Basement Family Room - Picture Ledges

Let's talk about my picture ledges.

I need to go back in time to when I found them. I was actually getting some photo's taken for  my blog. We were out in this field of weeds, LOL, taking photo's when I spotted a pile of junk.

But unlike most people, when I see a pile of junk, I see unknown treasures!

Of course I had to check it out, and I DID found treasures, two runners from an old pallet.

I didn't really know what I was going to do with them, but I loved the chunkiness of them along with the weathered look and stamps on them. I couldn't pass them up so I loaded them into the van.

Fast forward to decorating the basement. We thought about using them as a mantel above the fireplace in the basement, but we eventually decided against that.

I still really wanted to use them though.

I finally came up with the idea to use them as picture ledges. Let me show you how we did that.

First, I used a scrub brush and some bleach water and gave them a good cleaning and let them dry.

These are not light weigh pieces of wood, they are chunky and solid wood, so we determined that they needed to be securely mounted.

We drilled three holes all the way through the face of the boards spacing the holes the same distance apart as our wall studs. 

Next we determined where the studs were on the wall, and marked them with tape. Then we used cardboard templates to find the placement of where we wanted the ledges to be on the wall, making sure our holes would line up with the studs and making sure we liked the way the ledges were going to be placed.

We used washers and lag bolts to attach them to the studs. Using the template we marked the center hole and pre-drilled, and then put the first lag bolt in, careful not to tighten it completely. 

Then we made sure the ledge was as level as we could,(said boards were very warped.) Once it was level we we stuck a pencil through the other two holes to mark the wall. Our drill bit was not long enough to drill all the way through the thickness of the board, the drywall, and into the stud. So once we marked the holes we just pivoted the ledge off the middle lag bolt and drilled the rest of the holes.

This allowed us to get the drill bit far enough into the stud.

We then pivoted the board back and installed the last two lag bolts.

I was super happy with how these turned out.

I'm especially loving all the character for free!!!

Now I just needed to put some cute stuff on my picture ledges, with out breaking the bank.

Ha Ha, I never break the bank!

First I found this framed canvas at a thrift store, that somebody had spray painted a word stencil on. I took it out of the frame and saved the frame for something else later. I then took the canvas off the frame it was on and threw that away. That left me with a wooden plain square frame, that I painted black. Next I had this amazing architectural ink print that I got at a thrift store for $2, and I glued it to the front of my black frame.

Loving how it turned out!

Cost $5

Next I had this old weird black box and left over pieces of wood from my slat wall. I stained some dark and left others in the natural wood finish. Then I laid them out on the black box to create a chevron pattern. I then marked and cut off each piece that was hanging over the edges. After a light sanding of the edges I glued them in place, creating an awesome piece of artwork.

Ok, one more project or really just a tip. I had family photos I wanted to frame, so I just went to the thrift store and bought black frames in the shapes and sizes I wanted. $2 each.

I know you are thinking, "You want a frog and Marilyn on your wall?"

No, I don't, just watch.

OK, so here is the final breakdown.

Total wall cost about $20 for all these decorations.

Everything is from a thrift store unless other wise stated.

Upper ledge:

Canvas frame with ink print $5

 Black block with a "R"$1

Marilyn Monroe frame with family photo $2

Thrift store mirror $3

Silk Pussy willow stems $1

Lower ledge:

Framed saying,(actually came with multiple sayings inside you can switch out.) $2

Frame I already had with family photo

orange vase a friend gave me with Ikea plant I had

DIY artwork from left over supplies Free

Framed photo I already had

Frame that had a frog print in it, $2

Here a look at my finished decor!

It makes me happy!!

What do you think?

Tell me about what you would put on your picture ledges?

And would you pick up stuff out a a junk pile?

Thanks for stopping by!

Want to learn how to upholster?

You may be wondering what I have been up to lately, since I seem to have been missing in action.

If you follow me on Instagram you may already know what has kept me so busy.

But for those of you who don't, let's start at the beginning.

I often have people tell me they wish I could just come over and help them through a project; especially an upholstery project.

People are often afraid of tackling this type of project on their own.

My three oldest son's teach online art courses and kept telling me I should create an upholstery course.

So that is exactly what I have been doing.

Creating an Upholstery course for you!

This is my first course so I decided to start with a fairly easy, basic course on upholstering dining room chairs or side chairs. I show you how to recover three different types of chairs, starting with a simple project and getting progressively more challenging. 

The course is divided into six, easy to navigate, sections with over four and a half hours of clear content spread over thirty-five lectures. You can follow along at your own pace when ever you want. It will be like having me over to help guide you through your chair recovery process. 

Check out this promo video to get a better idea of what the course is like and what it covers.

I would love it if you would share the promo video too!!

The course is priced at $149.99, but there are occasional sales for it. Because you guys have stuck with me for so long, I want you and your friends to be able to take this course for even less. 

Use this coupon code and you can get the course for $9.99. 

Coupon Code: BLOG-FRIENDS

Click below to enroll. When the Udemy page comes up, ignore the price you see in the top right corner. Scroll down a little and click on 'Got a coupon?' That's where you enter your coupon code.

Click to Enroll.

And share the code with all your family and friends so they can sign up for that awesome price.

 I want to help as many people as possible learn how to take on their own projects and save money!!

So share,share, share!

Click to enroll

I am super excited about this project, I hope you all sign up and leave me a rating !!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Basement Family Room - Reveal!!

Wow!
If anyone is still out there, I'm still here.
Life has taken center stage lately and everything went by the way side
and Life and people are more important than blogs.
But I am back.

Today is the day I debut the Family Room!! 

It is packed with lots and lots and lots of storage and style on a budget!!
Let's just take a gander, and as always I will tell you how I did it all for less Money.

The cute blanket storage basket is from a thrift store. The grey blankets are also thrift-ed and the blue one was a large blanket I bought on clearance and cut in half to create two lap blankets.

It gets chilly in the basement sometimes so a basket full of blankets is nice, especially when they match the decor.

Heaven!!

I bought the basket and flowers at a thrift store and repainted our old kitchen table. The chairs are from a yard sale and I won that "hello" sign at a blogger conference and painted it black.

Our $50 giant sectional is from the Restore!!

I just gave it a good cleaning.

We also moved our piano downstairs.

All the decor items in the forefront including the tray are from thrift stores. The lamps on the piano were given to me and I added a bun furniture leg to them to make them taller and spray painted it all navy blue. I topped them off with square shades I also found at a thrift store. I leaned a blue architectural piece against the wall with a square boxwood wreath all from thrift stores.

Last of all I added two prints of ships, that were from an old store room at my in-laws and put them into thrift-ed frames.

 I did lots of orange accents around the room and I am in love with my metronome that I spray painted orange!!

The fireplace was rocked with faux stones we bought at the Restore for $100. 

We sold what was left over for $100, so it was essentially free. Everything on the shelves was from thrift stores except the greenery.

And remember, all the built-ins are from second hand pieces of furniture. 

Oh and don't forget my lovely denim barrel chairs I recovered.

These awesome rustic picture ledges I found in a pile of junk on the side of the road. After a good  cleaning with a wire brush and some bleach, we attached them to the wall with lag bolts, right to the studs. All the frames and accessories are again from a thrift store. The chevron wood block I made from left over pieces from my planked Wall. 

This built-in is the craft/game area, but also my wrapping station, I used tension rods in the center section to put my wrapping paper on. I just pull and cut. I also have bows in the blue bins and all other wrapping supplies in the closed cupboards. I will do a separate post on all the organization and storage later. 

I have paper, colored pencils and markers here as well, all in bins and containers from thrift stores. 

I covered the center section with hounds tooth wall paper I found at the Restore. My sister gave me the antlers and I just painted the plaque grey and covered the center of the antlers in grey material and studs.

Last of all is the food center.

Popcorn bowl is from a thrift store and filled with microwave popcorn.

We did buy the microwave new from Walmart.

The orange bowls are for popcorn after it's popped; got them at Walmart.

We like to eat popcorn when we watch movies.

Blue cups were like 10 cents each at an outlet store.

I love the look and organization of the area.

I used copper pulls and knobs from D Lawless Hardware,

 Can I say I am just in love with them!!!

The table makes it easy to wrap presents, play games or draw.

Pretty much all the decor in this room is from thrift stores for $1-3 each.

Yeah even that chevron pillow, thrift store!!

I did however recover an old couch pillow with copper faux leather for the second pillow.

Last section was the hallway. I painted all the doors grey like the built ins. I found a second hand mirror on an online site, mounted to the wall and framed it out with weathered wood I may have pulled out of a dumpster. I added a set of three gold mirrors I collected from thrift stores and the dollar store. Last of all I added a clock I picked up once at a garage sale.

I can't do a room reveal with out before and afters!!

Here's the view when you first walk into the basement.

And the fireplace wall!

And the game/craft area and hall back to the bedrooms!!

Lets talk about details!!

I am in love with how it turned out.

Here is a list of colors and styles of products we used.

Wall color - Satin White Color Place

Paint on built ins - Behr Ultra Letter Gray

Flooring - Flourte Valore Plank Roma by Shaw

Antique Copper Pulls from DLawless

Antique Copper Rope accent Knob Heritage Style from DLawless

Paint on Game Table- Waverly Inspirations Matte Chalk Finish Acrylic Paint, 16 oz ( Mineral )

Here are links to all the posts on the basement family room so far.

 Basement Family Room - It Starts

The Plan

Storage Options

What to do with that great deal

Framing and Electrical

Built Ins Begin

Fireplace Search

Fireplace Design and Install

Drywall Adventure

Looking Up! Finishing the Ceiling

Beginning the Built Ins

Built Ins Part 2

Built Ins Part 3

Small Shiplap Wall Video

Fireplace Escape

Last of the Built-ins

Painting the Built-ins

Speaker Cloth from a Thrift Store

Rocking the Basement

More on the built-ins

Easy Shiplap or Planked Walls

Wallpaper and Doors

Basement Flooring Options

DIY Farmhouse Table and Seating

Cleaning up the Sectional

More Furniture

If you just want the look instantly, here are links to products close to those that I used.

Click and purchase.

It's called the easy button.

Thanks for stopping by.

Basement Project - More furniture- Amazon Influencer and more!!!

Hello?

Is anyone still out there?

Anyone still following?

I have been so busy with weddings, life, kitchen remodels and more I can barely seem to function. My blog has suffered and took the brunt of my time crunch. 

If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, you have been more in the loop with all that has been going on. Let's face it social media is easier and more instant. 

None the less I am still here and going to finishing posting about our basement. 

But first I want to tell ya that I am an Amazon Influencer. 

I have a page on Amazon with many of the products I have used or like, as well as tools I like or want. You can go there and order them if you like. I have put comments under many products telling where or how I used it.

I hope this makes it easier for you to find products for your own projects!

As always, my main goal with my blog is to inspire others to create pretty and functional things for themselves. 

Go check out my Amazon Influencer page and book mark it so you can see as I add and update products.

Let me know what you would like to have me put on there.

OK, let's get back to the basement.

If you remember I  have a giant sectional, but I wanted two chairs to finish out the seating area.

I also wanted them to be able to view the fireplace and future small TV that would be above the fireplace to hook up to the Play Station. 

Enter the two pink swivel chairs I inherited from my mother.

They can rotate completely around making them perfect for this space.

The height mimicked the low slung sectional, creating harmony between the large furniture pieces.

I just had to get that lovely pink or maybe I should say flesh tone off the chairs.

eek!!

My plan was to recover them with this velvet tan material I already had.

But it was a fairly thick material, not a good choice for lots of curves and seams.

So I went to plan "B", denim!

Denim is durable and fairly inexpensive. Using coupons, I purchased the fabric from JoAnns Fabric for $70 for both chairs.

I was pretty happy with my decision especially when I saw these grey denim chairs the next day in my HGTV magazine. They were almost identical to mine! I guess I have good taste!

I striped the chairs and used the old pieces as a pattern. I pretty much had to sew all the pieces together and pull it onto the chair like a tight fitting shirt and staple it to the bottom.

I don't like upholstery projects with a lot of sewing, but I managed.

Here's the before and After.

We really like them.

They function well in the space, look pretty and are super comfy.

Total cost $35 per chair!!

Next I turned my attention to our very sad looking ottomans.

I did buy these at a thrift store, but they didn't look this bad.

We actually used them for a year or so causing the rips to become bigger.

They were definitely in need of a makeover.

I decided on this awesome faux leather fabric from Hobby Lobby. It is super soft and looks like real worn leather. I love it. With a coupon it cost $77 for enough fabric for both ottomans.

You may be asking why two ottomans?

I wanted everyone sitting on the sectional to be able to put up their feet when watching a movie. That meant one really long ottoman or two smaller ones. I opted for two to make them easier to move when vacuuming and such. 

You can watch the video below to see them during the process, but here is the end result.

Stunning.

Lovely and functional!

I also had to purchase some Dacron for the ottomans so my cost came to $44.50 per ottoman.

 Not bad, not bad!!

Both projects are helping create a finish room!!

Check out the video!!

I get a lot of questions about how to reupholster furniture, so I am creating an on-line course.

 Stay tune for info on how you can take the coarse. It will be like being one on one with me. 

You can watch each lesson over and over.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cleaning Up the Sectional - Basement Project

I know I have not posted in a long time,

but my life has been very full.

Besides presenting at the Home Show last month,

which, by the way, was very fun, my second son got engaged and married.

Here is a few engagement photos of my beautiful kids.

Photo's taken by In Frames Photography.

Jaysen and Destiny have only been married for a little over two weeks, so no wedding photo's yet.

 I will share some when I can!!

My youngest has had football and now basketball games and practice to get to. And my girls are in the High school musical, so practice every night.

We are also carrying on with other projects like redoing the mud room and the kitchen.

Never a dull moment around here.

But you are still hopefully following our progress in the basement so lets get on with it!!

Today is all about the sectional!!

The most important piece of a family room, right?

I have a large family and wanted the kids to be able to have large video parties, so I needed to be able to seat lots of people.

Extra large sectionals can cost around $2000 or more, so when I found a sectional at the Restore  back in 2012 I bought it!!

Check out the story of getting the huge sectional downstairs!!

We have been using it, but with the basement overhaul, it needed just a little clean up!

It was a little dirty and the cushions just a little saggy.

1. Started by marking all the cushion covers to corresponding foam inserts.

 I restitched any seams that needed mending on my sewing machine

and then threw the covers into my washing machine on delicate.

2. Ripped all the old Dacron off the foam.

3. A few were actual pieces of foam glued together. 

They were coming apart.

4. Sprinkled baking soda mixed with a few drops of lavender oil on all foam inserts

 and left it for 30 minutes or more. 

Then vacuumed them off. Made my cushions smell amazingly fresh.

5. Used spray glue to glue cushions back together and then stitched it for extra reinforcement.

(Hope to replace the split cushions later when budget permits.)

6. Covered fresh foam with new thick Dacron.

 Wrapped it like a present and hand stitched the seams together.

Here's how the plump and clean cushions looked afterwards!!

They smelled as good as they look!

Next I had to clean the actual couch, I couldn't just stick that in the washing machine.

1. Look close and you can see two dark dirty spots on the arm of the couch.

2. I have a Kirby vacuum that can convert to clean upholstery.

 I purchased a dry shampoo to use with it.

3.  It creates a dry foam you just scrub into the material and then let it dry.

When it is completely dry you vacuum the surface. 

I was totally happy with my new looking huge sectional.

It was so clean and plump, oh and did I mention how great it smelled?

Great sectional and to think I only paid $50!!!!

What do you think?

Here's a video to see even more on how I did it.

Thanks for stopping by.

 I am so excited to be a presenter at the Deseret News Home Show at the South Towne Expo Center. Come see me this Friday or Saturday (Oct. 13 & 14) at 8 pm on the Design Stage. I will be talking about Making Secondhand items Chic and answering questions. 

You can use Promo Code BATCHELORSWAY to save $3 off the “at door” price of $11 or an $1.00 of the online price. The online price is $9.00 with your promo code it is $8.00 here's a link for online purchases: https://www.tix123.com/tix123/etic.cfm?code=DNHS17&disc=BATCHELORSWAY

Check out my Instagram or BatchelorsWay Facebook page for chances to win free tickets all this week.

I hope to see ya there!!

DIY Farmhouse Table and Seating - Basement Project

I know I am slow going at getting the rest of the basement posted!

Life is very full right now!

Besides the blog and YouTube, 

I'm going to be speaking at the Salt Lake Home Show, 

creating an online course,

updating my mudroom, 

starting a Kitchen remodel and 

most exciting our son got engaged!!

Wow!! So excited about all of it!!

But back to this post; the next installment of the basement.

This post is all about our game table and seating. 

For the chairs I used two chairs my husband bought at a yard sale a few years ago.

He actually wanted them in his man cave, but I begged and he relented to let us use them in the family room.

They were structurally in great shape, very sturdy.

But the finish had seen better days.

I'm guessing they were stored with some occasional water sitting on the seats.

I used a product my mom has talked about for years, Formbys Furniture Refinisher, .

It basically dissolves the finish and stain and then redistributes it. You just need gloves and steel wool. It was super easy. The chairs look soooooo good now!!

Now on to the table.

I decided to use our kitchen table we have had for about 20 years.

It has been used and well loved by our big family for all that time.

For the base I used Apple Barrel Acrylic Paint  Black in the crevices and on the edges.
Next I rubbed VASELINE JELLY  on various places where I had painted black.

Then I painted two coats of chalk paint.

Using a sanding sponge I distressed it; the paint comes off easily where you put the Vaseline. 

Last of all I used Minwax Paste Finishing Wax, Natural to give the table a protective coat.

I really like the soft matte sheen, but if I were to do it again, I wouldn't wax the table top. I would use a clear coat that you paint or spray on. 

These are the exact products I used.

Apple Barrel Acrylic Paint Black

 Waverly Chalk Paint in Mineral Matte finish.

Minwax  Paste Finishing Wax Natural.

As for the top, well watch the video. I will say that I attempted to sand and stain the top which did not work. It was too red and crappy looking. The photo looks better than it was. So I just ended up chalk painting the table top just like I did the bottom.

Trust me it looks better this way!!

For seating on the side of the table that is against the wall, I decided to use a bench.

Watch the video for that story also.

I just filled the cracks with glue and wood filler, sanded really well with a belt sander; and gave her a coat of gel stain.

To protect my new floor I put pads on the bottom of the chair and bench legs.

I think the whole combo turned out great!!!

I am loving the colors and textures together.

Many of you said you liked reading my old posts, so I tried to find a happy medium between simplified posts and videos. Read and watch both and you will get the most out of it, but doing just one or the other will get you a lot of info too. I feel like I am getting better and better at the videos.

I would love to hear what you think of this last one.

Thanks for stopping by and here are the links to many of the products I used for this project. If you have questions leave them in the comments on this post or the video.