Misa Leigh Blog: makeover
    • Showing posts with label makeover. Show all posts
    Showing posts with label makeover. Show all posts

    August 10, 2018

    Guest Room Makeover

    August 10, 2018 0
    Guest Room Makeover

    Wow! It's been so long since my last post. I have been so busy lately, I started babysitting a few of my friend's children and my oldest started Kindergarten this year so I have been juggling lots of things trying to get it all together.

    If you follow me on Instagram, then you probably saw me working on this room months ago, but if not then you are in for a treat. This room was previously my husband's "man cave", if that's what you want to call it. I made the mistake of allowing him to pick the paint color for this room when we first moved into our house and it was green-screen green up until I worked up a serious sweat covering it up during this project.



    I had made plans for some out-of-town family to come and stay with us for an extended period of time, and due to my youngest child taking over what used to be our guest room, I had to make a space for this family member to sleep and have time to themselves while they were here since it was going to be for possibly a month or longer (and we all know how things go when you're around family for too long with no escape).

    I knew before I even started that I wanted this space to double as a war-room/prayer room when it wasn't being used as a guest room, but I also wanted it to be calm, relaxing, and inviting to whoever was using it. So I started planning my vision for the room by using a mood board to get a better idea of what I wanted things to look like.

    A mood board is described as 'an arrangement of images, materials, pieces of text, etc., intended to evoke or project a particular style or concept' and they are great for getting an idea of what certain decor and furniture will look like together before you actually purchase the items. They simple and easy to make and you can do it right from your phone. I just save stock images of the items I like to my phone and then piece them together with a collage-maker app, but there are other apps that are made specifically for this purpose.

    So once I knew what I wanted to do, I had to start with relocation of my husband's "man cave". Which meant fixing up an unused room down in our basement which was an old workshop filled with all kinds of rusty and dusty things. You can see that transformation by clicking here.





    After I got the room cleared out, I started prep for paint. I chose a light ivory color for the walls because I wanted it to feel clean, but not cold and pristine. I wanted things to feel warm and inviting and lived in. It took two coats on the walls (without primer) to cover the awful neon green that is now hiding underneath. Once the walls were painted, I felt like I could've stopped right there and things would've already been so much better.




    Once the walls were all painted, I decided to paint the ceiling. Yes, my husband painted it green to match the walls. Why? Mostly because he doesn't have an eye for these things, but probably also to torment me a little. And for this extra trouble he caused me, I made him paint the ceiling himself...kidding. I did make him paint the ceiling, but only because my arms and back were killing me and I had been painting non-stop for like a week and I just couldn't do it anymore. Physically, mentally, emotionally. It was rough and I was burnt out on painting. He paints so much faster than me anyways, he should just do all the painting in this house. While that was happening, I decided to paint the wall shelf he left behind. I planned on reusing it (and I'm so glad I did since there wasn't much decor space in here).




    But I didn't stop there. I continued on to paint the trim which was previously painted a dark brown (my husband's doing) to a crisp white to highlight the wall color. White trim always goes great with light-colored walls, in my opinion. Before I painted the trim, it seemed like the walls were white, but with the white trim in comparison you can see the difference in color.




     As soon as the paint had dried, I was ripping the tape off as fast as I could. I was so ready to see the room, bare bones, with it's fresh new facelift. It was like a brand new room. I've said it before and I'll say it again, paint can change an entire room. If you're looking for a big change, but have limited funds, I will recommend paint every single time. And at roughly $15-$25 a gallon, you can't beat that.







    Now that everything was painted, things were ready to move back in and get decorated. I had bought most of the decor for this room like a month or two before it was finished so I was dying to get it all in here. First I spread out the area rug, I didn't buy a non-slip rug for underneath so I just adjusted it to where I wanted it and then I took a few wide-head nails and literally just nailed it to the floor around the edges. Hey, sometimes you just gotta get creative.



    My color palette was a range of white, creams, browns, and navy blue. I wanted to incorporate a lot of rustic woody accents with my clean white pieces to mix old and new and the navy was the perfect blend of classic and cozy to give the room a pop of color amidst all the neutral going on.

    After the rug was in place, I moved the rest of the furniture in. I stole the rocking chair from my youngest son's nursery since it wasn't being used anymore and the cube-shelving from my oldest son's room because I liked it better in here. I set up the side tables, hooked up the lamps, decorated the shelves, and hung the wall decor. The only thing that was missing now was the futon. I hadn't ordered it yet since I wouldn't have anywhere to put it until the room was finished being painted. So I picked a futon I liked and I ordered it, it was easier to know what would look good now that everything was in its place. When it got here, I had my very strong hubby carry it up the stairs for me and got to work putting it together. It wasn't as easy as I'd hoped it would be, but eventually I got it figured out and set up. It was a lot sturdier and nicer looking than I had expected, and it fit perfectly in between the two end tables so everything worked out great. I'm laying on it now as I type this and the mattress is super comfortable, I can't feel any of the metal poles in my back or anything. Hooray!






    I poured my blood, sweat, and tears into this room. It was so hard to keep going during the process of the transformation, but I pushed through and finished strong and it was well worth it. This room is open to any guests we may have that need somewhere to sleep overnight, but it is also a space for me or my husband to go when we need to pray or meditate or just relax. Sometimes I like to come in here and read during nap-time, or I've taken some time alone to sketch and color, and recently I just brought in my laptop and I have enjoyed some peace and quiet to work on the blog which has been really great.

    I hope you all enjoyed seeing this rooms amazing transformation and I hope that it has inspired at least one of you to take the leap on a project you have been wanting to do for a while. If you want to see some video footage I took while working on this room, you can watch the full Instagram highlight here.




    Yours Truly,
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    New Basement Man Cave Makeover

    August 10, 2018 0
    New Basement Man Cave Makeover
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    February 19, 2018

    Simple & Easy Stairway Makeover

    February 19, 2018 0
    Simple & Easy Stairway Makeover


    If you have a house, there's like 50/50 chance that your house has stairs. I'm on the side of those odds where my house does in fact have stairs. These stairs are old, they are ugly, and they squeak loud enough to wake the entire 2nd floor of sleeping people in my house when I want to go back downstairs to have alone time and watch TV after everyone's in bed. If you have hideous, squeaky carpeted stairs like me, then you stumbled on the right page of the internet today, my friend, because I am going to show you how to take those eye-sore steps and turn them into eye candy.


    Materials needed:
    • Box-cutter
    • Hammer (as needed)
    • Staple remover/Needle-nose pliers
    • Hand sander
    • Sandpaper
    • Stain
    • Old rags
    • Painter's tape
    • Paint
    • Paint brush

    Before, from the top.

    Before, from the bottom.

    Step 1:
    First, you're going to want to prep. For me, this meant getting all my materials, setting up my workspace, having the trash nearby, and keeping my vacuum handy. Nothing more annoying than going to start a project and realizing you don't have everything you need to do it. So be prepared and be ready to get things done, you hard-worker you!
    Don't make the same mistakes I made out of laziness: Confine your workspace as much as possible and remove anything from the walls or it will all be covered in dust when it's time to sand. That means plastic hanging, doors closed, and as little amount of traffic in your work area as you can manage.

    Step 2:
    Next, you can get started by using your box-cutter to remove carpeting from one tread and one riser at a time. I say this because it's easier to make sure you remove all of the nails and staples if you inspect each one individually. You don't want to mess up your sander when the time comes and you definitely don't want to have to get a tetanus shot because you missed a nail and now you're bleeding everywhere and everything is chaos and you have to stop mid-project for an ER visit. That sounds like a disaster we all want to avoid, so make sure you do a double-check on this step. My husband went ahead and just ripped the carpet all off at one time, oh well.
    After carpet removal. (Yuck)

    After carpet removal, close-up.

    Step 3:
    Once you have all the carpet removed (in my case, there was two layers and the second layer was glued to the wood that we had to scrape off), it's time to sand these hidden beauties to give you a clean slate. They have potential! It doesn't look like it yet, but it's there under all those old layers of glue and stain and the most staples you've ever pulled in your life. The good news is, you can sand most, if not all, of it away with some hard work and determination. Sanding is definitely my least favorite part, physically, but it's the most exciting to get all the old yuckiness off and see that bare wood for the first time. They just look so much cleaner after a good sanding. Thanks for all your hard work, sweet husband of mine!

     Pro tip: There's going to be a ton of sawdust being produced, so I suggest doing what I didn't do (whoops) and covering up as much stuff as possible and taking stuff off the walls anywhere near your stairs so there's less clean-up when it's done. As mentioned earlier, because this is so important.

    Step 4:
    When you're finally done sanding, you can give yourself a pat on the back. The hardest and most time consuming part is over. Clean up whatever mess you've made and straighten up the area. It's time to wipe the stairs down to prepare for paint and stain. Use whatever you'd like, but I just vacuumed up what I could and wiped off the rest with a wet rag.

    Step 5:
    Now you get to do the fun parts! (Not really) First up is staining. You want to stain first so that if it gets anywhere it shouldn't be, it's most likely going to be somewhere you are going to end up painting anyways. If your stairs are in really rough shape, staining them might not be the best option since defects will show through. If this is the case, skip this step and just paint your treads instead. You could do a brown or black or whatever you want, but you probably want to go for a dark color since they will get a lot of traffic. Another helpful tip is to only stain every other tread, that way you can still use your stairs if needed while they are drying. We used a stain that also has a polyurethane in it so it took longer to dry, but it eliminated a step or two and saved a lot of time. If you can find a stain like this, I highly recommend it. My husband stained every step (before I could tell him the right way to do it), starting from the top and working his way down, and then we left the house for a few hours while they dried.
    After sanding and first layer of stain, from the top. (Don't mind the mess, y'all. It's gonna get messy.)

    After sanding and first layer of stain, from the bottom.
    After sanding and second layer of stain, close-up.

    Step 6:
    Painting time! So once your stain is all finished and dry, you need to use your painter's tape to tape off around the area you'll be painting. You don't want to get paint on your freshly stained treads. Once each riser has been taped, you're ready to go. Get your brush, go around the outline first and then do the rest. This step might take some repeating depending on what color you're using and how durable you want it to be. I'm using white so I ended up having to do 3 layers to get full coverage, but I also was using a roller. My husband saved the day and showed me that a brush gets better coverage and might not need as many layers. You could also use a primer before your paint color, but I don't prime anything ever and it usually holds up fine. Whatever floats your boat.
    After 1st layer of paint.

    After 3rd layer of paint.

    Step 7:
    When your paint is dry, (carefully) peel all the tape off and voilà! Your old steps have been made new. Congrats, I knew you could do it. Now sit and stare at them and yell at your kids and your husband whenever they walk a little too rough on them. You worked hard on those steps and you earned that right!

    After

    After

    There you have it, folks! My fool-proof and very easy to understand guide on a total staircase redo. I hope that it helps give you a better understanding of the process and gives you that push you needed to just go for it! Your stairs will thank you, and then you will thank yourself for doing it, and then you will thank me for showing you how (in which case, you're welcome).
    -Yours truly
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    July 5, 2017

    Garage Makeover (Exterior)

    July 05, 2017 0
    Garage Makeover (Exterior)


    So today is day one of my garage's much needed facelift. It blends right in to the background when you look down my driveway and the inside is seriously scary.


    See that brown square on the right side of the photo? Yeah, that's my garage. It was built who knows when, but it's too small for modern-day cars so we've just used it as storage.

    The vision I have for my garage now is to clean it up, make it look decent on the outside, and useable on the inside because I want to start doing furniture makeovers as a hobby/side-job to fund my home projects so that's plenty of motivation for me because the biggest roadblock when it comes to home improvement (besides the fact that my home is 100 years old and all the complications that come with that) is money.

    The list of things that have to be done are as follows. (I'm a list-maker):

    1. Tear down the overhead cover thingamajig.
    2. Clear all the junk out of the inside.
    3. Pressure wash the walls and floors.
    4. Paint the garage door.
    5. Paint the walls.
    6. (Possibly) seal the floor.
    7. Install a weather seal on the garage door.
    8. Create some storage for paints/stains and materials.
    9. And as always, some cute décor!
    So the first thing we'll do is tear down the already-falling-apart overhead cover thing. Pretty much everytime it storms really hard, a piece of it falls off. First, it was like half of the underneath part so you can see straight up into it. Then, it was the rain gutter. The garage had to be added later on after the house was already built and the overhead cover on the front was added on after that and it was poorly made. We've got a 4lb sledge hammer and my husband's big muscles so we'll see how it goes.

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    Here is a picture of him working on it, day one.


    And a picture of it after he called it quits for the day. It started raining and he said, and I quote, "4lbs has never felt so heavy." I lost it, he's funny when he wants to be.


    It's not pretty looking, I know, but once all the demo is done we can clean the mess up and pressure wash to get ready for paint. When it's dry, I'll start painting it. It will probably need a few layers, so that could take a day or two. When painting is done, I will install the carriage house door hardware and then BAM. Just like that, the outside part is done. I think it will look great just with some new paint. I mean, look at it. It's not a regular, boring garage door. This garage door has squares on it. Another cool thing about tearing down this front part is that with that left support out of the way, it won't be such a tight squeeze to get to the gate for the backyard so that's pretty sweet. I really wish I could meet the person who did all these weird things to this house and just ask them why.

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    Day two, demo work was finished up. Nothing really exciting about it, but I did take this cool video of the majority of it coming down.


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    Now that we have the demo work done, we need to clean the outside to prepare for paint. We got all the garbage loaded up into a truck and took it to a transfer station, so that's done. I bought a pressure washer and--surprise--it doesn't work. Something's wrong inside it and the water leaks too much to get a good, strong spray going. So we have to take that back and get a new one. Then we'll clean it, scrape off peeling paint, probably spray it again, and then paint it. My carriage house hardware came in the mail already (yay). Can't wait to see what it looks like cleaned up with a fresh coat of clean, white paint and cute decorative hardware. I'm already obsessed with it.

    Here is a pic after demo work, clean-up, paint scraping, and pressure-washing is done.


    I spray painted the existing hardware white to match the door so that the black decorative hardware would be the focal point and put painter's tape on the windows to reduce the amount of paint scraping that would have to be done. Then I wiped the ridiculous amount of sweat off my face and called it a day.

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    The next day, I started painting. It ended up needing two layers so painting took two days. I finished everything up on the 4th of July.

    Here is a pic after the 2nd layer of paint was applied.


    After letting it dry for a few hours, we went back outside, installed the hardware, took the tape off the windows, and scraped the paint off. I cleaned the windows and this is the end result.


    We used this hardware:


    And I just put it where I wanted it and taped it in place. The screws were included, btw.

    The paint was Dutch Boy Exterior Primer + Paint, Ultra White from Menards.



     It's not perfect by any means, but it's a huge upgrade from what it looked like before and I don't feel embarrassed every time I look at it now, I feel proud. I did that (with some help). It's also a good feeling knowing that there's not a hundred thousand spiders covering it so that's a huge plus as well. I love seeing the images in my head turn into reality. It really turned out great and I'm so happy with it, I highly suggest this makeover to anyone who is thinking about how ugly they think their garage is. It literally only cost me my time, effort, paint ($16.98, after mail-in rebate), and hardware ($10, after $10 gift card).

    This was just the outside curb-appeal part of this project. Keep an eye out for part 2 coming as soon as I can get the garage cleared of all the junk it's got inside it. Thanks for reading and if you liked this post and want to see more project tutorials just like this, make sure to share!





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