Master Closet - Part 1

Here is our master walk through closet.

I lovvvve the idea of walking through a hall of closets to get to the master ensuite. Just makes it that much more private from the rest of the house. Almost like a secret room.

   The master ensuite is a ways away from being touched, but the master closet had to get started so that we can get started with the nursery, because after all, Babies need walls.. I guess.

    So here we are before.  (Here is my side)

 Hubby's Side:

After a few solid scraps about how we should go about it (we are complete built-ins newbies) We settled on some plans and off we went.

First, we had to build a base out of scrap 2x4s, and shim it up to level (this hundred year old house doesn't have the most level floors.. or walls.. or anything really.)

Then we started to build the "carcass" which is each frame. We used 3/4inch maple plywood. This stuff was esssspensive. But worth it. MDF is heavy. and smelly. and falls apart.

First carcass up! 

Few hard lessons later .. involving not realizing how EFFIN heavy these would be put togehter. And getting it into the hall to even pivot it onto the base. I'm sure watching that was pretty hilarious. We eventually learned to build IN the closet. After this.. it was smooth sailing. Each carass only took about an hour to build. 

2nd frame in.. at this point we were starting to be okay with staying married. 

TADA! His side finished! Just had to secure it to the base, and secure the top cleats to the wall studs.

 

We still need to attached the facing (the pretty part) and cabinet doors, and drawers for his side at the bottom.

 

I'm kind of jealous of his side. 

Here's mine. 

 

I still have this wall to fill with a unit of shoe storage & drawers. So I'll only be jealous for awhile. 

Lovin the progress!

 

Look away, Mamma V!

    My mother in law gave us a beautiful sofa table a few months ago when they were cleaning out their back room , and I thought it would make a great addition to our hallway, But I've got different plans for the hallway now. So the pretty sofa table sat in our closet without even an idea for use for a few months... then the master bedroom got rolling, and I had an idea.

    I wanted a bench for in front of the bed, but we don't have a very large master bedroom, so I always nixed the idea. But after my usual (hours and hours of) searching houzz for inspiration, I saw this BEAUTIFUL skinny bench....

Then the wheels started turning.
So we fetched the sofa table out of the closet, and cut about 12 or so inches from the legs, to make it shorter than the bed, with the upholstery.

Then we realized it was WAYYY to wide to use against the bed, so we needed to change the top to something skinnier.... so I found a piece of scrap pine from a shelving unit we recently had to take out. Worked out perfectly. It was only 1 foot wide, and perfect length! 

So the we took the table apart, because we had to trim the side aprons in order to make the bench skinnier. The amazing DH ripped them to about 7 inches, and he performed some sort of magic to put it back together without cursing. I didn't ask any questions. 

Then we did the usual routine of 2 layers of foam, then a layer of quilt batting over the piece of shelving to smooth out the foam. 

Then the fabric (which took awhile to choose, becuase I'm apparently the most indecisive person when it comes to picking accent pieces).. was ironed, and smoothed over the batting. We had some trouble figuring out the corners, but ah well. I feel like we are the only people that will ever notice the little wrinklies. 

Then the top was attached to the bottom, and ta-da! We're all done. Didn't take very long at all! 

Depending on how far we go with the navy accents, the bottom of this will most likely be painted a cottage white. 

I'm kind of in love. 

I just have to fill this bed with all kinds of blue accent pillows with funky patterns, a striped navy and white rug, and this bedroom will be JUST what I've pictured. 

DIY *incomplete but still decent* headboard...

     So I've been falling in love with pottery barn lately.. and even more in love with this $950 headboard..

   So after scouring the internet for tutorials I came to 2 conclusions:

      1. I could probably do this..
      2. Canada will definatley not have that pretty nailhead readily available to me anywhere....because thats just how it goes for me, so I'll have to order it from the internet, and hope that I found the right color.... and deal with an unfinished (sorta cute) headboard for now.

    So I begged my hubby to help me out, since I'm 4 months pregnant and pretty useless when it comes to lugging huge sheets of plywood home, let alone ripping them through the table saw.... and all worked out well. About 2 hours of shopping, we had everything we needed.

1. 3/4" sheet of plywood ($35 @ Lowes)
2. 2 twin mattress covers (which are a steal at my gramps' favourite store, Liquidation World.. $15/ea)
3. 1 roll of quilt batting from Fabricland ($4.50 at 50% off day)
4. 1 2m sheet of cream fabric ($16 at 50% off day)
5. A staple gun/staples (free as I mooched them)
6. A patient Hubby, and his power tools. (priceless)

Total cost of new headboard - $85.50.. STEAL!


   Here is how it went down in a little under 2 hours..

We cut the plywood to size (44"x63") and cut out some legs. I determined my previous ugly headboard started about 20" from the floor, so I made it 18" just to be safe. Oh, and don't forget to use a super professional workbench like my dining room table. What? Its cold out.

Next we used spray adhesive to bond the 2 layers of mattress topper to the frame. We then used a bread knife to trim it up to shape. 

 Then we used the batting to pull it all together tight and making it smooth.

    TA-DAAAAAAAA
Its so pretty. We screwed up a little on the legs... meaning I screwed up.... But its the legs, so nobody will see it.

      The bedroom is pretty ghetto fab right now, as we don't have window trim, or art above the bed, buttt that will come in time. I kinda like my new spiffy headboard! Not bad for 85 bucks!
Now I just wait for my nailhead trim kit to come in from ebay, and it will look just like the Pottery Barn version .. (I hope..)

                                                                         Beauty! Ciao : )

 

 

Well would'ya look at that..

Here is what we started with. An old, moldy addition that was a bedroom, turned bathroom/main floor laundry.  We kinda killed 2 birds with one stone, because who needs a gym membership when you have a 2 storey house on laundry day? :)
 
    It was spray foamed about a year ago, and it sat as our laundry/tool chest/storage mess because this room was easily hidden, and well, I'm not exactly famous for keeping up with the laundry. I like to wait until its a hilarious pile that makes me want to cry before I even think about tackling it.

    Welp, this weekend I did. I made it all pretty, the DH put up some cabinets & shelves, and it almost looked like a real laundry room. Except our disgusting plywood floors. But I've figured out my husbands motivational train...to a degree...

   I knew, that if I had it all sparkly and beautiful, he'd say "well my god, all we need is some floors eh?"  and i'd be all like, "well  goodness me, what a great idea! We don't need anything fancy..." and then the conversation begins... and a trip to lowes follows. Yep, i'm gettin this whole husband thing figured out. If its his idea, its much easier to get 'er done. :)

   So here it is now, after a trip to lowes, and under $200, we have a floor, and a happy wife. All we need now is some mud/paint, and some trim! (Apologies for the pictures, my camera phone was my only chance)

   Not too sure what i'm going to do with this Vanity. I want to keep it in here, but I'm not sure what color to paint it, to match those cabinets. Meh. It'll work.

Upstairs Progress!

Welp, we finally cleaned up the endless plaster mess from the demo...and started working on finishing the first half of the upstairs. eeeee!!! 

Here is the entrance to the master, from the top of the stairs ... After a solid day of argument, I won, and the door was moved  over 6 feet. It was alot of work for Kyle, but it made a huge difference in the look of the size of the room. We couldn't change the layout very much due to my serious need for a massive closet, so there was a whole lot of *Mandie takes... Kyle gives* in this scenario... Oops :) aHHH well. He will see it worth it when its all done :) 

  Here is the view from the bedroom into the walk through closet... Yes.. thats right I said it... walk through closet. He gets a side... I get a (bigger) side.... and if you keep walking, you'll end up in our master ensuite. LOVE.

         Here is the Master Bedroom! I know. Pretty fancy eh? But that sprayfoam actually is fancy. And expensive. I mayaswell show it off before we cover it up with drywall :) You think it would be hard to live in a bedroom without walls? I kind of miss it. All of the nails were left in the studs from the lath & plaster, so I always had something to hang my clothes on :) Theres always a positive.... at least i'll die trying to find it while living with this bedroom...

                 

                                            yayyyy sprayfoam

                                     



                     Here it is all pretty & Drywalled!!! EEEEEEEEEE WALLS ARE SO GREAT

There she is! My hallway! We took the VERY USEFUL (but unfortunatley awfully big and ugly) storage unit out of the corner, and left us with a HUGE  open space for a built in window bench/wall desk unit. Hopefully that will look a little more sleek :) Here is the useful, yet ugly storage hub...

Here is the space without it! Much better! Can't wait to draw up some plans for this space :)

                            Kyle's half of the walk-through clost...
 

                     My (larger) side of the walk through closet :)

  This is the only picture I have for the ensuite bathroom.. Its room past the walk through closet. its where we are sleeping right now... sooo needless to say, i'm excited to get this finished so I can stop sleeping in my bathroom. hahaha

The other half of the upstairs will just be left sprayfoamed, we will most likely finish this next fall, but we realy want to get this reno done wihtout any debt, so it will have to wait untill my ensuite is finished.. because i'm selfiish, and well, we don't need 2 childrens bedrooms yet, as we have no children :) its all sprayfoamed and toasty though... thats about all I have to update :) 

      

                             

ciao! :)