Late last summer, a storm ran through our part of town. It wasn’t unusual by any means, but my in-laws’ backyard was unlucky enough to suffer a blow by lightning. A tree outside was struck: thankfully it didn’t fall down and damage anything, but the state it was left in necessitated its removal from the yard.

That’s when the lightbulb went off in my head. We were having Sunday lunch at my in-laws’ house and they were telling me about the tree/pointing it out in the yard. The wheels began turning in my brain. I asked if I could go outside to look at it, and after assessing the width and appearance of the tree, I turned to my father-in-law and asked him if I could have it. I’m pretty sure he thought I was crazy at that point, but I had a plan for that tree. A plan that took months to complete, but was absolutely worth it in the end. You see – I wanted that tree to become an end table for our new house. And I knew I could convince my dear husband to help me with it. So, shortly after I secured the tree as mine, Justin spent a Saturday afternoon with a chainsaw, cutting it down to size.

There were a few pieces to choose from, but one in particular caught my attention because of the shape – I knew it would sit in a pretty way on the floor…looking like it is growing into the ground.

Funny enough: the process to create this tree stump table was actually very simple. It just takes a long time to complete: you must have patience.

To start: we cut down the stump (of course). We measured the height from the floor to the arm rest of our couch to know how tall the table should be, and added an extra 2 inches to that measurement (to leave room for sanding/leveling). Justin then used a belt sander to level out the log on top and bottom.

When the stump was leveled, it was time to wait. The stump needed to be drained of moisture before any next steps could be taken. So, we set the log under a covered area out in my in-laws’ backyard and let it sit…for about 3 months. At that point, the stump was pretty much dried out (and had lost a few pounds).

Next step: stripping the bark! Justin used a small chisel to strip the bark off the sides of the tree stump. The process wasn’t very difficult, as the 3 month drying process had loosened it up at that point. When the bark was fully removed, we kept the stump outside on our covered patio and began the sanding process (Justin completed this over the course of a few weeks when he had free time).

For the sanding: Justin began with 60 grit sandpaper (over the entire stump). When he’d smoothed it as much as he could with the 60 grit, he progressed to 150 grit paper and repeated. Then, for the finishing touch, he worked with 220 grit sandpaper. After the 220 grit was used on the stump, it was completely smooth to the touch, and there was no fear of splinters for anyone touching it.

When the stump was finally complete with the sanding process, we moved the it inside our garage for about 2 weeks to acclimate to climate control. If you live in a colder area (we are in Florida and it was warm at the time), I would suggest moving it inside your house so the stump can adjust to the typical room temperature.

Next, it was time for the polyurethane coating. We were thinking about staining the wood before sealing it with polyurethane, but we determined that we wanted a natural look for the stump and didn’t want to make it darker at all. If you DID want to stain your tree stump, this is when you would do it. However, we decided to just seal it. Justin applied the polyurethane coating with a foam brush – in a well ventilated area (we opened the garage door)! After the first coat had dried, he used the 220 grit sandpaper over the entire stump. Then, a second coat of polyurethane was applied.

The polyurethane needed 2 coats on the sides and bottom of the stump, but ended up taking about 5 coats on the top (it kept soaking into the stump). When complete, the entire tree stump was shiny and beautiful! We allowed it to dry completely, then flipped the stump over to hammer in some felt feet on the bottom to protect our wood floors from the heavy table.

And then: we placed this beautiful stump table creation in our living room and started enjoying it. I really do love how it turned out, and it has definitely become a conversation piece when people visit our home. I love that we can proudly say we made it. Ok…I conceptualized it, and Justin pretty much made it…but you get what I mean.

All in all, it was a very affordable project (the cost of sandpaper and polyurethane…maybe around $20), but just took a good chunk of man hours to complete. If you don’t happen to have a tree that was struck by lightning in your backyard like we did, you could also look into fire wood lots that would have large logs to purchase: I’m betting it still wouldn’t cost you too much.

Do you love creating DIY projects for your home? What is your proudest DIY accomplishment?

Picking the paint color actually proved to be a more difficult process for me than selecting our living/dining/kitchen color. I knew I wanted to go with a shade of blue: but which shade exactly? I didn’t want baby blue, I didn’t want it to be too dark, and I wanted it to complement our existing bedspread. I started with two samples I thought would be pretty (the top two on the right). Turns out that the swatch on the far right, although pretty, was too much like baby blue (Harbor Haze by Benjamin Moore), and the other (center top) was gorgeous, but we thought would be too dark for the entire room. Never fear: I ended up using that hue in my office and in our master bathroom! I love love love it, just not for our bedroom.

So, I returned to the paint store and found one more swatch (on the bottom)…thinking I’d found a winner. Nope. It turned out to be WAY too light. Dang it. At that point, I was getting quite frustrated. Then, one morning my mom swung by the house with a touch up can of paint. My parents had used Sherwin Williams’ Rainwashed in one of their bathrooms and my mom thought it might be the right hue I was seeking for our bedroom. So, I painted a sample on the wall (the far left), and voila! Paint: decided.

Of course, we started with the edging along the baseboards and ceiling. I wanted to show a picture of this to compare the difference in color between what the homeowners before us had on the walls. In my previous house tour photos, the brown paint looked lighter than it actually was in person, but I think you can see the difference pretty well in this picture. Even with just the edging complete, I was already excited and could see how much more the room opened up.

And with the paint complete? Even better.

Rainwashed is such a pretty and tranquil color for our bedroom, and I definitely recommend it. Funny enough: it’s listed as being in the green family on the Sherwin Williams’ website. There are definitely greenish hues in it, but overall I think it reads as a blue! I think the before and after is like night and day – I’m so pleased with how the room turned out! Now…if I could only figure out how to deal with the corner window…

Have you ever had a hard time deciding on a paint color for a room?

I probably didn’t need to decorate much, but I couldn’t help myself. With the help from the dollar store, I was able to throw together some decor, and I really like how it turned out!

Instead of using fresh flowers, I topped the table with blue tins filled with paper flowers. The white ones are coffee filter roses, and the pink ones used the same technique, but with pink crepe paper streamers.

The coffee filters, streamers, and the blue tins were all found at the dollar store, of course! And I couldn’t pass up the adorable floral mini favor boxes I found there as well. I filled each with a few pieces of chocolate (the dollar store candy aisle is my favorite, I can’t lie).

I didn’t have enough place mats to set the table with, so I decided to create my own! I bought a roll of brown kraft paper (again: dollar store!), sketched out a place mat shape by hand, then used it as a template to cut out enough mats for each place setting. I think they looked pretty nifty in the end!

Recognize the tablecloth on our table in the kitchen? It’s one of the tablecloths we used on our tables at our wedding reception. We sold most of them to our venue, but kept a few of them. I loved being able to break out the pretty green pintucked cloth again!

One other simple dollar store decoration I implemented were some white crepe streamers. I measured and cut them the length of our sliding glass door and taped them next to each other to create a “curtain” of streamers. I still have them hanging right now…I like them!

Oh, and there’s a peek at our new couch, curtains, and a verrrry special side table in our living room. I will be sharing how Justin made our stump table very soon, and I have more photos to show it in all its glory…don’t worry!

As for the food? I didn’t get a lot of time to take photos of what I served because…well…I was cooking! But, the menu included Belgian waffles with fried chicken and maple syrup, eggs in purgatory (baked egg with tomatoes, onion, and sausage), a spring mix salad with cranberries, almonds, feta, and a homemade honey lime dressing, and a fruit salad. Not to mention the array of desserts that were presented later on. Oh so much food.

All in all, I think the dollar store did right by me when it came to decor for our birthday brunch celebration!

Do you like using items from the dollar store to decorate your home? What’s your favorite thing to use/make?

Just kidding.

I want to start this post off with a disclaimer: I LOVE MY TABLE. Crate & Barrel has been nothing but helpful with the process of getting me my table, and I love them for that. This is simply the story of how it took me 4 tries to get the perfect table for our living/dining room.

When we first started thinking about moving (early in 2012), I knew we were going to be in need of a new dining table. The one in our apartment was a glass top table I’d acquired back in 2007 for $100 from my boss at the time. It served me well for 5 years, but it would definitely need to go once we moved into the new house.

Thus, the hunt began. I got Justin involved in the process, and we both decided we liked the look of a farm table. It’s classic, it’s sturdy, it can be dressed up/down. On top of loving the farm table style, we also took a liking to the look of reclaimed wood. We looked into having a custom made table out of reclaimed wood and started pricing out some options.

Then we walked into Crate & Barrel one day when we were at the mall. And my eyes locked on a table that was absolutely perfect. It was the Taverna table, and it was just what I was looking for: reclaimed wood, farm table style, in a beautiful medium brown hue. I fell in love with the fact that it wasn’t perfectly flat – there are variations in the wood that are natural. There are some cracks and knots in the wood too – it is a table with a lot of character. After setting the Lyle chairs with the display table, we were pretty much sold. When it came time to place our order, there was no hesitation.

Delivery day finally arrived, and as I saw the table for the first time my heart filled with joy. The color was perfect…there was just the right amount of knots and imperfection across the top. Gorgeous. Then…the wobble. As soon as the delivery guys set the table down in our dining area, it was noticeable. I’m not talking about a slight wobble that a lot of tables have simply due to the floor. I’m talking about about an inch of lift. That’s a big wobble, folks. The guys making the delivery tried to fix it, but to no avail. So, they had Crate & Barrel call me to schedule a new delivery date for a replacement table.

Two weeks later, my Taverna table arrived. And when I saw it, my heart sank a little. The color was completely different than the first table, and there was a rather large area that had been patched noticeably. I was not happy. Thankfully, when I called Crate & Barrel they were willing to send along another table…this time they would bring two new tables…and I asked that the original table be brought back as well (since I’d loved it) and we could attach a different set of legs to it to make it not wobble.

Well, when that delivery arrived a week or so later, two new Tavernas were on the truck. And neither of them were what I wanted (I know – I am starting to sound difficult here). The color on one of them was more yellowish brown than the dark brown my original table was, and the other had a large crack running almost the entire length of the table, and I thought it looked like the table was about to split in half (it wasn’t of course, but that is what I thought it looked like). But where was my original table?!?! Not on the truck, apparently. I began to panic…imagining that someone else had been sent my table and they were happy with it in their home. After another call to Crate & Barrel, they assured me the table was in their warehouse, and we scheduled another delivery for later that week. Yep – I was pretty sure that Crate & Barrel hated my guts at this point.

Finally…the day arrived when my original table was returned. As soon as I saw the gorgeous top exit the truck, I knew it was the right decision. It was what I wanted. Then came the surprising part: the legs were set up in the dining room first…and they weren’t wobbly. What? Well, it turns out that it wasn’t the legs…it was the top that was uneven. No matter: I agreed to take the table at a discount. Because I loved it. And a little wobble adds character, right? A felt pad or two later attached to the bottom of the legs, and the wobble was fixed. Seriously – can you see where the felt pads are? I think not.

So, that is the story of how I bought an amazing Taverna table from Crate & Barrel…replaced it 3 times…and then ended up with the original yet again. Sheesh. I know it sounds like I was being picky, but when it comes to a large purchase like that table, I wanted to make sure it was perfect. Can you blame me?

Have you picked out a new dining table before? Was it a difficult process?

When we first moved into the house, we quickly realized that the carpet in the back room/the room that will be my office was looking pretty nasty (the pictures are a bit light: the dark spots on the carpet were very distinct in person and a deep cleaning wasn’t going to help alleviate it).

There was no way we were keeping it, so the hunt for acceptable new floor began. The winner ended up being a bamboo flooring, since it is supposed to be extremely durable. The plan was to install the bamboo floor, along with new 4.25 inch baseboards around the room. First thing’s first: it was time to paint the room before the new floor was installed. Since the carpet and baseboards were going to be ripped out, we didn’t have to lay a drop cloth or worry about being careful around the baseboards. I selected Gossamer Blue by Benjamin Moore for the wall color. It is such a happy blue/green hue, and it pops off the wall really well without darkening up the space too much.

After the paint was on the walls, Justin, my dad, and I thought it might be interesting to pull up a corner of the carpet to see what was below it, since it was going to be pulled up the next day anyway. Well, that’s when we found a little surprise.

Oh boy. When we pulled up that carpet we discovered hardwood floor beneath it. Ah! The previous owners carpeted OVER hardwood floors?!?!?! I know it was the thing to do years back, but we were thrown for a loop. It was pretty much like Christmas had come early as we began ripping back the carpet and carpet pad to reveal the floor underneath.

In the end, there was a large water damaged piece of floor in the office, so the decision was made to install the new floor as scheduled. There was talk of having it sanded/refinished, but the cost to do that would almost have been as much as just laying a new floor, so it didn’t seem like that great of an idea for this room.

However, our office floor discovery got us thinking…there are two other rooms in the house with carpet – the mater bedroom and the 2nd bedroom. Could it be, we thought??? My mom and I quickly ran into each bedroom and carefully pulled up a corner of the carpet in the closets. Annnnd guess what? Hardwood floors, yet again! Even though carpet is comfortable, I would love to have a house with all hard floors with area rugs – I like that I could switch things up with decor with new rugs, and prefer to clean hard floors to carpets in general. Personal choice!

As badly as I wanted to immediately pull up the carpets in both rooms, I had to resist for the time being. We’ll have to wait until we are prepared to redo the floors before we pull back any more carpet. We are pretty sure that there will be water damage in the 2nd bedroom, based on the fact that there was some in the office (which is right next to that room). However, the master bedroom is at the other end of the house, so mayyyybe if we are lucky the master bedroom will be in good condition with no damage! In the meantime, I’m brainstorming what we’d do with the water damaged floors if we do find them. I’ve seen people sand and paint their wood floors when there is some water damage…so perhaps we would take a stab at that in the 2nd bedroom! For now though…we live with the carpet.

In the end, I just can’t believe how random it was that we found hardwood floors beneath the carpet in our house! I’ve heard of it happening to other people before, but hadn’t even considered it a possibility until we actually started pulling back the carpets!

Do you prefer hard floors or carpet in your home?

]]> http://rufflesandtruffles.com/2012/12/flooring-surprise/feed/ 12 http://rufflesandtruffles.com/2012/12/bathroom-renovation/ http://rufflesandtruffles.com/2012/12/bathroom-renovation/#comments Fri, 21 Dec 2012 15:06:21 +0000 Katie http://rufflesandtruffles.com/?p=13809 So, when I took you on a tour of our house, I pointed out the fact that our bathrooms had extremely low ceilings…and fluorescent lights installed.

They were not our cup of tea, so to say. Thankfully, with a bit of hired help we were able to increase the ceiling height by a foot. And it makes all the difference in the world to us. The fluorescent lights and huge wall mirrors were removed, new drywall was installed, and recessed lighting was put in as well. What started out as a cave of a bathroom is now much less boxed in. No more fluorescent panels in the ceiling, and where the ceiling once met the top of the shower, there is now a foot of space above. (P.S. sorry for the brightness in the “after” pictures…they’re a little blown out – whoops)

Don’t you think so?

I’m so glad we were able to get this project finished. At this point, we’ve also painted the bathroom and are thinking about taking out the shower door. I still need to find a mirror to go above the sink…of course because I am looking for one it is impossible to find a mirror I like!

So – can you see the difference? Have you dealt with fluorescent lights in your home before?

First up: the paint! The previous owners had the interior of the house painted a medium brown color in flat paint. Honestly – it appeared darker in person than it does in my photos. There was also a hallway and section of the kitchen that was a brownish red hue. I wanted to brighten things up with my decor and color scheme, so I looked towards lighter shades of paint. As much as I love gray and was tempted to go with that, I wanted to bring in a hint of color as well. Benjamin Moore’s Paris Rain ended up being the winning selection for us, and I could NOT be happier with the results. It is a grayish green, and the appearance changes depending on the light in the room – sometimes it looks gray, sometimes it looks more green…but it never stops being pretty! And Benjamin Moore paint in general is really great – we got an eggshell finish on ours, and the paint itself glides on with ease and covered really well…we only needed to apply a primer to the dark reddish brown walls (we could have just done 3 coats instead of 2, but we did 1 coat of primer to conserve the Paris Rain as much as possible).

The living/dining room, kitchen, and front hallway are all painted in Paris Rain now. It definitely lightens and brightens up the room, in my opinion! We also repainted the ceiling and the trim…they were looking a bit yellow. It is amazing what a fresh coat of paint can do!!!

As you can see, some furniture has been added as well. The couch and chair pictured is not permanent – our couch is on order/being made right now, and I’ll be replacing that arm chair with another one as soon as I find one that I like. I’m looking for a funky chair…perhaps in mustard yellow to bring out the color in the couch pillows. However, I am waiting until my sofa arrives to make a decision…I’m waiting to see it in the room! I also have a cowhide rug on the way for the space between the couch and TV stand. I’m hoping it looks good…time will tell once it arrives! Little by little, I’ll get this house whipped into shape…

I clearly need some window treatments for the front window…but am waiting until one strikes me and isn’t insanely expensive. As for the walls? They’re looking pretty bare…but I have a few projects I need to start with that will take care of that problem soon! It’s time for me to get out the craft supplies….

So, what do you think? Are you a fan of sprucing up your living area with a fresh coat of paint?

]]> http://rufflesandtruffles.com/2012/12/a-fresh-coat-of-paint/feed/ 15 http://rufflesandtruffles.com/2012/11/our-new-home/ http://rufflesandtruffles.com/2012/11/our-new-home/#comments Fri, 30 Nov 2012 14:07:11 +0000 Katie http://rufflesandtruffles.com/?p=13363 Ok, so I think it is as good of a time as any to show y’all our new home! It’s been almost 2 weeks since we moved in, and there are already a ton of changes in progress that I can’t wait to share as we go along. However, I wanted to start with a base line to compare to.

Luckily for us, this house was pretty much move in ready, but needs some cosmetic help…some that is being done now, and some that will be done down the line.

First up: the living room/dining room. It is to the right as you come in the front door. The floor plan is open for just one big room, and I really like that!

There is a lot of light coming from the slider doors in the dining area (all 3 panels slide completely open, by the way…so it looks like there is no wall there at all), as well as the large picture window in the living room.

Big changes have already started in this room. The previous owners had used a flat paint on the walls, which really shows every scratch and mark and smudge. I wasn’t a huge fan of the brown color either…so we have already changed it instead of just touching it up! The living/dining room, front hallway, and the kitchen are all painted Benjamin Moore’s Paris Rain. It’s a grayish green color, and I absolutely love it.

The picture you see is a light version of the paint – it was fresh on the wall and hadn’t fully darkened up yet…but can you already see the difference in brightness from the brown to the Paris Rain? Positive change! Down the road, the floors in this room are going to have to be replaced, so when that happens we’ll be adding new, taller baseboards as well. The light fixture is also about to undergo a makeover…I’ll be sharing the really simple project soon (once I get around to doing it).

If you take a left when you enter the house, there’s a little hallway leading back to the utility room, 2nd bedroom, and the 2nd bathroom. It was painted a brownish red color to begin with, and already by changing to the Paris Rain it looks like a new house.

The 2nd bedroom was the kids’ room for the previous owners, hence the baby blue colors on the walls. For now, this room is serving as storage/a holding room as we get other things done. Eventually we’ll be turning it into a guest room, but that project is down the line at the moment.

And does anyone have any creative ideas for corner windows? You might have noticed – there is one in this bedroom, and there is another in the master. I don’t know how to do anything with them at the moment!

For some reason I forgot to take pictures of the 2nd bathroom when we first walked through. Trust me: it isn’t the prettiest, but it is functioning just fine so we will live with it for the time being. I’ll be back to share the changes that will be going on with it shortly.

How about the master bedroom? It’s right off from the living/dining room.

The walk-in closet isn’t TOTALLY a walk-in…you can just stand inside, but it has a lot of storage space in comparison to the one little closet Justin and I were sharing in our old apartment. See that module storage unit in the center? I’ve already reconfigured it a bit, and I’m liking the results so far. We are still in the process of trying to decide what color to paint this room, as it is also the brown hue that was in the living/dining room. I’m pretty sure it will be some shade of blue, but I haven’t fell in love with one yet. There’s a fine line between baby blue and grayish blue…as well as being too dark vs. too light. I want to make sure the room looks as big as possible, but I also want a bit of color incorporated. We’ll see…

On to the master bathroom. It’s pretty small, but it does have ample counter and storage space, so that is a plus.

Also – do you notice something odd about the ceiling? Not only did it have fluorescent lighting, but the ceiling was about a foot shorter than the rest of the rooms in the house (the same goes for the 2nd bathroom too). It seriously felt like a cave, so changes have already begun on it. Yesterday, we had the big mirrors removed, the ceiling was knocked out, and it was raised a foot. Recessed lights were added above the sink too to replace the fluorescent lighting. I can’t wait to show you the huge difference it all makes.

Now: the kitchen! Thankfully, this kitchen was pretty much good to go. The previous owners had pretty recently added new appliances; it is like they were pretty much unused from the get-go.

I have about 4 times more counter space than I did in our old apartment, and I’m still getting used to the fact that I have so many more cabinets too.

That nook area in the back…I don’t know what I’m going to do with it. I don’t have plans to put a table in, since it would block access to the room on the back left (which will be my office). Hm. Again, we repainted the walls in the kitchen the Benjamin Moore Paris Rain.

To the left off the kitchen nook area is the “office.” When we moved in, we quickly realized that the carpet was NOT in good condition, so we have to replace the floor in there before I set anything up.

So for now, it is another holding room. However, I plan to make this my office space and am contemplating how I want to decorate. Sorry Justin – no man cave for you…this room is going to be a bit more feminine than the others…

Finally, we’re going to step outside. Between the dining room and kitchen nook is the lanai. If you aren’t familiar with a lanai, it is basically just a screened in porch.

We already have a patio set out there so we can eat dinner outside on nice nights. The screens might need to be fixed up a little bit, but I’m glad I can open my sliders and open the entire house up!

And I have to show a little peek of the backyard too before I finish. It’s fenced in, so Lucia has a big area to run around in! She’s been enjoying herself the past 2 weeks.

And can we talk about this tree?!?!?! I have no idea what kind it is…I still need to look that up…but my goodness is it ENORMOUS. I need to take a picture of myself standing beside it to give you perspective. I think it would take about 4-5 people holding hands in a circle to get their arms around the tree trunk. It shades pretty much the entire yard as well, which is nice for my air conditioning bill. What that means for my gardening hopes, I’m not sure. I hope to have Justin build me some planters for a garden, and there is a stretch of yard that does get sun throughout the day, so perhaps I’ll have to use that spot. Also – I need to learn how to garden, because I don’t want to fail miserably.

Anyway, there you have it! The beginning of the new home. I hope to check in once a week or so to show what we’ve been up to, but for now: here is the starting point!

Do you get excited about projects around the house?

Well, the time has come: it’s moving week!

Boxes are stacked almost to the ceiling…we’re selling furniture on craigslist…the reality of a move is upon us!

I’m really excited to give everyone a tour of the new home, but that will have to wait a few more days. In the meantime, I’ve been busy putting together some inspiration for our new living space.

The thought of furnishing a house, painting, and making everything much more permanent is both exciting and overwhelming. Since we’ve been living in an apartment, I have not been able to paint a wall in ages. I can’t tell you how much it excites me to pick out a paint color (or a few). The painting process itself I might not be so jazzed about, but the finished product will be exciting!

Aside from the paint, I’ve been dreaming up ideas for our living/dining room. The space is an open, large room (which I love), so it will all need to coordinate in the end. Today, I’m focusing on the living room half.

We have already purchased the Lounge sofa from Crate & Barrel in Chinchilla (a gray/taupe color) – it’s being constructed at the moment and will probably arrive around the end of the year. The wait…it is painful. I also picked up two big accent pillows in the Ikat-style pattern as pictured…at HomeGoods!

I’m hoping to find some beige and white graphic printed curtains for the front window of our living room…curtain panels can be expensive though! I’m making weekly trips to HomeGoods to check out the selection – sets of 2 window panels seem to run about $20 there, so it would be a great deal if I was able to find some! Crossing fingers…

As for the other accents: I’m kind of digging the cowhide style rug to lay in front of the couch/under the coffee table (which I purchased last week and will need to repaint…perhaps a bold/bright color…pull out the blue from the couch pillows? Maybe I’ll paint it gold…I’m still not decided. I think I need to see everything in place to know what I want to do), paired with a green accent chair to the side of the couch. As for an end table…it is in progress…right now it looks like this:

Yep. That tree stump is going to be an end table for the side of the accent chair. Right now the stump is drying out for a little while before I seal it/paint it. I’m still pondering whether I want to leave the stump with its natural color, or go bold with metallics. So many decisions to make…

Do you like to think about new ways to decorate your home? What is the color scheme in your living room?