Scraplog

Club House Dining Room

As I was giving a tour of the living room a couple of weeks ago, you probably caught a glimpse of the dining room as well. It would be hard not to since they are connected. The dining room is open to the kitchen and living room and I am very thankful for this space. We like to entertain and if it weren’t open to the other rooms, it would make it very hard to have people over in a space this small. Just a reminder, here is the floor plan again so you can see how the dining room fits in.

When we redid the kitchen floors, we noticed that the wall between the kitchen and dining room used to extend all the way across and only left space for a door. I’m so glad that this wall was taken out at some point because it left us with open space that makes it feel roomier than it actually is! Here is the dining room before:

The only changes this little room got was paint, furniture, a new fixture, and curtains! Easy peasy.

During all of our remodeling work, the dining room looked like this! A disaster! We set up some storage units that held pretty much all of our kitchen stuff while we worked on the kitchen cabinets. Once the kitchen was done, I was so glad to see this thing go. It always felt really cluttered and messy.

And now, this is what it looks like today:

Light and bright! Just the way I like it!

It was terribly sad though… we had to cut down my table. It was just too big for this space and so our only choices were to get rid of it or to cut it. I chose to cut it since I wasn’t ready to part with it yet. It still makes me sad to see it now when I still remember how cool it was when it was much longer. But at least I still have it!

Since the dining room is a pass through, we keep the table next to the window which is awesome because I can see what’s happening in my neighborhood while I eat :) When we have company over, we just pull the table into the center of the room and add another chair, which normally resides at a desk in the guest room.

The great thing is, when we have more people over, we just add our card table to the end and some more chairs and we can seat 10 people. We have already put this to the test and it worked great!!

The curtains are the same as the ones in the living room. I wanted them to match since they are so close to one another.

On the other side of the room we have our new-to-us china hutch. I found it at a thrift shop for $75 and it was so perfect for this room. I needed some more storage but couldn’t have anything that stuck out very far. It’s still in the plans to paint it but I will save that for a winter project when I can no longer work on outside stuff. I’m excited to freshen it up.

Another very sneaky thing is this plant. Not only is it nice to add a bit of green, but it also hides our wireless router and modem. You can see the light if you look closely.

On top of the hutch I keep my KitchenAid mixer. We use it quite often and usually Jason gets it down for me when I need it but I also stand on a chair to reach it if he’s not around. Since it takes up so much space, it really is the best place to keep it and I don’t mind it up there. It’s better than taking up my precious counter space :)

And lastly, our chandelier. I am completely in love with this vintage brass chandelier that I found at Scott’s. I had really, really wanted a vintage brass lotus fixture (like this one) and could not find one. Believe me, I spent a ton of time internet searching! Besides, I probably couldn’t have afforded one even if I did find one! So, when I spotted this one, it was love at first sight since it was sort of the chandelier version of what I had been looking for. It’s a bit quirky and just what I needed. Plus, it was only $120. Definitely a steal (I think!) but it was the most expensive fixture we ended up buying for this house.

When I bought it, Jason quickly hung it up to provide us some much needed light, just temporarily, until I could give it a little bit of attention and we have yet to take it down and give it the attention it needs. Really I just need to clean it and bend it a bit but I haven’t gotten around to it. And maybe add a few more light bulbs :) I will show you better photos of it when I actually take the time to work on it!

And that completes our dining room tour! We are closing in now on the tour of our little house. Just a couple of rooms left!

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Tagged: Before & After, Club House, Our House

Before and After: Loveseat

Today I thought I would show you a little before and after of our loveseat. When I was searching for a loveseat I really only had a few requirements. 1. I wanted white. 2. I wanted it to be a slipcover so I could wash it (see #1). 3. It couldn’t cost an arm and a leg. I didn’t think it would be terribly hard to find something I liked, I mean, the internet is a vast place! I was super close to buying the Karlstad from Ikea but for whatever reason, something was holding me back. I’m not sure what because it’s super similar to what I ended up with :)

And then I found a crazy little mid century modern sofa on Craigslist for $30 and I was sold. But it desperately needed a cover which was perfect because that’s what I wanted anyway. For several months, we just did this:

Not pretty.

Another thing the loveseat lacked was the bottom cushions. But for $60 I got some custom cut online. Sorry, I can’t remember the source but it was great because it told you how to measure for the right fit. So, here is the loveseat in all its before glory…

I originally planned to have the slipcover made by a local upholsterer but they were really busy and it wouldn’t be done for several months. They were able to make the cushions quickly but for the body of the loveseat, I decided to tackle it myself. I took the loveseat to my Mom’s house so I could have another opinion when needed and I spent a couple of days working on it.

Here is a little in progress shot:

One thing the Ikea sofa lacked was piping on all the seams. I really wanted piping but I had never done it before. A little bit of trial and error and some google searching helped me in this area and before you knew it, it was done.

Here is a photo from when we first brought it home:

And here it is today:

And if anyone is interested to know, I spent about $200 and that includes the cost of the loveseat, fabric, cushions, and paying to have the cushions made. And the finished product fits all of my criteria!

Some of you may also be wondering if I like having a white couch. The answer is mostly yes. It’s fine for the two of us but we do have a gray cat. And let’s just say you can always see where she has been sleeping and she has pretty much claimed the left side as her territory. But it’s just fur and it is easily removed. My husband might not agree but I would do it all over again.

For my first experience making a slipcover for a loveseat I’m pretty happy with it. There are a few little errors here and there but I’m probably the only one who would notice them unless you knew where to look. Next time I make one, I think I will tackle the cushions too. Sounds like a fun challenge :)

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Tagged: Before & After, DIY, Sewing

Club House Living Room Part 2

Are you eager to see the reveal of the living room? Looking at these photos makes me happy because I realize how far we have come. And I remember how long we were living in chaos and I’m so glad to be done with that part! But I also realize how much more I want to do and that’s fun too. Because if I didn’t have projects, I would get bored. So as I show you around, I will mention some of my ideas for improvements.

Man, I love this room. It feels happy to me. It has always been a dream of mine to have an all white house. This is the first time I have had one and I love it even more than I thought I would. I know that it’s not for everyone but it is for me :)

Much of the furniture is new to us because we needed smaller scale furniture. Because I like change, I tried to keep the furniture neutral so I can switch things up easily. A few new pillows and rug and the room would look so different. How fun is that?!

Because the room is small, I decided not to have a coffee table. I didn’t want it to feel cluttered. I was already trying to squeeze in a loveseat, 2 chairs, and a desk! Because there is no coffee table, I knew I wanted a sofa table for drinks and such. I found this vintage brass sofa table, just the right size, at a consignment shop. After having my eye on it for several months at the price of $75 I finally asked if they would take less and they gave it to me for $40! I’m so happy with it!

The globe was a garage sale find and it also came with us from the old house. There isn’t very many places to put knick knacks which is good, less dusting :) Jason just brought that African Violet home for me the other day and I still need to plant it in a more permanent container and I have just the perfect one!

Now you can see our light fixture from the old house. I love it in this room, even better than the last place it hung!

Our loveseat… it was a vintage find and I think another post will have to be written about it. We realized when we were moving that a sofa really is too big for this room so we sold our previous vintage couch and bought a loveseat. It was a good move, a longer couch would have cramped the room.

I made the pillows using a tea towel (orange one) from Target and the other was a napkin from World Market. I really love the fabrics and was able to make all 4 pillows in the living room for about $10 because I already had the inserts and I got the zippers from Goodwill. Not too shabby!

I spent major time searching for chairs for this room. I really just couldn’t decide. I was vacillating between leather and linen and after finding my dream leather chairs which were waaaaay out of budget, I decided to go the cheaper route and I got these chairs from World Market on a killer sale for $150 each. I’m really glad this is the direction I chose though (although sometimes I still dream of the leather chairs!) and I think they fit in the living room really well. The pillow on the right is the same fabric from a napkin as on the couch and the pillow on the left was also a napkin from World Market.

The fireplace is fine for now but I envision a chunkier mantel, maybe made of wood to warm it up a bit. And I really want to do something with the hearth. I have some ideas but so far, I haven’t implemented any yet :)

The buttons were the selling point for me :) I wasn’t too crazy about the legs of the chair though, one of these days I might change them to something like this.

When we lived in our other (larger) house, I always felt like I could use more plants. But when we moved to a smaller house, the plants that I brought with me ended up everywhere! I didn’t have enough places to put them. So, for a long time, they all crowded together on the mantel. Now, they are a bit more spread out but those that are still on the mantel love it there. I have never seen them so happy! The diy shiny tiny rhiny came with us and he makes his home here, looking out over the living room.

This is my chair. The place where I routinely find myself in the evenings. I got the curtains from Ikea and the magazine basket from TJ Maxx. After looking obsessively for at least a month for a floor lamp and not liking how much they cost, I found this one at an antique store for $15 and I love it. The little brass and marble side table was also from an antique store. It’s kind of hiding in this photo but it’s really cute and the perfect size for this room.

My gallery walls are always a work in progress. While I have added a few new things to it, most of the artwork came straight from the old house or there is no artwork, just an empty frame :) This is a project that is on my to do list and I actually started seriously thinking about it the other day. I really need to get on it!

The console table used to be in our previous bedroom, my dad made it for us. The boxes also were there. Currently, the boxes are great because they provide storage but they aren’t sturdy enough to sit on which is what I ultimately would like. So, we are discussing our options and trying to decide if we should (could?) reinforce them or buy something new. Everything in a small house needs to pull double duty so they really should provide storage, extra seating, and be able to be used as a footstool if it were a perfect world!

This is one of those things that make me smile. I brought these horse bookends with us and, in the midst of unpacking, my husband put it here to use as a stand for my wireless headphones as they recharge. So cute :)

The lamp was a Target clearance find and the lampshade I already had. The faux fern came with us and I often get asked if it is real.

Another shot of the light fixture. I really wanted ceiling medallions for each room and I wanted to keep them small but for this particular one, since the shade is so large, I wish I would have gone a bit larger. Oh well :)

One last overhead shot. My happy little living room.

Wow! Who knew it would take so many photos for such a small space?! I hope you enjoyed the little tour. Up next I have plans for posts about the couch and the dining room. So don’t give up on me yet :)

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Tagged: Before & After, Club House, Our House

Club House Living Room Part 1

Hey everybody, remember me? This has been my longest blog break yet! And recently I have had some very loyal fans asking me to blog again so I figured I could at least continue working on the tour of our tiny house :)

After having lived here for almost a year now, we can both say that we love living small. Will we live in a house this small for the rest of our lives? Probably not, but at this point it’s exactly what we needed and wanted and we are so happy to be here. So without further ado, here is the progress we have made on one of our favorite rooms, the living room…

As you can see, the living room is situated at the front of the house and it also functions as a hallway and entryway and it is open to the dining room. It is the largest room in the house but still small by any US standard. But this room is awesome because it is flooded with light! A definite win in my book.

We didn’t really change much in this room. A bit of paint and a good cleaning and it was ready to go. But because you can’t have a good after without the before, here is a photo of the house before we even bought it:

Now that I’m looking at these photos a year later, I’m so happy with the way it turned out. I’m really glad we chose to paint everything white because it feels so fresh and bright. Plus, it was pretty dirty, a bit of paint makes everything better.

Before we moved in, we wanted to work on the kitchen and bathroom but we didn’t want to live there while we were doing the work and we had to move out of our old house. So we packed up and shoved all of our stuff into the bedrooms and stayed at my parent’s house while we got busy. Because there were so many things going on at once, Jason kept saying we lived in the projects :)

Here is the living room in the midst of all the fun. It was basically a set up and storage area. We kept most of our tools in here, and an oven :) There is also a dishwasher in there somewhere. Needless to say, it was a disaster! And it was around all of this stuff that I painted the room. Not the most fun painting experience but it worked out okay.

Once we had made enough progress with the other rooms and we were able to live in the Club house, we put the basic amount of furniture in the living room and then continued to use it for other purposes… like a space for painting the interior doors. And that box that is functioning as a coffee table? That’s our kitchen sink :)

The living room also posed as a makeshift kitchen. That is all we needed to survive, a toaster oven and a microwave :) I think our coffee maker was somewhere on the floor at this point as well which is definitely necessary for survival. This room also served as a makeshift craft room while I did some sewing projects. I used two sawhorses and an old door for a sewing table. We were very creative! This space got shuffled around so many times in this remodel process. It functioned as many different spaces, sometimes at the same time.

This room originally had a ceiling fan. It was ugly and I knew it wouldn’t be staying so I brought the light fixture from our old dining room with us. I still really loved it and so we took it down before we put our house on the market and saved it for this room. Because it is a large drum shade, Jason hung it pretty quickly so we wouldn’t damage it. What a good sport!

We also did a little bit of work to the fireplace. First, I painted the brick white. What a difference! We also got a gas log insert. We could tell that there had been one previously and so when the plumber put in the new gas line to the range, we had him put in a gas line and insert in the fireplace as well. We had so many things going on that this wasn’t a top priority for us but now that we have it, we are so glad we went ahead and did it. We used it all winter and I’m super excited for some cool weather so I can turn it on again this fall!

While I was very excited about the insert, I wasn’t excited about the yellow pipe. Really, yellow? Don’t they make black pipes?!

So I did what any girl would do and I carefully taped everything off, and sprainted it! I used high heat spray paint and I asked the nice man from the gas company if it was okay first :) And no worries, the pilot light was not on at this point and the gas was turned off. Safety first :)

Whew! Much better! Now it’s not even really noticeable.

And our fireplace gets the job done and it surprisingly puts out a lot of heat! A funny little story, when the man from the gas company was there, he told us that if we would replace the light fixture with a ceiling fan, it would really move the air around and heat the whole house. We had just switched out the old ceiling fan to the new light fixture the day before. Oh the irony!

When we moved, we decided to get rid of all of our televisions. Since we have been married, we have never had cable anyway and the only t.v. we ever watch at home is on the internet. The only thing we really used them for is for movies. So, in an effort at downsizing, we ditched the t.v.’s. Instead, we have a large iMac in the living room and if we want to watch a movie, it’s plenty big for that.

While I love having the computer in the living room, it makes hanging artwork on that wall difficult. And it’s the only wall that there is room for artwork. It really was a no-brainer. The gallery wall had to come back.

At this point, I started hanging pictures in an effort to empty boxes. I emptied 4 boxes by the time I got all of my frames hung (this photo is mid progress). And since then I have added more. The goal is to cover the wall and I am getting close!

So that about wraps it up for today! Either tomorrow or Wednesday I will show the reveal of the living room. You won’t want to miss it! Okay, maybe it’s not that exciting but, you know, you can check back if you want to :)

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Tagged: Before & After, Club House, Our House

Club House Kitchen Progress Part 2

Yesterday I got the ball rolling in revealing our new kitchen to you at our little Club house. Today, I hoping to wrap it up but brace yourself, this could get long as there is still much to tell :)

I left off with the floors done and the cabinets put back in place awaiting countertops and such. Before we could get to the countertops we wanted to make a few changes to the layout. Nothing big, just small changes that would make a big storage difference. Thankfully they were easy changes because I have a cabinet maker for a Dad and he did it all for us. Easy peasy :) At least for Jason and I!

At the end of the cabinets there was this weird shallow cabinet tucked in. We thought it was cute and could have made it work but we decided to take it out instead and create a bit more storage. It would also mean we could extend our countertop a bit further. In a kitchen with only 2.5 drawers (I say 2.5 because one is only 5″ wide), we could use some more drawers and it was the perfect place to put more. And the last reason to make a new cabinet was for a place to put our microwave. I really don’t like having my microwave on the countertop so if I can tuck it away somewhere it makes me really happy :) Here is a photo of the little cabinet before we made any changes:

And here is the new cabinet my Dad built for us right after it was put in. You also get a glimpse of the countertops because he put those in for us too :)

Awesome, right? Look how much more space we get!! Another reason we couldn’t have done this without my Dad is because there is an air vent directly under the cabinet so he had to make it special with a register in the toe kick. There is always a way to get around these crazy problems if you have a genius Dad :)

He also made us another cabinet that surrounds the refrigerator but I will show you that one in a little bit, let’s talk countertops first :) My ultimate dream for countertops would have been Carrara marble but it wasn’t in the budget. We talked about a few different options but decided to do wood and now that everything is done, I’m really glad we went that direction. Since the kitchen is white, it really warms up the space and brings some depth to the room. Not only do they look awesome but they are cheap!! Because they were inexpensive (we got them from Ikea), we got to do a bit more than we would have if we had gone with a more expensive material… we got to add a waterfall edge.

A waterfall edge is when the countertop extends all the way to the floor. I love it! Since the new cabinet came all the way to the opening of the doorway, it was a nice way to finish it. Also, by the sink, the stove is free standing and so we added the waterfall edge on that side as well so the countertop boarders the stove instead of the side of the cabinet. It’s not quite as dramatic in these photos since the cabinets haven’t been painted yet but you just wait…

Once my Dad put the countertops in, we sanded them all and applied a food safe finish which we also purchased from Ikea (sorry, can’t find a link). Another note, we didn’t really like the Ikea finish. Every time we applied it, it raised the grain and so we would lightly sand and apply again hoping it would get better with time but… it didn’t. So we are planning on sanding it again and applying a different brand of sealer, one that we have used in the past and liked. Wish we would have done that in the first place :) At least this is an easy fix, we just have to get around to doing it :) We also don’t cut on our countertops because we don’t like the look of them being all beat up even though they are technically meant for that. We always use mats to keep them nice.

One of my favorite parts of the wood countertop is where it meets the sink. Oh la la! I love that chunk of wood! And the sink? We love our sink! We found it on Craigslist for $60, brand new still in the box. We were especially excited about it because it is a Kohler enameled cast iron sink and a similar one sells for $700!! Yay for Craigslist!! I’m so glad my Dad cut the sink hole out for us or it wouldn’t have look near as nice :)

Once we finished with the countertops around Thanksgiving, we took a break from working on the kitchen for about a month. It was nice to have a functioning kitchen again even if it wasn’t completely done. We were able to actually cook meals and enjoy the holidays :) But, as soon as Christmas passed, we got right to it on the 26th and broke out the tiling supplies. It was time to begin our next project.

Like seemingly everyone else in this country, I wanted white subway tile. And since we had a relatively small space, I wanted it to go all the way to the ceiling. Even though I had to buy more tile to go all the way up, it was worth it. Especially since I ended up finding the tile at Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore for 1/3 of the price that Home Depot sells it for. Another major score in our budget. It made for one happy girl!

After calling my Dad to have him help us again :) we covered all of the newly finished countertops with plastic and got to work. This was only our 2nd tiling project (the first being the bathroom which I will show you another time) we were still novices. Thankfully, my Dad is not and has a bunch of experience with tiling. We mostly were a little nervous about working on a wall instead of on a floor. Going up and keeping it straight sounded a bit harder and we wanted some expertise.

My Dad helped us for one day and then the rest was up to us. Really though, once we got started, we realized it wasn’t that hard. It was actually kind of fun… for me. Poor Jason had to use the wet tile saw out in the cold weather which wasn’t so fun for him but I was nice and dry inside positioning the tiles and so I enjoyed myself. Since I still won’t call us tiling experts, I’m not going to give tutorial, I’m sure there are way better step by step tutorials than what I can give so I’m just going to show the photos we have of us working.

Because we only had time early in the morning before Jason went to work and then some evenings, this project took us quite a while. Plus, we tiled all the way to the floor in the area where the stove sits so we had to move the stove for a few days while we did that area. We finally wrapped this project up in February including the grout. Fast we are not :) By the way, I did the grout all by myself! I was a little nervous before I started but it actually was so easy! Now you know, tiling isn’t as hard as it seems :) We only had one mishap along the way… we took great care to measure and remeasure and check our levels as we were going but somehow one side was higher than the other so there are two rows on the right side that we had to shave 1/8′ off the tiles to make them line up. It ended up not really being a big deal in the end and you can’t even tell. I dare you to try and figure out which two rows they are :)

Since our tiling project was ongoing, I had some time to do a few other things as well. Since the whole kitchen was going to be white, I wanted the inside of the cabinets to be a fun color. Jason wanted green so I chose a minty green. I absolutely love opening the doors and seeing that fun surprise!

In the photo above you can kind of see the new cabinet my Dad built for us that surrounds the fridge. Before, the fridge just kind of hung out in that space but with the new cabinet surrounding it, it looks like the fridge is now there on purpose instead of as a last resort.

The space in this room is so small it’s really hard to photograph so I did the best I could and hopefully you get the idea :) There is a cabinet that runs along the ceiling and from wall to wall and then another skinny cabinet that runs down the side of the fridge.

Any storage is good storage even when it’s skinny! This is basically our pantry now. The cabinets above the fridge hold my decorative accessories since they are a little harder to get to. In fact, a step stool isn’t tall enough for me to reach the top shelf, I need a ladder! But it created a lot of space and put to work a previously unused area.

Now things are really heating up!! Next I painted all of the frames of the cabinets with my super duper paint and then I painted the doors. Since we added a few extra cabinets and because we didn’t really like the style of the old doors anyway, my Dad made new doors and drawer fronts for us :) I know, I’m totally spoiled. He’s the best :) So painted them, let them cure for 7 days, and then he came back over and hung them up for us. And since he’s the professional, we let him put the pulls on too :)

And that is how far we have made it! Here are photos of what’s done and I will clue you in on what we have left!!

Woohoo!!! I love it!

I love the whole thing but there are a couple of things that I especially like. One of them is the new cabinet that houses the microwave and I adore the waterfall edge of the countertops. Love :)

The house came with a dishwasher but it didn’t work so we had to get a new one of those too. This one was another Craigslist find.

The door hardware I found at Habitat for Humanity ReStore for $1 each! I really wanted brass hardware but the practical side won out when I found this hardware for so cheap.

I told you it’s fun to open the doors!

To the left of the sink we will be hanging two open shelves. I’m really excited for them because that is when I will be able to add some personality to this kitchen. Right now it’s pretty stark but soon, there will be some color added back in.

Oh stove, how do I love thee? The back piece and shelf came with it too. There is a hole in the ceiling and holes in the tiles because we still need to hang the range hood. Since the original one was too big, we bought a new one. First, Jason has to crawl into the attic to work out the venting for it. No biggie. That might get done sometime in the next 5 years… haha! Once that gets hung I won’t be able to keep the tall things on the shelf, just the spices. But for now, it’s nice to have some stuff up there.

The runner I got on clearance at Target for something crazy like $8.

Ahhh, my faucet. I really love my faucet. I really wanted to incorporate brass and stainless in this kitchen. My faucet helped me bring in some brass (and my light fixture will too once it gets hung up). In our previous kitchen we always had a bottle of dish detergent sitting out because it got used so much. I really didn’t want that this time so we added the soap dispenser and I’m so glad. The faucet is by Delta. I went back and forth about faucets. I knew I wanted a good quality but I didn’t want to spend a ton. I also wanted the brass but not shiny brass. That really narrows it down. Once I found this one, I was sold on the style and color but not the price. So I did some digging and it paid off. I kept finding it for about $350-$400 (even on Amazon!) and after I spent a ton of time researching the best price I found it for $285 which I was stoked about. I really love the brass with the wood. So happy :)

Just a close up of the waterfall edge. Isn’t it great?! And yes, I have dropped things down there between the range and the cabinet. But so far, nothing has been hard to get to :)

On to the mudroom. I love this little light filled area!

Yay for storage!!

This is the back door and we use it all the time to enter the house. You can see now why the fridge makes for a tight fit.

On this side, I spray painted a little shelf in brass and hung it up. My purse hangs here along with our keys and sunglasses and such. We still need to put up the light fixture in this room and the kitchen area. It needs some rewiring before we do that which means more time for Jason to spend in the attic. Poor guy :) We also need to put up the baseboard trim on this wall and paint the door and door trim.

What do you think of my little island? I got it at an antique store and added the castors. It comes in handy. We use the drawer as a junk drawer of sorts. I got the knob for it at Hobby Lobby. I’m thinking about painting the base of it a fun color. What do you think?!

I use these magnetic clips for our towels. They seem to work pretty well for us. I’m also thinking of sprainting these a color. Just trying to decide which color :)

One last photo… Just to show the waterfall again :) Can you tell how much I like it?!

Whew!! Did you make it all the way to the end? That was a lot of pictures! So basically, we add a couple of shelves, range hood, lighting, and a bit more paint and trim and we will be done! I’m especially excited to add some touches to make it feel lived in and some color and pattern. Right now it’s pretty stark and needs some life. It will get there. And I’m still just enjoying having a kitchen that actually functions. That might just be the best part :)

Thanks for hanging in there and enjoy your weekend! Have a happy Easter and celebrate what our Savior did for us!!

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Tagged: Before & After, Club House