A start on the attic…

Howdy friends!

For those of you that follow along on our Facebook page, you know we’ve been working on making a sheet of wood veneer into a lampshade, as evidenced by this awkward Facebook LIVE of me staining flowers onto the wood veneer (I put on makeup for you. And a bra), as well as this Facebook LIVE when Nick hijacked my Facebook page and did a live broadcast of himself demonstrating how to make a lampshade out of wood veneer even though it was his first time and he had no idea if it would work.

Did you tune in?

No hard feelings if you didn’t.

Sadly, I don’t have a finished product to share with you today, because while we finished the lampshade and it’s AWESOME, our video editing program crashed and is no longer supported so we can’t update it or re-download it. So we’re looking at buying a new computer that’s hefty enough to support Adobe Premiere. Say a prayer for our pocketbooks. Business expense, right?!

Wah wah…

So instead, today I’m going to share an update on what’s going on with our attic. Here’s what it’s looked like for the past 9 years of living in this house.

Yeah yeah, I know we’re pretty lucky to have a ‘finished’ attic (‘finished’ is in quotes, because can a room be truly finished if the walls are painted pistachio green?), but this room hasn’t been on our radar for so long because we simply don’t spend a lot of time up there. Walking up two flights of stairs is a serious commitment.

If you’re a VERY loyal and long-time follower of our little blog, you might remember us purchasing this extremely gorgeous authentic 50’s sectional on Craigslist for $90.. We knew it was a STEAL! And while it clearly could use some new upholstery,  we used it and loved it in our living room. And after while, we realized that it’s probably the only couch (let alone sectional) that would ever fit up our steep attic stairs. The reason it fits is because it’s so narrow and low-profile, and it’s in 4 sections.

I know these pictures are a hot mess because I didn’t not have it in me to tidy up for ‘Before Pics’ (they’re supposed to look like a disaster, right?!) but can you not see the potential in this giant amazing room?

And can you NOT see potential in this sectional couch?!

Our ultimate goal is to have this attic space be a second living area or ‘family room’ for watching movies, or for the twins to hang with their friends when they’re older, game nights, sleepovers, etc!

We have a TON of plans for this room, and ideas up our sleeves… but the first two priorities are to paint the walls, and to reupholster the sectional.

Let us first discuss the sectional reupholstery in more detail. Shall we? We’ve dabbled in upholstery here and there, but we’re certainly not pros. And even though we love a good challenge, we did NOT want to mess this one up. So we saved our pennies and left it to the local professional upholsters. Sometimes you just have to weigh your skill levels, desire, and how much you value your time when trying to decide if you should hire something out.

After some research on DURABLE upholstery fabrics, we decided we knew we wanted Crypton fabric, which is a performance fabric that’s inexplicably stain, moisture and odor resistant. You know the kind where liquids bead up, yet the fabric is still so soft?! YES.

Next up, color selection.

The large multicolored rug came from my Grandma Jean who past away recently. She made it with her own two hands, and I’m obsessed with it, so I wanted to incorporate it into this room for sure. It was nice to have a jumping off point, but STILL! Picking fabric is difficult! It feels like such an enormous decision. and if you’re like me, it’s hard to picture the finished product. #frustrating

Since the rug is multi-colored, we weren’t really limited in selecting a color except for dark shades. Since black is the dominant color in the rug, we didn’t feel right about choosing a moody navy blue color… which was SAD. Because navy blue.

And we didn’t want to choose TOO bright of a color out of fear that we would fall out of love in a few years because it’s such a loud color. So we ended up choosing between these two pale shades of green. We thought the green would be a hilarious nod to the pistachio green walls that are about to get painted over.

Ironically, around the same time we were trying to choose a color, Greenhouse Fabrics ‘liked’ us on Instagram. And a lightbulb went on in my head… those fabric books of samples we’ve been pouring over are from Greenhouse Fabric! It was like a stroke of luck, because I contacted them to discuss their fabric and it’s durability and they offered to partner with us for this project and provide the fabric so we could share all of its beautiful (and durable) qualities with our readers! I mean, we still spent a pretty penny paying the upholster full price. But it was nice to have the fabric that we LOVED and the ability to pull the trigger on this project.

First things first, we hauled this sucker down 2 flights of stairs, one piece at a time. I recommend having a strong drink first.

Since the couch would be out of the attic for a few weeks getting a makeover, we took the opportunity to paint the pistachio green walls! Truthfully, I don’t even know if I want the walls white, but I knew I didn’t want them bright green, and I JUST COULDN’T LOOK PAST IT. I was having designer’s block and couldn’t even picture the room without being swallowed up in mint chip ice cream.

We tried a new painting gadget by Wagner that we ordered on Amazon (here << affiliate link) that takes the paint right from the bucket, through the hose, and INTO THE PAINT ROLLER. It’s the most insanely smart invention evah.

We didn’t even have to mess with having a paint tray and bending down every few strokes to load up on paint again. The roller just always had the perfect amount to paint on it to keep on keeping on! We painted this whole attic space in less than an hour. #record

And then we got the call.

Our sectional couch is DONE! I was so nervous and excited to pick it up.

IT . IS . GORGEOUS!!

I still need to get some throw pillows and do some styling before I show you more money shots, but I couldn’t help but show you the vintage sectional with her new upholstery! The tufting is heavenly, and the cushions are NEW FOAM that’s the perfect amount of cush.

I can’t wait to show you more pictures and take you along for the journey of making over this enormous attic space!

~Bethany