When In Rome...

do as the Romans do.  But since I'm not anywhere close to Rome, I'll just hang a (fake) roman shade and call it good.

Have you ever been bothered by something so much that you absolutely had to do something about it real quick like?  That's what happened to me with those cafe curtains I hung in the storage room (see the reveal here...I almost called this post the re-reveal but thought that might be a bit too far).  The curtain fabric was cute (and free!) and it paired nicely with the wall color...but that's it.  They were just wrong in here; not my favorite; best placed somewhere else.

In all reality, they didn't look too too bad but I had couldn't let go of the roman shade look and once you see those up, I think you'll agree that the cafe curtains had to go. 

Skim Coating the Bathroom Ceiling

I'm probably too happy to say that we finally have smooth ceilings in the kids bathroom!!!!!!!  It was a daunting project that we stared down the past month but finally tackled.  It only took us almost five years to get from painted popcorn that wouldn't budge to the leveled plane they are now.  Well, that and a good amount of joint compound and elbow grease.

When we first found out that we wouldn't be able to get the popcorn texture on this ceiling off like we did the others in our house, we talked about maybe covering them with something like tongue and groove planks or some sort of paneling but after researching how to skim coat (putting a thin coat of joint compound on top of the texture to make it look smooth), we decided to go that direction so they'd match all of the other ceilings in the house.  Not that all ceilings have to match because I definitely would not agree with that, but more importantly, putting on a skim coat was the cheapest option coming in (for us, because we had half the tools we needed) at just around $30.

While we should have done this ages ago, what really kick-started it was the fact that the popcorn above the shower was starting to crack and come off thanks to the super hot, super long showers our kids like to take.  At first, we got excited thinking that maybe the added humidity had, over time, dug into the texture making it removable now.  But, as we started chipping away at the stuff coming off above the shower, we realized we could only get so far until we were stuck once again with popcorn that wouldn't budge.

This is as far as we got:

With our hopes of an easy removal dashed, we planned out our first experience putting on a skim coat.

Skirtin' the Issue

The issue is that we have had two skirts in our to-sew pile for ages.  But last weekend after a rousing round of "I have nothing to wear to church!!!" 100% not true of course, we finally made time to take them in so they could be put in rotation.

Here are the skirts in their former state on two of the girls:

Too big.

 

And too big.

The top one is a J. Crew hand-me-down from a friend and the other I found at a thrift store and bought because I liked the pattern.

Our Next Project - the Kids Bathroom

A few years ago we tackled a Phase I makeover in the kids bathroom...and then we didn't touch the bathroom again. Not to mention the fact that we didn't actually get everything done that we wanted to in that phase.  Those plans are here.  We knew at the time that adding another sink to the vanity would happen someday but didn't have concrete plans (that would be an excellent pun if we were planning on concrete countertops in the bathroom like the ones we did in the kitchen...except we're not).  Fast forward to the now and our kids are bigger and double sinks would really, really help the morning routine go a little smoother so we've decided that there's no time like the present to get that ball rolling.

Here's basically what the bathroom looked like last week:

I stole this picture from a post I wrote three years ago and it hasn't changed one bit - except maybe adjust the shower curtain so it's less hanging correctly and toss countless hair accessories on the counter for good measure.

But things are really changing now, not quite yet for the better but changing nonetheless because it looks like this today: 

Storage Room Reveal!

Before we pop into the storage room to see how it all checked out, I'll just say quick that it definitely isn't one of our more glorious reveals (I think this one still takes the cake), but there is still a pretty big leap from before to after.  It's another one of those budget-friendly makeovers that we hold firm to, coming in at just under $180.  It really helped that the large cabinet was a free hand-me-down, the shelves were already here, and the upper wall cabinet we moved in from the kitchen.  It was on the wall we took down.

So, let's just start from the very beginning - the day we got the keys - the blank slate.  If I told you I pulled this photo from a 1980s archive, you'd have no reason to doubt me.

We moved in in 2019 and this is what this functioning corner looked like for many moons:

Hardware + A Fun Cabinet Upgrade

There's lots of new hardware in the storage room (still thinking I need to come up with a much more charming name...ideas?).  Some, like these double hooks*, have been hanging out for awhile, waiting for a fresh coat of paint on the wall to make them shine.

Adding Faux Legs to Cabinets | DIY

Sounds exciting, right?  Well, maybe not but over here, I get excited about adding legs where there aren't any.  Dressers, nightstands, and now cabinets.  It just seems to take things up a notch...get it, get it?  Up a notch?  ;)

Last year around this time I found three of these cabinets* at Dirt Cheap for 15 bucks a pop.  They're technically "upper" cabinets but with a little reinforcement, I figured I could use them as base cabinets since they were the perfect size for the kids' little drop zone in our storage room.  They were priced as such because each has damaged backing, nothing major and who will notice that damage anyway?

Not a single human being.  For $45, I'm banking on it.

My then-pregnant self got them from the car to the house with some very careful dragging on a blanket and set them up so I could see what we were dealing with. 

It was a start...one that stayed put for a whole year.  #storyofmylife

Hey There 2024

Are you like me, wondering where 2023 went?!  It seem like we were just stepping off the 2022 Christmas season and experiencing some spring weather when all of a sudden, boom, Happy 2024!  Or maybe it was the longest year ever for you and you're just happy to have made it.  Either way, 2023 is out and 2024 is the new in.

2023 wasn't a great year for the blog.  Our biggest project was birthed (quite literally) in February and it seems we took the rest of the year to recover and savor.  While we did tackle a few small things around our home, only one made it into writing.  We're ok with it though because it lets us start the new year with a healthy (low) standard that we can surely build on...

in between food storage clean up, of course. 

rug* (<---These types of Loloi rugs are my favorites for bathrooms and kitchens.)

We have a few "we can definitely get this done" projects on our docket this year.