ORC – Spring 2021 – Easy DIY Woven Stools – Week #3

This week for my One Room Challenge I’m showing how I turned these chairs into stools to use outside.

For a few months I had been looking for secondhand chairs that had rush seats. I had looked into making my own stools and learning to weave the rush myself but this route was much simpler.

I bought these 3 ladder back chairs which had seats in pretty good condition. I sawed off the back with my hand saw to make them look like stools instead.

I decided to paint them using a greige paint I had leftover from painting our Kitchen Island.

These are now being used as seats for our kids at our outdoor table for the summer, and in the winter they will move inside to our foyer.

We have been having most of our meals outside and having a comfortable place to sit makes a big difference.

To see what everyone else is working on this week, the link is below.

https://www.oneroomchallenge.com/blog/orcspring2021wk3

Fireplace Makeover – An Easy Update with Paint

 

Here’s a look at our living room in our open-concept main floor when we first moved in. I was excited to have a fireplace again but this colour wasn’t right for me.

Originally I thought I’d paint everything white, including a wash on the tiles but then changed my mind and I’m glad I went with black instead. At the time it felt like a huge risk but it’s just paint and I was happy with the dramatic results.

Here’s the progress…

Before:  Beige trim and blue walls.

After: Now the fireplace is a feature and I the room has a more modern feel.

Before: The yellow/beige colour didn’t have the same impact with objects displayed.

After: The tiles now look natural and still go with the house.

Now with the black paint, the spotlight at night and natural light during the day create a great space to make seasonal displays.

The fireplace was the first area I started painting, even before the kitchen cabinet makeover I did in December.

This is a wider view of the room before I painted the kitchen cabinets. Once you start changing one area it can start to make everything else look incohesive.

This was not my first time painting a fireplace. 7 years ago we had just moved into our first home near Montreal and this was my first project. The photo will link to the blog post showing how I used chalk paint on the wooden mantel. This is the same couch that has travelled with us from Montreal – Toronto and now Kelowna.

Instead of dreaming of a renovation someday, is there a simple paint fix that could make a big change today?

Fall ORC – Week #3

 

Unifying with Paint

This week’s update for the One Room Challenge is about a quick and easy project.

We no longer have our plants or pots so I set out to get new ones for the office. Finding plants was easy but to buy new pots gets pricey and I needed quite a few. Now that we’re starting off fresh in so many ways and I’m continuing to use secondhand as much as possible I went to check out thrift stores for pots.   I decided to unify them with paint and in a grey, imitation cement look. Here’s the before (I’m still looking for a pot for the fern).

I used a chalky finish spray paint (and did a terrible job of it) to have a base for the paint to adhere to.

Then I painted them with a couple of different grey paint samples, Benjamin Moore Willow Creek and Baltic Grey to be specific.

Here’s the finished look. Now that the pots are all the same grey it’s not as busy with lots of colours and the plants take centre stage. Being able to choose secondhand items for their shape rather than colour made it much easier to find the right pieces however I still need to find a couple more!

These will be going on a floating shelf that I’m planning to put up above the desk.

 

Here’s the link to see how the other One Room Challenge projects are going:

 

UPDATE: Thanks Apartment Therapy for featuring this project!

Spring ORC – Reveal Week 6

 

Week # 6  The Reveal

Here is the final reveal of our bathroom makeover – the mirror, vanity handles & light fixture were the only new pieces. Everything else was done with paint and materials I already had. Reimagining the space and making small, manageable changes made all the difference.

The ‘floating’ wooden shelves are finally as I imagined them, as a feature area rather than just a large wasted space that became a dumping area. More information about how this layer of plywood was added on top is in my last post.

These crates are the basic kind from the hardware store that I stained with vinegar & steel wool. We each have one to throw our toiletries in.

We have a lot of plants throughout our home and garden so we moved a few extras into this room to soften all of that white.

This is the view of our ensuite from the bedroom.

Here is the way it originally looked when we moved in. I hadn’t even painted the walls because I thought it wouldn’t make any difference.

The shower curtain is something that I made a few years ago with canvas and grosgrain ribbon. White and black are the main themes throughout the house.

This is what it looks like when the door is closed. The barn door idea didn’t end up happening because we ran out of time but I left the mirror up to reflect the natural light. We usually keep the door open because it makes the bathroom look bigger.

A reminder of the shelves before.

Another shelf detail because it is finally a space worth showing!

 

Is there a room in your house that could look entirely different by using some creativity and making a few small changes?

To see the other reveals – both small project and major renovations visit the One Room Challenge website.

How to Paint Thermafoil Cabinets

Do you have old cabinets in your home that are tired but haven’t tried painting because they aren’t wood?

That was the case with our bathroom vanity. I didn’t like our cabinets but didn’t know how to change them – until one day I figured I had nothing to lose and I peeled off the vinyl layer that revealed MDF on the surface below.This was what our bathroom looked like for the first 3 years we lived here. There is no major bathroom renovation happening in the near future so instead, I did a $25 makeover that made a huge improvement and only took a few hours. Since I had nothing to lose I pulled off the vinyl cover from the cabinets. On the inside edge it was easy to peel the white cover off and then take off the whole front layer in almost one piece.First, I did a base coat of chalk paint, next I mixed up a custom colour to coordinate with the wall colour and vanity countertop. What I used was a combination of chalk paint and wall paint.The final step was to drill a couple of new holes to accommodate the new hardware that I bought which was where the $25 cost came from.

It has been a year and a half since I painted this vanity which gets a lot of use and the paint is durable. Until a major bathroom renovation happens, I am much happier with the way the bathroom looks and you can’t beat the low effort and cost of this project.

Here is an article from Better Homes & Gardens about different kinds of cabinets to determine which kind you may have.

To paint wood cabinets here is a tutorial using paint:

Gold

Over the past week I’ve been busy and so inspired, all by adding gold to the colour palette. I’m using it on a whole line of new things for spring, including another version of the iPad sleeve. Here’s a peak inside of my studio and what I’ve been working on.

 I’m in the midst of finishing up and photographing so there will be more to come.