Fabric Bulletin Board

Have a bulletin board that needs a quick remodel? We had two. When we were young, my mom made bulletin boards for my sister and me. She bought just your average bulletin board and painted them with our name and some pictures (I had hearts and my sister had flowers). As amazing as the bulletin board is, it just didn't fit in our new house. Plus, R had a plain (boring) bulletin board from his room at home. It looks, well, like it lived in a boy's room for 20-odd years. It was not pretty. But I can't just throw stuff away. So from apartment to apartment it sat in the closet. Then when I remodeled my office, I realized that the two walls on either side of the windows would be perfect for matching bulletin boards. But they'd need to match. And both be hung horizontally (the one my mom made had to be hung vertically). So in about an hour I transformed them.

The first step was to fine something to cover the cork with. To save some money, I first decided to look through fabric I already had and hope to God that I had something that not only matched the walls but also would fit both boards. I tried a couple different colors, but eventually settled on this pink. Not only did the color look perfect with the white trim and blue-ish walls, but it kinda sort matches my new Ikea lamps!

The next step was to take the frame off of the bulletin boards. Seems simple enough, right? WRONG. The frame is held together by these crazy looking zig-zag pieces of metal which do not want to come out! Nothing I did made them budge a millimeter! I tried a hammer (in many different ways), pliers, a staple remover... Eventually I got just a little frustrated and just started hammering away on the thing. I broke off a chunk of the back of the frame, just enough so that I could get the hammer in there and smack that stupid zig-zag out of there!

Because I was worried about breaking the frame beyond all repair, this is as much as I took apart. I gently slid the cork out of the frame and left the rest of the frame corners intact. Then I painted the frame front and sides using two coats of white paint.

While the paint was drying, I ironed the fabric like crazy. I cut each piece about 2 or 3 inches larger than the front of the board. I started at a shorter side and after making sure that the fabric was centered (to be sure I'd have enough overhand on each side), I stapled it to the back of the board. I put a staple every 3 or 4 inches or so. I then moved on to the other short side, then the two longer sides, making sure to pull the fabric as tightly as possible before stapling. This is very important because it would be very noticeable if the fabric isn't straight or tight.

All that's left is to reattach the frame, which is much much easier than removing the frame. Time start to finish? Including waiting for the paint to dry, about 2 hours. I love the new bulletin boards! They look perfect in the room! Now I just need to find stuff to hang on them! Total cost? $0.00!

 

See it next to the lamp? I love it!!

 

The new bulletin boards also inspired me to clean up my desk and bit and unpack some more office boxes.

February Was a Slow Month..

We didn't do much around here in February (or really all winter). It seemed like every single weekend was dedicated to either shoveling or fixing yet another snow blower (R managed to break a snow blower every time we had a storm.. it was insane).

A couple weekends ago I put together my birthday present from my mom... my pretty new bookcases.  They're from Ikea and I think they look perfect. Originally I wanted to fill the whole wall with bookcases, but I think this arrangement works much better for this room. I also have curtains, my desk set up and some new Ikea lamps. And a rug picked out, but just not purchased yet. I'm really starting to love how the whole room is coming together.. I took a couple pictures but for some reason blogger won't let me upload them. I'll get them up as soon as I can.

Because our renovating has been put on a winter hold, I've been doing some unpacking where I can. Mostly stuff in the Living Room (which is almost done.. just waiting for a warm day when we can open the windows so we can use the paint remover on the trim), my office and the Guest Room. Slowly but surely it's becoming our home.

This past weekend was warm (New England early March warm... it was 40 degrees and sunny) so we had a window or two open and while R worked on cleaning up the yard I did some prepping and painting in the Laundry Room. 

The backyard was a mess.. after over 3 feet of snow being on the ground for basically 2 1/2 months we have a lot of mud. There's also a ton of branches, big and small, scattered around the yard. Once it's really warm out we'll be spending a lot of time out there cleaning up. We do have a couple tulips, daffodils and crocuses popping up though... can't wait until they bloom!

The Laundry Room deserves it's own post, so be looking for that (I'm waiting for a nice sunny day to take pictures). The wallpaper in this room was removed months ago (on a weekend when we had a lot of extra helpers!) and with the bare walls and creamy colored trim the room just looked dirty (and it looked even dirtier once I started painting the trim white). This is a room we walk through many times every day (to get to our upstairs bathroom) so it's nice to have it cleaned up and nice.

My Office

I am always on my computer. Whether it's working on house designs, work, blogging, or just for fun, I'm always using it. In our old apartment my office consisted of my laptop and the couch. In our guest bedroom I had a table set up with some of my craft supplies, but that was such a multi-purpose room, the table was always covered with other stuff.


The day we first viewed this house, I fell in love with this room and knew it would someday be my office. 

It was perfect! It has a central location, beautiful view out the windows, a built-in bookcase and a fireplace! And it's the only room in the house that has the potential for lots of bookcases. The only downside is that it was pretty dark and ratty looking. Even without the curtains on the windows, it was dark. 

Luckily the wallpaper came off pretty easily. A helper and I took it all down in about 2 hours. We peeled off the grass layer, and then using spray bottles got the bottom layer wet, which made it peel right off. The walls underneath were pretty disgusting though. Aside from the wall with the windows, they were all newer drywall (when I say newer I mean from the '50's), but were stained and had a lot of holes. The wall to the left of the windows (seen in the next picture) was very poorly installed, and was very squishy.

We originally thought the wallpaper in this room was going to be the hardest in the house. The grass was so thick, and at first, didn't peel off nicely. But then we had the pleasant surprise of it being a piece of cake. Well, it came back to bite me when I started to paint. Before painting each wall I had to first wash it down with TSP, then sand the little bits and pieces of wallpaper left behind, then wash it again, then fill in the holes with putty, then sand again. THEN I could paint.

I decided to paint the trim, beams and fireplace surround a nice bright white. I love rooms with natural light, and the lighter the colors, the more reflective the light is. I used Glidden Semi-Gloss White. I made the mistake of not using any primer. The trim color didn't seem dark enough that I would need it. It took 4 or 5 coats of white to cover the yellowy-tan color. The paint on the beams was peeling and needed to be sanded, but I was a little worried it was lead paint. We bought a $9.95 lead paint test (good for 3 tests) at Home Depot, and it came out negative.

The color I chose for the walls is Lowe's La Fonda Mirage. It doesn't photograph 100% accurately, but it looks great in the room. Especially with the natural light shining on it. Because the wall underneath wasn't white (more of an off-white tan color with stains), in some areas it took two coats, but not everywhere. I was very impressed by the paint. The only downside was that because it took so long to prepare the walls and paint the trim (which I needed to do before painting the walls), I waste a lot of paint. I used up the entire gallon of paint on this tiny room and I still wasn't done! But luckily Lowe's sells those small sample bottles of paint, so I got two of those and only ended up needing half of one.

We still need to paint behind the radiator, but I skipped that for now because we're planning on having the radiator replaced because it leaks. A lot. The wall behind the radiator still has old wallpaper, which was on the walls before the grass wallpaper. We can't get behind it without disturbing the already leaking radiator. But for now, I just put my table in front of it and you hardly notice it.

The room is far from being finished (I need bookcases, more tables, filing cabinets, curtains, a rug, stuff on the walls...), but it's my favorite room in the house so far. I often find myself staring at the room from other rooms.. I just love it, especially in the morning! I didn't get a chance to clean the fireplace yet (there's a lot of smoke damage, and about $10 in pennies, inside the fireplace), but just the trim being repainted makes it looks so much cleaner and fresh.

Lots of Painting Progress!

Woah... we definitely tackled some painting today! My sisters-in law wanted to paint again, so the three of us went to Lowe's to find a paint color for the Guest Room. I think I want the Twilight Room to be a nice yellow (it'll be a future baby nursery, so I figure we'll just paint it yellow now instead of when the time comes), and the Office is the blue-green, so we wanted to find something that went well with both colors. We unanimously decided on a light sage green from Valspar called Lyndhurst Shady Grove. It looks amazing! The room went from being overloaded with pink (the reflection off of all of the pink (walls, rug, curtains) was so bad that R was convinced for days that the ceiling was also painted pink), to being a beautiful serene Guest Room. Which is good because in 2 weeks our mover helpers will be sleeping in there!

Before

In Progress

In Progress

After

 

It's so bright and inviting in there now! We didn't paint the trim because it looked like it was in good enough condition, but now that the rest of the room is painted it looks like it could be touched up a bit. But who knows when we'll get to that..

While they were painting the Guest Room, I was next door painting the Office again. Day 5. Ugh. But the good news is that the paint on the beams passed the lead paint test... No lead! So R has the go-ahead to sand those down so I can paint. Who knows when he'll get to it though. We're getting down to the wire here... we need to start moving in soon!

Back to the Office

I wish I could fast forward to this office being done. I love being in the space, it's going to be a great office. It's so bright in there now! Especially in the morning. Getting all of the old furniture and books out of the room and just the little bit of paint I have so far has made a huge difference! It'll be a nice open space to walk through and work in.

After today, this is what I have accomplished... slowly but surely I'm making some progress.. I love how the fireplace and bookcase look painted white. The top picture is one of my favorites.. I love the white, blue-green and brick together. 

My Office

While the guys were downstairs working on the sill and the door, I was upstairs painting my office. Last night at Lowe's (Trip #4 for Saturday), I picked out a paint color spontaneously with my mom. It's a really light, bright color, which will make the space seem bigger. Add that with the soon-to-be white trim, and you have a beautiful office space!

So remember when I said how easy it was to take down the wallpaper in the office? I thought it would take a whole day and it only took about 2 hours. Well, the room made up for that time we thought we gained. It's taking about 4 coats of white to cover the trim, which is fun, especially on the built-in bookcase and the fireplace. And for the walls, I have to wash them with TSP, then sand them to get rid of the leftover pieces of wallpaper, then wash them again, then fill in the holes and imperfections, then sand again. Five hours later, I get to paint that wall. AHHH! AND, the beams have peeling paint on them, so if it's lead paint, it'll need to get removed, or if it's not, it'll need to get sanded. Either way, it's not something I could do today.

This is all I got done today. All day. This room is going to drive me crazy!


Oh, and look what my uncle found in the walls of the Kitchen... Cute, huh?

Office Wallpaper

Today the Office wallpaper came down. Pretty easily. But not cleanly. I'm just happy it's gone. Maybe that wallpaper was stylish and cool in the 60's, but not today. Even though the walls underneath are pretty gross looking, I'm still happy the wallpaper is gone. The room is already slightly brighter. I can't wait to start painting! Tonight I randomly chose a paint color while waiting for my mom at Lowe's. It's Lowe's brand paint, Valspar, color La Fonda Mirage. It's a blueish-green color, but very bright and cheerful. It's labeled as a National Trust Historic color, which made me feel like it was a good choice for this house. This picture below is sorta kinda close to the color. I love it!

The trim, beams, ceiling, fireplace, casing, doors, etc. will all be painted using a semi-gloss white paint.