our house love makeover with Metrie...nearing the finish line

We have been slowly but surly bringing in the fresh bright white....

If you have been a long time reader of this blog you will know I am a huge lover of trim...I have used trim in the last two of our houses to create a home full of character and interest...to get away from that plain builder basic home feel...in our new home it came with 140 years worth of charm...the renovations that were done prior to us improved things greatly but there was the last 20% or so to do

 to get this home to the finish line and to meet our standards and style...the floors are stripped original pine and all the original pine wainscoting was all stained a similar tone of honey pine...which is not our favourite at all...we got the go ahead to paint the wainscoting and trim throughout as our home, our home is heritage and protected by several by-laws...
I was fortunate to partner with Metrie to upgrade and and complete the trim makeover for our home...
this was a new experience for me, adding to an old home with existing trim work...how would it all blend, my goal was that it would be seamless and it truly is. Metrie has lots of great resources on their website to help you choose the look that suits you and your home.

So much orange...we were happy to lighten and brighten things up...having so much wood makes none of it stand out...after painting the white on the trim the floors became more of a feature.

We felt that the brand new pine flat stock that was used as the baseboards here was very under scaled and was not what would have been installed in 1877...this flat stock was all re purposed.

We added this applied moulding just under the chair rail, there would have been a piece there at some point but was missing when we got here, I think this piece looks like it was always here. It is the french curves scene II poplar panel moulding.

It has been an incredible transformation...I can't wait to do a complete after post once we get our new windows...so excited. An exciting and unexpected side effect of adding the trim and painting it all out white was that it made the floors look so much better, we were going to sand and white wash them but for now I am going to leave them sand them to smooth them out a bit more as they are rough and clear coat them...I think all the white and all the grey toned wood furniture I have added makes the flooring work just fine...lots of beautiful character it just needs a little fine tuning. 

As you can see here there were a lot of areas of concern with the wainscoting...gouges, burns and odd markings...non of which we loved or liked...I started this makeover by priming all the wood then caulking all the grooves...all those grooves...the we primed, sanded and painted the baseboards and I installed the painted baseboards...

We have a lot of uneven walls and floors as happens in a building of 140 years...I opted for the simplest option of notching out the baseboards which ended up being a nice clean option. 

as soon as I saw this profile this French curves scene II baseboard 7 1/4" I knew it would compliment our original wood work perfectly, Metrie has a great selection of classic to modern contemporary trim options in a range of materials, we chose poplar because it is a great wood to paint. I primed the trim with zinsser primer and then two coats of a melamine paint...I went with simply white.

My hubby chipped in to help with a lot of the painting because I hurt my wrist and arm...

The power of great trim and the right colors is truly amazing don't you think?

thank you Metrie.

        Disclaimer, I was supplied with trim courtesy of Metrie, this is an ad but my opinions are my own and 100% honest.

Swedish basket makeover with tutorial

I wanted to buy some Byholma trunk baskets for our family room but Ikea has discontinued the weathered ones I wanted...they added a new basket trunk but it is a dark redish brown color which was not what I wanted...I wanted that old swedish basket look...

I started to search for other options and I found some gorgeous pieces at Target online...but they were very pricey..$260-$400 range....much more than I wanted to spend...so I bought two of the brown baskets from Ikea $99.00 and attempted to make them into what I had envisioned.

 my result is more grey than my inspiration but I love how they turned out, it's hard to believe they are even the same baskets

 Here is the before of how the GABBIG basket looks

I started this paint process with minwax water based stain in white wash pickling...I generously painted it all over the basket and put it in the sun to dry...

After the white layer I applied a dry brush layer in this custom taupe shade...by dry brush I mean I dipped the brush in to the paint and removed the excess stain on the side of the can to have very little transfer to the basket...I then let that dry...

nest I added some watered how white chalk paint at a ratio 8 parts water to 1 part paint...a very watery mix...I wanted that flat white wash...I brushed it on in a very sloppy generous manner..letting it drip is fine....after it dried I then flicked on drops of this watered paint with a big old brush...then dry brushed it to blend it in...

here is a good close up of another basket I worked on...the more you do the better...

 After this I used some black paint on a dry brush and very sparingly dry brushed on black very faintly to just accent and to create that low light type of effect...then I did the same with white chalk paint after that was dry I then applied a very sloppy wet coat of this water white and a touch of black paint to create this barely grey wash...it's the consistency of skim milk....you can't really go wrong...just water white paint and a touch of black...and lots of water...flat paints work best for this look.

After all the applied paint dried, this doesn't take long, I took my ryobi corner cat with a 120 grit paper and sanded the basket to make it appear more worn...

I wanted to add to my basket to create that old antique look with stenciled words...I decided to take inspiration from our location and from the year our house/church was built so Enfield 1877 was the stencil I made with my silhouette machine...a light coat of flat black spray paint and I had my antique one of a kind trunk basket...

after I stenciled the words and numbers I added one more light application over the black of the water grey wash to just soften the black...and that was how I achieved this unique look. 

 I did two different designs to create the appearance that perhaps I found these trunks.

I'm really please with how they turned out and it was fun to tackle this project...it took about an hour to complete these two baskets on a nice hot sunny day.

So if you are searching for that swedish look but don't have bags of money to spend this is worth the effort...and you can even stock up on clearance baskets because you will want to add this finish to all your baskets...

thanks for reading....and happy painting,

Chris 

DIY home love updates...

We are just about finished with the entry makeover...the tile is in and grouted now...and it looks amazing....I moved my fave wool rug into the entry for a lovely pop of color and because it got replaced by a bigger jute rug in our bedroom, I love moving things around.

 I don't think that I have ever shown the entire front of our house...because we had a huge satellite dish mounted on the front just below the right window...I mean it was huge, not 80's satellite huge but way bigger than the average TV satellite dish and it was an eye sore...moving to the country one thing you might not think of is Internet service...we had to find a provider but not our usual providers because they are insanely expensive out here...so rural Internet is all you have to choose from...who knew...not us...and during researching they all sounded dreadful...to say that people hate rural Internet is an under statement, but we now have a tower...I have always hated those towers on houses but here it is just fine because we now have good Internet and no satellite dish on our front elevation...and that means all is well.

 I wanted to rustic trunk basket for under my DIY corbel table because I want to eek out every bit of storage I can...small houses need all the storage they can get. I put out the word on instagram that I was looking for such a basket and within one day a lovely long time follower found one in her travels and let me know... as soon as I could I went out and picked it up...I added wheels easily with a few screws drilled right into the thick wicker...which was super easy.

I hurt my wrist quite badly last Monday while turning over a 6' round table top (with help)and it became very obvious I needed to let it heal....like I have time for that? I don't, I am behind on my table builds and an injury setback is not what I needed at all...

My husband who usually stays out of my way for painting and mill work has stepped up in a big way and has spent the whole weekend getting the final coats of white completed on the trim...I am so grateful...it is really hard for me to sit around though...but it did give me the time to really plan out and design our family room in our basement...

 Look how gorgeous this baseboard is looking with our painted wainscoting...it needs one more coat here but this is the home stretch...

 We decided it would be easiest to prime, sand then paint the baseboard before installing....this guy is getting his hands dirty left and right these days since moving to the country...this Metrie moulding has been a dream to paint, one coat of primer a light sand to knock down the raised grain and two coats of Para Melamine paint in Simply white...that is unheard of...only two coats...the wainscoting needed primer plus 4 coats....yikes.

I started really thinking about some of the complaints I have been hearing about of our family room...well there is no TV yet... so what kind of family room is it without a TV...? a crappy one...so I started shopping for consoles and found a few I loved at the Wicker Emporium...the styles were beautiful and edgy and unique. I had planned to build a console but to be honest I have about 0% time to build anything for myself in the near future and this room has become a priority...and it is a nice thing to be able to purchase a piece like normal people do...

I wanted something in metal and a bit industrial but some what with a touch of feminine too, the console above fit the bill and was $2499.99 on sale for $699.99 and my husband liked it and so did I so I went for it...then I decided on a TV...one that fit the console properly good quality and a good brand but last years model to get a great deal and I even splurged on a Bose sound bar for my husband...my brother used to sell TVs part time and he said to not get audio equipment from a TV manufacturer but to stick with a audio company. 

 I am excited to get it all put together ...then the rug , well although it is so unlike anything I have I thought it would be fun addition and it was also $1996 down to $499 for a 9' by 12' that incredible...I say most of it will be covered but it will be a great jumping off point for a fun welcoming stylish family room...I am normally drawn to jute natural rugs but I had a request for something warm....our basement is super cold year round so a comfy rug was a must which made a jute rug out...I look forward to finding new fun accessories, pillows and throws...oh and how could I forget I ordered the sweet adjustable arm plug in lamps to accent the wall...what a steal at $139 for two...from Lamps plus.ca

The sofa Ikea Ektorp, the console Wicker Emporium, the lamps Lampsplus.ca, the rug Rugs.ca, pillows H&M home, and the basket formerly Ikea...but discontinued.

Here it is today...nothing is wrong...actually I moved those mirrors on the wall for a big round mirror...but mostly this is how it is...the rug was way too small...and is being relocated to our bedroom...gotta warm up those tile floors...we are also moving the seating arrangement and flopping it to fit the chairs to one side...the ceiling will be paited a deep blue and faux beams will be installed on the ceiling where the ceiling is higher around the side.

this stripe was my second choice...but I'm going for bold...the safe options felt really drab to me.

here is a little sketch I did of the TV wall for the basement...we have a window above where the TV will go centered on the wall so I am going to build double barn doors to block it...because you don't want a hole of light shining in your eyes when you are trying to watch a movie...

I'm just going to spend the bucks to get this room off the list, well at least for the most part...the bar re-do will wait...because we really could use a secondary entertaining room especially for the kids...living in the country can be isolating for a teenager and having a welcoming place to invite friends is a must.

disclaimer...metrie has provided me with the trim... the opinions are my own.

                             nothing else in this post is sponsored and contains no affiliate links