Home Office: The Skinny Latte Scoop

When deciding on a paint color for the office, I went back and forth between a beige and a grey for a while. Then, I had to choose a specific shade of beige. Do you even know how many shades of beige there are?? I had to narrow it down to something neutral, something classy, something classic, something that would go perfectly with all my black and white accents.

And then it hit me: paint your walls the same color as your coffee. Let me just say that, in the words of my husband, I like "creamer, sugar and a little bit of coffee". When I found the color called "Skinny Latte", I knew it was the perfect match!

Here are some progress shots, from beginning to end, for several views in the office.

The first picture is the true before...before anything had been moved or transformed.

The second picture is the room once everything was off the walls and the smaller furniture was removed.

The third picture was taken after I had puttied all the holes. No, the room does not have the chicken pox. No, I did not have a clue as to what I was doing when I moved posters and pictures and clocks and more posters a million times in the past 5 years. Yes, it took a long time to putty and sand all those holes. Yes, there were at least 160 holes in the wall. Yes, one hundred sixty.

The fourth picture is the after shot. Between the putty holes and the after picture, there was a coat of primer and 2 coats of paint. But that's boring and you're not missing out by not seeing a picture of it, promise.

(You can click on the pictures to enlarge them).

Here are some other things that got a paint facelift.

These shutters went from UGLY brown to glossy back thanks to 4 cans of 96 cent spray paint from Wal-Mart and 1 can of glossy top coat spray paint.

Here's a before and after of my sewing table. You can read more about that process here.

I forgot to take a picture of this table before I started. It used to be a craft table, so the top was formerly glue, paint and scratch covered. I sanded and sanded and varnished and varnished and am so pleased with my shiny new table top. The bottom of the table was originally white. Then, I painted it light blue (to match the old office colors) and wrote inspirational words around the top with a silver sharpie marker. Not exactly sure what I was thinking there, but it was nothing a little sanding and black paint couldn't cover up.

For those of you who are not quite sick of reading about my office project just yet, stay tuned for all the organizational solutions I put to work in here. See you next time!

-Sarai

Prettiest Sewing Table On the Block :)

For starters, we Simple Girls apologize for the insane amount of inactivity happening over here. Summer always seems to be such a busy time for all three of us, but this one seems especially so! Brooke's spending the summer as our world traveler, Katrina's an extremely busy full-time mom to 3 sweet little girls and I'm filling my days with getting ready for summer camp, keeping my oh-so-precious niece and, well, this....

It's official. The office project is well underway. And by well underway, I mean that the walls and furniture are painted and it functions as an office again, instead of a room full of tables pushed to the middle of the room. I'm still working on getting pictures and such on the walls, getting some curtains made/purchased and picking up a few more accessories to finish it off. I'm EXTREMELY pleased with the results so far and FINALLY feel like I'm working in a classy adult space as opposed to a young, full of college leftovers space.

The biggest obstacle to completing the makeover was this one...

This sewing table belonged to my mom's mom. I love thinking about all the amazing things she created while sitting at this very table and how I get to continue that tradition! The honey color wasn't bad, but it really didn't match what I was going for in my new and improved office.

It's got some cool detail on the legs and sides.

And LOTS of damage on the top from wet ups and flower pots.

Check that out! The top folds open to create a bigger work surface. Back in the day, my Nanny was able to store her sewing machine inside the table and raise it up when she was ready to use it. That function doesn't really work now, but that work space is perfect for all kinds of sewing projects!

And after HOURS of sanding (definitely used an electric sander and totally not even kidding about the amount of time it took...I think it took about 45 minutes to get the feeling back in the hands and arms!), 2 coats of paint, several coats of varnish and loads of drying time, I'm pleased to present this beauty...

So polished and so chic in my new office (and yes, that's the new office wall color you see there! More on that in an upcoming post.)

To take care of the brassy hardware, I simply removed it, sprayed it silver and finished it with a clear spray sealer. Hopefully it will all stand up to some wear and tear.

If this pretty little thing doesn't motivate me to whip up some of the cutest little baby items, I don't know what will!! Stay tuned for more on my office makeover!!

-Sarai

Wanna see other cool projects?
Check out the blog parties happenin' over at House of Hepworths and The Shabby Chic Cottage!

Gotta Start Somewhere

Redecorating my office seems to be the project that never happens. I feel like I've been talking about it for months if not years, yet nothing seems to get the ball rolling. Yes, I have my handy little project book (thanks to another simple girl who knows me all too well) filled with paint chips and color palettes and furniture layout ideas. I have my to-do list ready. I have my shopping list ready. And yet...nothing. About the time I started seriously getting my plans together for this project, I took on the task of keeping my niece a couple of days a week. And while, that is one of the most fun jobs to have, it doesn't exactly lend itself to help in the home improvement projects!

A few weeks ago, my husband was out of town, and I was bored. I really wanted to dive right in and slap some paint on the walls. However, because of the stripes that are currently on the walls, I wasn't up for the sanding and priming that would have to precede said paint job. So I decided to start small. I checked out my to-do list and found that project that would require the least amount of time and would require only materials that I had on hand. And so, "Reupholster Desk Chair" had its day in the sun!

Here's the chair before in all its boring blue plain jane office-y glory. The office is blue now, so sure, it matches. But that doesn't mean it looks awesome. We need awesome.

And one hour, several hot glue gun burns and some black and white gingham fabric later...TADA!! Much more awesome and it will tie in perfectly with the black and white theme I'll have going on in here.
I didn't remove the old fabric. I didn't use a staple gun. I just folded and tucked and snipped and glued until it looks how I thought it should. No, it's not perfect, but it's prettier than it was. And while motivation for this project hasn't exactly turned into motivation (read: free time) to get the rest of the office started, it's one less thing I'll have to do in the long run. You gotta start somewhere, right?

Moo No More!

A few weeks ago I started my first go round with re-upholstering and completely revamping these oh-so-lovely chairs. (You can read a little more about them here.)

Apparently I was so ready to see the the cows go away, that it didn't occur to me that I didn't have to remove the contact paper. (It was stuck to the original upholstery fabric that was going to be removed anyway!) At any rate, it gave me a chance to show what these bad boys looked like in their original state:

Pretty, huh?

And then came the HOURS of removing the old upholstery. Whoever assmbled these chairs back in the day was more than determined to keep the fabric in place. As you can see, this particular assembly person must have been getting paid by the staple...

Between the 2 chair seats and the back piece from the one chair, I removed well over FIVE HUNDRED FIFTY STAPLES...and then my hands ached for days!

For the life of us, we COULD NOT figure out how to get that back piece out of the chair. Apparently beating on it with a hammer, hoping that the little pegs holding it in place will magically cause it to fall out isn't the way to go. Who woulda thought? It wasn't until after this happened...

...that we saw the 2 simple little screws holding it in on the bottom. A little twist here and there and that thing just fell right out. Awesome. So, my wonderful hubby worked some magic with wood putty and you can barely even tell this happened in the first place!

Here are the chairs sans cushions after the first coat of paint. I wish I had known that it would take 5 coats of paint to get them looking sharp.

So, it took several hours of work, and we probably didn't follow all the "rules" of furniture re-do, but I'm MORE than pleased with these results! Without further ado, here's the finished result....

B-E-A-utiful!

And because I love it so much, here's a close up of the fabric I used, thank you Hobby Lobby! And as you can see, you have to look REALLY close to see our big "Oops!".

My super talented step-dad upholstered the pieces for me and he did a great job, don't you think?

I still haven't decided where their permanent home will be. For now, they're set up as a little seating area in the living room.

I have several other pieces that I'm dreaming of painting and redoing. Any suggestions or tips?

-Sarai