Bathroom Project: Painting Linoleum/Vinyl Floors

After our gallery wall success and due to unemployment I became what I would call "project happy" at the house.  Crusing Pinterest one Sunday over coffee I spotted two tutorials that involved painting floors.  This one was about painting linoleum/vinyl floors and I got my pattern idea from this tutorial where tile was painted rather than linoleum/vinyl. I had a long debate on stipes vs something more complex and in the end I am glad I went with the x design in the second tutorial. If you are low on time I recommend stripes. I'm not really big into DIY but figured this was a good project for an unemployed gal. Seeing as how I am still not finished I guess it is a good project.  Too bad I start work on Monday and don't have time to finish it this weekend. Oops. 

Taping off baseboards for initial coat of primer after I de-glossed the floors.

Primer coat one. Note: this was a porous surface which makes it a challenge to paint. I didn't spend time trying to get my two coats of primer even before trying the white floor paint coat. This was a mistake. The floor paint was much thinner than the primer and I could still see uneven spots so if you don't want to go back over you work take some time with the primer. 

Started the design with big X in the center. I worked out from each triangle by taping a triangle and taking up every other one. This means the tape does the measuring for you. Pretty genius. Thanks Retropolitan tutorial. 

Rocky was supervising. 

Finally all taped up. It really wasn't as horrendous as I thought it would be. Kind of therapeutic. 

I decided to use satin floor paint from Sherwin Williams in Naval. Big fan of this if you are searching for an awesome navy color. Notes: my first coat was done by brush because I had so many edges and a toilet to paint around. My second and touch up coats were done with a small foam roller which I found to be an excellent material to use with satin paint. The coats where I used the roller went very fast (finally!). 

Issues: peeling up the tape was very tricky. I had a lot of bleeds -- again expected issues due to a porous surface. They are hard to see in the photo but if you came over you would see I need a hard day of touch ups with my white paint. And some with the Naval paint color. 

All in all I'm not sorry I did the project. It will take a few days if you work or even if you don't because you obviously have to let the floor dry every time you paint it because you must walk on it again to do a new coat. All that's left after I touch up is to seal it and it was cheap while also worth the effort to camoflauge the linoleum floor. Lord know why I tiled my master bathroom when I had this town home built and left this one off? How much more could it have been to tile this small area?!  

What projects are you into this Spring?

-the single gal-

Friday Five

1. I never watch TV and I needed another way to get some news other than Twitter.  So when I read about a site called The Skimm I was really intrigued so I signed up.  Basically two chick quit their jobs at NBC to launch the site.  Read about them here. It's a light-weight summary of some good political updates and goings on.  I get a quick email every weekday. And it explains the government shut down and other bits in layman terms.  I like it.  

2.  So I used to be all down on Marigolds because I thought they were gross plants that were stinky.  But -- the big one I bought is just pretty as can be and seems to be a hearty little plant that I can't kill.  I may just go buy another. 

3.  I'm prob going to be "that person" that is outside with her gold spray paint tearing up some baby pumpkins for a $6 tablescape.   Don't judge. 

link to diy tutorial here

4. The Housewife bought us matching tank tops to run our race in on Sunday.  Yep. We are super twins. 

5.  I don't feel at all prepared for this race but I do know that it will be fun! 

Happy Weekend everyone! 

~the single gal~

De-Grinching Weekend + Holiday Home Decor

Well, a lot has come to pass in the living room since my post about being a bit Grinchy and not wanting to even decorate this year.  Since Em is here for a while now as my roomie she was pretty adamant that we get in the mood and decorate this house.  So Friday afternoon Em crawled through Michael's gathering craft supplies while I was at work and I came home this past weekend to drink wine, make anything and everything that involved glitter, and get some sort of a tree up.  All while eating leftover garlic rolls {thanks Jimmy James}.  

It was pretty darn fabulous.  We finally finished all of our project earlier this morning.  I am really pleased with how it turned out -- all thanks to Em's vision!  

I remembered I had a little Charlie Brown-eque tree in the garage that we toted out rather than dealing with the gigantic one.  Also, we painted two canvases with chalkboard paint.  This was a great idea of Em's as we can now erase them and use them for future parties/holiday decor.  So I guess we just have to plan all those 2013 parties now. 

Little Tree and "Santa, It's a long story..." chalkboard.

This is probably my favorite -- the bookshelf re-vamp.  Em looked at a lot of stuff on Pinterest and we were both really drawn to one pin where someone drew the outline of a stag on a canvas and covered it in glitter.  I think hers turned out beautifully and I love our tall and skinny chalkboard canvas where she drew a simple Christmas tree.  We just rearranged these items with some stuff already downstairs. 

Glitter stag + canvas with chalkboard paint for our skinny Christmas tree. 

This photo was a little off center and it's a bit grainy due to the Instagram filter but I don't have a fancy camera like The Housewife.  We put tons of glitter on letters we cut out from foam board to hang between our stockings and put up a spare strand of colored lights with some mercury glass candle holders. 

The "Merry" Mantle

I even managed to wrap those presents you see under the tree and I'm almost done Christmas shopping.  Even better -- I'm grateful for friends that do all they can to make my life better and cheer me up -- especially this time of year.  

Love you. Mean it. 

~the single gal~

Things You Do When You Don't Have a Boyfriend #247 - Home Projects

So, I know y'all are going to think The Housewife invaded my body after this post, and well, it's clearly possible.  The Housewife has really been getting into a lot of home projects lately and has inspired me to do the same.  As I am sure you would realize, being the Single Gal that I am, I am on a single income.  I bought a new town home 2 1/2 years ago and am always struggling to decorate some little area to make my house a little more "homey" and a little more "me". But, it's hard to go out, look pretty, keep Hogan in his special prescription food, and also keep up the house. Mercy-- that Little Baby Jesus expects a lot from me. 

Anyway, The Housewife and I also religiously stalk the "Young House Love" blog and here is my little tribute to The Housewife and also some of our internet DIY'ers -- sprucing up an old vanity that I have been using as a desk for years and seriously diving into some color. 

Desk Before: 

*note, please excuse the terrible iPhone photo. I wasn't inspired for an actual post about this until later. (Clearly it's a boring week and I'm reaching for material.)

So...What to do with the desk? The Housewife and I discussed and we went for something bold for a few reasons -- #1 You can always re-paint it if you hate it.  #2 - Anything pink is awesome and lovely. 

Luckily, Big John owns a painting company so he sent me over to Sherwin Williams for some primer and paint--and even let me put it on the account! Go Dad!  I really agonized over which pink was The. Most. Perfect. Pink. Ever. and I am awful at committing to anything decor wise in my house unless someone tells me that it does in fact, look good.  

The winning pink of all pink swatches was -- Eros Pink.  

And here we go with a sort of step-by-step: 

In the garage and primed! 

That's right. I am mother-freaking crafty, bitches.

A few days later the Eros Pink went on (two coats).  Wow--super pink. Looks awesome in the garage but will I hate it inside???

After this I went to Hobby Lobby to find some drawer pulls and after much frustration with even trying to locate them I decided on some white, flower looking ones.  These might not be forever, but they will do right now. I didn't absolutely love anything. 

AFTER!

Luckily, I think I am really loving the pink desk. I kind of have a lot going on in my downstairs area with prints and colors, but it doesn't bother me (for now). I am trying to tie everything together with little stuff and in the words of The Housewife -- the desk is like "a statement necklace for the living room". 

For now, this is what I did with that wall: 

*Frame in other chair clearly not permanent.

*I did eventually tie up the lamp cord, mmmK?   

Thoughts? Reviews? All The Housewife did was ask for my leftover paint for a project for #1. 

~the single gal~

Martha Stewart might put a hit out on me. Seriously.

It has been a busy two weeks at the Housewife household. What I couldn't tell you before I can tell you now. After the circus of #1's baptism and reception I have been planning a surprise retirement party for my sweet mother-in-law. I've been helping out Turtle's Dad because the Turtle's Grandmother was in the hospital and was eventually moved to hospice the week before the party. So I happily volunteered to spend my father-in-laws money and plan the big par-tay. We've been planning this since April.

The Single Gal had to talk me off the ledge a few times and due to Turtle's grandmother passing away the night before the party and I really thought we were going to have to let the cat out of the bag. Namely because Turtle's younger sis lives in South Florida and was driving up under the guise of "my birthday." Which really seemed insane to Turtle's Mom because the funeral is this weekend and sis was going to have to come all the way back again (she didn't even leave Atlanta until Tuesday folks) on Friday. While we had a sad event in between we were able to pull of the surprise flawlessly.

I channeled my inner DIY and made some mason jar vases for the party based on an idea from this link. I added a button to mine.

Here we are with Turtle on Saturday

Other big news is that The Single Gal and I had to start training for the Las Vegas Marathon Monday. Today is my 4th day of working out in a row and I really think my coach is trying to kill me. The workouts are not even very difficult right now but he's making me do ab work. I have never been one to do very much ab work unless I'm doing a gym class with the Single Gal and let's face it........it's been a long time since I did a gym class. Don't get me wrong, I've been going to the gym a couple days a week running and doing a yoga class every Friday. I did my ab work on Monday after my run and my stomach muscles are still screaming. Still. I'm definitely ready to get back to my old marathon running self but it is definitely challenging. We're not even to the hard stuff yet, this is just "base" training. The training before the training. Super. 

If you need me I'll be staging my come back. Just like Britney Spears. Hit me baby one more time. I'm off to the gym........