Updates to Scout & Nimble, Progress to Master Bedroom and Thrifty Finds!

****Before I get to the makeover, you may have noticed that my lil slice of the web here looks a little different.  We are making some updates to Scout & Nimble’s look so bear with me through this transition.  I’m hoping to make it easier on you, my incredible readers and supporters, to navigate through the tutorials, past posts and projects.  To say that I appreciate every single one of you who visits this blog is a huge understatement.  Thank you, thank you, thank you…and I hope you enjoy the new look and soon to come new features.****

Some progress has been made on the master bedroom…not a lot…but since I’m doing this redo for you in real time, I thought I’d share even the slightest improvement.  I decided last week it was time to start painting.  As you saw in this post, in my dream world, I would dress the walls in this fine paper.

via

But, unfortunately, my dream world does not equal my reality.  Plus, I was hoping to stay under a $400 budget.  If I went with the wallpaper above, two rolls would have put me over budget and maybe have covered 3/4 of a wall…yep, it is that pricey.  So, plan B.  Paint.  Nice cheap paint.  😉  In all seriousness, if you are on a tight budget and want to change up a room, paint is the way to go.  It can totally change the look, feel, and style of a space.  I sampled two paint colors that were totally out of the box for me…not to mention complete opposites.

So, here we have Clinton Brown and Linen White, both by Benjamin Moore.  See, I told you…opposite ends of the spectrum.  I was always leaning more towards the white side of things and when I tested these on the wall, that fact was only confirmed.  While Clinton Brown was a gorgeous color, it was da-ark.  Like my mom said…it would be like sleeping inside a Hershey’s kiss…which would be interesting especially if you like chocolate, but what I was more afraid of was turning my bedroom into a dark cave.  Those that know me well, know that I’m like a bear…I can sleep.  Hibernation…I’m all for it.  If I had painted that color on our bedroom walls, it would take A LOT of coffee to pull me from my slumber.  So, Linen White it is for this bedroom.

You might be thinking…how boring, white walls?  But, I encourage you to give white walls a second look…they really can be striking.

via

via

via Perfectly Imperfect

via The Polished Pebble

One would think that when you prepare a room for paint, you would move the furniture, place the drop cloths, don your painting clothes…wait does that phrase only work for donning gloves??? Not a clue, but the point is, I bought the paint and literally jumped right in moving furniture as I needed to.

And this would explain why our room looks like this.

It probably would have been easier for me to take a weekend and move everything to the center of the room and paint, but I’m a mom, remember?  I am continuously multi-tasking.  Paint, tend to kids, make order dinner, paint, bathe and put kids to bed, paint.  Here is a liI timesaver for you though.  I did read somewhere on pinterest to place a garbage bag around your rolling pan for easy clean up and I am here to tell you…it was a terrible idea.

If you gain anything from this post, please let it be just to buy the plastic cheap rolling pans and then pitch them if you don’t want to clean them because this bag shimmied everywhere, paint stuck to all parts of that bag, not my roller brush and I felt like I wasted so much paint.  Two big paint covered thumbs down. (I did have it tied around the tray…I was in the process of removing it when I snapped the pic).

Here is what the room looks like now.  One can of paint got me this far so we are going to live for the next couple days with a room that is half painted.  Good thing my husband loves me…;)  On a more positive note, I thought I would share some high and not so high moments on this master bedroom makeover.

High five moments in the past week for this room:  

There were several.  Goodwill and thrift stores…you have treated me so well!

Score #1  Brass lamp $3

I have loved this table lamp forever…haven’t loved the price tag

via

so I am going to use this lamp as inspiration and try to trade the brassy shiny finish for a duller one with some Rub n Buff.  I’ll let you know how it works.

Score #2  Masculine fabric $0.50.  Ummm, ya, 2 yards was 50 cents…

I love using fabric to cover mattes in picture frames and since I am planning a gallery wall, I knew this would come in handy.  And get this, the next day, I saw this at Target.

Super cute and manly all at the same time.  May have to do something similar with my new el cheapo fabric.

Score #3 and I’m totally saving the best for last.  I am swooning over this chandelier.  $10.  Excuse me while I scream in excitement.

I had been looking online at different “eclectic” chandeliers the night before and everything I liked for the room was expensive.  Here are a few that I had marked. (click on the image for link)

This one I thought perhaps I could DIY.

So, I am really really ecstatic about this find.

Low moments that I encountered this past week for this room

I’m when I say low, I mean low low to the flo...or floor.  Our carpet has seen better days.  It’s an off-white/cream.  It’s 7.5 years old.  We have two rather large dogs who sleep on this floor every.single.night.  Do I need to say more?  We’ve done our best to keep it in tip top shape with regular cleanings, but at some point you’ve just gotta throw in the towel.  I think it’s that time.  So, my $400 budget might be blown if we have to add carpet.  I have gone back and forth with this.  It looks decent enough…I’ve seen worse.  Is it a necessity?  No.  However, in the past year, we have discussed pulling the carpets up in all the upstairs bedrooms and either replacing them or putting in hardwoods.  I guess you can say we were somewhat preparing for this.  On one hand, I’m a control freak who wants to come in under budget and on the other I’m a clean freak who doesn’t like thinking about all the dirt and grime a 7.5 year old carpet can hold.  What to do, what to do?  What would you guys do?

Beam me up Scotty

I am the last person on Earth that should be referencing Star Trek as I have never watched a single episode, but I.just.cannot.stop.saying.it.  Not to mention that every time I say it, I use what I would call “my weird version of Sean Connery’s voice”…I have no idea why, and yes, it is super strange.  Blame it on the giddiness.  I have wanted wood beams for the longest time and now that we finally bit the bullet and installed them, I’m on cloud 50. Here is the before…

And the after…

We always knew that we wanted to add some architectural details to the living room.  At first, we were thinking of installing the real deal, and by that I mean solid wood beams.  Yes, believe it or not, the ones in the picture above are impostors, posers, fakes…or faux, as I should say.

But, they are the best fakers in the world.  Even up close they look exactly like real wood.

They are from Arizona Faux Beams, who just so happens to be one of the leading providers of faux wooden beams.

They have been featured on DIY Network, HGTV and even Jay Leno has them in his home.

These realistic beams are actually made out of a high density polyurethane and are incredibly lightweight.  We ordered the 8x10x16 sandblasted beams and Sam looked like the world’s strongest man carrying one of them into our garage.  Since they are not the real deal, you do not have to worry about them drying out, cracking, or splitting.  Absolutely no worrying about pesky termites, either.  And because they are so lightweight, they are super easy to install, and cheaper to ship.  Plus, I never have to worry about a 600 lb. beam falling on anyone.  Yes, that is something that I actually worry about.  I only wish I was joking. 😉

Sam’s cousin, Justin, came down to help us him install them.  (I only snapped photos of their hard work while continuously telling them to be careful…I mean look at what he is standing on over our stairs.  Don’t worry…he is a professional and assured us that he’s done worse.  I cannot imagine.)

They were such good sports and had all 6 beams up in about 8 hours, which, in my book, was really fast!  All they had to do was follow the handy videos that were on AZ’s website provided by Superior Building Supply, who manufactures the beams.

We are beyond happy with the final result.  From start to finish, this was one project that Sam and I had so much fun completing and, David, at Arizona Faux Beams couldn’t have been nicer to work with.

I highly recommend checking out their products if you are in the market.  They not only carry faux beams, but they also carry decorative rafter tails, corbels, mantels, and faux stone panels.  Check them out and let them know Scout & Nimble sent ya!  😉  ***I get no benefit from Arizona Faux Beams…I just like to highlight companies that surpass my expectation and have incredible customer service.

Not to mention, the boxes that the beams arrive in make the best toys.  Our boys built an enormous maze in our backyard that kept them entertained for hours.

So, that was definitely a perk we were not expecting.  Now, I’m off to find some deals on a new light fixture for the room.  I’m thinking maybe a lantern…

or two. 😉

Linking up here…

A Room Makeover in Real Time

You all know I love a good before and after.  No matter what the subject, there is nothing like seeing a transformation take place.  I typically really like the surprise makeovers where you see a before and then are blindsided with the after.  You know the ones where it doesn’t even look like the same room, piece of furniture or person and forces you to really inspect.  However, the downside to this type of makeover is that it can sometimes seem effortless…like it was easy and happened overnight.  What about all the nitty gritty details?  What about all the oops moments, or the “Houston, we have a problem” surprises that accompany any project or change?  I think it’s sometimes nice to have the behind the scene look at the whole process.

So why are we talking about this?  Well, our master bedroom is in need of some fixing up and I thought it might be fun to take you through the makeover process in real time.  It could be two weeks <very unlikely> or it could be two years <let’s hope not>.

And as in any makeover, it always starts with the before pictures.  Not pin-worthy by any stretch of the imagination.  And just so you are aware, this room, in all of the 7 years we’ve been here, has never officially been completed.  It’s always been last on our list…poor guy at the bottom of the totem pole, which is really terrible since your bedroom is supposed to be your haven.  Ours, clearly, does not fit this description.

I do need to tell you that some items in these pictures are part of the transformation.  The duvet cover is new and kind of the inspiration for the room.  It is Lauren Ralph Lauren’s Northern Cape Bedding.  I found it at Marshall’s for less than $150.  Pretty good considering the one at Bloomingdale’s is $495 for a king.  I also moved this desk into the room when I knew I was going to give this room an overhaul.  And did you see that little leather ottoman…I found that at a flea market for $15.

It is staying.  I love the warmth of the leather and how sturdy it is (the boys actually love jumping from it showing off their super cool ninja moves and kicks).  But, the best part about this lil guy is the memories he stirs up for me.  He reminds me these little leather seats that were at my childhood local library.  There were orange ones and green ones all over the children’s section just waiting for a child with a book.  The library was always one of my favorite places to visit and I loved when my mom would take me there.  When I saw this ottoman it brought back so many memories.  I  remembered the heaviness of the front doors, the scent that hit you when you walked through them, and the feeling of pure joy as I would run back to “my section” to search for some great reads.  You can see why I had to have this ottoman and I about freaked out when I saw the price tag.  You see, it’s the little things like this that make a room for me.  To anyone else, it might just be a used ottoman, but to me it is so much more.  Not to get all sentimental about an ottoman on ya, but sometimes it’s not about what would coordinate perfectly with the room or the hottest items on the shelves…it’s about the stories behind the pieces.

So, there you have it…the start of our makeover.  We are $165 in and I’m hoping we can keep it below $400 for everything.  It’s going to be hard when I have had my eyes on this wallpaper in white for months now…it is absolutely positively out of the question, but a girl can dream, right?

Who’s shopping?

I am thoroughly enjoying this Cyber Monday…are you?

Turkey Day

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  We are still somewhat in a turkey coma and had an unbelievable time with our family and friends.  We slept too little, ate too much, and laughed until we cried.

So many funny moments that I know will become stories we’ll talk about at future get togethers.  Whether we were dancing, playing basketball, catching up with the best of old friends, every single moment was enjoyed…which is how the holidays should be, right?

Whose ready for Christmas? 😉

Thank you Mom & Dad for hosting yet another fabulous Thanksgiving for all of us!  You two are just the best…love you so so much.

 

 

 

An Update on our Water Campaign

Remember this post & campaign?  I was blown away by all of the support that came in for Scout & Nimble’s clean water campaign through charity: water and I don’t know a better time of year to reiterate a HUGE thank you to all of you who donated, prayed, and made a difference.

You wanna know where our money is right now??? 

That’s right! I just got an update from charity: water and they are putting our dollars to work on water projects in Ethiopia & Nepal.  We will know more details of exactly where our funds went within these countries down the road…remember we are still fairly early in our journey.

 

0-3 MONTHS We send your money to the field. 3-6 MONTHS Our partners get permits, supplies, pick sites & begin the work. 6-9 MONTHS Our partners collect midterm reports & send us the information. 9-12 MONTHS Our partners finish the work & train the communities to manage their water point. 12-15 MONTHS Our partners collect final photos, GPS & community information. 15-18 MONTHS We receive completion reports, verify the data, assign your dollars to projects & send you your report.

 

One of the reasons I choose to work through charity: water is that 100% of public donations are used to fund clean water projects.  (All the overhead costs are covered by foundations, sponsors, and donors who choose to help with operational funding.)  So that means all the money we raised back in March goes directly into the field.  It’s pretty amazing.  I’ll definitely keep you up to date as I hear more.  And if you want to see what charity: water is all about, you can learn more about their mission here!

Obsessed

And the bad blogger award goes to!?!  Wow, I know, I’ve been scarce, but I’m planning on making it up to you.  I’ve got some great projects in the works and will be sharing them with you super soon.  In the meantime, I have to share my latest fabric obsession with you.  I have been looking for the perfect black and white/linen fabric for this beaut

He has been sitting in the corner of our new office/den looking sad for far too long.  I was thinking of dripping him in this Chipper print by Premier Fabrics

 

 

but then I spied this…

It is called Stardust and it’s by Victoria Larson.  Is it not gorgeous??  And I love the inspiration behind the design

Created after a big, messy crafting session with my daughters that involved confetti. Rich, chocolate dots with a few bronzy highlights are scattered on a natural heavy Irish linen. The overall effect is almost animal print-like.

But wait, if you liked that one, then you might love this next one as much as I do, too…it’s Snow Leopard by Hinson & Co. and talk about animal print with class.

via

Talk about a dilemma.  I am literally obsessed with these fabrics, but every time I look at all of them together, the words of a certain Sesame Street song enters my head

One of these things is not like the others,

One of these things just doesn’t belong,

Can you tell which thing is not like the others

By the time I finish my song?

And if you guessed price, you would be correct.  The Premier Fabric is around $15 per yard whereas the other two are over $100 per yard.  Ouch…considering I need about 4 yards to recover my thrifted chair that cost me 20 bones.

Anyone know of any fabrics that I can add to my contenders with a price range more along the Premier side of things???  This girl and her sad chair would really appreciate it! 😉

Trick or Treat

Hope you all had a fun and spooky Halloween! xoxo!

Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint

Have you tried Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint, yet???  Ever since this post, I have been anxiously awaiting it’s release.  Mike and Laurie from Red Posie kindly sent me some to try and I am in love with this stuff.  I know it’s a bit more intimidating to use because of it’s powder form, but what it does on it’s own when it’s applied to wood is worth dealing with the adjustment!  I know Marian has said it before, but it really does have a mind of it’s own.

As soon as I received my sweet little package of Shutter Gray, I knew exactly where it was going.  Oliver’s changing table/dresser had really taking a beating over the past two and half years.

The changing pad buckle had really scratched up the finish on the top, but nothing that couldn’t be fixed with a little paint.  😉  Plus, all the furniture in his room is stained the same color so I figured it might be fun to have something a little different in there.

I threw caution to the wind and didn’t measure the powder and water.  I just mixed it until I got the right consistency that I wanted.  For all of you Type A personalities, you can mix 1 & 1/2 parts powder to 1 part water.  The package says to mix it with a blender, but I just used a brush to mix it up and it turned out great.  You will get some lumps and clumps and some of it will settle at the bottom, but just continue to stir and mix it up…it doesn’t have to be perfectly thinned out like regular paint.  I, personally, kind of like the clumps because when you brush them on, you get such great color variation.  It really is beautiful and adds so much dimension.

Then I went to town.  I didn’t do ANYTHING to this piece of furniture before painting it, besides wiping off a little dust and removing the hardware.  It really is so easy.  Slap your first coat on there and don’t freak out because it will look a little crazy.  I like to think of the first coat acting almost like a primer.  It doesn’t have to be a solid coat.  It doesn’t have to look good.  The brushstrokes don’t even have to go in the same direction.  Just get it on there and allow it to dry so your second coat has a little something to “grip” onto other then the old finish.  Here is what my piece looked like after the first coat.  Scary, right?  Just remember this is normal.

My first coat was literally dry in 5 minutes…milk paint is awesome like that.  Then, I started my second coat.  My timing was less than stellar because right after I finished the second coat, Oliver was ready for his nap.  Seeing how I was super lazy and didn’t even move the dresser from his room prior to painting it, I was forced to take a break.

And this next part is why I get so excited about this milk paint.  After his 2 hour nap (thank you God for blessing us with good sleepers), I went it and the dresser looked like this!?!

Milkpaint.is.awesome.  It totally did this on its own…the crackling, chipping, peeling awesomeness.  This was totally the look I was going for and what’s better is I didn’t even have to do anything to make it happen.  Even though, I loved the chippiness, I really wanted to do another coat because some spots were just not dark enough for me.  So, I just took my brush, dipped it into my paint and painted right over it.  Some of the paint flaked off, but I just kept putting on my third coat.  Here is what the top looked like after the 3rd coat.

After that was dry, you can see it still was crackling in a few places.  I took some Annie Sloan’s Chalk Paint™ in Old White and painted around the outside of the drawers.

Then I waxed the whole thing with Clear Soft Wax, really making sure to rub it into the piece with a old cut up t-shirt.  I often hear about people painting and waxing a piece only to say that they ended up with some shiny and dull spots…almost like a discoloration.  I showed an example below on the top of the dresser where I didn’t really rub it in on the back right corner.

See?  Using an old t-shirt or piece of cheesecloth to rub the wax into your piece will prevent all of that.  It helps distribute the wax evenly across the furniture and gives it the best finish.  While doing this some areas of the paint flaked away or crackled further which I loved.

This was taken right after I finished covering it in clear furniture wax.  Perfectly chippy in my opinion.  If you want to distress it more, then all you have to do is use a fine and medium sanding sponge or sandpaper to “sand” off more of the paint.

If you take this route and distress your piece more, you may want to do another thin coat of wax after your finished to “seal” your piece.  For those of you who do not want a “chippy” piece of furniture, you can use a bonding agent to get a solid finish, too, as Marian did here. 

via

Don’t be intimated with this stuff.  It is fun, quick, easy and best of all INEXPENSIVE.  A  bag of this (will make 1 quart of paint) is only $18.70 from Red Posie.  I didn’t even use a 1/4 of my package to paint this dresser.

And I can easily store the leftover powder in the bag and not have to worry about hammering lids back on paint cans or finding room for all those paint cans.  If you have a piece that needs to be freshened up, what do you have to lose?  $20 will get you a whole new look.  Plus, there are plenty of videos featured in the sidebar of Red Posie’s website that will help you along the way.

To order Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint or to view all 12 colors, visit Red Posie by clicking HERE or on their button below and have fun painting!

The Evolution of a Dining Room

I’d thought I would share one of the rooms I have been working on recently.  This is not finished by any means, but you can see the progression of our old dining room now turned office/den/relaxing corner/call it what you want to area.  This room is one of the first things someone sees as they walk into our house.  It’s technical name, I guess, would be the formal dining room.  And when we moved in, we felt very mature having a formal dining room and immediately made it formal.  Don’t laugh.

(I was getting ready to throw my sister’s baby shower in the pic, but originally there was a tapestry hanging on that back wall)  Now, don’t get me wrong.  It was a beautiful place, but apparently we are not very formal people and this room served more as a place to set things than a place to enjoy a family meal.

If you have followed my blog at all, you know one of my biggest pet peeves is wasted space.  I want to use every square inch of my home and I wanted this area to function for our little family of four.  And this was just not cutting it.  We ultimately choose to nix the formal dining room.  If you caught this post, you know I refinished the “formal” table and moved it into the eating area off the kitchen.  Buh bye formal dining room!

I know what you are thinking….

What do you do when you have a large group over for a nice dinner?

Seeing how we are “go with the flow” kind of people and have a life centered around our crazy kids, we happily arrange the food a la buffet style and then provide a plethora of seating options.  With our open floor plan, whether people situate themselves at the bar or at the table, we can all still talk, hang out and enjoy each other’s company.  We’ve even been known to let people eat on our couch…shocking, I know.  😉

Sidenote:  My down the road dream plan is to build a screened in porch with a HUGE harvest table…big enough to hold a family as big as the Braverman family from Parenthood…isn’t that great?  

A girl can dream right?

Alright, getting back to reality…after I moved the table out of the formal dining room, the room was in limbo and sat like this for a few weeks until I could figure out what our family needed from this space.

As time went on, our list of requirements for the room grew so I just decided to smoosh them all together and see how it came out.  I’m thrilled to say, so far, it’s working for us.

We are in mid transformation here…I still need to reupholster/change up the chair in the corner, sew new cushions for the daybed, install a new light fixture and style a few things, but you get the idea of the direction it’s going.

Do you spy the F. Schumacher Chiang Mai Dragon pillows?  I know!?!?!?!?!?!?  I have drooled and drooled over this fabric for over a year and I finally got some!?!?  From the best parents around…thank you, thank you, thank you…you guys rocked my birthday this year.  😀  (as you do every year!)

So, let me formally introduce you to our multi-functioning room.  This is our central hub area.  The black armoire holds all of our important mail/bills/cameras/printers and other electronic devices and serves as a great work area.

One day it might be me sitting here paying bills or blogging and the next day, Henry might be here playing abcmouse.com.  This area has no television which I loooove so if you want to curl up on the couch with a cup of coffee and a magazine you can actually enjoy some peace and quiet.  Plus, it is also the best place to sit and chat about the latest happenings with a friend who might pop in for a visit.

This area is quickly becoming one of my favorite rooms in the house.  It’s a great collection of thrift store finds (recognize the lamps from this post) and inherited pieces and I love how they all play off each other to create a carefree and fun oasis where I can come in and feel relaxed, yet energized.

I have a few more finishing touches that I hope to have completed by the end of the year and I’ll re-share. Like that goal setting?  I try.  If you have any questions about sources of items, I’d be happy to share…ask away! 😉