Better Pics

First off, thanks to those that that commented on my closet  (and all my other posts) - means so much to me. THANK YOU!

My friend Peggy went back to get a better pic of the closet for me, to see the whole thing...or almost the whole thing.

Here is the before view again

Here is what it looks like from a similar angle

A couple more views

Love, love love it and can't wait to see it for myself!

Aloha a Hui Hou!!

Last Big Piece of the Puzzle

One of the reasons that we fell in love with our house was because of all the built in storage.

Even love the period typical closets.

This is, as you can guess, the one in the wood room. The closet is smaller, but there is a built in dresser, complete with dividers in the smaller drawers so you can organize your undies and such.

This one is going to stay just the way it is. The wood has aged together, so it should stay together.

The one in the bedroom is a different story. The doors are all chipped, they don't stay shut and the drawers are worn down.

Sure, I could have torn the built in out and put in a modern closet like this. But we are trying to maintain the character of our home, not take it away.

I wanted something rustic looking that would go well with our little farm house. The carpenter that did the rest of the work in the house has been very sick so I had to look for a new one.

Carpenters must be very busy in that area because I didn't get one response. From all those that I contacted, not one.

It's not like we were in a hurry, so it was ok for it to stay the way it is. When I painted the bedroom I did take off the doors and put them out in the shop... might be able to put them to good use later.

Last Fall, before our last trip I was browsing craigslist and came across an ad for a carpenter offering his services. They had a website and I checked it out, looked like good workmanship, so I contacted him.

To my great surprise he got back to me and we arranged a meeting for during our trip.

And this is what came out of it. TA DA!

I love the wood grain, love the farm look of it. I also see that I will have to touch the wall up a bit too.

So, for the top, I decided against putting the doors back on. I want to put curtains up and wouldn't be able to open the door fully because of the curtain hardware. I know that I would wind up getting the door all dinged up, so no doors. Right now I have my winter clothes stored in fabric boxes that I'd like to put back up in that open space. I'll hunt till I find the right thing to put up in there.

Just like in the kitchen, I don't mind keeping the old insides....for now.

But I will save my pennies, better my carpenter skills and somewhere down the line I'll line it with cedar.

Hoping to get pictures from a bit further away soon! I just couldn't wait to share.

Aloha a Hui Hou!

PS: Thanks to my friend Peggy for taking pictures for me!

Hubby's Side

Since the bed is off center, Hubby has a lot of space on his side of the bed.

I didn't want to waste the space and get matchie, matchie night stands - so we were looking for a small antique dresser.

 On Craigslist I came across an ad for an 1880's washstand

I texted the seller for the measurements and it looked like it should fit.

Cool, huh?

So we drove over to Oregon....

oh, by the way. I just wanted to mention that it is amazing that we can actually drive to a different State

Just get in the car and drive to a different State.

In 30 minutes you're there...in a different State.

Amazing...

Double cool is that it is State where you don't have to pay sales tax....yup, double cool.

Now back on track to the washstand.

The washstand was really solid and a bit rough, very rustic looking and a great match for the antler lamp that Hubby wants to keep for his bedside light.

Of course we brought it home with us.

The wood wheels on the bottom were not totally intact. One wheel was missing and another was really worn down so I decided to remove the wheels and put sliders on the bottom so we don't scratch up the floor.

It's perfect for Hubby and his needs (a place to put his STUFF away)

no, there are no sockets on the wall behind the bed - I'm going to have to figure out what I can do here.

And Goldilocks said "it was juuuust right".

Aloha A Hui Hou!

What to do with the Bedroom?

In the planning phase I was thinking of putting reclaimed wood on the wall behind the bed.

Two things made me drop that idea. First was that it might be too heavy and make the room look and feel smaller. Second, I didn't want to spend 1000+ bucks on it.

So I started looking at my other idea, stencils.

I really liked the birch tree forest stencil that Cutting Edge Stencils was offering. Stopped by their site almost every other day, drooling over it.

When it went on sale in November, I jumped on it. I watched their tutorial videos, read up on the technique and was sooooo ready when we got there.

Because the stencil was a negative stencil (stenciling the back ground and not the tree) the first thing I had to do was paint the wall white.

You can't see much of a difference, but there is.

My roller brush was ready to roll, but I'll admit, I was a bit scared to start...

Ok, first bit done. Looks like a barcode, doesn't it?

It was at this stage that I realized that because the walls are textured I'm going to have to put spray glue on the back of the stencil.

After the 3rd application I started to notice that the edges are not as crisp as the first use.

I hurried down to the laundry room to clean the stencil. What a piece of work that was!  We have a large utility sink, but it wasn't wide enough to lay the stencil flat.

The paint that peeled off the painted side stuck to the spray glue on the other side....in short, it was a mess and absolutely no fun to clean.

But I started, so I had to finish the job.

After each application I stepped back and loved watching the forest grow before my eyes.

As you see, the left corner is really narrow. I didn't want to fuss with trying to squeeze the stencil in there, so I just turned it into a wider tree.

Down the road, when I find the right ones, the curtains will cover it up.

Done!

It was so worth the effort and we love, love, love it!

Shared with:
Funky Junk Interiors
City of Motherly Love

Aloha A Hui Hou!

Not Much Space

You might remember, this is our bedroom, we just moved the bed over there before we left last Summer.

Although both bedrooms look the same, they're not. The light room is smaller and it doesn't leave me much space on my side of the bed.

Hubby said "Move the bed over and you'll have room".

Well, I don't know about you, but I have issues with a bed in front of the window.  First it makes it hard to get to the window and second it just looks off balance.

I was thinking of building my own nightstand to get the size I need. On this trip I thought I'd look around and see what I might like and might want to give a shot at building myself.

Then our neighbor took me to Grapples. This is a "little" home decor business that is only open once a week, and it looks different every time you go there.

Staring at me was this little side table in the exact same green patina as on our bed frame.

I don't have to tell you, you know I took it home with me and it fits perfect!

As you see, I also found a lamp shade for the hobnail lamp I found a couple of months ago. 

Love the vintage feeling in the room now.

Aloha A Hui Hou!

So our carpenter flaked out on us

I had big dreams for our wood room. We wanted a murphy bed for guests, a desk for my Hubby and a desk for me and lots of shelves for our every growing library of books. I was thinking of something like this.

I thought a bit more about the lay out.

 Finally I came to the conclusion that I would rather have the bed on the North facing wall.

When were were there, this past summer, the carpenter said he would make it for us. But somehow we  kept landing on the back burner. He kept mentioning that for the past couple of years his wife wanted a murphy bed for their office too and that if he built us one, he would have to make one for his wife too. I guess that's why he changed his mind on making ours.

It seems that all carpenters in the area are too busy to respond, so I've decided to tackle this myself. I'll make it bit by bit. I will finally buy the Kreg jig I've always wanted. I even found a plan for the murphy bed I want to make here. They also have a a bunch of other plans to make my drawings into reality.

Wish me luck, I'm on to a new hobby!

Aloha a Hui Hou!

The Light Room

I don't know why I call it the light room, because it wasn't really was't light. Maybe because it is lighter than the wood room?

Maybe....

West facing wall

The dark green paint on the one wall made my painting hand shake with fear. 

I know I was going to have to prime that sucker to DEATH, and that's exactly what happened. To prime this small room I needed a whole gallon of primer...yes, a WHOLE gallon. I was so frustrated and tense that my right hand started to hurt and I had to beef up the handle of the paint roller to ease the grip of death. 

Then I thought a bigger roller might make a difference, but it didn't it just sucked up and held more paint, didn't cover any better.

In the upper most corner above the doorway there was one spot of blue, that even after 2 coats and several more dabs of primer, just kept bleeding through.

I ended up taping a very thin layer of masking tape and  painting over that. THAT finally did the trick.

The closet, keep the doors? New doors? Keep the doors? New doors?

I did have the carpenter come take a look at them and see if they could be saved and he said he could do what I wanted, but I don't think that it would look any better. It would still be the tired door, frame and trim, just with a bit of routing done to it. 

I have to face the music and will reface the closet and have new doors and drawer fronts made. Some time down the line. 

I'll keep you posted.

Promise...

It took me a whole day to paint this room and NOW you can call it the Light Room.

It's light and airy and I really love how the wood floors pop!

We didn't move the bed over till the last day we were there, so we haven't slept in there yet. I wonder if we will sleep as cozy and warm as we did in the wood room...

There are some things I did come to realize though:

1. This room is either a foot or so narrower than the wood room or the window is bigger because there is very little space on the side of the bed in the corner (thought they measured the same, go figure). 
2. I won't be able to get the night stand lights that I had been dreaming of
3. I'm glad we didn't do the reclaimed wood on the headboard wall. It would have very over powering and would have crushed the size of the room. I went online and found there is wall paper that looks like reclaimed wood. That might be an option. Or I'll get the birch tree stencil I was looking into in this entry.
4. Oh and we DO need a feather bed - which we bought when we went shopping at IKEA
5. I'm going to have to shop/sew some kind of curtain. I'm thinking something airy, gauze like, swept to one side.

PS: Since this picture was taken we have had white blinds installed.

That's all for now.

Aloha a Hui Hou!

Antiquing

On our trip we did a bit of "antiquing". Nothing big, just a few small items to give our house a home-ie feel.

Let's start with the small Kraft American crate we found in a little antique shop in Caldwell. I have a crate here in Hawaii for our condiments, but it is new, made to look old. I like this MUCH better.

We had been shopping around for a spoon rest and just couldn't find something we liked - Till I saw this baby at a thrift store. In Germany it's called milk glass, unsure if that its what it is called here. On the inside it has fruit embossed on it and on the out side there are flowers. Easy to clean and dish washer safe! Just the way I like it.

The "green" collection

Currently I don't have room to store any vases, let alone have any flowers in the yard that I could put in one...so I don't really have any (I'm cheap, Ok? I don't want to PAY for flowers...lol). But at the house I will have tulips, lilacs, iris, roses and and and, so I'll be needing vases. We stopped at a local thrift shop and I became obsessed with green glass. It's all older glass and I was able to make a killing. I got it all for under $15....cool, Huh?

Vintage Mason Jars

For months I've been ogling the canning jar soap pumps that Post Road Vintage has been offering on Etsy. I planned to order 2 before we flew, but just didn't get around to it.

In the first antique shop we found a quart size jar and I thought "wait a minute! I could make that!"  Taking another look at the jar I came to realize that a quart size jar would be a bit too big to fit on the ledge of the kitchen sink.

So we kept looking. We got lucky at the thrift store and found 2 pints, two more quart size jars (that I could always use as vases) AND I found two soap dispensers with metal pumps. I was in business!

Our neighbor was so kind to drill a hole in the lids and with a glue gun I was able to secure the pumps in the lids. I love making/creating things for the house that will get some use.

The bedroom doors had the original brass door knobs, but they had seen better days. At one of the other antique stores in Caldwell we were able to get two beautiful glass door knobs.

I put them on the doors and they feel great in the hand.

The door to the wood room is still the original wood and looks great. The doors to the light room and the bathroom are painted. I hope to strip them and find that they are as beautiful as the other door.

Can't wait to get back and find some more treasures!

Aloha a Hui Hou!

3D

I really like the warmth and the feel of the wood room and would like that feeling for the light bedroom too, just not as much. Thinking of using reclaimed wood on the West wall of the room.

Kind of like this

I plan to paint the walls a light shade of grey. The ceiling and the built in will be white.

Built ins and trim will be painted white.

 The new windows will be white and the casings will be white too. Just like in the bathroom.

This is the West wall that I would like the wood on

I was also thinking of the South wall and remembered the wall tattoo's my sister and daughter have in there homes. I thought a tree tattoo would look nice here...and then hang pictures of our family in the branches, sort of like a family tree.  

This is the South wall

The tree trunk would be in the corner and the branches would reach across the wall.

Then I remembered that the walls are textured and that the tattoo would look kind of rippled and might not stick all over. I looked some more and found these stencils:

A long, long time ago I did some work for a company called Plaid and in one of the goodie bags they gave me there was a 3 piece stencil set of a pot of ivy. It sort of looked like this:


Only difference was that it was a 3 piece stencil. I didn't stencil it, instead I used a medium and plastered and then painted it. The result was 3D, it was like having a real flower pot on the wall, actually 5 flower pots. It was a lot of work but I really, really liked it and from what my daughter tells me - it's still on the wall, so it's held up for over 10 years!

I know I can do this, and I would love to do this....I think I'm going to do this! The plan is plastering the tree in white on the grey wall and hanging the photos in nice wood frames. When I do I'll be sure to take some step by step photos and share the results!

Aloha a Hui Hou!