From Faux Bois to Faux Leather, dresser makeover

I got this lovely dresser from the local Storage Wars on Facebook, isn't it beautiful, lol, yeah I know, 

U G L Y!  Particle board at its best! (or worst)  but it was solid and the drawers all worked nicely!  You know I love a challenge!

Several years ago I got white faux leather for a good price, my first thought when I saw it in the store was that I wanted to cover a dresser with it.  I popped off the drawer pulls and stretched the fabric all around the dresser so that it wouldn't have any seams.  .

               I attached nailhead trim on it to hold the fabric at the top, then cut the centre away.

It was a little scary to cut this away, worrying that I would slip and cut it too close to the edge, but it all worked out just fine.

I tacked the edges in.

Now on to the drawer pulls, I just didn't have anything around that I felt suited it.  Jasmin suggested something long, and I got hooked on that idea, but couldn't do it because I just don't have anything and wasn't about to spend $15 to $20 per pull.  So, what to do, what to do? I had some wooden knobs that I covered with beads, but it really didn't do anything for this project.

I made these little bead  flowers.

You know me, I never just make one of anything, I made one of every colour that I had.  Quite the little garden I have going (growing?) here.  I think I made 10, all different colours.

I glued them onto some small knobs that I took off the  blue, cream, and silver dresser.

Here she is!

The pics aren't very good, but I don't feel like going back out in the cold to get more.

 I haven't really committed to these pulls on this particular (or particle) (ha ha, I know, cheesy) dresser, but for now, this is it.

Libler and Son, or is that Libler and Mom?; Part III

Well, here is the final blog post on our little house in Hudson.  First I should tell you a little more about this project. Hudson is a small town of 500 to 600 people (really I have no idea how close I am, but it is small anyway), the economy is repressed since the local sawmill closed a few years ago.  We were taking a risk building a new house here, but I know what a wonderful little town it is, and I know that others recognize this too.  It is hard for a town to attract buyers when a good house rarely comes on the market.  I truly believed that if we built it they would come.  This being said, we had to be very careful with the budget and do pretty much all the work by ourselves.  There is just nothing like a good challenge! I drew up the plans myself, and believe me, I drew and drew and drew before  I settled on what we built.  We had to keep it fairly small, and felt we couldn't afford to put a basement in it.  If I would have built this house for myself it would have been quite different, but we had to always remember the budget! 

 I personally am not a big fan of open concept, I know that is unheard of these days but I like my kitchen to be a kitchen and not open to the whole house.  There were times that I had to put my own opinion aside and remember that I was creating this house for someone else not for me.  Other times I just said "Too bad, it's my project and this is what I want to do!"  Case in point, the lime green laundry room.  The whole house is blues and browns and I love the colour scheme, but I just felt that it needed a spark of colour. The green is quite a bit brighter than it shows in this picture and although I got mixed reviews, I love it.  The first coat was really intense so I mixed some white paint into it.  It was still pretty bright.  My Mom and Budd felt that I ruined the colour by toning it down, and others thought it was too bright, but many said they liked it, so I will go with that.  The little big of white you can see in the lower right hand corner is the back door, which leads onto a little deck that wraps around to the front of the house to enjoy that beautiful view I showed you last time.  On the right side of the room there is more than enough room to put a freezer.

So I guess I am showing you the house from back to front, next is the kitchen.  I bought unfinished cabinets because I wanted to paint them.  The colour turquoise was really calling me.  At one point I decided against it because it is a pretty personal taste.  I was going to paint them white, but the day I went to buy the paint, my Sister-in-law came with me, I told her I was really having a hard time letting go of the turquoise and she encouraged me to go for it.  After all, that is why I took this on, so I could have creative freedom.  That was all I needed, I went for it. 

 I started painting the cupboards and after I had a few done, while I loved the colour I suddenly felt like it might be a little too much.  That's when I decided to paint the lower cabinets brown,  I am so happy with my decision, and I got a lot of compliments on these colours.  With the exception of Manuel, he asked me why I was painting the cabinets all different colours.  I told him I wasn't, I was painting them two colours.  "Well why are you painting them two colours?" he asked.  "Because I can." was my answer!

We used ceramic on the floor of the laundry room, kitchen, and entrance.

Here is a pic of the drawer pulls I used, I love these!

Kitchen light fixture.  Funny little story about this, when Budd hung it he put it as close to the ceiling as possible.  He kept telling me it was too low, and I kept saying it was fine.  One day my Mom was there and as Budd walked under the light she said she thought he was going to bump his head.  Argh!   That was all I needed!  He didn't bump his head and the light stayed.  Months later when we were showing the house, the client was very tall, over 6'3 I believe, he could walk under the light and not bump his head, so everything was just fine.  I believe that means I won!  Well, doesn't it? ;)

On to the living room.  We painted it a nice calm and neutral colour, and put in 2 big windows to take advantage of the fabulous view. We used a really nice laminate on the floor.

Living room light fixture, light on...

light off. Isn't it cute?

This is pic to show you the colour of the Master bedroom, just a simple room, two windows and two closets.   I didn't add any photos but there are two more bedrooms, one sort of the colour of the lower cabinets, and the other a medium/dark blue.

Here is a shot of the chandelier in the Master.  I love chandeliers and got this one for an excellent price.  I traded out the ugly plastic danglies, for crystal ones off an old chandelier that somebody gave me.

Right next door is the bathroom.  I get so many comments on the bathroom.  We started with 16" porcelain tile.  Anything that is smaller than that, I cut myself. I wanted a little pattern around the top so I cut all the little pieces, and added just a touch of dark brown mosaic tile that I cut apart to make the best use of it.  For the vanity I refinished an old dresser and finished it with several coats of outdoor polyurethane.   I'm not sure if I have better pictures of the vanity.  I took out the drawers, and cut out the dividers between them.  I then dismantled the drawers and just kept the fronts, which I attached all together with the dividers.  I added hinges to one side and it became a door that looks like three drawers. We added a couple of floating shelves to the wall for more storage.

I love this bathroom, I couldn't get pictures that do it justice, so just amp it up in your imagination :)

I love these little light fixtures, got them on sale!

Little corner for the toilet, the walls are so washable!

This is the closet space to the left of the entrance door.  The closet on the left is totally shelves, top to bottom, and the closet on the left is for hanging coats, and for footwear.  I knew that with no basement somebody would need a lot of storage.  I tried to be as practical as possible.  This wallpaper really pulled the whole colour scheme together.

 A shot from the road, just a simple little bungalow with a fabulous view!  I personally, have a dislike for vinyl siding, but this was one of those situations where I had to put my own preferences aside and go with practical.

Very roomy and tidy crawl space, we laid down some old carpet like a sidewalk to protect the poly when somebody needs to go down there.  Such a great place for storage, almost as good as a basement.  People, you must check out the crawlspace before purchasing a home, this is what it should look like!  No spiders or creepy crawlies.  Insulated and vapour barrier.

I loved this project, and would do it all over again, but I would make it one foot wider, yup, that's it.  Well I probably would  put a basement in it and then keep it instead of selling it :)

Libler and Son, or is That Libler and Mom? Part II

We hammered our first nails on Easter Sunday, after church and before dinner.  We had an early melt that year, so it was great to have an early start.  As  you can see the ice is still on the lake.  Here is the  carpenter!  My son Budd.  

This was my first time using my new BFF, the air nailer, I LOVE this tool!  I bought her at a garage sale for $40 with a couple of boxes of nails, a great deal, plus I met the guy I bought it from at the grocery store a month or two  later and he said he found more nails, he had them in his truck for me.  You gotta love a small town!  A couple of months later when I met him again, he asked me if I wanted to sell it, he decided he needed one after all.  Nope, sorry, she's mine.

The Master, he already knew what he was doing.

Here is Manuel having a go at it.  He doesn't trust it, 

especially when I use it.  :)  Ha ha, could he get any further away and still be holding that board for me?

Men at work, get your floor on!

We worked weekends, and some evenings.  We were busy as bees.  Sometimes we got company, that was always nice.

My cousin from BC came to town, he knew where to find us, 3 doors down from his Mom and Dad. My Mom came to see us almost every time we worked.  She usually brought us tea.

 Sometimes we had to call the family and friends, there is only so much three people can do.  They were willing whenever we needed them.  Here is the first wall going up.

I suggested that Mom take the picture (she was 81 at the time), absolutely not, she was going to be in on the lifting, so they did a fake lift for the photo op, and then I ran into place and we all lifted.

Tying the walls together.  You have to be part monkey to build a house, did you know that, yeah he gets it from his Dad, there is no monkey in me, too bad, it would come in handy sometimes.

Don't forget my BFF, isn't she lovely!

A little beauty on the work site.  It was Mother's Day and I went to church where they gave the Mothers a carnation.  Naturally I left mine at the work site, after all, that's where I was spending most of my time.

Oh yeah, back to the build, time for rafters, here is the  process for getting rafters up on top of the walls.  Set them all up against the house.

Then the men get up high, drop the ropes down to me,  I hook up the next rafter, and they pull it up to the top and walk it down to the far end.  Yeah, I know, I got the easy job, they were ready for a break when they got them up there.  They were so fast I didn't have time to grab the camera to get a shot of them in action.

Here they are, all our rafters in a row, ready to be flipped up and secured into place.

Remember the monkey business?  Remember where I said it came from? Yup, his Dad.

Time for shingling!

I  DO work, there is just never anybody around to take a picture of it.  Every now and then I have to say "Take a picture of me working."  Having said that, I left soon after this to take a trip to San Francisco for my 50th birthday.  I did invite my husband to come, but he chose to stay home,  good thing, somebody had to finish shingling the roof!

All closed in, windows and everything!

 You know how I told you I do work, see this wall, this is my wall, I built it all by myself.  Doorway and everything!

This is a picture of the sun about to go down, however, the colouring is caused by smoke in the air from a forest fire.  It wasn't close, but the smoke carries a long way and when the sun shines through it, it shows pink.

Well that is probably enough pics for today, if you stuck with me through all this, thank you!  It has been great looking at these again.  It brings back good memories and gives me a big sense of accomplishment.  Next time I will jump to the finishes.

While my son Budd was the main builder on this project, all of my kids spent at least a day or two there.  Even my son who lives in BC, it's too bad we didn't get a pic of that, we put the septic field in by ourselves, with guidance from our gravel contractor.  We are real DIYers.  Oh wait, speaking of septic...   Before we could bury the new septic tank, we had to fill it halfway with water, Buddy decided to go for a dip in the Redneck swimming pool.

That night I told people we had the pool installed today. lol