Bedroom #4 (also known as guest room #2)

Bedroom #4 will also be our second guest room.  Besides housing all of our unhung wall art, it currently contains a full size headboard and a dresser; items that were Erik's through the high school years.  These pieces are solid wood, however, the finish is a bit dingy, and in need of some love.   

I've considered stripping and re-staining, however, I'm contemplating giving these pieces a new life with paint.  Perhaps something like Layla, from the Lettered Cottage, did on the "Sand & Sea" room at the Screened Inn.

I've also thought of painting one of the pieces a light turquoise, but am still looking for some inspiration pictures I like.

Have any of you done a painted headboard and/or dresser?  Did you use a traditional color, like black or white, or did you do something with a little "pop"?

Dining Room Improvements

One of the first projects we tackled in the house was updating the light fixture in the dining room. 

Before

After

The new fixture is the West Elm Short Drum Pendant.  It comes with a plug, so I bought the conversion kit.  I cut the wire a little shorter than I should, and after I started stripping the plastic to expose the wires, it ended up being mounted a few inches higher than I planned.  Oh well, overall I'm still happy with the look.

I think the direction I want to go is either wainscoting or board and batten on the lower half of the wall.  The plan is to paint the lower half white and the upper half a light blue.  Still uncertain about window treatments and wall art, but I'll figure that out with time!

View - from my driveway.

Unpacking and settling has been going slow but steady.  I was so glad to leave a special gift for the recycling company, and hope to continue these gifts each week until I'm done.

On the Mend

I've been feeling discouraged by the lack of progress I've made on the house.  I've been trying to push myself to get stuff done after work, but by the end of the work day all I want to do is curl up and go to sleep.  After close to three weeks of feeling this way, and Erik asking me if I wanted to sleep on the couch because my cough was keeping him up at night, I went to see a doctor.  Come to find out, I've been battling a sinus infection ... for about 20 days.  I've been antibiotics for about 48 hours and finally feel like a human again.

So what's the biggest thing I've accomplished in recent times?

So the headboard isn't actually attached to the bed frame yet.  I was upholstering the frame when Erik was at a spring training game with his friends and couldn't lift it by myself.  When all is said and done, the headboard will be a few inches higher, and the mattress will be flush with the bed frame.  Now to figure out bedding and a paint color :)

The state of things - one week out

I'm going to be embarrassed to show these pictures, but I figure if I do, it will give me the swift kick in the butt I need to get something done this weekend :)  To be fair, I was sick earlier this week and last night is the first time I felt up to tackling anything, but the boxes are starting to get to me.

Garage - Right Side

• Take broken BoFlex and empty boxes to dumpster/recycle center
• Setup Shelving
• Unpack "garage boxes" that have our miscellaneous tools

Garage - Left Side

• Bring the rest of the boxes into the house

My Office - I'm horrified by this room

• Purchase Expedit Shelving and baskets
• Unpack - most stuff will go into baskets and file cabinet (which is currently empty)
• Setup Computer
• Neatly stack remaining items

Dining Room

• Center dining room table
• Hang Light fixture (box in back left)
• Purchase quilted plate holders
• Wash & Pack China in quilted plate holders (part of china seen in front right of room)

Guest Suite

• Get last set of curtains up
• Hem curtains (from IKEA have iron-tape for hemming)
• Get bed re-made before Nan comes to town

Master Bedroom

• Get upholstered bed into room and setup
• Put blackout liners behind curtains
• Get rest of boxes unpacked
• Get lampshades for the two brushed steel lamps I have (not shown) so each bedside has one

Living Room

• Hang Curtains
• Bring speakers upstairs
• Put misc tools (cordless drill, level, etc.) back where they belong - the new shelves in the garage!

Pantry - it's scary I really don't know what I can accomplish this weekend

• Unpack china (top shelf)
• Come up with a game plan!

Let's see what's done come Monday morning.  What's on your list??

We're living in chaos ... but we're living in our house!

Last Thursday Erik and I closed on our first house!

Our realtor was amazing; I can not speak highly enough of how awesome she was!

When we got to the house the movers were already there.  As were a couple of unexpected gifts from our builder. 

This was "the state of things" on Friday morning, approximately 24 hours after we closed.

Our master bedroom.  My dad is bringing the headboard, and the base of the bed this weekend, as we'll be assembling it in the room.

... and yes, we got really classy, utilizing cardboard boxes as window treatments.

Bedroom #2 ... also known as storage room #1.

Bedroom #3 ... also known as storage room #2.

Bedroom #4.  We'll be using this as a second guest bedroom, and I will eventually be refinishing the bed and dresser that Erik utilized through his high school and college years - some new hardware is also in order.

The guest suite.

So far, the only moving "casualities" I've found so far are to the furniture in this room.  Luckily, they can be fixed.

My slatted sleigh bed, which was my first "grown-up" funriture piece. After seven years and six locations, not too bad.

And my great-grandmother's secretary desk.

I think I should be able to straighten up the metal rod to fix this.  I also want to strip and restain this piece, as it's lost it's luster over the years. 

This piece, out of all of our furniture has the greatest meaning to me, as my GG used to hide things in the drawers for me to find when I came to visit.  At one point I did some research, and it was built in either the 30's or the 40's.

The guest suite bathroom:

The loft

My office ... which looks a lot more chaotic looking now that I brought the rest of it over from the apartment.

Our dining room, prior to cleaning out all the empty boxes and bringing in the table and chairs.

And our great room.

Saturday we got some visitors, and the weekend was devoted to spending time with family, specifically our niece

and Erik's sister

The battery on my camera died shortly after they got here, and I just unpacked the charger today, so I'll have to take updated pictures soon.  In the meantime, we're loving that there's no one upstairs or next door doing step aerobics during crazy hours of the day!

The beginnings of some DIY artwork!

While I was in IKEA, picking up some curtains for our guest room, I picked up three Fjallsta frames.  Looking forward to some DIY artwork in my near future!

Upholstered Bed - Nailhead Trim Success!

Last time I attempted the nailhead trim, I was left with a pile of bent nails.  I was beyond frustrated, and decided I'd order a nailhead trim kit.  I figured I'd still have the issues with bent nails, but at least it would be every fifth nail.

Let me tell you, the nailhead trim kit is AMAZING.  I have no idea why I attempted individual nails.

First things first.  I pulled the fabric taut while my dad stapled from underneath.

Next we laid down coated newspaper (i.e. the ads from the middle of the Sunday paper) so that we could unroll the nailhead trim and figure out where to make cuts.  The nailhead trim has SHARP edges, both on the bottom part of the trim as well as where there are cuts.  Laying down the coated newspaper helped prevent pulls in the fabric (yes, I got a couple).

After we made cuts, we used a metal file to "smooth" the cut edges)

Regular nails are your friend.  I used an inch and a half nail to space from the edge of the headboard.  The tip of the nail was the center of the hole.  To help the nailhead trim go in easier, we created a starter hole, by using a regular nail.  We gave it one whack, pulled it out, and it was enough of a starter hole for the trim to go in easily.

I missed the action shot, but the nailhead went in like butter.

Forty-five minutes later, the trim was done.

On to the bedframe - which we will be building in the actual bedroom, as it would be a tight fit to move it through the door.

Some tips

• When it comes to the corner, overlap two "holes, and use one "finish" nail in the corner.
• You most likely won't end with a hole falling where it should.  In the upper left corner (near my dad's hand) we pre-drilled a hole.  It's slightly raised higher than the other nails (the normal nails with "holes" are a little lower, to account for a finish nail)

Hopefully this makes sense.  Let me know if you have any questions I can attempt to answer :)