{before and after: my diy panelled walls}

If you guessed from my post yesterday that my little project had something to do with our living and dining room walls you were right on! This was one of our summer projects that we took on this year and I am loving the difference it has made to the space. I am a big fan of architectural details and in a 1986 little suburban rancher, those kinda details are usually nowhere to be found! So we took a couple of plain and boring adjacent walls:

And turned them into this!

Much more interesting to look at don't you think? Here's how we did it:

We started by literally drawing the lines onto the walls with a pencil. This way we could measure not once, not twice, but 3 times to be sure, plus we could get a sense of the scale to see if we liked it! This can be done with a large scale level but we were lucky enough to be able to use this nifty laser level {thanks to my cousin Ryan for his laser and perfect measuring skills! I'm sure something like this laser can be rented as well}:

We used inexpensive strips of MDF and began to cut the pieces to create the grid pattern, with the longest stripes running vertically. Here you can see the two adjacent walls in the living and dining room that got this treatment; a nice way to tie the two rooms together!

Phew! The laser double checks our measurements were correct!

Then it was time to thoroughly sand every nail hole and joint between the MDF strips.

Which created a bit of a snow storm in the house, what a mess!!

After sanding we filled the nail holes and joints with filler and sanded a second time {painful}. We also caulked around the spaces between the MDF boards and the wall so NO cracks would be visible! Let's just say patience is a virtue.

We created a little ledge with extra molding in this cut-out portion of the wall {we cut this part of the wall to open up the space between the kitchen and living room: aka so we could see the TV while eating dinner!}.

And finally it was time to slather on the paint! We used Benjamin Moore's Chantilly Lace, a nice warm white. So again, the place went from this:

To bright and visually interesting!

Oh, and did I forget to mention 2 years later I FINALLY got dining room chairs?? Those of you who have been following know that it's been quite a struggle for me, I scored these for $200 a pop at HomeSense.

A small recap on how this room looked before we moved in:

And after:

All in all, I'm really happy with how the project turned out, and panelling like this does not have to be pricey! For the cost of the MDF, a can of paint, a heavy dose of perseverance, and rental of a saw, laser level, and nail gun {unless you already have these tools!} it's possible to add classic and eye-catching architectural details to any space.

Have you got any home DIY projects on the go? I'd love to hear!

{before & after: my front door}

Finally got one of the smaller projects around my home all done! My front door got a nice fresh coat of paint; it was already black on the outside but was left white on the inside when we bought the house. I had wanted to paint the door black inside since day one, but was warned by others that it may make our little entry way dark and dreary. But I finally threw caution to the wind and followed my heart and I am loving the results! A small makeover indeed, but it's funny how the little things can make you smile :)

We used an interior/exterior paint on both sides in a black semi-gloss latex {from Dulux}, the shine definitely added a glamorous effect:

So .. did you spot my new best friend?? The lovely bronze lion head door knocker is my favorite recent addition ... Hollywood glam or what? And for a mere $39.99 from Lee Valley Tools, I am in love!

This may look like it was a tiny job, but a fair bit of elbow grease went into it, what with the sanding, and taping, and painting etc etc ...  uughh. Another detail we wanted to address was the hardware currently on the door. Though it was all bronze, it was dingy and quite oxidized and we needed it to have a similar finish to the lion head knocker. We contemplated replacing the handle with something shiny and new, but then thought, ugh, an additional cost we didn't anticipate ... total "reno snow-ball effect" as I call it, one thing always leads to another!

But here's where the real elbow grease came in: instead of going out and buying something new, we brought our bronze hardware to life with simple metal polish!! This stuff works miracles, check it out! You can see on the left we just began to put on the cream polish, and on the right, ALL NEW!

Can you see that around the handle above was left white by the previous owners? And believe it or not I'm pretty sure a Sharpie marker was used to conceal that as much as possible {oh dear}. The polish makes a bit of mess, so it may be wise to take the hardware off the door, but since we were painting it didn't really matter.

I had never tried this stuff before, but if you've got exposed bronze that has tarnished I would definitely give it a try! {Autosol Metal Polish, approx. $8.00}.

So here is a view of the interior of the door before and after getting a coat of fabulous black:

I love the peek of black I get in the mirror across in the entry way, although I have to admit that for a few days the darkness would startle me as it looked like the door had been left open, ha ha!

YUM! All in all, I am quite happy with the results :) And the grand total for all supplies was: $40 black paint + $40 for the lion head knocker + $8 for the bronze polish + some sweat = $88 for a brand new glam door! You can't beat that!!

Any summer projects you have been working on lately? I've got more up my sleeve that I'll be sharing with you soon!

{diy draper faq's + bedroom before & after}

First a HUGE thank you for all of your kind words and encouragement on my IKEA Rast project, I am overwhelmed by your response! And a big welcome to all my latest followers, I am so thrilled to have you here.

Today I thought it would be fun to include a little before & after of our bedroom, mostly because before & afters are just so darn satisfying aren't they?? We were lucky enough to be able to take pictures of all of the rooms before we owned the house {the day we had our home inspection done} so the before pics are that much more disastrous :)

What a difference simply cleaning and painting can make! We got rid of the fuzzy blue carpet, added baseboards, wood blinds, and a chandelier. Can you believe there was NO light fixture in this room? Only lamps controlled by the light switch. Oh the 80's.

And as a follow up to the frequently asked questions you had posted on the DIY project, here's some additional info:

Rast Dresser Primer: I forgot to mention that I used Behr's Premium roll-on primer in white to coat the dressers. I'm sure black would have been better but I couldn't find and oil based black primer! Oil was recommended to me as I planned to use a black lacquer spray and this would help to hide the grain on these untreated pieces and give a smooth finish. I did 2 coats and sanded with a furniture grade {220} sandpaper in between each coat.

Stencil: I thought images may help with the questions you had about my stencil:

{There's my curious little fur baby ... always seems to make it in the background of pictures ... he's like the Where's Waldo in all our family photos!}

You can see we kept four gaps in the inlay so that the centre of the stencil would stay attached to the outside. If you didn't leave attachments the middle would fall out. More importantly, this means the centre will always be in the exact same spot!

Headboard: This was a very affordable find through Costco online! Believe it or not this piece came in at $339.99 including shipping.

Paint: The walls were painted Benjamin Moore's Escarpment, one of my favorite warm shades of grey.

Pillows: The lovely pattern fabric is KWID's Imperial Trellis, and a shout out goes to my fabulous friend Laura for sewing them for me :)

A big thanks to Jenny at Little Green Notebook for posting this project and Kate at Centsational Girl for linking to it on FB :) Also, I'd LOVE to do a post and have anyone that tries this at home submit your own version! Please let me know if you do give it a try, I can only imagine all the variations on this project that could result!

 

{my ikea diy: dorothy draper style!}

If you are following my blog you may have noticed that I am not the biggest 'DIYer' - I wish I was but I am often the type to start a project and not 'quite' finish it, or I have too many ideas in my head that so few of them actually come to fruition. Well this time around I finally put the pedal to the metal and finished a project that I am quite excited to share with you! Here's how I took this plain jane IKEA Rast dresser from drab to fab, in true Dorothy Draper form!

So I started out with a couple of these ....

And turned them into this!

 

How I got the Dorothy Draper inspired look:

1) I bought 2 Rast dressers from IKEA, and assembled the tables, except for the drawers.

2) I primed the 'body' of the dresser {assembled} and the fronts of the doors and then sprayed them using RustOleum's black lacquer spray {Tip, I would buy the attachment for spray paint cans to make spraying evenly much easier...oh, and wear a mask and spray in a well-ventilated area!}. I did 2 coats to get good coverage.

 

3) I took inspiration pics from Dorothy Draper chests online, and blew them up to be able to draw the shape of the inlay on a piece of transparent paper that I cut to be the same size as each drawer. Here is where the measure-twice-cut-once rule really applies! To be truthful, this is where my Dad's engineering skills came in handy, thanks Dad!  We cut the stencil using an art Xacto knife, leaving gaps so that the centre of the stencil stayed attached to the outside. We secured the stencil onto the drawer using painter's tape.

4) Using Liquidtex's Iridescent Rich Gold heavy body acrylic paint, we carefully painted on the design. I removed the stencil after allowing the paint to dry for about 1 hour. I taped off the gaps that remained (due to the stencil) and filled those in. I let this dry over night and then went over the gold free-hand to make it even thicker afterwards.

5)  I then put the drawers together on the built shelf, and put in some beautiful bronze ring pulls from Lee Valley Tools. Confession: I still have to coat these babies in a glossy varathane to protect them (on the to-do list!).

Source guide:

Ring pulls: Lee Valley (size: 51mm x 43mm- $2.40 x 12)

Side Tables: Ikea Rast Table ($29.99 each)

Black Paint: RustOleum's Black Lacquer spray ($5.99 per can x 4)

Transparent Stencil paper: Opus Arts ($1.80)

Gold Paint: Liquidtex Iridescent Rich Gold - Opus Arts ($6.60)

Xacto knife: Opus Arts ($3.49)

So the total cost for 2 fabulous, Dorothy Draper Espana Bunching-inspired bedside tables ... drum-roll please!!

Just under 125 dollars! Not bad right? Especially since I know I'm not able to afford a real-deal DD piece anytime soon ... some of these well restored fabulous dressers can run you up to $4000 each! And yes, I know that some people have found them in antique stores for  around 20 dollars in the States, but I can't even imagine finding anything like that here in Vancouver! For now, I'll be happy to enjoy my little DD-wannabe dressers :)

Be sure to check out some of the FAQ's about this project + a fun before & after of our master bedroom here!

{the power of paint}

We have a large built-in shelving unit in our family room that was quite a scary sight when we first bought our home. The unit was a dark and dingy wood, the shelves were glass, there was blue carpet (YES carpet) on the bottom shelves, and it was overall not a good look. Here are pics before we purchased our house (keep in mind the clutter in these photos is from the previous home-owners!):

We did not want to spend money on this, we originally contemplated knocking down the unit, but moving or losing the fireplace was just not worth it. And I still saw potential in what was there. What was the most economical choice? Paint!! So we chose a warm white and my wonderful husband went for it!

We removed the glass shelves, had wood shelves cut and added a little trim detail (see below), which looks much more substantial.

We changed the flooring in the room, and of course added new furniture and accessories. The wall color is Benjamin Moore's Escarpment (a very moody and warm grey). We also spray painted the gold trim around the fireplace in a brushed silver for a quick and easy update!

Isn’t it great how much a simple and inexpensive solution like paint can make such a difference? I would love to hear about some of your projects where paint alone created an amazing transformation for you!

PS. Thank you to Julia from Hooked on Houses for featuring this post!! If you have not yet visited Hooked on Houses you need to check out her wonderful blog asap! She showcases celebrity homes, houses from movies, as well as amazing before and afters...and who doesn't love a great before and after? :)