Kid Wall

Here is the most recent update on our basement transformation. I have had this 'vision' of what I wanted this huge wall to look like forever - and now it's finally all come together. My pour hubby is hoping my project list will come to an end sometime because it always ends up being partly his 'to do' as well!


The blue wall is painted Pale Spruce from Color Place (Walmart brand). Then I bought 5 unfinished wood frames from Micheal's. I painted them brown, distressed them, added some cute scrapbook paper, and finished it off with some white wood letters (also from Micheal's which I hot glued onto the frame). All together (with all of my hundreds of 40% off coupons) it cost me a little over 30 bucks.

Under the monogrammed frames are 3 - 3ftx3ft squares.

The first one is a whiteboard. I bought shower board from Home Depot and the entire 4x8 sheet cost under 12 bucks. They cut it to size for me (love those guys!) and I finished it off with molding (that cost around 50 cents per foot) that I painted brown.

The middle square is a magnetic board. I bought two pieces of sheet metal (around 8 dollars each), used a ribbon to hide the seam, and finished it off with the molding. Here is my sweetie modeling just how she uses it!
The third and final square is a flannel board. I used leftover shower board that I purchased for the white board (free), flannel (from JoAnns that cost around 2 bucks), and spray adhesive. I finished it off to match the rest with the brown molding. As you can tell the girly loves it already!
In between each of the squares are art boards. They are 3 foot boards with 3 clips adhered to them to display the kid's artwork. Soon enough they will also have their names on them with some vinyl lettering. We're making them for our church craft day so here's my friend's cute completed ones. Just click here to see hers along with directions!

Now - on to the other 3 walls... :)

Basement Couch

First off, I have to start this post by telling you of our basement dillema. I've been slowly completing some projects down there to make it more of a place that I want to hang out in (since it's the playroom I'm down there a lot with the girls). Lately we decided there was no way a sectional or even a couch and loveseat were going to fit nicely in there. They would just be huge and really limit the playing space. Needless to say I was kind of disappointed to make this realization because I wanted some type of seating for when we're down there.

Then this past weekend one of my favorite stores (Goodwill) was having 50% off EVERYTHING! So needless to say I knew I just had to find something :) As soon as I walk into any resale place I always go straight towards the big items to check out what they've got. I immediately saw this:
A couch that was butt ugly and looked like it came straight from someone's great grandma's house. I was seriously considering buying it - I was meeting a friend there and as soon as she came I asked what she thought. She gave me the reassurance that this was a good buy - plus you can return at Goodwill (one of the main reasons I LOVE this place!) so I went for it.

Then even better - we discovered it has a hideaway bed in it!!! It was my lucky day :)

So twenty bucks later we were loading this beauty into the back of my van. One Walmart slip cover later and some throw pillows I took from our living room and VIOLA! One of my new favorite parts of our basement (it's so much nicer nursing and snuggling to watch kid shows on this than the floor!)

So stop in to your local Goodwill store! The money goes to a good cause and you just never know what you might run across :)

Photo blocks

We made these last year at a craft day and I think they are just about the cutest, cheapest, and easiest things out there! I made one for my grandma and even she loved it!

1. Have your lumber cut to whatever size you would like your photo block to be.
2. Print off a picture to whatever size is appropriate for your wood.
3. Paint, stain, sand your wood.
4. Modge Podge it and then apply your picture.
5. Let it dry.
6. Apply some Modge Podge over it.
7. Accessorize it however you want.

These are adorable and aren't just for pictures. You can add scrapbook paper, vinyl lettering, etc. - just about whatever you can think off!

ghosts

Who hasn't made one of these as a kid?



I thought my baby girl needed that same experience. They're cheap, easy, and cute - she loved them.

Wrap your sucker in a tissue, tie it off, and add a face!

Easy as can be :)

Stick Puppets

I found these cute little Halloween templates on the Family Fun website. I'm sure they have a ton more templates for a variety of seasons and holidays. We traced ours on colored paper, glued on a craft stick, and we couldn't forget the googly eyes!

Now we have fun little puppets to play with for Halloween!

Chandelier

Another lovely decoration I found at my mom's house. She was oh so nice to let me take the brass chandelier she didn't sell in her garage sale and attempt to make it into something lovely for my dining room.

The reason I wanted it most of all? - Our dining room came with a ceiling fan in it. I'm not sure why someone made that decision but for us - it just didn't work. We never used it and I had always wanted something prettier hanging above our table but never wanted to spend the money. Maybe one day.

But for now...a little spray paint later and ta da - a new chandelier. I plan on accessorizing it with those cute little shades but I'll have to post another 'after' picture when that part of the project actually gets done. For now this is what we have:

Basement

I've been asked what paint color we used on our basement wall. So let me share. The color is called Pale Spruce and it is by ColorPlace (Walmart Brand). We love the color - now I'm tempted to do the entire basement that color - what do you think?!?

office turned guest bedroom

The office when we moved in...

...plain as can be. Nice stark white walls - the only cute things in the room are the hubby and teeny baby :)



Our office now has a new location housed in a beautiful armoire (more about that here) in a completely different room.

So now we have a room soley dedicated to guests (well plus a closet - or two :) full of crafts!).

Awhile ago I can across a blog that I'm slightly in love with (her kitchen especially - because her old one looks exactly like mine!!! and I can dream and aspire to what mine might someday become) Anyways The Lettered Cottage is the blog - and I fell in love with her oh so charming 'Reading Room'. Find it here.

So I decided to fashion my completely blank canvas of a guest room after hers.

I started by painting mine tan with horizontal stripes running across the back wall.
Next, I got a bamboo shade for our one and only window.


Third, I had a 10 dollar off 10 bucks or more from Kohl's and got this vinyl letter quote for like 3 or 4 dollars. I had some leftover beadboard from our kitchen redo (find more about that here) so I adhered the vinyl to the white beadboard to hang on the wall.


It was a large piece of beadboard so these cute frames I got for 5 bucks a piece at Kohl's as well adorn the sides of the quote.



And just like one of the frames in my dining room it still houses they same picture that came with the frame. I'll get to it one day. Obvisouly it's not too high on the priority list at the moment.It's now waiting for some nice fat molding to go around it and finish it off making it look like a large framed piece.

And finally on the opposite wall is a small frame (it's actually molding torn off my parent's bathtub when they did their bathroom redo - way to recycle right?!?) mounted on the wall with three plain little wreaths (which I got the idea from my way talented friend here).

Next item on the list...a bed - I'm sure our guests would love coming over even more if we had an actual real bed for them to sleep on :)

seasonal wood blocks

Here's the latest vinyl lettering project. For our Church's craft day this year we decided to make these cute seasonal wood blocks.


We got the idea from here. This blog is super fun - they have WAY too many cute cute things and ideas - check them out!

For our project...

We got a 4 inch wide wood post from Home Depot for under 6 bucks (and that made 3 sets of these). We had them cut it every 4 inches to make these cute cubes.

Next, add a couple coats of paint and stain or distress if you'd like.

Finally, adhere some vinyl lettering (we got ours from here.)

So with the wood + vinyl ours cost around 14 bucks. Not bad because these little cuties can spell at least 16 different seasonal words so they can stay up all year round!

kid's bathroom

This was the first bathroom I attempted to redo in our house. It's the kid's/guest bathroom and I wanted to make it fun! This is what it looked like when we bought it - pretty basic...


First thing I did was paint it green and get a jungly shower curtain and a few accessories to go in there.


Then I used those cute little already painted wood things from Michael's. I bought a few unfinished wood frames, painted them red, distressed them, and then fitted them with some cream cardstock and the wood animals.


Next, I used those same wood animals from Michael's and glued them on these wooden pegs I got there as well. The pegs were $1 and I painted them cream and the wood animals were around 50 cents or less.


Finally, I redid the vanity but that deserved it's very own post - found here.

These were some small little very inexpensive changes I made to make the place more of 'our' home. The bigger stuff - like tile, new framed mirror, light fixture, etc. - is currently on the waiting list. But who knows how long it will remain on there - it is only the kid's bathroom remember :)

FHE Board

In our Church we are instructed to have a special time once a week (Monday night) devoted to our families. We call this Family Home Evening.

Our Church's website states, "This is a time for families to study the gospel together and to do other activities that strengthen the family spiritually, create family memories, and increase unity and love. "

Here's one of the crafts I made last year along with other friends to organize our Family Home Evening amongst our family.

It consists of a routered wood board that's painted and distressed black.

Over top of it is a piece of beadboard painted cream.

Finally, the top layer is a piece of sheet metal with vinyl lettering (we get our vinyl lettering from Hathaway Signs) adhered to it.


Finally, I just finished (yes it's been an entire year - that's the way projects seem to be going around here - they've been taking close to a year to finally finish!!!) the stars. I bought the unfinished wood stars from Michael's for 29 cents. I painted and distressed them and then adhered vinyl names and magnets to them.

If you would like to know more specifics (sizes, colors, etc.) just leave a comment and I'll try and get back to ya!

Basement

Lucky for us when we moved into this house one room in the basement was completely finished. It has been the home of toys, toys, and more toys ever since we moved in. It now houses a treadmill and TV as well. It was plain and I never really knew what to do with it until a few weeks ago.


I love the blue/brown decorating colors that are oh so popular right now but they've never really had a place anywhere in my house. Of my friends (who is an awesome decorator and I wish she had a blog) has a room filled with brown, bluish/turquoise, and red accents. I've loved it ever since I saw it over a year ago and finally decided I try it out in the basement.


First, I painted our largest wall blue.We also got this bookshelf from IKEA to store all the gazillions of books and toys we have (which still find themselves all over the floor most of the time). In the future I would love to get some really cute baskets to fill the shelf but in the meantime small plastic baskets that I had leftover from my classroom will have to do.
Then I found these unfinished wood frames at Micheal's. I painted them brown, paired them with some scrapbook paper, and then hot glued a wooden letter to the front.

Below the name will be a whiteboard (hence the painter's tape).
Also underneath the name are some cute art boards we made for craft day this year. Mine still lacks my children's names in cute vinyl lettering but I'll have to post more and more as more projects get completed down here.

Here's just a sneak peek of the process our basement is going through. I'm sure the final project is probably years down the road when it will be finished off with a projector, couches, rug, shelves and picture frames, bookcases, etc. but for now here's what we got going on to make this part of the house more of our home.