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Fawn Rumfield

Shared Toddler Room Reveal! – Spring One Room Challenge Week Eight

I cannot believe this room is finished! It’s been eight weeks of super intense working on making over my son’s room for my son and daughter to share. Their gender neutral, English country inspired room is just what I envisioned and I can’t believe it’s come to life! Or that I did 90% of it by myself! As a quick reminder before we dive into it, let’s just take a look back just eight short weeks ago:

Boring and basic, the floors had been refinished when we first moved in, and the walls painted white, but that was about it. The room itself didn’t have a “design.” Now, hold on to your hats people, because I cannot believe this is the same room.

We added the beadboard, chair rail, and picture rail ourselves, and I used a stencil that was generously gifted by Stencil Revolution to give the upper portion of the wall a faux wallpaper look. The green is Equestrian Green, the tan upper portion is called Windswept Leaves, and the stenciled color is called Split Rail, all by Behr. The walls alone really make the space and give it the antique, English, equestrian vibe I was going for. The white was necessary for a quick move in timeline, but it’s time it got some character.

The beds were my launching off point for the rest of the design. I found them on Facebook Marketplace almost a year ago, and I’ve been storing them in my garage until now. I bought them from a sweet retired couple who used them when their children were small. They had bought them at an antique store in the 1980’s, but they believed they were from the turn of the century. It was meant to be because so is our house!

Most of the art and decor was found secondhand at estate sales and thrift stores. I reused but reworked the curtains by adding blackout liners and drapery pins. The dresser is also the same dresser that was in here before, but it looks much more fitting now. More on the dresser in this post.

The pillow shams were from a basic set, but I had them embroidered locally. I had a hard time finding someone who could do exactly what I was looking for, but the ladies at The Perfect Pair were so helpful and worked with me to get exactly the look I was hoping for. I think the monogrammed pillows give it a touch of class (as classy as two beds made up for toddlers can be).

The light fixture was a $50 Amazon find (I know!) which worked well to replace the old shadeless ceiling fan that was there with something that looked like a cute vintage light but came with the ease of modern wiring and installation.

Because most of my items were found secondhand, they aren’t linkable, but what I did purchase new is linked below.

Thank you so much for stopping by and checking out the kids new space. This is a room that I’m really proud of, and is something that I truly feel is a reflection of our home style. I worked on this solely during naptimes and after bedtimes for the last two months, and every time my oldest woke up, he would immediately go to “the new room” and check on the progress. Both of the kids love the space, and they can’t wait to spend their first night in the newly made over space. I wanted to make the room feel sophisticated but also fun and whimsy, and I’m so pleased with how it all came together.

Now, remember this? This was the original moodboard for the design. I am so thrilled to see it in the flesh. It’s honestly the nicest room in our house now.

And last but not least, just one more for the road. I truly cannot believe this is the same room.

I would love to hear your thoughts! And after you’ve let me know what you think, be sure to go see some of the other great reveals happening today. That’s all for today, friends! Have a fabulous day!

May 25, 2022 by Fawn Rumfield

Furniture Makeover

Spring One Room Challenge Week Six: How to Remove Veneer from Wood Furniture

Week One | Week Two | Week Three | Week Four | Week Five

Week Six already?! We are in the home stretch now and truly have the hardest work completely behind us now. This week I turned my attention to refinishing a dresser that was already in the room. You may remember it from the before photos.

This dresser was mine as a kid, and my mom’s before that. It’s been painted a countless number of times throughout my life, and the blue was just its most recent iteration. Several years ago, I attempted to strip it, but it was covered in a midcentury veneer style that I just didn’t love, and so I painted it again. I know a little more about furniture restoration and antiques than I did several years ago, so this time I decided the time was right to remove the veneer and see what was underneath.

I started out with a layer of SmartStrip. It’s a nontoxic paint stripper that cuts through multiple layers. I’ve only used it once before, but it’s what I had on hand, and it’s relatively safe for indoor use since there’s almost no odor, so I figured it was my best bet. I wrapped in plastic wrap and let it sit overnight.

Now, I expected it to take off the paint, but what I didn’t expect was for it to begin lifting the veneer as well. After about 24 hours, some of the veneer had begun to bubble. Which was a pleasant surprise for me, because my goal was to remove the veneer anyway. However, if you have a piece that has veneer you’d like to keep, SmartStrip is going to be too strong.

One coat of SmartStrip was enough to remove about 80% of the veneer! I saved myself a step of removing the paint first and then the veneer which is what I assumed I would have to do, but there was still some that needed another method to remove.

I used some old hand towels (they should be thicker than rags, but they will be ruined, so you want to use ones you don’t care about), and got them damp with the hottest water I could handle. I laid the damp towels over the veneer, and then set my iron on top of it.

It creates a ton of steam, which loosens the glue so that the veneer can be removed fairly easily with a putty knife.

I actually found this to be easier physically than scraping with the SmartStrip, but it was more time consuming.

Once I had all the veneer scraped off, I had to sand myself into oblivion. I sanded with an 80 grit, a 120 grit, and finally a 220 grit to make sure everything was super smooth. I then coated with a coat of polyurethane (water based because I was working on it indoors and didn’t want to deal with the odors). I did two coats of polyurethane, with a light sand with 220 grit sandpaper in between.

You can see in the photo above that I didn’t strip the paint from the bottom of the drawers, which if you look closely, you can see all the different color lives its lived. The purple was the color it was in my own baby nursery!

And now, it looks like the antique heirloom piece that it is! The pine looks so lovely in its natural state, and I am so glad I decided to leave it this color and not stain it. The hardware is the same hardware that was previously on it, but sporting a fresh coat of Rub N Buff in Antique Gold.

You’ll have to pardon the photo angle, I’m strategically hiding a few elements in the room I’m not ready to share yet. So you’ll have to check back for the full reveal in just two weeks to see how the dresser looks in its new home!

Be sure to check out the other participants’ weekly updates, and stay tuned, because the reveal will be here before you know it! That’s all for today, friends! Have a fabulous day!

May 11, 2022 by Fawn Rumfield

House Progress

Spring One Room Challenge Week Five: Paint Diaries

Week One | Week Two | Week Three | Week Four

Another week, another post from the depths of paint despair. I always start off optimistic about a paint job, and then end up becoming slowly disenchanted with the work as time goes on. As I mentioned before, the paint in this room is pretty involved, and from the outset, I budgeted myself two weeks just to paint. As of the time of this writing, it’s been exactly two weeks since I put the first coat of paint on a surface, and I probably have one more day of painting before I’m officially done.

I have shown you guys the green paint that is the majority of the room, but I haven’t talked about here what my plans were for the upper portion of the wall. I am doing a faux wallpaper look (more on that later I promise!) using just paint. I’ve done it with a few different methods in the past, and so I’m lovingly referring to this “wallpaper” as Fake Wallpaper3.0. While I’m not ready to show you what the wallpaper is, I want to share what color I painted the wall as a base for Fake Wallpaper3.0. I’m going for a moody, English country style, and so I chose Windswept Leaves by Behr to help darken the space. It’s not transferring super well in the photo I snapped today, it’s a lovely camel shade and less of a gold, but I think it’ll serve as the perfect backdrop for what I’m hoping to achieve with the faux wallpaper.

Does it not bring some drama to the situation? I’m excited to show you what’s coming next, but I’ll have to leave you in some suspense! Be sure to check out the other ORC guests this week as they reveal their progress too. That’s all for today, have a fabulous day!

May 4, 2022 by Fawn Rumfield

House Progress

Spring One Room Challenge Week Four: What Sheen of Paint Should I Use For…?

Week One | Week Two | Week Three

It’s week four of the One Room Challenge and I didn’t officially cross off one single item off the list. I’ve been working on trim painting all week (with a break over the weekend) because there is so much trim. I’m knee deep in paint, and honestly there’s no end in sight. The paint in this room is so much more detailed than just slapping a coat of paint on the wall and calling it a day. There will end up being three different colors (you’ve only seen one so far!) and three different sheens (you’ve seen two so far).

I figured this might be a good opportunity to chat about the three main sheens of paint I use throughout my home and for what purposes. Of course, rules are meant to be broken, but this is a general guiding principle and what I’ve found works best in my own house.

Flat Finish:

Honestly this is good for one thing and one thing only. Ceilings. You can see even in the terrible quality iphone photo above that the paint on the ceiling absorbs the light. It’s dark, but it won’t reflect light, which I guess is helpful for sleeping? I don’t know guys, I’m not an expert. It’s been said that flat paint can’t get wet, and that might be an outdated assumption as paint technology has improved over the years, but I’m still not taking any chances. I’ll leave it to the ceilings.

Semi-Gloss Finish

I use semi-gloss on all of my trim, painted doors and cabinets, and walls in my bathroom. (That last bit might be contentious in some circles, so don’t quote me on this, this is just what I find works for my house.) You can see in this picture that even though the ceiling and the trim are the same color, they reflect light completely differently. Semi-gloss is also much more wipeable, making it a good contender for trim. Have you cleaned the trim next to your doorknobs lately? That gets gross so quickly. Or maybe that’s just my house with toddler granola bar fingers running around. But I digress.

Eggshell Finish

Lastly, I use eggshell finish on almost all of my walls. It falls in between flat and semi-gloss, as it’s somewhat wipeable but it’s also a little more forgiving that flat. I’ll be painting the walls with eggshell finish, although I haven’t started yet, so there’s no visible example of it in this photo. But trust, eggshell is the way to go on *most* interior walls.

Like I said, rules are made to be broken, but this has worked for me. When I rolled up to Home Depot to get my paint order with very specific color and sheen requests, I know the employee was side eyeing me, but what can I say, I’ve painted a lot of rooms!

I probably have about two more weeks of painting ahead of me, as I have some more to finish on the trim (looking at you, windows), and then I’ve got the walls as well, but I can’t wait to see all of it come together. It’s getting so good! Be sure to head over to the One Room Challenge’s Blog page so you can see what everyone else has been up to this week. That’s it for today, have a fabulous day!

April 27, 2022 by Fawn Rumfield

House Progress

Spring One Room Challenge Week Three: Trim Finishes and COLOR

Three weeks in and I’m starting to feel like I can *see* this room. (If you haven’t caught up on weeks one and two, you may want to do that first.) You know when you still have so much left to do, but all of a sudden there’s a point in a project where you can start to see your vision come to life? That’s where I am this week.

We finished last week with beadboard up on the wall and that was it. I had to do a lot of work to actually finish out the beadboard so it looked good, and even more to do before I could start getting paint on the wall, but I was determined to start getting color on this week. Thankfully Ethan was home this week and able to help me. I wouldn’t have gotten as much done as I did without him, but we made it with not a moment to spare!

Let’s walk through what we did this week.

First thing we did was add the chair rail to sit along the top of the beadboard. It immediately looks so much more professional with just that simple addition. It’s easy to gloss over all of the finish work, but it takes hours to fill nail holes, sand, caulk seams, and clean up in between each of those steps, so I don’t want to negate that work.

Once we completely finished the beadboard, we were ready to install picture rail. A lot of people don’t know what picture rail is, and if you had asked me a few years ago, I wouldn’t have known either. Picture rail is a type of decorative molding somewhere near the ceiling. Sometimes it’s installed right up close to the ceiling, mimicking the look of crown molding, and other times it’s installed 10-12 inches down on the wall. It’s most common in historic homes and in art museums. The profile of the rail or molding is round, and the purpose is to hang a round hook from the top to be able to hang and display art. In older homes it was common to have plaster walls, which are notoriously difficult to hang things from. Enter the solution. You can easily hang things without any nails, screws, etc. It’s super practical!

Since our second floor has nine foot ceilings, we decided to install it a little bit down on the wall, and our laser level came in handy…for demonstrating once again how nothing in this house is actually straight. If you look closely above the window you can see how the top of the window does not line up with the laser. Thankfully once I hang curtains you won’t be able to tell. Remember that because this room is totally crooked, I’m trying to give the illusion of straight visual lines.

So picture rail was hung (that was 100% Ethan, all I did was stand back and make sure it was lined up and pass the nail gun), caulked, wood filled, and sanded. I am so glad we added this, it is definitely in keeping with the historic feel of our home, and definitely helps with the traditional style I’m going for in this room. I also primed all the walls that had been floated last week.

Then, my dear friends, it was time to start painting. I don’t usually do this, and certainly can’t recommend this, but I did not want to waste time with painting different samples on the walls, so I picked straight from the chip and oh.my.gosh. I am in love.

This is after just one coat of Behr Equestrian Green (we love to see a paint color name on theme!). I did paint a second coat since this photo was taken. It’s my first time painting a colored ceiling and I’m wishing I had done it sooner! I also decided to extend the color on the wall above the picture rail as well, which I’m really pleased with.

So, that’s the update. The next weeks will be painting myself into oblivion, as there is so much painting yet to do, but I’m really excited to keep you posted. Make sure you check out the other bloggers who are doing the One Room Challenge, things are starting to get really good! That’s it for today, have a fabulous day!

April 20, 2022 by Fawn Rumfield

House Progress

Spring One Room Challenge Week Two: Old House Challenges

I can’t believe we are already onto the second week of the One Room Challenge! If you missed last week’s post with the design plan for the space, be sure to check it out here. I have been hard at work this week, feeling both frustrated and excited.

My first task was to float the walls along the upper section of the room with joint compound. This room has an “orange peel” texture that’s pretty common in homes here in the south, as well as in new construction. It’s not appropriate in a historic home, and I personally just don’t like the look of it, so I decided to smooth it out. It requires a large putty knife and lightweight joint compound, and it’s akin to frosting a large cake.

Once it’s applied I had to sand, which was a serious arm workout. It’s an underestimated task to be sure, but it’s not technically difficult.

Then came the head scratchingly difficult part. In typical old house style, the room is completely unlevel. The floor on one side of the room is two inches higher than the other side, making the entire wall slanted. I wanted to add beadboard to the lower portion of my wall, but it wasn’t as simple as measuring the height from the floor up and making straight cut across. I wanted to give the illusion of a straight line, so that meant each piece had to be cut at a slight angle. I don’t know if this is even making sense. It barely made sense to me. I purchased a laser level, and it was my saving grace for installing these beadboard panels at a straight-looking-but-not-actually-straight height.

For the first portion of the week, Ethan was out of town working, so I was attempting to figure out how to get everything installed correctly by myself. Needless to say, once he returned from his trip and was able to help me, things went a lot more smoothly.

We finished up the beadboard late last night, and although it’s not pretty progress, I do think it will be the most laborious and difficult part of the process, so I’m glad to have it checked off the list during the first week.

Next, I will need to fill nail holes and sand the beadboard to prep it for paint, then install the chair rail that will sit on top of the beadboard, and the picture rail that will sit higher up on the wall. Those will hopefully go much quicker than my beadboard install (and I really hope I don’t come back next week completely regretting these words)!

Now, I have to get back to work, but be sure to check out some other projects being completed this season over on the One Room Challenge Blog. There are some projects that I really can’t wait to see come to life! That’s it for today, friends. Have a fabulous day!

April 13, 2022 by Fawn Rumfield

House Progress

Spring One Room Challenge Week One: The Plan

They say necessity is the mother of invention, right? So here I am once again, changing a kid’s space to make room for another baby. My youngest is getting booted out of the nursery, so we will be having our two children share a room for the first time. To get them excited about the transition, I knew I wanted to do something special in the room. The trick here is that our almost four year old boy and our almost two year old girl will be sharing, so I didn’t want it to be too boyish or too girlish. I also wanted to take into account my kids’ likes and interests while blending them with each other and still fitting in to the rest of the house.

I’m excited to share the design board for the space, which will be along the lines of a “traditional-English Country-but-still-sophisticated-for-a-toddler” space. Our home was built in 1895, so you know I just can’t bring myself to anything too trendy.

This room is actually my son’s current room. It was his nursery which we hastily threw together in the few weeks between the time we moved into the home and the time he was born. As he got older and transitioned out of a crib, we brought in a bed, and took out the rocker, but that was about it. We never did much to make a “big boy room.” The light fixture is still a broken ceiling fan that was there when we moved in and never replaced. It’s long overdue for a makeover, and since it’ll soon be housing both my son and my daughter, I figured this was the perfect time. I’m super excited to be working on this space over the next several weeks and finally bring this room to a fully finished space.

As you can see, it just kind of looks like a collection of things that got added slowly over time, and not in a good way. It’s haphazard instead of intentional. I do plan to reuse some of the things in the room, but a lot more is coming.

Be sure to follow along as I make this room into a room I hope both my toddlers will be excited about. I also can’t wait to see what other DIYers are doing in their spaces, and plan to follow along with them too! I’ll be sharing lots of real time updates on Instagram, and weekly progress reports here too. That’s all for today, have a fabulous day!

April 6, 2022 by Fawn Rumfield

Uncategorized

Vintage Style Planters for Spring

Spring is definitely in the air lately, and it seems gardening is the only thing on my mind. I have started my herb seedlings indoors, and I’m anxiously awaiting temperatures warm enough to get them in the ground. I also have been gifted some lovely flowers lately, which I’ve repotted into some of my vintage planters that I’ve gathered at estate sales over the years. They’ve got me absolutely itching for warmer weather!

I usually do several planters, two of which I flank on either side of my front porch steps with a simple fern. Is there anything more classic? While my fern pots sit empty waiting for warmer weather, I’m also thinking about how I can improve my garden beds this spring. It’s a goal of mine to grow in gardening expertise.

I’m always looking out for planters when I’m at estate sales and thrift stores, and I have found all of mine this way, but the thing about thrifting is that is takes time and patience. If you’re looking to spruce up your porch or patio for spring, I found several classic and traditional style planters that would totally mix in with vintage pieces. These are a range of price points and materials, but there are a few I have my eye on as I’m planning my garden for the year.

Happy almost spring, and happy gardening! That’s all for today friends, have a fabulous day!

March 9, 2022 by Fawn Rumfield

House Progress

Our Black House REVEAL!

After almost four years of living in this house, it finally has a fresh coat of paint! It’s been a long time coming, and we are so excited to finally have it done! I talked about different ideas we had here, and shared what we decided on here.

I wish we were further into the spring season, because these photos will really pop against lots of fresh greenery. We are in the drab brown of winter still, but I just couldn’t wait to show you guys the new look!

We used Sherwin Williams Black Magic for all of the siding, Tricorn Black for the trim, and Aleutian for the porch floors and ceilings. Everything was done in a satin finish, as was recommended by multiple painters for a couple of reasons. One, it will hopefully collect less dirt and dust than a flat finish, and two, it will give some reflection against the hot Texas sun come summer time. We are anticipating some warmer temperatures from the dark color come summer, but it was a risk we were willing to take to get the look we were going for. Now, let’s get to those before and after photos, shall we?

From my best estimates, the yellow was done in the early 90’s, and routinely touched up until about fifteen years ago. The lifespan of exterior paint in this climate is about 10 years, so it was definitely past its prime.

To have this side porch finally look like a connected and finished piece of the house is so meaningful to us. In the oldest photo we have of our house (1983), the porch was boarded up with plywood. When we purchased the house, it was covered with a thick smoke colored plexiglass as a sort of sun porch. It’s barely visible in this photo below, from the weekend we closed on the house. We tore down the plexiglass and the drywall that covered exterior siding right away, but were waiting to fully restore the porch until we painted the house. It’s been an eyesore as long as we’ve lived here and it feels so good to have it back as it was intended!

There is still a bit of work to do. I need to do some work to repair the front door and give it a fresh coat of shellac (it is dryyyyyyy as a bone but I wouldn’t let the painters touch it). Come spring, I need to get some plants in the ground to freshen up the porch and bring it to life.

Overall, I could not be more pleased with how it turned out. It was certainly a bold choice, but we absolutely love it. It’s a fresh take on an old house that leaves all the historic elements intact, and that’s all I could ever hope to accomplish. Thanks for cheering me on and sharing your thoughts during the process, it’s certainly been a long road to get here. That’s all for today friends, have a fabulous day!

February 28, 2022 by Fawn Rumfield

House Progress

Our Exterior Design Plans

If you’ve been following along with our house progress, we’ve talked on and off about painting the exterior of our home for quite a while. It was second on a list of larger projects, and so after some foundation work that we had done last fall, we were ready to turn our attention to the exterior. We’ve known since we first bought the house that it would need some fresh paint. The yellow is not my favorite, but more importantly than that, it hasn’t been even touched in over fifteen years, and I’m not sure when this coat was put on to begin with.

A year ago, I was thinking and dreaming up ideas for the colors, and wrote about it here. Now that we’ve had some time to think it through (I’d say a year to mull it over is a good amount of time!), we’ve decided to go with….. black on black monochrome!

The work is scheduled to begin in just a few weeks! I’ll share the exact colors we’ve landed on when it’s finished, which I’m hoping will be early spring when everything is turning green. It’s all dependent on weather though, so fingers crossed everything works out.

I know it’s a very bold color choice and certainly very trendy at the moment. This is the type of project that I think it’s okay to be trendy with. Hear me out. The act of painting a wood siding house in itself is not contentious, like painting antique brick or painting quality hardwood floors. Exterior siding needs to be painted, and it has a pretty short shelf life because of its exposure to the elements. It’s not something that you can do once and leave for fifty years. During the course of this project we will be repairing a lot of rotted trim, replacing decorative trim pieces that have been removed, and tidying up some remnants of old renovations that don’t quite make sense (For example: why is there drywall on the ceiling of a porch? Drywall doesn’t belong outside!). So while the color itself is trendy now, the work and care that are going to go into the outside of the house will leave it in better condition than it is currently in. And, in ten to fifteen years if we decide we don’t like it anymore, that’s okay, because it’ll be time for fresh paint anyway.

Over the course of the last couple of years, I have had people ask if we’re planning on doing the work ourselves. While that’s maybe a compliment to our abilities, we’re hiring this out completely. We technically could do the work ourselves, but we aren’t really interested. Ethan has a full time job, plus a job at the church, so he works six days a week. I am home with little snippets of free time during naps and after bedtime, so while it might technically be possible for us to do it, it honestly would take the better part of a year to complete it (not to mention constantly renting a lift…our house is very tall!), and I just am not interested in doing it.

I hope to share more about it soon once things are rolling. I can’t wait to show you all the end result! That’s all for today, Have a fabulous day!

February 4, 2022 by Fawn Rumfield

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