A Loads of Fun Laundry Room

The next steps for updating the guest room and taking care of some other projects upstairs are kind of intimidating - they're just big and/or uncharted territory, not really difficult. So, I decided to do some other, simpler projects that I have had in mind & partly sourced for awhile... to decorate the laundry room. Well, it's really more of a glorified closet than a room. Now that I think about it, it's probably smaller than the master closet which is big, but not glamour-big.

I actually painted this room in the first couple of weeks of our moving in five-and-a-half years ago. It had been a sort of 1970s baby blue with hyperlink blue on the fuse box and washing machine outlet box. Why someone would want to call attention to those things is a mystery to me... especially if they're going to do a sloppy job of painting them. So I made sure to cover it with an equally distinctive, but more contemporary color that is more my jam before we got the washer and dryer in there. Sadly, I didn't have the time to replace these 1980s looking peel-and-stick vinyl floor tiles, but I do have a plan in mind when I feel up to disconnecting the water heater for a day and struggling with shoving around the stacked washer/dryer.

Oh, hey, look! There's also some probably-original, 1976, faux brick-ish, sheet vinyl under the water heater! Sigh.

I had picked up these vintage flash cards at various vintage markets over the last few years with intent to frame them using thrifted frames. But digging around in thrift store frame piles - and aren't they usually just horizontally oriented piles? - is something I find really easy to put off until next time... the next-time-that-never-comes, apparently. So I set out to look specifically one afternoon and luckily found three that were close enough at one shop and for under $8.

Not sure why I am so attracted to these things, but I am. Obviously, because I made these xmas decorations with some, too.

I'm still committed to trying to use up stash materials whenever possible and feel like what I got from my scrapbook paper stash worked pretty well to mount the flashcards on, both for colors and for sort of a fabric-inspired theme.

Here are the frames with the glass and "pictures" out, ready to be refinished. On the two oak ones I used the old pickling treatment and the black and "cherry" I used house primer and paint. Spray paint probably would've been faster, but I'm not a fan of how spray paint looks on oak and I already had these other materials on hand, anyway.

Once they were dry, I thoroughly cleaned the glass and got them all put together! 

The reason I chose white? I painted them all white to coordinate with... this laundry soap jug diorama! I had saved the pin that inspired it years ago and was able to make this whole diorama with materials in stash and on-hand.

The washer/dryer set is vintage Fisher Price Little People stuff... which I LOVE!

Most of this is "merely" assembled, but I did make the little clothes rack and the wee hangers on it. I'm trying to come up with just the right thing to sit on the shelf, but am considering this done-enough.

YAHOO! This is where we're at now; just a bit cheerier and a lot less plain. It will feel a little nicer to go in there now and it feels quite nice to have a couple long-simmering project complete.

And now for some REAL TRUTH! The photo below is closer to the Real Laundry Room Situation (RLRS)... at least the RLRS after a good cleaning and de-cluttering. The Real Real Laundry Room Situation (RRLRS) is TOO REAL for public viewing.

Balcony Upgrade - Lighting & Storage + Coasters & Rules

Your darn tootin' I can't just do a quick clean-up and then move on! The addenda and details just keep comin'! I am Tara. These are projects. It is the order of things.

Annnnnnyway, while working on tuning up the balcony I remembered pinning some kind of solar outdoor lamp projects and I had pinned some kinds of solar outdoor lamps. You see, there is no porch light out there. No electric light whatsoever. So I made these for the tables out there. I looked at a couple different tutorials for both chandeliers (here and here) and table lamps (here) to figure out how to do wall-mounted fixtures.

The search for some used, inexpensive fixtures began! Luckily, I only had to try two stores before finding something suitable. Thank you Home ReSource! Sure, I would've liked to have gotten them for less than $10/each, but they're actually pretty high quality - cast brass bases and the like.

They were in pretty good shape! I feel lucky that the finish was already suitable for our space - I was resigned to the idea that I'd be painting over brass or brushed nickel. All I had to do was remove a little latex paint & those irritating labels using rubbing alcohol, remove the wiring, and figure out how to keep it all together.

I understand many or maybe all the reasons we need to have these wattage labels on electric light fixtures, why they need to be where anyone changing the bulbs will see them, and why the adhesive needs to keep them on there under extreme conditions. That said, C'MON! We're spending money and time to get the fixture that LOOKS nice! It CANNOT look nice with this ugly label on there. Figure out a better place! Geez.

It seems like a lot of the tutorials found online use dollar store solar lights - the kind with stakes for lining paths and driveways. I hope that using something a little spendier means they will last longer, be brighter, stay on longer. Mine were just under $5.00 each at a home center and claim to be about 5 lumens.

I just detached the stakes, wrapped a little double-sided foam tape around the part of the light that had stuck into the stake, and stuck them into the sockets of my fixtures.

Here's the deal: because there is no electricity involved and the lights themselves are meant to be outdoors, I could turn the fixtures upside down. The upside to that is that it made it easy to find a fixture that allows the solar cells to point up and be uncovered. The downside is that because the tops of the glass covers are not the bottom, they will collect dead bugs, dust, and pollen.

It was a struggle, but I was able to stay awake until they turned on.

Overall the lighting aspect of this balcony upgrade cost: $20 + 9.96 = $29.96!

______________________________________________

It also seemed like a good idea to have a little spot to store a few items that are specifically for the balcony, but maybe are best not left out all the time. A little on-house mailbox seemed like a quick and easy solution for this and luckily I found one at the Habitat ReStore for $5! But of course, it needed a little tuning up.

I removed the newspaper holder underneath, scraped off the dried glue, sanded, then spray painted it. It's brown primer covered with matte clear on the outside and copper on the inside. All paints I had on hand! Which keeps the cost of this project at $5, because I already had screws to hang it with, too.

I haven't found something to cover the holes that held the missing emblem or nameplate that was on the mailbox originally, yet...

What is stored in there now is a rag for wiping dust and pollen off the table and chairs should they need it, coasters (see below), and a bottle opener.

Because the bistro table has a glass top and I went to all the trouble to refinish that side table (there's 8 layers of stuff on there, folks!), I decided to make coasters for them. I even had all the materials on hand for these, too. YEY! Free coasters!

Perfect spot for an iced latte of a July morning.

Sealed scrapbook paper on top, copper Lustre Stone on the sides, and...

... cork on the bottom.

Oh! And I decided that the rejuvenated balcony would be the perfect spot for this piece that I inherited from Sol a few years back. I had a full set of the medium-sized letters that I scored on Ebay at a screaming deal shortly after he gave it to me and now Jo-Ann has those big ones (and a few other sizes) in several colors for a WAY better price than the office supply places, so I got a set of the 2" white ones.

I found several variations of a sign such as this on pinterest and selected the phrases that best fit us and our intended uses of our "new" spot. Oh, yeah. And if figured out how to cover those holes in the mailbox where there had originally been a plaque of some sort.

It's shrink plastic for ink jet printers! I made up a sign in a photo editing software, printed it on the plastic, then shrunk it in the oven as per the instructions. I added some glossy "triple-thick" glaze, glued a magnet on the back, et voila! I already had all the supplies, so I still have only spent $5 on re-purposing this! WOO!

Live And Let Dine II

I have kept all the mounting hardware in a baggie and rubber banded them to each rod and will donate them to a used building materials store in the area.

Back in spring of 2013, I tackled window treatments in the living and dining rooms. Well, it's just one long rectangle of a room, but you know what I mean. At some point, a guest or sitter or someone just tugged on the curtains to close them instead of using the draw cord on the window behind the sofa and it had been jacked up every since. This meant that the left and right panels were not open the same amount and that we couldn't adjust them really at all. This was a drag and mostly it made me angry at the cheap window hardware which should've been able to tolerate such. I came to loathe the curtain hardware to an intensity that seemed unnatural.

From Spring 2013. Walls re-textured, walls and ceiling painted. Our ceiling fan installed over the living room, but still the awful fan over the dining table. Our art and decorations on the walls.

Last autumn, I took down all the panels to launder them. And I started searching for new options and ideas for window covering hardware. This would also give me an opportunity to hem them, because when I went through all the trouble to line the panels originally I totally forgot to adjust the hem and they puddled a little. That is a fine look, but not really our style AND not really suitable for living in the woods, miles from pavement, and with two dogs (at the time) dropping their fur all over like monsters. And maybe I'd even find the border detail material I didn't find back then! And then they sat haphazardly folded in the auxiliary guest room closet while other projects and adventures took precedence.

Eventually, I settled on these brackets and decided to utilize the 10' lengths of 3/4" PVC pipe (exterior diameter is close to 1") left over from another project for the rods. I just have to cut them to length make them look like wood - since 1" wood dowels longer than 3' seems impossible to find. And let's face it, I love to 1) make a thing look like another thing entirely, 2) use what we have in our stash of stuff, and 3) do something as thriftily as possible. Luckily, there is lots of advice on the internet about making PVC look like wood and I even did my own version for a shower rod in the upstairs bathroom way back when.

Luckily, the weather allowed me to do this part in the wood shed and the wood shed was allllmost empty from our long, long, LONG winter. 

Had I been able to use a dowel I might have gone sans finials just to keep it that much simpler looking and simpler to just get done. But the hollow end on the pipes needed something. I ended up combining wooden finials with PVC caps that I painted to match the metal brackets.

I did take step-by-step photos and I will post a tutorial later, because I think they turned out pretty cool and one could easily riff on these to achieve their own look and maybe save a bunch of dough!

This photo just reminds me about how much I hate the ceiling texture downstairs, but man it sure is a lot easier to get used to ignoring it than it would/will be to skim it out. Bleh.

Having "undraperied" window dressing hardware up for just us (and a just a few guests) was one thing, but up for all of House Guest Season was something I wanted to avoid. So getting this project done before that and before working outside could realistically commence became a priority.

And "done" they were they were until I stood back and noticed they were still too wrinkly. I did the only logical thing: turned around and focused on something totally different. [lalala - avoids eye contact] A couple weeks later I thought to ask around the neighborhood about borrowing a handheld steamer and found out that Neighbor Pam did have one and yes, I could borrow it when they got home from their trip. YEY! And then I went to their house, loaded it into my car, drove it around with me on my errands, brought in the house and let it sit for two days. Finally, I opened its box and the nozzle bit was broken. D'oh! I could see where it have been glued before and sent a text explaining the situation to Pam and asking if I could glue it. About 2 minutes after I sent that, I realized that I, in fact, own a wallpaper steamer. I have even used it in 3 different rooms in this very house (so far) and many other places. D'oh! So I used that and it worked just fine. Probably a little messier, but the draperies lost their fine lines and wrinkles!

Because the panels were no longer held open by the curtain rod, I thought we would need tiebacks. I searched around for something simple, but not plain or typical - my standard M.O. I decided to riff on a toggle style jewelry "clasp" using wood and a soft-ish jute rope from the home dec section at Jo-Ann.

I used "toss rings" from an online wood findings retailer and a dowel from the hardware store. I cut the dowel with my beloved Milwaukee miter saw & tapered the ends with a pencil sharpener (that's right!), then finished all the pieces with an acrylic "stain" in American Walnut.

I didn't find nice border detail material to add to the panels, but I did get them hemmed. I'll keep looking locally and maybe next time I am somewhere else, I can shop for fabric! Perhaps in meters! Ooooo. Or perhaps I'll just call these done.

Looks totally different than that panorama shot above from Spring 2013, right? Yeah, no. It's subtle:
Chandeleir over dining table, no puddling on the curtains which have tiebacks and are hung on new rods, new reading lamp by the green chair, different Lite Brite on different table, more books and magazines on tables.

Enough with indoor projects for a while! Probably! It does feel good to have checked two projects off my long, long list with this and all the guest room projects: bedside tables, lamps, coasters, switch plate.

Piping Hot Lighting! Or Something. (Vintage Thermos Lamps)

Now that we have new, roomy bedside tables in the guest room, it is finally time for bedside lamps! But not just any bedside lamps purchased from Target or wherever else there is to buy table lamps around here. Vintage thermoses turned into bedside lamps!

House of Hawthornes' images are probably what compelled me to try to throw some other bits into the photo. The sun was bright and it was hard to see my screen. This was the best photo of the bunch... even though there's a dang fly on my mug! But let's face it... that's real life.

I mostly followed this super tutorial that I found on pinterest, but made a few changes to suit my particular thermoses. If you're interested in the how-to, check out the tutorial by Pam at the House of Hawthornes blog, but I'll describe my differences here.

Her yard sale thermos already had a broken glass insert and she broke it up further using a screwdriver then dumped out the shards through the top. Mine were intact AND my thermoses had the screw-off bottoms for replacing broken inserts, so I was able to just take them out.

Mine also had plastic liners that one's hot lunch would actually be poured into. My guess is that is because these are wide-mouthed thermoses, they were probably meant more for having hot soup or chili rather than coffee or tea. This would make it safer to eat directly out of them with a spoon. Anyway, this meant I needed to drill an extra hole and use an extra rubber grommet.

And because my thermoses were wide-mouth and didn't have that cute taper, I decided to keep the lids on. It turns out that was lucky for me, because one of the stoppers cracked and then totally came apart when I was drilling. Turns out there are little bits of cork as insulation in there! Who knew? Not me.

After all the holes were drilled and I had the correct size of rubber grommets, it all came together pretty quickly with the Westinghouse Make-A-Lamp Kit.

I realized after I'd taken this, that I inadvertently copied House of Hawthornes' styling, too, but photographing these on a picnic table! In my case, it was because it was the quickest outdoor surface to make look decent.

And then after this photo was taken I realized I'd forgotten to weight the bases so the lamps wouldn't be tippy. This part is extra fancy...

... it's gravel from the driveway. OooOOooooo!

I picked up a couple of lampshades at a big box home center and tarted them up with some clearance home dec trim from Jo-Ann and glued it on with fabric adhesive. These shades came with clip-on fitters, which means I didn't have to also buy harps.

A couple of 60 watt, warm, LED light bulbs and DONE.

[here is where a photo of them with their shades on was supposed to go, 

but I forgot to take it before...(see below)]

Not Done. The right width lampshade was a too-deep lampshade, at least with those (dang) clip-on fitters. It was awkward looking and physically awkward to get at the switch. I think the best solution would have been adding harps, but that's not really an option with the clip-on fitters. Instead, I bought two longer nipples than come with the Make-a-Lamp Kit. I used 5" nipples, but could've gotten away with 4" very easily. With two extra nuts, four fender washers, and some brass tubing, which I had to cut to fit using a hacksaw and miter box, I was able to extend the space between the top of the thermos and the socket. They are less awkward and ready to serve guests for up to a few dozen nights each year.

[insert that screeching needle on the record sound here]

DO OVER: A couple of 60 watt LED bulbs and DONE.

I do wish I'd been able to get a darker shade and I did look at the options, but they were either way too big or entirely the wrong shape. 

And now we're finally ready for some well-lit house guest bedtime reading action! Er... yeah.

I really need to get on ordering some reflectors for taking photos. This photo was taken the day after the Summer Solstice, so it's not going to be getting any lighter around here! 

I had to close the blinds to avoid the whole back-lighting situation. Even though I still really love that Ikea print, those gotta go!

Next up for the guest room: making new window coverings. I think I even have most or all of the fabric I need! It might be awhile before I tackle that though, because there are still those exterior & outdoor projects to do, but I really, really want to make them instead. Sigh. So, I am going to use making shades for and painting the guest room as a "reward" for doing other projects. What is wrong with me?