Courtney & Brent - Gray House Studio

Home Renovation Goals for 2015

As 2014 comes to a close and 2015 begins, we thought we would put together a list of the home renovation projects we would like to tackle in the upcoming year. We finished quite a few cool home renovation projects in 2014 that really made our house start to feel like “our home”. 2015 marks the beginning of our second year in the home and we are hoping to take on a few larger home renovation projects and more woodworking and furniture building projects. It’s time to step up our game.

The Five Home Renovation Projects on our Project Wish List:

1. FINISH PAINTING THE INSIDE OF THE HOUSE – We are close to having all the rooms inside our house painted. It is our goal to finish the last few rooms in 2015. The front entry way and front rooms will be painted gray (of course). We also need to paint our front hall, guest bathroom laundry room and garage and then we will be done! If our house has no more off white walls by the time 2016 rolls around, we’ll call 2015 a success! Below are the paint colors we plan on using from Sherwin-Williams.

2. FIX UP THE GARAGE – Speaking of the garage, 2015 will be the year the garage sees a little attention. Last year it was used more as a storage room (and not one of those organized kind). Since we plan on doing a lot more woodworking and furniture building projects this year, we will need the garage to be our workshop. We managed to get it cleaned out, now we just need to clean it up! Our plans include painting the walls, staining the floor, building a workbench and cabinets – we’re talking about a complete makeover here! Brent is especially excited to get this remodeling project started.

3. PAINT THE OUTSIDE OF THE HOUSE – Another home renovation project we would like to get done this year is to paint the outside of our house. Currently, is an off white color that is boring and plain so we want to paint it a welcoming gray color (are you seeing a trend here?). The house is 12 years old so the original paint is chipping in places Adding a fresh paint of coat and replacing some of the trim will really bring the outside of the house back to life and add to the curb appeal. We had to submit our colors to our HOA to be approved and they finally gave us the okay! So now it is a matter of actually getting out there and painting. We are dragging our feet on this one because it will be a lot of work but the results will be awesome. We’ll take on this challenge in the spring or fall.

4. REMODEL THE BACK PATIO – Our backyard is such a cool spot and one of the reasons we like this house so much. It is small but backs up to a greenbelt with lots of trees. We have two slabs of concrete back there but not very many places to sit for entertaining. So we would love to make this space a more inviting. Our plan is to eventually remodel the back patio to have a wood deck with custom built seating. The front yard got all the love last year so we hope to give a little more attention to the backyard in 2015. We are looking forward to taking advantage of the great space outside.

5. FINISH UP THE MASTER SUITE – We would love to finish the last few renovation projects in our master bedroom and master bathroom so we can call those rooms good and have two rooms updated and under our belt. There are still quite a few big and small projects that we would like to work on in these rooms including building a headboard and second nightstand in the master bedroom and putting in a new slate title floor and cabinets in the master bathroom.

So if things go according to plan, this time next year we should be able to report back on the blog that we were able to cross all these tasks off of our home renovation wish list. I’m sure several other projects will pop up that will be a blast to work on, like that awesome craft cabinet! But these are our five shoot for the moon home renovation and interior design projects that will pack a big punch on the look and feel of our home this year. We’re ready to get started right away if only the budget allowed it. After we re-coup a little from Christmas, we’ll get started right away!

Hope you have a Happy New Year 2015! What are your home renovation plans for the coming year? We would love to hear them!

Create Weathered Wood Video

House, Tips + Tricks Courtney & Brent

A video tutorial to create weathered wood from brand new wood.

Hey guys! Today we are going to show you how to create weathered wood using new wood that can be used in a wood wall liked we made for the back of our reading nook.

MATERIALS

Spruce-Pine-Fir Furring Strips (various widths)
Rust-Oleum Wood Stain, Kona

TOOLS

Hammer
Nails
Clamps
Drill
Wire Brush Drill Attachment
Table Saw

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How to Create Weathered Wood Video

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When we started making our wood wall we tried to use old weathered wood from left over pallets but we quickly learned that wood pulled off pallets tended to be gross and broke apart really easy. So instead we bought new Spruce-Pine-Fir Furring Strip in various widths and decided to create the weathered look ourselves so that we could control the color and appearance of each board so that when we put the wood on the wall we could create a pattern that appears random yet balanced. That makes sense, right?

First we hammered two nails into the ends of the boards and then pulled the nails back out to give the appearance that the board had been ripped off of a pallet. After that we use a metal brush attached to a drill to remove the soft wood from in between the grain lines. This is the approach that we found give the most significant and realistic weathered appearance. This also evenly roughs up the surface so the stain soaks in more easily creating a darker more even finish.

The last thing we did was run the surface of the board along the edge of the table saw blade to give it the circular blade marks. When cheaper wood is milled, the surface is not finished smooth. The new wood we used was smooth so we needed to add these marks back on to give it an authentic appearance.

The final step is to stain the boards. We used an oil based stain. Even though it is messier than water based stain we have had better luck achieving a darker finish with the oil based stain. The boards that haven’t been roughed up will be lighter and the ones with the marks will be darker.

Once the stain is dry to the touch, you can start putting it up on the wall! Have any questions? Let us know in the comments below.

Check out how to install weathered wood boards on a wall like we did in our reading nook.

Simple Christmas Decorations

House, Seasonal Courtney & Brent

This weekend we finally broke out the Christmas decorations and decorated our home for Christmas! When it comes to decorating for Christmas we tend to keep it pretty simple around here. The less you put up, the less you have to take down come January, right? Also, this is the first Christmas we have really decorated our home and what decorations filled up an apartment don’t quite fill up a house but we are okay with that. We plan on adding one or two new pieces that we really like each year.

Last year we put up the Christmas tree in our living room where our nook is now so we decided to move it to our front room that currently has nothing in it. This location is nice because we can open up the windows and it can bee seen from outside. Bonus… we don’t have to worry about the cat knocking off the ornaments and them breaking on the tile.

*** Thanks so much for supporting our small shop – Moon Rock Prints – this holiday season! ***

There is something I love about a monochromatic tree. We opt for white lights, white and silver ornaments and a white tree skirt. It just feels so simple, cozy and warm. In the past I became quickly frustrated when I couldn’t get the lights exactly right, the ornaments perfectly spaced or the tree fluffed so there were no empty spaces but over the years I have relaxed and don’t worry so much about perfection but just enjoy the process of decorating the tree.

^ My favorite ornament.

^ I (Courtney) found our tree topper about four years ago. I love how it has a more natural look integrating the branches and berries. It ties perfectly into our rustic/winter decorating theme we have going.

But I have to admit that tree topper is a beast to try and get on up there. I am so glad Brent now handles the struggle that is putting the topper on the tree. I may or may not have fallen into the tree in past years trying to get that thing wrapped around the top branches.

I love incorporating pieces that have special meaning into our decor like this Nativity Scene that was given to my parents as a gift the first Christmas after they were married. It has sentimental value and fits perfectly with our style.

For our mantle this year, we kept a lot of our every day pieces and mixed in some rustic winter decor such as evergreen garland, small led string lights, a burlap runner, mason jars with fresh evergreen, berries and baby’s breath and of course pinecones!

Our DIY Christmas project this year were these Christmas vases made from recycled wine bottles.

^ First, we painted three wine bottles white.

^ My brother has a vinyl cutter plotter so I asked him to cut me the letters j,o,y and snowflakes stickers at the appropriate size. I have seen where you can paint the letters on but I don’t have a steady hand when it comes to painting and stickers were so much easier. I like the look of silver letters because they are subtle and match our tree.

^ Next, I just stuck the letters on the bottles. That part was super easy!

^ The final step was to add the evergreen, berries and baby’s breath.

^ The decorating festivities would not be complete without hot chocolate!

We would love to hear how you decorate your home for Christmas and the holidays. Do you have a specific theme or color scheme when it comes to Christmas decorations? Do you have pieces that have sentimental value that you put up every year? Share with us in the comments.

DIY Tiki Bar Top

Party Projects Courtney & Brent

We made a DIY tiki bar top to put on a table for a summer tropical party.

A couple of weeks ago I decided I wanted to put on my party planner hat and throw my dad a surprise Margaritaville/Key West themed party for his 50th birthday. My parents have a gorgeous backyard that lends itself nicely as a setting for a tropical party so my mom took my dad out shopping while we set up for the day.

A Margaritaville party would be nothing without margaritas and a margarita is best served from a tiki bar, so I asked Brent if he could help build the centerpiece for the party.

Ideally I wanted something that was lightweight, easy to set up and portable. Brent came up with a great design using mostly things we had left over in our garage. That’s what I call a win-win. The best part of all it was a huge hit and really made the party.

I thought that living in Houston there would be a pretty good chance that the weather would be mild in the middle of November. However, as luck would NOT have it, the night of the party was the coldest night we have had in Houston all year.

So a group of us are outside drinking our frozen margaritas from our tiki bar in 40 degree weather all bundled up with jackets and scarves. I’m sure my parent’s neighbors thought we were a little bit crazy but it was a blast.

Brent built the tiki bar top so it could pretty much be set up on any type of surface. We set it up on a metal rolling cart for the party but the second time my dad used it he set it up on a folding table. The nice thing is it breaks down fairly easy so it can be stored and set up again next year!

How We Built Our DIY Tiki Bar Top

SUPPLIES

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STEPS

1. First, we cut the MDF board to the size we needed (we made it a few inches larger than the table we put it on) with our table saw.

We used a MDF board because it is heavy so the table would be sturdy and it has a consistent surface so the vinyl floor planks would stick really well.

2. After that we created a lip using the pine on either side of the base to add support for the canopy and to make a large surface to screw in the legs for the canopy.

3. Next we used a straight edge ruler and a box cutter to score the vinyl floor planks to the appropriate size of the MDF board. Then we stuck each piece onto the board.

4. We made the structure of the canopy by cutting the boards to the size of the table top and attached them together using the using angle brackets.

We needed the canopy to be light so we used thin wood but because the wood was thin, it didn’t give a large surface to screw the boards together so we had to use angle brackets.

5. The next step was to stretch the landscaping fabric over the canopy structure. We then stapled it to the top of the canopy. We cut off the excess fabric.

6. We took the roll of kraft paper and scored the bottom half of it to get a fringe look. After that we started with the front and stapled the paper to the side of the wood.

We placed the next layer of fringe paper so it overlapped the staple from the previous layer of paper. We continue doing this going up the top of the canopy.

7. The next thing we did was cut the legs for the canopy out of the same pine wood. The front legs were cut shorter than the back legs to create a pitched roof. We assembled the table by screwing the four legs into the table top lip and the canopy.

8. We added a grass table skirt around the bottom of the metal cart to hide it. And finalized the tiki bar by adding a few tropical decorations such as paper lanterns.

Over all this project cost us around $40 because we had most of the supplies laying around and it took about two or three hours to put together. Cheers to a successful one day project!

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Reading Nook

House, Room Design Courtney & Brent

We made over an empty nook in our living room into a reading nook with a wood plank wall.

Continue Reading “Reading Nook”

Wood Barn Door

Decor, House, Uncategorized Courtney & Brent

We built a custom sized wood barn door to separate our bedroom and bathroom.

Today we are sharing a project that made a huge difference in the look and feel of our master bedroom. We took off the chunky double doors with the hideous gold doorknobs to the master bathroom and replaced it with a large, custom made wood barn door. We bought a set of old/worn/heavy barn door rollers from eBay that came from an actual barn door and from there started to build our wood barn door.

Here is what the wall and door in our master bedroom looked liked when we moved in. The whole house had those gold door knobs. They were the first thing to go.

This project didn’t come without it’s challenges. A large problem we encountered right off the bat was we lost one of the metal rollers. We took one with us to as inspiration and a guide as we were shopping for the various supplies we needed for the wood barn door and wouldn’t you know we got home and realized that we only had one roller. Panic may or may not have set in.

Yes, in our eagerness and excitement to start the project, we left the roller in the shopping cart in the middle of the parking lot. So we had to drive all the way back to the home improvement store. We drove all around the parking lot looking for our abandoned cart that had this priceless (to us) yet probably unrecognizable (to whomever may have found it) hunk of metal in the front of a cart in the cart return. We couldn’t find our (or any cart) in the parking lot. Dang shopping cart wranglers doing their job.

We finally went inside to the customer service desk as a last resort and tried to describe the item we had lost. Thank goodness a nice shopper dropped off our roller and it was returned to our possession. If not that could have been the end of our wood barn door project.

Our wood door before it was a door was just wood.

In just a little over a week, Brent came up with a plan for the construction and we built a functional wood barn door complete with a metal track and rollers. Doing it ourselves saved us a lot of money and allowed us to customize the look to exactly what we wanted for our master bedroom.

FREE PLANS

If you are interested in building your own barn door, get our FREE barn door plans.

Get Free Barn Door Plans (PDF)

How We Built Our Wood Barn Door

1. Brent began by cutting the boards to length to frame the door.

2. Once all the boards were cut, we laid them out to make sure they all fit together.

3. Brent used the Joint Genie to drill holes for dowel rods to make a stronger glued joint.

4. Then he joined the boards with glue and dowel rods.

5. Next, we clamped the boards. we used wooden blocks to keep the clamps from scarring the surface of the door.

6. With all the slats situated in their groves, the door could be glued and clamped together.

7. After a day of drying, the door was ready to be stained. We chose Minwax Ebony so it would match our bedroom furniture. Although oil based stain can be annoying and messy, we found they are better at achieving a dark stain on pine.

8. The door was stained and had to sit and dry for a couple days.

9. For the rail we used a piece of aluminum and cut wooden blocks spacers to extend the rail away from the wall. The tab at the bottom of the spacer is to add extra support as the door pulls down on the rail. If not for the tab, the block would eventually dig in to the dry wall.

10. Although it was tempting to use spare bolts and screws to attach the rollers, we made a special trip to the hardware store and picked up the appropriate sized screws and bolts so everything was uniform.

So there you have it, our fully functional wood barn door made from scratch. We love how the large door fills up the wall in our master bedroom and pops against our new wall color (Functional Gray from Sherwin-Williams).

Don’t forget you can get FREE plans to build your own custom wood barn door and check out our DIY tutorial for installing a barn door!

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