Boys room.

Bunk Room Makeover.

January 31, 2018 by Michelle Hinckley

One of the projects we get A LOT of questions about are the built in bunk beds we have in our younger boys room.

Bunk beds used to be viewed as…how should I say?…less than desirable.
Then someone came along and made them hip by building a custom version and making them built-in.
Now, everyone wants built-in bunk beds.
I get questions weekly about our bunk beds so I thought I’d revisit them (and also show you how we recently updated them).

We installed the bunks in 2013. I drew up the plans and we started to build them. Then all sorts of considerations and fear set in…
-What if they collapse?
-What if there is an earth quake?
-Do we have enough building experience to know how to builds these properly?
-What if our kids jump on them?
-Will they be durable enough?
-ETC.

Most projects don’t intimidate us but knowing that our most precious possessions would be spending 1/3rd of their lives in these, I didn’t want to take any chances. So I gave the plans to a carpenter and he built within a week.

Fast forward 5 years and their are things we’ve loved about them and things we haven’t loved.

LOVE:
-I LOVE the way they look.
-They are super durable.
-I love that we were able to customize them to fit the boys needs with the drawers, built-in niches, lighting and curtains.

DISLIKE:
-Making the bed is so difficult so they never get made and look frumpy (Beddys?).
-Climbing the ladder hurts your feet.
-Hard to get in and out of the top bunk (especially in the middle of the night for a potty trip).
-Permanent (what if we outgrown them and want to take them down?)

Being an only child myself, I always thought it would be wonderful to have my kids share a room.
That was before I had kids.
Then reality set in.
And siblings fight.
A lot.
There are times we’ve thought about giving the boys their own rooms which we mean the oldest would have to move downstairs so one of the youngsters could have take over his room but I’m not quite ready for that. Giving the boys their own room is coming sooner or later and then what do we do with the bunk beds? That will be a major demo and cost to put the room back together (patch walls, re-carpet because there is no carpet under the beds currently, $$$).

If we could rewind the clock would we do it again? I’m really not sure. I tend to go for aesthetics first and will look forward to the day when we take the bunks out and I get to redecorate that room, but that’s me. Majority of people wouldn’t see that as a fun adventure. Long-term, functionally speaking they may not be the best fit for everyone. Are 6 foot teenagers going to fit in them in a just a few short years?

They are great for the stage of life we are in but maybe not so much in a few short years.
Having said that, we did make a few recent modifications to make them more functional…

I love the look of white but it gets dirty SOO fast especially when they belong to two young boys. Also, the swing arm lights we had in each bunk were a terrible idea. They just weren’t durable enough to stand up to two rough and tumble boys. As well, the overhead light just did not give off enough brightness for the room.

First thing was to paint the bunks themselves a darker color. The first year I wiped them down on a weekly basis, then we bought the store and I neglected the entire house. I’ve decided that painting yearly will probably be in my future as long as I am mother. Until then, I decided on Weathervane by Valspar to help hide the dirt between cleanings and paintings.

White keeps you honest but I needed a little give between cleaning so not to see every finger and foot print on the beds.
I also wiped down and painted every wall a fresh coat of white which made a huge difference.

We also replaced the swing-arm lights with these brass sconces from All Modern. The Mr. added a twist switch so they could be turned on and off at the source.

I purchased this rope Chandelier floor sample at West Elm years ago which the Mr. also installed. Makes a world of difference for the brightness in the room.

I’m also super excited that I found these vintage wool Hudson Bay-esque blankets at an estate sale a few months back.

All photos by Allison Bills Photography.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again…paint is one of the least expensive and easiest ways to transform the look of a room. I’m really pleased with how it turned out.
Do you have bunkbeds? Do you love them or hate them?

Giving old toys new life.

August 6, 2015 by Michelle Hinckley

Today I’m participating in a series called Die Ugly Toys Die, thought up by the amazing Stefanie from Brooklyn Limestone.

The concept behind it is taking toys that you would normally throw out and transforming them in to something cool and usable. If you’ve been following the series on her blog you’ve seen some really cool DIY transformations so far.

Today I’m showing off what I do with toys that have reached the end of their life at my house…or have they?

Let me introduce you to Mr. G.I. Joe and his troop.
A toy staple in a boy’s toy collection. I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with these plastic figurines. They’ve entertained my boys for years but hot dang! Have you ever stepped on one of these in the middle of the night? You would have thought you actually stepped on a grenade. For being so small these things can do serious damage to the bottom of your foot.

I don’t have a hard time letting go of too many things but toys seem to be a challenge. There are just so many sweet memories attached to them. It’s not like getting rid of the toys will mean getting rid of the memories but it feels like that sometimes.

Instead, I like to turn retired toys in to art.

I took a glue gun to a handful of these guys and glued them to a frame. My oldest son may not play with GI Joe’s anymore but they look cool framed and hung on his wall.

And it doesn’t stop there…I’ve also hung and framed some old arrows.

As well as darts…

Then there was this vintage Printer’s Tray which I filled with tons of boyhood trinkets.

Just because toys are old doesn’t mean they have to die…some of the time.
Sorry stuffed Elmo, you have to go.

Keep following the “Die Ugly Toys, Die” series on Stefanie’s blog Brooklyn Limestone.

Laying an interior brick wall

June 26, 2015 by Michelle Hinckley

I have an obsession with marble and brick. I’ve pretty much clad as many surfaces with marble in my home that I can think of and now I’m moving on to brick.
Brick can be tricky though.
You have to be careful where you put it or it can look out of place.
Brick is typically used on fireplaces or outter walls…or older buildings or lofts but that doesn’t apply here.
I would put brick on every wall of my home but that would be overkill. Plus I live in a 1970’s rambler and they didn’t typically do interior brick walls back then. I like to try and stay within some kind of character style of the home (most of the time). But because my home has an all brick exterior I figured applying brick on an outer wall wouldn’t be that much of a stretch. Capiche?

If you follow us on Instagram I showed a little teaser pic…here’s how the application went…

This is the outer wall of my son’s room (and me trying to duck out of the way for the picture). On the other side of the wall (outside) it’s all brick. I wanted to carry that theme as if it were one big thick brick wall to the interior. I found an online company called Brick-It which carries reclaimed brick from old buildings. They cut the brick down so it’s 1/2″ thick veneer. The back is smooth and the front has all that old worn character. I ordered their New York Used brick veneers to apply to this wall.

The application process is SOO easy. You first apply these Designer Metal Grids to the wall.

It was pretty straight forward and my 10 year old helped out a lot.

We first tried to cut down with some nipper scissors. We then found that using a metal cutting blade was a lot quicker.

Once the whole wall was covered with the DMG system we were ready to apply the bricks.

Using a caulking gun you apply a line of glue (which they sent) on top of the grid then lay they bricks right in the panels. I’m telling you it was SO easy. This little man did a good majority of the brick laying (I mean it is room, he should do some work in there, right?). 🙂

Doing this much brick took just under an hour. I’m loving the perfectly imperfect look.

We need to go rent a wet-saw to cut the bricks around the window then put the mortar in. Stayed tuned for that step but all in all it has been a pretty fun project so far. I’m still debating whether or not to white wash them which was my original plan. I’m leaning toward doing it because the room is starting to feel heavy with the navy wall and now red brick. Three people who have seen the wall say “NO” but we’ll see. We’re hoping to wrap things up and have the room completely done in the next two weeks. Yipee.

*I received product to try with no obligation to blog about.*