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Creative Cookie Cutter

“This is a blog about how I'm transforming our cookie-cutter house into a unique and fun living environment”

April 27, 2011 New Bedroom makeover: the beginning

We’ve made some significant changes to our master bedroom just recently.

What started out as a pale yellowy creamy colored room with lots of junk in it…

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…is now a slate grey colored room with bright yellow curtains, a puppy and a mirror and a lot less junk.

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I still need to trim the curtains so that they barely rest above the floor, and we need to find a nice chair to add to the room as well as some wall art.

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March 28, 2011 Finally, No More Sea Foam Green!

This was the color of Leah’s room when we moved in. (Note: belongings in picture are the previous owner’s stuff.)

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This is what it looks like tonight. Now, I just need to build Leah a bed.

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January 4, 2011 $10 ledges on my walls

I had plans to make so much more over my weeklong holiday vacation. Life, like usual, got in the way and I was only able to make only these ledges. And, as you can see, I didn’t even completely finish them. I still need to fill in the pre-drilled holes with wood putty and stain the ledges to be the same color as the table. I also need to update the pictures in the frames, paint most of the frames white and I need to take off the vice o the top-most right ledge.

I used Ana White’s $10 ledge pattern for these ledges, adjusting the length of the ledges to fit in the space I wanted them. If you are a DIY-er and you haven’t yet come across Ana White’s website, you must check it out. The table in the pictures below are also from a design patter of Ana’s (I purchased the chairs and bench).

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December 30, 2010 To Do List

We need to buy/make some new curtains for our sliding glass doors in our Kitchen/Dining area. These are left over from the old house and do not match anything.

I plan to make 6 shelves to go on both sides of this window. The shelves will hold picture frames and other slender decor.

This little nook will be dedicated as a reading area. We plan to purchase a pillowsac for the rightmost wall and then I plan to build a book display case for the left most wall.

We need to paint this wall green to match the upstairs wall. Eventually, we need to build a big long desk along the wall and move our computers to the desk.

December 24, 2010 My attempt at holiday decor

Mostly, my holiday décor items are hand-me downs that I’ve received from friends or relatives. I’m really hoping to hit the post-Christmas sales this year and get some great stuff for next year.

For example, I’d like to put some nice garland on the banister with the lights that are there now. I’d also like to add some type of Christmas-y statue in the octagon window on the green wall in the picture below.

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The stairs that go downstairs, aside from needing a new paint color on the walls, needs to have some garland on the banister and some lights on the wreath that is currently hanging up.

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I definitely need some curtains and some new window décor. I’d like to get some window-clingy vinyl for the window in the picture below. I don’t really want to hang curtains, but the neighbors, if they were on there deck could see right into our house and down our hallway to the bathroom. A bit more privacy would be great.

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I think the pictures below speak for themselves. I need to take more care in how I decorate. For example, I don’t think the nutcracker men really like to be next to the head of garlic. Nor do I think it actually adds to the mood of Christmas…garlic doesn’t fit.

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December 16, 2010 Back at it again – New floorplans for basement

I realize it’s been months since I’ve posted last, but…honestly, we haven’t done much to the house.  Now that Christmas vacation is coming around, I plan to do a bit more work and showcase it here on this blog.

For now, here are some thoughts that I have on the layout of our basement family room. I want to have a reading nook with an oversized beanbag next to the stairs with storage for books on the wall. I want to create a desk big enough for two computer users next to the east-facing window and I want to add a round table for people to sit at and play cards or put a puzzle together or for kids to do homework.  I used the site http://pl.an/ to create the free floorplan.

September 28, 2010 Entertainment Center: Part 1

We’ve started working on our Living room. Josh started a while ago by building this makeshift shelf.

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That worked for a week or two and then we started building a larger entertainment center base unit. It is constructed mostly out of MDF boards. If I did it over, I wouldn’t use MDF. That stuff is heavy and not very sturdy. Until we braced the individual units with real wood, they were flimsy as heck.

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Now, as you can see, we still need to build the cabinet doors and we need to secure the base cabinets together. Since we took this last picture, we’ve also painted the wall behind the TV and entertainment center a burnt orange.  We’re still not sure what to do with the burgundy wine wall to the left of the TV wall. We teeter between an off-white tannish color, the same orange on the TV wall or a yellow that will compliment it. I’ll post about that later though.

September 5, 2010 Raleigh’s room: Part 2

We finally were able to get Raleigh’s art hung up in his room last week.  I think it looks rather nice in the corner where Josh put it.

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We started out by cutting the artwork to a 12 X 12 size, to match the 12 X 12 MDF boards that we cut and painted.

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I ended up trimming the artwork down even more so that the art would have a bit of a border on it.

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Then I modge-podged the art onto the boards.

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After they were dry, they sat in Raleigh’s closet for 3 weeks before, finally, Josh purchased the hanging hardware needed for the backs. I think he got sick of seeing the stacked pieces of art in Raleigh’s closet.

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August 18, 2010 Raleigh’s room: Part 1

Ok, so we’ve been in this house for two whole months now and Raleigh’s room is the only room that is even close to being decorated how I want it. And I still need to add some artwork above his bed to finish the room.  The organizing pine furniture is from IKEA. The quilted wall hanging was made by his Aunt Chelsea.

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Josh and I made Raleigh’s bed out of wood that we acquired from Grandpa Steve and from an old bunk bed that we acquired from my parents. The curtains and run were gifts from Grandma Deb and she got them from IKEA.

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The wall color is what the previous owners had. I would like to eventually change the color to a light blue but it is not high on my priority list right now.

July 28, 2010 Furniture Arrived

Ok, so we put down some major cash to get a new sofa/theater seat/couch thingy. It just arrived today.

However, one of the gliders on the end is not operating correctly, so we already have to get it serviced. Sad smile

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We also purchased some new kitchen table chairs and a bench, but the bench is backordered. (Just pretend the toys and junk on the table aren’t there cause that’s how our house normally looks…clean and neat)

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