CasaCullen

Before and After: DIY - Adding a Winning Fan to Our Master Suite

So a few days after Nash was born (more on that HERE) we got the best email ever! Well, I don't know about ever but it's surely in our top 20 fave inbox goodies. Lindsay over at A Design Story told us we had WON! What did we win? An incredibly awesome ceiling fan. Winner, winner, chicken dinner...we were over the moon. HERE'S the super sweet post about announcing us as the winner. Amazing, right?

But we had a brand spankin' new baby and the fan arrived and got shoved into the garage. It was added to Walt's growing to-do list of things he needed to accomplish when he came up for new Daddy air. Seriously, those first few months you're in survival mode and anything that you want to possibly accomplish (like installing a new fan) totally takes a back seat to that little four letter word: Baby (or Nash!)

Well, he got that big ol' fan box out this past weekend and installed the beauty into our room and we are absolutely in love. It has dimming options for the upper and lower lights and the fan has three speeds and a reverse. I mean seriously y'all, this is such a pimp fan. We've made it our mission to make our master suite into more of a retreat and less of a catch-all as soon as Nash moves permanently up to his nursery. He naps up there now but is still sleeping in the pack-n-play, in our room, at night.

Why? Because Momma isn't ready to truck it upstairs for that middle of night occasional feeding in his nursery. I like my sleep. Some nights he's sleeping through (8pm-7am) and others he'll wake 1-2 times. There is no rhyme or reason, but I know I won't be nursing him forever so I embrace those tender early morning feedings where he's sweet as pie and super efficient. Ok, I got off on a baby tangent...back to the fan. Read on for some fan day highlights!

PS - A super duper huge thanks again to Lindsay over at A Design Story...if you aren't a reader, become one. We adore her site!

PSS - Do not judge us on the pic of our bedroom above. Oh my goodness gracious, I have learned that keeping a clean house is not priority numero uno when you have a nugget around. As the old saying goes, I'd rather see the twinkle in his eye than a twinkle on the floor!

Big ol' fan box that's been sitting in our garage for ages.

Removing our homemade painted fan (more on that HERE) which will find a permanent home in Nash's nursery soon.

Oh my goodness gracious...this was the side towards the ceiling and since our master suite ceilings are super high, we had NO IDEA how dusty is was. YUCK! 

That's exactly how I feel about dust bunnies too, ha!

Walt's cleaning up the old fan for Nash. 

Happy that hubby is an engineer...that's certainly a ton of pieces for one ceiling fan.

And these shenanigans were happening in the tv room while Walt diligently worked on getting the fan up so we could still have a family fun day. Seriously y'all, I live for these little man smiles and holding those sweet, soft chunky baby hands!

He's getting there!

Almost...

Done and done! Look at that beaut!

Check out the fancy control panel on our wall now! Love it!

Before and After: DIY - Adding DIY Curtain Panels to the Guest Room

So HERE'S the last time we chatted guest room. After all the painting, organizing and de-cluttering...we just threw some pieces in there and called it a day, right before our company arrived. Well, we're still in the same exact design boat, but this time we've upped the ante a bit. We knew we wanted to add the curtain panels so we tackled that project (finally) this past weekend. We've had the fabric and curtain rod up for months (no joke) so all I needed to do was get those panels on the wall, ding dang it!

Now we're in curtain panel lovin' business! I loved this fabric and even though it looks mighty hippie dippy boho-chic in there now, we'll slowly make some changes for a more cohesive design feel. It really always amazes me how much better a room looks with some window dressings. Read on for how simple and easy this process was for us and how cost efficient we made it.

First up, this was a curtain rod that the previous owners left in that room. It was hung un-evenly and gold just isn't our thang in that room.

Although the the mosaic glass finials are pretty, I told Walt I wanted the whole thing sprayed. He actually really struggled and kept questioning spraying over the finials. I reminded him that they'd just sit in 'his garage' if he wanted to keep them golden. He no longer tried to convince me after I pointed out that fact, ha!

The brackets...

And our miracle worker!

Love, love, love it! Walt is a really good spray painter. He takes so much pride in his even coverage and light handed spraying. When he sees me spray painting, I know he cringes...I just don't have the skill like he does! Thankfully, during my pregnancy, he's done all the painting work so we've had some gorgeous pieces produced.

Mmmm, the delish fabric I spied at Jo-Ann's on super sale and just had to have. They had the perfect amount (only about a half yard more) for both of our curtain panels. I was pumped! We're actually using the backside of the fabric which is a more pinky/army green hue because the front is a really dark red and hunter green...which didn't really do with our guest room palette.

PS - If you're an avid reader I know you're sort of chuckling at how much pink we have present in this room. We just felt the need to honor the room's previous owner's choice of color (more on that HERE) and there are always certain shades of pink that make this girl so happy! The one I've leaned towards in our guest room accents is totally one of those shades.

Walt is measuring where to put the brackets for the curtain rod.

And here's our trusty clip rings that we scored at Lowe's for $5 a package.

It...looks...GREAT! We still want to add trim to the guest room and nursery so we've left ample space to do that.

Now I just need to cut off the pseky trim on the fabric edges that says Jo-Ann and was all frayed. 

After the edges were trimmed, we didn't even hem these and just threw them up. At first Walt was like, 'What? Isn't that going to look ghetto?' But I explained that this fabric was pretty silky and for now, he wouldn't even bat an eye. Once they were on the wall, he agreed. It looked pretty dang good!

PS - I will obviously hem them at a later date and have left them long enough to even do a pocket rod enclosure at the top. So no worries, it's just because my sewing machine still needs to be repaired and well, we have a baby to-do list the size of Texas!

Here's a close up for those of you that love some detail. We also plan to switch out that mini blind for a wooden venetian blind in the near future...but for now, it serves a purpose!

And this angle! We have guests arriving this weekend (my sister and niece) because we're within days of meeting this little boy. We're so thankful to have so much family come and help us as we make the transition into parenthood. Hopefully, everyone will enjoy the new guest room curtains!

Before and After: DIY Nursery Progress - Decorating and Organizing!

We've put in some serious hours in the nursery progress department recently. My parents recently came into town and per the usual, the days flew by. My Mom was here to attend my shower (which rocked) and my Dad decided to come along for the ride too, awesome! My parents were also game for helping us with anything we needed. What was on our to-do list this week? Nursery progress! So we all pushed back our shirt sleeves, did some serious shopping trips and got to work. Here's where we are now!

PS - I obviously need to clean the lens on my point and shoot. Please excuse all the small white dots all over these pics...heading to clean it asap!

Recent Nursery Decor Purchases:

IKEA

6 white frames (will go above green bin bookshelf)

Blue glider throw

Grey pillow in glider

Sheepskin throw for ottoman

Fabric covering for large canvas/art over crib

Window panels/curtains

Floor rug

Organizational baskets on either side of changing table

Large stainless laundry basket (between crib and desk/changing table)

Bed, Bath and Beyond

Two black storage ottomans (look below, my Mom is sitting on them)

Closet organization system (more on that in a later post)

Crate & Barrel Outlet

Green bins for low lying bookshelf

Pottery Barn Outlet

Organic crib sheets

Restoration Hardware Outlet

Crib skirt

Yes, we have a billion unfinished projects in each of these pics (more on that later) but let me remind you with some before pics of just how far we've come in only a few short days. When we last chatted HERE, the room was looking about like this:

After the paint totally dried from our chevron projects, Walt moved some of his furniture from our garage up to his room which was totally exciting! It was nice to finally see furniture in his lil' man space and just imagine where we'd go from here!

You already know that massive deal we got on our Restoration Hardware crib HERE, but I'll take some time to explain some of the other pieces too. Starting from the top picture, you see a low lying bookshelf that will totally be a perfect height for our little man. HERE'S the info on the low lying shelf and I think we paid about $3 for it. The floor lamp and desk were freebies that we mentioned HERE from our bulk pickup roundup in our neighborhood.

What else? That sweet wooden stool underneath our desk/changing table was actually given to us for free from the guy we bought Walt's bankers chair from...score! More on Walt's before/after bankers chair post HERE. As for that massive painting above his crib, that was from our own personal collection and used to hang on the wall in my home office HERE.

The glider we scored (brand new) on Craigslist for $200. It was listed for $250 and when we saw it, we knew we wanted it. I brought only $200 in cash with me, knowing that was our budget for our glider. It's the Little Castle Cottage SS Glider that retails for about $650, just for the glider...woah! Add $200 for the ottoman and we're way out of our budget. So we were happy to spy it on Craigslist (it was brand new because a home stager used it) and even offer $200 and have the furniture warehouse accept our offer. SCORE...a $950 brand new glider for $200, yes please!

So moving along, I'll be sure to tell you what grand plans we have for many of these pieces as we progress with the nursery. Oh and as for those plastic black bins on the low lying bookshelf...we were just trying to figure out what size basket/organizational component we wanted. Well, one trip to Crate & Barrel Outlet and we found those great bright green bins that will be much more durable than most baskets.

So my parents are awesome DIY doers just like us. You've seen them tackle their tiled kitchen back-splash HERE and they're always doing some new home project that always impresses us. It was awesome to have their help but the one thing I learned quickly was that my Dad and Walt are so efficient and work so quickly that I barely got a picture snapped. Note to self: make them slow down next time so I can have an accurate tutorial, ha! Read on to take a peek at some of the DIY projects my parents helped us tackle in 72 hours.

Creating the Perfect Fit for His Bright Green Bin/Low Lying Shelf:

When we first put all lil' bubs green C&B bins onto his shelf, it wasn't a perfect fit. Boo hoo is right because we thought we measured perfectly but we forgot that there was some overhang where the piece connected at the hinges. My Dad and Walt quickly realized they could cut off the ends of the middle shelf that hangs over (look at the image above, you'll see) and then the big bins would be a perfectly tight fit. They took the shelf apart, cut off the ends, used some nail glue to reattach/fix one of the braces and voila, we have a perfectly fitted and almost custom looking toy bin shelf for our lil' man!

Taking the shelf apart!

Bins and stuff everywhere!

The ends have been cut off for a super close fit...fingers crossed!

Using wood glue and nails to make sure one of the braces is solid.

Tah-dah! So proud of the after, it looks WORLDS better!

Repainting the Floor Lamp:

Annnnnnd, my Mom is the cutest, ha! The bright blue floor lamp just wasn't doing it for me/for us. We had some silver spray paint in the garage so my Mom volunteered to give that piece a new coat. Oh my gosh, it's so amazing what a new color palette did for the lamp. It no longer screamed BLUE, but blended in beautifully with the other decor.

Hanging Curtains:

My Dad and Walt also hung our curtain hardware which is always a huge help. I hate the job of being his assistant (even though he's really good to me) so it was awesome to show them where it should hang and literally come back minutes later with a perfectly hung curtain rod. LOVE IT! We put on our new IKEA curtains and the room really was starting to come together at that point.

And of course, no post would be complete without showing how much lovin' our lil' hairy angel gets from her Mimi and Papa. There is no deficit of puppy kisses when this duo is around, they love our furry baby.

PS - Also check out the side of our changing table/desk now. Walt and my Dad added these awesome and industrial looking organizational baskets that I grabbed at IKEA to each side. Oh how I love to be organized!

So are you wondering what's left to do on our to-do list? Well, here's an idea of where we're at and what we need to get done in the next week/this weekend:

1 - Hang the six IKEA white frames above the low lying book shelf with bright green bins.

2 - Add either shelves or a side table option to the left hand side of the glider/ottoman.

3 - Purchase this awesome cow print from IKEA when they get their new truck-load in next week.

4 - Iron/wrap/secure (maybe staple) the brown and cream IKEA fabric around large canvas that sits above the crib...can't wait to see that done! That'll be a quickie!

5 - Hem the bottom of the IKEA curtain panels.

6 - Add some sort of black out shade.

Phew, I'm tired after just reading this! We'll keep you posted on the progress and we know this is a rough update as so much is still unfinished, but we want to remind you that not everything is picture perfect over here at CasaCullen. We like to share the in-between phases too before we unveil the final pics. Truly, I think this is going to be such a work in progress that we'll be updating his nursery for years to come. Stay tuned and leave a comment on any great hints/tricks you have for nursery decor ideas, etc!

Reader Reveal: Before and After - The Brown's Amazing White Leather DIY Tufted Headboard (and Platform Bed)

Yep, we were just chatting the other day about DIY headboard ideas HERE and bam, we received the best pictures ever in our inbox from Trisha Brown. She and her husband Matt tackled a master bedroom rehaul that looks like it came from the pages of a celeb home. I love all the sweet details she put into the whole makeover.

Below is a snippet of what she had to say about the headboard/bed making process. And HERE'S an awesome tutorial link from Brick City Love that Trish found on Pinterest that provides even more DIY doing ammo, if this is a project you're thinking about tackling in the near future. Thanks for sharing such a great project with our readers Trish. You and Matt have a stunning master retreat that you should be so very, very proud of.

Have a project you're just itching to share with us? Email us pics via CasaCullen@Gmail.com and maybe you'll spy your project on our site!

Ummm yeah, how amazing is THIS! We love, love, love it!

Here's the before, above! How far have they come! I mean, seriously...I'm high fiving them right through this post!

Trisha: The most expensive part of this project, the foam. It was half off and still $80 for 2 yards each...2 pieces. Underneath is a piece of plywood that was $9 at Home Depot. Matt did a grid on the foam to do a diamond pattern and punched out holes with a pipe. After that, he took a drill and did the holes into the plywood...

$10 on sale...we cut a cross over every hole.

Fabric.com white leather was 5 yards for $50 which was enough to do the headboard and platform. I used fishing wire (which we had) and bought buttons off of eBay for $8 for 60 of them and upholstery tacks for $17 for 1000. And I bought a LONG needle which I used to push the button through the hole in the padding until it hit the plywood and Matt tied it off underneath. Starting from the middle and working our way out, we made sure the folds in the fabric would go down.

We stapled the fabric to the back of the headboard and finished off with the tacks.

Lastly, we covered some $9 pieces of wood from home depot with leftover padding from headboard and tacked it 5 inches apart to create our platform structure!

Before and After: DIY Nursery - How to Paint Crisp Stripes (in our case, Chevron Stripes) on a Textured Wall

We had a big DIY weekend over Labor Day and can't wait to share our nursery progress. We got so much done and I mean, SO MUCH! We actually even got some furniture moved in but that's for a later post. This week we're focusing in on the stripes we painted with crisp precision on baby boy's accent wall. We first mentioned our love of wallpapered accent walls HERE but later scratched that idea. Then we honed in on awesome grey stripes for his accent wall HERE.

Now we just had to figure out the best process to get those grey chevron stripes done. I'm not the type that's all about, jumping in head first, without researching. Actually, we might as well call me a research whore. I love researching...weirdo, I know. I actually googled the process for about an hour while Walt got all the paint and room primed and ready for takeoff. The most promising link I found was from a fellow Austinite, Lindsay, HERE. And the more I looked up the process of painting crisp stripes, the more I have to tell you this is the ONLY WAY TO GO! Do this process and you're sure to have amazing lines and very little paint bleed-through, no matter the color combo. Read on for more on the process!

First up, drawing out our options. While I googled the 'how to' part of the project, Walt got down to business sketching out some options. 

Here's the winning trio...then we chatted and voted. We both decided we loved the look of the bigger/bold chevrons (bottom pic) because you do see the smaller chevrons all over the place. We know we'll use the smaller scale somewhere else in his nursery as an added accent so big and bold was the winner.

This is with measurements and all drawn out. Walt measured the height (94") and length (133 1/4") of the accent wall and broke it into 6 columns and 4 rows. Each rectangle measured 23 1/2" height x 22 1/2" width. At first we were aiming for perfect squares but once we saw how much even rectangles (that were pretty close to square measurements) were going to work, we went with breaking the wall up evenly so we didn't have any continuation of chevrons on either side. Still following? Congrats.

Measuring out the four rows and marking every 23 1/2" with chalk.

23 1/2" x 2 = 47! You didn't know you were gonna get a math lesson today, did ya?

Trusty chalk marker...I remember when I was young and my Dad would let me snap the chalk line. Seriously, I'm like a pro. Even Walt was astounded at how taut I kept the line and what a good snapper I was. 

Here's the wall with the chalk line grid all laid out. Why did we do this? So we would be able to see where to lay out our stripes, of course. 

Laying out the chevrons in each grid. We referenced the picture a few times but once you get the hang of it, you can pretty much rock and roll. But make sure to mark off which stripes you're going to paint because you want those corners and lines to be where the tape is perfectly straight (aka: you don't want a ripped painter's tape edge hanging out) for that crisp, clean finish.

*Also, on the side of the tape where you'll be painting, make sure to RUN YOUR FINGER all along the tape to get it in all the grooves. This is really important...and use your fingers, not a tool!

So here's where the process gets technical. Before you even THINK ABOUT painting your second color stripe, make sure to paint all along the painter's tape in the original color. Why? You're actually filling in any holes, grooves with the same color paint so give yourself a really clean edge. Here, we'll show you a closer look.

Walt painting all along the painter's tape in order to get in all those grooves under the painter's tape edge. Once you add that base coat along the tape, let it dry completely. You want it to sink in and seal that line. 

One more close up and remember to check out Lindsay's awesome tutorial HERE that really helped us out.

Next up is the fun stuff...mixing the grey accent stripe color. Using some old light blue paint we have plus our original grey shade, we added just a dollop of white into the grey. Once mixed up...

Walt used his finger and painted a little sample on the wall and we let it dry for 30 minutes before deciding. We actually thought it was a little too light so we added a bit more grey and just went with that final shade, without doing another test! Yep, and that's about as wild as things get around CasaCullen during a crazy Labor Day weekend, ha! 

Painting on the accent stripe after that first coat of textured paint along the edge of the painter's tape had dried. Walt literally painted this much and we were already oooohing and aaaaahing and loving what we saw!

Here's the wall completely painted and now it's time to remove the tape. You do NOT want your paint to completely dry. I think Walt did two coats of paint for the lighter stripes and then we let it set for a little over an hour before removing the tape. SERIOUSLY, DO NOT LET THE PAINT DRY! Remove that painter's tape before then.

The first section of removed painter's tape (bottom chevron) and we are literally freakin' out! Just staring and Walt kept saying, 'Holy crap, that turned out really good!' I, of course, just kept saying, 'Wow, oh wow! Wow, holy wow!' Yeah, I'm sure we both sounded like we were brain dead idiots...but we were excited, ha!

As for those pesky blue chalk stripes...we didn't want to wipe them off until the paint was dry. So yes, they're annoying for picture purposes but we were smart and let them sit there until everything was dry. I didn't want to get over eager and have blue chalk all in lil' Bubs grey chevrons.

Uh oh, a glitch in the process. When tearing off the painter's tape, Walt did get a bit over eager, I will admit. He was on such a roll them BAM, he ripped off some of the paint. Of course I heard his groan all the way downstairs and it really wasn't even that big of a deal. Nothing a little paint can't fix.

So here he is, filling in those few little spots where the painter's tape ripped off some of the dryer paint. See, imagine if we had let the paint totally dry? That would've been trouble!

A close up of that process. Once it dried, you totally couldn't even tell at all!

Oh and here's the iPhone pic that I sent to my parents and siblings. We've actually gotten emails asking for preggo pics so I figured I'd share this one! We really really excited about the chevron stripes so we had to share a pic with the fam. They were pumped...and you know, when you're fam you get sneak peeks! Click HERE for more preggo pics over on my fashion/beauty blog. I tell you what Mommas, dressing the bump is surely fun but not nearly as easy as I'd imagined it would be. I have a whole new respect...WHOLE...NEW!

Walt used a damp sponge (note, it's damp, not dripping in water) to slowly work out those bright blue chalk lines. This has actually been a huge pain in the booty, we have to admit. We've done this process twice now and we can still faintly see the chalk lines. We'll give it one more go tonight and we're sure that'll do the trick.

I guess we just wanted a finished product once the tape was pulled, but we wouldn't do it any other way. I do think you should think twice and maybe even just graph it out with small pencil marks if you're using a light colored wall. We're sure those blue chalk lines would be horribly hard to remove on a white wall. 

So here's where we were with the after! We love how the colors are all similarly muted and subtle too. But the design is super bold and the room is really moody and inviting. It already feels like a nice little cocoon up there!

And here's looking the other way, toward little man's closet. We have so much to do...SO MUCH! We actually sat down after completing this phase and talked through our to-do list for the nursery. We agreed on so many additions and also things that would be 'great' to also add, but aren't a must. We have some great ideas (and numerous DIY projects) in store for your reading pleasure, so get excited!

Want to see more from our nursery progress? HERE'S a post showing it as our previous guest room, HERE'S the first post about scraping the popcorn off the ceiling, HERE'S where we started painting the slate blue shade and HERE'S our easy trick on getting those baseboards stark white. Can't wait to share the furniture updates and our growing to-do list too!

PS - 1,535 words and 22 pictures later...umm yeah, if you've read this far then please pat yourselves on the back, for us! You're an amazing reader, indeed!

Before and After: DIY - We Have Some Nursery Painting Progress!

Ahhhhh, I don't like to share an 'un-finished' room but I'm just too excited to reveal the colors we chose to paint Baby Boy's nursery walls to you. Obviously, we have so much more work ahead of us still but we've pumped about the progress and it's so nice to finally see some colors on those walls. Read on for the update...

So here's a reminder of what we were working with before. It used to be our guest room (HERE) unitl we decided to make it into his sweet bubba head nursery.

Random picture, right? Wrong! This is actually exiting our master bedroom and into the dining room area. Why are we sharing it? Because we had leftover no-VOC paint in these two colors and we decided to put those jokers to work. Just a reminder of colors; the slate blue dining room is HERE and our ice blue master suite is HERE.

We decided to mix one gallon of slate blue with a 1/2 gallon of the ice blue. We thought it would soften up that rich blue color in our dining room and be the perfect shade for lil' man's nursery. We were right...we loved the shade!

Here's Walt pouring the half gallon into a big mixing bucket.

Mixing it up...yee haw!

We mentioned Walt's genius taping idea on yesterday's baseboard painting post HERE but I think it's so efficient and cost effective that I'd make sure you heard me! Basically, he cut a slit in the tape so it created two rolls in one. Painter's tape half the width but it also went twice the distance...score!

A gorgeous shade of light slate blue...and...we're smitten! Oh and take note of the huge, massive Sonic slush. Hubby loves a cheery limeade treat so as he was working like a dog on the nursery I was actually out to brunch with some of my girlfriend's (click HERE, the turquoise ensemble is what I wore and you'll see a bump shot too) so I brought him back a slush. That was one thankful man! Do you love Sonic as much as we do? Seriously, I have to limit my slush intake because I know all that sugar isn't exactly kosher on a tiny lil' baby boy!

What's that huge white wall? Well, his accent wall, of course! More on that in the next pic and way below.

So this was our first thought with his accent wall - wallpaper! Remember we just chatted about wallpapered accent walls HERE. We scored two rolls of this handsome striped Restoration Hardware wallpaper for, get this...$1.99 a roll. Yep, that's right! Two rolls of fancy wallpaper under $5. The more we looked at it, the more we realized this just wasn't the look or feel we were after for our Lil' BIT (Baby...In...There!) So back under our bed it goes, until we find another spot around the house that is deserving for a pop of stripe.

Oh and this is just a funny extra...Zola's toy chicken has finally bit the dust. Remember the day when the head fell off HERE? Well all we have left of this huge chicken is now a Christmas bathing suited torso. Pathetic and disgustingly dirty...'chicken' found it's way into the trash on this very day. Zola is clearly upset and doesn't want to part with one of her favorite toys. It just wasn't even sanitary anymore.

So instead of the striped wallpaper route, we scored this gallon of no-VOC paint at Lowe's for $5. Yep, it's Olympus Knight's Armor and it's that perfect dark grey that we wanted. It was in the oops paint section and marked for $10 when I asked the guy working in paint how much a non-oops paint gallon would cost. He said, "You know what, this should be marked $5." Done and done...but he still never answered my question, and a price break wasn't what I was after. I just wanted to figure out how much of a discount we were getting at $10 because we were already sold for sure. Check out the video below of our excitement for his dark grey accent wall. 

Someone needs to remind me that my mouth (when I'm the cameraman) is right by the microphone. Good gosh...I'm gonna blow an eardrum, ha! And do you hear me panting...oh you better believe I'm now the preggo who can't even walk upstairs anymore without panting. You can barely hear Walt but he definitely says, 'NICE' when he opens up the paint can. 

Ahhhh, here it is! Knight's Armor (which, btw, is the coolest name ever for a lil' boys nursery paint) pimpin' our Baby BIT's wall. There were many an ooooh and aaaaah once we stood back and took it all in.

Again with the mic right by my head...haha! And tiny Zola trying to get in our paint bucket...silly dog! And then I can't ever think of any words these days. I search for words for about 30 minutes everyday. Walt gave the color an awesome rating (you can vaguely hear him) and for those of you that know my husband, that's huge. He's a man of a few words but if he says something's awesome, he means it!

Here is the wall, obviously not trimmed out but at least you get a chance to really see the color combos.

Yay, there he is...in all his Knight's Armor accent glory. So of course we aren't going to just leave it like this. A while ago, I spied a painted fridge project by my good friend Mat (yep, one T) over on Apartment Therapy and knew I'd use this same technique on some sort of painting project. Well, well...dark grey chevron stripes are going to grace this accent wall in lil' Bub's room for sure!

Yep, imagine those exact chevron stripes but ours might even be a bit darker...less contrast. How cute is Mr. Mat? He also did the grand write-up on our chandelier painting project HERE over on AT. He really did make us sound way cooler than we are...we thank him for that! Ok, stay tuned. Not sure when we'll get around to the chevron painting portion of this project but we're imagining it will be FINITO in just a few weeks. Thoughts?

Chevron fridge image from HERE

Before and After: DIY - How to Easily Paint Baseboards

Stop laughing...these were the baseboards in our master bedroom. Yep, fugalicious and yellow. Ugh, they were hideous! You can sort of spy their creamy yellow goodness in THESE pics. And yep, with the nursery designing process in full swing HERE, we've neglected changing anything in our master since these pics were taken. Oh well, maybe next year we'll tackle some of the big 'want to dos' in there.

But now they're gleaming white and make me smile every time I look at them. Yes, I realize it's totally bonkers that baseboards make me smile. Read on and see how Walt tackled this super easy DIY that took literally less than an hour and his efficient way of getting it done.

So first of all, I snagged this picture from our nursery updates. So those of you that are uber handy will immediately realize that Walt's putting the tape ON the baseboard and not above it. Well, the point I'm trying to make here is that he's kinda genius. He cut a slit in the painter's tape so ONE ROLL would last us twice as long. He's super detail oriented so he knew he'd only need about the thickness of an inch of painter's tape to get the job done. So there you have it, making one roll of painter's tape last twice as long...what a smart cookie!

He moved all the furniture away from the walls and all the baseboards are all taped up and ready to be primed. We buy our primer in these massive buckets, so we always have primer in the garage. 

One last look at the hideous yellow fug-ness.

Reenactment alert, ha! We totally forgot to take a picture of him while he was painting. So he so willingly posed for a picture. This is key, people. By using this massive piece of cardboard, he's able to push the carpet down and away from the baseboard. He seriously whipped around our rather large master suite in no time, priming that puppy in minutes. After that dried, he followed it up with a gloss coat of white. This was a super efficient process and painting your baseboards is a great way to create a cleaner and more well kept (looking) space.

Prime time baseboards!

Close up, waiting for their real coat of paint!

Painted and gorgeous and the tape is removed! Holy cow, does that ever look better! I know it's the little things that usually cost nothing that make you so proud of the changes you instill in your home. This was one of those easy/quick projects that has already had a huge payoff. We keep smiling at our baseboards in our master suite like a buncha weirdos. And then we laugh...and I remind myself how lucky I am to have married a DIY loving/doing man who thinks outside the box to find an easier/quicker way to complete a task!

Are you a big fan of DIY? Click HERE to scope out more projects that we've tackled around our home!

Before and After: DIY - Sharing the Semi-Finished and Put Back Together Guest Room

Last we chatted guest room, it was looking something like THIS. Now, it looks something like this:

Can I get a woo hoo for no more Pepto pink and a semi put together guest room? Thanks for that! Yowza, we honestly threw this baby back together late Wednesday night last week. Why the rust? We had house guests arriving on Thursday (and no heavy lifting for this girl) so we wanted it to be spick and span before our company arrived. Or at least, guest-appro! I'll tell you what we did to make the transition below. And I'll also share the details on what we plan to still accomplish in this room below too.

Quite the construction zone in there, but I'm still so smitten with the color that I look right past all of this and just stare at those pretty bluish green walls. Also, check out that previous light fixture. Be jealous!

We scored a great deal on a fan at Home Depot and couldn't wait to add a ceiling fan into that guest room. We knew it would help with air circulation and cooling everything down on this super hot summer we're having here in Austin (just like many of you too, I'm aware!)

Making sure all his ducks are in a row. 

It was about 9pm at this time and we were both dead tired. Walt was down to his last light bulb and I asked him, 'So does it work?' And he said, 'Ridiculously enough, I haven't even tried yet.' He'd been working all evening on this room to get our punch list done before the next day's company arrived. Poor thing, totally forgot to try it. I prayed to the electrical connection/fan installation gods as he flipped that switch...

Yippee! It works! Now it's time to clean up everything, vacuum and move some of the furniture back in for our guests. 

So here's the after! We're pretty sure the bed is not going to stay against this wall because we have amazing curtains to hang and we're thinking about hanging/painting those side tables. Also, we had to reinstall those hideous mini-blinds because wood venetian blinds are still on our to-buy list. We'll also be searching for a dresser addition too, so we're keeping our eyes peeled on Craigslist for that.

Another thing, we've also been chatting about making or own white-washed headboard. And of course, we need to cover some of that empty wall space with some super cool wall art. I've been struggling with wall art ideas for both the guest room and nursery, hence all my wall art posts HERE and HERE recently. So we have quite a bit, in the works, over the next few weeks.

"Excuse me Momma, when do the house guests arrive?" 

Tiny was patiently awaiting her house guests and gave the new semi-done guest room...TWO PAWS UP! We can't wait to update you as the finished product unfolds. We still have a huge to do list so get ready to see a serious transformation in the near future!

Before and After: DIY - Priming, Painting the Guest Room (Pssst - No More Pepto Pink)

You know you want to steal our light fixture, ha! So we're busy bees over here at CC, jazzing up the guest room (formerly the Pepto Pink room HERE) and creating Baby Boy's nursery, which was our former guest room HERE. So why not just make the pink room the nursery? Well, it's right across from my office and directly next to the bathroom. We figured it would be quieter at the end of the hall for him, but we don't believe in tip-toeing around a baby. Also, when we have house guests, they won't worry about being too loud because he'll be at the end of the hall. SO that's why we're playing this massive game of room switch-a-roo!

Above, Walt is getting down to business, priming the pink room and I couldn't be happier to see it go. So long pink room...I will not miss your hue!

It was a sticky evening when Walt started the priming phase. He opted to turn off the ac upstairs and open up the windows so that the priming fumes would exit that way. Poor thing, he was obviously dripping in sweat. All I kept thinking was how loved and adored this tiny Baby Boy already is. Seriously, lucky lil' fella.

So, the part we hope you're excited to see. The color! Well, we had two gallons sitting in the garage that we've been just waiting to use. They're a really nice bluish green and even though they're different brands, we opted to mix them together and we're so happy with the outcome. We knew they weren't obviously the exact same color, but we thought they'd play well together, once mixed.

You know how we love our 'oops' paint and this one we scored from Lowe's for $3!

And this one from Home Depot for $5! Seriously, you can't beat that. Two gallons of paint for $8 total, I'll take it!

Pouring them in the big mixing paint bucket.

Empty cans. You can see that one shade is bluer and one is greener. 

Mix master flex.

"Oh hello there...you're totally going to dig the new color of our guest room. I was totally involved in the decision process too, fyi!'

Ahhhhh, it looks amazing! Love it! Hubby hard at work, rolling that paint on those pretty primed walls!

And here's a huge sneak peek at an entire finished wall. Literally, I'm bonkers excited. It's so crazy how much a color can change the mood of the room. Walt yelled downstairs and told me to come check out the first wall and I was blown away. Literally, even when it was primed white it just had such a warmer feel. I totally understand that tween girls love themselves some bright pink but it just wasn't for me, at all.

So share your thoughts? Doesn't it already look so much better? Ahh, I'm head over heels, crushin' on this color! Plus we'll be adding some curtains too so it'll dress up the space even more. We can't wait to unveil the complete after which should happen sometime next week. Get ready for that, we hope we wow your pants right off! Psst - Look at the tiny hairy runner on the bottom left. Silly girl!

Want to see the rest of our guest room progress? Check out our popcorn scraping adventures HERE, our $10 DIY letter hooks HERE, the scrapbook paper wall art HERE and using pieces from around our house to decorate HERE.

Before and After: DIY - Scraping Ceiling Popcorn in the Guest Room and Nursery

Don't be jealous of our light fixture in the ridiculously blinding pepto pink spare room. Do you remember what this room used to look like? Umm, yeah, more on that HERE. And still to this day, we can't believe we actually exposed that to the masses. We've received so many awesome emails thanking us for 'keeping it real' and not just showcasing the hyper organized and manicured spaces.

So be forewarned, this popcorn scraping process isn't the easiest DIY. Hubby's neck ached for an entire day later and he's in pretty good shape. It's hard work for sure! Notice the respirator mask (similar to THIS one) in Walt's hands. We keep it safe around CassCullen, that's for sure! Windows were wide open, a fan was blowing full speed and Hubby kept his mask on.

And take note, just like we mentioned in THIS prep post for our dining room re-haul, we are finding amazing success with a spray water bottle. Just cover the popcorn with water, let it soak in for about a minute and get to scraping. Walt said it cut down on the dust factor for sure! And, just for the record, preggers was downstairs the entire time, trying to strategize some sort of registry plan for Baby Boy Cullen.

PS - Want to know more about the popcorn scraping process, click HERE.

Walt's office was loaded up with so much stuff but not nearly as cluttered as...

MY OFFICE! Ahhh, such a disorganized mess!

Pepto pink now has a sanded and popcorn free ceiling.

And smarty pants Walt even thought about taping the openings of all the closest doors so that no dust would seep in because we have a ton of stuff stored in there. Such a smart man, one of the many reasons I married him. The pink room is now going to be our guest room. We're moving all the guest room furniture over and making the present guest room a...

NURSERY!!! Yes, I just typed that and yes, it steals freaks me out! Oh my gosh, a nursery...where a baby sleeps and smiles and plays and loves life. I still have days where I'm lke, 'I'm pregnant? Whaaaat?' Haha!

Anyways, here's the before with the popcorn still on the ceiling. We actually don't dislike this paint color but it has so many scratches and dings so we've decided we're going to re-paint both rooms. You know we'll have more on those color palettes later. And for those of you that want a peek, HERE'S what our guest room used to look like.

Look at all that dust! Walt took off his mask while I took the picture...I really wanted a masked Hubby picture but it just never happened. Next time!

Done! All cleaned up and no more popcorn in the nursery...YAY!

He came downstairs and was literally covered in filth. I had to snap this pic because it's proof that this is not something you want to tackle before a party or a busy weekend. Mark your weekend off for popcorn scraping, for sure!

PS - How about Zola's tiny face? I love that she has a little Crepe Myrtle flower hanging off of her lady stache! Ha!

And there's my (two of three) favorites...Zola so missed Walt while he was hard at work because all the doors were shut so dust didn't carry into other parts of the house. It was like Christmas morning when he came downstairs, finally finished!