Mudroom Final Reveal - one year in the making!

I'm not kidding....this is the smallest room in the house and I've been working on it FOREVER!  I'm honestly not even sure exactly why, but the wait is over and now I can finally check it off the good old list and share some pics.  The room is very hard to shoot because it doesn't get any light and is very small, but I wanted to post the final product because it took a lot of hard work.

The mudroom is the primary entrance/exit for us so and needed to house mine and Eaphis' coats and all of our shoes.  We do have a coat closet between the mudroom and the kitchen, but I turned it into a game/toy closet instead and added some hooks so the boys can hang their coats and easily access them.  The walls I painted in Sherwin Williams Aloof Gray, which is one shade darker than the rest of the main floor, because I wanted something that would hide dirt and scuffs a little bit more.

These hooks are one of my absolutely favorite things in the house!  They are shaped like Bees and were designed from two of my absolutely favorite bloggers/designers from Young House Love.  I bought them from Target before we even moved and hoarded them until I figured out where I wanted to use them.  To line the walls I used floor to ceiling beadboard;  unlike the bathrooms, this kind is made out of MDF so it's a little bit thicker.

Under the coat hangers, I built a simple farmhouse bench based on these plans from Shanty 2 Chic and painted it in white chalk paint.  The baskets below are from Micheals (I got them at the end of the summer for 80% off - so they cost me 15$ total!!!!  The stripes were originally magenta, but I took a few hours in front of the TV and painted over them...well worth it to save so much on this size basket).  The rug I just picked up from World Market for only $12 (!!!).  There's a lot of white in this room, but knowing it would be full of so much stuff on a daily basis (as if you couldn't guess we have more than one coat/scarf/hat hanging up regularly) using so much white keeps it from looking more cluttered.

Up top, I built a very simple floating shelf (again, check out Shanty 2 Chic as they have TONS of floating shelf options) which was sooooooo easy that I will be doing it again and again and again!  I printed and framed these awesome vintage inspired posters from NASA that Eaphis found a few years ago - they add the perfect amount of color and the perfect amount of nerdiness.

The light I found at Home Goods (I actually found two of them and put the other one in my upstairs bathroom).  I hesitated getting it because I don't have any other brass fixtures in the house, but they were just so perfect - I think they look like old oil lanterns - that I said screw it and just went with my instinct.

On the opposite wall I have a huge chalkboard that has been up for over a year - in fact the frame on this was actually the first thing I ever built!  I used magnetic paint topped with chalk paint - but if I had to do it again I would actually have used a piece of sheet metal painted with the chalk paint.  The magnetic paints works somewhat, but you have to have a VERY strong magnet.  Also, the little metal buckets that I hung to hold the chalk are cute (and only cost $1 each) but they are very dinged up from getting banged by the door over and over again.  The door is painted in Sensible Hue (which is one shade darker than the walls) and is the same color as the inside of the front door.  I love the way it looks, but the paint also gets dinged from metal buckets.  It's not terrible so until I think of a better solution we'll stick with it.

It's a small room, but it's one of the most used spaces in the house and now it functions the way we need it too.  Now time to fill it back up with stuff : )

Window Trim and Curtains - Tips and How To (It's a long one!)

Happy New Year Everyone!  I can't believe that it's been two months since I finished the laundry room.  To be honest, between that project and the holidays I didn't start the New Year off to a roaring start but took some much needed downtime to re-charge and finish up some necessary but boring tasks around here - which weren't blog worthy but felt really good to finally check off the list!  I did take the time to fit in one bigger project and finished framing the windows in my morning room and added some new curtains so instead of just sharing the finished product I thought it might be helpful to share my process with a few How To steps and some tips.

There are a lot of How To's out there for how to add window trim, but this is the way that works best for me based on my needs.  I use straight edge MDF trim pieces for everything except the windowsill (which is basic pine) because a) I can get them pre-primed in white and b) they are perfectly straight.  First I start out by measuring my windows, adding the width of my frame pieces, and then extending  to length of the windowsill and lintel (which both extend past the framed width by 1/4" on each side).

Next, I rip out the existing trim and windowsill.  I have a small dual-sided trim remover that looks like a tiny crow-bar and it is excellent for removing trim without damaging your wall.  You can also use the opposite end (which looks like the backside of a hammer) to remove the nails.  My sills are just nailed into the bottom frame so I can pry out very easily.

I use the original sill as a template to cut my new piece of 1x5 pine.  I find the middle of both pieces, line them up, and trace the indentations on both sides.  Before I'm done with the windowsill, I use my miter saw to cut out a few thin pieces that I can use to install the new piece (you can see them sitting above my piece of pine in the above picture)

   
Next, I use my jigsaw to cut out both sides and sand down any jagged pieces.

To install, I first lay down my thin pieces of the old sill to use as a spacer (I like to use three, one at each edge and one in the middle).  I use 2 1/2" SPAX screws instead of nails to re-install my new windowsill - SPAX screws are a little pricey but wonderful for installations like this because you don't have to pre-drill.  For my smaller windows I find that I only have to use 2 screws (one on each edge) but for larger windows I add a third in the middle - make sure that you are drilling through your spacers for more stability.

For the rest of the window, I apply some construction adhesive to the back and attach with 1 1/4" brad nails and my nail gun.  Next I fill in all of my holes with wood filler.  I use a coat of primer on the windowsill and a small swipe everywhere that I used wood filler.  Next I caulk around EVERYTHING, followed by 2 coats of Sherwin Williams pro-classic Semi Gloss paint in Extra White.  The final step is to use my wall color and an angled brush to finish off the outside edges of the window. And, PHEW!!!, you're finally done.  I have used the same materials and basic steps to replace all of the floor and door trim in the house and while it is VERY time consuming, the clean straight edges are exactly what we want.

For the curtains - I bought my material from this site after searching for a while to match a picture that I found on pinterest with these awesome Navy and Blue curtains.  I followed the steps in this great tutorial pretty closely, except I used two sets of white curtains from IKEA instead of twin flat sheets - they're a lot lighter and were actually a lot cheaper than anything else I could find.  I'm really happy with how they turned out (I also realized how much I missed my sewing machine!)

To hang them, I knew I wanted to use the same black pipe that I use to make my shelves (check out this post for those step-by-steps).  This was a little tricky as the morning room window is very long and needed to have a center support, which I anchored to the wall first and then temporarily attached the side pieces to mark out my placement for the side supports.  As I learned with my laundry room, it is very important to make sure that you can reach the screws with your drill bit once the pipe is in place or you will end up having to screw them in by hand (thanks again husband for your help on that one!)  To help resolve that issue I did two things - 1) I made sure the screw holes did not line up directly with the pipe but were all on a 45 degree angle (as in the picture above) and 2) I invested in a longer drill bit that I will put to good use on the rest of the windows.  IMPORTANT NOTE:  Make sure that you thread your curtain clips on the pipe before you anchor it to the wall (and then double check!!).

After I attached my curtains to the clips, I tied them up with some kitchen twine to help the create the folds and let them sit for two days.

Then - finally! - we were able to start enjoying dinner in this room again.  It is crazy how much "character" trimming your windows adds to your house...when I look at these windows compared to the ones that are still bare it's the difference between looking at something that feels like a lived in home and one that's still a model house.  The curtains are super dramatic and add so much life to the house!  The last two years have been about building a very calm and neutral color palate, but now it's time to start adding color and pattern.  Because you can see them the second you walk in the front door I wanted to get them up before making any more decisions for the first floor.  And if I can offer one more piece of advise - listen to the professionals and hang your curtains floor to ceiling and not right about the windows....it's incredible how much bigger your room will look with that one simple change.

I've got about 4 rooms in progress right now and have some big plans on the horizon in the coming year and now that the weather is beginning to change I can start to spend some time in my garage and get those plans in motion.  Here's to a recharged spirit and an eagerness to keep stretching my skills!