Gift Wrap Closet

I feel like this next sentence is the most grown up thing I've written in awhile....

I, Courtney Shearer have a gift wrap closet. I mean, how luxurious does that sound? HA! I really do have a closet that is now dedicated to all things gifts - cards, paper, boxes, bags etc....and it was fairly easy to get. I simply cleaned out a closet in our guest bedroom and utilized the space for something specific instead of another place to just shove all the things. Earth shattering I know, but I'm pretty excited about the end results monetarily and organizationally speaking!

So, the closet is in the Guest Bedroom we have been making over. It was actually one of the first things we did in this space before we started selling furniture and trimming out walls. Here is a shot of the before:

As we have slowly fixed up various rooms in the house I feel like our junk piles just get moved from room to room and closet to closet. This particular closet was out of control. You see I had to pull out junk just to get one of the doors to completely open! From clothes to sell, to Lot's jump-a-roo and everything in between this closet was FULL and I prayed for any guest who needed to actually hang something in the closet. Good luck to them.

With the closet cleared out you can see what we were working with. A single wire shelf. 

The space is not deep front to back, but does have some length to it, so we wanted to add more function and actually utilize the space we did have. Now, we could of gone all out here, I mean I do work around some amazing closet designers and we all know Brent can hold his own when it comes to building out some cabinets, but for this space we decided to go the fast, in-expensive route and just stay with the wire shelving. The game plan was to keep the one shelf we had and add 3 more shelves underneath. To maintain some long hang we got the 3 additional shelves in a shorter length to leave 32" open for guests to use.

Brent spaced the shelves 12" apart and he got to work setting the new shelves in place.

It was a relatively quick process and that was with two little people "helping".

Next, I went to work selectively loading the shelves. One of the great things about a project like this is the opportunity to purge. When you have a new cabinet, a new shelf or a new room you don't want to fill it with junk, you find yourself more inclined to thoughtfully go through items and either donate, relocate or throw out. I knew I wanted this closet to house guest room essentials like extra pillows and blankets and beyond that it would house seasonal throw pillows, my giant dressing-making bowl that won't fit anywhere else, and our gift wrapping supplies. 

I have two large containers full of wrapping paper which I pushed all the way in the corner. I also stacked an assortment of boxes back there too.

For the front section I got little baskets to house ribbon, tags, tissue paper, etc...I even found a box to store all of our cards. I labeled each section per card type - birthday, get well, congrats and thank you.

And finally I used 3 hangers to hold all of our gift bags!! It's like organizational heaven. Extreme I know, but it feels so good and fresh and organized and honestly it couldn't come at a better time because with the holidays upon us and gift wrapping about to ensue, knowing where all of my supplies are is going to save me time and money! Hallelujah for that!


All photo are my own. 

Guest Room Progress + A Light Paint Matched to a Skirt

We are rolling right along over in our Guest Bedroom Makeover. This past weekend we finished up the trim + paint, installed the bed AND switched out the ceiling fan for a chandelier. 

I found the chandelier on Facebook Market Place for $40. I drove to get it last week and was excited about the elegant factor it was sure to add to the space. We got it hung Saturday morning and the room instantly felt elevated.

Next, Brent put together the bed we purchased from Wayfair and guys - this bed was $146.75. Such a good price for a king bed and we were really pleased with the look and quality once it was set up. The only negative....the bronze color of the bed was fighting with the brassy/bronze color of the light. While we liked the color of the light we knew from the beginning we may end of painting it so we started tossing around paint color options - white, gray....plum? HA - one of these is not like the other but believe it or not Brent and I almost instantly agreed that a dramatic deep purple/plum color in a semi-gloss sheen could look really great in the space. The inspiration - a faux leather skirt of mine. Brent took the skirt to Home Depot and color matched it. Pretty spot on, right?

Next, Brent set up a make-shift paint booth out by the shed so he could spray the light. 

I have to admit it was a little scary watching the light turn from a pretty brassy color to plum, but we kept reminding ourselves it was just paint and if it was hideous we would just re-paint it. 

It took a few coats and we let it dry for several hours before bringing her back inside to install. 

Photographing this light was a beast. Daylight savings has not been my friend when it comes to capturing the true colors of the space, but the shot above is the best I got to really show off the color. Overall, we think we like it. I especially love how the glossy deep purple hue accentuates the details of the chandelier. We purchased these candelabra sleeves also from Amazon for each light so the electrical wires would be concealed. The color definitely feels good in the space, but I knew I needed to see the whole space come together with bedding, etc...to know for sure. I found these sheets on Amazon, another great deal - $29.70  for a King Sheet Set. There are 62 THOUSAND reviews raving about these sheets so I gave them a whirl. I got the white, and so far, they are super soft and nice. We got the bed all made up last night and things are feeling really good. Next up - nightstands, lamps, art....you know, more pretty. Excited to get this space wrapped up soon, just in time for the holidays! 

All photos are my own. 

Guest Room Makeover - The Before

Wanna hear an embarrassing story about our guest bedroom? Shortly after we moved into this house (4 years ago - crazy!!) we had a house guest. In my mind it was a last minute thing, but honestly, it may of been a planned thing, I can't remember. Regardless he ended up having to go to the store to buy his own soap!! T H E  H O R R OR! I mean honestly, could I be a worst hostess? After that I made an oath to be better. The first step was obviously to stock up on the essentials and the second step was to make a cautious effort to make our guest room has comfortable as possible. Since then we have done our best with what we had to work with, but anyone at the beginning, middle or end of making your house a home knows it is a process and certain rooms/projects just tend to take priority over others for one reason or another, but it is finally time for our Guest Bedroom to get some attention.

The first step in making over this space was to remove some of the furniture. Like a lot of guest rooms this space was outfitted in furniture from times past. From my past specifically, it was from my childhood bedroom. I loved it, but the truth is guest rooms just don't need SO much furniture. We had a dresser, a chest and a nightstand in addition to the obvious bed. Guests just don't need all of that stuff. Regardless of how long a guest stays they never move stuff into the drawers, so most were completely empty or worse stuffed full of stuff we didn't even know we had. Anyone else? What is it with our human need to fill any and all spaces we have!? So, I sold most of the items in a weekend and suddenly the room was feeling a lot more open and inviting.

In a perfect world we really wanted to incorporate a king bed into this space. I know this statement is full on diva, but once you sleep in a king bed, it's so hard to go back to a queen, but sadly a king just wouldn't fit on the wall.  Then, last Friday something amazing happened -  Brent said what if we moved the bed to the window wall, so we flipped it around and....BOOM:

Not only does this orientation just feel better, but now there is plenty of room for a king bed! So I listed the bed on Facebook Marketplace it was gone by the afternoon. Now, with an empty room we were ready to add some details and get the space prepped for new finishes.

The goal was to try to elevate this space to match the adjacent guest bath that we did last year, remember that space? While I know I haven't shared the full reveal of that space yet (coming soon - promise!) it's on the fancy-ish side and I wanted the room to have the same vibe. The game plan was to add trim to each wall. We tossed around adding a chair-rail and wainscoting but ultimately decided to do a fairly simple series of rectangles on each wall using a dainty trim piece.

Like all DIY projects these days it's a family affair, so Brent and Croix got to measuring :)

All of the trim cost a little over $100 and Brent got the pieces cut and installed in a matter of hours. 

We are painting the walls white - White Dove OC-17 (same color as most walls in our house) because A. it's a good color and B. I have a ton of the paint on hand so it just made sense. I got started on painting all of the trim on Sunday but Brent ran out of trim for the last little sliver of wall and of course every Home Depot in the area was out as well, so we are hoping to get our hands on another stick or two today and finish up the painting tonight, but look how pretty it's looking so far....

If you follow me on Instagram stay tuned this weekend because we ordered a bed and I found a light on FB Marketplace all ready to be installed as soon as we can finish up this paint + trim I will be taking you through the whole process on stories!

All photos are my own. 

Console Table Makeover

Well, I'd say the first week of October is a good time to come back from summer vacation :) We had a great summer and really did try to lay off home projects and enjoy all the work we had done, namely our pool + backyard (hello...chickens!!). It was nice to relax, well as much as one can relax with a 3 year old and a now crawling baby roaming around. But now that it is officially fall we are ready to dip our toes back into some home improvements.

The first project kind of fell into my lap by way of my friend - Facebook Marketplace. Every time I'm in a new town I like to peruse the site to see if there are any treasures waiting to be snatched up. Last Saturday I found this gem in Tifton, GA for $65.

Yes, her coloring is, well hideous, but look at the bones. I love the fluted details, the curves of the top, the leg positioning, etc. Plus, I've been in the market for a console table for awhile now for the stair wall off the mudroom.

We've had this hutch that belonged to Brent's Great-Grandmother on this wall since we moved in and while I like the piece it just wasn't working for two reasons. Number one, several rooms in our home open to one another in the center of the house. An open floor plan is great, but the issue I was having was too many wood furniture pieces with different tones in one line of sight. We have our breakfast room table, a china cabinet, the antique laundry room door AND this hutch, all wood and all in different tones. It was just too much and this hutch sat in the center of it all, so it only made sense for this to be the piece to go. And number two, I don't have very many surfaces to house picture frames and I felt like this hutch was taking up prime real estate for a nice family photo right when you walk in from the garage.

As soon as we got the table home I started testing out possible paint color contenders.

We settled on Elephant Ear a pretty, true gray by Sherwin Williams. The next step was to sand the beast down and get the shine off.

Next up we got to painting. We bought the Behr Ultra paint + primer in one from Home Depot (did a color match for the Sherwin William's hue) which worked out really well, because it only took one coat. There were a few areas we touched up after it was all dry but the paint went on nice and smooth and the piece became prettier with each stroke of the brush.

Things got fun when Croix decided he wanted to help, so I talked him in to letting me paint the body of the piece and he could finish it up by painting the top. He was SO excited and only asked me 100 times if I was done yet and ready for him. Finally, it was his turn, and while wet paint (inside) + his 3 year old bouncy self could of been a disaster he did a pretty good job.

As soon as the paint was dry I was maneuvering this piece into it's new home and wow - love, love, love the way it turned out.

I had plans to replace the hardware but the distressed, brass knobs that came with the piece looked great with the new color. This side of the house feels so much more airy now and I love having a place to check my teeth before I walk out the door :)

For now I put a family photo from a few year's ago on the shelf, but I'm excited to get an updated version with Lot in there soon!

All photos are my own. 

Shed Update

Graciouuuuusss! I am SO behind on blogging. Life has been crazy and we have been chugging along on projects so it has been hard to find free time, but I have a lot to share, so let's jump right into it.

The Shed. 

You know you are getting old when having a whole day or weekend (gasp!) to dedicate to shed building gets you excited, BUT, alas here we are. Between the weather and family activities, the shed kind of got put on the back-burner for a few weeks. Luckily we found ourselves with some good dedicated time to dig in so we did just that. Last we talked the posts had been set in concrete and the floor joists had been installed. Next up, Brent laid a piece of plywood over the floor joists and ran his electrical up through the floor in two spots. We had coordinated to have power pulled to this location of the yard when we were doing the pool, so Brent pulled the electrical first at the back of the shed for outlets that would be installed on the back wall and then again at the front of the shed so a switch could be run to operate the lights on the front wall. Speaking of walls....those were next!

The first wall the guys tackled was the back wall. The plan was to build it, install the siding and get it painted before it was installed.

The shed is only about a foot from the fence, which is why this sequence of events was our best bet; if we had waited until it was installed it would have been really hard to paint as the ladder wouldn't fit behind the fence...

Once that wall was up, the side walls followed. The front wall was the trickiest because it had the door. Brent ended up constructing it in the garage and then some of our neighbors were super gracious and helped him carry it over to the shed. It was HEAVY and not something Croix and I felt we could be super helpful with :)

Once all the walls were up, it was time to install the siding on the rest of the shed.

Next, Brent trimmed everything out with 1x4's which really started to give it a more finished look.

For the roof we originally planned on installing shingles similar to those on our house, but somewhere a long the way I started thinking it would be cool if the roof was metal. Just something different for this structure since it wasn't actually attached to the house. On one of Brent's many trips to Home Depot he came across this corrugated plastic roofing material and brought home a piece for us to consider. It has the look of metal, but will hold up a lot better and won't be too loud when it rains (even though I think that's about the best sound in the world).

The cute factor went up about a million points with the addition of the roof. The scalloped edge detail hanging off the front is just so good looking and we were and are super happy with our choice here.

Last, we worked on the doors.  Once the doors were cut, we played around with specifics on the ground before Brent got everything nailed into place.

The cross pieces had to be really considered here because those pieces would be what the hinges mounted on. After a lot of playing around with spacing, we got it all figured out and set the doors in place.

Now.....this would seem like the appropriate time to start painting, but it was about now that we decided to get chickens and add a coop to the side of the shed. Yep, you read that right, but you will have to wait until next week to see how that unfolded. For now, I will leave you with this shot of the finished shed, painted and all.

Paint color: Kendall Charcoal by Benjamin Moore.

All photos are my own. 

The Shed

The weather was great in Atlanta this weekend so we decided to get started on a project we have had planned for a long time - a shed! Brent has a lot of tools and we have long needed a solution for storing them. Since moving in 3 years ago the tools have been spread around - some in our crawl space, some in the laundry room and others in the hall closet. As we continue to conquer rooms inside the house, we find ourselves moving the tools from location to location to just get them out of the way. BUT we use them a lot so carting them all the way to the crawl space every time is just not realistic. When we began the process of planning our back-yard project last year we knew we wanted to find a way to incorporate a shed in the side yard to organize and store all of this equipment. Close enough to the house for easy access, and big enough to really organize everything so we aren't constantly re-buying things we already have, but can't find (plumbers tape, caulk, paint brushes, nails and these are just a few examples of things we have double purchased as of late - so annoying!)

As the pool finished up late last year we really started talking about the exact location and specifics of the shed. We have a second driveway because our house currently sits on what used to be 2 lots. At the top of the second driveway we had a fence put in for safety reasons as it relates to the pool, but in doing so the perfect section of land was created behind the fence for the shed.

At first we had plans to purchase a shed, but in talking to neighbors and looking at the options, we realized building our own was going to be our best bet. Not only could we customize the specifics like size, layout and finishes but we could add special extras like a little greenhouse on the side for me (eek!) The initial plan was to build an 8 x 12 shed, but after we got a few of the holes dug we realized 8 feet deep was encroaching on the stone path a little too much so we shrunk it back to a 7 x 12 shed. With the exact dimensions of the shed determined we dug 4 holes...

 ... and put posts in each one. We filled the holes with concrete around the posts and then covered that with dirt. 

We let the posts dry over night and the next day we got the frame around the posts put in. I made marks on the frame every 16" and then Brent and Croix cut the floor joists on the saw.

and then carried them over...

Once they were lined up on the marks I made we nailed them into place. 

(Please note Croix entertaining Lot over on the right side of this picture - haha)

 We cut smaller pieces to install horizontal for added rigidity. 

That's as far as we made it today, but not too bad for 1.5 days work with a "helpful" 3 year old and a baby brother who likes to eat every 3 hours or so :) In all seriousness this project is really going to be great from an organization standpoint and I think it might be kind of cute too - bonus! 

All photos are my own. 

Laundry Room Remodel - Intro

I'm here today to introduce you to our first project of 2019 - THE LAUNDRY ROOM!!!

This is the first of two projects we have in the works over here on the home front and I'm SO EXCITED!!! If you remember, this laundry room was one of the rooms I was the most jazzed about when we moved in to this house. Our last house didn't have a real laundry room. Just a little pad in the basement for the washer and dryer. It was dark, damp, scary - not a happy place to spend a lot of time. But the laundry room in this house is conveniently located on the first floor, HAS A WINDOW, a laundry shoot and is a decent size, so I have been thankful for it everyday, despite it's blah appearance.

This room had a lot of potential but it also had some flaws from a layout perspective. There were 4 doors in this laundry room, 3 of which swung in at each other when opened. 

We removed the entry door and replaced it with an antique barn door we refurbished last year during our mudroom project. This definitely helped the situation, but the two doors covering the linen closet still made the space awkward. On top of the doors, this room (like the future home office space) had become a catchall.

In addition to the obvious, washer, dryer, hampers and sink this room housed a freezer a table saw, table saw stand, two vacuums, boxes of office supplies/documents that were never unpacked from our move (3 years ago...gasp!), cleaning supplies, beer making jars and buckets and other random odds and ends that I would just shove in there to get them out of my way in our main living area. It was a hot mess. Earlier this year we started talking through how and where to organize all of this stuff and decided everything currently in the laundry room would either be going to the linen towers in the guest bath (towels and sheets) a shed that we plan to build in the backyard (table saw, misc. tools, paint gun, etc.), the home office (giant box of files, paper and office supplies) or would be staying in the laundry room. Even with a lot of the items getting moved out of this space we still had a good deal we needed to store, so we decided the best plan of attack was to remove the french doors covering the linen closet and then build out the shelving inside. The closet came with two wire shelves, leaving a ton of wasted space.

Up until this point I had always housed my rolling laundry hamper in this closet, but in order to really optimize the storage this thing needed to go. That's when we decided we would stack our washer and dryer and then build out some shelving to the right of that to house laundry baskets. There will be a countertop on top of the shelving for me to use as a folding area and a hanging rod overhead attaching from the side of the washer and dryer surround and the wall.

The linen closet will get built-out with nothing but shelves all the way up. SO MUCH STORAGE!!! 

A few weeks ago the freezer died (with stuff inside - UGH!!) so he is gone now too. This side of the room is still somewhat of a question mark as we decide what type of sink to get and if we will go back in with another freezer, a second refrigerator or maybe nothing? Still some details to figure out, but TILE STARTED TODAY so we are rolling full steam ahead! Don't forget to follow along on instagram for all of the behind the scenes happenings between now and the next post!

All photos are my own. 

Guest Bath Remodel - THE BEFORE

Late last year, amidst being 100 months pregnant, the holidays, Croix's Birthday, wrapping up projects before maternity leave, our Patio Project and Croix's big boy room + Custom Closet projects we decided it would be a good idea to add one more tiny little thing to our plate - the remodel of our downstairs guest bath.

Just writing that I realize how insane that makes us sound, and to be honest I think we did stretch ourselves a bit too far, I mean we literally set our Christmas Dinner table (for 20+ plus guests) on CHRISTMAS DAY! Nothing like the last minute...OY! But there was a method to the madness, so let me explain...In 2017 I designed the bath display for the Luxury Living Show at Phipps Plaza. You all may remember me mentioning it...

Photo via AH&L Magazine.

After the show the displays were disassembled and all cabinets came back to Bell Cabinetry & Design (company I work for). For months the cabinets sat in the warehouse until it occurred to me that I could use them. We have 4.5 bathrooms in our house and I knew Croix's Bath Remodel  was on the horizon and who couldn't use another vanity + giant pink towers? So, Brent and I went and picked them up. Once we got them home we stored them in the space between our kitchen and dining room - the space we had dubbed our future home office. As we have worked to re-do and organize various spaces in our house, this area, the "future home office" area, has become the dumping ground for all the things. Every home has a space like this, problem was, this space is wide open to the rest of the house. There are no doors to block or hide what we have going on in here and worst of all, if you should come visit and enter through the front door, you have to walk past this monstrosity to get to the other areas of our home.

Exhibit A:

If you've been following along you know we re-did Croix's Bath earlier in the year so that got one of the 61" vanities out of the space, but we still had a lot of other items in here including another vanity + giant pink doors and shelves (the actual towers were still back at Bell). It was driving me nuts and knowing that we would have people around for the holidays + the fact that I would be at home for maternity leave first of the year I really wanted to get this space cleaned up and cleaned out which meant re-doing Guest Bath. Let me introduce you to this space...

Much like Croix's bath upstairs, there was nothing wrong with this bathroom. Everything worked properly, but there were two points I hoped to correct by re-doing the space. 1. I wanted to make the bathroom more efficient. Our home was built in the 1920's and before the big addition that was done in 2007 (before we owned the house) this bathroom was the master. So, it came with two vanities.

Two vanities is a plus in a master or a shared bath, but for a Guest Bath it was unnecessary and when you have two 8 foot towers that could take up that space and provide a TON of storage it just made sense to shake things up. And 2....I just wanted to make the space more "us"...you know, freshen it up a bit visually. There was way too much brown going on in here...

So, the plan was to remove both vanity cabinets/countertops/fixtures, the floor tile and the shower tile. A vanity would go back in front of the tub/shower but the vanity beside the toilet would go away forever. The plumbing would be capped and this would be the future location of the linen towers. The tub and toilet would stay, but all other elements would be removed.

The only way we could swing this was to hire out the labor this time around. At this point in my pregnancy and in our lives we couldn't tackle this DIY style. A project that would take us months to finish up could be completed by a professional in a weeks time, so we decided to give the whole hire a professional thing a whirl for this project. Obviously this is a more expensive route than DIY'ing the project so the name of the game was to keep costs to a minimum with the material selections to balance things out. I also had to make decisions quickly which doesn't come naturally for me in my own home for some annoying reason, but I did it and we are very happy with the end results both visually and monetarily. Here is a shot of our living mood board for the space:

The project wrapped in about a weeks time and while I'm currently nailing down some final details with art, etc...the bathroom is totally usable (already been used by several guests!) and the linen towers are full stocked and organized. It's a happy space and I'm excited to show you the AFTER soon.

PS - If you follow me on Instagram you've seen some of the after shots of this space in my stories and on my feed, follow along for the inside scoop on some of these projects before they hit the blog... _CourtneyShearer

Unless otherwise noted, all photos are my own.