One Room Challenge Week 4 – Update sliding closet doors with beadboard wallpaper

Posted on April 22, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Progress picked up over the last week in the master bedroom makeover for the One Room Challenge. Mostly because for at least some of the time my workforce tripled.

Saturday morning, my parents showed up, wallpaper tools in hand. They were there to help me cover our severely beat up closet doors.

Here’s a summary of the projects so far in the master bedroom:

The One Room Challenge has been hugely helpful in getting this makeover moving after my motivation waned. The room is coming together. Which brings us to this week’s task: the closet doors.

The doors appear to have had a number of things taped to them in the past. When the tape was pulled off, so was the finish on the doors.

My decorating philosophy at the farm is every room needs touch of something rustic. This bedroom is not at all rustic, but a touch of country would be appropriate.

Beadboard wallpaper would work.

I have never installed wallpaper. I’ve removed a lot of it, but never gone the opposite direction. I figured I’d need an extra pair of hands, so I decided to make sure the hands were experienced and called in my parents.

As she was brushing the paste onto the closet doors, my Mom recalled hanging grasscloth wallpaper in their first house in the late 1970s–on trend 35 years ago and on trend today.

She also recalled cherry wood beadboard lining the stairwell at the farm where she spent summers when she was growing up. Doesn’t that sound beautiful? This wallpaper is not quite the same, but it’s a good shortcut in my opinion.

The wallpaper went up really quickly, especially with three of us working on it. (As you can see, Baxter was his usual helpful self). In less than two hours, the doors were all covered.

Even though they were white-ish before, the wallpaper makes such a huge difference. The room looks so much fresher. And the vertical stripes make the doors look wider too in my opinion.

It’s been awhile since my parents and I have worked together. It was really nice to have their help. Thanks, Mom and Dad!

I’ve been working on my own for the rest of this week, but I’ve still been productive. The headboard is almost finished–good thing because I need to get it out of the guest room so my brother-in-law can sleep there this weekend–and the electrician is here today to work on the lighting. We’re getting there!

~~Buy a new bed~~ – Done
~~Remove popcorn ceiling~~ – Done
~~Patch ceiling and walls~~ – Done
~~Paint ceiling, trim, doors and walls~~ – Done
~~Make/find window treatments~~ – Done
~~Build hookboards for behind the door~~ – Done
~~Paint dresser and replace hardware~~ – Done April 6
DIY a headboard – By April 12 19 24
~~Refresh dinged up closet doors – By April 19~~ Done April 18
Relocate light switch – Cross your fingers that the electrician doesn’t run into any problems today
Replace light fixture – I’ll get the electrician to do this while he’s here
Come up with a jewelry storage solution – By April 26
Sew a bedskirt – By May 3
Decorate and personalize – ~~Ordered prints April 6~~. I’m still waiting for them to arrive. Come on postal service!

Only two weeks to go. Visit Calling it Home and cheer on the other participants as they head into the homestretch on the One Room Challenge.

Linking up to: Happy Housie DIY Challenge Party: Patterned and Textured Projects

One Room Challenge Week 3 – Master bedroom headboard

Posted on April 15, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Today marks the halfway point of the One Room Challenge. How are we here already?

This challenge seems to be flying past. Here’s where the master bedroom has come so far:

This past Sunday was my deadline to finish the headboard. It’s not quite done–yes, I’ve already missed a deadline–but I finally made a decision, so I can show you the direction I’m going.

The headboard was the spot where I didn’t have a clear vision. Should it be painted white like the dresser? Wood like the nightstands? Upholstered?

Brown paper wasn’t even close to the list… and it will not be the final product.

The paper is my mock-up and my template.

I decided to go with… drumroll… wood.

When I took a look at my master bedroom Pinterest board, I saw some common themes in headboards: one was a camel back shape and one was a more fanciful carved shape.

I decided to give the carved shape a try. I kept it simple, using a piece of plywood that I had left over from the growth charts I made for our littlest nephews. I think the unique shape of the edge will make up for the completely flat face.

After I traced my template, it was easy to cut out the headboard with my jigsaw. I still need to add some legs so that I can attach the headboard to the bedframe, and then I’ll use iron-on edging to hide the layers of the plywood. Finally, I’ll stain the headboard to match the pine nightstands.

So there’s a little bit of progress, but a little more work to do yet.

Here’s where we’re at on the overall makeover:

~~Buy a new bed~~ – Done
~~Remove popcorn ceiling~~ – Done
~~Patch ceiling and walls~~ – Done
~~Paint ceiling, trim, doors and walls~~ – Done
~~Make/find window treatments~~ – Done
~~Build hookboards for behind the door~~ – Done
~~Paint dresser and replace hardware~~ – Done April 6
DIY a headboard – By April 12 19
Refresh dinged up closet doors – By April 19
Relocate light switch – The electrician is booked to come April 22
Replace light fixture – I’ll get the electrician to do this while he’s here
Come up with a jewelry storage solution – By April 26
Sew a bedskirt – By May 3
Decorate and personalize – ~~Ordered prints April 6~~. Fingers crossed they get here in time.

Thanks as always for following along. Visit Calling it Home to check out the progress of all of the other One Room Challenge participants.

Scorched earth

Posted on April 13, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Hello everyone. Happy Monday. I hope you all had a great weekend. I feel like I need another weekend to recover from my weekend. It was super productive, so I am wiped.

You’ll see Saturday’s project in my One Room Challenge post later this week. Today, I have to talk about Sunday’s project. Sunday turned out to be a good garden day.

In my last garden update, I mentioned my plan to use the longe ring. I also mentioned my dilemma of how to clear it of weeds.

By Sunday, I had a bit of a plan of how to start. I also had a sidekick: my oldest nephew.

He loves being at the farm, and he and I work really well together. We also share another unique trait, which I’ll talk about in a minute.

Step one was to cut a new opening in the fence. There’s a gate, but it’s on the wrong side of the ring. Nick selected what he thought would be the best location for the new gate. I ran the saw, he used the drill and then the hammer to knock off the boards (yes, they were both nailed and screwed to the posts).

Voilà, access.

Then came the slightly dicey part of my plan–and the opportunity to exercise Nick’s and my shared trait: pyromania.

We piled some of the cardboard that’s been amassing in the driveshed in the middle of the ring. And then we lit it on fire.

After a bit of a slow start, things started to take off. And then they really took off. It wasn’t that bad though. I only hurled myself over the fence once to get away from the flames. And poor Baxter nearly strangled only once when he got tangled in the hose.

We quickly got everything under control. Nick ran the hose while I directed the fire with a rake.

When the smoke cleared, I still had a nephew, I still had a dog and I still had a fence around the ring.

But I didn’t have any weeds left. Yay!

Nick and I had been really careful to keep the fire inside the ring, so I spent another few hours hacking at the weeds outside the ring with my trusty rake. My plan is to have Matt mow a single loop around the outside of the ring to try and keep the weeds on the field side of the fence, so I needed to clear a path for him.

Three quarters of the way around the ring I found something that’s going to be harder to get rid of than the weeds.

Anyone need some carpet?

Who says, “I’ve got a huge roll of carpet. Let’s carry it out to the field and leave it there?” How is this a reasonable disposal option?

The carpet is either frozen or rooted to the ground, and by the time I found it I had pretty much lost the ability to raise my arms above my shoulders. So removing it will be a project for a future weekend.

But for now, let’s look at the garden!

You can actually see all of it for the first time. You can see the fence on the far side. You can tell it’s a ring.

Sure there’s still a long way to go, but some major progress has been made.

I’m pretty sure the roots of the weeds are still living, so tilling the soil is still going to be a challenge.

On my last post, Meghan suggested covering the ground with tarps for a few weeks to kill the weeds. I’ve read about this technique before, so now that the weeds are knocked down I think I might give it a try.

Once I regain the use of my arms, that is.

What did you do with your weekend? Have you ever done a controlled (or not-so-controlled) burn before? How about using a tarp to kill weeds? Any tips?

One Room Challenge Week 2 – Master bedroom progress report

Posted on April 8, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

It’s the beginning of week 2 in the One Room Challenge. Time for your first progress report on the master bedroom.

This makeover has been going on for a long time–longer than just the ORC. If you want to get caught up, here are the previous posts:

I’ve learned that I need schedules and deadlines if I want to complete a project in any reasonable amount of time. That’s part of why I love the ORC.

I posted my to-do list last week, but not my schedule. So to hold myself accountable, I’m going to put timelines on everything.

It may look like I’ve accomplished a lot already. Just remember this makeover has been running since Christmas.

Here’s where we’re at:

~~Buy a new bed~~ – Done
~~Remove popcorn ceiling~~ – Done
~~Patch ceiling and walls~~ – Done
~~Paint ceiling, trim, doors and walls~~ – Done
~~Make/find window treatments~~ – Done
~~Build hookboards for behind the door~~ – Done
~~Paint dresser and replace hardware~~ – Done April 6
DIY a headboard – By April 12
Refresh dinged up closet doors –By April 19
Relocate light switch – The electrician is booked to come April 22
Replace light fixture – I’ll get the electrician to do this while he’s here
Come up with a jewelry storage solution – By April 26
Sew a bedskirt – By May 3
Decorate and personalize – ~~Ordered prints April 6~~. Fingers crossed they get here in time.

The main accomplishment in the past week is painting the dresser. I didn’t realize how badly scuffed and chipped the black paint was until I started to prep for painting. It’s amazing what your eyes miss when you look at something every day.

I’m really liking how the white paint pops against the dark blue walls. The brass knobs and handles tie in with the hardware on our pine nightstands–and even better the new handles are the same dimensions as the old ones so I didn’t have to patch or drill any holes. That’s never happened for me before, and it felt like a major victory. (And yes, I know I’m missing two handles. They’re back ordered and are supposed to come in a week or two. Missing hardware seems to be a recurring theme of my ORC participation).

I think I’ve made some decisions about the headboard, so I’m crossing my fingers I can get that one done next weekend.

Thanks for following along.

And be sure to check out Calling it Home for all of the other ORC projects.

One Room Challenge – Master bedroom makeover

Posted on April 1, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

It’s One Room Challenge time again. This will be my second time participating in the Challenge, and things are a bit different this time around.

The room I’ve chosen to make over–our master bedroom–is already part of the way there. Yes, I took a head start. But those who have been around here for a little while know that I stalled. The One Room Challenge is my motivation to finally finish it.

For those that are new here, here’s where we started–our former guest room. Pretty, ain’t it?

Here’s the inspiration (from another ORC participant, no less):

Source: Chez V (found via Little Black Door)

And here’s where we are today:

Without a deadline, I’m finding it very easy to dilly-dally my way through this makeover. So the plan is to draw up a schedule and feed off the enthusiasm of other ORC participants and get this room done.

Here’s the plan (I’m reusing some of the text from previous posts so that those of you who are new can follow along):

~~Buy a queen size bed~~ – Done, except we decided to really upgrade and went for a king size.
~~Remove popcorn ceiling~~ – Scraping the ceiling was not the funnest way to spend a day, but this job is done.
~~Patch ceiling and walls~~ – Also known as, “how I spent my Christmas vacation” (yes, Christmas. I told you this makeover has been going on too long). Patching took such a long time. Done, thank goodness.
~~Paint ceiling, trim, doors and walls~~ – I had such a hard time picking a colour, but this one is done. Chez V’s makeover made me decide to go dark and dramatic with Hale Navy.
~~Make/find window treatments~~ – This was the when the makeover stalled. I discovered I do not like making curtains. So boring. But I’m finally done.
~~Build some hookboards for behind the door~~ – Extra hanging space is always a good idea.
DIY a headboard – No idea what I’m going to do here. White? Wood? Upholstered?
Relocate light switch – Oddly, the light switch is behind the door. It’s perfectly positioned if you used the mirrored pocket door from the other bedroom to enter the master. Weird.
Replace light fixture – I have a hand-me-down brass and crystal chandelier just waiting for a home.
Paint dresser and replace hardware – We have a beat up black dresser that we bought at a garage sale. I think it can be freshened up with some nice white paint and brass hardware.
Sew a bedskirt – I have some material left over from the curtains. A bed skirt can’t be as tedious as the curtains, can it?
Refresh dinged up closet doors – It appears our closet doors spent their past life as bulletin boards, except with tape rather than pushpins.
Come up with a jewelry storage solution – Notice I didn’t say a new solution. I’ve had no solution, and tangles of necklaces are getting really old.
Decorate and personalize – It will be nice to finally personalize a bedroom. Although the giant pink ape you saw above probably isn’t the personalization I’m looking for.

And finish it all by May 7 in time for the ORC finale. Stay tuned. And be sure to check out Calling it Home for all of the fabulous makeovers–or this week the plans for fabulous makeovers.

Put a ring on it

Posted on March 30, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Thanks so much to everyone who gave their advice on my vegetable garden post the other week. Everyone’s input was really helpful. Also helpful? Being home for a week. It allowed me to spend some time outside and develop my plans.

It also allowed me to change my plans.

The location I’d planned to put the garden just isn’t going to work. See that big wooden thing in the background? Our beautiful barn?

Obviously there’s a large tree too, but the barn is the bigger problem–literally. Because of the barn’s size, it casts a prodigious shadow. Too much of a shadow for a veggie garden, I’m afraid.

So new plan: Matt’s goat ring (aka the longe ring), gets to stay. It’s sunshiney pretty much all day. I’ll build the garden inside the ring.

Bonus: the fence is already in place. I don’t have to drill holes, set posts, or hammer boards.

Quandry: I have to break up the really thick sod somehow. This ring has been growing weeds for years. My father-in-law and mother both think I need to call our farmer for help. I’ve seen his tractors, though, and I’m concerned there’s nothing that will fit inside the ring. Remember, preserving the fence is a key bonus of using this spot.

Quandry 2: I’m not quite sure how to arrange a garden that is shaped like a ring. I usually think in terms of grids and boxes and rows. Arcs and pie wedges are hard to work out in my mind. Here’s a preliminary idea.

I feel like I need to get the ring cleared of grass and weeds so that I can see what I’m working with. It’s 56 feet across. That’s an area of roughly 2,462 square feet. Too big to wrap my head around. I’m not even sure I can fit it on a piece of paper at a scale of 1 foot=1/2 an inch.

Once I get it cleared, staking out the planting beds will be the first step. I have a suspicion that I’m going to have to cut some of the quadrants into slices. But first I need to understand how much space I actually have, what size beds will work and how much I’m going to be able to plant.

I’d still appreciate your advice, though. Any tips for working in the round? How much space do you think I need between beds? What would you plant? How would you lay things out?

Master bedroom move-in

Posted on March 25, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

I mentioned at the beginning of the week that we made a wee bit of progress on the master bedroom makeover.

Here it is.

Yes, we have moved into our new bedroom. And obviously, Baxter is exhausted from the journey across the hall.

It’s still not done, but having our bed in the room and our clothes in the closet–and our dog on the bed–feel like major progress to me.

You may recall that this makeover started 3 months ago. Right after Christmas, I scraped the stipple ceiling. That was honestly the hardest part of the project. There’s no good reason why this is taking me so long.

The master bedroom is one of my Home Goals for 2015. One of my other Home Goals is to take it easy on the projects and not hold myself to such strict timelines as I did last year.

Obviously, I’m succeeding at the latter of those goals.

For some reason, I’m just not getting excited about this makeover. I’m hoping that will change soon though. The spring One Room Challenge launches next week. I’ve decided that finishing the master bedroom is going to be my entry.

I was super excited about the laundry room makeover that I did for the Challenge last fall, and I really enjoyed participating with all of the other bloggers.

So I’m reverting to my old ways. There will be detailed timelines, regular updates and lots of progress. (Please, let there be progress).

Until then, commiserate with me, please. Do you have a long-running makeover? Have you ever undertaken a project that didn’t seem that interesting? Any tips for pushing through?

Help plan the vegetable garden

Posted on March 13, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

I’m starting to think about my vegetable garden.

You may recall that this garden does not exist yet. Even moreso right now since everything is still buried in snow.

However, that’s not stopping me from thinking about layouts and plants and dimensions and fencing and fertilizer and trellises and… and… and…

The garden is my one and only outdoor project for this year.

Would you help me with planning, please?

The objective is to turn the patch of burr bushes behind this little picket fence…

Into a bucolic oasis like this.

A beautiful country vegetable garden from Country Living

Source: Country Living

No sweat, right?

Here’s what I’ve sorted out so far.

I’m going to dismantle what Matt calls the “goat ring” (I think it’s a longeing ring for horses) to get my fencing.

Under this mound of snow, I have a stash of wood posts that I can use either for fencing or for edging the garden beds.

I’ve collected a few rolls of chain link that will be helpful to keep small hungry critters from munching on my produce.

Aaaaaand that’s about all I have so far.

Next week is spring break. I’m taking a vacation from the day job, which means a little more time at home to work on projects. One project is starting to map out the garden.

I don’t think I can do much more than that until the snow melts.

I’m going to be taking a break from the blog for the week too. While I’m away, I’d really appreciate it if you could offer your suggestions for the garden.

What should I plant? How should I organize the garden? What dimensions are best for the individual beds? How big should the garden be overall? What’s the best way to get rid of the burr bushes and prepare the soil? Do you have a garden yourself? What grows best for you? Are there any garden blogs I should be reading? Thanks in advance for your help.

Add just a shade of grey

Posted on February 6, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

I absolutely did not know what colour I wanted to paint the master bedroom. Something light and soothing? Maybe a shade of green or grey? Was this my moment to finally just go with white?

If you take a look at my master bedroom Pinterest board, you’ll see I was all over the map.

When I finally settled on navy blue, it was a snap decision. There was no sampling, no questioning, not even a paint chip. I walked into the hardware store and asked for a can of Hale Navy.

I’d seen it on a couple of other blogs. I liked all of the rooms I’d seen it in. Might as well give it a try.

But when I opened the can, I wasn’t sure. It looked so grey! I thought I’d chosen blue!

Now that the room is painted, I couldn’t be happier with the colour, and I’ve learned an important lesson. Whatever colour you’re thinking of, go a little bit grey.

This insight isn’t anything new. Young House Love did a great post a couple of years ago showing how the colour you envision might not turn out the way you think it will once it’s on your walls.

However, experiencing it myself in front of my own eyes was different than reading about it on my computer screen. I’m going to share my lesson on your computer screen nonetheless.

Here’s the Hale Navy chip from Benjamin Moore’s website. Very grey to my eye.

Here’s the paint on my brush. Still very grey in my opinion.

And here’s the paint on the wall. Thanks to natural light and the vagaries of photography, this looks very blue. (Ignore the random furniture. We haven’t set up the room yet, so we’ve just stuffed some of the guest room furniture back in the room. Although I do love how the wood desk pops against the blue).

Here’s the paint up against the bright white trim. This is a bit truer to how Hale Navy looks IRL.

We’re plodding along ever so slowly on our master bedroom makeover. With my promise to be more flexible this year, I haven’t set any deadlines for myself. But that means we’re still a little ways away from moving into our new room. Here’s where we’re at:

~~Buy a new bed~~
~~Remove popcorn ceiling~~
~~Patch ceiling and walls~~
~~Paint ceiling, trim and walls~~
DIY a headboard
Relocate light switch
Replace light fixture
Make/find window treatments – In progress
Paint dresser and replace hardware
Refresh dinged up closet doors
Decorate and personalize

Do you have any projects on the go right now? How are you doing on your 2015 to-do list? Do you have any tried and true strategies for picking paint colours?

Scraping a stipple ceiling

Posted on January 30, 2015 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Pimples. It’s not even a nice word.

Popcorn. That’s a much nicer word.

Stippled ceilings have come to be known as popcorn ceilings. However, in my opinion, popcorn is much too nice of a word to be associated with these ugly ceilings. Not to trigger any traumatic teenage flashbacks, but stippled ceilings are closer to pimples than popcorn.

Step one in the master bedroom makeover was to help the ceiling grow up from its ugly adolescence into beautiful adulthood–and I couldn’t just make like a fashion magazine and airbrush.

It was gonna take muscle, and it was gonna be messy.

So, armed with an all-clear on my asbestos test, trowels, a spray bottle of water, pole sander, extra sandpaper and a dust mask, I went to work.

In the basement where we also had stipple ceiling, I actually sanded a lot of it off. This technique gave me a really nice smooth finish, even if it did generate a tonne of dust. In the bedroom, I found soaking in water and then scraping with the trowel worked best. As much as the big yellow trowel would have been faster, I liked the control of my little trowel.

It was still a lot of work. Scraping a stipple ceiling is not fun. However, fueled by ju-jubes, I got it done. (My skin may have progressed from its teenage years, but my diet has not. The orange ones are still my favourite).

Underneath the stipple, the drywall was smooth and painted, which leads me to ask why? Why finish a ceiling smooth, paint it and then cover it in pimples? I just don’t understand.

We all know the prep work is most important to get a good paint job. I spent more time on prep for the bedroom than I ever have before. Scraping the ceiling, scraping the caulking from between the crown molding and the ceiling (ugh), patching hundreds of little chips in the ceiling (they were just minor chips of paint, but there were truly hundreds of them), patching one bad ceiling seam and one crack in the wall, sanding and pasting over again.

It took days.

Thank goodness I was off work for the Christmas break. Although it wasn’t the most restful holiday.

In the end though, my ceiling is all grown up and pimple-free. Much nicer to look at when I’m lying in bed in my new master bedroom. (Apologies for the really bad photo, but I think you can tell it’s nice and smooth. Oh, and there’s a sneak peak of the blue walls).

Have you ever scraped a stipple ceiling? Any techniques to share? Any insights on why people stipple ceilings? And most important, what colour ju-jubes are your favourite?