Our Faux Wood Floor

Over labor day weekend my hubby and I decided it was finally time to replace this gross pink carpet in his man cave.



The large wooden piece just inside the door is his desk, (aka the world of warcraft lair) and since the room occasionally doubles as a guestroom when his parents come to visit there is a daybed with a pop-up trundle against the far wall. Can you believe that when we moved in this room also included coral walls and a wall of mirror? Ugh. Trust me, as humble as it looks now, it was much worse before.

The other door on the right opens to our storage room.



Aside from the fact that the pink color wasn't exactly working in the man cave, our former pet cat decided to favor a spot behind the door in this room when she decided to refuse her litter box. Disgusting. Yeah, I'm not real choked up about the loss of this particular pet!

If any of you have ever dealt with this lovely problem before, you know that the smell of cat pee permeates everything and is impossible to wash out of carpet, especially once it gets into the padding and the sub floor like it did here. Can you tell I'm in no hurry to get another pet?! Maybe it's my super sensitive prego sniffer, but to me there's no worse smell in the universe. Cat pee is my kryptonite!

Since there is pergo flooring throughout the rest of the basement, we decided to do a faux wood peel and stick plank floor (Thanks to Pink and Polka Dot for giving me this idea- make sure and check out her faux wood floor!), and I have to say the whole process was pretty easy (no saws required since you can cut it with a pair of scissors!) and very inexpensive- just 98 cents/square foot!

First we cleared the room...


Then we ripped up the carpet (which was actually really easy).

Then came the hardest part of the job, pulling up the tacking strips around the perimeter of the room (sorry- no photo of this step!) My hubby popped them off with the back side of a hammer.

Next we cleaned the floor to get rid of all the dust and debris.

Then, to really get rid of the smell we painted the cement floor beneath with Kilz. This also gave a good surface for the flooring to adhere to.

The next day we got started laying the new floor. We started in the center of the room so that if the room is not exactly plumb, the floor wouldn't be obviously slanted on one end- make sense? Once we made sure we had a straight line marked across the center of the room, we started peeling and sticking!



It took about 3-4 hours to do the whole room, but it was really easy. I loved that it was so easy to cut the "planks" with a scissor to get a good fit around corners. Before we knew it the room looked like this!

The last step was to use either a 100 lb. roller (which I think you can rent from your local home improvement store) or a strong hubby and a rolling pin (we went with option B!) and roll the whole floor to make sure the adhesive makes good contact with the floor beneath.


I couldn't be happier with it the results!




A big thank you to Pink and Polka Dot for giving me this idea!

Now if only I can get my hubby to let me decorate in here...


Love,

Completed (mostly) Dining Room Reveal and a little anouncement!

Okay, do you really want to hear me apologize again for leaving you hanging for so long between posts? Well, I have a really good excuse this time. I've been sick. And tired. And I couldn't be happier about it. There's a bun in the oven, y'all! And I dont' mean this kind:


I'm expecting baby Fitz #3 around March 11, 2011! I'm now officially in my second trimester and finally feeling better. I've gotten a few projects completed over the last week or so that I'm excited to show you. I'll show you my dining room today and the other things throughout the week.

To all my blogging buddies- sorry I haven't been visiting. I haven't been doing much of anything other than squeezing in naps whenever possible and popping antacids! Anyone else have crazy heartburn during their first trimester?? I still have some heartburn, but the morning noon and night sickness has drastically subsided. Thank GOD!!

To refresh your memories here's my dining room before shot:





First off, thank goodness for Gorilla Glue! You've seen two of these chinese chippendale side chairs in my dining room before shots, but I actually owned four side chairs, two of which were sitting in my storage room because I thought they were beyond repair. Thanks to Gorilla Glue Clear, and some strategically placed rubber bands, I now have 4 sturdy side chairs (plus the two arm chairs that reside in my living room). I gave them a fresh coat of spray paint (my first time using Heirloom White and of course, I love it!) and reupholstered the seats and they have a new lease on life!


Here's a closeup of the fabric, purchased from fabricguru.com:


Here's another quick and easy makeover- I relined the back of my china cabinet with grasscloth I purchased at Jenny's sale and added some pretty velvet ribbon to add a little more interest.


Adding the ribbon with my trusty hot-glue gun only took a few minutes and I am so in love with the effect of this little detail...


By the way, this whole makeover was planned around my china pattern, "Lichfield" by Royal Doulton. Planning around the colors in my china was a bit limiting, but I love the result. If there are any brides-to-be reading, if you're choosing a china pattern and are considering a colorful pattern, make sure you really love it because you'll be decorating your dining room around it for the rest of your life! Simpler patterns are much easier to decorate around!


These little sconce/ledges were a goodwill find with the homegoods stickers still on the back! I originally wanted some beautiful framed chinese paintings on silk, but the right pair eluded me several times on ebay, and I didn't want to have this room on hold any longer! Then when I found these ledges I wanted the perfect pair of either ginger jars or blanc de chine jars or vases, but that also seems to be a tall order (for what I'm willing to pay!) so at least for now, I'm using what I have!!

The ledge actually doesn't have a groove for a plate, so I added two raised lines of hot glue and let it dry to make a little groove for a plate. It worked great.


Isn't this mirror gorg? It makes me swoon.

Don't be jealous, but I got it for free at my absolute favorite place for home decor shopping- my mom's basement. Score! Thanks so much, Mom! I Love it!

Here's what I came up with for the dining room side of the infamous 3-sided fireplace:


There may be a mantle in the not-too-distant future for this fireplace, so I didn't agonize too much over what to put here, but here it is for now. Excuse the weird reflection on the far left wall!

I got the large script "F" from Back40Life with my gift certificate when I won the $5 challenge. I had another spot in mind for it, but it didn't quite work there and I love it here. I also ordered something for my daughters' room which I'll show you in the next few days...

On the left side are 12 beautiful mirrored frames I found for $4 each at- get this- Sears Outlet. If you have one near by it's worth a stop. They don't just have fantastic deals on appliances (I also bought a new oven there a few weeks ago when our old one blew up- long story) my store now also carries their Lands End items- including home items- for 80% off retail!


I filled them with vintage botanical prints that I printed out for free from the NYC Public Library website.

Now there's one thing I'd love you all to weigh in on. Now that I have 4 of the slipcovered parson chairs and 4 fully functional chinese chippendale side chairs, I can't decide whether to leave the parsons chairs as the side chairs with the CC chairs as the host chairs or vice versa. Whichever chairs act as the host chairs, their mates will sit aside the china cabinet...

Do you like it better like this:



Or like this:

Hmmm, I think if I leave it like this I should monogram the host chairs...



What say you??

Here are some links to the other projects in this room:
Easy Pinch Pleated Drapes
Henriksdal Dining Chair Slipcovers
DIY Faux Wainscoting and Paint

Love,