Tag: diyhomeprojects

Home Decor

Weekend Basement Renovation

by detailsanddanielleLeave a Comment on Weekend Basement Renovation
Weekend Basement Renovation

Hello Friends! It has been a while since I’ve done an at home DIY project, and I am so excited to share with you all our basement renovation! When I took my business Details and Swirls full time back in May, our basement quickly became our workshop for packing orders. Each week and month we added more and more to our packing station, and before we knew it we were spending about 15 hours a week in our dark, dingy, old basement working! With the upcoming Christmas season, I wanted to create a clean, organized, and enjoyable workshop space we wouldn’t dread working in! Since we do not have a lot of free time, I knew this project had to be done over the course of one weekend. We split the project up into three main steps: CLEAN, Paint Walls, Paint Floor. I am so happy with how everything turned out!


Step One: Clean

Our basement was a disaster. It is the storage unit for all of my Details and Swirls rental pieces, our workshop, and our place to store all of our household junk (for lack of a better term). The first step was to fully clean and organize the space. This meant throwing away LOTS of uneeded junk, organizing my business products, and throughly cleaning the area. I’m talking vacuuming each and every corner of the space (including the ceiling). We bought a Bagster from Lowe’s, which is basically a mini dumpster you can pop up on your driveway (best decision ever)! After we fully cleared and cleaned the basement it already looked and felt so much better!

Step Two: Paint Walls

Next we decided to paint all of the walls and shelves! Since this is a quick fix project we were not too concern with primer, etc. We painted 2 coats of Benjamin Moore Winds Breath and it brightened up the space SO much! Instantly the basement went from scary and dark to fresh and clean. Now our walls are very old and weathered, so we couldn’t even paint to the bottom of the wall without having wall debris flaking. We did not have time to sand down the walls, but it is probably a smart idea to sand the walls down to obtain a smoother finish!

Step Three: Paint Floor

Now if there is one thing we did that COMPLETELY transformed this space, it was painting the floors. We used this exact epoxy linked here and I cannot say enough amazing things about it! We fully mopped the floor down, and then painted two coats of the epoxy on the floors. The outcome was completely incredible, and it truly made all of the difference in the world! I decorated the space with some of my Details and Swirls pieces, baskets, and a rug, and I cannot believe it is the same basement!

Links for Decor:

Rug

Room Divider

Set of Baskets

Home Decor

Choosing The Perfect Paint Colors!

by detailsanddanielleLeave a Comment on Choosing The Perfect Paint Colors!
Choosing The Perfect Paint Colors!

Hi friends! We are finally, FINALLY nearing the end of our big home renovations (YAY)! While we did not professionally renovate every room in our house, we did redo the interiors of each room to match my style and interior design vision. This cosmetic renovation came along with painting each room in our home to attain a cohesive look! Simply painting the walls and trim in our home made the biggest difference in making the space look fresh and new!

The two colors we used throughout our entire home are Benjamin Moore Collingwood and Sherwin William Oyster Bay. We used Oyster Bay for our kitchen and dining areas, and Collingwood for the living space, stairwell, bathrooms, and office. Both colors can be seen below!

While I absolutely LOVE these colors for our home, it is so tricky to pick out paint colors based upon someone else’s photos because every single home is different! The way paint looks in once space can look completely different in another based upon the lighting, wall surface area, shadows, and more! I am listing my top three tips when it comes to choosing a wall color, I hope is is helpful in your decision making process!

Tip #1 – Decide Yellow or Blue

Now I know what you’re thinking, “I don’t want yellow or blue on my walls…”! Deciding between “yellow” or “blue” is just deciding the undertone of your wall color. Do you want a warm undertone (yellow) or a cool undertone (blue)? Even the most similar of colors can look SO incredibly different in a room if the undertones are different. The undertones can sometimes be difficult to identify, so I put some examples below to help!

Tip #2 – Bottom of the Color Wheel

If you are having trouble identifying the undertone of the paint color, grab a color wheel from your local paint shop and start flipping through. I find it challenging to identify undertones of very light colors, so once I spot a color I like I trace the color all the way down the strip to the darkest variation of the color. From here it is much easier to see the true root of the color. I find this especially helpful when looking at grey paint colors. When you trace a grey paint color down the wheel it could actually be very blue or very yellow!

Top #3 – Big swatches!

My final tip is to narrow down your options to around 3 colors and paint big swatches on all different sides of the room you are painting! It is absolutely impossible to pick a paint color based upon the tiny paper sample you find in the color wheel or store. The best way to see how the color will look in your room is to manually paint a swatch on the wall and see how it looks with the light and structure of your room!

I hope these tips help, if you use any of them when choosing your paint colors be sure to let me know!

Home Decor

Garage Door Makeover

by detailsanddanielleLeave a Comment on Garage Door Makeover
Garage Door Makeover

Hello friends! I am coming to you today with the EASIEST DIY tutorial! I love the look of farmhouse garage doors, I think they make a huge difference in the curb appeal of a home. While new garage doors are definitely not on the top of our home renovation list, I found the easiest way to mimic the look with magnetic hardware! I wasn’t quite sure how easy or nice this project would turn out, but I am SO happy with the outcome! Everything you need can be found on Amazon prime, and it took me 15 minutes to do!

Everything you will need:
Sponge
Cleaner
Painter’s Tape (1 inch)
Window Magnets
Hardware Magnets

Step 1: Clean Garage Doors
First thing first, clean! This is not necessary, but I wanted to make sure we were putting the magnets on a clean surface, so I simply took a sponge with some household cleaner and wiped down the areas I would be working on.

Step 2: Add Windows
Time to add our “windows”! Using painter’s tape, measure out a + on each of your garage door squares. Ensure that the horizontal line on each square is at the same height so all of your windows line up! You can use a measuring tape to assist with this, but I found that eyeballing it worked perfectly fine! Once your tape + is up, stick on the magnetic square to each quadrant. Peel away the tape and you have your windows! I am really impressed with the quality of these magnetics, the suction is extremely strong! Repeat this step for all “windows”.

Step 3: Add Hardware
Once the windows are up, it is time to add the hardware! Again these magnets are extremely strong, so they basically flew out of my hand and attached to the door! You can place the hardware anywhere you like, but I chose to place one of mine below the first row of the door and one above the last row of the door. I popped the handles in the middle and that is it! A completely new set of doors in under 15 minutes!

Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links – We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Home Decor

Fireplace Makeover – Mortar Wash

by detailsanddanielleLeave a Comment on Fireplace Makeover – Mortar Wash
Fireplace Makeover – Mortar Wash

I am back with another DIY home makeover! Since the second I saw this fireplace in our house, I knew I wanted to turn it into a beautiful focal point! While I love the traditional brick, the dark colors do not mix well with our neutral hues throughout our home. I had seen photos of beautiful white washed brick, and wondered if this was something I could achieve. I took to the internet and realized this white washed brick style is actually called German Smear, and can be achieved with a mortar wash technique! This has been my favorite project to date, and I am so excited to share it with you all, let’s get started!

Before I started, I researched a BUNCH of photos of German Smear fireplaces (I suggest you do the same!). While the overall technique is the same for all, there are certain qualities that make each style different.

  • Patches of heavy white
  • Some exposed brick
  • Overall wash of white

Now you can see from the photos above, when you google German Smear fireplace, all of the photos look similar but there are unique differences that can make a big difference in the way you apply this technique! I wanted to go for a look similar to the third photo (an overall wash of white).

Now that you have a design goal in mind – let’s make sure we have all of the supplies! I picked all of my supplies up from Amazon and my local Home Depot/Lowe’s.

White Mortar Mix
Painter’s Tape
Gloves (make sure you wear gloves! I forgot to and absolutely destroyed my hands!)
Mixing Bucket
Grouting Sponges (I suggest 3)
Paint Stir Stick
Foam Brush

Step 1 – Clean surface

Vacuum your fireplace thoroughly and clean all debris

Step 2 – Tape fireplace

Apply your painter’s tape to the fire place, mantel, and floor

Step 3 – Mix Mortar

Using your mixing bucket, mix water and mortar together. Follow the instructions on the mortar package for mixing. MAJOR TIP! Do not pour a ton of water into your bucket before mixing! Depending on your fireplace size, you most likely will not need the entire bag of mortar. We made the mistake of pouring too much water into the mix to start, and we had to use almost the entire bag of mortar to get the right consistency. This added about 40 minutes to our process and it was not necessary! The mixture should take about 5 minutes to stir once you have the right mix of water and mortar powder, and the finished mixture should be like thick soft serve ice cream!

Step 4 – Fill in grout (work in sections)

Now the magic begins! The most important step in achieving this look is to ensure all of the grout lines are fully filled with mortar. The easiest way to do this is to use a foam paint brush to fill in all of the grout lines.

Step 5 – Spread mortar

While working in sections, I used a damp grouting sponge to start spreading the mortar from the grout lines all over the bricks. I used a mix of circular motions and dabbing motions to attain the textured look I wanted. During this process the fireplace DEFINITELY did not look like I was envisioning. You have to be patient and once we get to step 6, things will start coming together!

NOTE: some of the grout mortar will wipe away during this step, repeat steps 4 & 5 until grout lines are fully white with mortar!

Step 6 – Detail!

This is where your original design vision comes into play, think back to your inspiration image when going through this step! If you want more of an overall white wash (like I did), go ahead and add some more mortar to certain areas you want to be whiter. I used a dry grout sponge for this step because I did not want the damp sponge to remove any of the mortar I already applied.

Once I finished applying more mortar, I realized I actually wanted more of the original brick showing through. I grabbed a freshly dampened grout sponge, and starting running it over the middle of some of the bricks to expose some color.

I kept repeating this process of using a dry sponge to add more mortar, and a damp sponge to take mortar away, until I was happy with the outcome! Be patient with this step and refer back to your inspiration photo as much as you want to compare!

As you are working through this step just remember, the mortar will dry to a brighter white, so if you are discouraged it is not as bright as you envisioned, wait 12 hours for it to fully set, and you will be amazed at the outcome! Above are photos of the fireplace right before I finished “detailing”, and below are photos the next morning of the fireplace fully dried!

You can find my sweater from Chicwish here!

I am in love with the final outcome, and it has added a new level of design to our family room! Let me know your thoughts below, and if you try this technique be sure to tell me how it goes!

Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links – We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.