Shelf That! (part I)

Remember when I talked about how clutter accumulates in an area that just 'doesn't work'? Almost two years ago I showed you the mess that was our front porch, how its set-up just didn't work for us and how it caused us to give it the red-headed step-child treatment until we switched it up? You can refresh your memory here (and I'm happy to announce it's been mess-free since then!)

Little Man's room is experiencing a similar problem. Granted, he's a kid and as such a crazy mess is part of the territory but something isn't quite working or not working well enough. What especially caught my attention were all the little LEGO creations and knick-knacks cluttered on top of his low shelves. Maybe some display shelving is what is needed?

Don't let the picture fool you - it's never that tidy these days.Anyways, since shelves are easy to create and inexpensive I decided it's worth a shot. I was thinking two shelves on either side of the window would work well.

I managed to run off to the home improvement store to grab a few shelf brackets, a can of Kermit green spray paint and two 8 foot long pre-primed MDF boards I hadcut into 4 foot lengths at the store. 

I wanted the look of floating shelves without the hassle of figuring out how to attach them or having to build floating shelves so I faked it by spray-painting the shelf brackets a happy bright Kermit the Frog green to blend into the wall color in Little Man's room.

Quick light sanding to roughen up the metal surface and light even coats of paint did the trick!

We now have green shelf brackets! Stay tuned for part II tomorrow.

Famous Last Words

I know I promised posting would pick up at our Little Old House and here we are, a scant 4 weeks later and what has happened?
Nothing.
Not one bit.

You see, over the summer Little Man turned into a raving mad Baseball nut. After a grand time at Baseball camp he just HAD to join Little League for more Baseball goodness. Sure, I said. It'll be fun, I said, especially when the husband found a team that would have practice on days that a) did not interfere with Karate lessons and b) was scheduled for night where the husband could drive Little Man.

I kind of like Baseball. I'm not crazy about it but it's such an American experience for me, the little German ex-pat, that endears the whole sport to me. I still don't get the finer details of the game and oftentimes find myself yearning for a bit more ...ahem, action on the field but overall, I'm okay with Baseball.

Well, until we started Little League.

First the practice days were changed. They now conflict with Karate so that's on hold right now and they happen to be on nights where - fun, fun - the husband cannot drive Little Man.

I've been sentenced to 1.5hrs of time-out on the bleachers twice a week plus a whopping one hour round trip between field and home because somebody ran a ship into the bridge we usually use. Unless there is a game which means I'm stuck on the bleachers even longer while slowly building up rage that games go until 9pm on a school night.

Yeah, not a happy camper right now.
Meh!

Anyways, it's been eating into what little time I have during the week to get things done aside from the usual, regular maintenance type of activities, some of which have to wait until the weekends now, which means there is less time for DIY projects on those two days as well.

It's a vicious cycle, I'm telling you, and I'm not happy.
Meh.
Good thing it's the shorter fall season.
I'd give Dexter a run for his money if it lasted any longer ...

Going blind(s)

While Little Man has outgrown the stage where a dark room with light-blocking curtains guarantees long naps and sleeping in late in the mornings (no more naps and he's just as much of an early bird as his mom), it is still nice to have some window treatments. Privacy is a good reason although even our next door neighbor doesn't get much more of a glimpse of the ....err, creative chaos that reigns supreme in his room. Mom here simply likes the finished look that window treatments add to a room.

So after some debating and looking at options we decided on Roman shades like the ones we have in our kitchen. And just like our kitchen shades, I made Little Man's shades by hand. We found a fabric with navy and white stripes to match his accent wall and following the instructions from "The Little Green Notebook" whipped up a pair of one-of-a-kind roman shades.

The entry hall works great for projects like this: lots of open floor space to spread out. In the upper left corner of the photo you can spy my youngest assistant of the feline sort just waiting for the right moment to pounce into the midst of things!

And two hours later, Little Man was one step closer to a finished room! Weird how we sometimes end up procrastinating on projects that come together so quickly and, once done, make things look so much nicer.

Have you ever tried to make your own roman shades? Which instructions did you follow? I can't believe how easy it is and how quick you can whip up some custom roman shades in your favorite fabric!

Little Man's Cave Make-Over

What?
A make-over already?

Fear not! Little Man's Cave remains mostly untouched. He still loves his grassy green walls and navy and white stripe accent wall but for some reason the layout wasn't working.

At all.

And just like that, the room failed and began to accumulate stuff and clutter while Little Man evaded the mess by bringing his toys downstairs rather than putting his room to good use. Kind of like the problem we had with our front porch (read about it here). Speaking of the porch, I'm happy to proclaim it's as tidy as on its first day!

Back to the Little Man Cave: the large desk made it feel crowded, he couldn't reach some of the cubbies underneath and it went downhill from there. One night - I was curled up on the couch with a kitty and a cup of tea - I ended up doodling on a piece of paper trying to figure out how to solve the problem.

[Design doodle: not to scale]

Little Man needed to be able to easily access all of the cubbies of the larger IKEA shelf and the smaller book shelves. So I moved them to the opposite wall and lined them up alongside. They fit EXACTLY! With maybe an inch on either side to spare! His bed, I decided, needed to move back against the wall without a window and for the moment, I set the desk aside and decided it'd be better if he just had a large space in the center of his room (with a rug) to play and romp around. Little Man does his homework at the dining room table with me sitting across from him, so he doesn't really need a desk in his room.

I'll spare you the "Before". It was an awful mess and it took us from start to finish about four hours to move furniture, to sort out and to sort in, and to put everything back in place.

So - much - better!

Little Man declared he liked it and the fact that he's actually using his room and spending time in it rather than hauling his toys downstairs is proof of that. As for me? I'm able to breathe now and don't break into panic attacks when setting foot into this part of the house ... heh.

This concludes Phase 1 of the Little Man Cave shuffle. I have more plans for window treatments, open shelving and art so expect to see more of Little Man's Green Cave here soon.

Before & After: Little Man Cave

Bland

Before

[Getting ready for some paint]

And the

Happily Ever

After

[closet freshly painted]

[Loving those glossy hardwood floors]

All done!

Done!
Finished!
Checked off the list!

The Little Man's Cave is officially done and all that's left to do is mop the floors and windows and move in furniture and stuff and add window treatments.

Here's what we started with

[Before]

We scraped loose paint, removed old hardware, filled holes, sanded, replaced and repaired window hardware (thanks to Mrs G of our contractor team), spackled, taped, caulked and painted everything.

[After]

Here's the list of paints we used:
walls - Glidden's "New Grass Green" in flat finish
ceiling & wall - Behr's Ultra "Pure White" in flat finish
trim - Behr's Ultra "Pure White" in semi-gloss finish
stripes - Valspar "Boat Blue" in satin finish
door knobs - Rustoleum ORB spray paint in satin finish
Kilz primer

Now comes the fun part for this room: decorating and moving in :o)

Stripes

The work on the little man's cave is slowly coming to an end. If I can muster enough strength and enthusiasm today (I'm battling the flu and am drowning in snot ...yeah, I know, TMI) , I'll finish painting the window trim and doors and it'll be done!

Here's yours truly painting the stripes in Valspar's "Boat Blue".

The stripes turned out okay. The edges aren't quite as crisp and clean as I'd hoped (a little paint bled through despite sealing and using the expensive painter's tape) but for now it'll do. I have an entire house to paint and once I'm done with the rest I might come back for a round of touch-ups.

Stripey Goodness!

I was hoping to find simple navy-blue Roman shades for the windows in his room but all I could find so far are those tie-up shades which I think are a bit too frou-frou for a boy's room. I might go for matchstick blinds and panels instead, hanging them up against the ceiling to create the sense of height and to balance out the effect of the hung ceiling.

Stripey goodness

Slow and steady!Painting the Little Man Cave is progressing nicely, all things (experience, practice, available time) considered. Every day after work I change into my work clothes, grab a bite to eat and head over to the Ugly Duckling to work for 2.5h until the school bus drops off the Little Man in the afternoon.

Our first coat of New Grass Green needed a second coat for nice even coverage. It's bright and cheerful and oh, so very green! I really love how lively it contrasts with the bright clean white of the ceiling. I can't wait to paint the stripes though.

[Glidden "New Grass Green"]

Yesterday I measured and taped the stripes. I went with the thickness of the base molding (10 inches) and ruled out stripes until I ran out of space. No, I didn't measure the entire length of the wall (I knew it was somewhere around 8 feet), I simply winged it which tends to be my preferred method. I guess I got really lucky when I ended up with the last blue stripe lining up almost exactly flush with the top of the door molding. Score - me!

[The feature wall with the closet door and taped stripes]

Weather in NE Florida has been on the nippy side since the rain let up and it turns out that blue painter's tape doesn't do well in cold weather. It'll stick to itself so badly that it's hard to roll it off of the roll. So, I stuck it into my pants ... heh (the back pocket - sheesh!). That did the trick. After a short while it unrolled just fine, and I managed to get all stripes taped.

[Little Man's closet]

Today's fait accompli was priming the base molding and trim work around windows and doors. I don't know about you but while I'm a rather accomplished painter on paper, using the big brushes and painting rooms is something I definitely will need more practice (and there's no doubt I'll get plenty of that). Either way, freehanding the base molding wasn't going to happen. Blue painter's tape to the rescue! Now there's bright white clean-looking trim in the Little Man Cave waiting for tomorrow's painting with Behr's Ultra Pure White in semi-gloss. Stay tuned!

The Little Man Cave

By now you probably think there is no stone left unturned and that my statement that the Ugly Duckling is basically livable (except for the gross kitchen and missing hvac system) is a major exaggeration. There are indeed areas in our house that only need touch-ups!

Case in point: The Little Man's Cave

[Before]

His room, the second largest after the master bedroom, only needs a thorough cleaning and a fresh coat of paint. Scratch that. It only needed a major cleaning and the little Man insisted on painting it his favorite color: green.

This weekend, after some prep work and painting the ceiling on Saturday, the little man and I went over to the Ugly Duckling to get started on his room. Anything we do in there won't affect any other area we're working on and/or are doing some form of construction so it's a great place to start.

Little Man choose Glidden's "New Grass Green" for his walls. It's a bright cheery Granny Smith apple-green but it's not too overwhelming and it pops beautifully against Behr's Ultra Pure White on ceiling and trim work. We will add some navy stripes to his closet wall as an extra special feature (and so he doesn't feel like he's stuck in a green box)

[Little Man painting away]

With my trusted little helper by my side we actually managed to give all 3 walls a nice coat of paint. It's a great color but the starker contrast between ceiling and wall color does make the lowered ceiling more obvious [when the Ugly Duckling was upgraded to central heat and air, the owner unfortunately lowered the ceiling to make room for the necessary duct work, rather than running it through the attic or crawl space]. I do plan on painting the narrow part of wall above the window to match the trim and might try to bring the walls "down" by adding not too wide crown molding. Maybe the window treatment will ease the effect as well - we'll see!

[More green on the wall]

And again, here's the mood board for the room so you know where we are going with this. We have plans that include built-in book shelves and a daybed/couch for sleep-over guests in the Little Man's Cave. So stay tuned - there's more to come!

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