Sheets Metal Trunk

So I think I can't start a post without saying, Sorry it has been awhile since I posted. Things have been a bit crazy lately. So first I'll give you a few updates.

As of the end of April, Andrew started working again. He sent out quite a few resumes and heard pretty much nothing from almost all of them. My company had been searching for an Internet Sales Manager for our KIA dealership and we decided that Andrew should give it a try. The weekly salary was a little higher than unemployment and then there is the monthly commission available which would make things better. His first month was slow but it wasn't his fault. Web leads have been down across the industry. This month has started out better and I have faith that he will do quite well. Pretty much what his job consists of is calling and emailing people who submit a lead online. He then tries to help people find the best deal and vehicle for their needs. Andrew sets an appointment for people to come in and then he sets them up with a salesman at the dealership. He gets a small commission for every appointment that shows and another slightly bigger one if that person buys a car. It is definitely not his dream job but it is keeping the bills paid. So if anybody is looking for a new KIA or a pre-owned vehicle in the Southeastern CT or RI area visit MichaelKIAofgroton.com and send my hubby a web lead.

Second, we celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary last week. How have 3 years already gone by? What is even crazier is we have been together for 8 years and known each other for 11 years. So we went out for our anniversary and had brunch at the Mohegan Sun buffet and I won $50 on the penny slots. The food was so good! We then went and stopped in a few stores near our apartment to look around. We stopped in TJ Maxx and found a great trunk. We have been looking for a new chest/trunk to put at the end of the bed to store our sheets and pillow cases. Here are a few pictures of our old one.

It was a cheap, simple storage chest that I picked up at Ocean State Job Lot like 4 years ago. The back piece bows out when you close it and the lid doesn't close all the way. So we brought this lovely lady home.

While looking at it and then when Andrew was carrying it to the checkout we had a couple people tell us what a nice trunk it was. One woman said she thought it looked kind of like one of the ones from Restoration Hardware. I do love me some Restoration Hardware and this one was like 95% less. Here is one that I found on the RH site that looks kind of similar and cost $1,995.

I love that it has the trunk lid and space for our sheets and then has two drawers for pillow cases and other items. It is covered with aluminum and has little marks that remind me a bullet holes. Andrew thinks it looks a little Steampunk and I tend to agree. The trim is made of some kind of leather like material, probably fake, and wood. And here are some detail shots.

I wouldn't say that Steampunk is my most favorite style but I do like the mix of industrial rustic look with the old Victorian style of a steamer trunk. I think one day I'd love our bedroom to have a mix of Traditional, Rustic, and Industrial styles. This trunk will definitely supply the rustic and industrial looks. Here are some of the inspiration photos I have pinned on Pinterest for our Master Bedroom.

Source - Only links to homepage not actual image location.

I love the blue gray wall color with the white trim. I want to do some board and batten when we have our own house. Add in dark wood furniture and the whites and creams plus a touch of green. I also like the look and feel of this next picture.

Source

I like the rustic chandelier over the table and think it could look cool in a bedroom, too. Also it has the dark blue walls and all the white molding that I love. This last photo some people may find a little weird as a design inspiration photo. But the colors in this outfit work perfectly for the color scheme I want to use in the bedroom.

Source

The blue jeans represent the wall color. The brown purse and/or belt is for the color of the dressers and nightstands. The natural fiber color of the sweater would be great as a comforter or rug. The green could be sheets or even jut some fun little pops of color in the accessories. I think I want hardwood floors and maybe some kind of rug under the bed so when we get up we aren't stepping on the cold floor. We'll see how it all comes together, one day.

And now that this post has gone so long I think I'll finish it here. Do you like my new trunk? What do you guys do for storage? Dreaming of how you want a specific room to look?

A Winter Mantel.....Without the Mantel

Well the blog-o-sphere has been alive with Christmas decorating. So I figured it was time for another installment of Seasonal Mantel decorating without the mantle. This time we decided to expand a little bit. Instead of just decorating the top of our $3 cabinet we decorated the top of the bookshelf right next to it, too. But the real star of our (yes, Andrew even got in on the arranging) decorating is my wall of Snowflakes!

The whole idea came from Sherry & John Petersik's Young House Love book. If you haven't read their blog  yet, you have been missing out. Go check them out at YoungHouseLove.com They are a young married couple who are in the process of making their house more them. They have painted cabinets and furniture, built furniture, laid a brick patio, installed counter to ceiling tile as their kitchen backsplash and laid cork floor, plus so much more.

Well, they released their first book, Young House Love: 243 Ways to Paint, Craft, Update, & Show Your Home Some Love, last month and I had to have it.

On page 187 there is a project called Add a bunch of 3-D Butterflies. I thought it was the perfect fix for the blank wall above my Christmas display. But butterflies weren't going to work. It had to be SNOWFLAKES! They are so easy to make. To get a little color, I decided to use a cosmetic catalog that I got in the mail. It was filled with a bunch of red and gold pages.

Step 1: Choose your page and fold it in half the short and fat way, not long and skinny.

Step 2: Fold it in half again so it is almost square.

Step 3: Fold the folded short edge down to the long folded edge. Now it looks kind of like a cone.

Step 4: Fold it the same way as step 3 so now it is an even thinner cone.

Step 5: You'll notice some of the paper is longer than the rest. Cut it down so it is even and then you can start to cut all kinds of designs into it to create your flake. The wide part of the cone shape is the outside of your flake.

Step 6: Unfold and check-out your snowflake.

This one wasn't one of my favorites so I decided to make a different one to show you a better design. Here it is still folded.

And now laid out flat so you can see the repeated design. So pretty.

Then I just rolled some small pieces of tape, stuck it to the backs and spread them out on the wall. Here are a few close ups of some of my favorite flakes.

As for the  actual "Mantel" display, the only thing new is the Silver Owl. I bought him at TJ Maxx for $9 this past weekend.

He is so cute and looks a little bronzey in some of the photos but he is really silver. I popped him up on a empty box to gain some height in the center of a pre-lit Christmas wreath.

On the bookshelf, I have the Christmas rocking horse that my Grandpa & Grandma gave me, my Lenox Belle (found on clearance at Hallmark a few years ago) and my apothecary jars ($8 for the set at a garage sale 2 years ago) filled with ornaments, beads & tissue paper. I think all I need to finish it off is some pine foliage to fill in around the figures and hide that cord. And I'll end this post with some detail shots.

A Fall Mantle ... Without the Mantle

So I've had this project done for a couple weeks now.I know I'm way behind with this post. Everyone else in the Blogosphere has done their Fall Mantle posts. But Whatever.

 I wanted to decorate a little bit for Fall this year. However, I've never really had any Fall decor and I don't have a mantle to decorate. Luckily, this year my loving Hubby bought me some pumpkins that I had be crushing on at HomeGoods.

I blogged about them in this post. But of course that was a month before my birthday. So when we went back to HomeGoods to pick them up they only had the Oil Rubbed Bronze one. I was kind of sad at first because the white one was my favorite. But my Hubby is a quick thinker and remembered that HomeGoods, Marshalls and TJ Maxx are all owned under the same parent company and tend to carry similar items.

So we hopped over to Marshall's which was in the same shopping plaza. No dice. They didn't have it either. So we ran a few more errands and then swung over to TJ Maxx on the way home. If they didn't have it we had one more TJ Maxx that we could check out. But lucky us they only had 2 left. So we headed home with my two new ceramic pumpkins and then they sat in the dining room wrapped up for a few weeks.

I had originally planned on putting them out on our dining room table in our new house. But that plan fell apart when we ended up not buying said house. So on to plan B. We have a cabinet in our living room. Fondly referred to a the $3 cabinet. That is because we got it for $3 a the ReStore. I love you ReStore. It is one of those cabinets from like the 80's or 90's with the big glass door that people used to put their VCR and other components in. So it had all these cut-outs in the back panel for cords and junk. We pulled that off and had my father cut a piece of wood-grain laminate, that he had in his basement, to size. A bunch of finishing nails latter we had a much better looking piece of furniture. By no means is it beautiful but at lease you can't see right through it anymore. I decided that I'm going to make the top of this $3 cabinet my seasonal decor spot. I used it last year for my Christmas display. Here is the before:

Pretty plain. Just a couple wedding photos, a wax burner, a painted pony (I collect them) and my Husband's Grandfather's flag. I started by taking everything off except the flag and the photo on the wall. Then added in my pumpkin, a Fall themed pony, and an apothecary jar filled with leaves I gathered from our yard. Add a few more leaves to surround the items and a few pine cones and it was good to go.

Here is a little detail shot of the leaf jar and my Apple-oosa pony.

I thought it was great for my first try. I did try one alternative look. Instead of my white pumpkin I tried the ORB'ed one but I think it just looks too dark and almost like a black hole in the display.

So there it is all done, or so I thought. While Andrew and I were out this weekend we found a cute little addition. He adds a little more Halloween to the display.

Isn't he cute. He was only $3 at Target. Here is a little closer look.

Perfect now I can't wait to change things up for Christmas/Winter!

OMG! Who puts that in a bathroom?

So you have seen the outside of The Pearl, our house-to-be. Now let's discuss the first room that we will have to remodel, the full bathroom. We have two bathrooms - the first floor full bath and the second floor half bath. Well the first floor bath needs some lovin'. I don't know what the previous owners were thinking when they did this bathroom. There are a few things that tell me that it was most likely an older person or couple who lived here. The 50's tile and there are a couple of safety bars to help you get in and out of the tub and off the toilet. Please prepare yourself this is about to get weird and ugly.




That's right - we have wood shingles on the walls surrounding our bathtub. We have the lovely 50's pink and black tile. And we have floral wall paper on the upper half of the bathroom walls. The floors were originally a lovely yellowy green color. Who in the world thought that these were good color combinations?! Thankfully the bank laid new linoleum so that at least is in good shape and is pretty neutral so we'll keep it for now.

Let's not forget the brown trim. I didn't get a good picture of the vanity and mirror & light setup but let me tell you that needs work too. So our first thing that needs to be looked at is the bathtub surround. It's grosssssss! Sure people put wood shingles on the outside of the house but that doesn't mean they are a good idea for the shower.

We have no idea what is behind them. I'm pretty sure some water has gotten back there so when we open it up we'll probably find some mold. Wes, our contractor said he wants to pull everything out of there but I want to see how much we can keep until we save up a bit of money. The only thing that we will probably keep permanently is the actual tub. It seems to be in good shape so there is no reason to replace it even if it is an off-white almondy color and I would prefer white. Maybe we will consider refinishing it one day. The vanity may stay too and I can just paint the base a chocolate brown or something. The toilet seems to run a little every so often so we'll need to take a look at that to see if it can be fixed or if we need to buy a new one. I'd like to put off tearing out all the walls down to the studs but if water has gotten behind the pink tile that meets the tub, then the plaster or sheetrock behind there will probably have a mold issue. Now let's talk about some of the things I would love to see in here.

The Shower/Tub
Buy a prefab surround from somewhere like Home Depot or Lowes.

Aqua Glass 60 in. x 32 in . Eleganza Bathtub Wall Set in White - $198

A tiled shower wall would look great but I have a feeling it might just not bee in the budget. The prefab surrounds usually come in three pieces and can either be applied directly to the studs or to cement board. And they can be pretty cheap. I've seen some as low as $50. They have some fancier ones that will run you $1,300+. But who really wants to pay that much for a prefab wall when you could probably do tile for that.

The Walls
For the walls I'm thinking I'd love to get rid of all the pink and black tile & floral wallpaper and replace it with beadboard & paint. I've seen a less expensive option with that same look floating around the blogosphere - beadboard wall paper. It has all the texture of true beadboard but it is so much cheaper. I love to see it around the lower half of the bathroom and painted bright white.

Martha Stewart Living 1 Double Roll (Covers 56 square ft.) Beadboard Paintable Wallpaper - $24.98

I think I'm leaning toward a green color for the upper part of the walls. I want something that is kind of sagey green but still light and bright. So we'll probably go with something like this.

Sherwin Williams - Cascade Green

We won't be able to do all of these things right away. We'll have to slowly work our way through it when we have the money. The only reason things would get pushed quicker than anticipated is if we find some major water/mold damage behind the walls of the tub and the tile. One other thing that will need to be considered is ventilation. There is no fan currently in this bathroom. Because of the moisture build-up we definitely have some surface mold on the ceiling that will need to be cleaned up. So now I'll have to do some research to see what our options are.