It's actually a little weird looking at them since it's been almost 5 months since this was our home.

 

 

 

 

 

This bedroom was never actually used. The "bed" is literally an inflatable mattress ontop of some boxes and leftover plywood. Classy!

 

 

 

This bathroom got a brand new tile floor along with some new baseboards.

 

 

Our sad bedroom was like this until the end. Real bedroom furniture is in our future of reals this time. We already have a bed and bed side tables, and a new dresser is just around the corner. Getting rid of our bedroom furniture helped to light a fire under our asses to remedy this embarrassment.

 

 

 

New tile floor, paint, and baseboards for the tiniest bathroom in the house as well. When we got our new kitchen countertops people asked if we wished we had done this sooner. I did, however the bathroom floors were so gross and embarrassing that they were the winner of the "I wish I had done this sooner" contest.

 

 

 

The guest room really didn't change at all, it was probably the first room to look "finished".

 

 

Again, another area that was never fully realized. We had dreamt of building a wall of pipe shelves on the right hand wall. Also, never used this fireplace.

 

 

 

Did you know we had a basement? Well we did and it was huge but we never used it. Matt's brother was a life saver and basically took care of the basement for us. Paint, clean, stage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that just leaves the backyard. It was way overgrown from this point. The tree was probably double this size and needed some trimming. The spring growth spurt was just crazy.

 

Ok, so now that we've said good bye to the old, here's a quick sleek peak of the new!

 

 

I'll give you the full tour next time!

 

Nikki Kelly

Last week I was working on cleaning up the studio because, well, this was happening!

 

 

That woman sitting on the floor with the camera is Hellen and she is a photographer for the Denver Post (aaaaaahhh!). She came over this weekend to shoot some pictures for an article about Ikea Hacking! It's in the paper to-day (I am literally bursting with excitement) if you happen to be in Denver. But if not, here is the online version. Anyway, while I was cleaning up my room I was wishing that a few more things were done in here. Countertops and some sort of window treatment to start off with, and since I didn't have anything that I could make into a countertop lying around I chose to work on the latter. What a sad little barren basement window.

 

 

At first I thought about sewing a simple pair of curtains that I could hang in there with a little tension rod and then call it done. But that's so easy, if I had really wanted to do that I probably would have done it by now. On to further brainstorming... I knew I didn't want to block the small amount of light I actually do get in there, but I wanted something to soften that little box of a window. That's when I remembered this post from Kara's blog about a backdrop she made for a wedding. It's pretty awesome looking. Hers is made out of receipt rolls, but I wanted to use some fabric I had left over from who knows what. I also picked up a little more fabric, some starch, and a piece of foam core board for under $7.

 

 

Even though I was using fabric instead of paper, I still wanted that paper-y quality in my loops. After ripping the fabric into 2-3" strips I ironed them with lots and lots of starch.

 

 

Once they were all crispy I turned to the foam core board. I cut it so that it would be thicker on the side of the window that doesn't open. I wanted more loops on the left side (the side that doesn't open) and fewer and shorter loops on the right so that I could still open it easily. Once I had my shape cut out I started glueing the fabric strips to it.

 

 

Once the front was covered with fabric I put it in my window with a few screws to hold it in place.

 

 

 

At this point my window treatment reminded me of all the spooky movies where the curtains are all torn up and stringy, but not for long. Using some hot glue I started creating loops with my fabric. This part was more visual than technique, just step back and look at the balance now and then and you'll be fine.

 

 

After getting the first row looped and glued I just kept adding strips and loops to fill the left side in more until I was happy with how it looked.

 

 

 

 

I love how it looks like something you'd find in an Anthropologie! In fact, I wouldn't mind if my little room ended up like that at all. They really do have the best displays. Ok, I'm off to buy 50 copies of today's newspaper and show them to everyone. O__O

 

Nikki Kelly

You guys, I am so excited to share how my doors turned out. It's exactly what I envisioned in my head. I love it when that happens! The process was pretty simple too, which is another bonus.

I think with the popularity of stencils these days most of you are pretty familiar with how to stencil with paint, right? I've even spent my fair share of time stenciling, but I wanted this to be different. I really wanted to maintain the linear look of the wood grain that continues across all the cabinets, and paint would just mess it up.

I got the idea from deep in the storage banks of my brain. A couple of years ago I was watching Debbie Travis and they stenciled the phrase for hello in a different language with wood glue before the stain was applied. It left the wood in its natural color, but I loved how subtle it looked. So once I had my stencil I mixed up a little wood glue and water together and rolled it over my stencil. Just like you would stencil with paint you want to make sure your coverage is very thin and build it up from there.

With the wood glue being pretty much clear it can be a little difficult to see where you have already stenciled. I just tilted the door so that the light would catch the glue to help me see.

When you're happy with your stenciling and the glue has dried it is time to stain! I used an old cut up t-shirt to apply stain. Just dip in in the stain and spread it over the wood. Don't worry about where you stenciled, you can stain right over it.

Once I finished staining the front I took another t-shirt rag that was dry and rubbed the surface to soak up any extra stain that was just sitting on top. This also helps clean up some of the stain off of the poofs. If you look at the last picture the are much darker than they are in this picture.

I left the stain to dry for one day and then applied two coats of poly to finish. But before you poly you will want to sand down the rough edges from the wood glue. It shouldn't take much, I just used a fine grit sponge sander until it was smooth. If you want your finish extra smooth give it a light sanding between coats.

Here that are, all back where they belong!


I really love how the wood grain continues through the dandelion poofs. I'm even happy with the way the stain and glue edges kind of feathered together.

And how they are all a little different thanks to some of the glue mixture seeping under the stencil.


Here's the whole room! You might be sick of hearing this but, I love it! I lurve it so much.

Now I just need to figure out what to do for the countertop. So, have you come up with an interesting way to use a stencil? Would you ever try this technique? If you do I would love to see it!

Nikki Kelly

I didn't do a lot of projecty stuff this weekend because (dunt dun DUN!) I was in Seattle! Those of you that follow my instagram feed already know that, but for those that don't I was a little iPhone camera happy. My most favorite thing were the flowers at the public market. I even brought a beautiful bouquet of dahilas home with me! Anyway, that is not what today's post is about. I wanted to show you a quick little update on my cabinet doors, which I hope to finish this week. I'll wait until they're finished to spill my beans as to what all I've got in store for them, but I would love to hear your guesses!







I came home yesterday and got straight to work on stenciling this cute little dandelion puff that I ordered from Cutting Edge Stencils during their Facebook fan sale and I am so excited to see (and share) the final result.



Have you taken a weekend trip anywhere lately? Any guesses as to what I'm doing with these doors? Did you know fish have tongues? Well, now you do!





I have not been compensated for using this stencil in any way, I was just really happy with my last purchase so I got another!