So I took advantage of some down time, drove the three hours out there to start to tackling this room. Usually when I go out there by myself, I take advantage of the quietness and the mild weather and just relax.  Even though I had this beautiful view tempting me, I stayed focused on the work to be done

The before started like this

The first thing I wanted to do, is make the wood board I brought out into a headboard.  Let me tell you, the wood on this board is dense and hard.  I think it must of weighed 80 pounds at least.  Moving it around by myself was not an easy task.

I was pretty proud on how I was able to pull this off.  It is what I came up with while browsing HomeDept.  I used the wonderful cutting service at HomeDepot and had them cut a 2×4 to three 15″ pieces.  Then I bought these metal brackets, which I have no idea what they are called, and screwed them to the wood plank board and the cut 2 x 4.  I did this on both sides for extra stability.

Did I mention how heavy and large this board was?  It was 60″ long and 35″ wide and really hard for just one person to move around.

I then drilled holes through the 2×4 and used a bolt and a nut to secure it to the bed frame.  My method worked out perfect, the headboard was very stable and sturdy {patting myself on the back on this one!}

Once I took out all the floral bedding and striped valances,  then I started taping off the walls.  The taping for me is probably the worst.  I actually did pretty good this time, which surprised me!   Our house is on the outskirts of town, and running to Home Depot takes an hour round trip, so I just used what ever brushes I had out there, which was really limited.  The painting began and man, I forgot how hard it is to paint walls!  I can’t say I was in love with the light grey color, it has a lavender tone to it, but I wasn’t going to drive all the way to town and get new paint, so I just went with it

I was trying to achieve a lacquered look with the dark grey, so I used a high gloss Martha Stewart paint. It turned out ok, not as shiny as I was hoping for. I might even go back and paint a high gloss sealer over the top to give it more shine and depth.

The grey duvet from Westelm that was on my Oliobard was not working, so luckily I had brought this mustard duvet as a back up.  It is from Westelm as well, but was on clearance for $40.

I was on the fence on the lighting and the nightstands.  Now that I don’t have the valances and the wreaths on the wall, I can for sure go for a longer and wider hanging light.  The 3 light chandeliers are seeming wimpy now {I know the ceiling fan isn’t attractive, but it has to stay due to how hot it gets out there in the summer, it is a necessity}

I would love to use these from Restoration Hardware, it brings in the glam but also the rustic.  But they are pretty pricey.  I am hoping I can find something similar

The nightstands are too visually heavy and need to be replaced with an open curvy leg.  I am thinking these from Home Decorators Collection could work

But I would paint them high gloss white.  The bed needs to be lowered so that you can see more of the headboard, so now I am going to get a low profile box spring.  Then I have to address how to cover the box spring.  Since I don’t want a bed skirt, I think I will use a grey fitted sheet to cover the box spring.  But the rug and bench are perfect!

The last thing I did was hang some fun letters on the wall.  And I mean that literately

Aren’t those fun? lol  They are vintage marquee letters that I found here locally at Urban Barn.  I am going to keep them the blue.  I was originally thinking I might want to paint them white or plum to match the room. But to me they are a piece of artwork, and having them blue makes them feel more like artwork than just an accessory to the room.

I still have the other side of the room to do which I haven’t shown you.  But I am happy with the progress I have gotten done so far.  It will take me awhile since it isn’t convient for me to just pop over there and work.   This part of the room was the hardest and I am glad I got it done. But the next time I go out there I am for sure going to take more time to relax, oh and sit in the room and marvel at my headboard.

F U N progress on the bedroom is a post from: Cre8tive Designs Inc.

Back to the post…I finally finished painting the BBQ faux stone that we had purchased from Costco 3 years ago.  It took me awhile due to weather, plus it wasn’t such a smart idea to start this project in the fall.  The days weren’t warm enough to let my layers dry, and we had some rain lately (San Diego get rain? yeah we freak when it rains here, don’t ask).

Here is what it looked like before in all it blah white state

Here is what it looks like now

Major difference huh?  Even close up it looks pretty good.  The highs and lows were already there, but since it had faded so much you couldn’t see them anymore.  I used glazes and some dry brushing to get the overall effect.  Then sealed it with a satin polyurethane.

One panel on the backside had faded different than the rest.  You can see it in the middle of this picture, right below the back of the BBQ grill

I tried to blend it as best as I could, but this was as good as it was gonna get. (I just noticed that I need to use some high heat appliance spray on that black part. The sprinklers must be doing that)

I am going to do a tutorial on how I did my finish, I even recorded some video on my iPhone to help understand the process.  So you get to see my wrinkly hands and hear my annoying voice. {I don’t know anyone who likes to hear their voice on video do you?}  This type of faux treatment can be used on interior bricks.  You know the dated fireplaces that you want to replace but don’t have the funds to do it.  You can transform it to any stone color, I chose to use the tan colors since it blends with the rest of the natural stone I have in my yard.  But you can get any stone color you want with the same technique I used.  I am hoping to get the tutorial up on Monday, so check back if you are interested in doing this.

So in the end, this wasn’t a one day project like I had thought it was going to be.  But I stuck with it, and finishing it really gives me a sense of accomplishment.  Just for fun, I will leave you with a side by side of the before and after.

Linking up to these fun parties!

Painting a faux {fake} stone bbq island is a post from: Cre8tive Designs Inc.

But since it is Halloween, I thought I could get away with doing a posting of creepy creatures.  I don’t know what makes your skin crawl, but mine is snakes and mice.   They give me the willies. Being that we live on a hill surrounded by open space, those two creatures are frequent around here, and it creeps me out.

Last week I was walking down our hallway at 8:00 at night, and saw this!

I thought snakes only came out during the day when it is hot!  Now I don’t go down any hallway or  walk into a room without turning on a light….freaks me out just looking at this picture. {Sorry for the bad pictures in this post.  All pictures were taken with my iPhone}

This weekend I started what I thought was going to be a one day project.  Yeah right.  More like a 5 day project..

We got this bbq island about 3 years ago from Costco.  Over time the sun has bleached the finish on the fake stone fronts to white.  Here is the back of it all bleached out.  You can’t even see that it has a high and lows on the faux stone.

When we bought it, it was a gray looking “stone”.   So I decided I would faux finish the now white “stone” to a more realistic looking stone that matched the rocks in our yard.  Well it is not as easy as I thought, and once I got the finish down that I liked,  it turned out to be a 4 step process

First step, cover the whole thing with a raw umber glaze, already a huge difference, but it still didn’t have enough depth

As you can see from what is sitting on top of the bbq, I have a concoction going on.  I am mainly using raw umber for the base and then going over it with a mocha glaze and then adding highlights of dark and light with acrylic paints.  I am using a rag, and an artist brush to put on the different layers. I am going to seal the whole thing with a clear polyurethane.  Tedious I tell you!

So what is so creepy about doing this?  See that hole on the white part in the picture above?  Well, that is where this guy was staring at me from when I started to paint the backside

Needless to say, I went running and haven’t gone back since.  Today I had my husband check the BBQ out from head to toe to make sure there aren’t any more creatures inside so I can finish my “one” day project.

I hope all of you who get trick and treaters and/or little ones to take trick or treating had a wonderful time.  For me,  I will be out painting until the sun goes down or sooner if another creature comes scurrying out of the bbq.  When my masterpiece is all done, I will post pictures, but it might be awhile at this rate

Creepy and Crawly for Halloween is a post from: Cre8tive Designs Inc.

My chandelier before

My chandelier after

Notice a difference?  Yeah, it isn’t that much of a difference unless you get really close

I know it isn’t very obvious, but it is a heck of a lot better than those ugly UL tags  And it made me clean my chandelier too, it so sparkly now

A close up of the before

And after

The beeswax sleeves were only $2.85 each, so I feel it was well worth the money for the finished look I got, even though it is subtle.   It just feels finished now.  What do you think?

Beeswax candle sleeves are here! is a post from: Cre8tive Designs Inc.

Just to give you an idea of how popular this style of chair is and what it sells for

Horchow has a pair of these identical chairs for $699

Which actually seems like a good deal compared to Jonathan Adler chair at $695 for just oneOf course neither compares to my price of $10 LOL

This type of side chair is such a classic style, it can pretty much fit into any style of design.  Just by changing the color and fabric it can go from traditional to modern effortlessly.

This dining room has a farmhouse style to it, but the chairs flow perfectly with the design.

Via decorpad

It is a very versatile chair because you can change it’s look so easily with paint and a 1/2 yard of fabric.

Via decorpad

Via decorpad

I really didn’t have a specific place in mind for this chair when I purchased it, but knew for the price it was going home with me.  Then it came to me,  my niece needed a chair for her bedroom and this was the perfect size for her room.  Since it was her birthday last month, I thought I would give her this chair and a small white desk for her room. She told me she wanted some color in her room so I decided to go bold and spray paint it deep purple

I can’t say I am 100% happy with the color.  I had purchased the perfect purple from Michaels, but needed two cans and they were out.  So I went with another brand from Home Depot, thinking it was going to be the same, but it wasn’t.  I was looking for more of a grey purple to match the lavender velvet fabric I found, but I think it leans toward Barney purple.

As you can see, I didn’t finish upholstering the seat because the fabric wasn’t working for me.  I thought it needed a pattern on the seat to keep it fresher looking, so I found this fabric at Joanns

I love the damask but the purple color on the chair still isn’t doing it for me.  Sometimes I look at it and love it, and then sometimes I see My niece hasn’t seen it yet in person, but from the pictures I have sent to her, she isn’t hot on the purple either.  But that is what is great about this chair, all I need to do is get some more spray paint and poof!  I can change out the color.  I need to find a desk and put it next to the chair in her room and see how it looks before I change the color.

I still need to get a desk to go with the chair.  I thought it would look great with a mini parsons desk like this one from West Elm

But it is pricey, $199, especially for a birthday gift.

Wal-mart has one similar for $29

What? $29, now that is doable!  The reviews are mixed on the Wal-mart desk, but I might just order it and take my chances.

So if you are cruising Craig’s list, garage sales or estate sales and come upon this type of chair for a great price, snag it!  I guarantee you can find a spot for it, no matter what your design style is.

Faux bamboo Chippendale style side chair is a post from: Cre8tive Designs Inc.

Then Melissa, from Made in the South listed me as one of her  “Fabulous Friday Four” blogs today.  Wow, that was a huge surprise and such an honor.  Just to think that someone other than my family likes my blog always floors me! Go check out the other bloggers she listed today, you won’t be disappointed.  {I already pinned a lot of their stuff lol}

Ok, now that I told you about all the fun things that happened today, I can show you my revamp of my coffee table.

I have decided that I like to put my feet up when I sit on my settee in my studio.  I love my cute, thrift shop, $5 coffee table that I previously re-purposed with paint, fabric and Mod Podge.

The fabric on the table has held up very nicely, and there wasn’t a darn thing wrong with it.  I just need more softness under my legs. {or maybe I need to get off that settee and get some work done…lol}

So off to Joann’s I went.  I decided to use hot pink pleather and do some diamond tufting for fun. {I use the term “diamond tufting” loosely here, it is more like my version of diamond tufting, not exact but good enough} I bought one yard of fabric and with my coupon I spent $5.  I already had the foam and button covers, so I was good to go.

Now I am not a professional upholsterer by any means, but I can You Tube anything.  So that is what I did.  I watched a couple of videos got out my staple gun and off I went.  I used blue tape to mark my spots and then drilled the holes {as you can see I made a couple of mistakes and had to circle the actual ones that I needed to drill}

Then I turned my coffee table over and traced the table on to the foam.  I use a electric carving knife to cut the foam, I have found this is the best way to cut foam.  I opted not to use batting over the foam, pure laziness on my part.  Professionals use it but since I am professional impatient person who wants things done yesterday, I skipped this step.  Plus my fabric was plenty thick enough to enable me to eliminate this step.  If I was using a thinner cotton fabric, I would of used batting.

I didn’t take a picture of the next step because it was too hard to hold a camera and thread a needle through the table and fabric at the same time.  But this is what I did.

I laid my yard of fabric evenly on all sides on top of the foam. Then I threaded a long needle with some embroidery thread {that is all I had, you are suppose to use heavy upholstery thread} through the table, foam and fabric, and then went back down through all three layers again.   I stapled the thread to the under side like this

{they suggest to mark the foam to the holes and cut a hole through the foam, I skipped this step and just felt my way through the foam with the needle.  Once again, not the professional method but it worked fine for me}

Once I got all my “tufting” done, I started stapling the fabric underneath and cut the excess fabric

It turned out semi “diamond” like,  good enough for me.  Then I used the button cover kits you get from Joanns and cut out squares of white fabric and made the buttons for the tufting

I tied off my embroidery thread on the clasp to secure the button

These are the type of needles to use for tufting, they have different lengths depending on how deep your tufting is

I took my button and long needle and threaded it through the tufting down under the table and stapled it again to the under side of the table to secure the button.

I choose white vinyl fabric for the buttons instead of the  pink pleather.  Gives it some pizazz and fun to the top don’t you think?

I always feel so energized and cre8tive when I am in my studio with all the fun colors I have used in there.  I just love the new addition of the tufted pink pleather coffee table.   It is going to be hard not to be lounging on that settee and propping my feet up instead of working.

Linking up to these fun parties

Tufting a coffee table..my version is a post from: Cre8tive Designs Inc.

But the truth is, it isn’t really real.  I mean real as in real life.  There are no toys laying around, dishes in the sink, clothes on the floor, mailed piled up on the counter, you know, how life really is?

Everything we see is styled, put away and designed with a budget most people can’t afford.  That is why we love looking at them right?  To dream of how we would love our home to look if only we had the money, the time and the talent to pull it all together.

I have had numerous readers e-mail me and ask if I could just give them some suggestion on what they could do with their space to spruce it up.  They are on a budget, and pretty much have to work with what they have.   So, being the fanatic obsessed design person that I am,  I have them send me pictures and I  email them my suggestions.

Recently I have been helping  one of my readers, her name is Emily.  She just felt like her house wasn’t put together and wanted to know if I could give her some suggestions how to spruce it up.    We started with her entryway

Her home was recently built and painting the walls was out of the question since they had just painted them.  And the other problem was that her son was asthmatic and she was told by her doctor to help with the asthma, it would be best not to have drapes, and carpet in her house.  That makes it challenging for sure!

I had her send me pictures of every room in her house.  I asked her to do that so that I could see what pieces of furniture and or accessories she might have that we could re-purpose for this space.

The first thing I suggested to Emily was to make her entryway more welcoming and styled.  It is the first impression people have when they come through your door.

I had her pull 2 lamps that were in her bedroom that I thought would work better in the entryway, and suggested she take out some of the items she had in the shelves and add more decorative items and baskets to hide the real stuff. Using  a larger more colorful outdoor rug for the floor would also add some warmth.  I found out that outdoor rugs can be used for people with asthma rather than a cotton or wool rugs. and with the variety of outdoor rugs out there now, it won’t limit Emily’s choices, which is great.

I love that sign!  I think she did a beautiful job with my suggestions.

On the other side of the entryway, I suggested that she take the bookcase she had in her guest room and put it in the spot where she had the tall bookcase.

Looks pretty darn good doesn’t it?  She could always paint the bookcase white to match the other one, and she is planning on getting a large piece of artwork to replace the one she has there now.  It really is so much more welcoming now don’t you think?

Sprucing up Emily’s house wont be done over night and ready for a magazine spread.  But this is what I feel what most people deal with,  real life, real design in a real space.   Through various emails,  I have given Emily the tools she needs to continue with on with sprucing up the rest of her house and making it feel more put together.    It has been fun helping Emily out, she is supper excited now to decorate the rest of her house, and feels like she has the confidence to do on her own.

Sources (1) (2)

Real Life, Real Design, Real Spaces is a post from: Cre8tive Designs Inc.

I took on this challenge for Priscilla,  someone whom I have known since she was 7.  She is now 33.  She was my shadow for years, helping me with my girls when they were little, dressing them up, playing with them and just being my buddy.  I have watched her grow up and now have two beautiful kids of her own, whom I love dearly,  she is a big part of our family’s life.  I rarely say no when she asks me to help her with a home decorating project.

She originally got the chairs off of Craig’s list and they looked like this

They were in good shape, but she didn’t like the fabric or the finish.  She was in the process of putting her living room together and wanted them to match the club chair she already had for the room {how cute is her dog peeking over the chair?}

Her style is shabby chic.  Once I got them, I just started stripping them down.  Yeah, anyone who has done these chairs knows that there are one heck of a lot of staples to remove!  But I did it. Even re-strapped one of the seats.  {luckily I was taking pictures during the process to email to Priscilla for approval.  Other wise I wouldn’t have proof of my hard work because this was before my blogging days)

Then I mixed my own paint color to match the club chair, white washed the finish, and then sanded them back for the shabby look

I choose a stripped fabric from my first re-upholstery job.  BIG MISTAKE.  Do you know how hard it is to pull a stripe straight when you are stapling?  It is hard.  I can not tell you how many times I stapled and then had to take them out because the stripes were crooked.

Hours, upon hours I spent on these chairs.  Cursing and sweating for days on end.  Doing the backside was really, really hard.  But I wasn’t going to give up.  I got both of them done, and it was a proud moment for me.

{shoot, this picture doesn’t show the second one being done or the welting on the top portion of the back,  but believe me, I finished them}

So off to Priscilla they went.  Done, done done.  Never ever again I said to myself.  She can pay someone next time, it wasn’t a project I ever wanted to do again.

A couple of months later after Priscilla had them in her living room,  she decided she really needed a playroom, and the living room was the perfect space…which meant the chairs were no longer needed.  Are you kidding me? My heart sank when she told me her new plan.  It made sense, but still!  I expected her to keep these chairs for life and pass them on to her kids.  I don’t think Priscilla was expecting my not so nice reply when she told me her new plan….let’s just say she felt pretty darn bad.  So she stored them, knowing she could never, ever,  get rid of them after that conversation.

Fast forward 2 years later.  The playroom transformation is totally cute and finished. {wish I had some pictures to show you} But Priscilla still had the chairs stored in her garage.  Recently, she decided she wanted to use the chairs again, but this time in her family room.  The problem is, the fabric and finish doesn’t go with her decor in her family room.  She emailed me one day, and said she was in love with the way Miss Mustard Seed slip covered her settee

Well, we all know that Marian is the queen of slip covering and upholstering, amongst a thousand other talents.  I wasn’t up to the challenge, thank you very much.  But  I knew someone locally who could do the chairs like how Priscilla wanted, so off they went to get ANOTHER makeover.  She did an awesome job, and was pretty reasonable in her price {although Priscilla is used to my labor price…FREE! lol }

Pretty darn cute huh?  {these pictures are not of the chairs in Priscilla’s living room.   One of them still resides at my house until she comes down to get it, I took the pictures in my office}

To save money, we just had her slip cover over the existing fabric I had originally put on the arms and seat and then she re-upholstered the back {better her than me is all I can say!}

We used a brushed white twill fabric.  It was from a king duvet I had that I wasn’t using.  It worked perfectly.  She also re-painted  the finish to go with Priscilla’s family room colors.

Aren’t the ruffles cute?

I actually love the new look.  Yeah, I probably could of done this for her, but once was enough for me!  Priscilla loves them, she can throw the slipcover in the wash and still have a nice fabric underneath while she washes them.  So technically, kind of sorta, she is still using my original chairs.

The twice re-do bergere chairs is a post from: Cre8tive Designs Inc.

Here is the dresser as it was given to us, it is beautiful piece, but just needed some TLC to bring it back to life.  I love the fret work on the front and the curvy sides.

I of course thought I could hand sand it and then put a wax on it and be done.  But that is never the way it goes right?  These were my problem areas

This spot on the side panel

Scratches on the top

Water spots on the bottom drawer.

Marian said I needed to bite the bullet and sand it down with my sander, so I did.  Then I went to her blog page for her secret recipe

3/4 cup of oil {I mixed both vegetable oil and olive oil because I didn’t have enough of the vegetable oil, Marian says you can use either type} and 1/4 cup vinegar.  Then I went to town rubbing down the dresser.  Marian didn’t mention her formula was a good moisturizer for my hands, that was a pleasant surprise, I have the driest hands known to man.  It was a huge difference right away, I was so excited that I almost forgot to take pictures of the processes. Here you can tell that the top has the oil and vinegar and the side is still the raw sanded wood.  The hand sander took out that weird spot on the side thank goodness

Once I got it all rubbed down, I did it a second time for good measure.   After two coats I still had half of the oil and vinegar left over, so this mixture goes a long way.  It took all the water spots away and the scratches, it was unbelievable.   Once I was done, I noticed the wood was now appearing more reddish in color.  I don’t think this had anything to do with the oil and vinegar, I think it was just the type of wood the dresser is was made out of.   Plus I got a little too happy with my sander and took off some of the veneer on this drawer..oops

So to bring the dresser to more of brown tone, and blend my oops spot, I stained right over the oil and vinegar with Minwax special walnut.  It actually took two coats of the stain to tone down the red and a little stippling and blending to blend that bare spot.

I soaked the hardware in CLR and then cleaned them with a wire brush and TSP.  I had no idea that the hardware was so beautiful, evidently they really were dirty.  Here is a picture of the new hardware and the corner area where I got a little too happy with the sander

Can’t even tell right? I was pretty pleased that it turned out as good as it did.    Here is a picture of the water stained area

Totally gone!

I then brushed two coats of Minwax polyurethane satin to seal the whole dresser including the hardware.  And here it is all finished and ready to go to the nursery.

I even lined the drawers with some blue polka dot paper

The before

The after

The nursery is almost done, I can’t wait to show you how it looks in there. Marian is  extremely busy with her own business, {practically sold out of everything at Lucketts!  You go girl} it was just so sweet of her to take the time to give me her tips and advice. Thank you Marian, you are the best!

Now it just wouldn’t be right if I didn’t link up to Marian’s party!

Also joining these fun parties too!

I’ll have some oil and vinegar with that dresser is a post from: Cre8tive Designs Inc.

Now that we had the structural columns in place, it was time to pick the finishes . 

I figured by adding depth and texture to the outside it would take the focus away from the jut outs of the columns.  So I chose to use stacked stone partially up the sides and then finish the rest with siding.

On the covered patios, we had tongue and groove knotty pine installed with a high gloss finish for the ceilings.

Then we put up ceiling fans and new outdoor lights

I used the versailles travertine pattern on the flooring on the back patios

The most challenging part was how to finish off those larger columns that held up the patios.  Siding to me was going to be too busy and choppy looking, I wanted something more architectural.  It wasn’t an easy task, but  I had recessed concrete panels made to wrap around them.

A template had to be made and then a mold made.  Once they arrived on site, they were glued and screwed into the wooden column for safety until the ledger stone went up.  They were super duper heavy and it took many men to hold these in place while they were being positioned.

To finish off the panel, we had concrete crown molding made to fit.

I love red, so I painted the trim and the door Sherwin Williams Paprika and the siding Sherwin Williams Bagel.  New seawalls were built and we faced it with stacked stone.

Wrought iron railings were installed around the back patio with a decorative concrete cap that matched the columns.

Chain link fencing went along the water side.  We even added some grass on the lower walkway.  {can’t say it has held up in the heat, but it sure is cool and soft on your feet when you come in from the water}

And since this post is so darn long, you might of forgotten what the original house looked like.

Front of the old house

Which went to this

My favorite sign that says how I feel when I am there

And from this sorry looking water side view

To this

We also added a concrete walkway and a bbq area

This picture shows what our neighbor sees from their place.  They are very thankful for the remodel to say the least.

The other side of the original house where we added the master

Which became the new master bedroom and patio

After going through all my pictures I can not believe I don’t have a picture of the finished back porch.  Darn, sorry about that.

I hope you have enjoyed my before and after series.  I have lots more before and afters post to come of the the inside of the house and the addition the garage and loft we added.

But until then, I will leave you with this peaceful picture I took.  I use as my desktop background, so it is as if I am there everyday.

Before and After River House Part 2 is a post from: Cre8tive Designs Inc.