wall to spruce up a small half bath. Turns out, just opposite this particular mudroom wall, there's a super plain-Jane half bath. The idea she posted was just a bit rustic for me. So I went to Pinterest and started searching. What I found had the same adorable vibe, but with a more clean-cut approach. Here are the two ideas:
http://thisnestisblessed.com/2013/11/15/diy-pallet-wall-without-pallets/
I followed the instructions on the Pinned post (on the right) and went to Lowe's and got some untreated furring wood. They used 1x4s but when I got to looking at the wood, I reeeeally liked the look of the thinner pieces. So we went with 1x2s instead. We measured our wall (9'x3'1.5") and mathematically decided how much wood we'd need (36 pieces). Then we picked out 2 colors of stain that I thought I would like. We also decided to paint the bathroom, so we chose a look/color and ran with it. I wasn't sure how it would all come together, but it's PERFECT!
Furring wood has lots of imperfections, which makes for a perfectly imperfect pallet wall. Using two cans of stain, we made several gorgeous pieces of wood, and no two pieces were the same. Some we would paint very heavy, some were shiny, some were very "furred", some look weathered because we just used the tiny amount left over from the brush from the piece before. We mixed the colors some and layered in others. At first, I really thought the green stain we chose was TOO green…and the blue wall we had painted was a lot more blue than I anticipated. But once they were paired together, they coordinate so beautifully!
The hardest part was piecing the puzzle together so that it looked totally random. I didn't want any patterns or anything too repetitive. I'm pretty random, and that's how I wanted this wall to be. :)
I still feel like it needs something…some kind of decoration for the space. Marc disagrees, but it can't stay super plain in there. The wall is too pretty for plain. Any suggestions? This was a super easy 2-day project. So, do you think you will try it as well?
Both of these projects together cost maybe $150-200. And Marc and I had lots of fun doing them together. :)
