Cork board wall

Today's project - a cork board wall in our upstairs hallway. Troy actually came up with this idea - & I love it! We have so many pictures and memories we want to display but at the same time we don't want to clutter up our downstairs living area. This cork board wall was the best of both worlds. We can put anything up there that we want AND we can take it down too, without sacrificing any space! 

Easy peasy afternoon DIY. 

So we bought the 6X4 cork board online. We had to buy adhesive, some trowels, brads and nails (to hammer in the corners once the board was up). We've had it laying on our dining room table for the past couple days because it came to us rolled up and we wanted it to be as flat as possible.

My sister is in town so of course we put her to work. Three people is easier then two, especially when it came to measuring the wall space and putting up the adhesive. 

First we measured the space where the board would be. We outlined the entire area so we knew exactly where to smear on the adhesive.

Then we had to make sure the cork board itself fit the space & was level. We knew once we started applying the adhesive there was no turning back so we made absolutely sure everything was right.

Now time for adhesive! We laid down a drop cloth over the carpet. There was NO WAY we were going to get anything on the carpet. 

After some last minute chat of "does it look OK?" we started applying the adhesive with the box that was penciled in. We weren't sure of dry time so we tried to be pretty quick (but thorough).

Next (& the most scary) was to apply the board to the wall. 

This has to be done slowly but quickly. The scariest part was making sure it was level. 

Everything was even and level - tah dah!! Cork board wall!

We let it dry for a little bit & then drove some nails into the corners. We will probably have to put more nails in here and there but we're going to wait & see how it dries. 

I love love LOVE it! Onto the next project.

Painting the stairs: Part 1

Winter is here and when winter is here things are pretty slow in terms of house projects. Nothing can be done outside except shovel snow & inside becomes a struggle of staying warm & not starting a project thats too big for the season. 

That being said - life was getting boring! We love doing projects and constantly improving this little homestead of ours. So, after a couple months of researching & reading I decided I would start the process of painting our stairs. 

So here we have our stairs:

They really are pretty in their natural form but they deserve some pizzaz and some class. & thats where the painting part comes in. Now when I say painting the stairs I do not mean the top. I mean painting the ride and the side boards. The top, or tread, of the stairs will be refinished. 

The top of the stairs were sanded when the initial demo of the house took place. I realized how thankful I was that this was already done when I started sanding. Sanding is TEDIOUS. 

So the first part, before sanding, is the cleaning. I pulled out all the staples (about 1,000 of those little devils), removed the rest of the rubber from the black stair treads, swept every stair & generally prepared the area. 

Once that was done - sanding time! I invested in a $40 sander. One, I wasn't going to do it all by hand and two, I knew I would use a sander in future projects so to me, it was a worthwhile investment. 

I started sanding the stair edges first and went into the corners of the side boards. My sander had a little attachment you could put on that would really get into those corners. This made the process SO MUCH FASTER, although I still had to sand by hand quite a bit. 

Sanding was the worst. It just was. After 13 minutes I was over it. You feel like you are getting nowhere and you also feel like if you move any faster you will damage the stairs. It was so slow moving & so detail oriented that it borderline drove me crazy. 

Fast forward three hours later, stairs are sanded. Now onto priming. 

Before starting to paint I vacuumed about three times and then wiped down every single stair, corner and crevasse to ensure every surface was dust free. 

Priming, to me, has to be done right because I don't want to do it again. I figured two coats for the stairs because again, I don't want to start painting and realize its not going to look right. So when I prime I put it on pretty heavy. I used an oil based primer, made for attaching well to wood (sanded or unsanded. I figured the sanding was a good measure to take regardless). 

The new paneling hasn't been primed or painted so it was nice that while priming I didn't have to worry about not getting anything on the walls. That is a project for another day. 

Coat one almost done. Wait for it....

End of primer coat #2. All in all I started this at 11 a.m. on Saturday, worked until 5 p.m. and then picked up again at 10 a.m Sunday & was finished with coat two by noon-ish. So roughly 7-8 hours of labor to get to this point. Definitely a weekend project.

Next step will be the actual painting of the stairs. Hopefully that goes well. That will be EXTREMELY slow because I'm going to make very sure everything is clean & looks amazing. I also do not want to get any paint in the stairs if I can help it, so that means moving slow. Definitely not a rush job. 

In the meantime I will probably prime the walls of the stairway.  One less thing to do later.