Home Office Part 2: Bye Bye Beige

This is what the office looked like as of last week. Adios, soul-sucking beige!

This weekend was supposed to be a deep-clean-and-collect-paint-chips weekend in Apartment Therapy's Style Cure schedule, but Sherwin Williams had a 30% off sale last week and what's a girl gonna do, right?

I knew I wanted to do a medium-tone gray so I gave the two I already had a try. The first color we used in the living room/hallway (I think it's called "Simply Greige" from SW) and the other was "Pavestone" from SW. One was too light, the other was too dark, and both were too warm. I was actually really bummed out about this because it was the last day of the Sherwin Williams sale and I had come down with a cold, which left me greasy-haired, mucus-filled and in no mood to go running errands. You're welcome for that mental image.

Long story short, my deal-loving Asian side won out against my weak and sickly Caucasian side, and I returned from the store with two gallons of "Requisite Gray".

Two Chairs One Way: Painting Upholstery

I bought these two chairs on Craigslist (shocker) for $25 each. 

I had been looking for two chairs for the bedroom to create a little sitting/lounge area. In a perfect world, these two chairs would be white leather Barcelona chairs.

But at $500 a piece, it just wasn't in the cards for me. Instead I got this brass tipped leggy duo on the cheap from a guy who was planning to reupholster them, but never got around to it. Love those legs.

You can see below why some reupholstering was in order. But since I have very limited sewing skills, (my talented mother has tried to teach me many times and it has always resulted in tears), I decided to try my hand at painting over those nasty stains. Not without trying to clean them first though. 

Pink Bathroom Chronicles: Shelves

Catch up!
Part ONE
Part TWO

Time to patch things up. Here we were after ripping out the cabinet.

It took a size-able chunk of drywall with it too.

Using drywall repair (or "mud" as they call it), I smoothed over the rough parts and built up the janky wall corner layer by layer. I also put some tape up to help visualize the shelf heights.

First layer, two more to go

Ripping out the old toilet paper holder revealed a huge concrete mass inside the wall that was impossible to get out. I used Liquid Nails and a scrap piece of drywall to cover the hole.

Then mudded over it. This is what the first layer looks like. I'll let that dry and then put another layer on to be sanded down flush with the wall. 

Once the mud dried completely and everything was patched up, I applied a layer of primer. 

Then I said GOODBYE to the pink walls and painted everything a light warm gray. For some reason I went into this thinking it would be a fast job because it was such a small room. WRONG. Bathrooms are the worst rooms to paint because there are so many things to paint around. Toilets, sinks, piping, tile, doors, windows, towel bars, light switches, UGH it exhausts me just thinking about it. But I got it done and here it is.

Wheee! Now time for the shelves.


I mentioned in the previous post that I wanted to do open white floating shelves. The challenge was constructing them to have at least 1-inch thickness and require no brackets. I originally thought about using this technique by Ana White (she's a total badass furniture-making lady, btw).

As you can see, it's basically a simple wooden frame interior with a hollow wooden shell slipped over it. The only problem with this technique is that it 1) didn't take advantage of the three walls I had and 2) seemed overly complicated for my situation.

So I decided to do something that is uncommon, but not unheard of, and seemed like a simple-yet-sturdy solution. I decided to go with solid wood shelves attached to the studs with pocket holes. You'll see what I mean in a bit.

For this project I would need my most intimidating power tool yet: a circular saw. I almost went for some cheap-but-highly-rated ones on Amazon, and I almost went the Craigslist route, but in the end I decided that dangerous power tools are just one of those things that I absolutely do not want to mess with when it comes to quality and reliability. So Boyfriend was a sweetheart and bought me this beauty :)

It's a Makita 7 1/4" Circular Saw and it cuts like a hot knife through butter (or as my friend Richard once said, "like butter through cheese"... oh those late-night studios). How hardcore do I look wielding this thing? Even the pink gloves look badass.

The wood I'm cutting was a lucky find. I was looking for 2x6 boards, but after a trip to one of the biggest lumberyards in Berkeley, I found out that boards of this thickness only come with rounded edges, and if I wanted sharp edges (which I did), I would have to pay a pretty penny for "finishing wood" (about $8-12 a foot and I needed 12 feet). Just as I was mentally formulating a new plan on my way home using Ana's original design, I passed a specialty hardwood store called MacBeath Hardwood and decided to stop in.

Guys, this place was every wood lovers dream! They had all these beautiful exotic woods like tiger wood, bloodwood, and purpleheart (wood that is NATURALLY purple!). I vow to build something awesome with it in the future.

Drool

And Drool

I obviously looked out of place in this store because the manager scoped me out almost immediately. I told him that I wanted something cheap and paint grade (i.e. not purpleheart), so he recommended poplar, which is all of the above AND lightweight. He tossed me a tape measure and took me back to the stockroom where they had 1.25" thick "random cut" lumber. Basically they take one huge board and cut it lengthwise into thinner pieces of random widths, which meant nice sharp edges! I measured and found a piece that was a good width and had them cut it to fit in my car. $38 for 16 feet (they wouldn't let me leave 4 feet of leftover).

So long story short: cheap, paint grade wood with sharp edges FOUND! And I'm obsessed with purpleheart wood.

Now back to the project at hand. I measured out the lengths I would need for each shelf, and since DIY is rarely straightforward and easy, I had to make all sorts of weird angled cuts due to the fact that the bathroom walls are not straight. So yeah, the motto "measure twice, cut once" was definitely applied in this scenario. After some hardcore circular saw action, I had these:

I filled any dents and chips with wood filler and sanded things down so they were nice and smooth and ready for paint. Here's what two coats of primer and three coats of Sherwin Williams ProClassic Enamel in Extra White looks like.

I let those dry for two full days to make sure the paint would be set and durable for the next part, which is the fun part! Enter my other new toy, Mr. Kreg Jig:

Mr. Kreg is a really amazing system for creating pocket holes, which are angled holes that you use to join two pieces of wood together using special screws. This creates a very strong joint without using glue or nails, and, in the case of a 90-degree joint, allows you to have nice clean corners without needing to countersink screws and cover with wood filler.

You can use this technique with side-by-side pieces as well, which is the method I employed with my shelf-to-stud joinery. First I located the a stud on each of the three walls and marked the corresponding location on my shelf. Then I clamped the piece securely to Mr. Kreg and used the special Kreg Jig bit to drill the holes. This whole system makes things pretty fool-proof, which is a relief.

This is someone else using a Kreg Jig because I forgot to take photos.

Then I brought each shelf back inside and had Boyfriend hold it in place (double-triple-quadruple checking the level) while I sunk the special Kreg screws.

I expected a pretty strong connection, but not as strong as I got! After one screw, I could probably have put 50 lbs or more on the shelf, no sweat! But we wanted to make sure the shelf wouldn't see-saw on a single screw, so we went ahead and put in two more. This shelf is ready for some serious business now.

Emboldened by the success of the first, we got two, three and four up pretty quickly. I gotta say...it looks awesome. Especially compared to what was there before.

Now all I have left are some finishing touches, including filling all those pocket holes! We're almost there!

Living Room Progress

I took the living room photos shortly before our housewarming party, which was two months ago, and I've already changed so many things! Design ADD anyone? Ah well, that just means another update post is in your future!

Let's start off with some good 'ol BEFORE and AFTERs.

Progress, about one month after moving in (white balance fail)...

Oooooo....

Yes, I blocked off the fire place. Sue me :)

Progress...

Ahhhhh....

We painted within weeks of moving in because that yellow had to goooooo. A beautiful soft gray from Sherwin Williams that I adore because it changes colors depending on the lighting and makes everything look sexy. 

We painted foam core boards cut to fit the backs of the built-in shelves, which is great because I can change the color or ctrl-z any time (I'm currently thinking of painting them more of a chartreuse). I also used foam core painted the same white as the bookshelves to block off the fireplace. 

You might be wondering why we chose to put our couch in front of the fireplace, but we have our reasons! We originally had our couch on the other wall (see proof below). 

However, we couldn't figure out where to put the TV. In front of the fireplace looked ridiculous (as you can see above). Having it on top of the mantel gave us serious neck issues. I said to Boyfriend "hey, just for kicks, let's try it with the couch in front of the fireplace". Pfffff you crazy, but we'll try it! Turns out it was pretty great! We never use the fireplace anyway, and the new arrangement gave us a better flow from the front door without the couch blocking it. We also have a great view of the hills from the couch, which Boyfriend was all over. (p.s., see how we ended up with our current couch here)

Moral of the story is to never be afraid of experimenting with your furniture arrangement! Here's what that wall looks like now:

We have plans to build a credenza that spans the length of this wall to unify everything. We also need to find things to hang on the wall because it is looking pretty bare.

Enjoy some more detail shots:

Love that couch. Yes, that's the coffee table I refinished on my previous apartment's balcony.

Fun, unique lamp from a gal on Craigslist (she bought it from an antique store).

Add caption

A most awesome tissue dispenser from CB2. I need to get like, 5 more of these, that's how much I love them.

Almost done reading it! <3 Steve.

D'awww...

There ya go! I'm sure I'll have more updates directly before our next party (nothing inspires or lights a fire like having guests over!).

Yucky Closet Makeover

WARNING: On a scale from 1-10, the interest level of this makeover is about a 3. That's only slightly more interesting than sitting on the couch watching "Everybody Loves Raymond" and not doing the makeover at all. Scroll down at your own risk.

There's a reason it's been almost four weeks since we moved and several of our rooms still look like this:

I blame Hallway Closet.

Doesn't look too bad with those bright flashes, but that's some seriously scratched up 1950s lead paint in there!

And don't even get me started on that floor. I don't think it's been cleaned since they removed the original carpeting (I found a thread of it stuck to the inside corner. It was maroon).

Oh yeah, here are the shelves we took out. Sagging particle board with peeling contact paper, yum.

And now the after (let me just warn you that I could not properly white-balance these photos to save my life):

We bought some pine boards for the shelves (which we had cut at the store) and used the leftover sample paint from Sherwin Williams to paint the walls a nice light gray. The shelves were painted with SW's trim and door paint in a nice clean white (apparently it has enamel in it which makes it super durable). 

This one is more color-correct thanks to *twitch* camera flash.

Here's the floor. I was on my hands and needs scrubbing that shit with a sponge and it's still slightly darker than the rest of the wood floor in the house. Whatever.

Time for a budget breakdown!
Paint: $6 for sample paint; already had white paint
Shelves: $27
...Yep, only $33.
And then I messed it all up by going to IKEA and spending, like, $100 on closet organization accessories. Damn you, IKEA, and your cute but deceptively-affordable storage solutions!

P.S. Holy crap, I almost forgot to point out the gray walls in the hallway! We painted all that ugly yellow this weekend and it looks AMAZING. You can see the unpainted baseboard there that was the original color. More pics to come.