Makeover your Bathroom Tile Without Breaking the Bank!

I have tried everything to clean this floor. We inherited the look of this tile when we bought the house, the tile is original to the house actually. I have purchased so many products that claim they will renew grout back to its original glory and they have all failed miserably. I have even been on my hands and knees with a toothbrush and straight bleach trying to clean this floor. Nothing worked.

It left us thinking that we needed to redo the bathroom and had contractors out to give us a price estimate on flooring, tile in the tub area, light fixtures and all the other little things that you need but don't think of costing money like installing a towel bar. Both contractors put us in the 5-7 thousand dollar range to do everything! On a yoga teacher's salary, that is not in the budget!

So I spent several hours watching youtube videos and reading up on how to regrout your floor. And determined that it was too messy and involved purchasing tools I didn't already own which resulted in a bigger expense. Then thanks to the Pinterest-algorithm Gods this product, Grout Renew, came up in my feed. I was immediately interested, painting grout? I can totally do that! I read several other blog reviews that showed amazing before and after pictures and I was willing to give it a go.

When I told people I was doing this they gave me a look that clearly said they thought I had completely lost my mind. For $14, I was willing to try it. I set up my Ipad and would watch/listen to a show while on my hands and knees perched on a pillow with my little paintbrush painting the grout around each square and rectangle. I took my time, I didn't consistently do it for hours on end. I'd do about 45 minutes and then be done for the day. I wouldn't get to it every day but several times a week I'd be perched on my pillow in a meditative state painting the floor. It was rather quite pleasant. 

Our floor was in really bad shape and it took two coats to cover the aging dark grout. It was faster the second time around as I had gained confidence in painting. After the painting was done I cleaned the floor and then put an additional sealant on top. All of the products I purchased at Home Depot because that is what is closest to my house. In the midst of painting the floor, I decided to paint the whole bathroom which really brightened up the room. I am loving how it turned out. And the entire project cost a little less than $100!   

Review: Benjamin Moore Chalkboard Paint

We recently bought a house and converted the basement into a yoga studio. Previously I traveled to various locations to teach yoga and now I just have to walk down a few steps in my home. It's glorious! I wanted the studio to be light and bright and a place where both kids and adults enjoyed coming to and taking yoga classes.

The Yoga Studio Website: http://www.beeyogafusion.com

Using the colors from the website and the Bee Yoga Fusion logo, I painted the far wall of the studio a dark pink with Benjamin Moore chalkboard paint. I anticipated it to take a lot of paint and over purchased but it's always best to have too much than not enough right? FYI: the paint only comes in quart size and this wall (roughly 8 feet x 6 feet) took two quarts.

Following the advice that I read from other bloggers I first applied the Benjamin Moore primer that was tinted to match the pink color that I chose. The chalkboard paint can be any color that you would like but darker colors work best in allowing the actual chalk to show up. After the primer I applied 5 coats of chalkboard paint. Allowing each coat to dry for several hours before reapplying. When the final coat was dry I allowed the paint to "cure", as per the directions on the can for three days. Before the initial use I took a piece of sidewalk chalk on the long side and rubbed it over the entire wall which several bloggers recommended to do as well.

The yoga kids are loving it! And the adults enjoy the quotes and words of inspiration that are posted before class. The wall is easy to clean with just a wet rag and looks great even when it is left blank. I think a chalkboard wall would be a wonderful addition to any kitchen or mudroom to write messages to various family members or to post to-do lists and grocery lists. The possibilities are endless!
  

Alternative Storage Spaces

We live in a small house, we have a tiny kitchen and each square inch is held sacred. Recently we decided to think of alternative ways to store our spices. An Ikea shelf and recycled mason jars makes our storage problems a thing of the past. Have you thought of placing a shelf over a window? It could work in a bedroom to store books or a bathroom to store additional linens. Share your alternative storage ideas in the comments.

Sublime Stitching Embroidered Bird Pillow

One of my personal goals is to create covers for the throw pillows on our sofa and to change them seasonally. We live in a small house, storing several seasonal decorations is not really an option.
Changing covers on the pillows is a great way for me to decorate for the holidays and seasons without compromising our living space.

This pattern is from Sublime Stitching Craft Pad. I embroidered the design on white cotton fabric and then coordinated the additional cotton prints with our living room decor.

Organize that Junk Drawer!

We all have that kitchen drawer that holds the odds and ends of our life. Some refer to it as the "junk drawer", housing such items as take out menus, rubber bands and watch batteries. In my house we have a vitamin drawer, which also holds other bits of randomness.... box tops for education, essential oils, chore magnets etc.
Using berry baskets and the Styrofoam containers that mushrooms are sold in is a great way to organize your kitchen drawers that catch the randomness of your life.
Sure you could go to Target and buy cute, hot pink plastic organizing baskets....but why?
Who is coming to your house to check out your junk drawer? No one is seeing it but you, save your money for family vacation!

Instead of recycling those mushroom Styrofoam containers- give them another lease on life.
Tackle that junk drawer- once and for all!

Easy One Yard Valance

The window in my dining room needed a little something.  I know that I won't be living here forever so I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a temporary fix.  I shopped Target and Walmart looking for some sort of valance but refused to pay 20 bucks on something that I wasn't in love with, that is my new "thing" I have to be in love with it to buy it otherwise I don't need it.  And then I remembered this post from CloverLane's blog.  I bought one yard of fabric from Joann's, it's from the fancy have to pre-order section because it was 60% off!  So worth the wait since I was in love with it!  I quickly sewed up the sides, made a casing at the top and mounted it on one of those cheapo curtain rods that you can get at any hardware store for under 5 bucks.  I love how it turned out.  And the whole thing cost me 15 bucks.
The frames I picked up years ago at Ikea in their as-is section.  And recently I scored these vintage maps from a fellow neighbor on freecycle.  The colors match the fabric beautifully and are quite interesting to look at.

Recovered chairs

I picked up this dining room table and chairs on freecycle for my new place. The original covers were awful and stained, but overall the set was sturdy and fit the space. My aunt, as fate would have it, was purging her fabric collection and had exactly the right amount of fabric that I needed to recover the chairs. And it coordinates beautifully with the brick wall.

Living Room Cafe Curtains

Ok seriously I am done with curtains. Clearly it's all I have been working on since pulling the machine out of it's vacation. Done, moving on. I swear!

Here are the cafe curtains I made for the living room. We are a middle townhouse unit which means we don't have a lot of windows so I really didn't want anything that would completely cover the windows but I did want a bit more privacy from the teenagers who hang out on the public playground right outside of our house at 11 pm every Friday night.

As with the other curtains I made I didn't want to buy fabric, I have more than enough fabric in this house that needs to be used...I just had to get a bit creative since I wanted 3 identical panels but didn't have any large pieces of fabric. So I used what I had..white fabric left over from curtains I made in a previous apartment, strips of tan corduroy which weren't quite long enough so I had to add another fabric. It's funny how something that you think is a hangup, that it isn't going to work at all and then it turns into the thing that ties it all together. And the added bonus is that I have plenty of that striped fabric to make a throw pillow! Future blog post!

Computer Monitor Gets a Lift

Jon's monitor needed a lift, literally. He wanted the screen to be higher. So I took the idea of using door stoppers from my desk upcycle and paired it with a door cabinet that I picked up for free at The Community Forklift. A bit of paint and wood filler and the project was done. The added bonus is that Jon can store his laptop under it, which creates more desk space.

Library Book Caddie

I recently scored this caddy at a yard sale for 3 bucks. I primed and painted it white and now it's the perfect spot to store the boys' library books. And because it lives right next to the sofa, all the books are within easy reach for story time. And not spread out in front of the bookcase..this makes for a very happy mommy.

Sofa Table

I've been hunting for a table to go behind our sofa and because no one will really see it I didn't want to spend a lot of money. Also size, every inch, has to be accounted for in our little house. After coming up empty handed in numerous thrift stores, I decided to make my own. I posted a "wanted" ad on freecycle for a piece of wood that was 12 inches wide and 6 feet long. As fate would have it the freecycle gods shined down on me and a kind neighbor had just the piece of wood I needed. Instead of painting the whole thing I decided to cover the top with oilcloth. I bought the legs at Home Depot and installed those in minutes, they came unfinished so I painted the legs white. I'm going for a new country/cottage feel in our living room. Now I can sit on the sofa and actually see the knitting/embroidery/crochet that I am working on with the lights behind me. And speaking of which...those lampshades are next on my list. I think I'm going to try and cover them in fabric. Has anyone ever done that before? Pointers?

Sewing Table Upcycled

I picked up this sewing table on freecyle (big surprise, right?!?!) and knew I wanted to make it into a desk. Only seems appropriate. I installed a shelf where the sewing machine once lived to hold my Mac mini, wireless mouse and all the cords to the phone, ipod etc... I then took a random piece of wood that we had and covered it in oilcloth and added door stoppers for legs. Isn't that the greatest idea?!!? I picked it up from Lifehacker. This way my printer can live on top and the cords can feed down to the computer. The part of the desk that flips over needed a bit more support to hold my keyboard and originally I was thinking of adding a table leg. I actually went to Home Depot and bought one and on the drive home came up with this brilliant plan to use some of the cool, old books we have. Jon was also excited to have a bit more bookshelf space too.
The woman who I received the sewing table from was clearing out her friend's house after she died at 97!! The friend told me stories about her and at 97 this woman was campaigning for Obama! Love that! She seems like the kind of woman who would have appreciated an upcycle of her sewing table.

Peanut Butter Jar Storage

We go through a lot of peanut butter in our house. And I mean a lot! So much that I've been feeling as though I should come up with other uses for the jars instead of throwing them right away in the recycle bin. I featured an idea before using them as storage for kids toys, and it's proven to be a great way to keep those little lego pieces in check and to house all those accessories that comes with toys. In my house it's "blasters" AKA: guns that come with star wars characters or swords but I've been to a few houses that have been overrun with Barbie shoes that it would be perfect for also.
Well recently I started using them as food storage for the freezer. Why I never thought of this before now..who knows! But it's great for storing things that could spill after being defrosted like sauces and such. But the best part is that they fit perfectly on the shelf on the freezer door.
Just remember to never microwave the peanut butter jars because they will melt. Trust me. :)

Organizing Books by Season

My boys own a lot of books and we also check out a lot of books every other week from the library. This past weekend we went to a giant book sale at one of our local libraries and after coming home and putting the books on the shelves I knew I had to organize. Books were getting damaged or completely forgotten and never read because there were too many on the shelves. So I sat down and divided them up into seasons. So every season we will change the library of books in their room. I think this is going to be really fun for them. Some of the books are not necessarily about a season but it's clear that they take place during a particular season. Take Cat in the Hat, for example, it takes place in the winter when there is snow on the ground. If you find yourself swimming in kids' books instead of getting rid of them, try this instead. Keep it fresh for everyone. Lord knows there are a few that make me do the happy dance since I won't have to read them every freakin' day.

Trash to Treasures: coffee table

The final little treasure I recently picked up on freecycle that I mentioned yesterday. It needs some TLC, but for right now it works as our coffee table. Kids are so hard on furniture that it's hard to really have "nice" stuff. Know what I mean? Each of the sides flip up, I haven't figured out why but it adds to the appeal for the kids. Doesn't take much to entertain them.

The New and Improved Craft Table for the kids

The boys were outgrowing their arts and crafts table that I posted here, and when I saw a recent freecycle listing for a farm style kitchen table I had to snag it. I was not actually the person chosen and then the owner of the table posted a "free for all" style post which is not normally allowed on freecycle but it went through anyhow. I braved the snow and was lucky enough to be the first person to snag the table. I also picked up another little treasure but I'll save that for tomorrow. Keep you guessing! The added bonus of the table is that we now have a "kids table" for eating when company is over...gone are the days of 2 families of 4 crowding around our small dinner table. Zane has already broken the table in, as you can see, it's amazing what a new piece of furniture can do for your creativity!

Trash to Treasures: My lamp facelift

I must once again shout out my LOVE of freecycle. Someone posted this Tiffany lampshade. It was a hanging lamp, and I've spent all day trying to get it to securely fit on my standing lamp base. Which I also got on freecycle a few months ago. :)
I am so in love with how it has turned out. Trash to treasures all this week..got some really awesome finds! Stay tuned!

Ceiling Fan Makeover

My aunt gave us this beautiful ceiling fan, and was kind enough to offer to install it too. This "living close to family" thing really does pay off! The only downside of the fan was that it had shiny brass features , I forgot to take a before picture, oops! The frugal part of me could not turn down a free, much needed ceiling fan only because it was part brass and we are definitely a brushed silver household. I pulled out this indoor/outdoor paint that I bought 5 years ago to paint the tacky brass handles in our first apartment in Seattle. Can you believe after all our moves I still have that bottle of paint?!?! Crazy! Oh, the paint is called Sophisticated Finishes and I bought my bottle at Michael's. As you can see from the pictures it does a wonderful job of covering up brass, this is only after 2 coats.

Organizing the Closet

Our guest bedroom has many functions. And one of those is storage of tools and household supplies like paint, toilet paper, shampoo etc. I felt as though we weren't using the space efficiently so I spent all day Saturday organizing. One area in our life that was a problem was our tool storage. I put all the tools on the wall, now you can see if the hammer has not been returned to it's proper space. I also picked up these large silver bins in the As-Is section of Ikea which holds all of our toiletries and such. And then I nailed the lid of a mason jar to the underside of the shelf and inside each jar are nails and screws.
Now we just need someone to visit so that I will finally have the motivation to paint over those last few spots of touch up.

The Queen of Storage Bins

The house we bought is 70 years old and back then I guess people had less stuff because overall the house would be classified as small. Personally I love small spaces. I feel more at home in them, I'm sure it has to do with the fact that my bedroom growing up was the size of a walk in closet. So with a small house you meet many space/storage issues. Our bedroom was a challenge because a dresser and a full size bed would not fit. I should say it would actually fit but you wouldn't be able to walk around the bed. So I took shelving that we already had (purchased at Ikea) from our old kitchen and storage bins from another organizing unit that wouldn't fit anywhere in the new house and wha-la a "dresser". Each bin holds important items like underwear, socks etc. And the best part is that the bins force you to be organized. The days of socks and underwear mingling in a big mess of a drawer are gone! As you can see these bins haven't gotten their proper labels, don't worry it's on the to-do list.