JD Design Studio

I had a previous space for my office, but I felt cramped and uninspired. So I gathered a few pieces of furniture and decided to make a new space.

I've had the yellow hutch my entire life and before that it was my mother's when she was a little girl, so I knew I needed to find new life for it. And the desk I picked up from a garage sale. The desk is laminate wood and It had those infamous water bubbles, which didn't make a good working surface. I painted it this color previously to go in this room, but it was missing something.. AND now its beautiful! I love spending my time here, which makes me more productive!

This entire project cost about $30!

The Desk - I got a solid piece of wood from Home Depot for $15 - I didn't even had to cut it down, it fit perfectly. I sanded down the top of the desk to receive the piece of wood, applied wood glue and clamped it overnight.

The Stain - Minwax Classic Gray and Minwax Dark Walnut - about $6 each, I only needed the small cans. Instead of mixing the two together, I applied the Gray first, let it dry, then applied a thin layer of dark walnut and blended it into the wood. (I really scrubbed it in) Then let that dry.

What I learned about Staining - when you are applying a stain - forget the brush! I used old rags to soak the stain and rub it into the wood to really bring out the grain.

The Polyurethane Coat Finish - The polyurethane finish naturally causes the wood grain to rise out of the surface, causing it to feel sort of bumpy. I applied a 4 coats of polyurethane finish and then sanded with steel wool. The steel wool, as opposed to sand paper, lightly scratches off the bumpy-ness, leaving a perfectly smooth surface. Finish it with a wet rag and another coat of polyurethane!

The Hutch - I decided to paint the entire inside white and instead of using a solid white I really wanted a slightly off-white creamy color. I used American Decor Chalk Paint from Home Depot. I mixed Lace and Everlasting together to get the perfect color. I like chalk paint because it really does stick to anything! And because this piece was old, It was so hard to sand, I did sand it a good bit to rough it up. Because I already painted the desk I need a perfectly matching color. So, I used the chalk paint as a base, and then painted a Behr flat paint onto of that to match the desk.

The Chair - I got the chair from Target, for $60! most of the chairs I found were at least $100, it is really worth stalking the internet to find the best deal..

Living Room

Before

Such a sad space...

Thursday, July 23, 2015
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Living Room Makeover on a Budget

Welcome! Thank you so much for visiting my site, first of all! This project was the most fun I've ever had! This was a total design overhaul. For years, we've had hammy-down furniture and thrift store accessories. My husband and I decided it was time for a change!

The Floors:

Our first change was the floor. If anything was going to look nice, we had to upgrade the floor. We did this ourselves over a couple of weekends. Its a 3/8" engineered hand-scraped hardwood floor, Virginia Mill Works- Log Cabin Birch). we bought all the tools we needed so we didn't have to rent over several weekends. We used 15# and 30# felt paper as underlayment and stapled the floors down. the felt is $.07 cents a SF compared to $.50 to $1 a SF for "underlayment". Since we have an entire unfinished floor beneath this floor, stapling the floor down was the best choice because its solid and doesn't have that hollow sound we were really worried about. We had 850SF which cost about $3,000 in the end including materials and tools.

The Paint:

The walls are Behr Wheat Bread. I did some serious research for the perfect paint color. I wanted a lighter "Griege" that would go with almost anything! Today, since "greige" is so popular, everyone has they're own 'perfect' color. I didn't want any pink or purple tones and I didn't want to spend the money on Sherwin Williams or Benjamin Moore. Behr paint/primer is an awesome paint, I would recommend it to anyone. Can you believe this entire space was done with one gallon?

The Couch:

The couch was the most interesting part of the whole makeover! What do you do with a narrow living room where all the typical furniture layouts just don't work! I must have gone through 20 scenarios and floor plans trying to figure it out! I even considered tearing out the center wall and extending it into the our front room. Then I remembered that we have a budget! We found the perfect one at Macy's - Radley 4-piece sectional sofa in "mocha" We got it on sale for $1,600. I never thought to buy from Macy's but they have great customer service and the couch is AWESOME! Not to mention, if you buy the $300 protection plan, they will repair or replace any piece for free. It gives you a piece of mind when you spend so much on a couch!

The Kitchen

The Lighting:

I desperately wanted to get rid of the "boob" light. I mean its awful and they were everywhere in the house when we bought it. I even thought about making my own because light fixtures cost a FORTUNE! Not to mention, getting the lighting fixture right in a space is hard to do on a budget, much less make them look designer quality. We got everything Home Depot except for the pendant kits. The kits are $16 a Lowes, and the rectangular shade was $15 at Home Depot. All in, each pendant light was $32. Compare that to one of the "professional" fixtures starting at $70.00! I will have to admit, we paid an electrician to come in and add the lights with a switch for $300 even, but it was worth every dime!