Uh, yea that’ll work. Except, yanno, BIGGER.

I looked around and priced large canvases – but in the size I wanted, at least 5′x5′, we were looking at spending at least $300. Yea, no. So I dug around a little more – lightbulb, ding ding! You can stretch your own canvases with stretchers and linen canvas, but even then you were looking at spending at least $120 on a roll of canvas. I don’t want a pretty painting on it, I just want a modern blank canvas for the wall!

That’s when I thought back to painting the dining room a couple weekends ago – the canvas I used to cover the floor is only about $10-$20 at Home Depot and are at least 5′ wide! Add in the stretchers for $7 a pop and we’re talking under $40! Ding ding we have a winner! I already own a staple gun and staples, it’s just time to decide if we should do it now or later. I’m torn.. I really want to try it out now, but we don’t have a place to put it. It would just be good to know if it will turn out right. What do you think?

This is what we started with:

So two weeks ago I decided to tackle the dark, heavy bookcase which would, in the end, help lighten the room up a bit. First thing’s first, remove all the CRAP from the bookcase. Make sure you give it a good wipedown with a damp rag, just to get the dust off. Don’t use dusting spray or any chemicals, as it might make the primer not stick as well.

After I taped off the doors, I pulled out the supplies I needed. Mine included some paint brushes (both bristle and sponge), some mini rollers, a drop cloth for the floor (since I was doing it inside, but helpful none-the-less), my primer and my paint. Oh, and gloves! Since the primer is oil based, it will be a pain to get off your hands, so just grab some latex gloves when you pick up your supplies!

By now you should have your bookcase lying down and ready to paint. Luckily the boyfriend had some cinder blocks in the back yard, so I used those to prop the bookcase up so I could get all around it without worrying about getting the floor.

Then it’s time to start priming!! I think I did 2 coats of primer and a third for touch ups. Mine wasn’t mixed very well — had I known when I purchased it, I would have had the paint counter shake it up for me. It’s a good time to warn about the smell and fumes. I don’t recommend doing this inside if you don’t have to. I was desperate to get it done (and stubborn!) so I went through with it — but it stinks to high heaven, and I had to take a couple breaks due to lightheaded-ness. That’ll bode well for future-me!

The primer didn’t stick as well as I would have liked, and that could have been due to the humidity or my lack of patience in letting it cure long enough. Regardless, the end result turned out decent enough.

Let me tell you — those doors were a pain! I almost said screw it, because they are double sided and the paint and primer kept seeping into the holes and just filling it up. Thank goodness for screwdrivers to clean them out later! (Invest in a powerdrill, kiddies!)

So I had 5 shelves and 2 doors to prime and paint. Hm.. How’d I do it? Well, initially, like this:

Books come in handy, yanno! ;) After that, I just lined them all up on a cardboard box on top of our dining chairs.

Also, make sure to sand between coats! It’ll cut down on the bumps and brush strokes you’ll have in the end.

I’d suggest giving at least 30 minutes between primer coats, an hour before painting and a half hour between paint coats. I’m sure elsewhere you’ll hear wait longer, but, well, I’m impatient, and that timing seemed to work out just fine for me.

In the process of redoing the bookcase I decided I wanted it farther away from the window, so it didn’t crowd that area as much. That really helped! Later this week I’ll show you our living room as it is today.

From far away it looks like a white bookcase, but up close you can see that it was painted, especially around the doors where some of the paint peeled off when I removed the tape.

But it’s made better by the sweet knobs the boyfriend spotted at Ikea in the as-is section for 2 bucks!

So what do you think? Much better, right? I would have loved to purchase a new bookcase, probably something like the CB2 kickstand bookcase, but this is much more economical — and we have a couch to save up for!!

—-

Here is a breakdown of my costs:

Primer: $10 for a quart — it was just enough, so if you have a bigger piece, get two quarts!

Paint: Already had on hand.

Brushes/rollers/sponges: $8

Paint trays: $2

Gloves: On hand already.

Painter’s tape: On hand already.

So for about twenty bucks, I repainted this bookcase, gave it a new look and helped lighten up our dark living room in one weekend! Hoozah! Stay tuned for an overall shot of the room to see how much it helped me lighten up the space!

I’m still styling the bookcase, but I wanted to share some teaser photos with you! It was a long, arduous process, but Billy is painted! I’m not sure how well it’ll hold, as I noticed some chipping while I was putting things back together, but the shelves are in and the books are on, and that’s the hard part! I should have a more thorough run down of my process later this week!

(We picked up the metal typeset characters at the DC Big Flea this past weekend — only $4!)

He is way too dark! In my old apartment he worked, but now that we have a lighter, airier feel to the space (not yet, that is), I want something lighter! So this weekend, I plan to tackle the bookcase with some primer, some paint, and git-r-done! I was inspired, and plan to follow Centsational Girl’s post on painting laminate furniture.

So Billy, get ready to meet your match! (Wish me luck, DC has been suffering some serious humidity so this’ll be an indoor project..)

The landlord, when she lived there, must have planted some ivy for ground cover, which would have been all well and good, had it not turned into this:

Completely overgrown! To make matters worse, every time I walked up the front steps to the door I would get whacked in the face with a cobweb from the over grown bushes. Not to mention the little bugs that would nip at my arms and legs as I fumbled to get in the house! Needless to say, after a couple weeks, I was sick of being bitten and entering the house with a mouth-full of spider-web!

So Friday night, the boyfriend and I hustled over to Lowe’s to stock up on things we’d need to get the job done! I actually got out of work a couple hours early that day and made one of my tasks to trim the hedges before we got started with the rest of the work Saturday morning. Once stocked up at Lowe’s, we came home and got to bed to get an early start! Little did I know that the boyfriend’s definition of early start was to get out there at 7am, demolishing the overgrown ivy and various ground cover.

After a cup of coffee to wake me up, I suited up in long-sleeves and pants (don’t want all those misplaced bugs coming after our sweet skin!) to help tackle the task of taking the front yard back from all the buggies! A few hours later we were looking much better! (Well, the yard was at any rate, we definitely weren’t going to win any beauty pageants after all that labor!)

Want to see what we ended up with? Well, here you go!

Look, Ma! No weeds! Boy, does that ivy root itself in there! I’m sure we’ll be picking it out weekly for a while, the only way we would’ve gotten all the weeds out would have been to till the yard, and well, I don’t want to buy a till!

We bought a new hose, since the old one burst apart when I turned it on (which equals me, soaked, ugh), laid some pavers down to prevent the drip-off from creating a muddy pit, and purchased four bags of black mulch to really finish it off! Sadly, those hideous scalloped edgers were already in place, and since it’s just a rental, I’m not going out of my way to purchase new ones!

We may end up planting some flowers, but for now, it’s a low maintenance solution to our front yard. 5 hours of work, 4 bags of yard-waste, and less than $75 later, we have a happy yard!

I prefer to just sit here staring out the window, contemplating how exactly to get to that darned squirrel, or that feisty blue jay…

You do realize it’s a holiday weekend right? Your favorite holiday? The one that’s supposed to be filled with beer and barbecue and those bright, noisy things in the sky? Really, no thanks.

I’ll be in the way, for sure. But I’ll take naps here and there. Like.. now. Have fun doing all that stuff this weekend, I’ll be here, on this ottoman, soaking up the sun.

*yaaaawn* Hey, can you open the blinds a bit? I need to work on my tan.

So here it comes — I LOVE MY NEW SPACE. :) The bedroom is a bit smaller, but it’s cozy; the kitchen opens up into the living space, which I love; and the bathroom — holy crap I took my first bath in ages and it’s going to be a normal occurrence! At my old space, my apartment faced a parking lot and a run-down apartment complex where loud, foreign music and screaming children were an all too normal, and annoying occurrence. Here, though I am literally steps from a major highway, my balcony faces a courtyard that is super peaceful. I’m excited, super, super excited. After I get settled a bit more, I’ll be taking some photos for ‘before’ reference and I will share a few with you all!

With this new apartment comes new projects — and my to do list is already piling up with more projects than I can take on in the next month. They include:

• Pick paint colors and paint accent walls in living room and bedroom (attempt to put the free Glidden paint to use that I got a month or so ago in their free giveaway.)
• Take an as-is Ikea Malm headboard (scored for only $8!) and attempt to upholster it with linen fabric and a nail head trim
• Buy a desk (was considering the Bond desk from West Elm, but am thinking that in the spirit of saving, I may go with the Mikael from Ikea.)
• Refinish coffee table from pine to an undecided color
• Oh, and yanno — UNPACK!

So with that, I sign off and will be back in a few days, once I get settled a bit more. How was your weekend, any fun projects you are working on? I’d love to hear!

(Also, when you move into a new space — check for silly people who didn’t secure their internets for free wifi while you unpack — saves you from having to deal with internet install during the hustle and bustle of unpacking! ;) Silly people!)