Map to My Heart

My office needs some serious sprucing up. Everything is looking pretty shabby after the addition of my fantastic chair {here}. I've been perusing around blogland lately and have seen some really great things going on with maps. I like maps. I remember my dad trying to teach us how to read maps as kids when we would be making the long drive from Colorado to South Dakota. 

My parents recently went on an adventurous trip to Texas to see some of our family members and I snagged their Texas map for some cool DIY ideas I've been thinking up. 

(Sorry Dad!)

First thing I did was sprawl the whole map out to see what the best areas were:

Thankfully Texas is so big... offered lots of different angles for the next step.

I traced out a heart on white computer paper and then picked a location on my map that I would want to make all hearty.

I traced out my heart with a pen... 

And then I did it again! For a total of three times. I had this extra piece of posterboard left from one of Justin's projects before and thought it would be a good backdrop. But I find that it was looking a little sparse...

So using some scrapbook paper that I already in my office I decided to back the hearts and make some mats for them.  Ahhh much much better I think.

After I lined up the hearts and spaced the mats evenly I Mod Podge'd em to the posterboard so that they wouldn't blow off under the breeze from the air conditioner. We use swamp coolers where I am at. 

I would love to frame it out with a white or black frame... sadly I don't have an IKEA nearby otherwise I would be there tomorrow hunting down some great frames! I am thinking a road trip is in order very soon though because I'm starting to get an itch to redo the master bedroom....

wait. 

I have to finish master bath and office first. Yes. Projects have to be finished.

Right now the boards held up with thumbtacks but I think it's a really fun and unique addition to my office! I like it a lot I think! Yay for great map projects! 

Linked to: So Creative

CHAIR IS HERE!

I am sooo incredibly excited!! My chair finally came in! If you follow me on FB then you already know that the chair that I have been waiting for from JCPenney has finally arrived! And it was everything that I had dreamed it would be! Originally I started shopping for this chair way back in July. I knew that I needed some kind of guest bedroom but since I have a roommate that wasn't really an option. So what is a good compromise?

A sleeper sofa!

But alas a sleeper sofa wasn't going to work in the living room so I decided I would see if there was any loveseats. I figured I could fit a loveseat in the office so that I would have a comfy reading area but yet still be able to have a sleeper bed if someone were to stay over for a few nights.

It is very hard to find a decently priced loveseat and I despaired I would never find one that worked for me until! I found this guy:

He was everything that I had ever been looking for! Plus he was relatively inexpensive. Online at JCPenney.com he was listed for about 599.99 Of course my frugal self certainly did not pay that much for him. My sister (luckily) works at JCP so I decided to go into the store to see what other discounts or promos would be available. With the JCPenney cardholder discount (20%) plus my little sister's employee discount (20%) plus a $50.00 shipping deal that I found online at the time I bought this chair after tax, shipping, wham bam a whole:

$400.00 big ones!

That's $200.00 off the original before tax price! It was a smoking good deal for a chair and a bed all at once! I'm soooo excited! Who wants to come over for a slumber party now?

Check him out in action! Of course the office is still a bit of a mess... the vacuum broke and it is terribly uncomfortable to try to use a shop-vac to clean all of the rugs. Plus the semester just started so some of my projects from the summer ended up getting mushed into this tiny space. It's all a work in progress really.

Oh he's so handsome! And very very soft too! I'm not sure that I'm totally digging the fabric that's on the pillows. Those may be a future recovering project... (ahem aka future blog post). The chair itself is a micro-suede which so far the cats have left alone. That could also be because I've hosed it down in "Scratch Not Training Spray" they don't like that stuff much.

Here's the bed all pulled out:

It's a smaller twin sized bed but it will work really great for one person at least! So possibly someone may still end up on the couch... sorry about it friends. 

I know that it was a bit of a splurge to get this fellow but I think it will definitely be worth it. I plan on being in this particular house for a few more years at least so I really like how it turned out. It's nice to have the extra space. And who knows maybe during finals week it is where I will end up sleeping. I think all that I will need is a mini fridge and I will be set.

So tell me what you think of my purchase? Any tips for keeping cats off of furniture?

The Many Faces of Cabinet

My master bathroom has undergone so many changes in the last three weeks it's practically not even the same place anymore. When I first moved in I was 18 and perhaps still little immature and under developed in my design and style preferences. I knew that I wanted a beach theme when I moved in but I did it a bit too literally.

I had jars full of seashells, seashell lanterns, "Finding Nemo" and Little Mermaid framed art, and a whole lotta turquoise everywhere. Don't get me wrong I still love turquoise but it was very obvious what I was going for. I think it's okay to start out that way though so that way you really recognize your own growth and change over time.

The cabinets were that awful orangey wood toned veneer and all of the fixtures and handles were brass. Whoo. Brassy.

A few years later you can see that not much had changed (except that it got a lot messier and the Mermaid posters got bigger). Still the same striped ceiling, veneer cabinets, and sand colored walls. 

I decided to just go ahead and take the plunge to turn the space into something that I really enjoyed and loved . I mean it is all mine right?

So I used some BHG semigloss paint from WalMart to paint the cabinets because it would have been too expensive to replace them. I love the power of paint. If anyone is wondering as far as painting manufactured home cabinets goes, it is best to spend a little more money on a semi-gloss that is a better brand. I've found that BHG is a good midgrade. The reason why you want to do that is because even after you sand down the doors and cabinets the paint doesn't absorb very well so you have to have something that's a little thicker. Also if you have to cover over fake wood grain a darker color works much much better. Even though I love white cabinets it's very hard to make it look good with the materials that are used for the cabinets in manufactured homes. Colorplace from WalMart is not a good selection.

I painted the existing hardware with Hammered spray paint so that it would be silver like the light fixtures. Also it looks really great against the newly dark cabinets.

Here's a picture that shows the changes from top to bottom:

 New light, new handles, new paint, newly painted trim on one mirror. (The other mirror we will be making a new frame for. The existing one is horribly done and definitely not worth attempting to save.)

Here is a sneak peek of the new wall color with the cabinets! Looks great doesn't it? That little shelf with the bowls will be going up on the wall and the bowls will hold my earrings and other bits and pieces.

Here's another glimpse at the difference:

Getting so much closer to being done! Yay! I can't wait to do a full reveal with all of the new upgrades and improvements that have been going on around here! 

Linked to: The DIY Home Sweet Home, Tatertots and Jello,  Chocolate, Drool, and Kisses