Tutoring Session and Balloons

I'm still in the process of updating my blog from the last 6 months or so. Sorry these are months and months old, but I still wanted to get them on here for anyone that may be able to use them for ideas on projects they're working on. 

This was a fun little project I was hired to do set-design for. It was a workshop for Kristin Rogers Photography. We pulled together 2 different looks for the students to practice on. It was a fun day and I got to meet some really great people.

First up was a bridal look. Lots of balloons in various sizes hung from the ceiling and covering the floor. By the way... blowing up those giant balloons is a nightmare, even worse is trying to tie them! Yikes, my fingers were raw when I was finished!

Second look was an eclectic mix of props. That red chair looks so good in photographs, I love it every time I see it. :)

Here's a collage of some of the girls from that day.

For more pictures or to get information on tutoring sessions, check out this post here.

Here is a list of all the lovely and talented people who worked on this project. I hope we have a chance to do this again!

Make Up – Amy Clarke

Hair – Dianna Lopez

Wardrobe Stylist – Gabby Lewis

Florist –  Floral Design By Jacqueline Ahne

Fashion Model – Mira

Bridal Model – Kiarra Elliot 

Rogers Room Redo {Part 3}

I'm back to show you the after picture of Kristin's bedroom. If you missed out on part 1 & part 2, check those out first! Let me remind you of what the room looked like before we got going.

Here's the before...

and...

 here's what it's looking like today! 

New bed, picture wall, windows hung, side table, dresser, paint...

The gray walls are just perfect!

Just to the left as you walk in the room we hung 2 old windows on the wall. She may put something in the windows one day (such as photos, maps, book pages, etc) but until then, they look pretty good just as they are.

Don't ya just love the picture wall? It's fun, different, and kinda quirky (pretty much just like Kristin!). Between the two of us we already had all of the frames. Also on the wall is an old vent cover (from this lovely lady), a metal owl, and a painting done by her daughter, Madison.

The chair that is being used as a side table was a $2.00 garage sale find.

And that bed! I found this stunning, antique bed frame on Craigslist for $99. Kristin loved it and bought it as quickly as she could. Then I kicked myself for not keeping it! I'm kidding, it was meant to be theirs, it's just too cute and perfect in that room.

We also added a new, white, $10 curtain to cover their closet opening.

Here is the repainted dresser ($40 + cost of paint). We also added an old dress form which she hangs necklaces on, and a pallet shelf I had lying around to store some books. The painting was a wedding gift to them done by a dear friend, Jen.

We reused a small cabinet they previously had in their room as a nightstand for the other side of the bed. Then hung a small cluster of mini frames, and covered the top of the cabinet with a yellow lace doily ($3 thrift store find).

Here's the breakdown-

Wood Antique Bed Frame- $99.00

Paint & Supplies- $60.00

Curtain- $10.00 (gift from me)

Dresser- $40.00

Yellow Lace Doily- $3.00

White Side Chair- $2.00 (gift from me)

Windows- $10.00 (already owned)

Total- $224.00 ($202.00 was the actual out of pocket cost!)

Not too bad, huh! $200 for a whole new room, including a new bed!! There are still a few odds and ends I would like to throw in there, but no hurry, it looks so great just as it is.
I hope you and Jon love your room.

Rogers Room Redo {Part 2}

We're continuing on with part 2 of the master bedroom makeover at the Rogers house (If you missed part 1, check it out here). 

Pulling out the carpet enabled us to de-clutter at the same time. We took out everything that wouldn't be staying permanently and found it a new home, then we tossed anything not worth holding on to.

Here's the room after our first day of working.

Next up was painting! I love painting. It's pretty much instant gratification, which is always fun in a makeover project. We ended up settling on a nice medium gray for the wall (Benjamin Moore Greyhound 1579). After gathering painters tape, brushes, rollers, and edgers, we got to work.

We started by pushing all the furniture toward the center of the room. Then we wiped down any dust on the walls and began to tape away! 

We took turns cutting in on the walls with our handy Shur Line trimmers. If you have never used these before I highly recommend them, they almost eliminate the need to tape a room off. Maybe I'll do a little tutorial on how to use them best??

Once the walls were all painted, we decided to start on the dresser while waiting for the paint to be dry enough to peel the blue tape off. 

Kristin found this dresser at my thrift store for about $40. I actually almost bought it to redo but I couldn't get it home alone and I ended up forgetting about it... till she snagged it!

It was missing one drawer pull, but we have plans for fixing that problem.

We tossed around several ideas for dresser colors; yellow, emerald green, and teal (Benjamin Moore Bahama Green 2045). Kristin loves teal, so naturally it seemed like the way to go.

We took off all the hardware and began painting the drawer fronts. They all got two coats of vibrant teal paint. 

**When redoing a dresser (or anything with drawers) don't paint the sides of the drawers or they'll stick when you move them in and out.

Then we moved on to the dresser (by now, it's well into the evening as you can tell by the dark photos). It also got tw pretty coats of paint. Kristin decided she liked the dresser top left unpainted, with the old worn wood exposed. In the end it  worked well in the room and fits their style much more.

The room and the furniture were looking all freshened up so it was time to move our attention to the collage of photos on the wall.

Pretty much the second we decided on redoing the picture wall in their room we both knew we wanted to do something different and funky, something asymmetrical and a bit more whimsical. 

I always start by collecting everything I have that can be used on the wall and loosely laying it out in the arrangement I have in mind. Once it has a good flow to it, the hammering begins.

I don't have a single picture of the photo wall being hung up, so you'll just have to wait until tomorrow to see it all come together!

Also tomorrow... a total breakdown of the cost for the whole room makeover!

Roger's Room Redo {Part 1}

Meet Kristin Rogers. She's been mentioned on here a time or two... or 50! She is a dear friend of mine and we always seem to talk each other into going thrift store shopping, Starbucks runs, Del Taco, cleaning, organizing, photo shoot planning, painting...etc. We've been friends for quite some time and I'm so very thankful for her and her family.


This is Kristin...

Kristin, Jon and their girls live in a cute little house. The house has been such a labor of love, they've done some major work on this home and it shows! It's packed full of character and special details, and it's just so welcoming and charming.

This is their house.

(Instagram picture, it's the only one I could find)

As with any true labor of love, it takes time to redo every room in a home. Lots of time. Not just weeks or months, but often times it takes years. Over the last 8 years they've painted and landscaped the outside of their home, fixed up their kitchen, torn out lots of teal green carpet, completely remodeled their bathroom, added moulding and trims, and built an amazing bookshelf that lines their daughters' bedroom.

So what hasn't been done you may ask? 

Their master bedroom.

Kristin has been wanting to fix up her master bedroom FOREVER and she asked if I would help her out (or I begged her, I can't remember).

Before we get to the area that is in need of a little help, let me show you some of my favorite parts of their home.

First up is the living room. It's super eclectic and packed full of Jon and Kristin's photography, lots of antique treasures, and original hardwood floors.

Here is their kitchen. Yellow walls, a darling vintage stove, and the beautiful wood counters that Jon made.... yes made, with his own hands. I didn't even know people could do that!

Now that you've seen some of what they've done with their tiny and cute home, lets move on to the room they've been itching to show some love. 

This is their master bedroom. 

Not so bad, right?...

Well here's the part that makes them cringe every time they enter the room. The old carpet, clutter, and random stuff that need's a home... 

along with decorations they weren't crazy about and were eager to change.

Here is Kristin's wish list for fixing up her room:

-Change wall color/colors
-Pull out the nasty old carpet

-Declutter all the random things they've collected over time

-Dresser for their clothes

-Funky up the picture wall to make it more "them"

We also wanted to try and get this done with as little money out of pocket as possible... we all like a challenge after all!

So we got to it. First up, yank out that old carpet!

I would cut a section of carpet, then Kristin rolled the piece up (along with the padding), and tossed them in the kitchen until they could be taken out to the trash.

After an area of carpet was cleared, Kristin went back with the crowbar and pried up the tack strip along with any random staples that were holding the padding down.

We didn't even remove the bed to do this. We simply moved the bed from side to side as we cut strips. Since it was just the two of us we didn't want to go through the trouble of lifting and moving the heavy mattress... Plus there wasn't enough room anywhere!

After a good sweep and wipe down we were done! Start to finish I think it took us about an hour total. That's with FOUR kids to watch after as well... We don't mess around!

Here it is! It already looks so much cleaner, as well as more open and fresh!

Up next... Painting the wall! Check back soon to see what a coat of paint can do to a room. It's kinda amazing.

Office Cubbies {Reurbished}

One of my favorite things to see is an old, ugly piece of furniture given a face lift. I knew I wanted some cubbies in my workroom the second my husband said the room was mine. So, I searched online stores, thrift stores, and Craigslist extensively till I could find something in (or under) my budget. Eventually I found a school on Craigslist that was selling their old school cubbies. We picked them up at the school, and I thought they were a good deal at $15 a piece. Then came the long, hard, relentless, exhausting part of it all... Painting them!!

Here are what the cubbies looked like when I got them home. I cleaned them up, wiped them down, and prepped the area to get ready to paint.

Now, I know I should have known better, but I did buy paint from Walmart for this. I will never do that again! Each cubby took over 1 hr to paint, per coat, due to all the corners and awkward angles in the cubbies. Here is what cheap paint looks like (I actually think my iphone pics don't even show how translucent the paint really was). Below on the left is the cubby painted with one coat all over and two coats in all the edges. On the right is three coats on everything...

Here is what they looked like after four or five coats. Like I said, the iphone pic isn't very clear so it's hard to tell, but there is no smoothness or consistency in the paint, it was very blotchy with tons of paint brush lines. This is where I caved. After using nearly an entire gallon of cheap, Walmart paint, I went to Home Depot and purchased a gallon of Behr Premium Plus Ultra paint. At this point one cubby had 4-5 coats (seen below) of paint and the other had 1-2 coats (above left), both cubbies only needed one additional coat of the Behr paint to cover them sufficiently. I've learned my lesson.

And here they are! This picture was not taken with my iphone, it was taken by my friend, Kristin.

Here's the breakdown:

Cubbies- $30.00 (total)

Cheap paint from Walmart- $20.00 (I can't remember the price, but whatever it was, it's a waste of $$)

Behr Premium Plus Ultra- $33.00

Misc supplies, drop cloth, paint pans, small brush- $15.00

Total= $98

Best Gift Ever

When it came time to figure out what we would do with our third, and quite tiny bedroom, we tossed around ideas like using it as an office, playroom, library, or school room. But when it came down to it my hubby insisted that I use it for a workroom for all my business and crafty things going on. I was most excited about the idea of freeing up some space in the garage that's filled with my props and crafty things.  I'm also looking forward to not using my dining table for whatever project I have in the works.

I've just barely started working on this room. I basically grabbed whatever I could from the garage and threw it in here. The only thing that will actually stay when all is said and done are the white cubbies (more on those later), the crate hanging on the wall above the cubbies, and the rug.

The room has quite a way to go, and it needs some major organizing, but I've already enjoyed it so much. I bought that painting at a thrift store for $6 and hung it on a nail already in the wall. I'll find a better home for it in time. The pile of white frames are a few of the ones that will be on the wall of frames I mentioned in this post.

Below are a couple of shelves we made out of old crates. I got the idea over here. They're cluttered with random items that needed a place to sit... they're not staying either, too big for the space.

Now for the part of the room I love, love, love! I think my favorite thing is seeing all my little trinkets and knickknacks all tucked away in cozy cubbies just waiting to be used. The down side... they really don't hold much stuff, not for what I need anyway. They're staying. I'll just have to figure out another way to store all my stuff. The cubbies have a little history of their own and got a mini-makeover, but I'll post that another day.

 Well, if you can ignore the clutter on the floor that needs a home, messy desk, and random stuff on the walls, I really think you can see the potential. No?  Well, just keep checking and hopefully I can pull it together!