Meg Phillips – Phillips Flips

October 13, 2018

DIY Ombré Wall

We recently finished a huge makeover of our girls’ shared bedroom (all within a super busy 24-hour period) and one of the highlights of the room was the accent wall behind their beds. I decided to tackle a DIY painted ombré design on the accent wall and I love the way it turned out!

Here’s a step by step of how I did it:

1. Pick Your Colors

I already had an area rug and accent pillows that I needed the colors to tie into. So I used the rug and pillows to help me see how the colors all looked together. Get multiple paint swatches! Even if you think you like the way they look in the store, get extras. I ended up using a different swatch for the lightest green (instead of the one pictured above). It’s also best to look at the colors together in bright natural light. As bad as I wanted to decide on the colors the night I picked them out, I knew the yellow-tinted light in our room could skew the shades. So I waited until the following morning, turned off the yellow light and opened all the curtains so the natural white light could shine on the colors.

2. Measure and Mark Your Lines

I decided on 4 colors for the ombré wall. You could do as little as 3 or maybe a couple more than 4 depending on the size of your wall and how busy you want it to be. The ceiling in this room is a few inches shy of 8 feet. So I measured 24 inch sections starting from the bottom (so the top section would be a few inches shy of 2 feet). You don’t have to worry about getting perfect lines here, just make sure you’re overall lines aren’t slanted. I individually measured both sides of the wall and 2 more spots near the middle and then just eyeballed it to “connect the dots” from each of the 4 spots across the wall to make each horizontal line.

3. Paint Your Sections

I did the cutting in first, then I just used 4 individual rollers and trays to paint the sections. Again, don’t stress about getting perfectly clean straight lines here, you’re going to blend everything together eventually. Don’t worry about blending yet, because odds are, you’ll have to paint a couple coats anyway. It’s best to let these sections (mostly) dry before you start blending. I learned that if you try to do it all when it’s still wet, you have a greater chance of uncovering the wall color underneath.

4. Start Blending

Once you’ve let your painted sections dry (at least mostly) then you’re ready to blend them. I painted and went down to eat dinner and came back to blend. This part is a little tricky (and a good arm workout). It’s obviously easier to blend wet paint than dry, BUT if you try to blend from your original painted sections before letting them dry, you’ll scrape the paint right off and see the color underneath. So my way around this was to keep all 4 rollers in their respective paint colors so I could easily paint over the dry sections with a little fresh paint for blending. Keeping 4 individual rollers and trays makes it easier to change back and forth. I chose to start blending from the top down. So I started with my lightest paint colored roller and quickly painted a small, rolled, line as close to the line where the colors meet. Then I switched over to my next lightest color, the second color from the top, and did the same thing. Then with a regular paint brush, I blended the colors is small, quick X marks all overlapping and moving up and down between the 2 wet colors. This is the part that will give you a sore arm because you have to blend pretty fast and you have to paint pretty hard to really blend the colors. I tried a sponge here originally, but sponges are ideal for soaking up paint, not so much blending it. You have to eyeball the blending as you go. Try to make sure that the sections are blended up and down at around the same areas on the wall. Then repeat these same steps for all of your blended lines.

Tip: Wet paint looks different than dry paint! So don’t be alarmed if your newly blended wall looks a bit off before everything has a chance to dry. Mine didn’t look like full light to dark ombré as some of the wet paint was lighter than the dry versions of the same color.

5. Let Dry and LOVE Your New Wall

Enjoy the ombré! Hang some photos or prints or shelves and enjoy your newest successful DIY project.

If you use this tutorial to paint your own ombré wall, make sure to tag us (@phillipsflips) in your instagram photos or share them to our hashtag, #mycultivatedhome I love seeing how you incorporate ombré into your home!

May 17, 2018May 17, 2018

We Bought A Bus

We have some big news!

Today, we bought a bus.

This beauty (ignore the love bugs- ’tis the season) was delivered to our driveway this evening. For all you people who know things about buses, she’s a 40 foot Bluebird tour bus made in 2001 with a Cummings ISC 6 Engine and an Allison Transmission with only 59,000 miles!

I have always dreamed of a day when we could buy a school bus and convert it to an RV to travel with our family. I would Pinterest ideas and hope that maybe one day we would make this dream a reality. I finally got JP hooked on the idea and once he saw some of the RV and Bus Conversion Families that I follow on Instagram, he couldn’t let it go! With my vision and JP’s laser focus, we found this bus for sale last weekend, Friday to be exact. We checked with some diesel mechanics and they confirmed that it was too good to pass up. We negotiated and ended up on a steal of a price and the owner drove it down from Tallahassee and delivered it to us! It all happened SO fast, I’m still in shock.

It fits perfectly in our long driveway with plenty of room to spare!

We’ve got big plans to gut the inside and create our own custom Skoolie, but for now, we’ve got 53 extra car seats

I know it’s not technically a school bus, but after some more research, we learned that most school bus ceiling heights are shorter than us (I’m 6’1″ and JP is 6’3″) so we settled our search on city or tour buses with higher ceilings.

We will be working with Skoolie Homes, a company based in Tennessee who specializes in Skoolie renovations. They are working with us on our custom floorpan, finishes and they have helped us so far every step of the way as we searched for the perfect bus. Follow along on our instagram for updates on our home renovations: the one on rock and the one on wheels!

@PhillipsFlips

And if you’re interested in the RV/Skoolie lifestyle, check out these snapshots! These are some of the families that I follow on instagram that helped me convince JP what a good idea this was. They are all living the dream, living small and spending time focusing extra hard on their sweet families! These people are so inspirational you guys.

@Arrowsandbow
This adorable quirky family of 5 is currently living in their self-renovated RV while building their dream home- they’ve been RV living for over a year now!

@Trebventure

This sweet family of 5 is living full-time and traveling in their self-renovated 1999 Bluebird Skoolie.

@TheMayesTeam

This cool family of 6 is living full-time in their modern makeover Skoolie, made by the same company who is going to be working on ours- Skoolie Homes.

It’s a funny coincidence that I had been following The Mayes Team on Instagram dreaming up all the creative and design things about our future Skoolie, while JP was researching away on how to find someone else to do it for us. He came across Skoolie Homes and then we realized that Skoolie Homes had renovated the Mayes Team Skoolie and felt like it was just too good to be true! This sweet family posted a photo a couple days back with a quote that resonated with me hard in this season of change:

“Be willing to go all out in pursuit of your dream. You are more powerful than you think.”

We are chasing babies and chasing dreams and soon, we’ll be chasing highways in our Skoolie!

December 3, 2017December 3, 2017

While we were Away

I haven’t posted in awhile, but it’s not because nothing has been happening. We have been so busy over the past 3 months that I’ve hardly had a spare minute to document all the things we’ve been up to. I’m better at giving regular, real-time updates on instagram in my posts and stories. So go check us out there if you want to stay updated with what we’ve got going on daily! Otherwise, keep reading for the quick summary of what we’ve been up to and the sneak peeks on all the upcoming blog posts.

Since my last blog post:

We finished our deck build (including the second story balcony off our master bedroom)

We installed hardwood floors downstairs (that washable rug is Lorena Canals)

We remodeled this adorable (and free) outdoor playhouse for our girls that was given to us by our neighbors

We moved our office space into an office nook (I.e. in a corner in the playroom)

We uncovered a massive leak in our sports room which subsequently led to us ripping out about 2 full sheets worth of plywood to uncover what was causing the leak- stopped the leak, but still need to repair the damage from the leak and close the wall up.

We weathered hurricane Irma, and lost a couple trees, storage shed and some fencing

We removed all the debris and shed

We DIY painted/sealed the lower deck and started on the stairs and upper deck

We replaced our entire fence with the help of Fence Hut

We turned our office into a guest bedroom (after the office nook space was created)

We installed lots and lots of shelves during a massive home reorganization

We hung lights in our backyard

And we saved 15% on car insurance by switching to geico

Okay… I’m kidding on that last one. We actually just dropped geico because progressive had better rates… and there was that one time I dressed up as Flo for Halloween…

Also since my last post, we’ve had some big things happening in our family:

Our sweet second niece, Charlie was born

We were the tackiest tourists ever on our first Disney cruise

Our littlest babe turned a year old

I ran my first half marathon

And we went on our first ever family camping trip- with our 1 and 2 year old… and had a BLAST!

So the bad news is that while I’ve been neglecting my blog, you guys have missed a few things. The good news is, I have a very long list of blog post topics to share with you guys and I’m fully planning on dishing out all of the ins and outs, good and bad of basically everything in that list up there.

I also have a HUGE secret (No, I’m NOT pregnant). I don’t want to say too much and jinx a possible opportunity, but we are working on some really big things that are all around good for our family, life goals and really good blog content. The blog content part wasn’t our biggest motivator, but it is without a doubt a nice perk! So stay tuned, sit back and enjoy the good stuff ahead. Thanks for following along friends!

August 14, 2017August 17, 2017

Our DIY Walk-through Closet

When we first moved to this house, we struggled to decide which bedroom we wanted to make ours. Moving into a house built in the 1940’s with an entire wing and second story that was added in the early 2000’s meant that we somehow lucked out with 3 master bedrooms (as in 3 of our 5 bedrooms are extremely large and have master bathrooms connected to them).

We ended up picking the upstairs master as our bedroom.

The logistics just all worked out best this way, plus, by picking the upstairs bedroom, we had our own private outdoor balcony off the bedroom – which we are currently in the process of screening in. YAY for finally being able to enjoy the outdoors without the mosquitos!

While the room we picked was marvelously huge, the closets inside weren’t. The hallway leading into the room has 2 very shallow and narrow closets that couldn’t hold my clothes, let alone the clothes for 2 people.

Once we got everything arranged in the room, I just felt so inefficient having so much unused floor space in the middle of the room. I literally could have hosted yoga classes in our bedroom y’all! I toyed with the idea of incorporating a sitting area with a sectional couch, an office, a library nook, a mini-fridge/bar or even extending our bathroom to make room in there for a tub (since we only have a shower in our master bath). After finally getting everything unpacked and out of the moving boxes, it was clear that the best use of all of this unused space was to figure out how to increase the closet and storage space up here.

After brainstorming and researching all kinds of closet layouts/configurations and trying to determine the best spot for one in our bedroom, we decided to install a single wall to anchor our bed and use the space behind it to house our closet. With roughly $60 worth of 2X4’s, a saw, level, stud-finder and some screws, my dad and I built this:

We measured the length we wanted for the wall, keeping in mind the fact that the wood would be framed in drywall afterward. We cut the top and bottom 2X4s first and then cut all the interior supports to run between them. We built the framing while it was laid flat on the floor. Once the entire wall was framed and the supports were screwed together, we hoisted it upright and attached it to the floor and ceiling studs. When we installed it, our original floor was still down. We just used a circular saw to cut the vinyl planks where the bottom 2X4 would sit so that the wall would be anchored to the sub floor and through to the floor joists underneath. Luckily I knew we would be redoing the floors with hardwood floors shortly thereafter, so the cuts didn’t have to be perfect.

Before wrapping it in drywall, we had an electrician run an outlet on either side of where our bed would sit for phone chargers/lamps etc. and we also had them install 3 can lights in the closet with a 2-way switch just inside the closet on either side of the wall so that we could reach in and turn the light on or off from either entryway. The electrician also helped us relocate our bedroom lights. Originally the upstairs master had 2 ceiling fans which had been demolished by the previous owners (when you buy a house that was previously foreclosed, demolished fans, graffiti on bedroom walls, missing doors/mirrors/lights/appliances are all standard expectations). We wanted just 1 accent light in the middle of the room and we decided on this brass/gold starburst light from Dot & Bo.

After the electrician, drywall and texture, we we’re about $500 all in for our DIY closet. However, I will say that pre-fab shelving closet units with drawers/shelves etc. (even from IKEA) are NOT cheap. After going in store and building our “dream” closet in their interactive 3D design shop, we ended up changing all kinds of things around because $3,000 for a closet was just not in the budget. We saved significant money by opting for no doors on the closets, choosing shelves and clothes hanger rods instead of drawers, configuring the widths and depths in such a way so that we didn’t have to pay extra for 2 corner units, and leaving off all the very cool, but mostly unneeded accessories (I.e. Pull out tie hanger, shoe holder, jewelry/accessory drawers, ironing board attachment, fancy pants hanger attachments etc.)

The wardrobes/closets from IKEA with the shelves, rods, drawers and delivery charges were roughly $1,000 by the time we had cut things back as much as we reasonably could although you could save on this expense considerably if you decided to tackle some DIY shelving and clothing rods made from metal piping.

When we put this wall up, we knew we wanted to maximize the space behind it and run the closets the full width of the room. One thing I wasn’t sure about is whether or not I would like being able to look into my closets (without being able to shut them off with a door on either side) but I also wasn’t a fan of any of the door options I came across. The pricing of doors and door frames kept creeping the cost of this renovation even higher and frankly, we are total amateurs when it comes to this stuff, so it was a bit intimidating to start thinking about DIY-ing a couple doors. Surprisingly though, since we opted for the black closets, when the closet light is off, you can hardly see into the closets. Here’s a shot of the room with the closet light on.

And here’s a shot with the light off.

With the closet light off, everything just fades into the darkness, and I love the clean modern lines sans doors almost as much as I loved not having to pay for and attempt the install of said doors.

Here are some shots from the inside of our closet. You can see how we saved money by organizing our shoes on shallow wardrobes on the sides with lots of shelves instead of purchasing the expensive shoe attachments. I used the extra wall space for my jewelry and some hooks for a scarf organizer and we incorporated a couple of our original dressers to have a few more drawers. We splurged on 3 drawers built into the wardrobe and used black boxes from IKEA on shelves for other things like socks and underwear. I also organized my fold-able shirts and jeans on open shelving instead of in drawers and it’s actually my preference to store them that way because it’s easier to see all of the folded items as opposed to only the top if they were stuck inside a drawer.

And now we have more than enough closet space to hold our clothes for every season! What creative closet solutions have worked for you? Comment below 👇 I’d love to hear your stories too!

July 6, 2017July 19, 2017

Propagating Fiddle Leaf Figs- Part 2

For those of you who didn’t get a chance to read our last post on my attempt to propagate my fiddle leaf figs (Propagating Fiddle Leaf Figs- Part 1), you can find that link here. That post explains how I got started with my fiddle leaf figs. The following post is the follow up to how my figs did and what worked/didn’t work.

I originally started with 2 fiddle leaf fig clippings. The larger of the 2 didn’t make it. The smaller one however, thrived. While they both sprouted root buds the smaller clipping kept growing into full long roots and the larger clipping didn’t make it past the buds. Slowly all the leaves fell off and we had to chuck that one. I treated both clippings exactly the same: same water, same sunny location, same plant food. The only difference I can figure is the size. Perhaps the larger clipping was too large to sustain the size of the clipping and continue to grow in just a bowl of water. Lesson learned: start with smaller clippings next time.

A $30 Instant Wallpaper Shelving Makeover

I went to Target today to grab a few groceries and like most people I know, I am nearly incapable of leaving without at least 1 additional item that I don’t actually need. Well today I came home with 2. I bought 2 of these temporary wallpaper stick-ons because we’re planning on working on house stuff this weekend and, why not?

I bought one roll of this faux subway tile wallpaper to try out in our kitchen backsplash. I’ll let you know how that one goes.

I also bought one of these fun speckled wallpaper prints to spice up the built in shelves in our dining room nook.

This nook is tucked into a corner that divides our playroom and dining room. This is what it looked like before.

I’m constantly changing these shelves around. Originally they held board games. Then they held seasonal decorations that weren’t being used and before I organized some of our China (pictured above), they were just cluttered with everything from crayons to light bulbs. So today I decided to switch things up again and find a spot for our China in one of our kitchen cabinets.

I started by clearing the shelves. Then I measured the back of the cabinets, unrolled the Dalmatian print wallpaper, flipped it to the back side and used a ruler, tape measure and a pen to mark the dimensions. Then I cut the first panel out and held it up to make sure it fit. Since 3 of the 4 shelves measure the same height, I used the first cut to trace 2 others which made the process even quicker and easier.

Then it was peel, stick and rub. They go on like big stickers and aside from carefully smoothing them to make sure you’re not stuck with creases, they are extremely easy to apply. The directions say to have a flat clean surface. I did wipe the shelves down with a damp rag, but the backs of the shelves are actually textured and the wallpaper still went on just fine. I think it also helped that I was sticking the wallpaper into a boxed in area.

Here’s a shot of the textured back and sides that I stuck the wallpaper to.

After I finished applying the wallpaper, I filled the shelves. I decided to go back with the fun books/board games look!

With our DIY Instant Photo display, shelving makeover, and that fun carved piece that I got in Puerto Rico, this little nook is so cheery now.

The wallpaper was $29.99 and I still have lots leftover. The project took me less than an hour from start to finish… and that’s with a 6-month-old strapped to my chest!

May 25, 2017July 19, 2017

When You’re Good to Paint Pressure Treated Wood- Lessons from a Painting Professional

If you’ve been following along with our backyard renovations and deck rebuild, then you may know that we have switched our plans around quite a bit throughout these renovations. I had a vision of the look I wanted, but after consulting with professional arborists, contractors and our painter, we have changed a few things around. Originally, when we planned to redo our backyard deck, we wanted to put concrete down in place of the old deck that we had. I liked the idea of the smooth light gray and planned to accent it with natural cedar. When all was said and done, we decided concrete wouldn’t work for us and we decided to do a new deck instead. We still plan to accent with cedar although we’re not building our entire deck out of cedar. And because mixed wood tones is a huge pet peeve of mine, I want to paint our deck.

In the midst of our renovations, I stayed in touch with our painter since he was giving us a discount on the exterior painting of our house if we did it after the back deck was removed (and before the new one was built). As I was explaining our plans to him, he gave me some helpful advice that I would have otherwise not known.

You shouldn’t paint fresh pressure treated wood
When we decided to go with wood decking over composite (mainly because of the price) we knew we were committing to keeping our deck well maintained and protected from the elements. I immediately started looking for wood sealers and options for protecting the wood. I knew I didn’t want a stain. I wanted an opaque light gray finish so that the cedar beams would stand out, but according to our painter: You can stain wood right away with an oil based stain, but you shouldn’t paint or seal new pressure treated wood right away because it needs time to cure and dry out before you seal it up. If you paint it without letting it dry, the paint will not last.

Photo Credit: The Feathered Tumblr

Our painter explained that a sealer locks the chemicals and moisture inside and eventually those same chemicals and moisture will eat through the fresh paint and it will begin to chip and peel and bubble. The green-ish hues in the new pressure treated wood are an indication that it has a higher moisture content.

How long do I have to wait before I can paint my wood deck?
After the wood has had a chance to dry. In Florida, this would typically take 1 or 2 seasons. Since we are finishing our deck in late Spring, we will likely paint our deck sometime mid to late Fall. In other extremely dry parts of the world, wood can dry out and be ready for paint in as little as just 2 weeks.

if I can’t paint or seal the wood right away, what do I do to protect my new deck from the elements in the interim?
Nothing. Your wood is pressure treated, and that will keep your wood from rotting while you give it some time to dry a bit. If you wait too long to seal the wood, it will eventually start to go bad, but just a season or 2 won’t hurt it.

How do I know my wood is ready for paint?
You can determine if your deck is ready to be painted by sprinkling some water on your deck. If water beads up then the boards are still too moist to paint or seal. If the water soaks right in, then your deck is dry enough for paint.

Photo: Today’s Homeowner with Danny Lipford

Thanks to our amazing painter, Sam Rios for always doing quality work at great prices and for sharing your experience and wisdom with a couple young, newbie home-renovators. If you’re local and looking for a painter, we know a guy!

May 16, 2017July 19, 2017

A Budget Friendly Kitchen Makover for Under $250

When you walk into our house, after walking through our small entryway, you enter the large open concept floor plan that is our downstairs living space and find yourself smack dab in the middle of our very open kitchen. Despite the fact that I’m no chef nor do I aspire to be one, our kitchen is quite literally the heart of our home- not because we are foodies, but because our house seems to expand out from the kitchen that is situated in the center. From the kitchen, you can see every room in the house that isn’t a bedroom or a bathroom- although with doors open you can see a couple bedrooms and bathrooms from the kitchen too. Conversely, this means that every room in the house can see the kitchen as well. We learned quickly with this super open concept that there are also cons to having such an open living space including the fact that you can see our dirty dishes from just about anywhere. There’s no hiding them. Also, when we moved in, our kitchen was so outdated and drab, it really brought the rest of the house down with it. I’m always so bad about taking good “before” photos, but here’s the beginning of our kitchen makeover (featuring my lovely husband and our then 20-month-old toddler):

This is a shot of what our kitchen looked like “before”. Although, this shot was after we had taken off a few of the original metal handles and we did paint the top wall (above the cabinets) white. It was previously painted a dark grey color which you can see in the shot below. Knowing that we planned to go with black cabinets, we decided that we needed lots of white to contrast the dark cabinets.

I’ll preface the rest of this kitchen reveal by saying that we did start this process out considering the option of replacing and redoing our entire kitchen. Although we like the layout for the most part, our cabinets were not only outdated on the outside (covered with some fake wood-finish Formica or plastic material) but they are pretty old on the inside too. There’s a good amount of lime green and pink flowery wallpaper lining our cabinets and drawers that looks like something you might find in a hippy bus from the 70’s (not that there’s anything wrong with that) but it’s also pretty worn and dirty in a way that can’t be cleaned or removed easily.

Friends, meet the retro inside of our silverware drawer:

The drawers are also just narrow enough to be too narrow to hold any sort of drawer organizers. So all of our utensils jingle around like the disorganized mess of silver that they are and we have to keep the sharp knives in their own spot so no one looses a finger digging around for their soup spoon.

After getting a couple quotes for an entirely new kitchen in price ranges upwards of $35,000, we decided not to spend the next 3-4 years trying to pay for a kitchen. So we set out to find some ways to update our kitchen in a budget-friendly, DIY fashion.

I knew I wanted black cabinets. I love white cabinets also and we toyed with the idea of going white, mainly because it seemed like a nice safe bet, but I convinced JP that we should go dark and if we wanted to change we could always paint over the cabinets later. We found this Valspar cabinet paint from Lowe’s Home Improvement.

We picked Valspar’s Dark Kettle Black color with a semi-gloss finish. And we needed just a little over 2 gallons to paint ALL of our cabinets. This pint (pictured above) was the last bit that I needed to finish the final coat on a couple of the drawers and its still got about 2/3 of the paint left in it for touch-ups later.

We bought these drawer and cabinet pulls from All Modern in a stainless steel finish.

We scrubbed down the kitchen cabinets and prepped the cabinets for paint. I took all of the cabinet doors off and cut in the edges and corners by hand with a paint brush. Then I used a roller to roll the paint on everywhere else.

Our drawers were a little tricky because the drawers that we have don’t come out all of the way (or if they do, we couldn’t figure out how to get them out all the way) so I just carefully painted around them when they were open, then let the paint dry completely before closing them.

Once the cabinet bases were painted and dried (left to sit overnight), I screwed the doors back on and painted them while they were attached to the bases. Note: this isn’t my first time painting kitchen cabinets. I have painted 2 other kitchens prior to this and previously I laid the doors on a giant tarp to be painted which is actually more difficult and more trouble in our case than just screwing the cabinets on and painting them while they’re attached. When you paint doors that are laying on a tarp, you either need a very large garage or outdoor covered space or a large indoor space that will not be disturbed by pets or babies. Since we don’t have either of those, I decided the safest bet would be to keep the cabinets attached while we painted them and just attempt to keep everyone out of the kitchen for a day while they dried. Also it was quicker to paint them this way because I was able to paint both sides of the cabinet and leave them open to dry as opposed to painting one side at a time while they lie on a tarp.

We decided to get rid of the cabinet and vent hood above our range to help with the sight lines and making the space seem more open. We learned through this process that our vent hood wasn’t even vented out and instead was actually just a glorified fan which would blow the smoke around inside but not actually suck any smoke out of the room.

And we love the way it looks without a cabinet there. We have yet to refinish the part of the ceiling that the cabinet and vent hood were attached to, but it’s on our list of to-do’s.

The total cost of our entire kitchen makeover breaks down like this:

Drawer/Cabinet Pulls (40 count at $2.60 a piece): $104
Cabinet Paint (2 gallons and 1 pint): $116
Removal of upper cabinet and vent hood (DIY with the help of my dad): $0
Total cost: $220

And the finished product:

We finished this kitchen makeover in early September of 2016. These “after” pictures were taken today (May 17th, 2017), a little over 8 months later and we are so happy with how our painted cabinets turned out and how well they have held up. We’ve noticed very little wear and they are extremely easy to clean. The only spot that we have seen wear is the spot right behind our trash and recycling bins. Because of the constant scraping when we open and close the bins, the paint is wearing off a bit. It’s barely noticeable when the bins are pushed flush up against the cabinet, but when you pull them out, you can see the original cabinet finish underneath.

Overall, we think it may be the best $220 we’ve ever spent.

May 12, 2017July 19, 2017

Our Front Landscaping Project- Part 1

We started our landscaping last weekend. When I envisioned what we would accomplish, I had originally planned to start and finish our landscaping last weekend, but I seriously underestimated the time it takes to dig holes and plant plants. Also, home improvement with 2 kids under 3 usually means spending 3 times as long on each task. Luckily the bulk of our work happened on Saturday and the grandparents took the oldest little to Disney for the day. So JP and I knocked out quite a bit with the littlest strapped to me in our Tula (shown below- just so you know that it really happened).

Here’s what the front landscape looked like before.

It was already pretty bare because we purged a TON of overgrown bushes shortly after we moved in with plans to re-landscape everything eventually.

We ripped most of the existing plants out- which ended up being just 4 bushes and a whole bunch of weeds. We left our palm trees and some other small plants around the corner. Then we laid down some weed barrier and tacked it down with metal stakes. (Note: we decided NOT to rake out all the flower beds before laying down the weed barrier. So instead of having clean and fresh dirt, we left the old weed barriers and some leaves down underneath. With the mindset that it would be even more help to keep weeds from growing. If it does in fact keep the weeds out better, then it will be worth it, but it did make it significantly harder to dig holes and plant the new plants.) Here;s a shot of the freshly laid weed barrier.

It took 3 (Kia Sorento) cars full of plants from Lowe’s to stock this landscape, but I planned ahead and picked up a few plants at a time earlier in the week on my lunch breaks. We really just made multiple trips out of sheer practicality and the fact that our car could only hold so much. In hindsight, it was really good to take multiple trips throughout the week because it allowed me to place the plants where I thought I wanted them and get a rough idea of how many more of each thing we needed. I was also able to better gauge the balance of large/medium/small plants and make sure the landscape was well balanced. By Saturday, I just needed a few more fluffy cattails and some smaller ground covering.

Once we had all the plants, I arranged them the way I wanted them. Originally I had envisioned rows and straight lines and once I got them all laid out, I switched it up to clusters. I arranged a lot of the medium/larger plants in triangle clusters. I still used a few lines, with the smaller plants like the spider plants around the oak tree pictured below.

I also used straight lines for the small Mexican Hair Grass and the concrete planters holding the Queen’s Mum African Lillies both shown below. Because the planters are so boxy, it was imperative that they were evenly spaced and level. We actually pulled some of the white landscape border stones (shown in the picture above) and used them underneath the planters to give them a hard surface to rest on and also to raise them up a bit. We actually measured their location with a tape measure and then made sure each one was level before pouring the dirt in.

I found those concrete planters at Target, and I can’t link them for you because they are so gone. I drove to 4 different targets just to find those 3, none of them showed up online as being available (not even in the store) and none of them were able to be shipped so we completely lucked out getting these 3. I loved them so much I got a pair of smaller ones to frame the front door (shown below).

After all the plants were placed in their final resting places, we started planting- well JP started planting. I watched and held the baby and then once he got far enough over I started shoveling the rocks in.

We’ve still got a long way to go before we’re finished, but were just doing a little at a time in the evenings between work and diaper changes and making dinner

Here’s a shot closer to sunset once the spot lights had turned on.

The lights make a big difference, and we’ve got a few more to place before we’re finished. We got these Threshold solar powered spotlights from Target. They’re 15 lumens and work so great. Right now, they’re selling for $10 a piece in store, but you can go to this link and get them for $8.50 online.

My goal for our landscape was to get super low-maintenance plants that are hardy enough to not need to be watered all the time. I didn’t want any bushes that would have to be trimmed. I also didn’t want any weeds (I mean who does?) Are you noticing a pattern here? In case you missed it, we don’t like yard work. So in our search of a nice yard without the work, I settled on a drought resistant, midwest modern landscape vibe.

We got a lot of succulents, cattails, aloe plants, snake and spider plants, hardy grasses and kid-friendly cacti (ones without big pointy needles). I also incorporated some pineapple plants I had in pots in our backyard. We went with white rocks to contrast our dark house color and all in we are very happy with how it’s turning out. We are looking forward to the days when we can be done with yard work and enjoy our easy low-maintenance, environmentally friendly landscape.

May 4, 2017July 19, 2017

5 Best Kid and Pet Friendly Area Rugs

About a year ago, we bought this gorgeous 8X10 area rug for our playroom. It’s a shag style rug and it’s white with light grey designs. I somehow convinced myself that despite the fact that it sits directly in front of the sliding-glass doors that our dogs come in and out several times a day that we could handle keeping this (mostly) white rug clean.

When we first bought it, I regrettably didn’t get a great picture of the entire rug, but here’s a snap of part of it.

It was soft and fluffy and SO white! And then a year later (thanks to large dark-haired dogs and toddler food crumbs) our rug looks like this.

The rug is all matted together and maybe that’s what a shag rug is supposed to do, but it also doesn’t look white either. The grey lines have faded and the white part now looks like light grey. Even after multiple rounds of vacuuming and using the rug cleaner, this rug constantly looks dirty.

I have been rug-browsing for about 6 months now and I’ve come up with a pretty good list of options for kid and pet friendly rugs and what I would (will) do differently the second time around.

And the winners for the best kid and pet friendly rugs are…

Dark Rugs

If your space has high foot traffic and especially if you have dark-haired pets (like we do), then a dark rug may be a good option. It won’t keep the stains/dirt/hair away but it will hide them in between cleanings and keep your house looking fresh.
Patterned Rugs

Similar to the dark rug, patterned rugs will help hide small imperfections including pet hair, dirt and any number of things your toddler gets on your rug. Plus these rugs just bring so much depth to your space, they are a good choice whether you have kids or pets or not.
Washable Rugs
Yes, you read that right. I said “washable”- as in, you can throw these in your washing machine! If you’re not a fan of the dark and bold and you just can’t kick your love of that clean white trellis style rug, all is not lost. You could always get one of these fully machine washable rugs from Lorena Canals. Seriously, the only reason I haven’t purchased one yet is because I can’t decide which one to buy (I want all of them). They also make really fun and playful rugs perfect for kids rooms or playrooms.

digital post production: Ole Bunger
www.pixoleb.com
Vintage Rugs
Vintage rugs are totally in- always! You can make them work in nearly every type of space from traditional to bohemian to modern and you would be surprised what some people will pay for a beat up vintage rug these days. The good thing about vintage rugs is they are usually very well made and hold up well against pet nails and all that is kids and if you like the vintage used-rug vibe, then you don’t have to panic when your 3-year-old tips over her grape juice because it’ll just add character – that’s how it works right?
Floor Mats

I know that a floor mat isn’t technically a rug but it serves the same purpose with the added bonus of some extra padding for your littles and an easy mop-able surface (mop-able: adj. – something that can be cleaned with a mop) Yes, I just made up that word. And when you hear the term “floor mat” it may bring about visions of multicolored foam complete with letters and numbers and predominantly primary colors, but floor mats have come a long way. The mat shown above as well as the one below is from Skiphop.

Little Nomad also sells floor mats that can almost be disguised as a rug.

Little Nomad mats have seamless designs that make it hard to even see where the floor tiles connect. It makes for a stylish kid and pet friendly mat and rug alternative.
This is my list of options for our next kid and pet-friendly rug/floor covering. Now comes the hard part- picking just 1 of these! Which one is your favorite?

📷: Cover photo- @rowanberry_lavender; Post photos from top to bottom- Design Sponge, www.styleandcheek.com, www.sarahshermansamuel.com, Coco Lapine Design, www.lorenacanals.com, www.youaretheriver.com, www.skiphop.com (2), www.little-nomad.com (2)