DIY Dining Room Accent Wall

I should start this post by saying, I LOVE DIY projects.... but I should also say, that sometimes I lose focus and want the project to just be over, and the drywall dust to be gone, and the stuff to be painted. But in the end, I always miss the actual "doing" of the project. The painting, the nailing, the feeling you get when you step back from your project and it's coming out like you envisioned! Even better getting to work with my kids and husband and niece helping paint or cut boards.

I am in love with the way this came out. 

Here's how this DIY got started.

We had an interior wall in our dining room that has the breaker box in it. We wanted it to be a focal point, but had to figure out a way to hide the breaker box, but not sacrifice design.

First goal: Hide that utility box but not so well that we can't get to it when I blow a fuse.
Second goal: This is a focal point in our dining room so we need to be practical but make it look awesome.

My Inspiration:

Contemporary Bedroom by Orem Paint & Wall Coverings Soelberg Industries

My DIY Thinking:

"I can do that!  (with a bunch of help from my husband and family)"

I did some sketches to make sure that what I thought we could do was possible. I then showed it to my husband, and we worked through some engineering flaws with the wall and my design.

We started with a frame of 2 x 4's to build out from the wall (not everyone needs to do this part, we had to work around the breaker box) and a base of plywood just to make sure the wall was going to hold up once we put all the weight of the boards on it.

Here's that darn breaker box that we had to work around.

Here was a little wall artistry that I performed to make sure my hubby knew how awesome I thought he was. 

We used 11/32 inch waferboard to raise or lift the boards off of the wall. My husband and son team-worked those on the outside, while my daughter and I installed the boards inside to keep the project moving.
We used 1 x 4 and 1x6's for the design. We took some time to draw those out to accommodate for the breaker box, as well as the design factor. I penciled those measurements by drawing on the wall, so the boys could get the measurements of the next board and stay ahead of us by cutting.

I didn't want there to be gaps between the boards, so we used caulk to seal them up. My daughter helping caulk as we went.

Then this darling thing happened to our family, and we got off track for awhile. However, the white puppy drywall dust prints throughout the house got me back on track VERY QUICKLY! 

Applying the turquoise color (Schooner A58-5 from Olympic Paint) - Can you believe my son and husband picked out this color? I was thinking something more muted like cream with some sheen pearl highlights, but they both really wanted this to be a bright wall. 

My niece and I along with some help from my son helped apply the bronze highlights. This was done with a copper spray paint and glaze. We learned quickly that we had to apply the glaze to a small section of the wall, then apply a few dashes of spray paint, and then using our paint brushes manipulate it on the wall. We also learned that there is not a CORRECT way to do this.
It's art. It's a wall. It's yours. Just go for it.  
By the end of it, we each had our own methods, but when you stepped back, it ended up looking wonderful.

The Final

If you are asking where my breaker box went, it's there, and it's hidden behind a panel of about 6 boards that are not fastened to the rest of the wall. My brilliant hubby attached them to magnets, then stuck them on the breaker box. The other boards around it help hold them in place.

Also, because I wanted some lighting on my walls, but didn't have any outlets up that high, I had to be creative with the lighting. 

Sconces from Hobby Lobby ($14.99/piece), Globes from Lowes ($4.99/piece), Lights are LED handheld flashlights from Lowes ($3.97/piece) 

My cup runneth over

I have had a couple of cup runneth over moments as of late with my kids. I am aware their journey into small adults is right in front of my face, and I am trying my darnedest to take a mental memory of all of it... It goes too fast.

Over the last couple of weeks, I have gotten to experience a call from my son telling me that I should grab my camera and run outside after a recent afternoon rain and get a picture of the grass, and that the rain on the grass might be a pretty shot. He has taken an interest in photography lately, and we made a trip to downtown Hutchinson together to take some shots of Avenue A park during the golden hour, right before sunset. It was fun to get some shots on my camera of my son taking pictures. Even funner, to scroll through his photographs, and listening to him tell me about what angle he liked, and why he framed it the way he did. I love photography and it's a wonderfully soothing outlet for me, I love that I can share it with Chance and that he's kind enough to share with me.

Recently, I played in a volleyball match with my daughter. I have coached her since she was in 3rd grade, and those are some of our most special memories. We have been able to play together for the last couple of years, and this last time we played together, it was different. My role changed from coach to a teammate, it was fun for me to watch her on defense digging a ball up, and I realized that she was in the perfect spot after making the perfect read on the way the ball would travel. Watching her communicate well on the court and smile after a great play and sharing those moments with her on a different level from a different viewpoint is a wonderful thing.

Traditions {old | new | forgotten | found}

The passage of time and the holidays reminded me of so many traditions with my family growing up, and with Cody’s family.

This is a gift giving tradition and one of my faves. Every Christmas, at my Mom and Bob’s - our presents from them would be wrapped in a black trash bag or a brown paper bag topped with the most sequined, sparkly, glittery, bedazzled bow I had ever seen.  The kind of bows that while you are untying them, leave some extra “sparkle” on your hands/face/floor.
I think one of the reasons, this is one of my favorite Christmas traditions is because it’s so easy to replicate – I’m pretty sure mom knew I would always have one of those things in my kitchen and could continue the tradition effortlessly.  Mom was always practical… but she always liked her bling and sparkle too.

A tradition that was started at Dick and Kaye’s house was the 12 Days of Christmas sing-along. A sing-along is a scary thought considering that I’m tone deaf but make up for it in HUGE volume. Each of Kaye’s dessert plates have a day of Christmas on it, and we go around the table and each sing our “part”. And of course the person that gets the 1^st day of Christmas gets to sing their line twelve times. I recall Grandma Helen (who had a beautiful voice) singing “5 Golden Rings” in her beautiful voice. 

Thanksgiving Day Zumba 2012

This Thanksgiving at Pam and Buck’s house – all of us ate a wonderful meal, with desserts, multiple courses, a wonderful selection of ham or turkey, Grandma Nanny-nanny’s pea salad. Then all of us (including the boys) put on our workout clothes and headed to Zumba. Pam convinced me to go to Zumba  – and it’s been a fun way for me to get AND STAY in shape. When Baylee has some extra time, she loves to come too – but it made me happy seeing Buck, Cody and Chance Zumba  - and knowing they did it because they knew it would make us girls happy.

My dad has been accused of spoiling my sister and I, it usually comes from my husband after he calls me a Princess because of some small request I have for him.  Dad has a huge family, and I loved it when all of his brothers and sisters and my cousins would squeeze into Grandma Jennie’s small and sweet home. Me and all my cousins would play a version of football in the front yard, while my uncles would watch the football game, and my aunts would help Grandma Jenny clean up the kitchen after the meal.  Now that we are older, dad gets us all together at his house – and he loves having all of us and I have to admit – he DOES spend a lot of time doting over Karen and I when we go over there. But – that’s tradition right? It shouldn’t ever change. J

When you dream about starting a business do you dream past the honeymoon stage?

Starting a business is a bit like starting a marriage. There is always the honeymoon stage at the beginning of it. Where it consumes your thoughts, your brain is fully engaged in your goals, plans, dreams. You lay in bed at night thinking about all the wonderful moments you will have.

Slowly, that honeymoon phase becomes an everyday responsibility, it becomes exhausting at times, it becomes something that's hard to get away from, it becomes part of you. It's the moment you leave the Honeymoon phase where "It Gets Real".

These are the moments where the work that you put in dictate whether not your business or marriage will last and succeed. After it's not new and exciting anymore it's not as much fun it's not as easy. When things can start getting on your nerves and start to effect your independent self.

It's these moments that we just have to just grind it out and work through the night to meet a deadline because you are a lean company with less employees than you have work. It's the moment that you have skipped a meal, lost sleep to meet that deadline that will dictate the success or failure. The same work as in a marriage when you realize that your needs aren't as important as your spouse's needs.

In business AND in marriage, the work is always worth it and your hard work will always pay off but you don't wake up one morning and are "successful".

You're successful because you wake up every morning and grind it out.



I don't see my marriage as a business transaction, nor do I feel like I am grinding it out in my marriage, but I am a realist, and I have seen remarkable similarities in my successful, happy marriage and my successful, happy business. It's hard work, but worth it.

Just make sure that when you start a business, that you can imagine yourself doing the hard work after the honeymoon phase is over. Don't turn it into a fairy tale, because the fairy tale ending is usually perfect, and perfect is boring.

Quit Kicking Your Own A**

I just got done reading an article about the "mommy wars". The debate that occurs between women who want so badly to believe that their way is the only way to raise good kids.

I have been on both sides of this argument. There was times when I stayed at home with my kids and I have also been in the situation where I had to pawn them off on family while I pulled an all-nighter while growing my business.

I guess my only advice in this situation is just do your best.

Quit Kicking Your Own Ass! Seriously.

Those negative words and thoughts that you let seep into your brain about how [insert woman's name here] is a better mommy and that's why her kids are so kind. And the reason why she's a better mommy is because she gets to [stay at home/go to work]. 

Sometimes it just comes down to the fact that the grass seems greener on the other side.
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I tell my kids all the time that "You have your whole life to get over how dad and I raised you". It's a pet peeve of mine when I hear grown adults say: "I act this way, because this is how I was raised." Pffffffft. Sounds like a great excuse to not ever grow, not ever change, accept things as they are, and keep things out of your hands to actually change something.

As parents, that's all we can do - Just our best.
The fact that you are trying to find out the best way is a great sign. But understand that you aren't perfect, there is no such thing.

Remind your kids that they have their whole life to recover from how badly you scarred them by not being able to stay home with them/staying home with them.

A Glistening Morning

Working from home is something that I did while building Logicmaze 10+ years ago, and I remember the pitfalls of that when Chance was a toddler, and Baylee was a helpful big sister.

I remember it being nice because of the fact that I had a flexible schedule kinda...
(you still have to keep clients happy-otherwise you aren't working from home, you are playing on the computer while staying at home doing laundry).
But, I also remember the fact that I rarely got dressed up, I rarely got out of my lounge clothes before a meeting at say 1:00pm.

So, now that I am working from home again, it took me a little bit to get my desk area "just right", it's not perfect yet, but it is set up to keep me efficient 
(I want all my stuff done by the time my kids come home, I don't want to be stuck at my computer desk when my family is home in the evening)
So I work quickly and with a purpose to get things checked off my list.

My family also has a few stories about mom working from home, like the time, 3rd day in, when I did get dressed up, and I managed to put my shirt on inside out, and it stayed like that the entire day.

Wintry Morning at Home

Anyway, I am adjusting well, and am enjoying my job(s) working from home.

I wanted to share this picture that I took one morning, with the sun reflecting off the ice on the trees, it made me happy, so I wanted to share it.

I Am Grateful for the View From Here

The Power of Thunderstorms

The comfort I feel sitting next to my Best Friend while we drive 65 down the Highway.

Youth

and Innocence

The many people in our life who are like family.