ohbrooke

Teaching an Old Dresser New Tricks

The Scoop:

• bought this dresser at a garage sale for $30 (thanks Clare!)
• sanded down all of the paint
• the wood was a little too dry and spotty to stain, so I colorwashed the piece with latex paint and water.
• sealed the paint, and protected the wood with varnish
• removed the drawers
• had MDF cut at home depot ($7 total) into two shelves for the cable box, dvd player, etc.
• covered the MDF with calico fabric from JoAnn’s
• Cut holes in the back of the dresser to feed the cables to the electrical outlet
• Voila! Our new TV Bench

before

after

Organized, At LAST!

My friend and neighbor Carson dreamed up an uber-organized Master bedroom closet. When I saw his, I had to have it. So, together we created this beautifully organized, less stress in the morning, fully functional master bedroom closet. See the before and afters below.

My problem with closets has always been shoes. In one house, all of our shoes were under the bed(disorganized disaster). In another house, the shoes were in shoe and sweater organizers in the hall closet (which left no room for jackets and sports equipment). FINALLY, my shoes lie showcased, undisturbed, and in perfect condition in the closet. Thank you Carson!!

Before

After

Highlights:

• All Materials were purchased at Lowe’s for under $300, shelves were cut to desired measurement at the store, so no sawing was invovled
• Install took only 2 hours
• My shoes don’t lose shape from being piled on top of each other
• Potential homebuyers won’t see a “small” walk-in closet, but a “highly organized and efficient” closet
• I can breathe easier with that area of my life ORGANIZED!

I’m thinking about these…

What do you think? Things are getting a little square in my living room (frames, tv, rug, table), this might be a nice way to break it up.

Urban Outfitters Wallflower Decor

Curtains Can Get Pricey

So consider the alternatives. The Condo I moved into has 9 foot ceilings, and the average older home has 8 foot ceilings. This can make finding curtains potentially limiting, and certainly more expensive.

I have found an inexpensive alternative to this is flat bed sheets. Where you could certainly use solid colors, bed sheets come in many fun patterns and you will definitely find that your selection has broadened using this new resource. Queen size bedsheets fit most 8 foot ceiling windows, and King and California King can span the full height of the wall and even pool on the floor beneath it for 9 foot ceilings.

Here are the measurements of the Flat Sheets to see which size will work for you:

Queen: 81″ x 96″
King: 108″ x 102
California King: 102″x110″

The easiest way to hang the sheets is with drapery clips spaced evenly apart. These can be found at a fabric or Wal-Mart type store. Another way to hang the sheets is the remove the stitching the ends of the top hem in the sheet and slip the curtain rod through it.

I used a sheet from Target with my double-rod in my living room. I’ll post pictures soon.

Follow ohbrooke on Twitter

Join Twitter and follow me!

Twitter is a microblogging platform: a place to rant, rave and “tweet”. You can follow me at http://twitter.com/ohbrooke.

Sign up for Twitter here.

Condo Chronicle: Keep it Relevant

A hand-me-down and a birthday present from my friend Shannon inspired this little burst of color in the master bathroom. It’s hard to find the right thing to accent a bathroom, but if you keep it relevant, it will make sense and look great. This black tray was a hand-me-down from a friend. It would look great in the bathroom holding candles or jewelry, but what you really need in the bathroom near the sink is handtowels. The little dish to the left was the lid to this gorgeous vase, and I use it to store my wedding ring and watch while I’m getting ready for the day (or painting, always painting…). This relevant addition to the room has form AND function – brings color into the room and holds what you need most near the kitchen sink.

For a house on the market, this would be a great way to stage the bathroom. Show a potential buyer that it would be comfortable and easy to be organized and efficient in this room.

Find this adorable black and white vase at pottery barn.

Lesson Learned!

It has now been 3 weeks since I have moved into the new condo. And, in these three weeks, I have had a never-ending battle to get my internet connected. I don’t know why this has been such a hassle, but for some reason my service provider just can’t seem to get it together.

Lesson learned: Get your new services signed up before you moved to your new place. If I had set my internet up before I moved in, I would be spending less time sans computer.

<<sigh>> Hopefully my internet will be connected next week?

Painting Wall Panels

Well, thanks Christine for asking! Sometimes painting lines can be tricky on walls, especially on a heavily textured wall, but it doesn’t have to be. You will have to forgive the terrible pictures, but hopefully you will get the idea.

Here is the step-by-step process for painting your own panels.

1. Choose how large you want your border to be around your panels. I chose 4 inches, and my sister chose 5. I took the smallest wall that I had in the room, and made the border as large as possible without making the panel look funny in the room. This might be above the door for you – and maybe only 3 inch borders work depending on your wall height.

2. LIGHTLY draw pencil lines using a ruler and level to create even borders for each wall. (For added interest, you could break a large wall up with three panels, and center the bed in the largest panel.)

3. Place your blue painters tape just NEXT to the pencil line. If you tape over the pencil line, after painting, you’ll pull your tape up to reveal your pencil line intact and you don’t want that. If you tape outside of the pencil line just a tiny bit, you will ensure that the paint covers the pencil line and there will be no erasing needed.

4. Burnish the Tape. To make sure that the tape adheres to all parts of the walls, even in the nooks and crannies created by wall texture, take a large eraser and burnish (press real hard to make sure the tape is sticking to the wall) the edge of the tape that will be touching the new paint. Burnishing will create a tight seal between the wall and tape, and help ensure that less paint seeps underneath.

5. Seal the Tape. This step is a helpful one, although in the interest of time, I did not follow this step and still came out okay. After burnishing the tape, you can use glaze or varnish to seal the tape. Take a small artist brush and lightly paint along the edge of the tape that is getting painted over. These clear mediums will seep under any gaps left between the tape and the wall. This way if any paint is going to get under your carefully placed tape, it is clear paint, and won’t be seen. This is will give you a nice crisp edge for your borders.

6. Roll the paint! Start in the center, and as you get less paint on your roller, carefully go over the tape. The less paint that is on the roller for these edges help to make sure paint doesn’t go where it shouldn’t.

7. Remove up the tape and touchup. Take a small artist brush and touchup any little paint that managed to sneak under your tape.

It sounds like a lot of work, but these are a lot of quick steps, and it will make a GREAT impact in your room. Please comment if you have questions and I can help you through it!

Condo Chronicle: Walls

A long two weeks away from the computer- I have moved into the new condo and have had minimal internet. But, without the temptation of internet, I was able to get a few things done. I painted my bedroom in with big green panels, as you can see below. I measured 4″ away from all corners to create these even and modern wall panels. My sister Shannon is a painter and had gotten this green color as a mistake from Benjamin Moore. So she gave it to me, and it cost me nothing to paint this room. Pretty convenient recycling!

After telling my Shannon about how I painted these panels, she was laughing and told me she had done the exact same thing in her studio. This is definitely not the first time we have been in sync like this. The brown colored walls with the bulletin board above are the pictures from her studio.