Tuesday, 13 March 2018

My first big DIY projects in the new house

Well hello! How was your weekend? We went away for a mini family vacation to one of our favorite places on Earth -- New York City. As always, we only stay for a few days but we pack in a TON! I've shared our love of the city many times over the years and shared tips on what to see and do on a quick trip to NYC. Be sure to check it out if you are looking to travel there!

We're back and settled and I'm finally going to bite the bullet and buy a new saw this week. It disappeared in our move and I'm feeling frozen without it. I have so much I want to do in the house and I gotta have one to get moving! All these ideas are swimming around in my head -- I wanted to share a few with you.

Before we even had drywall in this house I knew what I wanted to do with this fireplace wall in our family room:
Tall ceiling and fireplace in family room

We LOVE love love the tall ceilings in this room. 

I've shared this photo with you before because it was our inspiration for our old house. We looked into adding on to that house years and years ago, and this picture was my dream for the family room: 
Tall fireplace wall with gray paint

Well idea that was squashed quickly -- the quotes for a project of that scale were way too much. So we did the next best thing (for WAY less) and knocked down a wall instead

But when we walked into this house...I knew I could recreate the look, at least a bit. Obviously our current ceilings aren't as ornate as those in the photo, but we do have the fireplace! I've always known I wanted to add a dark paint to the fireplace wall, now I just need to figure out the color. And the wall treatment! That's the part I'm most excited about. I want to do something with molding but haven't decided on the exact look just yet. It's almost there in my head...

That wall is calling out for something to add some contrast to the room!

And remember when I said I wasn't going to add built ins next to the fireplace? And remember when I said don't quote me on that cause I may change my mind? Well...my mind may be changing. ;) I'm starting to get an idea in my head of how I want this to look and I think simple built ins would be lovely. We'll see what I decide! I know my ideas will change because I have to live in a space a long time before I know exactly what I want to do.

One project I want to start sooner than later is our powder room: 
Small powder room with gray vanity

Funny, because our powder room was the first room I redid in the old house nearly 14 years ago too. It was my first project with power tools and let's just say I'm a little bit more knowledgeable now. ;)

I want some contrast in here too (can you tell I love it?) so I plan to add a simple board and batten look to the bottom two thirds like I did in our old family room:
Tall white board and batten

And then I've been playing around with wallpaper on top. I saw this gold flecked peel and stick wallpaper at Target last week and fell in LOVE!: 
Gold speckled peel and stick wallpaper

Gah, I just think it's awesome. (Here's is an affiliate link for that version.) I just don't think it's enough contrast for me in this room. Instead I'd really love to add this to my master closet someday. 

I found this linen-looking wallpaper online (also at Target as well) and I LOVE IT:
Blue and gold linen-like wallpaper
It's a navy blue (you know I love that) with gold in it. The room has brass accents so I think it's going to be really beautiful. The reviews on this peel and stick stuff are great online -- have any of you tried it? I'm really excited to try this out!

A project I hope to finish up in the next few of weeks is the stairway wall. You may remember this inexpensive wood wall I did in the old house:
Inexpensive wood wall in stairway

We loved it so much I'm going to do it again, just with some tweaks. 

The landing to our basement in this house is quite a bit bigger, so it will make even more of an impact!:
Landing wall in stairway

Those frames have been sitting there since we moved in! I've had them for years (from IKEA) and every time I went to get rid of them (we didn't have room for them in the old house) I decided against it. I'm glad I did! They're going to look SO good on that wall when I'm done. I may have to do something fun with the light fixture as well. 

I've also been playing around with molding ideas for the long wall in our foyer:
Long foyer with dresser and round mirror

Right now I'm planning on going with a floor to ceiling idea like this one: 
Floor to ceiling trim squares/wainscoting on wall

I've always loved the full wall look and am excited to add it to this house. (It's just a larger version of this wainscoting I've done in the past.) I think that wall will be perfect for it -- I just have to decide on a color. I'm thinking white but may go crazy and pick a dark color. :) Our foyer gets a lot of light so I can go darker in there if I want. We'll see what I decide!

By the way, if you know a source for that photo let me know! I've had it saved for awhile. 

Now I'm off to find a new saw! I'm ready to dive into this projects. Let me know if you've tried that peel and stick wallpaper and if you have any tips! It's been so fun to dream up these projects for our new home! 



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from
http://www.thriftydecorchick.com/2018/03/my-first-big-diy-projects-in-new-house.html

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