Nine Red

Saturday, March 1, 2014

Before and After: The Downstairs Bath Official Tour

Should we finally tour this bathroom or what? When we started the bathroom in...oh.. mid, November? The idea was for it to be a 1 to 2 weekend project. Then of course Thanksgiving happened, and oh - all of December is pretty much devoted to the holidays, and then we were able to get back to work. I'm pretty proud of our lil makeover, we did it on a budget ($300ish?) and changed the room drastically. You can see the the post that started it all here, or you can browse the many posts throughout the process by clicking here. Quick refresher of how it looked BEFORE:

Keep that image in mind as I do my best to photograph the AFTER photos. I really, really love how it turned out. I'll share two sets of photos, one in our fabulous vintage yellow light, that casts a warm glow all over the room - which by the way - makes your skin look amazing & clear. Yellow lights from now on, haha... Also - find project links under each photo. Get ready for a ton of photos...

Rather than replacing the existing stand, we decided to save a little cash & add some personality by giving it a face-lift. This was a simple job, paint & rub in a stain. Since we wanted a wall size mirror in here to make the space feel larger, we had a custom mirror cut & we built the frame ourselves. Adding a mantle gave us room to put a few plants & trinkets, while providing a space for people to set things.

The towel rack used to be to the right of the toilet, which, was pretty awkward. Adding a slim towel rack the width of the window provided ample hanging space while bringing yet another metal into the room.

Copper Towel Rack

The plan was to make some art, but by chance I spotted this at Ross & knew it would fit perfectly.

A few thrift store scores in woods, metallics & browns + my ferns cozy up this space.

DIY Mantle & Mirror

One more shot of that mirror.......

The floor was originally peel & stick linoleum, and once we started looking around on Amazon for flooring we realized peel & stick has come a long way! These were simple to put in, and give the illusion of a wood floor that I dream of. You can find them on Amazon here, we used 2 boxes totaling about $30.

Really Easy Wood Look Flooring

Man that room is hard to photograph! Here are some daytime shots, it's been super rainy so it was STILL a challenge getting good light, but I didn't want to wait until summer to share this with y'all. So here we go:

In a better lit bathroom you could totally see how awesome that rug is, I got it from an Etsy Seller (click here!). Here's a better shot:

So in love with that ceiling! The trim, was a... .let's just say, "learning experience". We used fence lumber (not treated with chemicals!) to achieve the rustic look (I'm too lazy to dismantle pallets, plus I hear they have super chemicals all over 'em), and did a simple whitewash before installing. I'd say it cost us around $40.

White Wood Ceiling Tutorial

I had wanted something in this blank corner since you could see it in the mirror, doubling it's blank-ness. It had to be small, it had to be light, it had to be living. Tah dah!

Newest Favorite Project: Air Plant Sphere

I'm really happy with the bathroom! I think we are coming in at around $300 total, which is pretty good considering we repainted, bought a new mirror & added a frame, built a mantle, redid the floors, added a custom whitewashed ceiling & scouted out all new accessories. Thanks for touring!

-Jesse

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Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Valentine's Day Steaks & Wine

Source: Tasty Kitchen

Hey, whoah, panic - Valentine's Day is this Friday. What's that? You haven't decked your house in hearts, arrows, and bowl after bowl full of adorable candies? (Kudos to those of you who are on top of it!) Yea - me neither, I'm still wrapping my head around writing 2014 on all my checks (yea, I still write checks sometimes!). No big deal, you're house doesn't have to look like a vignette from Victoria's Secret to enjoy the day. Personally, this holiday has never meant very much to me, and I can't stand those little pastel heart candies anyway. Seriously, thinking about them makes me feel sick, and I think their wrapper is even worse.

Anyway... whether I've been single or not on V-day however, it's always been a fantastic reason to eat a really really good dinner. Whether it be with a partner, a group of good friends, or alone - the only strict rule I've had was to eat & eat well. So, all the restaurants are going to be packed, why not make a great meal at home?

Ralph and I have held up a great tradition of eating steaks & drinking red wine on Valentine's day, or some variation of it. (Here's last years post). Many moons ago, one of our first dates was trying to learn to cook a steak together. Neither of us knew how to do it, so we thought learning something together would be a fun & cheesy date, right? Well it was really easy, and really delicious, and this year, I want skirt steak!

It's even easier, and I swear even more delicious. Luckily it's not the most expensive cut, either. Recently we found (and tested) the most perfect skirt steak recipe ever, from the blog Tasty Kitchen. It's easy, and it's amazing. As for sides this year? I'm leaning towards shrimp, asparagus, and more red wine.

Any plans for you this year? Any interesting traditions that aren't the norm? Enjoy it either way, even if you aren't into Valentine's Day per se, hey - at least it's a Friday!

-Jesse

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Grossest Candies EVER! haha....

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Sunday, February 9, 2014

DIY Air Plant Sphere

I'm so excited to share this project! I had this idea a few weeks ago, and since it was finally raining in California recently, this made the perfect Rainy Day Project.

While finishing up the details of the great Bathroom Project, I had originally planned to make this pot hanger, but overflowing in ferns. Well the ferns mentioned they wanted to live on the mantle, and then I thought a pot might be too big hanging in the corner anyway. I needed something lighter... literally and figuratively.....air plants! So Pinterest & I brainstormed (see this post) and the embroidery hoops really spoke to my heart. I tried my idea out, and it worked - so here it is for you. It's nothing crazy, but it felt good. This is a very easy & satisfying project, perfect to get your crafty feet wet. Gather this crap:

You'll need:

3 wood embroidery hoops - very cheap, I used 10" hoops.
Paint & Paint brush (while you're buying paint, grab a few extra colors. They're cheap & really handy)
Hot Glue & Glue Gun
Reindeer Moss - I got mine at the store, but later found a better deal here on Amazon.
Air Plants! I got mine from this Etsy Seller. They came fast!

First up, start painting. Pretty simple. I did mine all white, but I think I might make another one where each hoop is a different color.

Let 'em dry, you don't want your paint wiping off.

Then the fun begins! I started with the solid hoops, which is the inner portion of the embroidery hoop set. Gently squeeze one inside the other, to make an X:

Yep. It'll be snug, but don't fret - grab the third solid hoop, and either send it inside, or wrap it on the outside of the other two. Don't worry if they move around on ya, there is going to be a lot of that during this project. Just roll with it, you can move them around as you please.

Now take the outer hoops, and loosen them up enough to add each hoop on the outside of your sphere. When you are choosing where to add them, look at the sphere and see where it's too open, and disect that area with a hoop.

Play with your sphere, and gently push around the rings until it's as you like. You can start to tighten the 3 outer hoops hardware when you are happy with how it looks. Don't over-tighten, just do it enough to keep things from slipping. Now, it should be pretty snug, and it'll hold itself together. If you feel yours has some loose spots, just use a lil hot glue, and watch your worries melt away....

Let's add moss already!

Sometimes your sphere may look.. lumpy? You can play with it to fix it, or just go with it. I went with it. I think it adds to the organic look of the sphere, handmade & all that, and besides - it'll be gently spinning and know will notice/care.

Back to the moss! Choose which area of your sphere will be the bottom, and start laying the moss in. A dab of hot glue, and a gentle puff of moss, voila. You're so good at this.

Keep layering until you make a nice bed for your air plants. Remember, everything you're working with weighs almost nothing, so the moss bed doesn't have to be the sturdiest thing in the world. Just overlap a few cute pieces until it looks right.

I stopped there. It was hard to stop, the moss is so pretty... I just wanna put a lil bird in there.

Now add your air plants! Wait-wait, did you soak them? I know - they are unfortunately named air plants, but they DO need water still. The care card says you can mist them now and then, or you can soak them for an hour a week. I prefer the soak method.

DON'T glue the air plants in. I mean, I guess you could, but why? Just let them rest on the moss, and intertwine with your new sphere/orb/cage thingy. Also, if they are loose, it will make soaking them a million times easier.

The angle of the photo above makes either the sphere look tiny, or my hand look enormous. I assure you neither are true, the sphere is a pretty good size, and my hands are sort of normal. I used baker's twine (new favorite stuff! Amazon linky here) to hang the little baby:

What do you think? The hardest part of this project was waiting for them to dry! I was excited to get my craft on.. haha. I really like how it came out, and I'm so happy there were no major hurtles along the way. I would love to do a grouping of these in many sizes. Air plants everywhere!!

Ok for your pinning pleasure, the cover shot:

Thanks for reading! If you make some, let me know! Send pictures or post them to my facebook page.

Have fun!

-Jesse

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Friday, February 7, 2014

New Strings n' Things + DIY kits!

It's been a busy past few months for the string art sector of my life, there have been some new ideas along the way too. Just a quick showcase of the latest gear for your walls, starting with my favorite font on the planet:

Shop this style on Etsy

I've done quite a few of these sets, but never in these colors, so pretty:

Circular Geometric String Art Pattern

Four Letter Modern String Art Name Tablet

And KITS! Yes! I'm finally doing kits! Now you can get any of my patterns sent to you in a complete kit. I thought of this because I looked at how many people wanted to make these themselves (which I totally get!) - but when you think about it, the amount of supplies you have to buy not only racks up, but your left with a lot of leftover materials. If you live in an apartment (or anywhere short on space) these kits are perfect: