Marisa's Mini Makeover...Belated Edition

Haha, so I realized while posting the Soto Family session on my photography blog that I never finished this post about the makeover we did in Marisa's family room. I posted a sneak peek here...in January...(oops) but I never posted the full reveal. In an effort to save time because I'm just too lazy busy right now, I'll post the before and after pictures here and share with you the full story she shared on her blog HERE.

 BEFORE:

AFTER:

Seriously go check it out. It's quite a before and after and we she did a TON of work and I must say I'm so proud to be a part of that awesome project!! Now if only I could find the energy and creativity to start working on the new nursery! Haha.

Sneak Peek :: Marisa's Mini Makeover

Here's a sneak peek at another makeover project I've been working on:

the room

 some inspiration:

Stay tuned for the full reveal!! It's pretty awesome.

Mini Makeover :: Erika's Bedroom

So I've been helping Erika with small projects here and there for her apartment. We started in the living room and then tackled the bedroom. The space isn't huge and there is an awkward wall that has a random window on one end and boarded up doorway (I think?!) on the other...with her bed somewhere in between:  

*please excuse the pictures...I didn't have the correct lens on me the day I went up there!*

I suggested a "wall of curtains" behind her bed to serve several purposes. 1) it hides the fact that there are random windows and boards on the wall, 2) it adds some "drama" to the room, and 3) it acts like artwork in her room. Here are a few examples of what I was talking about

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At first E wasn't so excited about it but as she slowly started warming up to the idea, she gave me the ok :) She found curtains that she liked that wouldn't compete with the rest of the room but that would add some interest to the walls. 

We ended up using 95" long panels as we were going to hang from as close to the ceiling as possible. Remember, we wanted "drama"! We lucked out that the room was the exact width of the max of the curtain rod she had! So after a few hours of measuring, hanging and straightening up, here is the finished product:

What do you think? Because of the size of the room and the lens I was using, getting a picture of the entire wall was SO hard! Here's one on E's phone that she took that gets a little more of it:

Pretty huh? :) I LOVE IT! The curtains definitely make the space prettier while hiding the flaws we discussed and it most definitely adds the drama she wanted! During the day you can see the light coming through the window, but it's definitely better than what it was :)

Tiny Details

I finished a few tiny projects that I've been meaning to get done for a while. They're nothing huge but I think they add some fishing touches to the spaces.

Turquoise pillows that were originally going to go on the accent chairs in the front room, but they add a nice pop of color to the entry way bench instead:

Peacock artwork for the front room:

I bought some peacock feathers from Joann's a while back, mounted them on white cardstock and put them in extra frames that I spray painted with oil rubbed bronze.

And an accent pillow for the sofa. I used the extra fabric from the curtains I had made for this room:

Now this room is almost complete. I have a couple other projects to get to then it will be completely finished.

DIY: Starburst Mirror

Are you just as excited about this reveal as I am?! Now for those of you who just want to see the end result, here's a before and after picture of the wall it's on.

For those who want all the deets, keep reading! 

I started with this tutorial and went shopping for my supplies:

• 8 packages of wood shims
• 2 bottles of wood glue/gorilla glue/liquid nails (whatever you decide)
• stain or spray paint of your choosing
• 14" round mirror
• 1/4" plywood, cut into a circle
• D-hooks or picture hooks

These are the wood shims I bought. They come in a pack of 48 for about $4 per pack. They sell shorter ones if you are making a smaller mirror but I wanted ours to be rather large so I went for the 18" ones.

Following the tutorial, I went ahead and glued the shims in groups of 5 and 7 like so

I used the clamps to make sure they were secure and worked on it here and there, between other projects and baking, giving the glue time to cure. I decided I wanted the mirror to have a dark stain so I used the leftover stain from our banister project and stained one side (the other side will be against the wall)

Obviously I didn't even stain the whole group since I knew the mirror would cover it anyway!

Then I arranged the shims how I wanted them

Flipped them over and glued a piece of plywood to the back. Then B used an entire tube of glue plus some and put a bunch of heavy stuff on there (yes, baseballs are so heavy, right?!) overnight.

The next morning we glued the mirror to the front and let it sit for a few hours (no pics, sorry) Then they attached the hooks to the back and hung it up on the wall.

And here she is again in all her sunburst-y glory!

I love how it turned out! It is pretty big and quite heavy but it's perfect on that wall. I kinda wanna make another smaller version for our bedroom...shhh, don't tell B!

Starburst Mirror: Preview

Have you jumped on the starburst mirror bandwagon too?! No? Well check out these beauties:

Aren't they gorgeous?! They served as inspiration for the current project I'm working on. I'll give you a sneak peek:

Oooh, I can't wait until it's finished! I'm really hoping to have it finished tomorrow but we'll see. Stay tuned for the reveal!

Molding Makes It Better

I needed some change around here. I needed something bold, something dramatic.

Uh, no. It needed to be done on the cheap.

I figured paint or molding would be the cheapest way to make some changes so I toyed around with the ideas of repainting a few rooms but that sounded like too much work for one afternoon. Then I thought about doing a stencil on a wall but I couldn't commit to a design. So that left molding...who doesn't love molding?!

I figured the upstairs hallway would be the perfect spot to add these changes since it's so boring! Imagine my surprise when I found out one of my favorite Mandi's in blogland had just done the same project in her house recently (hers is definitely more awesome but whatever). Perfect! I loved the design she used so of course I just copied borrowed it.

A few shots of the boring space in all its glory:

sorry for the shadows from the banister...it's hard to get a shot without them!

We had already done a similar project in the upstairs bathroom so I pretty much had all the supplies. For the bathroom project we used pre-cut pieces of wood since we only needed a handful of boards. This project needed a significantly higher number of boards so buying the pre-cut boards would have cost us a pretty penny. Instead I bought a sheet of plywood (it doesn't need to be sturdy, just pretty) and had planned to bring it home and cut all the pieces myself. Much to my surprise, the very helpful guys at Home Depot offered to cut all the pieces for me!

Seriously?! That's like 20+ cuts! Wait, isn't it like 25 cents per cut?

Nope, we won't charge you.

What?! Free?? Ab-so-lute-ly!

After bringing all my loot supplies home, I got to work priming the boards and wall. From previous experience, let me tell you that priming your boards before putting them up is SO much easier. An extra step, yes, but so much less frustrating in the end...just FYI.

I decided on how I wanted the boards spaced then put them up and painted. It took me more than one afternoon but only because I had to let the primer dry oh and because we have a daughter who is deathly afraid of the compressor, nail gun, and vacuum making it tricky to do such a project without Brian home. Anyway, It was a cheap and easy way to bring some life to our boring hallway and it added some drama along the way.

I love it! Total cost was $11 for the plywood. Now that's my kind of project.

Now I just need to dress it up a bit *sigh* maybe after the holidays!

DIY: Built In Media Center:: Finished

This post is LONG overdue but as I was going through old posts I realized I never showed you this completed project. If you don't remember what I'm talking about, you can catch up with part 1, part 2, and part 3 and read the progress.

Let me remind you what it looked like when we moved in:

This is how it looked when we declared it "done" (I really wanted a shelf though):

My dad came to the rescue (again) and I was able to get my shelf! Thanks dad!

We used the same trim molding from the front as a support of sorts for the shelf to rest on. We secured the trim with LOTS of nails and screws (in as many studs as we could find) so there wouldn't be any chance of the shelf falling. We cut the shelf pretty tight too so it definitely wouldn't budge. There was concern that over time it would bow in the middle because of its weight so we added a piece of trim molding across the front to help stabilize it...and make it look prettier.

We also added hardware to the cabinets which gives it another little personalized touch. 

Here's the final product:

 I'm so happy with the way it turned out. It's just like I imagined it!