Remember when we won the Best DIY Blog over on FixItYourself right HERE? Well we got our $25 gift card in the mail (our Facebook fans got a sneak peek the day we received the card in the mail) and Hubster was off to Home Depot to buy our primer and green Frogtape to prep our dining room for our massive face lift! Thank you again, FixItYourself, for your awesome generosity and great giveaway...we put all $25 to great use and your contribution to our dining room will always be remembered! And readers, if you haven't been over there to check out their site, do it now...right HERE!
Also, we'll just have you know this is our last and final post on our dining room makeover for a while. We know you're probably over seeing our interiors but we pride ourselves on sharing every step of the process and some of our prep process didn't go so swimmingly, so we must share because we never want you to go through the same thing.
Want more information on our dining room face lift? HERE's the before and after pictures in depth, HERE's a how-to on our moody black painted chandelier (which was also featured on Apartment Therapy HERE), HERE's a DIY how to on making the curtain panels, HERE's the insider info on all our wall art and HERE's our twig art/shelving/centerpiece post.
Kilz is our go-to primer...here's Hubby all Frogtaped up (he did it all, awesomeness) and getting down to business with the primer. You can see that he opted for no drop cloths, much to my dismay. I kept asking and saying, 'Babe, no really, where's your drop cloth?' He continually told me that he was being a neat and tidy painter and no drop cloth was needed. Believe me, we'll have more on that later and I think you'll actually a) laugh out loud if you know my stubborn Irish Hubby or b) also never opt for neglecting a drop cloth way of painting...just sayin'. Wink, wink!
Pulling out the anchors from where the wine rack used to be and oh no, we have six gaping holes in our wall. What are we to do?
'Oh shoot brotha, just give me some'a DAP'...I'll have you know that was just done in my best gangsta voice! No, but seriously, there are mad jokes around CasaCullen about all things DAP. It might be one of our fave go-to products for hole patching and such. But you have to admit, the name is dang funny (insert fist pound now...but that's not to be confused with the fist pump from Jersey Shore fame!) But do take a close look because we're gettin' more of DAP below, so notice this kind is spackling/nail hole filler.
Holes are filled and ready for prime time.
Yeah, I primed it all...NOT! Hubby was the main force behind the priming of our dining room. I was actually beyond sick and helped for all of one hour. He was awesome and told me to go lay down and relax and didn't even bat an eye. Good man and what a gorgeously primed room above. But hey, check out that awful popcorn(y) goodness, ugh! Gotta get rid of that, pronto!
We are excited to announce a new addition to our popcorn removal process...zah spray bottle! As you can see, drop cloths have finally come into play and hubby would mist a section, let it sit five minutes and scrap it off. He was literally in awe over how much less dust/mess there was by using this new found technique. He was the chief googler on this part of the project so I'm unsure what site he used to find out this information. And you know what, come to think of it, I think he actually asked at Home Depot and purchased that industrial sized spray bottle because of a worker recommendation and our handy dandy gift card, cha-ching!
Oh and that arrow on the right, that's where we ended the popcorn scraping. Soon we'll tackle the kitchen/tv room combo which is sure to be an entire weekend of work. Can't wait to have the entire downstairs all scraped after that is done...what a feeling!
Gimmee some DAP (ok, I'll stop) that's brilliant white and a premium sealant and I'll show you what magic Hubby can work!
See where the ceiling and crown molding meet, yeah...gross-ness! We just added the DAP sealant (wait, there's no we in that sentence, it was all him) and check out that sleek, clean and seamless after! Yep, these baby steps make a huge difference. Baby steps...totally reminds us of how much our friend Dave Ramsey HERE agrees with (financial) baby steps too!
Gettin' our paint on and check out tiny Zola getting her Wubba on. Ok, let me explain her Wubba. She has two (one she's had since the day we got her almost 2 1/2 years ago) and they are her favorite. One is pink (the newbie) and her original is purple. She's obsessed and carries them around in her mouth for most of the day. It's like her security blanket, when she gets nervous she walks around the house with her Wubba. My parents watched her while we were on our cruise (it was our first, more info HERE) and my super witty Mom likened her Wubba pacing to looking for a burial plot all day long, hahaha! Funny pup and funny Mimi!
So this is where things got ugly, real ugly! We were so excited to wake up the next morning and see our gorgeous slate bluish grey walls and I'm sure you can imagine our shocked faces when we saw these massive delineations in color all over numerous walls. You can see the difference in color above and there were about six spots on the walls where our new can of paint was a tad shade different (or maybe not stirred up enough) than the other coat! Long story short, hubby had to do one last (the third) coat on all the walls in order to make the paint look seamless.
The Cullen Clan wasn't too happy that day because it was all that added paint/dry time that we weren't counting on and all we wanted to do was get the decor in. So do remember that next time you're painting a darker shade, try not to switch cans of paint in the middle of the wall...plan ahead!
We're hoping for a sponsorship by Frogtape with this pic...I think we went through two entire $9.99 rolls. Yeah, again...not happy about that but lesson learned! We ripped the tape off before looking closely at the walls and that's when we spotted the color change...boo!
Hubby using a tiny paintbrush to fill in any mistakes on the crown molding with our white paint and the other picture just makes me laugh! Anytime we leave Zola inside and we're in the garage (err, I mean, Man Cave) this is always what happens at the back door. The tiniest little face you ever did see pops up and stares out, practically saying, 'Ummm excuse me, have you not seen my impressive skill set that I bring to the table in our About section HERE?'
Remember earlier where I mentioned Hubby's reluctance to use a drop cloth...I think he was kind of regretting that later. We had splashes of white and bluish grey paint all over our hardwood floors. He never said a word but he did get down on all fours and cleaned that baby till it shined like the top of the Chrysler building (any Annie fans out there? Brittany, I know you're laughing!) So it was sparkling and amazing afterwards, but we really could've just skipped this step had he not opted for a sans drop cloth process. But I must admit, I've never seen our floors this clean, so I'm happy to admit his way totally worked out!
Finally, after all that painting, priming and prep, we (I mean, he) totally deserved a picnic lunch! I made us peanut butter/jelly (his oozing peanut butter, just how he likes them) and mine more on the lighter side! We played with Zola in the yard and took about an hour to read (his: a book and hers: Domino) and relax. It was a gorgeous day in Austin so we took advantage! Please don't judge our brown yard...oh my gosh, yard care just isn't our forte. I mean, we totally have black thumbs!
