DIY Fall Harvest Wreath

Image 17 Comments October 4, 2017 Sammy and Sufi

How is it already October?! In less than one month our daughter (aka Hobbit #2) will be turning one years old and we are feeling all the feels 😦 It doesn’t help that our days are filled with schoolwork and housework, with little time for much else. However, that doesn’t mean we can’t find a way to usher in one of our favorite seasons. As you’ve probably gleaned from our autumn tablescape post, we are really digging the more muted and subtle fall colors (think burgundy, peaches, grayish greens) and I really wanted to celebrate those colors in the form of a welcoming wreath. Between Michaels, Target, and Dollar Tree, I found all the elements that perfectly captured the look I was going for. I dare even say, “I nailed it.” My sister-in-law found it hard to believe that something so pretty could be made from Dollar Tree florals but it can and for well under $10 and 30 minutes too. So if you’re looking for ways to make a beautiful autumn statement but are tight on time and money then this is the perfect project for you 🙂 If you want to see how it’s made then you’re in luck because tomorrow I’ll be collaborating with the CraftBox Girls to bring you a live tutorial at 12 pm EST. Be sure to tune in, say hello, and get some crafting inspiration 🙂

Supplies
18′ Grapevine Wreath ($3)
Faux Florals ($5)
Faux Pears ($5)
Eucalyptus ($3)
Hot glue gun & glue sticks

Total Cost: $16 + tax

Pro tip: Don’t forget to use the Michaels app for coupons. I always use my coupon to save 40% off any regular priced item. With the supplies that I purchased, I was able to make 2 wreathes for the price of 1 putting the total cost per wreath at under $10.

Directions:

Collect your florals, eucalyptus, and faux fruit and start placing them around your grapevine wreath until you are happy with the arrangement. You might have to move things around several times to get the desired look.
Once you have settled on your design, you will need to glue each piece in place using a generous amount of hot glue, embedding the stem deep into the vine, and holding down for 20-25 seconds until firmly in place.
Once all the pieces have been glued down and any excess strands of glue have been removed, you can hang your wreath on a hook or door wreath hanger.

Share your autumn stories with us below and if you liked this post please follow us and share!

2 Ingredient All Natural Baby Powder

Image 25 Comments September 21, 2017 Sammy and Sufi

Although we are passionate DIYers, we do recognize that we can’t make EVERYTHING in life, even if we wanted to. There are simply not enough hours in the day. However there are some things, in our opinion, that are just silly not to make and this post is about one of them. Less than a month ago, this news came out: “$417 Million Awarded in Suit Tying Johnson’s Baby Powder to Cancer.” It’s not like it was shocking news but it certainly opened up many people to the possibility that baby products were not as clean and safe as they thought. As if parents didn’t have enough to worry about! After I saw my friends sharing the news on Facebook, I figured it would be a good time to write a post about our super simple, alternative baby powder.

It’s not that there aren’t natural or organic baby powder products out there. There certainly are. But expect to dish out anywhere from $7-12 for less than a pound of product, which can definitely add up over time. With my firstborn, we did not really use baby powder and the times when we did use it, our son would get an allergic reaction (we were using Burts Bees, I suspect it was either the fragrance or the limonene). With our second baby, we actually really needed something because our daughter had very sensitive skin and would constantly break out with just the tiniest bit of moisture. Naturally, we tried corn starch but just found it to be so clumpy when it absorbed. After a bit of research I came across the perfect substitute starch: Arrowroot powder, a natural root starch that’s soft, velvety, and absorbs cleanly. For a mild scent, I ground up some dried chamomile which is hypoallergenic and has anti-inflammatory properties (I’m not a doctor but this is pretty common knowledge). I’m not going to say that our daughter’s rash magically disappeared overnight but it did resolve after a few days. We have been using this ever since and have not had any problems. That’s it. Two ingredients. One happy baby bum. Lastly, there are many different containers, including upcycled spice dispensers, that you can use to store and dispense your baby powder but I find that something with a sifter lid works best to get a light and even dusting. I purchased mine from Marshalls for $6 but you can find similar ones on Amazon here.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups Arrowroot Powder
1 tablespoon Ground Chamomile

Supplies
Measuring cup
Stainless Steel Container with mesh sifting lid

Directions
1. Measure out and mix your ingredients.
2. Store in a stainless steel dispenser and use regularly as you would any baby powder. I should also add that one should be cautious when using baby powder in general because it can cause respiratory problems if the particles are inhaled. Dispense lightly and away from your baby’s face.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links for your convenience only.

Thanks for reading, let us know your thoughts below in the comment section, follow us and share.

Falling into Autumn

Image 14 Comments September 12, 2017 Sammy and Sufi

If you are coming here from Happy Haute Home, hello and welcome to our blog. It’s always wonderful to have new faces around here 🙂 Today we are excited to share with you our autumn tablescape which includes a fun and simple DIY table runner. Autumn is such a lovely time of year and I really wanted to create a space that celebrates the beautiful colors of the season while inspiring quiet introspection. Each season offers plenty to reflect on but there is nothing quite like reflecting on your harvest (physically and spiritually) and thinking about what can be improved upon for the next cycle when you begin anew.

“Every tree, every growing thing as it grows, says this truth, you harvest what you sow.”-Rumi

If you haven’t guessed already from our latest home decor posts and Instagram feed, we are a tad into the bohemian look. Taken to it’s extreme, however, the boho theme can tend toward maximalism and appear a bit cluttered for our taste so I sought to create a clean design based on some of our favorite bohemian colors and elements: greenery, gold, yarn, textured glass, palm leaf, and patterned fabric.

To pull this look together, I relied mostly on what I had lying around our home. For each place setting, I simply layered palm leaf placemats with gold chargers, white plates, and checkered napkins atop. For the centerpiece, I placed a small glass cup filled with eucalyptus and sage in the middle of a black candle dish and arranged white pumpkins, faux florals and pears, and real plums all around. For colorful touches, I included teal glassware, textured crystal, and gold flatware. I used my old amber essential oil diffuser bottles to showcase the dahlias and sage from our garden. The only thing I purposefully purchased for this tablescape (other than pumpkins) were the napkins. I really liked the flannel pattern and the farmhouse vibes they exuded, not to mention they were fairly inexpensive. For your convenience, I’ve included a list of the main sources down below for the all items I knew off the top of my head.

Of course my favorite part of this whole tablescape is the table runner that I made. I am happy to report that the finished product turned out exactly as I had pictured: an oversized tassel. All you will need to make this table runner is wool yarn and scissors. Simply unspool the yarn and cut into strips longer than the length of the table. The hardest part is making sure not to tangle the yarn as you lay the pieces side by side. When you’re happy with the width of your table runner (I used three rolls of yarn) then tie each of the ends together and voila!

What do you think of the final result? I know it doesn’t include the fiery red, yellow, and orange hues normally associated with fall but we actually find it quite refreshing. I’ll be using this very same color palette to make an autumn wreath early next month so stay tuned for that. If you’re looking for more autumn decor inspiration that’s subtle and beautiful then you’ll definitely want to head on over to my friend at Harlow and Thistle and see her creative display. Also don’t forget to check out the rest of the stunning tablescapes in the Falling into Autumn Blog Hop linked below!

Happy Haute Home | Harlow and Thistle | Mint Candy Designs | Live Laugh and Craft | The Cozy Home Chronicles

Watercolor Painting with Beetroot

Image 25 Comments August 21, 2017 Sammy and Sufi

I am constantly looking for ways to reduce waste and simplify our life at home. Maybe I’m a little too determined. If I had things my way, we would probably be living knee-high in a collection of recyclable materials. Unfortunately there are not enough hours in the day to see all my ideas through and thankfully my husband is there to ensure that we do not become hoarders. Of course that doesn’t mean I don’t try to be resourceful within reason.

Beets are something we eat quite a bit of in our home. We love snacking on boiled beets with a splash of vinegar and salt or incorporating them in a meal like this side-dish of Swedish Beetroot Salad I posted some time ago. One of my favorite things about beets is their deep magenta hue. I imagine there was a time, before synthetic dyes, when beets were used to naturally color everyday items and it makes me feel guilty to throw away such a beautiful by-product. I have experimented painting with beetroot juice many times but this was my first time sharing this experience with my son who has finally learned to wield a brush (as good as any toddler will). The last time I boiled beets, I stored some of the juice in a mason jar in the fridge and saved it for a rainy day. My favorite part about this activity is the fact that this paint is completely natural. My son can snack on beets and even take a lick of his “paint” and I would have no qualms about it. This activity is perfect for a rainy indoor day but you can also take it outdoors if you want to spare yourself preparing for the messy aftermath. All this is to say: If you boil beets, don’t throw out the juice. For this activity here’s what you’ll need:

paper, preferably watercolor paper
small paint brushes
beetroot juice ( to make it concentrated, simply microwave in a small container to evaporate the water)
glass of clean water
fine salt and course salt
old newspaper or something to protect your work surface

My son was ecstatic about pouring salt all over his painting (consider that he’s been attempting to dump salt out since he turned 18 months) but what he doesn’t know is that we were actually practicing a legit water color technique that I learned from Inkstruck Studio. As you can see this activity not only kept my toddler entertained but was a good learning exercise for me too. If you enjoy watercolor painting or hand lettering, you definitely could get something out of this activity if you plan ahead. Here’s a really good video tutorial that introduces basic watercolor and hand lettering techniques if you are interested. If you do try this activity be sure to share on Instagram and tag us @thecozyhomechronicles 🙂

If you found this post helpful, leave a comment and tell us how we did!

Please follow us and share!

DIY Garden Lattice Light Fixture

Image 12 Comments August 4, 2017 Sammy and Sufi

After finishing our crazy and exhausting 6-week bathroom renovation challenge in May, you would think we would wait just a littttle bit longer before DIYing again. But, nope. We just can’t help ourselves. It seems there is never a shortage of problems that need creative solutions and for us one of those problems has been the lack of adequate lighting in the living room. For the last four years we have made do with two lamps on our end tables and let’s just say, the amount of light they offered left much to be desired. Making our own light fixture has been a goal of ours and so we have been mulling ideas over for quite some time. All we knew was that we definitely wanted something that gave off rustic, jungalow, boho vibes. When I thought of inspiration that embodied these elements, my mind always went back to the same place: The lobby of a hotel in Philadelphia where I stayed for an anthropology conference.

We also wanted something inexpensive; something we could make out of upcycled and thrifted materials. It didn’t take long for us to settle on the garden lattice sitting abandoned at the back of our garage. Not only did it give us the look we were going for but it also helped us solve another design problem: what to do with the overgrown arrowhead vine taking over the living room. And then, almost in what could only be described as divine intervention, something possessed my husband to stop at a garage sale where he found this set of 5 really cool Edison bulbs for $5 (normally they would go for around $7 a bulb). A few Home Depot trips later and we had settled on how to hang our new fixture. The funnest part of this whole process was seeing our random ideas become a reality. We are just so happy with the finished product and we love that it feels like a rustic garden in our living room. We like it so much, we just may consider putting another one up above the dining table 😉 Alrightie, here’s what you’ll need to make this fixture:

Supplies
Pressure Treated Lattice
(6) Ceiling Hooks – VersaHook
(10) Heavy Duty Cable Ties or Loop Wire and clamps*
(6) Metal Bolt – Everbilt 3/8 in. Eye Bolt with Nut
10 Vintage or LED Edison light bulbs
10 String Light socket
Faux Foliage

*Important: For safety purposes, make sure to use commercial cable ties with a tensile strength of at least 40 pounds or you risk the fixture falling down.

Directions:

Cut the lattice to the desired size (we did 3ft wide by 5ft long) with a hand saw.
On the lattice, choose 6 symmetrical points for hanging support and drill a hole for each. Secure the 3/8in eye bolts in each of the six holes.
String the cable ties through the eye bolts and loop until completely secure. This is very important. You must not be able to open the loop or slide the tie back through the head.
Measuring according to the location of the eye bolts on the lattice, drill 6 corresponding holes into the ceiling.
Insert drywall anchors into the ceiling holes and secure the ceiling hooks by twisting.
Just for a test run, install your fixture base by hanging the cable tie loops on the ceiling hooks. If everything looks good and sturdy then take it down and proceed with the next steps.
Now for the fun part! Weave your string light sockets through the lattice and secure the wire in place with the remaining cable ties (you can use more if you like).
Decorate your light fixture by arranging your faux foliage around the lattice either by weaving the stems through the lattice or using glue or a staple gun for a more permanent fix. Make sure to place the foliage a good distance away from the light bulbs or they can burn.
Install your completed fixture by hanging the cable tie loops on the ceiling hooks.
Finally, screw in your Edison bulbs, plug in the light, and enjoy the beautiful view!

With the lattice and the Edison bulbs as the base, you can customize this fixture for any home decor style with just a coat of paint and greenery of your choice. You can hang flower stems, eucalyptus, lavender, air plants, etc… The creative possibilities are endless. If you do attempt to make this, be sure to share and tag us so we can see 🙂

If you liked this post please follow us and share!

Eid Festivities and Unicorn S’mores

Image 14 Comments June 21, 2017 Sammy and Sufi

Happy Wednesday Friends! It’s been a pretty uneventful month here on the blog. With fasting during these long summer days and two babies (and school and work), it has been difficult to find the energy to write. Hopefully that will change as the month of Ramadan comes to an end. There are definitely many things we are going to miss; the spiritual high, eating iftar with family almost everyday, the Dr. Pepper and homemade french fries (we make exceptions during Ramadan only), and the city buzzing late at night. Despite all these wonderful things, we are really looking forward to celebrating Eid with our loved ones. We are also definitely super excited to share our ideas for a fun and stress-free Eid. First on the agenda, we teamed up with the wonderful Amanda Saab from Amanda’s Plate to bring you a colorful treat perfect for Eid and summer bonfires. Behold, The Unicorn Marshmallow.

It’s beautiful isn’t it? Now the recipe, you will find on Amanda’s blog if you click here. We thought it would be fun to assemble it into a s’more kit for your Eid guests so we designed coordinating labels that you can download, print, and attach to your favors for a more personalized touch.

Here’s what you’ll need to put your favors together:

Graham Crackers
Quality Chocolate Bar
Amanda’s Unicorn Marshmallows
Clear candy bags or small cupcake boxes
String
Labels (download here)
Hole Puncher

The assembly is super easy. All you need to do is pair some graham crackers with a square of marshmallow and a piece of chocolate and then wrap. Not sure what to do on Eid? Invite family over for a BBQ/bonfire in the evening and serve up these pretty s’mores. There are no guarantees in life but these treats may or may not make you the coolest Eid party host 😉

If all this talk of Eid is starting to stress you out then consider planning your Eid a few days ahead with our Eid Planner. We know how stressful the day can be for us if we’re not prepared and so we already started taking notes of all the things that need to get done. There’s people that we will need to visit (and people that will be visiting us) which means we need to clean the house and bake (or purchase) treats for our visitors as well as purchase gifts/flowers (and take out cash from the bank), etc…Basically, there’s a lot to do! And if you find yourself in a similar boat then you may find jotting everything down will help you not just tackle the day but actually enjoy it 🙂 All you need to do is print and begin filling out the various sections. Knowing what you’ll be wearing or who you’ll be visiting will help you develop a more accurate checklist (like if you’ll need to shop for gifts AND Eid clothes for you and the kids).

Okay, you’re in planning mode and you have “make unicorn marshmallows” on your checklist. What now? If you’re like us and scramble every year to get envelopes to put the Eideya in and then shake your head in dissatisfaction at the lack of creative Eid stationary then we got you covered with this printable DIY Eideya Envelope. All you need to do is:

Print
Fold
Cut
Tape
Slip in the cash, gift cards, or sweets
Seal

You can even insert some crayons and you’ll have a coloring activity to keep little ones busy as you scarf down brunch. At the end of the day, however you choose to celebrate, we wish you a stress-free and blessed holiday. We look forward to resuming and sharing our DIYing and home projects with you after the festivities have ended.

Printables
Gift/Favor Tags
Eid Planner
DIY Eideya Envelope

If you liked this post please follow us and share!

Taking the Necessary Steps in Becoming a DIY Home Gardener

Image 9 Comments June 5, 2017 Sammy and Sufi

To accomplish anything in life, you have to start somewhere. While the commitment to dive right in is necessary, knowing where to begin is arguably the most important part. Whether it’s deciding to tackle your own home renovation or even a simple endeavor such as gardening at home, you have to learn some basics if you want to taste success. Starting a vegetable garden at home is simple; all budding horticulturists need is a decent amount of space and the right materials to start laying the foundations. Before setting up your garden, here are a few things you should know.

It’s vital to give plants the sunniest spot as possible in your yard. If you live in a place with unpredictable weather then investing in a greenhouse, regardless of the size, may be beneficial. As a benchmark, experts recommend using smaller framed models that feature clip-in glazing systems, as this type of greenhouse can fit in almost any corner of the garden. The wonderful thing about greenhouses is that you’re no longer limited by the weather but instead can grow all year long. If a greenhouse proves to be too tedious, do-it-yourself gardeners can get inspiration from home bloggers on how to build a raised garden bed from scratch. Raised garden beds may not offer protection from bad weather but they do keep away some pests, including weeds.

Once you have chosen the location and the material foundation of your garden, you can begin the fun process of planting. Not sure what to grow? The experts over at Thompson and Morgan have a list of the easiest vegetables to grow in your backyard. Of course planting is the easiest part. In order to ensure that you have a successful harvest, you will need to maintain your garden through watering and weeding. By not regularly cleaning your garden, you run the risk of entanglement or, worse, a gradual takeover of your plants. In terms of what to use when trying to get rid of weeds altogether, it’s better to approach this in a non-chemical sort of way by pulling out the roots using a shovel or trowel. On the other hand, if there are persistent wild plants with spreading wiry or deep roots, then there are some natural-based herbicides that can do the trick.

It’s also best to cut the grass around the garden as this will keep your garden looking aesthetically appealing. Tending to long grass and dense flower borders, also reduces any viable areas where pests, such as slugs and snails, can hide and destroy your plants. This upkeep can be easily accomplished using your average lawnmower. By perusing through the extensive list of lawnmowers on Screwfix it’s evident how manufacturers have started to produce lightweight models ideal for the modern day gardener. These cordless mowers are ideal for getting into tight spaces and are easy to maneuver unlike the heavy duty mowers of the past. There are also plenty of eco-friendly electric options for those who want to reduce their carbon footprint.

If you want to eliminate that kind of maintenance all together, you can opt to put a pathway made of pavers or woodchips in between your garden beds as suggested by Toby Buckland, a well-known English gardener, TV presenter, and author. For more gardening advice, including ideas about what to plant, check out his beginner’s guide in The Telegraph. The more you know, the easier it will be to dig right in. Happy Gardening!

If you liked this post please follow us and share!

Getting the heart and home ready for Ramadan

Image 10 Comments May 17, 2017 Sammy and Sufi

It’s been a busy year for us and we are very grateful for all the fun projects and renovations we were able to do. However, with Ramadan just around the corner, we want to wind down a bit and focus on family and spirituality. It’s hard to believe that our babies are growing so fast (our son is turning two in just a month and our daughter will be turning 7 months) but now that they’re more attentive and communicative, we want to make the month extra special so they can grow up with fond and happy memories of our Ramadans together. For us, Ramadan is a month for reflection and growth. We enter this month as warriors, much like Paulo Coehlo’s Warriors of Light:

“Warriors of light are not perfect.Their beauty lies in accepting this fact and still desiring to grow and to learn.”

I wanted to capture this free-spirited approach in decorating our home and this sort of transformed into a colorful bohemian style tablescape since the dinning area is really where the family comes together to break bread and unwind after a long day of fasting. In this post I’ll be sharing some decor inspiration from our Ramadan preparations, including a family-friendly DIY project and a free printable you can frame to either hang up or place on your dinning table.

This tablescape looks a lot fancier than it is. At the heart of it is a DIY Table Runner which is super easy to put together. I even had my son help out with the painting and he had a blast! All you’ll need is an inexpensive white table runner, a mandala or doily stencil, acrylic paint for fabric, and stencil brushes. The rest is self-explanatory. I probably could have done a much better job but I was painting with a toddler so we got a little carried away with dipping the brush in paint.

Besides the table runner, all you’ll need to achieve this look are a variety of colorful vases (and/or ornate lanterns) filled with fresh summer flowers. The vases you see in the images are ones that I thrifted from a local Goodwill for $3 total. The spirit of Ramadan is also about humility so I didn’t want to create a space that was too extravagant or wasteful. I arranged the vases along the table, intertwined with crawling vine garland ( I bought on clearance) and in between these pretty palm leaf placemats. I also created a framed quote art out of one of our favorite supplications that we listen to just before iftar time. I wanted it to be a reminder on the table that aside from all the delicious food we get to eat, Ramadan is so much more than that. It is about reconnecting with God and softening our hearts so that we can be better, more empathetic human beings.

In the home, I hung up lanterns and garland from the ceiling that I had purchased in a hanging decor kit from Michaels. The colors matched up very nicely with the bohemian color palette I had saved on Pinterest. Decorating with family is such a wonderful way to build memories and traditions. My son was very excited about standing on the table with me to hang these up and it put the biggest smile on my face seeing him gush with joy as he pulled out the tape from the dispenser in an effort to “help me.”

On the wall behind the dinning table, I hung up a Ramadan advent calendar that I purchased from Handmade Beginnings. Not only is it beautiful but it’s perfect for making each day interactive and for making the countdown to Eid fun and exciting for little ones. Since my children are still young, I am choosing an activity that is simple and age appropriate. I found these free Ramadan coloring pages on Crayola’s website so what I plan to do is get a 30+ count marker or crayon set and put a different color in each of the calendar’s pouches. Each day we will pull out a new color and work on our Ramadan page and hopefully by the end of the month (and just in time for Eid) we will have a pretty piece of art to hang up 🙂

There you have it. An expensive and simple way to add a colorful touch to your table and home for Ramadan. I really wanted a space that was special, vibrant, and cozy for our family and our dinner guests and I’m really happy with how it turned out.

What do you think? What are your favorite ways to make Ramadan special for your family?

Free Download: Ramadan Printable_Color |Ramadan Printable_Black

If you liked this post please follow us and share!

One Room Challenge: Week 6|Bathroom Renovation Reveal

Image 36 Comments May 12, 2017 Sammy and Sufi

Yesterday marked week 6 of Calling It Home’s One Room Challenge™ and that means it’s reveal time! We are so excited to share the results with you and see what other awesome bloggers have done. Seriously, after you’re done with this post go check out some of the other transformations. You will not be disappointed!

I wasn’t able to take pictures sooner because we were out of the house yesterday and we have guests staying with us but I finally got around to it this morning. We thought we would have a little more time to decorate but time is up! There are still a few things we will be finishing up this weekend including installing the glass shower door, putting in the toilet paper bar (which will be back in stock at IKEA on May 14th), and staining the new window sill moulding but the bathroom is fully functional and oh so awesome. We also realized that we had not been properly linking up our posts to the Calling It Home site and we were a little discouraged that we had done all this work for nothing. But this renovation isn’t for everyone else. It’s for us. All the sweat and blood (literally) that went into this project was for our family’s comfort and so before we get to the reveal, we thought we would recap our six weeks of hard work.

Week 1 | Bathroom Renovation Preparation

Week 2 | Bathroom Renovation Demolition

Week 3 | Laying the Foundation for Tile

Week 4 | Mudding and Tiling a Bathroom

Week 5 | Tiling and Decorating a Bathroom

If you’ve been following along, you’ll know that we ran into some issues that cost us precious time. Because of that, we literally spent every day this last week working well into the early morning hours in order to finish on time. In just one week, we grouted and sealed the entire bathroom, primed and painted the walls, assembled and installed the vanity and storage cabinet, installed shelving and lighting, cleaned and caulked everything, and had the plumber come and connect the plumbing. Was it worth it? Totally! Although some features were not our first choice, we are very happy with the results. As you will see soon, our bathroom is unrecognizable. The white subway and Carrara marble tile totally brightened up and opened up the space. It looks so much bigger! Our favorite part, however, is the accent wall in the shower. We cannot wait to bathe the babies and enjoy the beautiful view. Without further ado…

What do you think of the transformation? We would love to hear from you in the comments below. You can also follow along on Instagram @thecozyhomechronicles for other fun DIYs and projects. Up next is our summer garden 🙂

If you liked this post please follow us and share!

One Room Challenge: Week 5|Tiling and Decor Inspiration

Image 15 Comments May 4, 2017 Sammy and Sufi

Today marks week 5 of Calling It Home’s One Room Challenge™ and that means we are less than one week away from the final reveal. We thought we would have a little more finished this week but with a grant application deadline that my wife needed to submit for, things got pushed to the side. As of now, all the tile has been laid on the floor and walls and we are getting ready to grout tomorrow. We have had our fair share of cuts and bruises (not to mention fatigue) but we are finally nearing the finish line and are so excited to share with you.

All right! Here’s what we have left to do:

1. Grout and clean the haze

3. Prime and paint the non-tiled walls

4. Install vanity, toilet, storage cabinet, and other accessories

5. Decorate and style

Progress:
Einstein was really on to something when he came up with his theory of relativity. It’s seriously hard to believe that we have been working on this project for a month now! To recap: We demoed and gutted the bathroom, installed the new bathtub and had the pipes replaced, installed new cement boards and insulation, mudded and tiled everything. Tiling was not hard but it was tedious because of all the cuts I had to make. The good news is that grouting shouldn’t take more than a few hours (if we can actually settle on a grout color). After that the plan is to do minor touch-ups to the drywall and then prime and paint. If all goes according to schedule, we hope to install the vanity this weekend and get the bathroom ready for the final photoshoot.

This past weekend we went and picked out our bathroom furniture from IKEA and it was a bit more difficult than we had anticipated. The vanity series that we really liked only came in two depths: 11″ and 19″. Both of these were on the extreme ends of what we wanted. Ideally, we were looking for something around 15-16″ to maximize storage efficiency and spaciousness. We found exactly that but in a color that we weren’t so sure about. In the end we had to make the sacrifice and go with this one in black-brown. The major upside to this was the vanity sink. Every single thing about the sink that comes with this vanity series is beautiful and perfect. Okay, I know I’m talking about a sink here but it truly is a thing to behold.

The light fixture was something else that we had to settle on this week and we went with an inexpensive bath bar light and these awesome filament globe bulbs. It might look simple but with the specific lightbulbs we chose, it looks really cool.

da7902d4-6055-4bba-bb1b-df96f9bd6d12_1000

4daa8587-ade4-4f7e-849d-9caf9f57f607_1000

Decor Inspiration:
We put together a mood board of inspiring decor items from IKEA, Target, Etsy, Urban Outfitters, and Anthropologie. We are not going to necessarily buy all of these things but creating this helped us decide on the look that we are going for: something earth-inspired, calming, and with a splash of color.

At the center of the mood board is a quote art that my wife made herself. It’s something our son always says when he’s splashing around in the bath and we thought it would make for a nice bathroom wall decor. We are also providing it to you as a free download printable. Think of it is a gift of appreciation for putting up with us and our crazy projects all this time 🙂

Printable Wall Art: splishsplash

Anyways, we could have shown you more progress shots but we will save that for next week. There’s nothing worse than a trailer that gives away a movie’s plot. The accent wall turned out more amazing than we could have thought so we will just let you revel in that thought until you can see it for yourself in next week’s final post.

Would you like to see our progress as it unfolds? You can also follow along on Instagram @thecozyhomechronicles for behind-the-scene videos!

If you liked this post please follow us and share!

THE COZY HOME CHRONICLES

Cultivating coziness one idea and project at a time

DIY

DIY Fall Harvest Wreath

2 Ingredient All Natural Baby Powder

Falling into Autumn

“Every tree, every growing thing as it grows, says this truth, you harvest what you sow.”-Rumi

Watercolor Painting with Beetroot

DIY Garden Lattice Light Fixture

*Important: For safety purposes, make sure to use commercial cable ties with a tensile strength of at least 40 pounds or you risk the fixture falling down.

Eid Festivities and Unicorn S’mores

Taking the Necessary Steps in Becoming a DIY Home Gardener

Getting the heart and home ready for Ramadan

One Room Challenge: Week 6|Bathroom Renovation Reveal

One Room Challenge: Week 5|Tiling and Decor Inspiration

DIY

Share this:

Share this:

“Every tree, every growing thing as it grows, says this truth, you harvest what you sow.”-Rumi

Share this:

Share this:

*Important: For safety purposes, make sure to use commercial cable ties with a tensile strength of at least 40 pounds or you risk the fixture falling down.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: