House Tweaking-The Playroom

I can't believe that it's February already.  I mean, it's officially the middle of winter, so it's halfway over.  The days are getting longer, and a bonus, we had 60 degree weather this weekend! 

I've been tweaking this room over the last few months.  I changed out the pillow covers for these striped tan/cream/orange PB pillows I found on Ebay a few years ago.  I liked the way they went with the burlap curtains and lampshades.  

The large fern I had in here before, bit the dust.  But I found this grocery store fern that lifts my spirits every time I see it.  If you need a little cheer, go buy a fern.  It adds a bit of life and color, especially in the winter.  

I still haven't found a replacement print for my framed MET bag, so it remains un-tweaked.

But, of course, the earth tweaks daily giving us a few extra minutes of evening daylight as we get closer to Daylight Saving Time.

And then there's my daily house tweaker, AKA the Bub, who drops off his backpack and shoes as soon as he gets home from school.  

Hopefully whatever tweaks Monday brings, you have a good day!

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The Playroom Makeover-Gallery Wall and Other Changes

So, I have had these picture frames leaning against the wall of my guest room for...years.  I have been collecting prints over time, and well, sometimes you have to stop waiting for things to be just so and just do it, right?  So I finally took down these two seafans that I had hanging in the playroom from when it was the living room.

They were my first DIY artwork andI still love them, but I always felt they were too serious for the new space.  They have been replaced with a collection of prints and objects that I have collected over the years.


I still have to find something to replace the stand-in for the black frame in the middle.  (I am sure I will by the time the Bub is a teenager!)

The large eye-chart is a wrapping paper print from Paper Source.  Even with shipping it's only about $12.  They also have stores that have a pretty good selection.  And it fit perfectly inside a Ribba frame from IKEA.

The smaller prints are from separate trips with family to New York.  I picked up The New Yorker print when my family and I visited New York for spring break.  And the second print is a view from Central Park.  It's from a trip my two sisters and I took together 12 years ago.  I love having souvenirs like these to remind me of good times.

And my beloved little rhino, I found at Ross!  He may get a coat of spray paint soon.

So, it's kind of funny, because the playroom has kind of evolved into a reading room, but it's a cozy spot to do that! 

We're entering week 7 of the school year down here in the south, and I'm already over the early mornings.  But the school year is going well and the Bub is doing good, so that makes me a happy mama!  

Linking up to Home Stories A to Z Tutorials and Tips,  The Craftberry Bush-The Inspiration Gallery, Crafts a la Mode-What to do Weekends, Home Stories A to Z Tutorials and Tips Link Party, and Cherished Bliss-Moonlight and Mason Jars Link Party.

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The Playroom Makeover {Part 5- Two Chairs & Window Panels}

I thought I would pop in before the year was out with another update.  I haven't said much about the playroom makeover since March.  I finished the book ledges and moved on to other things.  But tweaks have been made over the past few months and I wanted to share them.

First is the large chair in the bay window.  It's been in the Bub's room for years as our story time chair.  But in the process of making over his room, most of the toys were moved in there for storage.  So now there was no room for the chair.  I just wanted it out of the room and didn't have anywhere for it to go.  Except, in the dance of musical furniture,  I had moved the desk that had previougly been in the playroom to the sun room,  because the desk in there had been moved to my bedroom.  Bottom line, now there was space in the bay window to sit the chair until I could sell it on Craigslist.  It was my husband's idea, and I reluctantly agreed just until I could sell it.

From the beginning, he thought it looked good there.  He was right!  Now it's kind of one of my favorite places to sit!  It was actually the perfect size because the room is narrow.

So now the playroom is sort of a reading/playroom.

Now the drapes were another one of the last minute projects I finished before family came in town in November.  I originally wanted lined burlap panels for the window.  At this point, two of the curtain rods anchors had been pulled out of the wall and were hanging crooked and two panels were clipped up, un-sewn.  Just sad.

So to keep it simple,  I just ironed,  hemmed, and sewed the panels without lining.  I didn't even hem the sides, since burlap edges are finished.  And after a few hours, they were up.  

I used clip rings and pinched them in to create folds.   Then 'trained' them by securing the folds with ties for about 3 days.

And now, their done!

Since then, I've also had my eye on the Jennylund Chair from Ikea for quite a while for replacing the wooden outdoor chair angled in the room.  

I had four that were originally purchased in the clearance section at Target and have been used indoors and outdoors over the years.  But I was ready for a change and took a chance with the Ikea chair and love it!

The room feels mostly done.  I would still like to change out the art over the sofa...the sea fans feel a bit to serious for the space.  And I may have to bring back in a few toys.  The Bub says that it's not a playroom because there aren't any toys.  In my defense, when we got toy storage for his room, it held almost all of his toys. (Which reminds me, I'll have to share what I did with all the toys that had a million tiny little pieces.)  But we're enjoying the space.  I'll be sure to update when I do make some more changes!

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DIY Book Ledges-A Tweaked Tutorial

I'm back to show just how I made the book ledges.

Every since pinning some inspiration pictures like the ones you see below,  I knew I wanted to add book ledges somewhere in the playroom.  One, it's easy for a child to see their books.  And two, I wanted to encourage reading and add more functionality to the space.

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As I mentioned yesterday, I found this tutorial by Kristine over at The Painted Hive, and I just tweaked it a bit.  Since the playroom is fairly narrow at less than 10 feet wide, the wall that they ended up on needed slim storage.  I have tried putting a bookcase on it, but it blocked the natural light and the view out of the bay window.

I started by going to buy wood.  I knew that I wanted my shelves to be a little deeper than the ones in the tutorial, plus mine were going on an open wall, so I had the space for it.  I wanted them deep enough to allow books to lean against the wall, but shallow enough that I could screw through the depth of the wood, and into the wall, thus having floating shelves.   I chose 1x3's for my actual ledge. 

I also needed a thin piece of wood to form the lip of the shelf (as seen in the picture above) and hold the books on the shelf.  I couldn't find trim that matched the dimensions in the tutorial.  So I was searching the shelves and saw a trim called 'base cap molding' next to the baseboard molding.  It was only 1 1/8" in height, which was perfect to create a lip for the shelves, and it came in solid pine.  It had the profile of crown moulding but was flat on the back like 1x2.  And that's when I had an epiphany!  Instead of just going across the face of the shelf, as seen above, I could wrap the trim around all three sides to the wall!  (I'm probably the only one who got excited about that, but hey!)  I nearly skipped my way out the store.

Base Cap Molding

I decided to make my four shelves 42" long each.  So I needed:

2ct 8' 1x3's mine are pine (which are actually 2 1/2 wide),   $7ea x 2 = $14

3ct 8' lengths of the base cap moulding, also solid pine   $7ea x 3 = $21

8ct" 3 3/4" wood screws            $  4

3/16" drill bit to predrill holes     $  3

1/2" countersink bit  (on hand)      $  0

                                                                 
Total Project Cost:  $42

I also had stain and polyurethane on hand from previous projects.  Of course, it could be a little more or less, depending on what you have on hand.  I should also say that the base cap molding comes in 10' lengths, so if I were to repeat this project, I would just buy two of those instead.

Several things to do before starting:

1.) I marked in advance, using a stud finder, the position of my studs so that I could screw directly into them to mount the shelves.  This meant that I didn't need anchors.  But the screws were going thru the 1x3's, plus at least 1/2" of drywall, plus another 1/2" to 3/4" depth into the actual stud.  That's at least 3 1/2", so I needed to countersink the screws to secure the shelves to the studs.

2.) After marking the stud location, I decided how far up the wall I wanted to start the shelves, and also settled on a 15" distance between each shelf.   Then marked a horizontal line, with stud locations noted, to show where to mount each shelf.   Then, to make sure each ledge was evenly spaced from the wall edge, I also made a mark 6" from the wall edge.

3.) I also pre-stained all of my wood and just stained the cut edges as I went along.  I sealed the entire shelf at the end, with Wipe-On Polyurethane.  I used the same stain and poly as I used on the chalkboard project. 

Next I assembled my tools, as seen below, plus a miter saw and a nail gun.

I began by pre-drilling into the stud.  Next, I cut the 1x3 down to 42" using the miter saw.  Using my pre-marked line that was 6" in from the wall edge,  I held the 1x3 ledge up to it, and marked the stud location on it.  Using the stud location, I drilled holes in the 1x3 for the screws, then drilled a countersink hole about 1/2" deep.  After the holes were drilled and countersunk, I held the 1x3 ledge up to the wall, then screwed through it, into the two studs.    

With the basic ledge up on the wall, it was time for the fun part, adding the trim.  This involved cutting the 'base cap molding' the same lengths as each edge of the ledge but cutting the corners at 45 degree angles.  I used a nail gun to mount the trim to the book ledges.  As in the tutorial I linked above, I didn't glue the face trim to the ledge so that I could easily remove it in the future if I needed to.  I couldn't get a good photo, but to me, this created a beautiful profile for the book ledges. 

As I said earlier, I finished the wood using two coats of Wipe-On Polyurethane in Satin, to protect it, and give it a nice sheen.  

It feels good to have this project crossed off the list.  My woodworking skills aren't perfect, but it does the job! 

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The Playroom Makeover {Part 4-Book Ledges}

This corner of the playroom just got a lot happier!

   

 Originally, I was going to use the ones from IKEA that I showed on the design board (#2), which are a great option at about $15 each. 

But I thought I could probably make some out of solid wood AND save a few pennies.  When I found this tutorial for the shelves below by Kristine over at The Painted Hive, I knew I could do it.  In the end, I tweaked it a bit for the playroom, but that's what DIY is all about, right?

I'll be back tomorrow to share the tutorial.  But here's a few pictures of how they turned out.  

I love them and was excited to show them to The Bub, since they were meant for him, and he loved them too!  I'll be back to show how these were built along with a cost comparison.    

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The Playroom Makeover-{Part 3-'Chalk' it Up}

Chalk it up to getting motivated.  The chalkboard is finally up and this chunk of empty wall space has finally been put to good use!

Prior to this chalkboard, we had a folding one from Ikea.  I like it because it folds up, doesn't take up a lot of space, and it holds paper.  (Actually we still have it, and use it for 'plein-air' painting, aka splatter painting, which is too messy for indoors.)  But I thought it would be neat to have a full-length chalkboard that was versatile enough to also be used in a dining room to list out a menu, or in an office to list out the week's tasks or schedules.

I did build it for the playroom, but it's been hanging out against this wall for months, out of the way of foot traffic.  (This is the wall I've planned to put up the book ledges on.)  I wanted to finally seal the wood to protect it from chalk dust and water, and hang it on the wall, so there would be no chance of the little people knocking it over.  They move pretty fast!

 I opted for a satin wipe-on polyurethane, taped off the edges, and applied three coats with a soft cloth.  This gave it a nice sheen and should protect the wood trim over time.

To hang it up,  I first needed to install D-hooks on the back.  

I screwed one hook into the frame, eyeballing that it was about six inches from the top.  Then used the level to mark that the other hook was the same distance down from the top.  Marking the holes, I predrilled, then screwed the D-hooks in.

Then I held the chalkboard up to the wall to see how high I wanted to mount it, coming down six inches to account for where the hardware was on the back.  

The easy part is the wall anchors that I used.  There's no drilling and no plastic anchors to plug in.  You just screw these directly into the drywall.  They live up to their packaging!  And they can hold up to 40lbs each.

Once these were screwed in, I hung the chalkboard up by the attached D-hooks.  Unfortunately it was crooked, or it looked slightly crooked.  The chalkboard was hung level, but the door frame wasn't quite plumb, I suppose. The bottom of the chalkboard was about 1/4"closer to the door frame than the top was. 

REALLY? It's just not possible that something would go perfectly smooth I guess.

To remedy this, I removed both screws and drew another level line about 1 1/2" up from the previous one.  With these anchors, I couldn't screw in directly beside the previous hole.   Then I screwed the left screw in about a quarter of an inch above the level line this time to account for whatever wasn't plumb there. And then rehung the chalkboard.  

I am loving this corner of the room now!  We keep the chalk and eraser in the little black box on the table next to the sofa for easy access.  Although the Bub's favorite thing is to put wet hand prints on it.  Go figure. 

But...I am having second thoughts about which wall it should be on.  Looking back at the picture with it leaning against the wall, I really like it there, plus there's an outlet behind there so I could put a picture light above it!  Plus, it's next to the desk in the room.  

So what's your opinion?  Should I leave it here or mount it to the other wall next to the curtains?  Just for reference, the current wall is visible from the front door, whereas the other wall is tucked out of sight.   Whatever is on this wall, you'll see when you first walk in.  And if I move the chalkboard, the book ledges will go here...loaded with kids books.  My husband says leave it.  Let me know what you think.

If you're interested in building your own chalkboard, check out this post from last year.  I'm off to patch a couple of holes...well maybe I should wait.  

Update:  I renamed and updated the blog and have moved to a new location!  I hope you will come check it out for the latest posts!  

Come see Oak House Design Co.!

Linking up with Kim's Wow Us Wednesdays at Savvy Southern Style.  

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