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February 23, 2012

Bye Bye Couch

Last month I was very excited to have a new couch which helped motivate me to start decorating my living room. 

Here is a peek at what we are busy doing......

02_2012-6

My living room is a disaster area from the project and to make matters worse we are about to be couch-less!!

The faux leather sectional we bought is already starting to peel.  Luckily the store is letting us return it and get a refund.

So until we find a new sofa we will be sitting on our very comfy stained concrete floors to watch TV.

 

Maybe, just maybe, sitting on the floor will motivate me to work out instead of watching mindless shows in the evening!

January 24, 2012

I’m Feeling Inspired!

My house doesn’t feel like a home. 

It isn’t very welcoming nor is it decorated the way I would like. 

My walls are bare and the windows are uncovered. 

I have spent countless hours reading blogs and pinning home decor ideas to Pinterest.  I can’t count how many hours I have sat on my couch, staring at my walls trying to come up with decor ideas only to be overwhelmed with fear because I didn’t know where to begin.  I envy people who can add a little bit to a room at a time to eventually achieve the look they want. 

I would say our style leans towards a contemporary, eclectic look but our couches were traditionally styled (hand me downs from my father in law). 

The couches crippled and prevented me from exploring my true decorating style.  

2010_08_25 (1)

A couple of weeks ago we impulsively bought this sectional from Big Lots for $699.

 

I wanted an Ikea Karlstad sectional but thanks to 4 children (one still in diapers) and 2 dogs it was imperative to have either a leather or faux leather couch.  It is faux leather and HUGE, our entire family fits on this big daddy.  It fits perfectly in our odd shaped room and with it’s current placement I am able to create a “proper” entryway instead of walking directly into my living room from the front door.  Best of all....

I AM FEELING INSPIRED!!!!!

I can envision what I want my living room to look like and I couldn’t be happier!

August 25, 2011

A to Z ....

Today Jaime at C.R.A.F.T. posted an “ABC of her”, which I thought was cute. 

Since I don’t have any great projects to share with you guys {lazy days of summer took over} I figured I would partake in some fun mindless blogging and do the same. 

Me

MY ABC’S:

A.= Age: 32 {weird side note: I can never remember how old I am, I have to do the math every time....yes I am weird!}

B.= Bed size: Queen

C.= Chore you hate: All of them....folding clothes gets put off the most

D.= Dogs: 2 precious wiener dogs...I woobs them

E.= Essential start to your day:  Brushing my teeth....as soon as my feet hit the ground I’m a brushin

F.= Favorite color:  I’m a Gemini so I can never decide on a favorite

G.= Gold or silver: Silver / white gold....this summer was the first time I have ever owned or worn any gold jewelry

H.= Height: 5'6"

I.= Instruments you play: None....I was a dancer not a musician

J.= Job title: Mommy

K.= Kids:  Twin girls that are 12 and twin boys that are 8 :-)

L.= Live: Mobile, Alabama

M.= Maiden name: Antoine

N.= Nicknames: My husband calls me babe, my dad calls me Mickey or Shelley, some friends call me Mischa

O.= Overnight hospital stays:  1998, when I had a C-section 

P.= Pet peeve:  I’m constantly peeved at my procrastination skills

Q.= Quote:  I can’t remember how old I am, how am I supposed to remember an entire quote??  I know there are a lot I like but I don’t know them off the top of my head.

R.= Righty or lefty: Righty

S.= Siblings: 1 younger sister

T.= Time you wake up: Weekdays - 5:15 a.m. to get the kids ready for school {once they leave I usually take a little nap :-)}  Weekends - 8 or 9

U.= University attended: Univ. of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and Univ. of South Alabama (USA)

V.= Vegetables you dislike: Beets

W.= What makes you run late:  Waiting too long to start getting everyone ready to go somewhere....I really dislike getting everyone ready then sitting around until it is time to leave so I try to time it to where we get ready and walk out the door, but sometimes I don’t time it right and we end up late...so the answer would be I make myself late!

X.= X-rays you’ve had: Teeth

Y.= Yummy food: Ray Oysters

Z.= Zoo animal favorite: Oh man another favorite question....I like all of them except the reptiles, yuck

 

If you do an A to Z post about yourself leave me a comment and I will stop by to check it out!

July 7, 2011

DIY Painted & Stained Concrete Living Room Floors

 

***This has been my most popular post, with many comments and questions.  I try to respond to everyone but many times I can’t because the email address for the commenter is listed as “noreply-comment@blogger.com”.  Here is a tutorial from another blogger that will show you how to fix this problem so I can respond to your comments:  Cinsarah's Tutorial.  

I mentioned in my last post that my mother in law is coming to town this month and we are trying to complete 1 zillion projects before she arrives.

Our carpet was absolutely horrible, disgusting, gross, vial, and any other gross words you can think of due to the addition of 2 wiener dogs to our family.  The carpet HAD.TO.GO! 

Rip Out Carpet

We don’t have the funds at this time to install hardwood floors so after pondering our DIY options we settled on staining the concrete slab. 

****NOTE****  We broke every rule there is regarding prepping and staining concrete floors.  Normally I would not do this but a friend of mine took the same steps in her kitchen (a few years ago) and to this day her floors are holding up perfectly!

Step One:  Rip Out Carpet

DIY Stained Concrete Floors Living Room

After the carpet was removed we realized our floors were in really bad shape.  The concrete has chips, cracks, mastic overflowing from the kitchen tiles, different textures and varying colors.  You can see the variation of concrete in this picture:

DIY Stained Concrete Floors Living Room

Step Two:  Remove Tack Strips

These things are pure evil.  I used a flat head screwdriver, hammer and a LOT of elbow grease to get these up.

DIY Stained Concrete Floors Living Room

Step Three:  Repair Floors

After removing all carpet and tack strips we were supposed to fill in any holes/cracks.  Since this is a “temporary” fix we skipped this step.  The cracks and rivets will add character!

Step Four:  Clean Floors

They say you are supposed to remove all grease and grime with a special cleaner but since my friend skipped this step and her floors are still great we skipped this step also.  Instead we swept, vacuumed and mopped the floors with a damp mop.  We saved money and time!

Step Five:  Tape Baseboards/Walls

You need to be very careful with the stain because it is very watery and splatters quite easily.

Step Six:  Paint Floors

The workers at Lowe’s and Home Depot will tell you that you cannot paint the floors with a solid color and then put the semi transparent concrete on top of the paint.  They are wrong!  We used Valspar exterior satin latex paint color matched to Mega Greige by Sherwin Williams.  This was paint we had left over from previous projects.  Painting the floors served two purposes: (1) it provided us with one uniform color to work with and (2) adds depth to the floors when the semi transparent stain is applied. 

This is our hall after we painted the floors. 

DIY Stained Concrete Floors Living Room

Step Seven:  Apply Semi

Transparent Stain

This process took a lot of trial and error.  We are working in sections so we painted a small area to test different methods of applying the stain.  We originally bought Quickrete semi transparent stain from Lowe’s but felt the stain wasn’t transparent enough so we switched to Behr’s semi transparent stain in the color Lodus. 

We first tried spraying the stain on the floor with a spray bottle then used a Wal-Mart bag and/or rag to dab the stain around.  It was very hard to get a somewhat consistent pattern and realized how much time it would take to achieve the look we wanted so we kept trying different methods looking for the easiest and fastest way to apply the stain.

DIY Stained Concrete Floors Living Room

We found the easiest and fastest way that achieved a great look was to roll the stain on top of the painted floors with 3/8” white woven fabric interior wall rollers.  This allowed us to layer the stain in light layers to add color, depth and dimension.  I used a paint brush to get the sides where the roller could not reach.  It is best to roll as delicately as possible in varying directions to prevent noticeable “roller marks”.

DIY Stained Concrete Floors Living Room

The semi transparent concrete stain dries EXTREMELY FAST so you have to work fast to prevent noticeable “seams”.  If you do get seams in the stain then you can keep going over the different sections layering color to make it look more natural. 

Step Eight:  Apply High Gloss

Sealer or Polyurethane

 

***UPDATE***:  (5/3/2012):  Please note with this step I am now suggesting to only use Polyurethane.  I used a high gloss sealer by Quickrete, that was fast drying, after a year we have random chips appearing everywhere.  My friend who has done this to her kitchen (a few years before I did) used polyurethane and has never had a chip in her floors.  The poly does take longer to dry but in the long run it is worth using it!

We used Quikrete’s Wet Look High Gloss Sealer from Lowe’s.  With 4 kids and 2 dogs running around we don’t have time to wait on polyurethane to dry so we went with the concrete sealer to finish the floors.  To apply the sealer we rolled it on the floors with the same type of roller we used to apply the stain.  This product also dries very fast so we were able to apply 1 layer, let it dry to touch and apply a 2nd layer in about an hour.

 

 DIY Stained Concrete Floors Living Room

 

 

DIY Stained Concrete Floors Living Room 

DIY Stained Concrete Floors Living Room

DIY Stained Concrete Floors Living Room 

Has anyone else attempted a project like this? 

I would love to hear your experiences!

I link to these awesome blogs: Making Monday Marvelous at C.R.A.F.T., Just Something I Whipped Up at The Girl Creative, Made By You Monday at Skip to My Lou, Show Me What Ya Got at Not JUST a Housewife, Get Your Craft On at Today’s Creative Blog, Show and Tell at Blue Cricket Design, Whatever Goes Wednesday by Someday Crafts, Hookin’ Up with HOH at House of Hepworths, {LTC} Link Party at Lemon Tree Creations, Strut Your Stuff at Somewhat Simple, Flaunt it Friday at Chic on a Shoestring Decorating, Free For All at Young and Crafty, Frugalicious Friday by Finding Fabulous, I’m Lovin’ It at Tidy Mom, It’s a Hodgepodge Friday by It’s a Hodgepodge Life, Remodelaholic’s Anonymous at Remodelaholic, Weekend Wrap Up Party at Tatertots & Jello, Show and Tell Saturday at Be Different Act Normal, DIY Project Parade at The DIY Showoff, Sunday Scoop at I Heart Naptime, Catch as Catch Can at My Repurposed Life

June 22, 2011

Grandma is coming to town...

My mother in law is coming to town in less then a month!  She lives in New York which means we typically only see her once a year.  We are all very excited to see her, but this means I must start {ahem finish} a ton of projects so my house is visitor ready.  

Right now our living room and hallway is a concrete slab.  I plan on painting / staining the floors before she arrives. 

Concrete floor to be stained

I have these two wieners to thank for ruining my carpet.

Wiener Dogs

My pantry has been looking a hot mess ever since the hinge broke and the door fell off.  Every time I am at Lowe’s I forget to look for the hinges.

Broke pantry hinge

We installed an above ground pool so our backyard is a disaster while we edge the pool with rock and build a deck.  My husband {on the right} and his brother seem to have a problem getting much accomplished when it is 100 degrees and the pool keeps calling their name.  We’ve got the posts installed, now we’ve just got to finish the deck.

Deck Around Above Ground Pool

Last fall I painted my living room Mega Greige by Sherwin Williams.  I am not loving the color and want to repaint my walls to a truer gray color.  This picture looks very gray but most of the day my walls look beige. 

Sherwin Williams Mega Greige

For now this is plenty.  If time permits I am sure I can come up with some other things to do before she gets here. 

I’m off to paint now...I think I have found a color I can live with for a few months!

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