Hallway Doors

Slowly and surely the honey-colored oak is disappearing from our home.

WHOO HOO!!!

Our bedroom and hallway doors were in excellent shape despite being targets 

for nerf gun competitions and being in the line of fire for a mean game of sock war.

I couldn't see replacing them even though they are plain and boring.

First step was ripping down all the oak trim and replace it with the white molding

we did throughout the rest of the house and doorways.

With the molding complete and the weather getting nicer, I took the doors down and worked outside.

Oh how I love the sunshine!  <--- side note

Using a hand sander, I sanded down the doors with a medium grit paper.

After wiping all the dust away they were ready to paint.

Also in fantastic shape are the hinges.  I cleaned each set thoroughly.

I pushed the screws into a cardboard box and laid the hinges flat onto a

paper bag I had ripped open.

Using a spray paint for metals in an oil-rubbed bronze finish, I sprayed the hardware.

No more shiney brass!

<Insert jig of joy here>

But what color should I paint the doors?  

I adore the look of white molding and white doors; which I get to stare at every day in my front hallway.

(That project I discuss here and here.)

It looks so clean and crisp and open and light.

Adore!

Here is the dilemma I created for myself : I also love the color of my 

breakfast bar against my white cabinets and the dark wood floors.

So after much thought, I decided to break out of the box of conformity once again.

I went with what you do not normally see.

And I love it.

Picture Perfect Old Window

The first house my husband and I bought when we were first married was 700 square feet of never-been-updated-1950's-pure-bliss.

I'm fibbing about the pure bliss part.
But it was our first house.

The little old man who owned it before us left lots of treasures in the garage, including storm windows for each of the windows on the house.

Shortly after moving in, we replaced all the windows leaving the storm windows in a forgotten corner.

When we moved 5 years later we left a lot of the original treasures and on a whim I told my husband to pack one of the storm windows into the moving van.  I thought I could put pretty papers in it and it would make a great picture.

A few short years later, old windows became in high demand on the brocante market.

I kick myself often for not taking more of those beauties.

We moved into our home in 1999, I put pretty papers in each window pane and hung that baby up.  

And never looked at it again.  ( <--- highly embarrassing)

As the remodel took shape this year and we stripped everything out of our home, I saw the old window for what it had become.

UGLY.

It's ok if you cringed.  I do too.

I decided if the hallway was to truly be a Gallery Hallway then why not add more pictures?

The best part?  It cost me a $1.48.

I looked through pictures of my boys and found some great personality shots.

I sent them to be printed to Office Max.

Office Max?? 

A little known fact:  Office Max will print your pictures 

on Engineering Paper (11x17) for pennies!!  

For this project it was perfect.  It is not on photo paper, 

so it best to use this service for a project like this or one that involves decoupage. 

Here is how I turned ugly into personality!

The tools you will need:

1.  Pictures printed on paper large enough to fit each frame.  

2.  A template the size of each window frame.

My frames are 11 1/2 x 10 3/4" and I used one of the papers previously hanging in the window.

3.  Painter's Tape

4.  Marker

5.  Paper Trimmer

Lay the template on the section of picture you want shown in each window frame.

With the marker, mark the photo at all four edges of the template.

Line the marks up with the blade of the paper trimmer and trim.

Important : If your window frame sizes are not square be sure your template is lined up on the paper the correct way.

Once all pictures are trimmed, arrange them how you want them placed in the window.

Be sure the tops of the pictures are placed at the top of your window frame.

Flip each picture over and using the painter's tape, tape each picture into place.

Here you see that one of my pictures was printed vertically making it a smidgen too short on the sides.  

No worries.

I taped the picture into place and grabbed some scraps that I had previously trimmed off.
I flipped the scraps over and used the white backsides to frame in the vertical picture.

With everything taped into place, I flipped it over

and hung it back on to the wall.

A reminder of where I started ....

...and what I have now!

It was such an easy and inexpensive project making it super easy
(and guilt free!) to change the pictures out often.

The entire project took less than an hour and cost less than 2 bucks.

My lattes cost more than that.

P.S.
I apologize for the glare on the window glass; 

no matter what angle I took the picture I just couldn't 

get rid of the closet door trim trying to take center stage of the picture.

Trim can be like that.

Bi-Fold Door Transformation

The hallway closet transformation is complete!

Here is the blank slate I started with.
Honey colored oak bi-fold doors are no more!

This is what we have now and I LOVE it!

I couldn't resist a fun and unexpected door handle.
Although we added a lot of satin nickel with our makeover,

I thought the oil rubbed bronze finish looks great with dark wood floors.

Updating the doors took a weekend of my time and cost less than $50.

If you want the step by step of how I did this transformation you can find that here.

The entry hall into our home is now bright and light 

and no longer feels like a dark tunnel.

Next time you are in the neighborhood, stop by and say hi.

When I open the door to greet you, 

this is the view you now see :

It is far from basic and it makes me smile to see

that fun and funky chandelier in our family room.

However, I think it's time to replace that light in the hallway.

"Oh Honey...." <---sung in a sweet and melodic voice.
(I'll let you know if the sweet tone works.) 



 

Bye Bye Blah Bi-Fold Doors

Our house was as builder-basic as they come. 

For a long time I lived with it, even though I didn't like it much. 

I always liked the look of trimmed-out doors, but not the price tags that came with it. 

Our bi-fold closet doors were blah and boring.  See?

With my son needing a project for his shop class, I knew exactly what we could do.  It was time to change out the big, blah, boring doors in our hallway.  I knew he had never done anything like this before and well, neither have I.  A perfect lesson for the both of us.

First I contacted my friend Harold at a local lumber yard.  

He let me ask him all kinds of really basic questions and I mean basic.  

I determined the look I wanted would require a 1/4" x 1 1/2" trim piece - the kind most commonly used in creating garden lattice.

Second, I drew the doors, took measurements and determined the layout of the doors.  

Now fully armed with the knowledge of the measurements, I handed my son a tape measure and had him do exactly the same thing.  

After all, this was his school project.



We determined we needed :

8 boards 6½' long

2 boards 4' long

3 boards 3' long

Light grade sand paper

Primer

Paint

Wood Glue

New Door Pulls - a girl has got to have her bling!

First, we sanded the doors.

Then with the doors still hanging, we measured (twice!), 

cut and then glued our pieces into place.

Our ever so professional blueprint.

After talking with our local hardware store,

we decided super-duper-don't-get-it-on-your-fingers glue was best.

Whoa Nelly, is that stuff powerful!

The glue worked great and even allowed for a 10 to 15 seconds of adjustment time.

Here is our first piece glued into place.

Each bi-fold is framed with trim pieces reaching from top to bottom.

When placing the outer most trim pieces it is imperative to leave

approximately a 1/4" gap.

This allows the doors to open and fold.

Without the tiny gap, you will not be able to open the doors as the trim will butt up against the door frame.

The good news - although the gaps may look glaring to you,

no one will notice them once the project is completed.

I promise.

Once all the vertical pieces were up the 

top and bottom pieces were glued into place,

followed with the middle piece.

Now that you have a top and a middle section on the first bi-fold,

simply divide each section in half to place the final two pieces.

With one bi-fold completely finished, the other three go by

quickly as you no longer have to measure each section

but simply line them up to each other.

Next is the priming and then the painting.

The glue adheres best when wood meets wood,

this is why the priming and painting are not done before.

Here is my work station.  It's a piece of cardboard.

It's awesome.

Next week I'll show you the the completed project.

I'm happy to report, my son's project got an "A"!

Up & Out with the Old

The demolition process begins!

During the holiday season, my husband took some time off of work to spend it with our boys.  As any good parent would do, we decided the perfect way to celebrate working so hard during the school year was to have the kids tear up the flooring in our home.

They were so excited.

First we had to remove all the trim around the floors and doorways.  You can see the standard-1990s-builder-oak-trim in some of the pictures below.  Ick.


What appears to be white moulding is really the sheet rock behind the removed trim.  For 12 years I longed for the big thick white moulding to frame my floors and doors.  Finally, I was seeing this become a reality.

This is the carpet coming up in the living and dining rooms. 

To the right is our front entry hall.  More oak. 

Lucky us.

When our home was built in 1999 the really cool snap & lock floating floors weren't designed yet.  These laminate wood planks were stapled into place with the biggest staples ever.  Each staple was then stapled along the edge of each plank about an 1 1/2 to 2 inches apart. 

My oldest boy thought tearing out those staples was just awesome.
(Insert sarcasm font).

The only way to get each of those ginormous staples out of the sub flooring was to wedge a screwdriver underneath the top of the staple and then whack it with a hammer. 

The first 276 times were fun, then...not so much.

With the carpet removed from the family room, the boys still had the bedroom hallway carpet to pull up.

Look at all that oak.  OOOO baby.

As soon as I got off of work, I would put on the work clothes and help my Master Demolition Dudes pull up all the carpet staples. 
So.  Many.  Staples. 
A long and tedious project, but extremely important to get them out before laying the new floors.

 

One of our very first home updates came when we covered up the builder basic (read : cheap) linoleum in the kitchen.  These were commercial grade laminate tile designed to last 20 years.  Or 5, if you have boys. 
This was quite the chore as we had to pull up the tile, linoleum and the linoleum sub flooring. 

The pain of difficulty was eased when we had to purchase a new power tool.

I love a good do-it-yourself project and very rarely become upset during the in between stages.  Before starting any project I can clearly see the end result and it always helps keep me calm during the mayhem.  With all that being said, when all the floors were pulled up and our boys were walking around in pajamas with their shoes on because it was unsafe to be barefoot, I felt like the worst mother in the world.  I had removed the safe environment from my children.

As the new floors went down, their beauty erased those bad parenting feelings. Whew. 

Next time, I will show you our laying down of the new floors dreams coming true.

Our New Art Gallery

When I decided to make my husband's photography a more prominent feature in our home, I transformed our main hallway into an art gallery.

To bring a final touch to this space, I named our hallway.  After all, doesn't every gallery have a name?  I went out on a creative limb and named it....Fiorucci Gallery.  My creativity sometimes astounds me.

I found the letters at our local craft store.  It didn't matter that they weren't the same color as I knew I would be painting them black anyway.  

The letters weren't on sale, and I had to pay full retail for them (those who know me just did a collective "GASP!").  The cost came to $28.00.

I spray painted the letters, using matte black paint, which I had around the house.

Here are the tools needed to hang the letters.

Using the painter's tape, I marked where I wanted the letters to hang on the wall.

Using the level, I made sure the tape was perfectly straight.  The perfectly-straight-tape will be my guide to ensuring I will have perfectly-straight-letters. 

The letters did not come with a way to hang them on the wall.  Rather than use tape on the wall, I drilled a tiny hole in which the head of a brad nail (finishing nail) could fit.

Once the hole was drilled, I placed the head of the brad nail into the hole and pushed it in as far as it would go.

Starting at the far left, I hung the first letter.  I wanted the "F" and the "G" to be offset just a smidgen from the other letters.  The two larger letters required me to hang a nail and use a hammer.

Second, I placed the last letter to the farthest right.  By using brad nails on the back of the smaller letters, I only had to push them into the wall just as you would a tack.

I worked my way toward each end alternating between words to ensure the spacing would come out correctly.  The last letter to be hung is the letter "G".

TA DA!  The finished project!

A simple idea that gives this space a finished look.

Inspiring Spaces

It's time for some weekend inspiration!

Below are just a few of my favorite spaces I stumbled upon this week.

I love the simplicity of the black and white. 

The faux fur on the chair brings a comfy element against the starkness of the white.

This is a perfect example of combining two spaces. 

The yellow on the wall is echoed in the next room with the yellow chair. 

The cubed space on the far wall is repeated in how the pictures are hung on the yellow wall. 

Not only do I love the color of the cushions, I love how it ties in perfectly with the trim of the house.  Gorgeous!

The kitchen island looks like a piece of furniture rather than cabinetry.  

This brings an element of uniqueness to this space and is further accentuated with painting it a color completely unexpected.

Hopefully you are inspired by this week's finds and get a creative bug to do something in your home this weekend. 

Now, go and do!

How To Have a Gallery Hallway

My husband takes fantastic pictures and I am always looking for a way to showcase them in our home.  I decided to turn our hallway into his very own art gallery.

This could pose only one problem ~ the pictures would have to be perfectly aligned or it would drive me crazy.  (Ok, I may have design OCD tendancies).  Here is the step by step and EASY process of how I got all 5 pictures to be perfectly aligned. 





The blank canvas I began with.

The tools you will need for this project :

Start by setting the picture frames apart roughly the distance you will want to hang them on the wall.  Once they are spaced the way you would like them, measure the distance between the hangers on two of the pictures.



Using painter's tape, rip off a section the distance measured between pictures. 

For my pictures I rounded up to an even 24 inches.

Grab two of your handy-dandy picture hangers.  I hold them in my mouth.  You might not want to do that.

As I am hanging 5 pictures I am starting with the middle picture.  To find the exact middle of the wall, I measured the wall space I am using and divided by two. 

The area I am working with is 14 feet ~   divide that by two, and I knew I wanted my middle picture to be placed at the 7 foot mark.

Here I placed the edge of the painter's tape at the 7 foot mark and worked my way to the right.

Check to make sure the painter's tape is level on the wall.  The great thing about painter's tape is you can easily adjust it if you need to.

Place a picture hanger in the same spot on each end of the tape. 

To keep it simple, I used the upper corner each time.  I am not an expert picture taker (thus the big shadow in the middle of the picture) but you can see where I placed my hangers at the same spot on each end of the tape.

Repeat the process by simply moving the tape over using one of the hangers you just hung as your starting point.

You can see the blue tape between picture 2 and 3.

Continue on until all your pictures are hung.

Just look at how straight those pictures are!

Ta Da!  The completed project.  Well, almost complete as I have yet another idea brewing.