Hey all! I am back and ready to show you what all has been going on here in the past couple of weeks. It's been kind of crazy around here with my friends' [Chris and Julie] wedding coming up in about two weeks plus the stuff we have been working on in the house.
Remember this photo from here?
Remember this photo from here?
Two weeks, later, it is now this!!!
I am pretty pumped about this really easy makeover that we did in my craft room. It's the best birthday gift so far! My husband is a giver, he would give me the moon if I asked for it. He is wonderful and awesome and is crazy enough to buy into my ideas.
He was expecting for this whole makeover to cost $500 or maybe a little bit more. But guess what happens in March? ALL GOOD THINGS! Yes, indeed. The week after my birthday, we both spent our days comparing prices for materials online. We knew we needed 2 15-inch base cabinets, and a 30-inch base + a 10 ft countertop. I was scoping the internet for coupon codes, printable coupons whatever I could scrounge to lower the cost because even if we had the money for this makeover, we weren't going to be dumb and be letting good deals slip through our fingers. We were better than that!
Enter a friend of ours who has decided to remodel her kitchen. She comes and tells me that she got a few cabinet pieces from Menards who was having a spring sale and the cabinets are on sale too. I got online and went to their website and found out this makeover was gonna cost half the price we were planning on spending. That night, John and I ordered what we needed and the next day, with a truck and trailer in tow headed to Menards to pick up the goods! :) Even the people at the store were pretty surprised how cheap it all cost. They kept asking John if that was really all he paid for the stuff over and over!
Anyway, we got them home and got to work after doing our happy dance... [you don't want to see that!] Here's John measuring how much we were going to take off from the countertop. I think this was the same night we bought the cabinets. lol It doesn't take much to get him on work mode. Just buy him the goods!
This was me the next day. John loves building and cutting and using his power tools... but he doesn't like to paint. Thank God I don't mind painting! :) The bookshelves on each end of the counter we got for free from John's parents. They were detached parts of this gigantic entertainment center that they weren't using anymore.
I have painted so much in the past year and a half, I think I can paint with my eyes closed. These cabinets and bookshelves were nothing to do. I was armed and ready. I used Zinsser's Cover Stain [oil-based primer] and Sherwin Williams Dover White because I had it in hand and I wanted the whole thing to match the trim all over the house to make it look like it was there forever. :)
The insides of the bookshelves I painted that crazy pink at first. I thought it was going to grow on me. Sadly, it didn't. I found a sample can I had purchased a few months ago while I was deciding what to paint our guest bedroom. It's a dark teal and when I rolled that on there, I just knew it was meant to be.
It took a good four to five days to get everything painted and get the paint to cure. This process takes so much patience. Take my advice, give the paint time to set and cure, otherwise, it will start chipping and peeling and cracking soon as you start using your cabinets.
I cringed every time I walked into the mess! But I had to keep myself from slapping on a new coat of paint until the previous coat has dried. I just didn't want to be making repairs before I could start enjoying my space!
Here's John [above] helping me put the doors back on! I was so excited. Then we went to the home store to pick up some essentials. We picked up cabinet pulls, cabinet pull alignment guides, and the power hub on my counter. These didn't cost much.
The guides cost us about $6. They made installing the cabinet pulls a breeze. He had all 10 pulls installed in less than 20 minutes! :)
While he was doing what he was doing, I was on the other side of the room, working on this to give to his parents the next day. It was going to be their 41st wedding anniversary. I made this print a long long time ago. I just kept forgetting to get it done for them.
This is the power hub from Le Grand that John picked up for me at the Home Depot. It took him but a few minutes to install it on my counter. The guy has tools coming out of his ears. So this was pretty easy. He also put a whole on the other side of the countertop so I can have access to the outlet underneath. My Silhouette machine is now sitting comfortably by it. The goal was for me to not to have to climb under the cabinets to plug anything in. He gave me all the comforts I needed! :)
And here she is again!
And here she is again!
The cabinets are pretty much empty. I am slowly going through my stuff and have purged and have been organizing for days now... and I keep finding more as I go. This is going to take awhile. I just need to keep going until I get to the end of this process so I can forge on to the other projects that John and I have going on. We have a couple other projects going on right now that we are trying to finish. We never sit down. Never.
Here's what's in the bottom of the bookshelf on the right.
Here's what's in the bottom of the left bookshelf. :) My fabric stash has a home now!!!
See, this one cabinet has nothing in it. Not sure why the iron is in it either! lol
This is as far as I got with the middle cabinet. I have old kits on this paper tower.
The two middle top drawers have embossing materials, embellishments, copic markers, sewing kit, etc.
This is the drawer on the far right. It has my thank you cards, camera straps, sewing machine pedal, and i don't know what else in it. lol
But... my most favorite part is the 10 feet of workspace! :)
Excuse the messy desk. It's Project Life time around here. I still can't get over the fact that we finally did what we always wanted for this room! This is going to be a work in progress for a while, given I do have some of my stuff stored in closets all over the house. Speaking of closets, my walk-in closet is next on the list. John has a mild heart attack every time he walks in there. lol
Here's a close up of what's going on on this desk!
Remember when I said we never ever sit down? Last night John and I were in here admiring the progress this room is taking, we found that we don't like that armoire sitting in the corner. He thinks that the sub-floor underneath that corner is loose because the armoire wouldn't sit level. It's not way off, but if you know my husband, he gets a little over-dramatic about un-level surfaces. I know he is going to want to fix this. At the same time, he is saying that we ought to move the armoire on the other side so we can maximize the space and add like a corner desk or a place where I could cut fabric.
I think it's a brilliant idea, but for now, I just want to enjoy my space. Maybe in the fall we can revisit it and do something about this corner desk/fabric cutting area. :)
This is my most favorite spot in the world! It is mine and my ideas come to life in this room. This is where everything that is pretty that is in this house and that comes out of it is made.
I am so thankful that I have a husband who understands the importance of having personal space and a place where I could be me, no holds barred, make messes and not worry about the paint splatters on my desk or my stuff. Most importantly, I don't have to craft from totes, bins and share a space with John anymore [he does have a pretty rad music room by the way that I put together for him! So don't be fooled by his puppy eyes! lol] He also is in the process of putting his very own techy home recording studio together so he isn't doing too bad.
I love that this room has a window that faces west. I get to watch the sun set every single day in here. I love the warmth it brings in. I just love windows and natural light, period. It's the only way I would photograph anything.
So there you go, folks. I hope you enjoyed your trip to my craft room. :)
See you again soon!
