Patina General

Wallpaper!

I know there's a lot of naysayers out there when it comes to wallpaper.  Seems like everyone remembers having to peel off a non-sized wallpaper job, and never wants to experience it again, but painting over a dark-colored wall can be a pain, also!  Decorating is like fashion, and changes every couple of years.  Martha made plain colored, painted walls and trim fashionable, but I think wallpaper is ready to come back in a strong way!  Everything in moderation is my advice.  Faux textures, wallpaper borders, and paneling get a little much when you do them in every room!  Variety is the spice of life, enjoy the house you live in!

I like wallpaper!  I don't like to hang many things on my walls, because I may find something I like better, or want to change it when the season changes.  Wallpaper gives me beauty without clutter!  I gravitate to non-trendy, classic, more vintage-y patterns, that hopefully won't look out of style in a couple of years.  I do think the idea of doing just one feature wall is kind of fun, but for our bedroom, I wanted to be surrounded by the beauty! 

Here's our wallpapering weekend!  I did check out some tutorials on line to refresh my memory, and had a few fliers I had picked up years ago to reference.  Mr. Fix-it was excited this was pre-pasted wallpaper...and that we weren't doing the ceiling ;)

Our pattern had a pretty big repeat, so I let Mr. Fix-it handle the measuring and the matching.  We set up two vintage fold-up metal tables as work surfaces, which worked great.

When cutting your strips, leave an inch or two at the top and bottom of the wall.  Before wetting the wallpaper, loosely roll it, pattern side in.  We used a bathtub of lukewarm water to wet the paper for 30 seconds, but you can buy special trays, also. Once the adhesive has gotten wet, the wallpaper needs booking.  Bring both ends of the strip to the middle, adhesive side in.  Don't crease the folds!  After 10 minutes, the strip was ready to hang.

Wallpapering together is a true test of marriage!  I was matching up the seams, but every once in awhile we would need to completely peel it back and start over.  A little caffeine is necessary, but not too much! A geometric pattern is probably tougher.  Our branchy, lots of open space pattern seemed pretty easy.  As you can see in the last photo, I don't unfold the bottom half of the paper (that was previously booked) until the top half is good to go.

To attach the wallpaper to the wall and smooth it out so there are no bubbles, use a brush like the one above.  We got ours in a wallpapering kit at the homestore.  Your brushstrokes should go down, to the left, and to the right.  You can also go up, and then to the right and left.  When everything looks perfect, you can cut off your extra inches with a straightedge and a very sharp razorblade/utility knife.

Sponge off the whole strip with clean, lukewarm water to eliminate any wallpaper paste.  A seam roller can also be used on the seams 10 minutes after.  Sponge again, in case there's any paste near the seam.  Change the water often.

I was amazed at how the wallpaper kind of sucked to the wall as it dried.  It was very forgiving.  We had used a thicker nap roller for the primer and sizing, and as the wallpaper dried, it almost looked textured, kind of vintage...and you know I like that!

The strip on the left is dry, the one on the right is still pretty wet.  Can you see the difference?

We had started to the right of the door, so as to get a straight, level line to begin with.  Once we got the first wall done...whoo, hoo!  I just felt sooo happy!

The lighting's not too great in this pic., but I'm not showing you any more photos till the carpet's installed...next week!  I can't wait to get the bed set up again, and get everything into it's place once and for all!

Wallpaper...it's beautiful, stressful, an adventure...try it sometime!

 

Bedroom Remodel Update #2

I bet you're thinkin...wonder what ever happened with her bedroom remodel project?  Well, we're still living in it, and it's so close I can hardly stand it!  If we just had a day at home...together... when we could put the time in...but life with 3 kids & a store to run...

So let me show you how it's looking these days.  I have to say, after reviewing my other bedroom remodel posts here, and here, and here...it's much nicer than it has ever been, but I can't wait to see it with clothes on!

Yes, we did make the splurge and swap out the old crank outs to new, beautiful Marvin Windows!  I absolutely love them!  They make the whole front of our house actually look nice ( I've always thought it was ugly, because the windows were wrong-sized), and the morning sunshine that comes in...swoon!  We dropped them 16", which coincidentally were exactly where the originals were!

Thankfully, Mr. Fix-it had help from Big Boy and a family friend...2nd floor window replacement is not a one person job!

So, these winter months have been filled with trimming out the windows, sheetrocking, taping, and sanding...and painting! Lots of shuffling stuff around, stacks of underbed storage, a tablesaw and a shopvac in the room.  But, it's looking pretty nice now...

 

No more glittery popcorn on the ceiling, and wonderful, very bright, well-placed recessed lights!

Beautiful new, old-house style trim with gleaming Benjamin Moore, oil-based trim in Atrium white.  The walls have been primed and prepped with sizing, and all else is waiting for that free day...

Wallpaper waiting.

Curtain rods waiting.

I've been picking up carpet samples too.

Waiting, but thankful for all the progress that's been made!

Hope to show you the room clothed, soon!

"Hey Girl"...junker's style

Last weekend, Laurel from Chipping with Charm mentioned she was doing a link-up party with a "Hey Girl" theme.  If you're not familiar with this concept...it's good humor is all over Pinterest.  Take a photo of a cute guy, and then combine it with something he would never say in a million years like, "let's go look at fabric all day"!  Since I was lacking in Valentine's eye candy blog material, I decided I would come up with my own real-life, Mr. Fix-it "Hey Girl" comments.  I came up with quite a few!  If you need a little more Valentine humor, check out the link party, HERE.  One of these days, I'll sit down and figure out this link party thing, but today...it's just us!

"Hey girl...

I love the idea of hanging unpasted wallpaper on the ceiling of a small, tall bathroom!"

 

"Hey girl,

Should I drag that crusty piece of furniture to the burn pile, or are you going to sell it?"

 

"Hey girl,

Sure, I'll sacrifice my lunch hour to drive downtown and help you load up all the 9 foot items you just purchased!"

 

"Hey girl,

Go ahead and find those great, old, uneven doors for our house...I love hanging non-pre-hung doors!"

 

"Hey girl,

Don't worry about it...I think the sections of multi-color hoses all over the driveway look very artistic!"

(okay, I never took a pic of the hoses pile...wonder why not?  Guess the yarn balls were just as artistic;)

"Hey girl,

This is so cute, I bet everyone is going to want four ironing boards in their closet!"

 

"Hey girl,

I can move the doorway...no problem!"

And my personal favorite...

"Hey girl,

I don't need to park in the garage, or service the cars there...you just keep filling it up with your wonderful, roadside finds!  I can use the driveway!"

(didn't have any pic's of the garage...I improvised with the screen porch after a curbside clean-up day:)

He probably should have received a Dr. Suess type book for his wedding vows, "Oh, the things you will do..."

Happy Valentine's to my Mr. Fix-it, and all the other junker husbands out there that put up with our crazy ideas!  There may be a few that enjoy it themselves, but the rest of them are doing it to make us happy!  And I know it's my love language!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Home Projects...2013

Our home was built in 1997, we purchased the home in 2002 and my list of changes to make was a mile long.  We took care of the necessities in the first year... radon mitigation system, water softner, hot water heater, new washer and dryer.  All were important, but nothing fun, so the cosmetic changes and new furniture had to wait for a while.

I washed and poly'd the kitchen cupboards when we moved in, now ten years later, they need some TLC.  We've torn off wallpaper, painted rooms, tiled bathrooms and other projects over the years. (and two more water heaters)

2013 Home Projects List

Paint Kitchen Cupboards a shade of white

Stain Mainfloor Bathroom Vanity Espresso

Paint Small China Hutch, color ?

Tear Off Basement Wallpaper and Re paint a Soft Khaki

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                        Kitchen Cupboards:  I'm in the beginning stages of paint research, any suggestions?

Replace 50 hinges and 32 pulls...$$$$

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the turn of the calendar to a new year and a fresh start many people take to making resolutions with the best of intentions.  I've never been one to formally make resolutions.  Maybe for fear of failure, or knowing myself well enough that I would have a list sooo long that even "Super Woman" would eventually give up.

This year I have a manageable list of goals in these areas.

Spiritual

Family

Home 

Business

Physical Fitness

I never know what twists, turns and challenges life will bring in the coming year, so my goals are flexible and can be adjusted, but never forgotten or abandoned completely.

 

The Door Hunt a.k.a. Salvage Extravaganza!

Yesterday I was on a hunt...for 2 doors.  We need one for our bedroom remodel project, and Mr. Freckles never got one installed for his room!  The 20 or so random doors in the garage haven't seemed like possibilities, so I have been feeling the need for a door hunt! Unfortunately, I am a door snob.  The hollow core doors above are NOT a possibility for my home.  We had 2 bright blue ones for the kids rooms, and at the appropriate time...I kicked them in!

My first stop, above, was the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store. You never know what you'll find at these types of stores, and it's usually cheap!  I like cheap...I pick up free on the side of the road!  They were having a door sale!  Outside, they had free doors (no, thankyou), inside they were 1/2 price...$10 down to $5.  I began the hunt...

I found my front door!

I bet they'd take a donation of another...

I found one for our bedroom, after needing to ask the nice man for a ladder so I could be taller and "thumb through" the heavy doors (they were laying on their sides)! My specifications were 30" x 78", 1 3/8 in. thick (directly from Mr. Fix-it). As you can see, above, the doors have their measurements on the sides. The width and heighth was straightforward for me, but as I held my tape measure and was looking at the little hash marks, I faltered at knowing what 3/8" was!  I know where it is on the sewing machine...but with a ruler, I am much more comfortable with 1/4", 1/2", 3/4".  Hope Mr. Fix-it didn't show that desperate text to his engineering buddies!

I digress.  I loaded up my 30" x 80" x 1 3/4" inch thick bedroom door (he can make the adjustments :), and headed to a bigger and greater adventure in search of Mr. Freckles' door!

In my old North Minneapolis stomping grounds, there exists a junker's heaven:

If you have an adventurous junker friend, have several hours, and want to be very cold, take a field trip to this place!  Your mind will be blown!  It's in an old warehouse that isn't heated.  Wear boots...for more than 1 reason!

My garage seems clean, after being here!  The first room you enter blows your mind with huge, antique built-ins!  These will put you out $3000 or more!  But oh how fun it would be to build a new house with all the treasures found in this building!

I'll have that top left one in the craft room,  the top right one in the dining room, the white one in the master bedroom closet, and the craftsman one in the family room...perfect!

A pedestal sink for the bathroom, a farmhouse sink for the kitchen, a big, deep sink for the laundry and mud room, and a nice, soaking clawfoot tub!  A cadaver table?  No, thanks!

As you can see, they don't just have a couple items to choose from, they have hundreds!  And if you think the prices will be cheap because they have so many, think again!  They've spent hours disassembling buildings to get this stuff!

Back to that "in my dreams" house...A fireplace mantle for the master bedroom, some corbels for the kitchen island, a beautiful bannister to decorate at Christmas, and how about the metal gate as an entrance to the solarium? If I had all that money, I'd need the perfect color green safe to put it all in!

Oh yeah...why did I come here?  Doors.  I'm on a mission for 1 door.  30" x 78" by 1 3/8" thick.

Eight aisles of doors!  Front doors, patio doors, screen doors, pocket doors, arched church doors!  What were my numbers, again?  Wonder what kind of deal I could make to bring my drill and take off all those luscious doorknobs and doorplates?

Right after the overwhelming door aisles is the millwork building...looking for a piece to match your trim?

If you dare to go up the scary warehouse stairway, there is a whole floor of windows,  whole restaurant's full of chairs and booths, grocery store glass windows, and whole theatre's worth of seats!  

By the time I got to the basement, my toes were numb, I had my gloves on, and I couldn't help but giggle to myself!

If I was producing some type of theatrical production/set construction, this would be the place to come, also!

Those guys up there scared me!

Garden art is plentiful here:

And like any good junk collection, the goodies overflow outside.

My eyes were tired, my brain was fried, but what a fun outing for a good, junk fix! I went home with my Re-Store door and measured my most recently SOR (side of the road) door.  Perfect measurements!  Now if only Mr. Freckles could handle the white paint instead of wanting it dark stained wood!  A junker's life is never calm.

Tart Molds, Jello Molds & Sandbakkel Molds

All these molds are very popular at Patina General, we have a hard time keeping them in stock.  These little gems were once a staple in most kitchens and now are getting harder to find. 

Here are a few mounted to a beam from the back support of our piano that we dismantled earlier this year.  I painted the beam black and hubby did the rest to attach the five tart molds down the middle.

They make a great starting point to any table scape or sofa table.  They are so versatile to every decorating season...

• tea lights at Christmas
• red votives for Valentine's
• large faux eggs at Easter, or jelly beans(yum)
• white mini pumpkins in the fall

The ideas and possibilities are endless for these cuties.  

This set and these pics were taken at the store.  As you know from Lora's post yesterday, our homes are in the midst of cleaning and Christmas decorating chaos.  We'll get it together and share more ideas soon.                           

Piano Re-Purposed

Earlier this year Hubby and I dismantled our beautiful piano one screw at a time.  See http://patinageneral.typepad.com/patina-general/2012/01/piano-dismantling-101.html for the complete story.

Some of you have asked how I have re-used the piano parts.

A foot board from a bed and a portion of the piano.

Finished project, a jewelry organizer.  Imagine how many necklaces you could hang on all those pegs.  It's not exactly a work of art or beauty, but a nice functioning piece in your closet for organizing. 

Many of the parts remain in our garage waiting for their turn to be re-created into something of beauty and function.

Bedroom Remodel Update

We began our journey at the end of June, when we had kids gone for a few weeks to camp.  You can read about the start of the bedroom remodel, here.  We then needed to decide on a floor plan, and plan of attack, here. We are in no way ready for a full reveal, but thought I'd show you what we've been working on all summer!  ("We" is a relative term!)

Yes, the door needed to move!  Did I mention how much I love the process of taking down walls, and the de-construction?  The closet is going to be on the south end of the room, to incorporate the built-in shelves by the south window.  Hence, that goofy area, will be a part of the closet...and it will make sense!

 

I love seeing the "guts" of the house.  These boards are soooo old, they have bark on some of them!  The structural boards in our house were actually 2 stories tall!  Don't think they do that anymore!

Getting the subfloor down was nice.  It feels cleaner already!  As much as I wanted to live out the antique, pine, floor dream, my allergies couldn't handle the dust in the grooves! Mr. Freckles was Mr. Fix-it's right hand man this summer.  He learns so much when he works with his dad, just like Big Boy did!  The closet wall is getting constructed, here.

My glass front cabinet fits perfectly in it's new home.  It will be built in, with a custom cupboard underneath: drawers or cupboard doors for storage. I love the added floorspace in this hallway area, and love the new location of the doorway!  The morning sunshine beams down the hallway are glorious!

The closet is turning out just perfectly!  I won't show you pic's yet, but I can fit all four seasons of clothes in here!  I've never been able to do that my whole life!! Old houses just weren't meant for our kind of wardrobes!  The sparkly, popcorn ceiling is gone!  Two of the new windows have been replaced, and the last one will be done soon! The new windows are as tall as the original house's were-except in the closet.  I've been looking at wallpaper, and am working on some very original shelving for the closet!  The closet door is being totally rebuilt-it's an old french door from a beautiful, old home. Our mattress and boxspring are still on the floor, but I'm seeing headway!  As you know...I enjoy the process!

Stay tuned...

Bedroom Remodel, Part 2

The closets are gone!  Mr. Fix-it attacked them with his usual tenacity!  The trim is all down too!  So, now that I'm looking at a blank slate, I am re-considering the floor plan.  I had been vascillating between the walk-in closet being at this end (the North End), or the South end of the room:

I just love the morning sunshine that streams in!  As you can see, this room has windows on three walls. It's longer rather than wide, which is why we need to place the walk-in closet at either end.  I've always liked when there's a window in a closet; it provides such great natural light. 

Let me show you around, and share all the considerations filling my head! 

This is the interior wall.  The door has always opened the wrong way!  Another way precious inches were wasted. The long wall to the right was where we placed the bed, most of the time.  Mr. Fix-it would love to not have to move the doorway...

But, here's the story on the other side of the wall!  

These are the last few areas of the house we haven't finished!  Notice the globe lights and the orange, small woodwork. The house used  to end where the seams are in the floor.  The bedrooms at the end of the hall were added above the kitchen in the 60's or 70's.  This hallway is always dark.  The pictures above show the glass front cabinet with our bedroom door closed, and then open. We want to add a window someday where those yellow shutters hang.  The previous owners had an air conditioner unit there, hence my creative decorating!

Taking all these issues into consideration, we put together some floor plan options.

This is where we had been, up until a week ago!  It was workable, but there's only about 18 inches on the tight side of the bed, and it just felt really cramped, although the closet would be nice and big (in my old-house realm)!  The goofy cut-out at the bottom left (the south end) has always been a thorn in my side.  It's un-usable floor space. It even had space-wasting bi-folds!   There's built-in shelves above the stairway, so I get some storage there, but no furniture can ever fit in that space, because the shelves need to be accessed. Now that the room is empty, my strategic brain has been in overdrive.

Here's what I came up with:

Of course it means moving the doorway! If the closet is located at the south end of the house, it incorporates that useless corner!  There is way more wall space than we've ever had before, which means more possibilities of room arrangement! I personally always like angling my bed.  I like this arrangement the best; as you enter the room the bed is "looking at you". The windows would be straight ahead.  The farther our eyes can see, the bigger the space looks. Here's another possibility:

And another...

And the glorious sunlight!  We would put some type of glass, vintage door on the closet so the southern sun streamed in, and the morning sunlight would stream down that dark hallway! The door would be centered on the windows!  Sightlines are so important in architecture! I was even thinking we could build in the glass front cabinet in the hallway, add some lower drawers beneath it, and I could have linen storage, all the while making it look like it was always there!

What do you think? I think Mr. Fix-it is warming up to the idea! Even though the initial plan was simple and straighforward, we always want to better the flow of the house. Function and beauty go hand in hand. I probably will have to wait awhile before I post on this subject again, because we will be working!  The subfloor will go down next, and the popcorn will be attacked soon after.  When we see some walls being constructed, I'll let you know! 

Bedroom Remodel, Part 1

We have entered into, yet another, major home project!  Staus quo doesn't last long in this 100 year old house!  Our 10 year anniversary of living in this Fake Farmhouse occurs July 12 of this year!

It's not like we hadn't been planning on re-doing our bedroom...we've just been a little busy re-working all the other rooms of the house, the yard, and oh, there's that store that we need to keep stocked...

So, after initially pulling up the rust shag carpet and the subfloor, and giving the room a bright, apple green paint color (the first year), we have lived with it.  Isn't mom and dad's room always the last to get done? 

Monday morn after the long, hot, weekend in the store, I was re-grouping (laundry, dishes, bathrooms)...I realized that for 2 weeks, I have 2 of my 3 kiddos gone!  A revelation struck!  We have space to put ourselves and our "stuff" and work on our bedroom, without  extra bodies around!! I immediately texted Mr. Fix-it to see if he was game! In true "20 years of marriage/I have a crazy, idea-filled wife/ I can roll with the puches" form, he texted back-"I'm game"!  "Let's empty the room tonight"! YEAH!

I know I'm a little crazy, but I just LOVE a good construction project!  I should have been a contractor, because the demolition, and the future beauty that will emerge, just gets my blood pumping!!  We have lived with this yucky bedroom for 10 years, and I can't wait for the transformation!  We moved our clothes to anyplace we could put them-Big Boy's room is totally filled, there's clothes in the hallway, Happy Girl has some hanging in her closet...our mattress and boxspring is in Mr. Freckles' room, and will be moved to Happy Girl's room next week, when she goes to camp!  We are in construction mode-kinda like camping.  The boys are going to wonder what hit this house while they were gone! 

Thought I would share some of the reasons we are attacking this room, a.k.a., what we've hated for 10 years!!

First of all, let me tell you that there is no 100 year old character left in this room!  Maybe the floors...but we'll get to that in a minute.  Our whole house was stripped of the "originals" that I would have loved, and is a mish-mosh of different eras that don't match with the character of a 100 year old house. That's why we have been tirelessly re-creating the charm, along with more modern ammenities...probably would have been easier to light a match...

Let's take a look at that first pic. again:

This is the north end of the room.  The his/hers closets are way to small.  They had a single shelf, and a single rod.  All of our off-season clothes had to be put into the kid's (already re-modeled) closets.  The storage cupboard in the middle is way too deep.  I shoved photo albums in there. There were bi-fold doors on the closets.  Since they fold out, that was another 16 inches of un-usable floor space. See them leaning against the wall to the left? Every inch counts in this house!

Notice the dark finish on everything?  The woodwork, the closet doors, the door to the room were all highly grained wood with marine varnish!  When the sun steamed in, I needed sunglasses to damper the glare! I would love this look on a vintage Chris Craft boat, but not in my bedroom!

In the photo above, notice the lighting...or lack thereof.  There are two can-lights in the whole room, and they are not in the middle.  At night the lighting is horrible.  We use lamps, but sometimes when you're packing for a big trip the night before, a well-lit room can come in handy!

Take a closer look at the floor. We pulled up the rust, shag carpet the first day we moved in!  The sub-floor came next. I have always dreamed of beautiful, pine floors, just like they show in Country Living Magazine, but the reality of bringing this floor back to life, and living with the grooves open to the 100 year old house...remember my "groovy life" post? We sanded a portion, and they could be beautiful, but they are right on top of the stringers.  The creaking is noisy, the grooves get dusty, and there's these great little sections where some previous owners kept their money...

And then there's this thick, brown paint on the perimeter of the room, that I am sure is lead-based.  As much as I'd love to live out my magazine fantasy,  Mr. Fix-it is doing all the work, and he longs for waking up and sinking his toes into carpet! It's only taken me 10 years to give up this dream!

Let's look up!  I love popcorn, but not on my ceilings!  Especially when there's sparkles in the popcorn!  If I wanted to see the stars at night, I would install a skylight!  I am not a bling girl-give me rustic. A spray bottle and a putty knife is what is needed here!

Last, but not least, is the windows.  This house is a 2 story, four-square type house.  The windows were originally the almost-to-the floor, tall ones.  Great sunshine, great view.  Rambler-type, horizontal windows just don't work on this type of home...but that's what we've got in this room!

And crank-outs!  Don't get me started!  Whoever thought the idea of having a screen inside was a good idea?  When the windows are open and the lights are on at night, all matter of wildlife is attracted to the screens!  I close the windows at night, and am greeted by a big half-squished tree frog staring me in the face in the morning!  Give me traditional double-hungs with the screen on the outside any day!  Can you see how the windows above should be about 14 inches lower?  I'm sure this was originally 2 windows that they decided would look more "up-to-date" this way.  We'll see if the budget allows new window installation.  I may have to settle for awhile!

Well, you've heard my 10 year pent up gripes with this room.  Now you know why I'm so excited with the demolition!  Let's cover what I want to accomplish in this re-model:

1. More Storage/Better Closet Space
2. Better Lighting
3. Carpeted Floors
4. Flexible Floor Plan, a.k.a I need to be able to move the room around!
5. Light, bright, happy colors (I need all the help I can get in the morning!)

Stay tuned.  I need to decide on a floor plan that will accomplish all this!