Safe stairs

I'm not going to lie.  I like bare wood stairs.  So much that I wont show you what the stairs looked without the carpet.   Its not hard to envision though.  But reality set in, with a teeny tot who will not long be climbing stairs, a dog who rolls down them every day, a broken leg seemed inevitable....I just didn't know who the first victim would be.  So with the help of many different parts we decided to do stair treads instead.  I'll just cheat and show to the previous owners crap stair runner.

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I took six ikea door mats, four which I cut into treads, hot gluing the raw edge to seal the carpet.  I took two to a carpet shop to get them to bind them together to make the runner for the landing.  The whole affair set me back $130.  Oh, and I got Steveo to do all the stapling, so I didn't even break a sweat.

Mini hack side table

I grabbed the Ikea lazy susan spinning tray and robbed the legs off and old vintage table.   I kept it on the patio which had made it pretty damaged on top but the legs still good.  I attached the legs to the under side allowing the table top to still spin. (spinning action not demoed in picture, dang!)

I later found this West Elm table, which looks pretty similar I think....Not bad.  Except my mini version cost $10, there classy version $140

http://www.westelm.com/products/dipped-side-table-g501/?pkey=ccoffee-side-tables#viewLargerHeroOverlay

The Picture Wall

So Kathy's new condo had this amazing long wall running from the main entrance to the kitchen to the living space.  We decided to treat it like a gallery wall, printing here travel architectural shots in B&W with a couple graphics in colour to break it up.  I thrifted and painted most of the frames.  We have a few more to go, but I think I like where it's going....

Night stand

So I've been busy, I swear...just too lazy to post.  So again I forgot the before pic until I was well into the project.  I picked up this little cabinet at Salvation Army for $10.  Another $10 in hardware and some leftover paint and it was quite the re-do.

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After:

I cut the feather images from tissue paper and set them into the wet paint.  Since the cabinet was a veneer, it needed two coats of primer first, then a coat of poly to seal it up, so that the tissue wouldn't get scraped off.  I was pretty happy with how it turned out.

Finished Bathroom!

So after weeks of waiting we finally finished our mini bathroom reno.  A new toilet, floor, lights, paint and accessories and its good enough to last us through the next few years.  The befores I have are from what we did when we first moved in, a few months ago I posted the previous owners bathroom decor.

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New Side Tables

I saw this this first table at Salvation Army for $6 and could not pass it up.  I kind of forgot to take a before pick, so here it is kind of mid-way.  I realize I didn't do much with just a fresh coat of paint, but I think it's just about spotting a diamond in the rough.

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The second side table a a re-do of a table I got from a retailer that they were discarding after a reno.  I've always liked it but wanted to add a bit more pop to it.

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I used a paint stripper on the metal inlay in the centre of the table to bring back the metal finish.

New Bathroom Lights

So the New bathroom is almost done I wanted to show my new light fixtures before you see the final product.

These are the original fixtures:

These are the after.

Its an Ikea fixture where I replaced the glass covers with small mason jars.  I realized I'm not the first to do this, but it doesn't make me love it any less.  At a total cost of $35 for two fixtures and $1 for the jars, I'm pretty impressed.

New toy box

So I wanted a place to store some of Baby's toys in her room.  It's an itsy room so the rest will go downstair in her eventual playroom.  But for now I wanted a box for a select few toys.  I bought a end of season sale flower planter from a big box store as well as some casters.  I attached the casters to the bottom,  now the box has the option of siding behind the crib.

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After: