Our March Madness | behind the scenes

Today I wanted to share a few behind the scene moments of Creating with the Stars! A lot went into each of these projects, and while this post doesn’t go over all of them, it captures the highlights 🙂

First of all, coming up with unique and creative ideas four weeks in a row is exhausting (mentally and physically)! But we did it! And I was happy with the end result of all our projects!

Read on to see what happened, and yes, there are a few embarrassing photos spread throughout 🙂 We’re all friends, right?

Here we go!

WEEK 1: Upcycle, From Fluorescent Diffuser to Statement Pendant

Week 1 was crazy! After we got over the excitement of getting one of the twelve slots to participate in Creating with the Stars, we started scouring every thrift and antique store within a 30 mile radius for ideas. That week we spent basically every free moment working on our light fixture. Since we built it from scratch, it took FOREVER. Seriously, between browsing stores for ideas and picking up supplies,  I probably made about 50 trips (Ok probably more like 20, but it was a lot) I didn’t want to step foot in a store for weeks (that lasted about a day since I had to get supplies for next week :).

This was probably one of the most exhausting weeks; however, we did finish with a little time before the deadline. On a more serious note, David and I both cut ourselves fairly seriously. David’s was from not using the correct tool to cut the PVC pipe (a lot of our tools are in MD) and I cut myself from fatigue … while cutting prints with the xacto knife. I won’t go into specifics, but I almost fainted on both accounts 🙂

Yes I was scrunched down while painting the ceiling and yes I did get paint in my hair (what else is new 🙂 There were a lot of late nights, David wasn’t amused with my photo taking …

WEEK 2: Knockoff, Schumacher inspired Zimba draperies, Anthro inspired ottoman and custom cornice.

Three projects, what was I thinking!? I had actually already started on the draperies in charcoal, but thought that light gray would work best with the ottoman so changed my mind at the last minute. This was definitely the most stressful week because we were so rushed to finish at the end. I didn’t have time to edit and probably would of changed a few things if I had more time. We got our submission in right at the deadline! Whew, it was stressful!

Lack of sleep caught up with us on week 2. This is Annabelle’s favorite way to sleep on the sofa. She will stare and paw at me until I get into this position. David passed out on the floor, clutching one of Annabelle’s chew toys (don’t be mad David 🙂

WEEK 3: Paint, custom stencils and secretary desk

It’s no secret that I LOVE stencils. For this week I wanted to created a large dramatic wall stencil and a smaller stencil that would work well with furniture. This project was pretty straight forward since I’ve painted a lot of furniture and stenciled a good bit, but again it was time consuming! I tend to over think things and try too much, but we did finish on time and I loved the end result, so worth it!

It was a lot of painting, refinishing the secretary, stenciling the back, and stencil the feature wall. David’s a blur because we was moving things around while I decided where I liked them (standing back to look at the whole thing always works best for me!)

WEEK 4: Home Decor, Grasscloth + Nailhead Feature wall and Custom Upholstered Headboard

By this point, we were both pretty exhausted!

Early that week we drove up the coast to collect driftwood for a project we planned, but didn’t get to (hopefully we will a little later!) We single handily kept Starbucks in business that month. David’s drink of choice is black Pike Place and I love Refresh hot tea.

There were a few late night runs to Home Depot. Thursday night, my eyes were bothering me, so we went out for eye drops around midnight, everything was closed but we did make it to In n’ Out for a snack. Blurred tail = a happy puppy! Free sniffs for her, a cheeseburger for David and a cheeseburger minus the burger for me (I don’t like beef).

All that week my eye was bothering me. After thinking that I had sawdust in one, and after many unsuccessful attempts to remove it, I went to the eye doctor on Friday. Turns out it was just bumps inside my eyelids from allergies. (side note: allergies are new to me since we moved to CA, guess I’m allergic to something that isn’t on the east coast). The combination of knowing that I didn’t have sawdust in my eyes and the eye drops allowed me to kinda forget it and get to work!

We were lucky that our neighbors weren’t home because installing the nailhead was really loud! We got a second set of hearing protection so we could both work. Annabelle had been very patient up to this point. After four weeks of limited play, she was crazy for attention. She would come into the bedroom about every ten minutes while we were working and walk around on the feature wall to get a little attention. Don’t worry, we’ve been rewarding her ever since, a long hike up a mountain, hours of fetch at the beach, and taking her with us most places has her pretty tired (she’s been sleeping in recently)!

We still have a lot of cleaning and reorganizing to do, but we’re getting there!

It was an exhausting (mentally and physically) 4 weeks, but so worth it! I was stretched to think creatively 24/7 and, as a result, just about ever room is going to be updated! Stay tuned to see how our home is changing!