I cannot believe it’s been almost a year since I’ve posted here. When I logged in this morning (which I still do to check on any questions and comments), it seemed like it had only been a few months.

Nothing to speak of has changed in the house yet.  It’s been an adventurous year to say the least.  That great job we sold the Victorian and moved half-way across the country for?  They decided they didn’t have that much work after all, so the Hubs was laid off a few months ago.  Thanks guys.  ?

Needless to say, there hasn’t been extra money to get to restoring and customizing the house.  We still had leftover paint from the Victorian and the Craftsman that we used to repaint most of the inside of the new house.  And we’ve been picking up a few things here and there from Craigslist and really great store sales too. Like those chairs. We’ve been waiting a year for chairs because we were so picky.  But we both instantly loved them (and they’re comfy too!).  Love World Market.

By the way, some tips if you’re going to shop with them:

1. If you know what you want before you go, buy it online first and choose the “Pick up in store” option…you’ll automatically get 5% off.
2. Sign up for their rewards program (especially if you buy furniture from them).  We’ve gotten many $10 gift cards over the years.  Plus you get additional discounts through the year.
3. Google “World Market” coupon before checking out.  There is almost always a working 10% off code that they let you have.
4. Wait for sales.  Their sales are big (like 20-50% off), and they rotate through entire departments at once.

Couldn’t help but share because it’s just a great store with great deals.

Anyway, aside from the new chairs, you can see that it’s still all our old stuff that you’ve seen before.  There are tons of plans, but first we have to get to things like replacing windows, replacing rotting support beams, stopping leaks, running gas lines, etc.  You know…all the fun stuff.

The post Almost a year! appeared first on Little Victorian.

Our new sofa has finally arrived.  We went without one for a month and a half after selling our last one, and let me tell you…that was not fun.  But it’s here, and it was worth the wait.

We love the worn look the leather has even though it’s brand new.  We got samples of the different leathers this sofa came in, and we beat them all up.  Scratched them, rubbed them, crumpled them.  The other samples looked okay, but this one looked better the more it was used.  Of course, it was the more expensive option, but it was worth it.

The new living room chairs are finally in their place too.

I’d show you the whole room, but there are some other changes I want to make first.  As much as I love the rug, I’m not really loving it in this room, mainly with the new chairs–they just don’t go together well.

While the old sofa was great, this one is perfect for us.  WAY more comfortable, easier to keep clean with the dog, it will only look better with age (unlike the last one that was starting to look pretty rough), and it’s just more our style.  I’ve just been giddy the last couple days over it.

The post It’s here, it’s here! appeared first on Little Victorian.

We’ve been wanting a new media cabinet for quite a while.  The old one (read about it here) was cute, but we don’t want cute.  Looking back at the photos, painting it black would have been better than painting it white, or even staining it a really, really dark brown.  Either way, it still wasn’t what we wanted.  So here is our “new one” as of this morning:

Here’s what the old one looked like:

The new shelf (it’s a bookshelf on its side with the legs removed) is a temporary fill-in until we find the perfect one, and it’s been in this spot before.  We actually used it as our media cabinet for a year after we moved in.

It has been with us through 5 homes and three states in 8 years.  It first served as a room divider to separate the entryway from the living room in our small duplex.  Then it was a bookshelf in our loft, then extra kitchen storage in a teeny-tiny apartment, and for the last two years it was bathroom storage.  Not bad for a $100 shelf from Big Lots!

Now the old cabinet is going back on Craigslist where it came from.

The post Another unplanned living room update appeared first on Little Victorian.

I am so bad a titling blog posts.  Anyway…

The tread stripping was finished a few weeks ago. But we had an issue with the railing. Well, two issues actually. One was that the previous ownersn had painted the railing with bright white latex paint right on top of yellow-ish oil based paint.

Latex paint doesn’t stick to oil based paint, it just sits on top and waits for something to rub it, at which time, it will roll up and peel right off.

The second problem was that they just did a horrible job painting it. It was so streaky and bumpy that oils and dirt settled into every ridge and it was impossible to keep clean.

Because of these two issues, just painting over it wasn’t an option, all the layers had to be stripped off for a fresh start.

Pin it for later.

My favorite way to remove paint is with a heat gun, because it’s chemical free and fast (and it’s fun). If you haven’t used a heat gun to remove paint, it’s pretty simple. You point the gun where you want to start scraping, turn it on and wait for the paint to bubble. When it bubbles, you scrape it off with a plastic putty knife. Easy peasy.

If you have a straight path, you can go slowly, heating with one hand and scraping with the other and get whole sections done at once.

For grooves and hard-to-get-to areas like the second photo above, what worked for me was this: warm the area with the heat gun, then turn the gun off and let the wood cool for a couple minutes.  Go back with your scraper and get a corner started, then you can just peel it up with your hands.

(A note about using the heat gun though, don’t hold it on one place too long or have the heat higher than it needs to be, because you can scorch your wood.)

Once it was all scraped, I gave it a light sanding, cleaned it up and it was ready for fresh paint.

And I didn’t get any pictures of the whole railing stripped.  Oops.  But here it is with it’s nice fresh paint. The baseboards going up the stairs also got a fresh coat and caulk between the trim piece and baseboard.

Now I just need to touch up the risers and the stairs will be finished. Finally!

This is the heat gun I use, and I love it.  It has two span feeds and a temperature dial, so you can really fine-tune the amount of heat, and how far it goes.  As long as you use it properly, you won’t scorch your wood, and you won’t ruin paint finishes on nearby surfaces because it’s blowing too hard.

You’ll usually just need a light sanding afterwards unless you’re going to prime and repaint.

The post How to strip paint with a heat gun appeared first on Little Victorian.

These were so long overdue.

Of course, as soon as they were in place, I thought: that area would really look good with some swing arm wall sconces instead of the table lamps (like Leena at Onshore recently did).

I still need a new coffee table and a new media cabinet/stand too.  I can’t decide whether to go with a simple, clean lined coffee table or an ottoman.  With all the texture and fabric in the room, I’m leaning towards a traditional coffee table.

What do you think? Wall sconces or no? Ottoman or coffee table?

The coffee table and ottoman are affiliate links, but as always, they are included simply because I love them and they are perfect examples of what I’m looking for.

The post Finally, new end tables in the living room appeared first on Little Victorian.

I’m crazy about texture, and it’s especially important since we prefer neutral colors.  When Dad was visiting, he taught me how to texture walls with cheesecloth.  That’s all that’s on the wall!  Just cheesecloth held up and painted in place.

This photo is slightly dramatized, just so the texture will show up.  Otherwise, it’s very subtle, like this:

Sounds super easy.  I wish it was.  Actually when Dad–the professional–was still here, it was super easy.  But they had to leave before the project was finished.  So while we did half the room in just a couple hours together, it took The Hubs and I two weeks to finish the other half without him.  (Don’t be scared off by that.  If you have a FULL day to commit to it, it can be done in a day.  If you only have a few hours each evening, it will take you 2 weeks.)

I purchased the cheesecloth at our fabric store, it was priced at $3 a yard, but we used a 40% off coupon for it.  I didn’t buy enough the first time.  As a matter of fact, I didn’t buy enough the first 3 times.  But you can buy it online for under $5 for three yards.

Instructions, if you are so inclined to attempt this project:

Measure the height of your walls.  Unfold your cheesecloth and cut it into panels that equal the height of your walls.  Be very careful to cut the cloth as straight as possible.

This is definitely a two person job.  One person (the taller one) holds up the cheesecloth to the top of the walls as evenly as possible.  The other person then tacks down the corners and a few spots in the middle of the cheesecloth panel with a very saturated paint roller.

The non-painter evens out the cheesecloth panels as they are being painted on, making sure all the lines are straight.

Once the corners are tacked in place, just fill in the rest of the panel with paint.  Easy part.

For the smaller pieces above and below windows and doors, we trimmed the cheesecloth to size first, and then painted it on with a mini paint roller (4”).  I do not recommend brushing at all (except for the edges if you need to), as even the softest brush will pull the cheesecloth and make it look wonky.
We overlapped each panel slightly.  I love the aged look it creates.  Small wrinkles and creases are okay too, they add more character.

Extreme zoom-in:

So it’s a simple concept: cut the cheesecloth to fit, hold it up to the wall and paint it on.

What do you think?  Would you ever try this at home?

The post Pretty, textured walls, if I do say so myself appeared first on Little Victorian.

This is the little project for the living room that I mentioned breaking.  It’s a 4 foot tall dry erase board.  I broke the glass as I was preparing to hang it, so I had to go purchase another 4’ framed print just for the replacement glass.

Anyway…the Hubs and I really like having a big board to brainstorm ideas and jot notes down.  We considered turning the stair wall into a chalkboard wall, but once we put the texture on the other walls, we preferred it for that wall too.  So, to still be able to write out our ideas, and not cover up the beautiful texture, I made this dry erase board.

It really is an incredibly easy DIY.

Get an extra large picture frame (thrift store: $10-$25).  Remove the picture and the backing, leaving only the glass.  Hang it on the wall.

In our case, I painted the frame with the wall paint so it would blend in even more.

And you can see the wall texture right through it.

Just write on it with dry erase markers and wipe off with a dry cloth.

What’s your preferred method of jotting things down?  Chalkboards?  Dry erase boards?  Paper?

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We have had to get creative around our house to store things since we don’t have any closets.  And our favorite kind of storage is hidden storage.

Can you guess where we keep our board games?

They are in the landing!  The particular project I’m sharing today was actually done almost 2 years ago, it just hasn’t really been presentable until the living room makeover happened.

Sorry, I don’t have any decent photos of the project since it happened pre-blog, but it’s really simple.
We pulled up the floor boards that were covering the landing.  Then we put down a section of plywood, mounted by hinges on the inside.  It’s easier to show you than explain it.

Right now, it’s still just stained plywood, we will most likely be covering it in thin strips of wood to match the rest of the floor.  And then I need to touch up and caulk the baseboard, but we’ll get to that when we re-finish the stairs.

We are incredibly happy with it.  It was a relatively simple project that only cost about $25 and it’s totally hidden, that’s our favorite part.

And, now that I see it in pictures, I really want to paint the inside, it’s so not pretty.  Another project for the ever-growing list!

Update: I covered the inside of the landing lid with some polka dot wrapping paper, and it now looks like this:

The post Building in hidden storage appeared first on Little Victorian.

Our living room makeover is finally complete. (Mostly, anyway.)

So far, we have:

• Pulled up the carpet and painted the floor
• Added recessed lighting
• Installed crown moulding
• Painted ceiling (Martha Stewart’s “Pebble”)
• Painted the windows
• Painted the front door to match the walls
• Removed the cheap trim from around the front door and replaced it with trim original to the house
• Re-built the stair landing
• Added texture to the walls and painted (Martha Stewart’s “Tailors Chalk”)

My favorite part of this room is the textured walls.  It’s subtle, but it adds so much and I am crazy about them.  Here is an up-close:

I will be doing a whole post on the walls in the future with how we did it and more pictures of them.

The walls, ceiling, lights and crown moulding were all done by/with Dad when they came to visit last month.  It was a lot of work, but he did an awesome job and he did it really fast.  Thanks again, Dad, we love you!

And now that I’m looking at the photos myself, I think I’ve gone a little too vintage-y with the decor.  Maybe it’s time to replace the tables with some simple, straight lines?

There are more projects and details that went into it that I’ll share with you eventually.  I was going to share a list of the things we still want to do in the room, but I’d rather not think about that right now.

It just feels good to be done!

Here, again is what it looked like when we purchased it:

And now:

The post The living room is livable appeared first on Little Victorian.

Finally completed another small project: painting the window sashes.

I’ve really been loving the look of black windows lately, especially in a room as light and neutral as ours.

Also, I’m in love with the windows themselves, they are one of the only architectural details the previous owners left intact (they didn’t even keep the original trim around the windows).  But, because of privacy issues, we need sheers on these windows.  Painting the sash dark allowed you to see more of the pretty window even with the sheers on.

The color is not quite black, it’s actually a very, very dark purple.  Martha Stewart’s “Weathervane”.  I plan on using small touches of the color throughout the house to keep it all tied together.

As far as the rest of the room goes, we’re having some minor issues with trimming the front door, but that is the only project we have left.  Well, we still need a light fixture too, but that might take some time.  The plan for the reveal is Monday, whether it’s “finished” or not!

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