the newly cornwells: inspiration

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

D/W DIY

So one of the projects I worked on this weekend was a little stencil design on our hampers in the master. We both really like a little bit of the industrial look and actually have purchased a vintage laundry cart that we plan on putting in the den once we get that far, but I wanted to bring a little of that to our bedroom which is turning out to be more refined and needing a little age and distinction to it. While a little stenciling isn't going to get us distinction it at least helps with the age part a bit.

via. very similar to the cart we got for the den,

except ours is way older and needs some serious TLC.

via. closer to the look we're going for in the bedroom.

We already had some canvas laundry hampers that we purchased at target a long time ago that we currently use to separate our whites and darks. For this project, I grabbed some Martha Stewart paint in navy at Michaels along with some stenciling letters, stenciling brushes and some spray adhesive for stenciling.

i loved the old school traditional stencil look of these, and the size was perfect!

This project was easy-peasy and probably only took 10 minutes tops. I just cut the corner stencil down a bit, sprayed the adhesive on the back of the stencil and centered it in the middle of the hamper. I then grabbed my stencil brush and dipped it into the paint on a small paper plate I had and lightly dabbed the fabric surface - starting from the outside edges of the stencil and working in.

stuck on, pre paint!

All in all, the adhesive did a pretty good job creating a barrier between the interior paint area and exterior non painted space. If anything my minor goof up was that I cut the letter a little close on one side (the lower case W was creeping in!) and didn't give myself enough of an overhang. The paint that did run over on the W was easily removed with a Tide pen.

finished product!

Considering that I put in only 10 minutes with minimal tools that I'll likely use again, I'd say this was a quick and easy win! And to top it off our house guests noticed and commented on it right away when we were giving a tour! Glad to know I'm not the only one that loves fun details!

xoxo,

Friday, June 8, 2012

The Layout Low Down

So you might have guessed from the first house pic I shared that this is in fact a split level. Those last two words were actually on the NO, NEVER, HELL NO list, and yet here we are.

Once we entered the house, we came to learn that it's actually referred to as a "Mid-Level", "Multi-Level" or even a "California Style" house - although I still haven't found any substantial information to back that last moniker
Basically, where a traditional "Split Level" opens up on a platform of sorts with the option to walk up or down to living spaces, this house does have a true main floor...and second floor...and lower level...and finally a basement. It's actually very similar to putting two, two-story homes side by side but slightly offset, so there's just a small amount of stairs (8 to be exact) between each floor.

Our front door opens up to the living room, which flows into the kitchen and then the dining room.

No split platforms here! Also, these pics are from the initial walk thru.

And the short hallway off the front door runs into the kitchen, passing a short set of stairs going to up to the second floor or down to the den.

Don't worry, the wall color is/was painted and the floors are/were redone! Let's not talk about the closets for now. Ick town.

The kitchen has a back door out to the backyard (a sweet little dutch door actually!) and the lower level - what we're referring to as the den/fourth bed level - has just that, a fourth bedroom, another bathroom and a huge living space with fireplace. The best part about that room? The sliding doors out to the patio of course!

Because of the many different levels, we needed a look to pull everything together. More on the specifics, and fun before and afters next week, but here's some inspiration photos.