NAUTICAL THEMED TODDLER ROOM

After giving our dirty, soot-stained, red brick fireplace the makeover it badly needed late last year, I moved on to my next home improvement DIY project. It was after I helped repaint our church's nursery room that I got the inspiration to revamp my son's room at our home. He has had a pirate ship for a toddler's bed, so I thought what better theme to match it than nautical, right?

So early March when I started on this project. I didn't get to finish it though until May. It wasn't a big project at all but with a very active toddler around me all day, I hardly could get any painting done during the day. Plus, there were travels and other commitments and glitches in between, so it had to take the backseat for a time. I was happy and relieved when I finally completed it.

Now, here's a little tour of my son's nautical themed room:

BEHIND THE SCENES:

Yours truly in action. It's amazing what a can of paint could do to a room.
It transformed the mood from neutral to fun. I love the ocean-y vibe this shade
of blue elicits and it set the stage for the theme at hand.

BEHIND THE SCENES:

With the help of my ScanNCut, I was able to create a couple of wall arts.
Credits also go to hundreds and hundreds of ideas available thru the Internet.
This was my first attempt to DIY a wall art and I personally believe I nailed this one!
:)

Reading nook for my boy's first library. He has a growing collection
of books that as of now, this shelf is no longer enough to hold all of his books.
Also, this photo was taken in May, and since, we have brought in a couple of friends
(Grover and Donald Duck) for that lonesome brown bear.

With my little boy who constantly inspires me to do things I have never done before.

"I'll love you forever, I'll love you for always,
As long as I'm living,
My baby you'll be." - Robert Munsch

The second of two DIY wall arts I made. The three wall decors surrounding the frame I made
was part of the nautical bedding set I bought online from Amazon.

The letters spelling out my son's name were originally painted white.
I repainted them with dark blue paint which provided a good contrast against the light blue background. I didn't want to ruin the newly painted wall by driving nails into it, so we used putty tack to hang those letters. Surprisingly, they are holding very well!
Also, since this picture was taken, I have added a valance to that small window similar to the one hanging on the bigger window. 

To get the nautical theme going, I bought a new set of bedding which included 2 pcs of valance,
three wall decors, toy hamper, diaper stacker, pillows, quilt and fitted sheet.
Recently, we added a big wall clock and a nautical themed photo frame.
We featured pictures from each of our Caribbean vacations over the past two years, namely
Bahamas, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Jamaica :)

Overall, I am well pleased with how this project turned out. Of course, my toddler's room is not always this immaculate. In fact, I think the only time it was this organized was when I took these pictures. LOL! Bottom line, I love how Vince and I were able to tie everything up together to create this cute and cozy nautical themed room for Vonn Kaleb ☻

FIREPLACE MAKEOVER

One thing I never really liked in our home was our wood burning brick fireplace. It was hate at first sight. If I had a choice, I would have preferred a modern (or ultra modern better yet!) electric fireplace with a neat looking mantle and hearth, probably something white and bright, which of course is the total opposite of the one we have. Our house was built in the '90s, so among other things that are dated and needs updating is the fireplace. Adding insult to injury was the previous owner of the house who wasn't too keen in home upkeeping. When we moved in the house, the fireplace still had ashes, burnt firewoods, soot, creosote and stain, and had a shabby fireplace screen. Altogether, it was an eyesore sticking out like a sore thumb in the big living room. Ugh! We thought of having it professionally revamped or even re-did but it would cost us thousands of dollars to get it done. With all the other more important fixes our home needs, needless to say the fireplace renovation got pushed down the bottom of the list. Sigh!  

One fine dandy day, out of the blue, I just decided to do the makeover myself. Yeah, right! The not-so-crafty me who had not done a single home DIY project. I couldn't watercolor paint let alone brick paint, what was I thinking!? It started with me searching the Internet for fireplace screens, which then led me to fireplace doors, followed by electric logs, and next thing I knew, I was googling for ways to clean and paint brick. Wow! I sure did have a lot of time in my hands that day. Hehe!

Anyway, I found Brick Anew paints online. The testimonials and reviews from their customers including the before and after pictures posted in their website gave me some hope in prettifying my fireplace without having to shed a good chunk of $$$$! What really got me into trying the product though was reviews that say how easy it is to use the products even for first time DIYers like me. "Cool!," I thought.

Well, before I could even get to the painting stuff, I needed to clean the fireplace first. To me, this was the hardest part in the makeover. As I said above, the fireplace was a mess when we moved in the house, and since I hated it, I pretty much left it as is and didn't touch it until I was ready to give it the makeover. I had to get rid of the burnt woods, grate, and the shabby screen. I swept and vacuumed the ashes inside the firebox. I was on my knees and eventually on all fours scrubbing and steel brushing soot and creosote build up in the firebox. I used up bottles and bottles of different brick cleansers. Anyway, after days and days of scrubbing and brushing, I gave up.  Soot had already stained the bricks, and though I didn't get to where I wanted in terms of removing as much stain, the fireplace was clean enough to be painted on. Some battles I just couldn't win but life has to go on, so onto the next step: Paint!

First, I watched the instructional DVD included in the Brick Anew paint kit I bought. I also read the written instructions and tips it came with. Then, I gathered all the self-confidence I could muster, breathed, and told myself, "I can do this!" :D Next, I put painter's tape on the surroundings and prepped the area once more. Then, I picked up the paint brush and went into the zone.

The finished product? I guess I would just share pictures of my fireplace (before and after makeover) and leave it up to you to decide if I have achieved something ;)

I hated how our old fireplace looked like. So much so that I didn't bother taking a picture of it before the actual makeover. So, here I'm sharing an old picture that was taken last year during Vonn Kaleb's first birthday. Behind me, you can catch a glimpse of what the fireplace looked like when we first moved in. The ugly fireplace screen, black soot in the firebox, ashes, burnt wood and grate. That's what I was talking about!

From drab...

...to fab!