Bird Bath

Even though it's still January, spring is in the air in Florida so I thought I better get the yard cleaned up. Here's what my birdbath corner looked like before...

So as you can see, the birdbath needed a good scrubbing and I changed out the bird feeder. It's always nice to change things around. Oh and look at that cute little bird! Hmmm...could it be real?

Winter Ski Mountain Cake

Here's a birthday cake that I made for my son. 

Over the Christmas holidays, we were fortunate enough to go to Canada. This is where Devin tried snow boarding on Mount Seymour in Vancouver for the first time and fell in love with the sport. I thought I was just going to do another baseball cake this year but instead he wanted  me to create a snow boarding cake. 

I didn't really have much of a plan except to try and make the cake as high as possible for the mountain and then decorate it with Lego trees and people. This took 3 cake mixes and 3 tubs of white icing followed by white "snow" sprinkles as the finishing touch.

Now he has requested a snowboarding themed room....hmmmmm....stay tuned!!!

Musician's Studio Makeover

As you can see in the BEFORE photo above, this room lacked organization and was extremely cluttered. Check out the results below.

This room has been transformed with a fresh coat of paint in a warm camel color. The futon was painted black, moved to the opposite side of the room and received a new cover and accent pillows that blend nicely with the artwork and guitars on the wall. I also purchased new black curtains. Now doesn't this room seem much more spacious? This is a result of de-cluttering, re-organizing and re-arranging. 

To reduce the appearance of the clutter in the above photo, wood was purchased and painted to match the shelving that resulted in...

...a much more smooth look that hides all the CD's and other supplies that a musician has on hand.

I have transformed this cramped small room into a much more functional space for a busy musician. Room makeovers are so much fun. If you need help with a room in your home, send a message to kim@bestagedorlando.com. I'd love to help!

www.bestagedorlando.com

Rocking Chair Re-Upholstery

 Here's what I did to my parents ratty old rocking chair seat... 

 BEFORE

 DURING

 AFTER

Doors Of Vancouver Part 2

Yippee, it's summer and once again I am fortunate to come back to my home town of Vancouver. As I drive around the city and look at all the houses, I notice the wide variety of styles, which is such a nice change from some of those "cookie cutter" neighborhoods in Florida. Here are some top picks from my drive around the city this year.

1. Here is an older home that has cleaned up it's curb appeal and added some nice black accents that go well with the grey and blue door.

I like that the owner's decided on a not so typical color for their front door. It is very welcoming, calming and makes me want to see the inside. I wouldn't suggest this color for a door if you are planning on selling as not everyone wants a blue door, but for living...I love it!

                                             

2. Here's another example of a homeowner being bold and choosing a different door color. I would add some planters with flowers and probably would have chosen a door color that goes with the exterior house color better... but, it's different.

3. I love the archway and the deep rich wood of the door. I would add a few more flowers to brighten it up.

4.This one has an interesting curved roof line and the nice arched doorway. 

  

5. Here's a classic heritage style home. I like the big wide steps leading up to the door.  The shrubs could use some cleaning up and as always...more flowers!

6. This yard is well taken care of and has a nice welcoming entrance with the hanging baskets and planters on either sides of the door. However, I would remove the trees that are blocking the front of the windows and plant them somewhere else.

7. This house has it all. Nice stone work, nice arched doorway and flowers.

8. I like the buttery color of this home. It goes well with the wooden door and white trim. It even has the flowers!

9. This is a  house that I would want to see on the inside. It's hard to tell how the door is from the picture but it's a great entryway.

10. This home has potential for some great curb appeal. All it needs is some cleaning up around the shrubs. I like the detail around the door. See below for a close up of door.

As you can see, these homes have their own unique qualities and got my attention from the curb. Do you have a favorite? Mine are #7 and #10.

www.BeStagedOrlando.com
Be Staged...Be Sold!

Hello Hollywood!!!

Well here it is, the results of my most recent project, a master bedroom makeover in tones of gray, purple, silver, black and white. This room was somewhat neglected with 9 years of having little ones in and out of the bedroom, so it was time to focus on the parents and get rid of the toddler bed. (Yes, there actually was a toddler bed sitting in the corner of the room!) My vision was to create a somewhat sophisticated Hollywood Glam look.

I tackled a lot of "firsts" during this room makeover. It was my first time re-upholstering anything (click here), first time making a head board (click here) first time creating artwork out of left overs(and I'm not talking about last night's pizza), first time sewing a bed skirt from scratch and altering curtains... or pretty much sewing anything! 

So here it is...I hope you enjoy the pictures.

 BEFORE

 DURING

The walls are painted "Proper Gray" by Sherwin Williams 
and the ceiling
is two-toned with Proper Gray and a shade lighter.

Like my outfit?


AFTER

 With the exception of the fireplace, everything was new or re-purposed. The bed was upgraded from a queen to a king size. The book shelf, shag area rug, bedding and lamps are all new and came from one of my favorite stores, Target.


The solid wood night stands, with two large storage drawers and a pull out table tray were purchased off of Craigslist from a lady who had never used them before. They were probably my best buy as I only paid $80 for the pair. Yippee! I love finding deals like that!

The following items got make overs...

I found the curtains at Marshall's for $14 for 2 panels so I purchased every last pair they had as I knew I wanted them to look full, and I definitely wanted to have extra long drapes in the archway to block off the way to the bathroom. This is where the sewing machine came in handy. I cut the curtains apart to make them long enough to go almost to the top of the ten foot ceiling.

Before

After the addition of extra fabric and liner to make it longer, thicker and fuller

 

This is the bed skirt that I sewed from scratch for only $6! The fabric matches the chair.

From This...

To This....

The artwork above the bed is completely made of leftover wood and cotton batting from the head board and pieces of leftover fabric from the curtains.

I think I brought a little Hollywood Glamour into this room...how about you?

I love doing room makeovers! If you need help in any area of your home, yard or are planning on selling (staged homes sell faster), feel free to connect with me so we can talk about how I can make your life easier.
www.BeStagedOrlando.com

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D.I.Y. Upholstered Tufted Headboard

Here is a step by step guide to how I made a customized headboard. 

And when I say customized, it really is. A few months ago we upgraded from a queen bed to a new king sized mattress. And since my husband and I aren't very tall and didn't need the extra length, we ended up turning the mattress to make it even wider than a regular king size bed. 

First thing was to measure the width of the mattress and add about an inch or two to each side. Our mattress was 80" wide, so we went to Home Depot to have them cut a  piece of plywood that is 82" wide and 40" high. Some people recommend to get 1/2 thick plywood, but we decided on 1/4 inch plywood as we found it not to be too heavy on the wall, and thankfully ours also stays straight and doesn't buckle against the wall. Home Depot will make 2 cuts for you for free and I used the extra wood to create my own artwork above the bed so nothing was wasted.

Here are some supplies that I used. A ruler/tape measure, calculator and pencil (if you have decided to add the buttons to the front.) The button covers, a long upholstery needle, thick string or very strong thread, the plywood, 2" thick foam, cotton batting, fabric, staple gun and staples, spray adhesive.

I knew that I wanted that classic tufted look, so the next step was to measure out (on the back side of the board) where I wanted my buttons to go once the fabric was stapled. That was probably the most time consuming as I had messed up the measurements (a couple times) but thankfully my husband Randy came to the rescue and fixed it for me.  I planned for 3 rows of buttons, leaving nearly half of the bottom area blank as I knew I would have pillows and bedding covering up half the head board. Why waste your time adding extra buttons when you know you they won't be showing? The pattern that I decided to do has 5 holes on the top, then 6 for the middle and 5 for the lower row. 

Once the holes were marked, we(well Randy) drilled a hole in each mark for the buttons.
Then, on the opposite or front side, I applied my 2" thick squares of foam padding that I bought at Joanne's. For my 82" wide headboard, I needed to buy 8 squares, luckily I found them on sale for 50% off. First, I laid it out on top of the board and cut it to size and then used spray adhesive to glue them to the board. This is so the foam won't shift around when flipping it over and attaching the fabric.

After that step, I covered the foam with a layer of cotton batting. This gives the head board a smooth look underneath the fabric.

Here is the cotton spread out on the ground. The next step is to lay the board with the foam face down onto the cotton and then staple the cotton to the board. 

Here is the board with the cotton already stapled in place, ready for the black vinyl to be stapled.
TIP: Make sure you remember to iron your fabric before stapling and if you use a vinyl, iron the fuzzy back side, NOT the front.

Then it was time to staple the fabric to the board. The fabric that I chose was a black vinyl that cost $6 a yard. (It took about 3 yards of fabric for my headboard.) When stapling, be sure to pull the fabric super tight and on a slight diagonal, starting in the center and working out towards. Keeping checking the front to make sure it looks OK, especially when you get to the corners as they can be challenging. I won't look very nice from the back but that doesn't matter anyway.

Once the fabric is on and stapled tight, you can end here and mount it to the wall, or continue on and add the buttons to create the tufted look.

Here is the headboard without buttons

You need to get a long upholstery needle, button covers and some strong string or thicker thread. Once you have the buttons covered in the fabric,(this took me a lot of time as my fabric was thick and didn't want to stay on. I eventually had to hand sew the fabric to my button covers.) now you are ready to attach them to the front of the head board.

A picture of a button that I sewed by hand as my fabric was too thick.

Here's the back side of the button. The fabric is stitched onto the button cover.Now it was time to attach the buttons to the head board. I poked the upholstery needle through the hole and fabric and was very careful to push the needle through as straight as possible so I didn't mess up the mark that we measured out.

Then we pulled the string as tight as possible and tied it around a nail to keep it from shifting. (That was Randy's clever idea, most people staple their thread to the board so it's up to you how you would like to secure the string.) This method worked very well for us. TIP: keep checking the front to make sure all your buttons are pushed in at the same distance so it looks uniform. It helps to cut all your string the same length so that they are all even.

We used this picture hanger to hang the board on the wall and it works really well for us.

Here is the front of the headboard mounted to the wall, yippee...it's done!

All decorated and ready for a good nights sleep. I made the artwork above the bed with the leftover wood.

For less than $100, we now have a classy headboard that is perfect for our new room.

www.BeStagedOrlando.com