Sud Shack the before

So, this is a combination laundry and bathroom. it was, in the beginning, our only bathroom. yes, it is outdoors and disconnected from our home. there were the occasional nights when it was cold and people probably thought we were crazy but we loved...well, we made it work haha. 

now, it mainly serves as our laundry only since we built our larger home...larger in comparison, but still small. anyway, it was ugly and i hate laundry anyway so i was unmotivated. these pictures are semi-before

i say semi before because i had already put up a chandelier and a support frame for the shower curtain.

obviously, we don't normally have the tools laying on the floor but otherwise everything is as it normally was, a complete mess.

junk everywhere, no organization

the black in that photo is part of the after.

ok, now it is that pipe and all the others that really motivated me to finally tackle the laundry room a.k.a. our Sud Shack.

after pics and story coming soon, as in i just finished it and need to load photos....so, we will just see how quickly i get to that

medicine cabinet makeover - ideas

so, that is the before and after of the medicine cabinet makeover

that is the medicine cabinet i found at thrift and i ended up covering it with a vintage map that i had laying around.

i also covered the frame with the map and since then i have kept looking at it thinking "is that too much map?"      i think that the answer might be yes and i have an idea on how to change it without undoing the work i already put into it.
more on that later..
more makeover ideas...

mirrors are just glass with a treatment done to them, you could remove the mirror treatment so that it was just glass again and store your small office supplies in it in cute containers or labeled glass jars.

concrete LadyBug part 2

there it is!!! its finally finished...well the statue is and now i need to landscrape around it, haha.

so, y'all know that this project started with dirt, lots of dirt. 

my brother came by on day two and helped me shape the mold. i had done some shaping on it day one but then the chickens came by and investigated my work and ended up chicken scratching it to a shapeless blob.....thanks chicas

 finally it was shaped and right away we started adding concrete to it. i first put a crocheted shawl on it so the concrete would have something to grip to. ..... I'm giving instructions of what i did, not what you should do. i have zero sculptor/concrete/statue making skills but what i did, did work.

oh yeah, to apply this concrete my brother and i just used our hands which i highly suggest you NOT TO DO. The concrete will chemically burn your hands. 

after, we had it covered half way...we ran out of concrete, my brother stood guard because the chickens kept coming over and trying to get on it and leaving chicken foot prints all over. ugh, sometimes farm life is a pain.

day 3 my brother and i got up early and headed to lowes for even more concrete, this time i got even more than we thought we would need. we got the ladybug covered!!!!! 

day 4 i covered the ladybug with the second coating of concrete and for this i wanted a smooth finish so it wouldn't be all bumpy and scratchy on my baby Z.

now, for this one i didnt use my hands...ok, well i did but that was not making it smooth enough and i had a brilliant idea to use a stick on tile because they are flexible and very smooth

the white heart is where Z put her hand prints in the wet concert. i knew i couldn't make it look realistic so i went with cartoon and added the black border at the bottom to blend it in. i will be putting a circular border around it and filling with mulch

a GREAT visit

so, over the last weekend my mom and me took off on a roadtrip to take baby Z to meet her great grandma. the visit went smooth and we took Z to a park that i had found on line. it was so beautiful and they had so many statues that kids could play on even a ladybug which is Zs favorite. she fell in love with this ladybug and an ant (i love it mommy its nice and wont bite me) haha.
the love was so profound that everyday she reminds me of the ladybug and says "bring ladybug here so daddy can visit and i wont miss it" too cute
so, as a conclusion to this story...im now experimenting with statue making. it needs to be big enough and strong enough for her to sit on plus smooth for her perfect skin.
brainstorming with my family and we all came up with this....

a pile of dirt....

haha, part two coming soon

$2 Trunk before

I got this trunk for, you guessed it, $2. I needed the storage but it obviously needs a makeover. Which will come in a different post because im not done but thought talking about it would help motivate me to finish!
Till next time

Painting a 90's chandelier

If  you're painting the inside and outside of light globes different colors, paint the inside first. Then, use a plastic drink bottle turned upside down in the light bulb hole to keep overspray from getting on the inside.
Green, clean, classy
Shalimar and baby Z

Another basket makeover

This is a plastic basket that i picked up at the dollar store. They only offered this one color. I need that I wanted it to have a somewhat worn look. I first spray paint the whole thing black. Then, just using some acrylic crafters paint in gold(this stuff is i think 50 cents at walmart) i applied gold accenting with my finger, haha. It is a washable paint. Now, i have a chic basket to hold Baby Z's diapers.

Easy DIY basket update

I picked this basket out at a resale shop for baby Z's nursery. It was the perfect size for her cloth diaper hamper. I love that it had a lid because, well we are talking poopy diapers here:) The colors were wrong but a little paint and a couple minutes and it was perfect.

Wicker Garage Sale Score

Paint: before and after

Just a quick post with some of the paint transformations that have kept me busy. 

This gold needed a primer to get it covered and as it turns out I just loved the gray.

This is pricy primer but what I had on hand.

This was an old school TV console, back when tvs were built in a box. I picked it up for free! Actually it was five bucks but I was out thifting  with my parents and they always say "your money's no good here:)" so they bought it for me.

Not quite done with it but when I am it will be a lovely changing station for baby Z. 

I'll keep y'all posted with all my crazy ideas and projects but until then y'all keep it green, clean, and classy.

Shalimar 

DIY Thinnest hardwood Florrs

My new and improved floor. I am calling this the world's thinnest hard wood floor because it's made of paper which, of course, is made of wood:) 

You can see that before the polyurethane the planks had a few lift spots. Most of these went away with drying time.

This was my lunch break. Ravioli from the can! I was so busy plus I had painted myself right out of the kitchen so I didn't have a bowl or microwave. Plus, my lunch read was a good one. I'm now on to book two and another project.

This was the floor before the polyurethane. In some spots the glue "that dries clear" was showing but the polyurethane completely covers all that; leaving your floors shiny, sealed, and so easy to sweep or mop. The glue I used was Titebond wood glue and it's $4 for 16oz. I cut the glue down with water at a 2.5 to 1 ratio. I ended up having exactly the right amount...for about a 100sq ft.

To lay the planks I filled a mini paint tray with the glue mixture and used the mini roller. I rolled the glue onto the back of the plank and also the floor. Put the plank down and then run a squeegee over the plank to get excess glue off and smooth the plank over. Then repeat repeat repeat until you question why you even started this project. Quick tip - use a knee pad and don't do this when you are five months pregnant. Haha

This is a before shot. The floors were originally just the plywood subfloor and we had painted them. Remember way back when I said that this was built as a studio so there wasn't a need for anything fancy. When I decided to do the paper floor I knew I would have to level the floor out and that would be the whitish stuff you see. I used wood filler or water putty. They were two bucks a can and I used one and a half.

To make the planks. I first started with a roll of paper drop cloth. It's $11 for a roll of 3ft by 140ft and I had a lot left over for other projects. I cut the paper into manageable sheets, say 4x4. First paint the entire sheet with your desired brown, then using a graining tool I applied the faux finish. For this I used a mixture of deck seal and stain that I had on hand, but paint would work too. 

Once the sheets had dried I cut my planks into varying lengths, depending on the sheet size, and 5 inches wide. To get a straight edge I used a glass crafting table, a square, and a box cutter. 

I lined the square up with the straight edge of the table. I kept the square from moving with a small weight, aka a little can of stain. Then, I pull the sheet down under the length of the square and lined it up with the straight  edge of the table. Cut with the razor knife and pull down for the next plank.

This is what the sheet looked like before cutting into planks and you can better see the grain pattern.

This is the sealer, stain, and graining tool that I used.

For a run down of everything I used 

Varathane Floor Finish Semi-Gloss Water-Based 128-fl oz Polyurethane ...  $40

Paper drop cloth, glue, water putty

$19

Graininess tool

$7

This was all done well under $100 and I have so many supplies leftover for other projects. 

Hope y'all enjoyed the tutorial as much as I enjoy seeing my floor. It's so easy to clean, I just love it. Till next time y'all keep it green, clean, and classy.

Shalimar