Re-Wired: Let There Be Light

It's been a long week but a really productive one. The main focus of our remodel this week was rewiring the main electrical in all of our bedrooms. It's been something we've wanted to do since we moved in, but didn't really know where to start. After having an electrician take a look at it during our kitchen remodel, we knew it would be a chunk of our budget, but knew it would be worth it to complete it during our bedroom remodel.

Our main problem was that when the house was originally built, none of the bedrooms were wired for lighting. Speaking with some of our neighbors, we learned that at some point a local "handy (and I use that term super loosely) man" came through several of the houses on the street and put in recessed lighting right in front of all the closets. They don't bring in a lot of light and they are a bit of a fire hazard...one of our neighbors had them burn through some insulation and cause major damage.

The other main problem was that our ceiling fans in each room weren't connected to a switch. We weren't all to sure where they all may have been wired from, but we knew there was one major concern...the front bedroom's ceiling fan was connected up through the attic to an extension cord plugged into a wall in the basement. We don't know a lot about electricity, but that couldn't be safe and it had to go.

These little lights can cause a lot of damage

We called in the experts and are really glad we did...after a complete 8 hours of working on the wiring, even the electrician was stumped on some of the things he saw. And then we saw that our main outlets were all hooked up and wired through this little guy:

Yep, that's a split extension cord

The electrician was even surprised that it held up all these years, but he hooked up new connections with legit wiring so our rooms are a lot safer. We will probably remove the recessed lighting at some point and patch up the holes, but we'll save that for a later date. Now that the wiring was hooked up correctly, we were ready to work on the new fixtures.

Remember how much fun we had putting up the ceiling fan in the kitchen? Yeah, not so much...and the best part, we had not one, but three rooms to do. We decided to get 2 builder grade fans with lights in the two main bedrooms so Brian went straight to work getting those up. After a couple blown breakers and a new light switch he was able to get the two new fans up and we finally had real light in both rooms.

New light in our front room...it's a little rumpled, but it has been acting as our closet, don't judge :)

Back bedroom fan...no more ugly chain! (Yes, the hooks are still there...for now)

Then it was time to tackle the master bedroom. I hate ceiling fans...I think they are super unattractive and just plain boring. However, they are really good at keeping the temperature regulated and air circulated. Plus Brian has to have a fan in the room...it was either an ugly box fan in the window, or a ceiling fan. He was willing to let me have a chandelier, but I just didn't think I could live with a box fan forever. So I had an idea and hoped it would be a decent compromise...what if we could do both?

I've done a lot of research on different lighting and fans, but I couldn't find anything that wasn't crazy expensive or hideous looking. After looking at our old fan, I started thinking about adding a shade and a little crystals. We found a lampshade for $12 and decided to reuse some of the parts from our old fixtures...that way, if it turned out terrible, we were only out $12.

We started by spray painting the old fan blades, dome and hardware:

A little paint goes a long way

 Then we attached the motor and the dome to the ceiling.

Champagne spray paint and opened the wiring to attach the light

 Now the tricky part...we decided to add a lamp shade to the light kit to attach to the fan. Sounds pretty simple, right? Well, we ran into a lot of challenges...first being we only saved pieces to 2 different fans, one that had a light originally attached and one that didn't. After lots of frustration, several wire changes and lots of YouTube videos we finally found the correct wires to connect and make it work. Then came the other challenge...adding the lamp shade to the light kit. We tried several things before we realized we needed a longer hollow screw so that we could tighten and secure the shade between the kits. After a quick trip to the hardware store, Brian came back with a long enough hollow screw so we could assemble everything together (and only spent $0.95).

This is my VERY patient husband assembling the pieces. 

 Then we hooked the wiring back up and screwed all the pieces together:

Left the plastic on until the final verdict

Almost done! Because I wanted to add a little glam to the boring ceiling fan, I found some crystals at the local craft store and started stringing them together ($19 total).

Who doesn't love crystals?

Then Brian uses some old wire clothes hangers to rig together a place for me to hang the crystals. We made sure to keep everything away from the light and switched up the length a few times, but I am pretty happy with the overall look.

I actually really like it!

Another view

I think it's kind of fun and it ties in the look of the whole room a bit better. Plus it only cost us $32! Functional with a little bit of sparkle, a nice compromise :)

We also decided to tackle the wiring for the television. We mounted our television to open up some more space in our room and get rid of the ugly TV console but the main problem was that the ugly wires hung straight down and looked like a jumbled mess. If we could figure out how to move the outlet, we wanted to move most of the cords and the internet routers to the closet. Good news, my dad was in town and came over to make sure that we didn't electrocute ourselves. My mom and I let the boys work on the outlet while we did more painting, so all we have are some pictures of what they did:

Finding the studs so that we could move the TV wires

Pulled out all the cords and moved everything inside the closet

After rewiring and moving the outlet inside the closet

Patching up the walls with some drywall and mud

That wasn't the only thing we completed this week, but definitely one of the biggest. We brought up some of the finished pieces of furniture and after lots of deliberation, we decided to skip building a custom closet and spent the money we saved from the ceiling fan on a customize-able closet kit. Here's a sneak peak:

New closet system! Still a lot of work to put it together, but no painting!

We still have lots to do, but we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Right now, Brian is finishing up the crown moulding so we will have more to share once it's finished later this week. For now, we will try and relax for the rest of the evening. :)

XOXO,

Sara, Brian & Tequila

Callie came by to help too!

While we were working inside, someone else was doing some work outside (totally innocent face)

Building a Tufted King Size Platform Bed

Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day Weekend! What could be more romantic than building a King Size Bed? Well, most things...but we still decided to tackle it after a cozy Valentine's dinner at Mio's anyway. The best part, we ended up with what we wanted and spent under $200 to build it!

The first thing we did was cut out the headboard. We had a couple pieces of plywood left over from pulling up the kitchen flooring so we saved about $20-30 bucks right there. The first thing we did was cut the plywood down to 78.5" which is little over the width of a King Size Mattress (76" x 80").

Cut the plywood down to size

 We wanted some shape to it so we decided to cut out a semi circle but went back and forth a couple times until we decided on the angle we liked the best:

Always draw before you cut, it will save you in the long run

Then we used a jig saw and cut out the shape we liked best:

Just what we were looking for

 Then we took the piece we cut and traced it on the other side so that it would match:

Brian cutting out the last side

Ta da! Not too bad for the first try!

There were several designs we looked at online first and put together several of them to come up with the design we wanted. We have never tufted anything before, but we decided to go out on a limb and try it. We looked for several tutorials on how to do it and eventually found a video that showed us exactly how to get started (I'll post links to everything at the end of the post).

We didn't want to tuft the entire bed, instead we decided to bring everything 3" in so that we could add some nailhead trim and there would be an added dimension to it. We used a chalk line to outline the bed, then we decided to measure about 10" from the base (where the mattress would cover) and found the middle of the plywood where our first tuft would go. We decided to use the chalk line and grid the section into eight equal parts. Then we started drilling the holes where our buttons would go through by starting with the middle section. We decided to do a diamond pattern so we had 2 rows of 3 button holes and 2 rows of 4. The chalk lines made it really easy to create the pattern.

Drilled the hole for the buttons

 Now if anyone has bought foam from a craft store before, it is ridiculously expensive. The best trick we learned was to buy 2 foam mattress pads from Walmart ($11 each). For our size of headboard, we used 2 full size mattress pads and laid them on top of each other.

So much cheaper than foam!

Brian used our electric knife to cut the foam to size...and Tequila supervised

Here's what we started with

Now cut down to size

We made some holes for where the buttons were going to go but I don't think that you have to. We ended up using another method when we got down to it. We didn't start this until late so we decided to save the rest for the next day. We did decide to tackle the buttons before we crashed for the day and they were so much easier than I thought it would be. We needed 14 and it probably took 20 minutes.

Making buttons...not the best picture, but one of my favorite parts

Day 2 started with a trip to the hardware store to get all of the wood needed for the bed frame. We decided on a raised platform style so we found plans that helped us create the bed frame of our choice. We started by cutting all the pieces for the bed frame and then got to use the new Kreg Jig we bought for Christmas.

Using the Kreg Jig to make the pocket holes

Hard at work

This is what we started with

 Once we had everything in side we started screwing the boards together. Luckily, my family stopped by to check out the progress and were kind enough to roll up their sleeves and help us out.

Tequila with the bed frame

 We also saved some time by buying fence post tops and painting them to use as the legs.

Drilling the holes for the legs

Not too shabby

Then we flipped it over so that we could get everything set up to attach the headboard.

Tequila posing with his G-ma

 Next we bolted on 2" x 4"s to secure the headboard when it was ready.

Shot of the bed frame

Once the bed frame was set up we decided to tackle the headboard. We wrapped the entire headboard with batting and stapled the edges of the foam and wrapped it around the back and stapled it too.

After adding the batting

Then we got out the fabric we planned on using. We decided we wanted to use white fabric on the back. We saw a few posts about people using Target curtains as the fabric because they are pretty sturdy and decently priced. The curtains weren't long enough for our King Size Headboard but we found a large tablecloth that was on clearance for $11 and it fit perfectly!

You have to start tufting before you can stretch the fabric around. We wanted deep tufts so we used the butt of a hammer to push the buttons in as far as we could. Check out the video of the tufting below for the best instructions on how to tuft. Always remember to start with the middle tuft first and then work your way out.

First couple of tufts

Once the tufts were completed

 The next step is to stretch the fabric around the headboard. We started by stapling all around the edge of the foam and then tightened the fabric behind the back and stapling it and smoothing it out as you go.

After tightening and stapling the fabric

After cutting the excess fabric off, we decided to add nailhead trim around the edges.

Adding the nailhead trim

 Then we decided to wrap the platform bed with batting and added fabric:

Not sure why there are orbs, but here is the frame with the batting

The next step is to screw on the headboard to the bed frame, and here is the final look:

 More orbs, but you get to see the size of the bed

Here is a little more clear shot:

From Brian's Phone

Not too bad for our first attempt for a bed. It's huge and will look great with a mattress and new bedding. We need to add some support legs before we get the mattress and then it will be sturdy and complete. I can't believe we got this done in less than a day and a half, but really glad that it's complete.

Tomorrow we have an electrician coming over to fix our wiring and then we can start cleaning and putting most of the room together! Until then...

XOXO,
Sara, Brian & Tequila

Still lots of snow, but it is warming up a bit

Here are the links with better instructions:

Bed Frame:
Ana White's King Size Fancy Farmhouse Bed

Tufted Headboard:
Headboard Video

A Little Furniture, A Lot of Paint

We started adding some color! There is nothing more exciting than cleaning up the walls and adding a fresh coat of paint...it makes the room feel fresh and you a little more accomplished! We decided to go with a bold color, so we chose Midnight Navy by Benjamin Moore.

After 2 coats...oh, and we painted the closet!

Another shot of the color

We got 2 coats up before running out of paint and we are going to add a 3rd just to even everything out. With dark colors, sometimes a 3rd coat is needed to fully cover everything. I love the color, though it's hard to capture on film...it's more of a deep cobalt and it actually makes the room seem bigger!

A view of the big wall...and out new lamps :)

Since we ran out of paint and our favorite paint shop was closed, we decided to tackle the dresser and the drawers we found. When we first started this project, we had no idea what we wanted to do, we just knew we wanted to refinish furniture and not buy new. We set out one weekend to the West Bottoms for some inspiration and though we found stuff we liked, someone had already taken the time to finish the pieces with chalk paint (not a fan) and up-charged it well past what we wanted to spend. It wasn't a total loss, we did realize that we really wanted to find pieces with great shape.

Now for some people, it may take a couple weeks to find a place to start...not me, I kind of obsess and started looking through craigslist and online for consignment furniture and found a couple places that we could visit. And we totally lucked out! The first store we went had a dresser that we really liked and I absolutely loved the shape:

How cute is that? And it was in great shape!

It wasn't that expensive and was in great shape, but I wanted to look around a little more to make sure that we didn't find anything better. And I am so glad we did because one of the last stores we stopped in we found the perfect piece:

Look at the detail!

Ok, it was mustard yellow and missing a piece of really cool hardware, but it was love at first sight, in really good condition. Plus with Brian's slick bartering skills we were able to get it for about $80 less than the other dresser we saw! Score! It was a little too big to fit in my Escape, so we paid for it to pick up later and set off to find some other pieces.

We were pretty sold on the french provincial style but knew it would be pretty hard to find nightstands to match...luckily the consignment furniture fairies were on our side and we found these awesome end tables:

The detail is almost an exact match!

Tequila definitely approved!

 We couldn't believe our luck! All 3 pieces were in excellent condition and we spent a fraction of what we would have spent buying something new. There's a bonus piece we found but we will save that one for another post!

Fast forward to this weekend and it was time to paint! Ideally we would paint everything in the garage with the doors open, but since we've been in single digits and have about a foot of snow out there, our 70's Disco basement is the next best thing.

The first thing to do with any furniture that has been painted or finished before is sand and roughen up the entire piece.

Brian is the sander of the house

 The next step is one of the most important...prime. Find a great primer and apply 2 coats...definitely 2 coats, don't cheat or you won't like how the paint goes on. Trust me :)

This is a great multi-purpose primer, we used it on the trim too

After the first coat of primer

After the second coat of primer...it already looks so much better!

The primer held really well and it dries really quickly so putting 2 coats on doesn't take long...though for some of us, it took long enough...

Sad face...look at that awesome wallpaper (blech!)

Then we were ready for the first coat of paint on the drawers and decided to bring in the dresser to start sanding/priming. Remember the drawer without the hardware? We scoured the internet and cannot seem to find an exact match, so instead of buying all new hardware we decided to just fill the holes with wood filler, so we let that sit, sanded and started priming with the dresser.

After the first coat of pain

We also painted the inside of the drawers to give them a nice fresh look. 

After sanding and the first coat of primer

 I love the shape and the white really looks nice right now. I am toying with a couple of different ideas right now, but we are planning on adding some accents soon.

Time to relax and enjoy the rest of this snowy Sunday!

XOXO,

Sara, Brian & Tequila

P.S. We did take a few breaks between painting to go out and relax a few times this weekend :)

Obligatory selfie...one with Brian's wide open eyes :)