Bathroom: Before and After!

     Sorry it took me so long to get my act together for this post. The husbandman and I took his younger brother to Harding (the husbandman's Alma Mater) for their freshman/transfer orientation. It was really nice to go back to Searcy, to see everyone and revisit our old haunts, but I didn't have internet like I thought I would.

      So finally, here is the before and after post!

Before:

And After!

That's my mom's old surfboard on the wall. My dad was stationed in Hawaii when I was little, and we all surfed, but my mom's board was the only one that made it make to the mainland.

     I'm very happy with it. It finally looks finished. The hardest part of this room is that it gets absolutely no natural light. So making it look bright takes extreme colors that I would never be brave enough to use otherwise. The husbandman says I used colors too close to the Gators colors but I'm ignoring that for now.

     I sneaked in a little extra detail on either side of the closet, by turning the strips sideways. No one ever sees them except coming through the side door or when getting into the shower, but the still make me happy.

    What do you think? Better? Too much color? Or a tropical bathroom to last?

My Craft Space

     I'm a fairly nosy curious person, and one of the many questions I have for other crafters is where do you work/craft/sew/scrapbook. I get horribly jealous when people talk about having a sewing room. Then I get kinda smug (I'm a horrible person) when people talk about how hard it is to find space, and having to work with a craft closet or nook. I get smug because I have manged to find a way to sew without even having a table.

     Our room has enough furniture for an apartment so needless to say it is a little cramped. (Back story for anyone who is wondering about this crazy set up of ours: The husbandman is headed to grad school at FSU in the fall, but in the meantime, we are staying with my parents so that we can work his old summer job. So I have a whole house at my disposal, but kinda tend to live in one room)

     Back to the main thought, I don't have very much space where I can feel free to make as much mess as I want. I know could go use the kitchen table, but then I have to be neat, and I get so easily distracted (by everything) that not much work gets done. (I usually turn the computer off altogether during the day so I don't check Facebook 10,000 times) The other downfall is that I have to clean up my work space every night. Or else we don't have anywhere to sleep. Because my main cutting/ironing/measuring spot is better know as the bed:

      Then if you take exactly five steps to the right, you run into my sewing space, better know as the couch and a TV table.


     I'm hoping that when we get to Tallahassee, we can find a two bedroom apartment, and turn the extra bedroom into a library/sewing room guest  room. It would be amazing.

     How about you? Are you a kitchen table crafter? Do you have a whole room to work with? Where do you find space for your hobbies?

Painting Tips Learned the Hard Way:

     I mentioned my battle with painting the bathroom a couple of post ago. I’m planning on doing a big before and after post, but I thought that in the mean time I’ll share what I’ve learned so far as a huge Tuesday’s Lesson.

     But first, I just have to mention this amazing site I found. I think I might be the only one who had never heard of them, but I still want to recommend Young House Love to anyone who is thinking about any kind of home renovation, or even just painting a bathroom. I really wish I had read their painting tips post before I started.

Painting Tips Learned the Hard Way:

1.         Don’t spray a roller brush with a high powdered hose. Actually, that one turns out kinda cool, but only if you are wearing painting clothes and aren’t standing near anything important.

2.         Painter's tape works, but if you are working in a room that gives the dehumidifier a full bucket twice a day, it only works if you forcefully press it against the wall. And make sure the wall you’re applying it to is really and truly dry.

3.         Wait for each coat of paint to dry fully before putting on the next one. That is, unless you like walls that are slightly sticky for days after they have been painted.

4.         Don’t expect to get more than one coat on in a day when the humidity is so high that you can almost wring the air out.

5.         Keep a wet rag nearby. Always. But said rag will also work as a dandy paint brush if you’re not careful. Rinse it out a few times every painting session.

6.         Even if your orange is completely the wrong shade of orange, don’t pour it into the yellow paint until you are absolutely certain you won’t need any more yellow paint. It does make a lovely shade of Caribbean orange, but that doesn’t change the fact that you still need yellow paint.

7.         Paint drips. Even if you by some miracle keep it off the floor, it will drip down the wall if you try and put too thick of a coat on. And it will most likely do this dripping only after you have left the room and gone into town.

8.         And drop cloths actually have to be flush against the wall if you want them to work. After painting my bedroom, I was forced to get creative about furniture and rug placement to keep my parents from knowing exactly how bad some of the spills were. I didn’t think about what would happen when I moved out, but luckily I was in Arkansas at the time, and couldn’t be fussed at!

9.         If while reloading your roller brush, you stand up too close to the wall you’re painting, you will get paint in your hair. A lot of paint. And you won’t know why everyone is laughing at you until you go to shower. I can’t see the top of my own head, but everyone else over the age of about 13 can.

10.     Pull painters tape off slowly, and keep your pulling hand (if that makes any sense) fairly close to the wall, I had a big problem with the paint coming with the tape. I had much more success when I pulled the tape off while the paint was still wet as Young House Love suggested.

 

Colors I used :    Valspar Island Orange

                          Behr Caribe

                          Behr Twenty Carrot

                          Martha Stewart’s High Gloss White
                                                                                                                                 
                                                                                                                                   I linked to: