Knock on wood (kinda)

This weekend we decided to come home early from out east and get an additional project finished. Wow talk about determination. We ended up getting home around midnight on Saturday night and then Sunday morning (ok it’s was really early afternoon) we got started on putting down laminate wood flooring in the Florida room aka my new office.

Here is what the floor looked like before:

The flooring was concrete, which we then primed and painted with the left over paint we had. We liked the way it looked, but the main problem was our pups. They were leaving claw marks everywhere!

So we went to IKEA and found an inexpensive fix to our problem.

We went to just to look and see what they had, but we came home with the TUNDRA click lock laminate.

I was surprised at how simple it was do. I kept asking Jon what I could do, how I could help, but I ended up just cleaning up the little bit of mess it made and finished reading The Beach House and Trail of Crumbs.

So, without further ado here are our steps for laying down the flooring.

1. First you have to clean up the floor. So a quick sweeping job and a little vacuum action and we were in business. Since we were laying it on top of concrete we had to buy a roll of plastic sheeting as a moisture barrier.

We just rolled it out and used a small razor blade to cut the excess. Pretty simple.

2. Next step is to lay down a floor liner. Which meant we had to roll it out and again use a razor blade to cut off the excess. For the floor liner you need to make sure there is no overlapping, because that would cause the flooring to not be leveled.

3. We were now finally able to open up the packages and get to work! We chose to go with the antique oak, because it had a weathered look to it and we figured it would helpful to hide any scratches that the dogs might do to it.

4. In laying down the flooring you have to do it in a subway tile format and stagger the pieces. So our table saw came in handy to trim down some pieces.

5. Then the pieces simply click and lock into place. In order to get a good fit Jon was taking a small piece of excess wood he had and butting it up to the piece of flooring he wanted to lock into place. The extra wood was there so that when he knocked in the piece into place he didn’t hit the flooring.

Gap:

Hammering:

Finished piece:

6. Since wood expands due to humidity you need to:

A. Leave the panels in the packaging for at least 48hrs in the room they are going to be laid in.

B. Leave a border around the entire room so that when the wood swells it has space to go into.

We found out that a CD case is the perfect size for the spacing that they recommend so we went around putting those in to make sure we had enough spacing.

7. Now when you are done laying down the flooring you are going to want to lay some sort of trim place to hide the spacing that you have now made. We made a quick trip to Home Depot and came back with 48 feet of trim. You need to make sure that when you are nailing it in you nail it to the wall and not the flooring.

8. Now you get to pat yourself on the back, because you did it all by yourself and you are DONE!

We are so happy with the way it came out.

It was super easy and not that pricey.

The room was 8’ x 16’ which meant we had 128’ sq ft.

Each package of flooring comes with 25.73 feet of flooring for $29.58, which means that we needed 5 packages and that came to: $ 147.90

Floor liner was: $ 24.99

Plastic Sheeting was $ 19.99

48’ of trim was .59 cents per foot, which is: $ 28.32

So the whole project came up to : $221.20 plus tax it comes to around $240 and took from around noon till 6:30/7pm to finish.

Ok so I wanted a totally relaxing weekend and didn’t truly get that. We did get to relax on Saturday and on Sunday a lot of the “We” I kept typing above we’re actually just Jon so I got a bit of relaxation in as well on Sunday along with crossing something off my to do list, which always feels fabulous.

She’s got curves….

So lately I’ve been making weekly trips to a thrift store I found. While I was in the mist of helping my SIL find a sofa I was making bi-weekly trips to the store and kept finding things I was falling in love with. Of course since they were all at amazing prices all of my favorites were quickly going home with other people.

While my SIL decided to go another route and left empty handed from our thrift store trips. I found a little number that I knew would look amazing in my new office.

I didn’t pick it up on the first day. I wanted to go home and sleep on it. Really see if I had to have it. Well I did so this time instead of going back and simply seeing it gone I called ahead of time and had them put a HOLD sign on the piece.

The latest object of my affection has to be my new/old wing back love seat. It has curves in all the right places, which helps it look more feminine and totally perfect for a stylish gal’s office.

Of course now my main problem is what to get it slipcovered in!

Do I go with stripes:

Or do I go with my animal instincts and get zebra :

Or do I go with a touch of bamboo ?

Or maybe I should go with some florals?

Or do I go more neutral and simply get a linen?

Originally I wanted to with this fabric, but at $30 a yard (I need 12 yards for the loveseat) it’s so not going to happen. I love that it a has a neutral base with the white and black toile, but then has punches of colors that I could use throughout the room. I’ve been searching for something similar and have come up empty handed.

I love color and mixing patterns and since the floors and walls in the new office are pretty neutral I wanted to have fun with my fabric pick.

Click here to see the current look of the florida room aka my new office. The walls are still the same. I love those stripes. The floor is getting a little redo with a faux wood floor in antique oak and the slipper chair and bench are no longer going in there. Oh also you can see my inspiration for the space is Rory’s pool house, which is full of different colors and patterns.

Any ideas?

What are your favorite online fabric resources? Please share.

I’m off to continue painting the trim. So not enjoyable. I have three doors, 2 windows and a staircase to do today along with putting my living room back together and sanding a bookcase that needs to be stained.

I’m tired already.

Home Improvement: Living Room

I have seriously been tossing and turning at night with thoughts of fabric choices and paint choices. One of the rooms in my house that was at a point almost picture perfect is now being working on yet again.

Here is what my living room looked like when we were in the process of buying the house (Old home owners furnishings)

Then we moved in and much to everyone in my family’s horror I painted the living room a chocolate brown (excuse my dry cleaning on the chair):

Since then things have continually been tweaked. Those blue chairs are constantly moving around the room and the white chair was actually moved out of the space and landed in the office.

I always felt there was something missing from the wall above the fireplace so a couple of months ago some plates got added, chairs got moved and a new fixture was placed in the corner.

I then felt that the plates added a bit too much of a country vibe so those got taken off the walls. Sorry Jon! He took the time to hang them all up and literally a week later I was thinking of taking them down.

The space above the fireplace was still causing me trouble, but overall I was happy with the way the rest of the room looked. The only thing still driving me crazy was the cornices. I originally left them, because they just looked like they fit in with the house, but I never truly loved them so I was on the search for new window treatments to remove those.

I fell in love with the shades below and I’m actually having them custom made I just need to finalize a fabric choice.

This little detour in changing the window treatments has now turned into something much bigger. I love my decision to paint the walls chocolate brown. It makes the room stand out, it totally reflects my style, because brown is one of my favorite colors and all in all I’ve been happy with it, but I wanted to lighten things up a bit for the summer.

So now new window treatments are being custom made, a new rug has been ordered, a new mirror needs to be ordered and I’m having slipcovers made for the 2 club chairs.

Originally I was dying for this mirror, because come on who doesn’t love a ruffle!

 

But then I spotted this little number and it was love at first sight!

I’m leaning towards the chevron mirror, but I still have yet to pull the trigger and actually order it! Ah decisions, decisions.

Which is your favorite?

Whew! All that for a little switch of season. I know it will all be worth it in the end and once the late fall season rolls around I’ll be able to take out the old goods and re-vamp the room once again in time for the holidays.

So am I the only crazy lady that changes my decor per season? I like the idea of doing this, because then I won’t get bored with what is going in the room and want to change everything so quickly. I’ll have one look for fall-winter and then switch it up for spring-summer.

Now I must get going with my fabric picks because before I know it this summer will be over. I can’t believe it’s already June 1st!

Home Improvement: Florida Room

Well I’m sure I still have paint somewhere on my body, but yesterday afternoon I finished painting the Florida Room.

To recap this is what the room looked like when we first moved in:

We lived with it that way more or less for pretty much a year and half. It just became a dumping ground for things that didn’t have a home.

Then on Sunday I went a bit nutty and by late Sunday evening it looked like this:

In the top right corner you can even see where Sunday night at around 10pm or so I knock over a gallon of white primer. We were painting the floor anyway so Jon just started spreading it around.

Monday morning we woke up early and continued the madness. Here is what the room looked like this morning:

Ah I’m in love. The floor just needs an additional coat and the then a coat of poly to seal it in.

This morning was spent searching my local thrift shops for a daybed. I didn’t find any, but I did find two other pieces that will now be residing in the Florida room aka den,office, breakfast nook.

This bench is going to be getting a complete re-do. I’m painting the frame and then finding some fabulous fabric to reupholster it it will also need a lucite tray for on top and voila a new coffee table.

It was only $38. Not too bad.

The thrift store I went to has another location in a town about 20 minutes away so I took the drive and came home with this:

It is a slipper chair and ottoman that of course needs new fabric, but it was only $18!!!!!!!!

Still need a daybed and some sort of desk, but I’m happy to see it coming along.

I was totally inspired by Rory’s pool house that I guest blogged about today. So I’m in search for some fabric in the pink, green and yellow family.

Once I find the perfect fabrics I only need to worry about learning how to sew. Hmm let's hope it's not too bad and I can talk my MIL into helping me out!

I will keep you all posted on my progress!

Low-key weekend?

Ah does everyone remember that I mentioned on Friday’s post that I didn’t really have anything going on this weekend?

Well due to that this nutty lady woke up Sunday morning and decided that she was tired of seeing the Florida room the same exact way for a year and half.

You see we always wanted to turn the room into an all season room and make this my office. We would get rid of those windows and switch them for new French doors onto a new deck that we wanted to built as well, put in bamboo floors, mount flat screen tv to the wall, etc.

Well due to the economy we are trying to tighten our belts so we decided to wait on this project for the time being. We were just going to leave it as is until then, but I came up with a plan and after a $90 trip to Lowes we started working on the new in between look for the Florida room.

Here it is in it’s current state:

Ok so it still doesn’t look so great, but I swear I have an amazing idea for it. I just need a bit more time. I was painting last night till 10:30pm. I pretty much painted myself from head to toe, because I’m such a messy painter and did I mention I was a bit clumsy? Towards the end of the night I tipped over a gallon of white primer and it went everywhere!

Ah today’s another day and up early and ready to continue my painting.

I hope your day is filled with BBQs, sunshine and fun, because mine will be filled with paint fumes, painters tape and rollers.

Happy Memorial Day!

xoxo

Camila

Animal House

Image via Cottage Living

Traditionally Dutch Doors were used with the purpose of keeping animals out of the farmhouse and still allowing the flow of air and sunlight.

Image via Coastal Living

While I don’t have a farmhouse, I do have a pair of animals that I would love to leave outside as it gets warmer to play in the sun while their mom works indoors. Our sunroom is going to be turning into my office in the near future and I would love to have a dutch door put in so that I can check on the little guys from a far and with the opening they could even peek their heads up like the fella in the picture above.

Image via Coastal Living

It would also be great to use a dutch door when eating outdoors. One would only have to pass food, trays, drinks, etc through the top instead of constantly opening and closing a door.

Image via Coastal Living

Plus let’s face it I’m just in love with the old fashion appeal of it and how it would add a touch more of character in my current home. I think my little cottage would approve of such an addition.

Image via Velvet and Linen

Good thing about this latest project is that Jon already approves so no need to twist his arm about it. I even found a How-To on it and think it is a project we can take on our own.

Have any of you done this before? Or do you have any Dutch Doors already in your home? Do tell!