DIY Wallpaper Panels

I love big art. I also love wallpaper panels covering a full wall. However the price tag on them is usually unsavory. This hallway isn’t done yet, during our kitchen renovation we changed it around a bit and now it will be an area with a new laundry closet. But, I am done with this hallway always looking ugly. So I am working on sprucing it up a bit.

I have a lot of color in the house so I decided to paint the area white. As you can see above I just wasn’t finding a gray that I liked. The white helped break up the color but it also means that it was a lot of white. So thought wallpaper would be just the thing to spruce up this space.

Wallpaper panels are fun, but super expensive. So I decided to make them myself.

First you just start with MDF wood. I cut mine 5 feet tall. The middle was 2 feet wide and the the 2 end panels are 1 foot wide. I got mine at the home depot, and got them to cut them down for me. I find this easier because of how big they are.

To start them out all you need are the standard wallpaper tools as shown above.

The panel is pretty small (relative to the full wall) so it’s pretty easy to get it done right by yourself. If you have never wallpapered just remember a couple things. Loosely lay it down in the spot you want and then start at one end. work from the middle out using the wallpaper brush with the short bristles. Then go back over with a plastic wallpaper smoother in the same way using your hand to feel for air bubbles.

Next step. Trim. I bought corner trim as shown above. Cut down to size. I sprayed it with gold spray paint and then used liquid nails to glue onto the side.

Chris helped me adhere hangers to the back. We used French Cleats. See a pic below. We got an easy to use little kit from Ace Hardware. And Chris said they made it super easy to hang.

Here is the hallway as it looks today. I got this bench on craigslist. As you can see I un-upholstered and waiting for the fabric to make it a bit prettier. So stay tuned for how this comes together. In general we still need some sprucing but it does look much better than before. Things still to do: skim coat wall, update electrical outlets, paint exterior wall, and the laundry closet is still only roughed in.

For now it’s much better. I also like that the bench will be on the opposite wall of the future laundry closet. It will be an easy spot to put a laundry basket. Good luck with your panels!

Design Reveal: Black & White Home Office

I had the pleasure of transforming a home office space for a friend that recently started working from home. See the full post including the inspiration board here.

First for the before.

The space is small, long and narrow. One thing she knew was that she didn’t have enough storage space to accommodate actually working in here. so that was a priority for sure. 

And here is the after. For starters we added simple easy ikea bookshelves to surround the window. Our goal was to create a functional spot that mimics a built in without the cost and fuss. Tucking the bench in-between was a great way to make just a hint of extra coziness. The bench is a favorite (cheap!) item have used several times. It is just an easy target piece that is easy to reupholster to make it seem custom. Check it out here.

The plug in library lights mounted above the bookshelves also helps give that custom feel without breaking the bank. They are plug into the wall too! the cord here is tucked right behind the shelf so you can’t even tell, but it gives a nice little additional ambiance, especially when winter comes and the light goes away!

 

We stocked the shelves with books mixed with little nick necks to help it feel cozy, but again also organized and ready for the work day.

Next we made sure she had a practical open desk for working but also infused some inspiration. I love the way this canvas fills the entire space, and another little library lamp allows for practicality.

I love the print we used for both the custom made window cornices and the pillow. Fabric and cozy pillows help layer in a level of comfort in the space to make it feel extra homey.

Above I zoomed in a bit on the cornices. As I mentioned I custom made these for this space. I will be posting a tutorial on how to, but honestly I was a little nervous to box out custom ones myself, but I love the way they turned out and they were super easy. If you follow me on insta stories you may have seen a big one I just made for my kitchen. Once I get that finished I will post on the process.

So, I was very happy with the way the space came together. I am just jealous of her that she works from home and I don’t!

Little Yellow House Refresh: Cabinets

First, I am letting you know I am skipping ahead a bit from the last post. Since the floor re-enforincg day we have done the following (which isn’t fun to see in pictures hence me skipping ahead). Rough in: plumbing, electrical, installation work, drywall, plaster, installing wood floors where new kitchen is. That all took several weeks 🙂

To remember where we started check out the initial demo day post here.

Here is the day we finally took the plastic down, post plaster work. To remind you, this was the view of that back wall pre-work.

Looks much different right? Remember this little sitting room was all doored off from the main kitchen, we really didn’t use the space a lot so now we have a much more functional way to use the space.

And here is cabinet day. That back wall is transformed into a highly functional kitchen!

And the island!!! my dream!! My interior designer sister is amazing and she helped us adjust the layout of the space. I kept saying to her, I think the island should be bigger, bigger, bigger. She listened and seriously it’s huge. As you can see in this pic these floors are still raw, not stained.

Don’t forget the butlers pantry! If you know me at all you know I have a dish problem so this space was a perfect addition for all my table trinkets.

Check back in a couple days to see the process of the floors!

Little Yellow House Refresh: How to re-enforce a floor

Every weekend we have continued to work on the kitchen and weeks have gotten away from me. Wanted to take a moment to walk you through all the things we have been up to. If you have been following along on instagram you know we are a bit farther than this, I will do some posts to get us caught up with all the detail!

Since we were moving the kitchen we had some rough work to do in the basement crawl space below. We have a full basement downstairs but for whatever reason there is only a crawl space directly under the new kitchen space. so we were  in there a lot.

One day during demo I jumped up and down in excitement, because I do that, and my dad realized the floor was a bit more bouncy than he liked. So we went in the hole. First, Chris got in there and re-enforced the floor to see if that helped the bouncy factor.

To do this he took some boards and wedged them between the floor joist near the other supports. Although this helped it didn’t fully solve the problem. So dad recommended we add a support beam underneath. Keep in mind this area of the kitchen was going to have a huge (5’x6′) island sitting on it, so we wanted to be sure that the floor wasn’t going to wiggle around.

First we brought a huge beam into the hole. It was a 16 foot 8×8 beam. We lifted it up to the ceiling so it was flush with the top. We hung it up there using wire, which honestly was kinda scary I kept thinking it was going to fall but it stayed.

Then we played down 4 cement block and made sure they were level. These would be the support structure to put the incremental 4×4 beams up to support the big horizontal beam.

Then we used a jack to jack up the big beam to be a bit taller than we really wanted it, so then we could wedge a 4×4 beam in sitting on the cement block. The jack helped us to make sure we got a really tight fit with the support beams.

We did this 4 times evenly spaced. Once we went up stairs the floor wasn’t moving one bit! This whole project took us about 45 mins and cost about $100 to make a much better support base for the house.

Little Yellow House Kitchen: Floor Progress

When we first started the kitchen project I was thinking I would do tile on the floor. However I just couldn’t find what I really wanted to use, and since the kitchen butted right up to the dinning area I decided to go ahead and continue the hardwood floor in the house. So before we put the cabinets in we had to lay new hardwood floors. The kitchen area was the only area of the house that didn’t have hardwood underneath the carpet. We had them stained after cabinet installation to ensure we wouldn’t harm our newly stained floors dragging cabinets in.

In order to do this we actually raised the island up to make sure they didn’t damage the island during staining. The cabinets have toe kicks so we weren’t as concerned on those. This pic is post first layer of stain.

When we first moved in we had the master bedroom and one guest bedroom floors re-done (there was carpet everywhere in the house when we first moved in). So this means that once we got the cabinets in we had to move everything else out of our house to get the floors done too.

This is what our sunroom looked like during this process.

We even had 3 nights that we couldn’t even be in our house. 2 spent at mom and dad’s and one night we stayed in a hotel.

We also still had carpet in the hallway an
d 3rd bedroom. So that had to be removed before the guys came. Overall, we had to pack up and move out everything in our living room and 3rd bedroom. When you already have the whole kitchen and dinning room packed up it starts to get a bit tight around the house.

 

The crazy thing is. When you get floors done you can’t walk on the floors for quiet some time. Like you can’t walk at all on them for 2 days after first coat, and 1 day after second coat. And then they recommend you don’t drag furniture out over anything for at least a week. This time was difficult. But now that it is done, the floors are looking good.

Little Yellow House: Kitchen Wk 1

Hey Friends! So last weekend was the kickoff to our demo on the kitchen remodel. We got a lot done. We were exhausted by the end of the weekend. But so far we are on schedule. In case you missed what the full plan check out the last post here.

As a reminder this is what the kitchen looked like.

And here is the progress during Saturday.

We were up by 5AM finishing up the packing up of the space. Then at 7AM we started taking down the cabinets.

I wear bibs when we work on projects. They are comfortable. They have a lot of pockets. And you don’t get upset if something happens to them.

We had all the cabinets out before 10AM.

Then we started taking down the walls. Very carefully…

By the end of the first day we had all the cabinets down, and about 50% of the new walls were put up.

Day 2 of weekend 1 we focused on getting the rest of the bits of demon done, and finishing up the walls.

It’s hard to tell in all the pictures, but here we took down a closet (in progress in picture above) so we could expand it for enough room to have first floor laundry. And then in front of it we will have a butlers pantry.

Shown here we are adding a half bath and we will have a little back hallway when you walk in from the garage. Which will be amazing. So much more organized than it was before!

This weekend we will be doing the electrical and plumbing rough in. Follow along on insta stories to see what we are up to, and next week I will share the mood board for all the fun finishes in the space. I am still debating over tile samples!