So when we refinanced our house a while ago we took out a little money to tackle the bathroom. Then Emerson was born and once I had started to recover from that I realized I was paralyzed with fear. Have you ever been to a tile store? There are way too many options. I wanted something that I wouldn’t get sick of but I wanted it to be interesting too.

After many months of research, pinterest and online shopping I finally have a plan. I also have a bathtub sitting in my garage waiting for the renovation to begin next month. We are having a friend help us but we will be doing a lot of the work ourselves so it should be interesting.

Here is our bathroom now. I really hate putting these pictures up here. It really is that bad!

Under the yellow tile I found the original white subway tile but it is in pretty bad shape.

And here is my vision for our future bathroom:

I really want it to be classic yet modern and kind of cool. I don’t want to pick anything that is going to date it. So I am keeping all the tile black and white and I’m going to add color by painting the vanity green. I can always go back and re-paint the vanity if I get bored. That will be a lot easier than replacing tile.

So let me know what you think. Have any bathroom renovation words of wisdom for me?

So over the holiday break I drove up to Ikea by myself (yes! party time) and bought a new bed for Jasper. I was pretty impressed with myself that I got it onto my cart, into my car and fully assembled by myself. (ok, so there were some extremely strong Ikea workers who helped me – the box weighed 106 pounds!)

Jasper loves his new big boy bed and there is an awesome play area underneath.

I found this strange shelf/largest spice rack in the world, in the alley and new I would do something with it. It’s perfect for all of the boy’s tiny toys. Emerson loves taking all the toys off and putting them back on again.

Emerson is set to inherit the car bed from Jasper, who luckily received it from our awesome friend Tiffany!

There are more projects to come – artwork on the walls, a piece of fabric made into a rug and a shelf to get all the stuffed animals out of the way (painted purple if Jasper has his way!) but I just couldn’t resist giving you a sneak peak!

I started using this all purpose cleaner recipe when Jasper was born, almost four years ago. It is really great for counter tops, dirty doggy foot prints and sticky juice spills. It is made from all natural ingredients so you don’t need to worry about using it around your kids. And it contains tea tree oil, which contains antibacterial and antifungal properties so you feel like things are really getting clean.

I will post the recipes here after my tv debut! I also made some lovely labels that you should download and print out for your cleaner bottles.

If you missed me on Virginia This Morning, you can watch a video here. Thanks so much to everyone at CBS6! It was a really fun experience!

And here are the recipes:

ALL PURPOSE CLEANER

• 3/4 cup white vinegar
• 1 cup hydrogen peroxide
• 1 1/2 teaspoons castile soap (such as Dr Bronner’s)
• 30 drops tea tree oil
• 30 drops essential oil (use any scent you like)

Place all ingredients in a 32 oz spray bottle using a funnel or a measuring cup with a spout. Add water until the bottle’s full. Shake to mix and get to cleaning.

GLASS CLEANER

• 1 cup rubbing alcohol
• 1 cup water
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 20 drops essential oil

Place all ingredients in a spray bottle. Shake to mix.

So I decided I needed to paint something metallic! I have actually been using this little table as my night stand but it was in desperate need of a re-do. The previous owner had primed it but had done kind of a sloppy job. So I sanded it down and re-primed it. I also took off the little wood drawer pulls. Here is the before:

I then took the piece outside and spray painted it with Rustoleum Metallic in Satin Nickel. It was pretty sparkly. A little too sparkly for me. So I put on a coat of antiquing glaze. But I still wanted it to be a little less sparkly – more toned down and aged. So I put on a coat of ebony stain. In this picture you can see the right side just has spray paint and the left side has one layer of antiquing glaze over top.

After I finished all the painting I put in my new drawer pulls. I wanted the inside of the drawers to have a little fun surprise too. So I lined them with some half price after Christmas white and silver metallic wrapping paper. I just used some double sided tape to attach it to the bottom of the drawer so it is easy to switch out if I get bored with it. So here she is after:

I thought it might be fun to elaborate on some of my ideas in the magazine. I found this armoire at the Salvation Army on Midlothian Turnpike but you know you see one of these at every thrift store and yard sale you go to. Flat screen TV’s are making them an obsolete piece of furniture but you could always re-purpose them.

Turn it into a cute home office and just close the doors when you’re done working.

photo from funkyjunksisters.blogspot.com

Or check out this adorable kids art center!

image from thedesignfile.net

I thought this dresser was almost perfect. I love the shape and the color I would just add some new hardware to make it look a little more modern.

My favorite source for cool drawer pulls is Anthropologie. I regularly shop their clearance section – there you will find pulls for as little as $3 each! Below are two picks that I think would look awesome!

photo from anthropologie

photo from anthropologie

I am the queen of the chair re-do. I know I have re-done more chairs than any other piece of furniture. It is hard for me to pass up a chair with good bones because it is usually pretty easy to give it a new look.

Here are some of my past chair projects that might inspire you.

Victorian Chair

Kid Friendly Laminated Cotton Chair

Curvy Chair

Next issue, I will be showing you how to re-do a chair, step by step, with very detailed directions! Yeah R•Home – Yeah DIY!

PS – You can read my first R•Home article, all about shopping for vintage furniture, online now!

This room will become the boy’s room. It is currently mine and and my husbands, although I have been slowly moving in kids stuff and moving out our stuff which will now be in the room that is currently the guest room. We are basically playing musical rooms – switching three out of four upstairs room around.

The first project for this room is a book shelf I scored at the thrift store for $10. If you are on Pinterest you can’t go a day without seeing one this style. Emerson is obsessed with books so I am going to make him a little reading corner.

The shelf had some stain seeping through the white paint so I decided to bust out the super primer!

This stuff is amazing at covering up any kind of stains on a piece of furniture. If you sand a piece that had been stained the color from the stain wants to seep through. You can put three coats of latex primer on and the stain will still come through. Once coat of Zinsser and your good to go. It is oil based so where a mask. And there is no problem painting latex paint over this oil primer. You just can’t do latex paint over oil paint.

After I painted the shelf my favorite green I used a new-to-me product, Valspar Antiquing Glaze.

I usually use a coat of stain over the paint to give it an antique finish but this product is water based so it’s not stinky. It comes in a pretty small bottle and it was $8 or $9 at Lowes but I maybe used a tablespoon of it for this whole piece. I would usually have distressed the shelf first but Jasper has strong feeling about not “messing up the paint” and since it is going in his room, and I already didn’t paint it his favorite color, purple, I thought I should skip that step!

Here is how it looks in their room. There are going to be many more “boys room” post before the big final reveal, so check back soon!

Bizarre Market – located in the upstairs gallery at Chop Suey Books in Carytown, this little seasonal shop is a must see. Over 50 local artist selling their small stuff. I count on Bizarre Market for all of my stocking stuffers and really special, unique gifts.

Virginia Street Gallery – Part of the Market Umbrella, and a bit of an extension of the South of the James farmers market, this large gallery space features a wide range of artisans. Everything from dulce de leche cookies, to paintings, to pottery to furniture. Quirk gallery also has a little space there filled with cute goodies. Visit this gallery at 114 Virginia Street, Richmond VA 23219. Their hours are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays: 11am – 8 pm and Sundays 11am – 5pm. And Fridays from 5 – 8 pm you can shop with a glass of wine and live music. It doesn’t get much better than that!

I had to bribe Jasper to get him to give up his seat in the stroller so I could roll the cabinet home but I just can’t pass up free solid wood furniture.

At first I thought I would do a stencil on the door but then I remembered some Lotta Jansdotter paper place mats my friend Corbin had given me. I could cut one for the middle panel and I already had some yellow paint that would match perfectly!

PS – I promise this is the last event listing for a while! I’ll be back to the before and after’s next week!

Anyway, I am so excited to listen to Grace Bonney talk about her blog and her new book. Design*Sponge is so incredibly inspiring. Their before and afters are my favorite (of course!)

R•Home for the Holidays is a little different this year – it will take place during the day, include lunch and optional workshops. And I will be conducting one of the workshops – yeah! I will be talking about DIY furniture re-do’s. I will share some of my before and afters along with some great hints to help you tackle new projects.

I would really love to see some of you there! So come out Wednesday, November 16th, 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Plant Zero. You can get more information here.