Thrifty Finds Friday #11

Well hello there. I have some goodies to share with you from a large yard sale I went to at a local church.

I went looking for some baby items - exersaucer, high chair, baby gates etc.... and found not one baby item!

However, I did find some other items that were great deals.

I got two different faux christmas garland for........get this.......$1 each. YUP.

I just bought one last December. This was the first Christmas in this house and I wanted one for my staircase. And I spent over $30 for a lighted one!

I just spent $2 on what is pictured above! Score!

Every item in the picture below was 50 cents. The Santa hat was bought by the kids, because I guess we only have one currently and now they won't have to share!

I plan on painting the oval frame and use it possibly in the baby room around an initial.

The basket, I am not sure about. But I may paint it and dip the bottom in a different color.

I bought a brand new pack of 30 Thank You cards. The Thank You is embossed, but it did not show in the photo, so I wrote it in. I like to write notes, and like to write thank you cards, so they will be used!

That is all from this trip. Happy bargain hunting!

Installing wainscot in the Dining Room

I loved the wainscot that I installed in the dining room in our last home. It made such a difference in the look of that room. I knew I wanted to repeat that same look in the dining room of our new home. In this home, I have already installed a planked wall wainscot in the kitchen, and in the bathroom, but chose to go the more traditional route of picture frame wainscot for the dining room.

I started by painting the lower portion of the wall the same white as all the trim in the house is. I did not do this first last time, and it was hard to do several coats with the molding up so I chose to do this first this time. I actually learned from my mistakes!!!

The wall color is a very light off white - it looks tan in this picture. It is the flat paint the builders used, and it is getting changed. It looks similar to this in the after photos at the end of the post, but it is actually painted Sand Beach (SW color mixed in BM paint).

For the chair rail, I used the same door casing (we upgraded to 3 /14 in. in our home) that I used on the plank walls. I simply wrapped this around the corner to the dining room. Just installing that made a big difference!

Here is the corner, before caulk and wood filler and paint. This little wall is on the left of the bathroom, and I already planked the wall to the right of the bathroom door. Doing this little section really makes a difference when looking at the bathroom door.

Here is that same area after.

Here is how I ended the section where the door to the butler's pantry is. You make it return to the wall, the same way you do with crown molding. You simply make an OUTSIDE corner cut about an inch in from the end of the wall. Then make a very small piece with another outside corner cut, but there is no length to it. I do not nail this in place, I use wood glue, and painters tape to hold it while the wood glue dries. After sanding and caulking and painting, it will look much better.

Here is that same spot after paint and caulk (keep in mind the corner is not painted yet....)

To figure out how big to make your boxes you:
Measure your wall
Decide how many inches between your boxes (I chose 3 Inches)
Decide how many boxes you want (this will be trial and error)
Then subtract the 3 inch space on either end and between your boxes from the total wall measurement
Divide this by the number of boxes
Your answer is how big your box should be.....
The picture below depicts the wall with 3 boxes on it with 3 inches of spacing all around. Both between and above and below each box.

My method when installing was to draw my boxes on the wall in pencil - this was you know if you need to adjust for an outlet. Like I did, but it is hidden behind the china cabinets!

Then I measured and cut the top and bottom pieces (they should be the same length. I also cut the side pieces (these stay the same for the entire room) EXCEPT for under the window.

I installed the top horizontal piece first, using a level. Then I installed the right vertical side. Then I put one nail in the bottom horizontal piece (on the right hand side). Then I put one nail in the left hand vertical piece at the top. This allowed me to have a little wiggle room at the bottom right corner, to make certain it was a tight fit before nailing the bottom and left piece fully.

The white makes such a difference in this room, it really brightens it up. And the addition of molding makes it even better! Molding makes everything prettier! I just love how it turned out and can't wait to do another molding project. Here are photos of the finished room.

This picture is not good quality at all but it really shows the entire room. I don't have that capability on my camera, so I used the panoramic setting on my iphone for this.

COST BREAKDOWN:
I bought 8 foot sections of the trim and needed about 16 pieces total. They were $8 each.
Trim total = $128
Chairrail - FREE (it was left over from building)
Paint - FREE - I already had it but it was about $65 for the gallon of semi-gloss BM
Nails - already had Caulk - already had
GRAND TOTAL: $128

** Update: I forgot that I also bought the wall color for this room. So add Benjamin Moore paint @ $35
Total gets bumped up to: $163 ***

Visit my other wainscot projects in this house:
Plank Wall in Kitchen
Plank Wall in Bathroom

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Looking back....

We closed on our house ONE year ago. It seems like just yesterday that we were going through the building process and waiting (not patiently) for our house to be done. There are so many things that I want to do to the house (I have a BIG 2015 list) that sometimes I get overwhelmed because I have no patience. Not only do I not have time to get it all done right away, but I also don't always know what I want to do until I have lived in a space for a bit.

I thought it would be nice to look back to remind myself of what I have been able to do and take time to be thankful for what has been checked off the list. Sometimes we I need to slow down and and just enjoy everything as it is. In addition, the start of a New Year is the perfect time to remind myself for all that I have, and to be thankful for what I do have.

I planked a boring wall in our kitchen.

Several months later, I added planks in our half bath as well.

I hung a gorgeous new light in place of a very ugly builders light in our kitchen.

I bought and installed hardware on all our cabinets; kitchen and bathroom. (I did not like what the builder had for choices, so I declined install of their hardware....) I also spray painted a few pieces!

I built a storage shelf and hung it in our master bath. I love that I can only see the side when I enter the room. The front is viewed from the tub area.

I added furniture in the form of a Craigslist dresser that I painted and stained.

I switched out another ugly builders light with a ReStore Chandelier that I spraypainted.

I purchased a few pieces of an IKEA Billy unit and customized it for my space. I added crown molding, rope molding, painted the backs, installed it with the center part sticking out a few inches and added stained wood in the center.

In addition to painting the boys' room, the office and our master bedroom, we also painted the nursery. Gender neutral because we don't find out the sex of our babies.......it makes some crazy I know, but that is how we roll.

I built a gallery shelf for the kitchen wall (and notice that the wall is painted as well).

I bought chairs off CL and redid them.

I sewed valances for the boys room.

I painted the inside of the front door black

And my very last project, which was a big and long one, was the wainscot in our dining room. I have not even done the post yet, but here is a picture. The second picture was taken with my iPhone on the panoramic setting, so the quality is not great. It is cool that you can see the whole room though!

Update: The Post of the wainscot install in the dining room is up!

There are also lots of things I have done that I have not blogged about, but these are the bigger ones. I just watched a video of my 2 boys building a fort in the family room a month after we moved in. There was stuff everywhere, the TV was on the coffee table and there was not 1 thing on the walls. Talk about changes!!!! That reaaallly made me feel great!

Hopefully I won't dream of TO DO lists tonight!

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