Ta Da! Office Update

Two posts in one day! After the last post I glanced through the archives and saw this post about our home office. Well, we finally finished it earlier this year. I love how it turned out!

Unexpected Project

A few nights ago, David and I were talking about our office, and what we could do to freshen it up. Our first thought, naturally, was paint. We contemplated many different colours, but couldn't settle on any one colour. Until David asked if we had paint in the basement. When I painted the craft/guest room when we first moved it, I bought a gallon of green paint as well as a gallon of blue paint (even though it turned out I only needed a quart of the blue). So, at 11pm we emptied out the office, I patched all the nail holes in the walls left by the previous owner, and then started cutting in. By the time I was finished it was 2am! Emily woke up at 5:30 for her feeding, and when she went back to sleep, I found myself wide awake. I tossed and turned for a little while before giving up. I figured, if I'm awake, I may as well get busy. By 11am, the main painting was done. We had to run out for some paint for the trim, and by supper time all the painting was finished.

We looked through office furniture at Ikea and finally settled on some pieces that will (eventually) work well in the room. Although, we can't afford to pick them up now, over the next few months our tiny office will have a new, organized look!

Before - the yellow was really intense...

After - A nice, cool, relaxing blue

The office furniture on our "to buy" list

Summer Projects...

As usual, I have a long list of projects for this summer. First and foremost is to repair and repaint my old bedroom furniture from my childhood for Emily. When I was 16 I bought myself a new bedroom set, and gave my old set to my youngest cousin. She used it for many years, until she got a new set. It then went to live in my aunt and uncle's barn for the next 7 years. Just before Emily was born, my uncle called and asked if I wanted the furniture back, warning me that it was in pretty rough shape. I said we'd take a look at it and see if it was worth restoring.

On first inspection, it looked pretty bad. The once white paint had a greyish speckling to it, there were some chips in the pain and in the wood, mice had made one drawer their home, and some of the drawers themselves will need a little work. Although David thought they were a lost cause, I was (and still am) pretty optimistic.

I went out to our shed a couple days ago to have another look and to start cleaning with a bleach solution. I wanted to know how bad the damage was to the paint. As it turns out, the grey speckling that I thought might have been mildew damage was only dirt! So, with a little love and care the furniture will look as good, if not better, than it ever has!

Bureau

Bureau with hutch (will be delivered later)

The mouse-home drawer

Vanity/Desk

You can see the clean spot in the middle of this drawer...

We're still waiting for the hutch to go on one of the bureaus, as well as a corner unit. I can't wait to get started on these!

Another Room Makeover: Nursery!

After finding our we were pregnant, we got to work repainting the baby's room.

When we moved in, we installed shelves one of the walls with the intention of using them for books and teddy bears and other stuffies (at our last place). However, once I started putting some books on the shelves they started to pull away from the wall. I was not impressed, especially considering that at our last place these shelves lived in the kitchen and held a couple dozen large cookbooks with no complaints. Needless to say the books came off the shelf and were replaced with yet more stuffies. 

Before the room reno could start, I wanted to remove the shelves from the wall. Unfortunately we used metal plugs (which I really don't recommend!) and when they were removed they left a 1" hole in the wall. So I had lots of patching to do to repair the damage. Once the repairs were complete, it was time for paint. 

As much as I like the colour of the "blue room", I found the blue had a lot of grey in it and looked kind of dingy. I wanted a colour that had more life in it so we went with an aqua blue (Premier's Tahoe Blue from Canadian Tire). 

Before

Cutting In - You can see the difference in colour

Finished: View from the door

View from the window opposite the door

We still have to get some furniture to go in this room. Up until now it has been used as a guest room, and had 2 single beds in it. We removed one of the bed frames and put it's mattress under the bed in case we still needed the extra bed. We're hoping to pick up a bookshelf from Ikea in the next few weeks (the same one that we used here, and then we'll need a crib, change table and glider all before the end of February!

Painting!

I've been busy painting our bedroom these past couple of days. We liked all the colour choices the previous owners made and so we didn't have a lot of painting to do... except for the bedroom. We didn't know what colour we wanted, but we both agreed that we didn't like their choice. I think this may be the only 'before' photo of our bedroom.

And here are the after shots:

We went with a dusty purple for the two windowed walls, and a silver grey for the other two walls. We added cream curtains (that will need to be shortened) and eventually will replace our current mismatched furniture for a white set. We're both really happy with how it turned out!

Catching up...

We've been pretty busy these past few days...

Saturday morning we decided to head back to the store to pick up a new duvet cover we saw while curtain shopping. Next on the list will be some new paint for the walls, but that probably won't be until spring at the very earliest. New curtains and blinds are also on that shoppings list. The duvet cover wasn't on the bed long before Caesar decided it was time for a nap.

The guy who clears our driveway also came by, even though there wasn't too much snow. Usually we get up in the morning to a clean driveway, so it was nice to actually witness the snow clearing.

There was also some furious knitting on Saturday that lasted well into the wee hours of Sunday morning as I was trying to finish some knitwear for my cousin's baby shower Sunday afternoon. I've resisted posting any pictures earlier just in case!

We all had a great time at her shower! But, of course, I once again forgot the camera... that's one of my new years' resolutions... be sure to have always have the camera for those spontaneous (and those "it's been on the calendar for months!") photo ops!

We started back to work at the college yesterday and we've been busy getting everything ready for the beginning of the semester. Fortunately, we won't see students for another 2 weeks so there's still plenty of time to prepare. After work we spent the evening with my parents for my mom's birthday... it was a great evening!

So far today has been more of the same... cleaning, organizing, getting ready for labs to begin!

New Curtains!

We decided it was finally time to change the curtains. They were left here by the previous owner, and while they were nice they were not something we would have chosen.

Of course, the only photo I could find is from

the home inspection last March!

So, yesterday we finally decided on a colour for them, and went on a mission for curtains... and we came back with these:

and we love them! It makes such a huge difference to the living room, it actually feels bigger and more open =)

Craft Room - Before & After

For the longest time I have wanted a dedicated space in which to do crafts and store crafting supplies. In our last place I had everything scattered around our office, and some stuff in baskets in the living room as well. When we first visited this house, I knew that the spare room in the basement would become my craft room.

Here are a couple of before photos from our home inspection...

And here are the after pictures!