Friday, February 10, 2012

7 Quick Takes Friday: A new week, a new renovation...

(1)
Oh sweet baby Jesus, I've gone and done it again (minus 10 points for me because I heard Brittney Spears in my head when I said that).  The "wood" paneling.  The cabin fever.  The wanting to get as much done before baby arrives.  Yes, you guessed it: I've embarked on another room redo.

(2)
Wait, just kidding.  Not *A* room redo.  TWO room redos.  And apparently redos isn't even a word.  How can "redo" be a word and "redos" isn't?  You can only ever have one at a time?  I guess they think everyone is a whole lot more reasonable than I am, then!
(3)
Seriously.  My poor daughters.    They are the only one's whose rooms have not seen the business end of a paint roller since we moved into this house lo many moons ago.  And do you want to SEE what their rooms looked like when we got here?  Oh hellz yes you do!

(4)
Here's Katie's room.  
Need I draw your attention to the RED carpet?  Or the BLACK trim around the windows?  And that wood paneling is "wood" not WOOD.  And the stripes between the panels are black.  Black I tell you!
And Lizzy's.  The sister room for the sister.

Similarly styled. Try not to be jealous.

(5)
The carpet was replaced before we ever moved their stuff in (because we're not THAT cruel), but those walls.  Oy!  The walls!  So yesterday we pulled the furniture to the center of the room and then proceeded to spend the rest of the dang day trying to sort through and clean up the disgusting piles of trash-ular trashiness that had been accumulating there for the past 18 months.  Because I am a lazy woman and don't even WANT  to look under their beds after they clean their rooms.

(6)
And this is the torture we endured...

Room 1.  Yep, still brown.

Room 1, view from the other side.  Yes, the DOOR is black, too.  And the closet has no doors at all.

Room 2.  The worst mess to ever grace my eyeballs. Yep, still brown.

And no closet door here, either.

(7)
Oh man, we've got our work cut out for us, I know.  But thanks to a gift card in a care box from some friends a few months ago, we were able to get our primer for free (!) and then today, I was invited to raid a friend's paint stash, so the paint will ALSO be free (!).

All we need now is fabric.  A whole lotta fabric because I'm planning to put up tension rods (shower curtain rods, perhaps?) and enormous curtains to use as closet doors for those poor lucky gals.  So, what are your favorite sources for cheap fabric?  Ready-made curtains that are long enough for these spaces are probably going to be pretty pricey, so I'm thinking I'll need to do them myself, yes?

So there it is.  Makin' myself crazy and getting expanding foam insulation on my fingers of my own volition AGAIN.  Because that's how I roll, yo!

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38 comments :

  1. Ummmm... I'm pretty weirded out thinking what that room was for before you bought that house. Blood red carpet, black trim, black door.... I'm kind of scared now. Please show me some improvement in there soon! I'll just sit here quietly curled up and rocking in the corner.

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    1. What freaks those freaks were! Luckily the red has been gone for a long time, but it was all in the den and everything. So gross.

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  2. woman, you be crazy! but the rooms need it and it will be worth it.... I am a worthless fabric resource or font of info... I would actually assume that just getting some closet doors on sale would be price equivalent (I know Gabe and I installed a closet in our old house and spent $17 on formally $25 sliding doors for ours....)

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    1. Well, there isn't currently an opening that is standard closet door size. So putting in doors would involve actually building out the wall first and Tommy is NOT in the mood :). And that would add to the cost considerably. It's a bummer!

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  3. We had to replace closet doors with curtains in the "laundry closet" at the lake house. I found a pewter-ish curtain rod, nickel rings (ok, so the metals don't EXACTLY match), and a set of curtains at Walmart in the clearance section all for $16. It was the ONLY pair of curtains that actually fit the space, so it must've been destined for me, right? So far, it's worked out nicely.

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    1. Oh man, that is exactly what we need! I have visions of me quilting together huge curtains with the scraps in the fabric cabinet...

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  4. what kind of fabric are you looking for?

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    1. Anything, honestly. Okay fine...not anything. Katy's room is going to be light blue. Her bedding is pink and white and her curtains are blue, pink, yellow vertical stripes. So it's going to be very pastel and happy in there. Curtains in reds and taupes just wouldn't be very happy, ya know?

      Lizzy's room is going to be pale green. The bedding is the same and her curtains are white with small colorful polka dots. So even solid pink curtains on her closet would be cute. But I can't be too picky!

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  5. what about using a sheet? king size are huge, 102" x 108" is what google says. i used a vintage sheet as a shower curtain for awhile, hung up extra high for *glamour* (also know as not wanting to hem something) but steph is right, hollow core doors are cheap. maybe cheaper than painting over all that black paint :)

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    1. I wish I could just get new doors! The paint is free, so I gotta just bite the bullet :) King size sheet is a great suggestion. I'm gonna need to make a thrift store run I think.

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  6. Good for you, those girls need a beautiful space (especially since you will be dropping the doubling up news soon, no?). I can't wait to see what cheap fabric spots people come up with, I also need new curtains and whether store bought or homemade, they are too expensive!!

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  7. We had closet doors on our laundry closet in our main hallway. Yes I still like this house. Most of the houses in this area that we looked at had the laundry closets in the actual kitchen at least I can get the hampers into the hall. So sorry I wandered off there. The little ones would slam the bifold doors all the time and so we took them down. I am NOT at all handy and I used a shower curtain rod and a shower curtain from the big W. There are some very nice "fabric" shower curtains. I think mine was around $15 and the the tension rod is an antique bronze color as well as the hooks. I've also heard that sheet sets make cheap fabric it you can find something on clearance. Since your bedroom redo I've been tempted to send you pictures of our front room and ask for advice. It's beige very beige. We got rid of the badly painted vivid red wall years ago with off white paint and it's been that way since. The rug that was some color for the room needed trashed recently and the room is so plain. We have a new baby so I'm doing some nesting too.

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  8. Shower curtain rods should work well. Plus, they are around 5 bucks at Walmart. Walmart also has sheer curtains at 5 bucks per panel(you'll need 2 per closet) in lots of colors. Or I second the idea of sheets. I would get them at the thrift store. Or e mail me your address, and I will send you a white pair with multicolor polka dots (never even used) that would work great for Katie and an apple green and white queen size duvet cover that would work great for Lizzie. kristinatamara@gmail.com

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    1. Oh my goodness, that would be AMAZING! I'll email you my address stat :)

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    2. taht is so nice of you!

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  9. for quick and easy curtains I like to use bed sheets, they are long and cheap, and you can get them in just about any color you want. Before you paint that paneling though be sure to have a real good base coat. We used kilz, or rather my husband did as I was on a long trip with the kids. Good luck.

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    1. Absolutely! We are priming first with a Zinsser all surface primer and then using the paint, which is technically paint and primer in one....so I hope it really gets those black stripes.

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  10. Oh my goodness, that red carpet is appalling! Who knew they even made carpet in such a shade. I mean, I like red, but that was a bucket of mess right there. Thank goodness you took pictures!

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  11. Your oldest girl looks *exactly* like you.

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  12. You've got your work cut out for you!! But I know you'll do a fabulous job. The girls might never want to leave their beautiful new rooms ever!

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  13. Ikea has great, long curtains for cheap. If there's not an Ikea near you, then I'd think about using a shower curtain.

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  14. Dweej, I have a massive stash of fabric that I need to clean out. If you will email me, maybe we can work together to find something in my stash that I can mail you that would work (MORE FREE STUFF! I know how you like that price ;) ).

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  15. I can't wait to see what you do with the rooms! I'd also say sheer shower curtains if you cannot get your hands on some cheapo fabric.
    Or you can get really inventive like a friend of mine: after they had finished painting their daughters' room -- they used the canvas paint drop sheet for curtains and a closet cover! they let their daughter do some of her own fancy creations on it first (she loved surfing and painted surfboards, palm trees, and flowers). It actually looked really great! then they used flower lei's for tie backs.

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  16. We renovated our condo ourselves before we moved to our house. The problem was that everything we did made the unrenovated areas look even worse! I'm afraid to start on the house. Maybe once the kids are in school and the daycare costs are more manageable.

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  17. What is UP with the 'wood' paneling combined with AWFUL red carpet? We had that same combo at our old house. Gagarific. Good luck getting all your projects done in your desired time frame :)

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  18. It was kind of hard to read the rest of this post, after I saw the red carpet pictures. Not emotionally, but physically, I think I've been partially blinded or something :)

    And sheets, my friend. I've made quite a few curtains out of those $4 way-too-scratchy-to-sleep-on sheets they have at wal-mart. If you just snip the ends of the wide top hem, you can slide the curtain rod right in there and BOOM! Curtains.

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  19. Good luck! I love your transformations. I bet the girls are excited. :)

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  20. I bought twin sized sheets at Ikea for $2 and made long curtains out of them!

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  21. Go Dweej go! I know they will both look amazing once you've worked your magic on them!

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  22. You might want to wash all that paneling with TSP (tri-sodium phosphate) first. I heart TSP. It cleans walls and woodwork. It also will help your primer adhere to the faux wood. Anything I paint without washing with TSP first just picks right off. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxiUOtVCluU

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  23. I made curtains for a long closet in our first house. I just bought 60-in. wide muslin from the fabric store and had THEM cut it to the length I needed it -- plus a deep hem (for weight) and enough space to sew a pocket for the rod at the top. No side seams -- just two panels. We stenciled a design along the bottom with fabric paint. EASY. You can also use sheets or, if you have an IKEA near you, they have all sorts of long panel curtains that are cheap. Another option if you're not picky is shower curtains from a discount store. They come in fun kid colors, or plain white.

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  24. This totally cracked me up because I'm pretty sure that's the exact paneling we had when I was a kid...yikes! As for the red carpet, did you saturate that photo or was it really that eye-searing? That's almost as vivid as the avocado green in my first apartment!

    If it makes you feel any better, I've been promising my daughter a room re-do for 2 years now...other than a new bed, her room looks the same as when she was TWO. And she's TWELVE.

    Good luck with the projects! :-)

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  25. I'd go with a shower curtains. You can get them pretty cheap!

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  26. Bamboo bead curtains! Just try and beat these: http://www.anythingbamboo.com/HbeadC.htm
    AWWW YEEAHHH!!!

    BTW - LOVE your blog, and my kids need more Donkey Guy!

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    1. I love how everyone tries to blame their Donkey obsession on their kids. You know you love him! ;)

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  27. these are some things I have used for fabric substitution:
    - the super thin cotton on a foam mattress - cut up the mattress to make cushions and used the cotton for sheer curtains at a sunny window
    - used a very sheer silvery grey curtain to make a wrap to go over a ball dress
    - bought a bolt of denim that had a slight fault and recovered all the lounge room cushions and squabs. super hard wearing.
    - made a duvet cover out of two flannel sheets, one with a cool pattern that matched the bedroom
    - table cloths for cushion covers or small curtains (an old lace one would make a great closet door. Soak in coffee for taupe or wash with a red sock to get pale pink!
    - a groovy shower curtain for a door on a room that didn't have a door - just used a piece of dowell to hang it on.

    -

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