CasaCullen

Before and After: How to Clean and Organize the Linen Closet for $6

Here's the BEFORE (oh the embarrassment!):

Here's the AFTER (ahhhh, much better!):

So what do you think about that change-a-roo? I'm in lurrrve! And I think I'll even venture back and get two more baskets for the top shelf...because the clutter up there kind of annoys me now. Oh my gosh, it's crazy what $6 worth of Dollar Tree baskets can do, isn't it? Doesn't it look so much better! Ok, let me do a play-by-play of my organizational process and tell you how we went from chaotic linen explosion to neatly manicured and easy to find!

So see these bags on the floor of the BEFORE pic? Yeah, well I've been dragging these puppies farther than most Americans have ever traveled. Where have these sacks of outdated treasures been? They originated in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands and then made their way by freight to Los Angeles, then by car up to San Francisco. They stayed put, in their lil' bags in San Francisco, for almost two years.

Now they've found a home in Austin, Texas for the last two years on the floor of our linen closet. Ridiculous? You betcha! It was time to weed through the crud, find the treasures, recycle all the out-dated stuff (almost all of it) and throw away what we don't need! Oh my gosh, I feel like a Hoarder...please don't call TLC on me! But it's just one of those things...out of sight, out of mind!

This was my main inspiration for actually organizing our linen closet. Poor Walt has all our bathroom towels on the shelf in HIS closet. They take up so much room and he's already maxed out in there. So I knew I needed to make space for our towels in our own linen closet and free up that room for his jeans and works pants.

And while this preggers was hard at work on the inside, look at the two cuties I spied chill-laxin' in the backyard. I love that tiny punkin head! Walt was just about to cut the grass. Zola loathes when he cuts the grass cause she just wants to be out there, playing with her Dadda! This was probably a pep talk to tell her to be a good girl for me, while he was doing the yard work. Hahaha!

Yep, so much crap was packed into that linen closet...seriously, I'm blushing in embarrassment. So much of this stuff didn't even belong in there but you know when you get lazy and don't feel like finding something a new 'home' in your house? And then you just end up tossing it into the closest open space? Ok, well our linen closet was dumping ground 1 at CasaCullen, ha! Yep, it was time to find things a new home and decide what would make the organized linen closet cut!

Since all the shelves were bare, I busted out my Seventh Generation all-purpose spray and cleaned those puppies right off! And let me just tell you the dirt that I found on the floor level...ummm, one word: GROTTY! So glad to have that all spick-n-span!

A towel-less closet shelf for the Hubster...he was such a happy man!

This was a shot when I was half way done. I actually thought I was done until...

I realized we have THIS MUCH STUFF to still find a 'home' for in that closet. Hmmmm, what to do? At this time it was about 5pm on a Sunday night and this preggers was tired. So I laid by bootie on the couch in order to prepare myself for my favorite Sunday nights shows: 60 Minutes and Dateline. Yes, I'm the world's biggest nerd and love those shows. So, fast forward a few days later and I'm back at it again...organizing the linen closet below.

 

One trip to my fave, the Dollar Tree, and I scored SIX GREAT BASKETS for $6! Seriously, I love that place. Remember how we tidied up our laundry room HERE and our pantry HERE using baskets from the Dollar Tree? Yeah, I highly suggest it! There's just something about throwing everything into a basket that makes life so much simpler, more organized and less hectic. Agreed?

Then I decided to take all the leftover goodies that were sitting pretty in our extra laundry basket (above) and separate them by category. We have medicines in one basket. Body stuff in another basket and hair brushes in another basket. I mean, there really wasn't any method to my madness and these are obviously all subject to change at a later date...but for now, this all makes Momma very happy!

Round 1...nope, don't like it! Still look cluttered to me. The baskets on top of each other on the floor just wasn't going to fly with this lady. So it's back to the drawing board...

So I removed the products from the remaining shelf and dispersed them into the baskets and did some basket re-organization and voila...we have a happy and organized linen closet!

No more paper bags at the bottom of this closet, people. With sunscreen and hair products in easy reach (what I/we use most during the summer season) and everything in it's own place...I seriously smile every time I open this door. I couldn't wait for Hubby to get home so that I could show him our supremely awesome after. He was pumped and loved it!

And awwww, that sweet Walt even had a surprise up his sneaky lil' sleeve for me...what a sweet man! Now we just have to tackle the upstairs linen closet. HERE'S a sneak peek pic and yes, we totally have our work cut out for us there, ha!

Cost Breakdown for Organizing the Downstairs Linen Closet:

A whole buncha linen closet crap - already owned

Seventh Generation All Purpose Cleaner and Paper Towels - already owned

6 Baskets from Dollar Tree - $6

Total = $6 and worth every penny!

Reader Reveal: Before and After - The Walker's DIY and Modern Chic Laundry Room

We love hearing from our readers and today's Reader Reveal is quite the stunner! We love a decorated laundry room (see more HERE and HERE from our site) and the Walker Family now have themselves quite the adorable lil' room. We love all the DIY that went down in this quaint little space and can totally appreciate the overall price point of throwing this together (read below for more on that!)

We also have to mention that Tiffany is also an amazing photographer (more on her work HERE and HERE) so if you're ever in the Bay Area and are in need of a photographer, surely look her up. So much amazing talent...this is one creative family! Read on for pics and their Tiffany's explanation of the process! Thanks for sharing...we love what y'all have done!

The Before(s):

The After(s):

And here's what we heard from the Walker Family:

The laundry room was one of the last rooms in the house to be painted. When we moved in literally every surface NEEDED to be covered with some type of paint. The last owners had a very interesting color palette to say the least.

I found the inspiration for the laundry room via a Better homes and Garden email. It was a wall with a stencil of an ironing board, iron and water bottle. First step was to get my stencil ready for the wall. I had a clothespin template to follow. I copied about 15 sheets and started the tedious task of cutting out each clothespin. Good thing to do while watching TV. Next, I traced the ironing board, iron and spray bottle on seamless paper (photography background paper.) After everything was cut out I needed to prime the walls.

The laundry room is actually in our basement...something you don't find too often in CA. Since it was refinished, there was actually no paint on it, which was a good thing and a bad thing. Good that I had a blank slate...bad since I had to prime it. After the walls were primed I attached the stencils to the wall with re-positionable spray adhesive.

Next step, do the first coat of paint...and I hated my choice of yellow! The swatch looked like a beautiful muted Martha Stewart yellow, but on the wall it looked neon. After a new color selection the new color was much better! After the wall painting was complete, I tackled the doors, windows and cabinets. I love the cabinets in this room ( and the bathroom.) The previous owners actually repurposed the old kitchen cabinets throughout the basement. So I slapped a new coat of paint to give them some life.

After a day I peeled off the stencils. I then started in on the window coverings. I wanted to incorporate clothespins so I used gorilla glue to attach the pins to the door, then used twine to string white fabric through. I finished it off with a few bows. The other window covering was store bought but I replicated the twine ribbons to incorporated the two windows together. I was almost done...but I felt like I could use more clothes pins, since I did have a pack of 30 and I had only used two!

I had more fabric left over from the curtains and played with the idea of a clean and dirty sign above the hamper and washer/dryer. I ended up buying printable fabric paper to print C L E A N & D I R T Y in large letters. I cut out the squares and incorporated the twine and clothespins once more.

All in all I probably spent around $125 on paint, fabric for the curtains, fabric printing paper, clothespins and props (wash board and blue cabinet) and I'm really happy with how everything came out but the photos don't do the stencil justice.

MAGNETIC CHALKBOARD: I have always loved the doors in our house. They are the original 1941 doors that came with the house and they have a rectangular inset detail. I always thought the inset would be neat to use somehow but I didn't know with what. Then I came across chalkboard paint! While purchasing it I also picked up the magnetic paint as well.

I did four coats of magnet paint before doing 3 coats of chalkboard paint. Easy project and something fun for when my son gets a little older...keep him entertained. I will say though, the magnet doesn't work that well. It may be that the paint wasn't so great or maybe I put too many layers of chalkboard paint on top. Not sure.

Reader Reveal: Before and After - The Fitzpatrick's Elegant and Stylish Nursery

The amazing design duo that's Joe and Trinity Fitzpatrick are back with another room makeover. You first saw their handiwork HERE when they converted their basement into a lust-worthy and classic man cave. Yep, I'm firmly convinced there isn't anything this wonder couple can't do. They're good friends of mine and when I saw these nursery photos on Facebook, I immediately told Trinity they were CasaCullen worthy and I wanted to share the process with you, our amazing readers. Here's what she had to say:

"Let's see, what we did to the room...first, we removed all the existing hardware, prepared the windows to be replaced, and prepared the walls to be repainted. We refinished and restained the existing hardwood floors. We repainted the room green to match the baby's linens. We added crown molding to the top of the room and new baseboards to the bottom.

We replaced the old windows with energy efficient, solid pane windows and added wood blinds. We added a dimmer switch to the newly installed fan that would allow us to set the lighting so we wouldn't wake up the baby when we come in during the night.

The furniture is made by Cocoon. The linens are made by Cocalo, their Harlow collection. The rug is from Target. The chair is custom made from Georgia Baby (I can't remember the manufacturer). Most of the other odds and ends I picked up at Target."

Ok, how insanely impressive is this transformation? I love the color palette and how chic it's going to be for such a tiny tot. The chandelier decal over the crib is genius and you have to take a peek at one of the last pics below. See those tiny stuffed animals? Those were actually Trinity and Joe's when they were just wee lil' angels, isn't that so sweet? We also love the idea of the dimmer too!

Congrats to Joe and Trin and their tiny bundle of joy that will be arriving shortly. We love what you've done with this space and totally tip our hats to such hard work. I know she'll be the luckiest lil' lady on the block with her fancy pants room, that's fo'sho! Y'all are amazing and truly talented, Fitzpatrick fam!

Readers, have a room you deem worthy of sharing? Or even a great before and after? Shoot us an email via CasaCullen{at}Gmail{dot}com and you might just see your abode or handiwork front and center on CC! Have a wonderful holiday/3 day weekend everyone! We'll be getting some mega R&R after the Zola debacle but we're happy to say, she's doing great. Her legs aren't back 100% but totally getting there! Thanks for the emails, notes, prayers and love from afar...we're so blessed in our readership!

 

 

Want to check out more Reader Reveals? Click HERE for all our featured posts!

Reader Reveal: Before and After - My Parents How-to on Tackling a Tiled Backsplash

Recently my parents tackled an awesome DIY project. Throughout the weekend, we received pictures (via texts) of their progress. I was so impressed with their before/after that I knew I had to feature it. My Dad even put together an awesome step-by-step instructional guide for everyone. in addition to the photos he snapped. Here's a snippet about the process and what they did. I actually didn't get a total cost from them so I'll be sure to provide that as soon as I hear back. Or maybe they'll leave it in the comment section below.

Have you ever tackled a backsplash? Did you run into any mishaps? Did you find the payoff to be totally worth it? I think it accessorizes a kitchen in a way that's statement making without being over-bearing. Some backsplashes are the eye catcher and others just compliment. I love the color combo that my parents chose and you know we can't wait to redo our counters and add a backsplash in the near future. It'll make such a huge difference in our kitchen, that's for sure! Thanks Dad and Mom for sharing your DIY project...we can't believe how great it looks, amazing! Enjoy, everyone!

The Process:

Before.

Turn off the breaker and remove the switch and receptacle covers. Pull the receptacles and switches away from the wall.

Measure the total length of the wall to be tiled.

- Make sure your counter is relatively level. If not, you may have to draw a level line at the bottom to start your first course of tiles.

It's Tile Adhesive time! Use a 1/4" x 3/16" V Notch Trowel to apply the adhesive to the wall. Apply a thin coat over the area needed for the mosaic. Then holding the notched end at a 45 degree angle from the wall, scrape away the excess adhesive.

Trowel with cute puppy in the background.

Using Trowel to scrape away the excess adhesive. Apply the remaining tile mosaics and allow the adhesive to dry overnight.

Remove the 1/8" spacers from the bottom row of tiles.

Use Unsanded Grout with Polymer.

Start with about 10 oz. of water and stir in grout powder a little at a time until the mixture is about the consistency of peanut butter.

Use a Grout Float to spread the grout all over the mosaics. Smooth it in at about a 45 degree angle to the joint lines until all lines are filled in with grout. Start a timer when you first start the grouting, as you want to start sponging away the excess grout 10 minutes rom the time you first started the grouting.

Ten minutes after you started grouting, use a moist Grouting Sponge to wipe away the excess grout.

Keep a bucket of water handy, and keep rinsing the sponge, till the tile surfaces are clean.

Ten minutes after sponging, do it again.

Now that one side is done, we start on the other side to complete the corner.

Tiling and Grouting is now done. Run a bead of Grout Caulk at the bottom of the mosaics.

To replace the receptacles or switches, you may need to use small pieces of tile as spacers as seen at the top of this receptacle.

Now replace the covers for the switches and receptacles, and you have gone from boring to beautiful.

DIY Weekend Project: Before and After - How to Prune Your Trees for Spring

Why prune? Because it clears out the dead branches and allows more sunlight to reach the ground. Plus, it's much more aesthetically appealing post-prune. It's hard to imagine when you're just getting going...but the after is totally worth it! This is CasaCullen before, totally covered with overgrown branches. This pruning process actually happened in late November, we've just never gotten around to posting about it. Well, today is the day because we deem it a great weekend project during those gorgeous spring days!

CC Hubby kept telling me how much we needed to buy pruning shears. I kept avoiding answering him because I just didn't think we needed to prune our trees. Well, one day I actually took a closer look and knew it was high-time those trees got a haircut. Hubby headed to Home Depot and scored this telescoping tree pruner for under $40. (More info on this product HERE.)

He used this $5 twine to bundle all the branches together. Naturally, I was smiling at his organization and we used these branches all winter long for fire kindling. 

Hubster sprayed this on all of the stubs where he cut the branches off. Why do you have to do this? If you don't, your tree may develop a fungus...we don't want no sicky-poo trees! He said it was just like using a spray paint and he did it so quickly, that per my usual, I didn't even get a picture!

Don't be fooled...that's not the twine. This rope comes with the pruning shears. It's the really high tech mechanism that allows CC Hubby to chop, chop, chop away (oh wait, he just informed me, chop isn't the correct word...it's cut) all the crowded branches.

Chop, chop, choppin it down!

When my man is working, he is a man on a mission. The neighbors must've wondered what the heck was going on. He's pruning, I'm chasing after him with a camera and Zola was chasing after me. Yeah, I'm sure we look really sane, ha!

Said choppin' damage...

No branch stood a chance with chopster Hubby on the prowl. 

So he worked so hard all day, chopping all these branches down. I think he sort of forgot that no magic spell would be cast with an imaginary cleaning crew swooping in and doing all the work. He was dead tired at this point and still had to bundle all the branches up. But guess what I did? Put on my house work kicks and went out there to help him. I saw a huge sense of relief in his eyes and we bundled these loads up and he was showered and relaxing in the next few hours. 

A time intensive task, pruning your trees is totally worth it. You can google how and where to prune different types of greenery (that's what we did) and know that your $40 shears purchase will be able to prune trees for many years to come. I got a quote here in Austin for how much pruning would cost and it was around $200 or more. So we saved a bundled by DIY'ing this massive chore. Have you ever tackled pruning on a grand (tall tree) scale? Did you also find it time intensive but worth it?

Ugh, our Texas yard! Nobody has green grass right now so we don't feel too ridiculous with our brown yard. But, check out all those gorgeously pruned trees. I took this picture a few days ago and they're still looking great after 3 months! Ahh, DIY projects...so much hard work but the payoff is totally worth it!

Are you a sucker for a good DIY project? We are too! Check out all our other DIY/How-to projects HERE for more great ideas!

Personal Peek: Before and After - Organizing The Pepto Pink Spare Bedroom - Part 1

Ok, ok...before you go signing us up for an episode of Hoarders (which I love, btw) at least read all the way to the bottom of this post for the after pic. We spent some time organizing, rearranging and finding a new home (mostly in the donation box) for numerous items. I can't believe what a few hours will do to a hideous space.

Also, if you have a second today, will you head on over to Facebook and find our Pepto Pink room HERE. One quick little click of a vote (under the Home Office/Den) section and we're in the running for a $3,000 gift card from World Market to spruce this space up. Please, we don't ask for too much from you! Plus, just imagine the awesome after picture!

I can't even believe I'm exposing this in public, on a public forum. Oh well, we like to keep it real over here at CasaCullen. 'Hi, my name is Morgan and I'm addicted to saving boxes!' Honestly, who in their right mind needs this many boxes. Maybe I have issues with the fact that we've moved so much in the last few years. I'm a box hoarder...no longer!

Yep, there's no going in that closet.

Just me, my girl and all my boxes. This was literally only about 2/3 of the total but we thought it was hilarious that they were almost as tall as...me! My cheeks are blushing, I'm completely embarrassed but I'm hoping others have this same deep, dark secret room (oh come on, you know you do) and maybe this post will encourage you to put a few hours in. 

Another view...you know you're jealous! A pepto pink room + a crap load of junk-a-roo that needs to be organized = green with envy, ha! I mean honestly, I'm embarrassed we even lived like this. Shhh, promise it'll be our little secret, ok?

Since we were in organization mode, Hubby decided to tackle his work desk and you can see he has his tiny hairy helper to keep him moving!

Break time! CC Hubs found one of our Rome books from our honeymoon and he was flipping through reminiscing. I asked him if he was ready to go back to Italy and his answer, 'Is that even a question?' 

We took a ton of stuff out of the room. We put some items into the attic that we rarely use (ie: steamer, Zola's crate, computer printer box) and we cut up all those moving boxes and plan to put them on Craigslist for some lucky folk that are in search of freebie boxes. Did you know about that? We never pay for moving boxes and always find them free on Craigslist!

It's looking better in there! I used to design wedding gowns so that's the massive pile of creamy white stuff and I noticed all of Hubby's sweaters were hanging (that's a fashion no-no) and taking up precious closet space. I had another plan!

*Also, if you're in the Austin area and are a bride/know a bride to be, send them my way. I'm about to have a massive sample sale of my designer wedding gowns so I'd be happy to give them a discount for your referral as a reader. Have them email Morgan via CasaCullen@Gmai.com about the wedding gowns!

I folded them all up into one of the wedding gown boxes so now he has all his sweaters underneath our bed in our master suite. No more going upstairs for a sweater. He has all his clothing in one place, except...

His suits/jackets and nice dress pants and my formal dresses! They have now found a home in our pepto pink closet. I'm actually going to be sort of sad when we finally paint this room and give it a face-lift. I enjoy calling her our little, 'Pepto Pink Potential!' And since I'm sure you're wondering where I wore that little gold number, I'll just go ahead and tell you. Nearly five years ago, donning a supremely good spray tan, that would be my get-up for our rehearsal dinner at The Patio Restaurant (no longer in business, boo) in Vero Beach, Florida.

So here's where we are now, people.

Yep, there are still piles everywhere because we have no storage in there. But at least it's organized and separated into groups.

And here's the last view out hte door. Phew, that took a few hours but it's in such a better place now. I mean, take a peek back at the before up there...yeah, we're proud of Miss Pepto Pink and how she's chuggin' along! 

Before and After: DIY - Where Are We With Our Master Bathroom Makeover

So here's the before, this is what our master bath looked like a month after we moved in. But slowly we've been chipping away and doing little things, here and there, to change it up in there.

And here's where we are now! I'm not sure why this picture is so misty and foggy, but we'll surely post some new ones soon as we have some big changes coming up! We still have a long, long way to go but we just wanted to share the process and how we got from the before to the after, with you!

The first thing we did was paint and add hardware on our double vanity cabinets. You can read more about that process HERE. The we scraped off the popcorn, removed all the broadway light fixtures and took that massively huge and hideously out of date mirror off the wall. You can see all of that info HERE.

Next up, we shared with you some great inspirational images that really tickled our fancy HERE. And are pretty sure we'll ultimately go with some sort of floating shelf under the mirrors, which we chatted about HERE. So now that you're up to speed, let's show you what's new in the CC master bath!

  

We kept trying to decide on the perfect paint color for our bathroom since our master suite is open (there's no door on the suite going from the bedroom section to the bathroom) and we just couldn't settle on a color. When we found that perfect light white bluish hue HERE, we knew we wanted to paint the entire suite in that shade. You can also see what I mean about no door and open floor plan HERE too.

So the paint master mack daddy got to work and started on the ceiling first...I love all our scraped popcorn, crisp white ceilings. It makes such a huge difference.

Look closely, you can just faintly see the blue hue all trimmed out before we got down to business rolling the entire walls.

One thing I'm not thrilled with, all the creamy yellow hues that are now glaringly apparent. We're going to paint the window sill and plan to get a new tub or find out about resurfacing. We like crisp white so to have all these yellowy hues in addition to our whites (cabinets, blinds, etc) really just irks me. It'll be one of the first things we hash out in our bathroom makeover.

So here's out little potty room before...

Hubby got a wild hair and said he wanted to do something a little different and daring in there...

Yep, that's daring all right, ha!

So now we have a seriously electric blue potty den. We're thinking about two options to tone it down a bit a) do stripes with the leftover bluish/grey paint from the dining room makeover HERE or b) stencil/paint something really awesome in a wallpaper-like pattern. So stay tuned for a big change in that tiny room of the house in the next few weeks/months. That blue is just too much!

So now, when you enter our master suite, it's clean, bright, the light floods in and it just makes me smile.

I also have to chat up our new lighting fixtures and mirrors. The mirrors were only $19.99 a piece from TJ Maxx. I'd really suggest shopping around for mirrors if you're switching out a large wall mirror. I know your first instinct is to purchase from the selection at Lowe's/Home Depot but I don't think those are the best deals. A mirror is a mirror, people...so pop into TJ, Ross, Home Goods and check out their selection before you buy. I found a steal on these dark brown beauts!

Ugh, my camera settings were whack, obviously. I'll try to snap some better pictures and replace these soon. So these lighting fixtures are industrial and contemporary looking, totally our style. We watched these at Lowe's for about a month until they finally went on sale. We had our eyes on a few different options but the chrome pieces went down to $17.99 a piece and the glass bubble infused pendants went down to $4.99 a piece. So $30 on the glass and less than $40 on the fixtures...cha-ching! Shopping and waiting for sales really paid off on these babies!

Here's the view from the front. So what do you think? So much more contemporary and on trend, right? We're toying with the idea of keeping the cabinetry and just redoing the top with new sinks and faucets. If we do opt for stripping out the cabinetry, we'll probably re-use it out in Hubby's man cave HERE for extra storage.

CC Hubby also worked his DIY magic again and added some reclaimed wooden shelving in place of the boring white version that was in there before. He did the same thing in our TV room HERE and in our laundry room HERE. So where did we get all that wood? Click HERE for that answer, it's half way down the post!

So we still have so much to do in this bathroom but we're proud of how far it's come on such a small/tight budget. We're thinking lots of white and some huge art above the tub. Floating shelves below the sinks and some fresh new sinks/faucets that'll update the space even more. We can't wait to tackle the rest of our master suite and cross that room off our 2011 resolution list HERE. Enjoy!

Before and After: DIY Under $10 - How to Paint a Chandelier

So, what do you think? Oh my gosh, we are so insanely in love with the after! See it hanging in all its gorgeous full dining room glory HERE in our previous post. Maybe if classic/traditional is your decor style, you're sitting there cringing at the thought of painting a chandelier. But modern and sleek is our aesthetic and we're pumped that we saved a bundle by using what we have and just giving it a makeover. My vote was originally for a bright yellow but Hubby and my Mom voted for black so it was 2-to-1, I lost. I totally trust their design judgement and absolutely love the outcome. Hubby is beside himself and super proud.

This gorgeous lighting element was actually already in the home when we purchased it so we were super fortunate to inherit such a beaut. Click HERE to see the chandelier in our original dining room too. And just to forewarn you, this is going to be an image heavy post but we want to make sure we give you every bit of information so you can also easily tackle this project without a hitch. So without further ado, let's get down to business and show you how we painted this chandelier.

*If you're new to our site, we highlight the important parts in bold and you can click any picture to enlarge the view.

First up, we took one of the crystals into Tipler's Lamp Shop right here in downtown Austin. We were positive that the chandelier was actually cut glass and NOT crystal but we wanted to ask a professional, just to be sure. We were thinking about painting it something like THIS (yeah, how about that price tag) for that great added black colored element.

Well, well...I'm glad I popped in there because Mr. Tipler himself took one look at my piece of shiny goodness and said, 'Czechoslovakian crystal!' He then handed it back to me and looked rather disgusted with the fact that I wanted to paint said chandelier. Note to self: always check to make sure you know what you're dealing with. We nearly spray painted over all the crystals!

While we pondered what our options were, we decided to scrape the popcorn off the ceiling. Another note to self: remove lighting element first before scraping popcorn. The only reason we kept it up is because we were scraping during the evening and need some sort of lighting. We had quite the messy and coated chandelier afterwards that we had to clean, clean, clean. Yep, that gets a big fat boo from us...take it down first!

We then removed a huge number of crystals from the original just to see exactly what we wanted our chandelier finished product to look like. It was a bit crystal heavy (yep, I can't believe I'm even typing that, Hubby would be rolling his eyes at the thought of me saying that something is too shiny and blinged out) so here's some of the ones that didn't make the cut and the bottom half did make the cut.

And here's our reference picture for what we wanted our finished product to look like. We looked at this image over and over again. If you're even pondering doing something like this, we highly suggest taking a reference photo. We were zooming in to see where this crystal went and that crystal went...I mean, our chandelier would've turned out something seriously ridiculous had I not taken this exact image. Truly, a design saver in this case!

 

Hubster safely (read: turned off the breaker) removed the light from the ceiling using very similar steps as we previously shared with you HERE with our breakfast nook pendant.

Ick! Once we removed it we started cleaning it and all of this grayish dusty stuff kept falling out of the top part of it. Upon closer inspection you can see what all that stuff actually was. Hubs said bees, I said flies. But seriously nasty, it was like a huge dead colony of flyers...one word: gross-ness! Just remember, you never know what you're gonna get till you remove a lighting fixture.

So this is where I highly count on Hubby's expertise and engineering mind in the painters tape department. He rigged this awesome hanging system in his man cave (yes, that sign in the bottom right picture states, just that) in order to prime the entire light. He did most of the taping work and we agreed on what areas we thought shouldn't be painted. I also want to point out that he stuffed small balls of painters tape into the candlesticks so as to not ruin the electric connection inside. Smart man...he's such a smart, smart man.

Yep, it's prime time! Spray on primers are a must for painting a metal surface.

Primed and ready to rock-n-roll! Doesn't it even look really pretty in white? That was another color option for us but Hubby deemed it too boring. Well, I never!

Next up, we had to remove every...single..tiny...annoying...fastener! Yeah, we should've actually done a count because I swear it was at a million, or wait, my fingers swear! You can see all the different crystals and fasteners are separated (DO THIS!) into different compartments. We wanted to keep everything organized so it would be so simple to put back together. We're really glad we did this step, it came in handy later on.

So this is totally how we like to spend a Friday night...removing fasteners from crystals. That's just how you roll when you have a DIY blog, right? Zola conked out on CC Hubby, her favorite spot in the world. PS - We can't wait to tackle the fireplace surround in the right pic!

Then we soaked the crystals overnight in mild detergent (per a google search on how to clean crystal) which was perfect because we already only use Seventh Generation. We went to bed with visions of shiny sugarplums crystals, dancing in our head!

Buh bye boring (hubby's words, not mine) white and hello sleek and chic black!

Once again I have to brag on the Hubster. I kept prodding him about how he planned on priming/painting all those little fasteners and he kept saying, 'Don't worry about it! I'll think of something genius!' When he called me out to the man cave and showed me these tiny things strung all the way across the room, can you see it above. I was singing his smarty pants praises. Indeed, a genius way to make sure they get optimal and total primer/spray paint coverage! Obviously, they were then painted black but I didn't get a photo of that, sorry.

I stood in anticipation as all the tape was removed and couldn't wait for that grand tah-dah moment...but it never came. I hated this version. And yes I'm aware that hate is a super strong word. I just stared at Hubby and he was all like, 'What? Whaaaat?' Then I just said, 'Paint it all, I'm serious...paint it all!' Just imagine the time it took for him to use all the painters tape on all that glass, yeah...we didn't have a happy Hubby.

But I assured him that painting the total piece would be striking and rich looking. I drug him back into the house and showed him THIS picture again just to reassure him. He was actually more annoyed with the fact that his idea didn't look great and that we had to resort to another option. He headed back outside armed with the second can of gloss black spray paint.

Now we have our fun and awesome Saturday night! Reclasping all those fresh and shiny crystals to their newly painted gloss black clasps. Per our usually insanely organized selves, we made sure to separate everything out and well, in the bottom image, you can see that my fingers ended up being raw by the end of the night. This painting a chandelier stuff is not for the weary.

We were like kids in a candy store when we woke up the next morning and saw the shiny, glossy after. Seriously pumped, Hubby couldn't wait to get it hung up.

Here's a great hint, use a black sharpie to color in any spots you miss with the spray paint. No really, even if you're a super amazing spray painter, you will still miss tiny areas on the chain...we promise!

Here we are, anticipatingly re-hanging the crystals and crystal strands as fast as we can so we can obtain that big tah-dah moment. Seriously, we were like worker bees, buzzing all over that thing!

Yep, you bet your bottom dollar we were ooohing, ahhhing and tah-dahing all over the place! Doesn't it look grand? And chic? And eye catching? And drool worthy? Ok, sorry, we got a little bit carried away but we're bonkers excited about the after! It's everything we imagined and so much more. I actually got home from work today and raced past the dining room and thought, 'Where am I? Is that really our room?' Seriously, bonkers!

Lastly, for all the die hard macro fans out there...here's some super close shots of the details for you to feast your eyes on.

We can't suggest this project enough for those of you that have a blah chandy sittin' pretty or just hanging out in your casa. We are so pickled pretty and pleased to death with the result. If you do give this DIY project a try, email us the pics via CasaCullen@Gmail.com as we'd love to share your creative creation with our readers too!

 

Cost Breakdown for DIY Painted Chandelier:

Painters tape - already owned

Spray metal primer - already owned

High gloss metal spray praint - $3.96/can...we purchased two

Mild dish soap to clean crystals - already owned

Sharpie/paint brush for missed areas - already owned

Mega man power - you bettah believe it!

Grand TOTAL = $7.92 (plus tax)

 

So that's all we got for you today, people. Almost 1,700 words on chandy re-painting fun. Feel free to email us with any questions pertaining to this post and be sure to check out more of our DIY projects HERE!

Or we can eliminate the leg work for you and link to some of our faves. How to: paint terra cotta planters, paint a ceiling fan, fill the wall space above the kitchen cabinets, paint a filing cabinet, refinish a wooden bankers chair, make wall art for your laundry room, make a butcher block island and make a headboard from an old door.

Before and After: Personal Peek - Our Mega Dining Room Makeover

Ahhh, we are so excited to share this post, we can hardly stand it. We were up until midnight last night just snapping away so forgive us if this post contains redundancy, insane amount of jubilation or stops without notice. We now can officially say we have a new appreciation for all the 24 hour design on a dime shows. We felt like those people, only we clearly work with a measly staff of two, oops sorry Zola, err I mean, three. Read on for our before and after on our dining room makeover.

And here's some more after:

Yep, I was standing on a ladder for this one! Also, you must notice that popcorn free, crisp white ceiling. We have a great new trick up our sleeve for scraping popcorn so we'll be sure to share that in our prep post. And oh look, we set the table for you too!

And we needed a tripod for this one. The hilariousness was occurring behind the scenes, that's for sure! We were like the three stooges back there.

We aren't entirely sure the main wall gallery is what we'll end up doing, but for now, it's a great way to mix and match art depending on seasons and our moods.

Lastly, trying to share the entire room, but it's hard to do!

So instead of overloading you with all sorts of awesome information, we figured we'd start your week (and Valentine's Day) off on a great foot by giving you the result pics up front. You're welcome. This week we'll focus on the different elements that went into this DIY makeover. Read on if you want to see what you can expect throughout the week.

What's coming up on CasaCullen this week?

We can't wait to show you how we painstakingly painted our chandelier. We first told you HERE that we've been eye balling a colored chandelier so instead of purchasing a new lighting fixture, we figured we'd give our current one a serious face lift. Scan above to the before picture to spy it's previous classic color scheme. We love (and are super proud of) it's new, fresh and modern look.

UPDATE: Click HERE for Painted Chandy DIY Tutorial

We tackled our first set of window panels and we're bonkers excited to show you how easy (and quickly) this can be done! Also, are you eye balling those four pictures? Yeah, we'll also be sharing an awesome insider secret that'll have you wanting those same prints in your casa too!

In need of some natural elements, we went to back to nature for this easy DIY art. We'll be featuring how easy this is and all the options for displaying painted twiggy goodness.

Lastly, we can't wait to share all our tiny peeks of design. We packed a ton into this small dining room so get ready for the big reveal because we plan to tell you about every square inch of decor. Featured above, four wall tiles from a Nashville artisan that I've taken a special liking to. Check out more of her work HERE.

So get ready amazing readers, we've got some serious information in store for you this week. Also, know how much we love and adore each of you and how thankful we are for your readership and support. On this here Valentine's Day, know how loved you are by the Cullen Clan and have a wonderful day, spoiling yourself rotten. What are we up to? Relaxing at home with a Redbox rental and Hubster is on dinner duty. Nothing saying love like being at home, mmmmm!

Before and After: DIY Master Bedroom Makeover Part...Yeah, We're No Longer Keeping Count!

So if you're just now joining us over here on CasaCullen, this post might not seem like a big deal to you. But as many of you veterans know, and I mean those of you that have been reading since day ONE, I've had a serious love/hate relationship with our master bedroom for months. Now, I'm crushing on it, big time.

Are you lost? Let me catch you up to speed. Above and HERE is what our master looked like when we first bought the house and yes, that's the worst shade of yellow ever! How about that popcorn ceiling, those lace curtains and that hideosly out of date fan? Well HERE's more, after a fresh coat of paint. But guess what? I ended up loathing that color and told hubby it just had to go. I honestly felt like I was in a dungeon, except a dungeon with a really nice mattress, pretty bedding and smell good candles.

So fast forward a few months and CC Hubby worked tirelessly scraping off all the popcorn in our entire master suite HERE. Take my word for it, that's a huge task because it's quite large and includes a pretty good size bathroom. So you also want to know more about that process? Click HERE for our DIY popcorn scraping tutorial. Then he gave those gorgeous flat ceilings a fresh coat of ceiling paint and we were off to Home Depot to score our new wall color.

Upon arrival at Home Depot we were shocked to find out our favorite Freshaire No-VOC paint was marked down to $10/gallon. Yep, we stocked up and got 9 gallons which we already told you about HERE. Well if you've read this far, through all those HERE's then give yourself a pat on the back. Because now we're unveiling the big mamma jamma...where we are right now, today! Drum-roll and a massive tah-dah to the image below.

A very subtle and extremely light blue hue is what we settled on. We went back and forth about doing white walls since we eventually want to do a dark stained concrete floor in our entire master suite (can't wait to pull up that carpet) but finally found a perfect balance in this crisp blue. We went with Freshaire's Solemn Stone. Click HERE, it's the first color chip under the Earth category. I have one word for you: obsessed! I'm obsessed, he's obsessed, Zola's obsessed...we all love this hue!

So let me take you on a mini CC field trip and show you some other views of our master suite now.

At first we kept thinking we'd paint our master bath a totally different color but once we both saw how much we loved the Solemn Stone in our master bedroom, we just decided to continue the color on into the master bath. Do you know what? I'm so glad we did this! It opens up the space, doesn't break it up and really gives the whole suite a spa-like and serene retreat-type feel. Here's looking from the bedroom into the bathroom. But more on that bathroom later this week.

  

We also repainted all the doors and trim a fresh coat of white and what a huge difference that makes! We're obviously on the search for an amazing dresser, full length mirror, lounge/reading nook chair and some over-sized wall art. We also still need to paint the baseboard trim but are holding off on that in case we get a wild hair soon and decide to tackle those stained concrete floors.

So our non-existent decor scheme consists of navy, turquoise, whites, browns and blacks. Yep, you can laugh out loud now. We're also in serious need of something other than these $10 Ikea side tables and big basket combo, but for now...they work! We're going to move that art into another area of the house and add blinds and ceiling to floor length curtains. It's going to be masterful, indeed.

Mmm, just look at that purty popcorn free ceiling! We also used the same process as in this tutorial HERE to paint our ceiling fan. We opted for black because we were originally thinking all black furniture and funky accessories. But now I'm fickle and leaning towards white, so that puppy might come down and get a re-paint. I know, I know, poor CC Hubby! Also check out that bedskirt, it was a score. I picked it up for just $4.99 at the Pottery Barn Outlet. Can you say cha-ching?

Lastly, I had to get real with ya! Our master bedroom can become quite the dumping ground. This is everything we actually removed from our master before taking the pictures. So there you have it, we've aired our dirty laundry and you're shaking your head in disapproval. Nope, we don't sugar coat anything over here on CasaCullen. But we do have to say that we actually donated half of one of those baskets and finally found a home for the rest so yay, us!