We purchased our first home three years ago. Three years of on-a-budget updates with my boho-modern aesthetic cumulated in a home that is comfortable and colorful. It makes me happy when I walk into it. And, of course, now we are also saying goodbye to it! We have decided to sell our home and, if all goes well, pack our bags and paintbrushes for a new adventure.
I have shared a couple of my projects on here, such as my DIY flooring experience and Home Gym. I’ve shared even more over on my Instagram page, such as my mural work and DIY Fire Pit area. As I am wrapping things up for selling my home I thought I’d share some more of my on-a-budget, DIYer home owner journey.
Boho Modern Home Decor On a Budget
I’m starting my series of posts at the end with this very speedy walk through of our home at the cleanest it has ever been! We didn’t have much time to prep for the sale of our home so, though I’ve read all the advice columns on it, I decided to leave the murals up. It is just paint, after all. It would have been heart breaking to paint over them, so I am glad the market is hot enough that I am not too worried that it will detract buyers.
Check back in again soon to get a more in-depth look at our DIY projects and home on a budget tips.
Let’s caution this post with a big ole: I’m Not a Pro! Heck, I’m not even a home DIY blogger. I’m an entertaining, food, and lifestyle blogger. However, if you are wanting to read a true beginner experience of DIY flooring, then read on! I’ll share what I felt went well and where I will hopefully do better next time.
Our first foray into flooring was in our home gym space that resides in a mudroom area. The space measures 16X9 and houses our gym equipment, a secondary office space, and laundry area. We have not finished out the laundry area as of yet because there is a lot more work to do there. We did get the whole gym/mudroom space ready for use!
Looks pretty swell, right?
Our First Foray Into Flooring
Out of all the projects in our house flooring was the one I was the most scared of doing. After talking a bit with my friend Suzannah from Create/Enjoy, I decided to give DIY flooring a try. The mudroom worked perfectly for my first DIY flooring project because I didn’t want the same flooring throughout the rest of my house. That way, I didn’t need to buy more product than that was needed for this one project.
I went back and forth on what type of flooring to get but went with Luxury Vinyl Tile that was water-resistant and peel-and-stick. If you would have asked me a year ago I would have said that I’d never put that in my home. But, I’m really happy with the quality and felt like it was a good beginner flooring project.
Disclosure: The below links are affiliate links that will allow me to make a small amount of money with any purchase at no cost to the buyer. Thank you for helping to support this blog!
Removing the tacking strips was no fun and damaged part of the concrete.
Our DIY Flooring Experience
Prepping the floor: Pulling up our carpet was fairly straightforward. We just pulled it up and took out the tacking strips. The concrete got a little damaged as we were taking out the strips, so I had to fill those spots with a concrete patcher. We then prepped the flooring by sweeping well, washing it, and then put on a few coats of primer.
Primer helps with the stick!
Planning out the placement: I wasn’t entirely sure how I wanted the flooring to look in this space. Do I go horizontal, or would that make the space look cut off? Do I go verticle? Perhaps herringbone? I laid out my options and took photos of the space and walked around a lot to try to figure out what I liked. In the end, we decided on a herringbone pattern that was lined up with the walls rather than at an angle. This made cuts just a tad easier.
One of many placements I considered.
The Hardest Part: The most difficult part of this whole project (for me) was making sure that the placement was level in the room. I used a chalk line to try to find the center of the room and a spirit level to make sure that it was straight. I was not perfect in doing this, but I thankfully wasn’t too far off. We did end up getting chalk all over us!
Laying the Tile: Setting the tile wasn’t super hard. The most difficult part was trying to make sure we got it spaced correctly with spacers. For the most part, the peel and stick had a GREAT hold. We know because we made a mistake after the first five tiles and had to pull them up. Let’s just say it was near impossible! We utilized the flooring adhesive in addition to the peel-and-stick adhesive in a few areas where the floor wasn’t as even. Big tip: Wear kneepads! This was killer on our backs and knees. Finally, apply a lot of pressure when pressing the tiles with the extension handle roller. This will get them good and stuck.
Edges: Cutting the tiles for the edges did not go super smoothly. If you were to look at our flooring job closely, you would see most of our beginner mistakes revolved around this task. We used an LTV tile knife to cut the tile, but if I ever do it again I’ll invest in a more robust tool.
Ready made grout was a huge timesaver.
Grouting: The tiles are able to be done with grout so we also purchased a grey ready-made grout. Grouting again was not hard, just time-consuming and hard on the body. Once it was complete though, it really made the floor look great!
While not perfect, this is 1000% better than the carpet that was here before!
How To Resources:
I hope my experience helped with sourcing products and potential pitfalls for a home DIY flooring project. Below are some of the resources I used while learning how to do this project in my own home.
If you like the step-by-step instructions with photos that you can just print off, check out the Better Homes and Garden’s article, “Installing Self-Stick Vinyl Tile.”
Looking to lay a different style of flooring? My friend Suzannah has a couple of handy posts over flooring projects including a how-to for laying sheet vinyl, tile, and laminate flooring.
Do you think you’ll be jumping into a DIY flooring project anytime soon? I’d love to see how you do! Share it with me on Instagram by tagging or messaging @JenniBost!
Necessity breeds creativity. The need for movement for the whole family created a variety of creative solutions. Our favorite, and prettiest solution of the bunch was the creation of a home gym in our home’s mudroom space. This DIY home gym included a change of flooring, paint, and a space styled with the goal of inspiring movement.
When the long-lasting reality of the pandemic began to dawn on our family we ended our monthly gym membership and decided to focus those funds elsewhere. In the beginning we were spending plenty of time outdoors and getting our exercise by working in the yard or going on hikes. We even purchased an above-ground pool that we used as much as possible in the short Spokane Summer season.
Then winter hit…and, boy, did it hit hard! We quickly realized that we really needed a more complete space to complete our daily workouts. Our under-organized and over-stuffed gym/mudroom/office/laundry space just wasn’t cutting it. So, after some hemming and hawing from the husband, we started in on our first time doing flooring along with some other DIY efforts to make this multi-purpose space into a true home gym.
Using the mudroom space for fun kid’s games and to store random items
The Before: An Actual Dumping Ground
The gym still serves as a second home office, laundry room, and mudroom. It just looks a lot better doing it all. Read on for the makeover highlights and supply list.
I only have a few photos of the before of this room, but check out my Instagram for a video of the whole transformation! (Follow me @JenniBost)
Our mudroom houses a laundry room area that is unfinished. We did not tackle that space in this makeover, but have plans for the future! The rest of the space is actually quite large at 16’X9′. We have used this space in the past as an extra guest room, a storage room, an indoor bike space, and an extra home office.
Removing Carpet in the Mudroom/ Gym Space
The Needs for Our Refresh:
In future posts I’ll go into the flooring and some of my DIY artwork in more detail, but for now, here are the basics for what our refresh required:
Flooring: The flooring was the biggest eye-sore in this space as it was a cheap cream carpet that got some good wear-and-tear from the traffic coming in from the backyard and garage. Eventually, we would like to redo the flooring in the entire house, so this was a good opportunity to learn a new DIY skill.
Paint: Much of our house was painted a version of white that had a cream base. I like a brighter, cooler white. So, paint needed to happen. As much as I love color, I chose white to help keep this space feeling relaxing.
Storage: The space previously had hap-hazard storage that was filled to the brim with anything that didn’t really have a home. We needed to create homes for those items and make sure we had space to store our every-day home gym equipment.
Decor: Gotta have something on the walls to help inspire us!
Our home gym complete with treadmill and indoor bike trainer
The After: Our Very Own Home Gym
The best part of any DIY is the before and after photos, right? I’m really proud of this little room.
The flooring isn’t perfect. I’m sure that if someone looked closely they would see our mistakes in getting things spaced just right. However, it is 1000% better than what was there before and it was our first try at flooring. I’m trying to rest in that instead of being frustrated that it isn’t pro-quality.
It has been so nice to go in and get in a good sweat session. We, unfortunately, did not have room for my indoor bike, so that resides in my office still. However, we were able to mount a TV for things like Yoga– we have a large space that is completely empty aside from a rug for us to do non-machine workouts. We were able to get in our treadmill and my husband’s indoor bike.
Scroll down to see the photos and then the list of supplies!
Treadmill area complete with my husband’s many medals for racesIndoor Bike trainer area and yoga mat basketDon’t Quit Artwork along with hand weights and resistance training materialsGym Artwork with Running MedalsGym Artwork
Indoor gym supplies
Boy oh boy do we have a big list of supplies. I’m not going to get into all the nitty gritty about the flooring in this post, but promise to share those supplies soon.
Disclosure: Any of the links below marked with an asterisk (*) is an affiliate link meaning that I will receive a portion of the sale, at no cost to you, if you purchase anything using that link. Thank you for your support!
Yoga Mat Basket was a find at Home Goods but I found a similar woven basket* on Amazon
The room spray is a favorite of mine from Grove.co* I got the sanctuary scent as I felt it would be perfect in this space. The brown glass bottle is lovely!
Artwork included family photos and some prints that I created and plan on sharing here on the blog soon!
Gym Storage Space
Thank you for taking the time to check out my new DIY gym space. I hope you found some inspiration in the pictures.
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