Wednesday, August 19, 2015

DIY Dressing Rooms { Budget Designs }

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Today I am so excited to share with you all a top secret project that I have been working on for the last 12 days!



If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, then you have seen some of these sneak peek photos, and last night was night that we finished the room!!

Two weeks ago I got a phone call from a friend who just so happens to own my favorite store ever, Real Deals on Home Décor here in Eugene Oregon.  She was wanting a little input on some ideas for new dressing rooms in her clothing boutique. 



So of course I ran over there and we briefly went over some ideas, and it was literally like our brains were talking to each other.  We both had the same sort of vision for the space. 
 
That night I went home and created a mood board for her and delivered it to her the next day.  She loved it, and we went straight to work from there!



Once we had decided on the look we were going for, I drew up some pretty lousy yet useful plans for the space. 



 
We started by enlisting the help of my sweet husband to build us a few walls.  Here are some photos of that process.  Oh and I should mention, all the 2x4's were FREE seconds from the mill!! 
 



The entire room used to be a playroom for kids to use while parents shopped.  Ummm HELLO!  Have you ever gone to a store where they have a place to drop your kids off??

Well, rest assured, there is still a kids room, it is just a tad smaller!



 
Once the walls were up Jamie (store owner) and I got right to work with everything that the two of us could do.
 
I was lucky enough to score some James Hardie exterior siding FREE from the lumber yard next door to my work.  When we grabbed the materials 3 weeks ago from the free pile, we had no clue what we were going to do with them.  But check this out, there is over 100 pieces of this stuff, FREE!
 
 

It's got a pretty cool wood grain texture, so I had a great idea on how to make it look like chippy barn wood.  Jamie and I got them all cut to size, stained them using Minwax Dark Walnut stain and then hung them up in the rooms.




 
Once they were all installed, we used a flat base white interior paint and gave them a nice coat.  It really brightened up the room and looked like white wood planked walls.
 


At this point we needed to decide what to do with the drab old blueish grey carpet.  So, being a thrifty girl, I grabbed a bottle of Rit Dye and we took a leap of faith and tried it out. 

We mixed 2 Cups of hot water, a couple tablespoons of vinegar and one box of dye and then used a spray bottle to apply.




Can you see the difference?  In these photos, the dressing rooms are still the old carpet.  It turned out so amazing!


Now onto the hard part.  The doors.  We knew we wanted old looking barn doors, and had some really great old wood to work with.  Here is what we ended up with after a few trial and errors.  Note to self... old barn wood does not hold together well..... 


Once the doors were built and installed we got right to the fun part of distressing.  Using an orbital sander with 60 grit sand paper, we went over the entire wall lightly one time.


 
Here is a picture to show the detail of the siding unsanded vs. sanded.  Talk about achieving the exact look we were going for!


Here is a fun picture of the mess we were constantly tangled up in.  This would be a good time to tell you all that both of us have 2+ children, work full time during the day, and ONLY worked on this at night, sometimes until 11:30pm.  Messes weren't something to worry about!
 
 
Once the walls were distressed we grabbed a piece of barn wood and some fun hooks from her store and created these simple clothing racks.  They will have some cute sayings, but we were tired this night.


 
Using an industrial wire cage that I picked up at our construction supply store for a couple dollars, I  created a temporary light fixture until the electrician can get in to do hard wired lights.  These are so fun though if I do say so myself!

 
We finished adding a few final touches, vacuumed the floors, stepped back and took one giant sigh of relief.  Our deadline was 2 days away and we DID it!!!
 
 
The mirrors that will be in the rooms have not arrived, but even without them, this is the look we desired!
 
Doors Open:
 
Doors Closed:

 
Here is a photo where you can see that the inside wall of each room has exposed stud walls with a couple small shelves.  Really gave it that industrial chic look.
 
 
 
And just for good measure....
 
BEFORE:
 
 
AFTER:
 
 
What do you think?  Win?  For next to no money and only a few nights of hard work, I would say this was a home run!
 
Thank you to my readers for stopping by today.   Don't forget to follow me on Facebook and Pinterest, and you can find me on Instagram @OneThriftyChick.

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Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Wedding Dress Anniversary Surprise { Celebrating 10 Years }

August 13th 2005 is the day I married my very best friend and true soul mate.  I knew that hitting 10 years was going to be a big milestone, but it didn't go at all how I thought it would.
 

We got married at one of the oldest historic minor league ballparks in America, just before a game in front of hundreds of fans.  This was a complete dream of mine, and you can read more about that here, and also see our wedding video by clicking here.


On June 29th, my vision of our anniversary was shattered.  I got a phone call from my husband and he had asked me what was going on by our house and that he could see a lot of smoke.  I headed to the front door, looked to my left and this is what I saw.



Of course I went straight to facebook to see what was going on, to find out that our beloved stadium had gone up in flames.  It was gone, there was no saving it.  It hurt really bad, and most people don't have the connection to the stadium like we do, but this was a HUGE loss in our hearts. 



The stadium has been vacant for 6 years now, but not being able to drive by and remember all of the great things that happened there was a heartbreaking thought.



Moving into July, my anniversary plans were well underway.  I knew I wanted it to be special and I wanted to steal my husbands heart all over again.



I started by ordering and designing him some simple meaningful gifts.



Part of his surprise was that he would come home to his bride and I would be holding this sign that I made asking him to take me out to the ballgame.  (I already had our tickets)


On our anniversary we both went into the office for a couple hours in the morning, then we were going to meet at home and head out golfing.  Well luck would have it that he was called out to a job site which gave me the perfect window to pull this all off.


I pulled my dress out of my youngest sons closet (how they never spilled the beans is beyond me) and had my best friend (who happens to be our nanny) help me get into my dress and do my hair.


I laid out our shirts that I made, along with the very hat he wore for our wedding.


As I tracked him on find my phone I knew how far out he was from the house, so we all took our places as he got closer.


The music was set playing our wedding song and the kids and Heather were hiding under the kitchen table with the video camera ready.  The butterflies in my stomach were unreal, just like the day we were married.  Grab a tissue, you may need it! 


 
 
The fact that he showed up with a giant bouquet of my favorite flowers was the icing on the cake.  He is truly my prince charming and I wouldn't trade him for the world.
 
After this, we headed out to the country club to have lunch and play a quick round of golf.
 
 

From there we headed home, changed into our baseball gear, grabbed some dinner at our favorite Italian restaurant and then headed to the ballpark.

I had arranged with the Eugene Ems to have a special video message played on the big screen during the game, but to my surprise they asked us if we would be interested in throwing out the first pitch among some other fun things they did.



I had invited friends and family to join in the celebration at the game and we had about 30 people come out.  My sweet mom found a banner from our wedding and had it hung in our section.  Now, my husband had NO idea that he was throwing out the first pitch until this day, and he also had no clue friends would be there.


We headed out to the field and he threw out that first pitch perfect!  It was at that moment that he noticed the large cheering section with familiar faces.... surprise honey!




During the throw they displayed the photo from our wedding where we also threw out the first pitch of that game.

 
 
 
Then we had a brief 30 seconds of photos and autographs with the player / staff.
 
 
We headed up to our seats and enjoyed the game with some of our amazing friends and family!  If you were one of them THANK YOU, it truly meant the world to us both!  We took the banner down and tried to get a group picture, however it was after several people had already left.
 
 
 
We stayed until the very end of the game and enjoyed every second of reminiscing over all the ballgames we've attended together in the last 15 years. 
 
 


After the game he and I went out for ice cream (his favorite) and then headed home to an empty house...........



I look forward to the many years we have ahead of us and can't wait to celebrate 20 years at this very same ballpark!!


 
I hope more than anything that this will inspire other women around the world to do the same romantic surprise for your spouse.  This truly is up there in my list of most amazing days of my life.  When do you ever get to wear your wedding dress again? 
 
 And let me tell you, the surprise on his face when he saw his bride again was priceless.  It brought a tear to his eye and he kept telling me all night now awesome that surprise was.
 
 
 
Thank you to my readers for stopping by today to see what I've been up to.  I will now get back to my thrifty DIY posts.   Hugs to you all!!
 
Don't forget to follow me on Facebook and Pinterest, and you can find me on Instagram @OneThriftyChick.
 
 
 
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Wednesday: Gingersnap Crafts,