How Did That Hold Up? (Vol. 6)

Hi friends! It’s time for an updated “How did that hold up?”. We do these posts every couple of years to share what held up amazing and also anything we regret! One of the tough things about DIY is that you don’t REALLY know how long it will last until years later. So that’s what I am going to get into today!

Note: All these photos are NEW from this summer (so there are years of wear on most of these projects, besides the gold closet rods, since they are more recent).

My Color Washed Floors <— view the full post here.
I asked for requests on IG and far and away this was the most requested update from my home. We did these floors three summers ago before we moved in. And I am happy to report that they have held up FLAWLESSLY. There is no damage whatsoever. They are just as strong as the other wood floors in our home.

I do feel like I have to note, though, these are NOT just painted floors. It it NOT a good idea to paint your floors with wall paint … that will not hold up! Make sure you read the whole post before trying it. The key factors are that I had a professional flooring guy do them AND they are sealed exactly like all the other floors in our home.

The photo above doesn’t do them justice so I will show more on stories. But they look awesome!

As far as do I still LOVE the color … I do. But I will admit that I go back and forth. Sometimes, I wish they were the same as the rest of the house. But a lot of the time, I love the bold pop in this one room. So I do not plan to change it as long as we live here.

That said, I not sure what I will do when it’s time to sell our home someday—my sister says to leave it because the next owners may love it. I am afraid it could scare people off (and it’s not very expensive to change back so I don’t want that!). What do you think? Would that scare you off if you were house shopping?

Anyway, it doesn’t matter right now because we LOVE it. And this project TOTALLY held up. I am so happy! It could be done in any color … the possibilities are endless!

Our DIY Dining Room Table
This table has been going strong for SO LONG … since 2012! Not bad for a $350 table that seats eight! I still love this table and for the style of our decor and the function of our home, I cannot imagine anything better!

We do paint it about once a year because it gets scratched. But I don’t think that is a big deal for a piece of furniture that is so heavily used.

I still love it SO much and have had zero desire to shop for a new table, and for the past six years we have been using this one.

Gold Closet Rods
I will be honest … I was NERVOUS about this! It worked so well in Nova’s room but then in my room it was a disaster. So we redid it with this paint and now, after a few months, it has ZERO scratches (the last time it scratched up immediately). The difference is the better product, but I truly believe it is also the one week cure time (before any clothes were hung on it). If you do this project (or any other spray paint project that is going to be handled a lot), you need to let it cure.

Very, very happy about this so far, but in a year I will know for SURE whether it is a winner. But it’s looking VERY promising after about two months.

Our Recolored Appliances 
These are holding up. I am confident they will last until we move (and beyond). We paid $400 for the vinyl, which was custom printed with the color we chose and that also included installation.

I am happy with the colors. There are small flaws in the installation that bother me a little. The company that did it for me were definitely used to doing, like, band posters on the side of tour buses and jobs like that, so I am not surprised that they weren’t up to my level of perfectionism. Honestly, they were a hassle to communicate with, but the end result was worth it!

The vinyl is easy to clean and has aged really well (there aren’t any issues really). And when we sell our home, if the next owner doesn’t want the mint color, they can be peeled off super easily.

So, all in all, I would recommend the project because we saved thousands compared to the specialty appliance brands that offer colors AND we still have the option of going back to neutral if we wanted to.

Hopefully, for anyone else who takes on this project, you’ll get lucky and find a local vendor who is a little easier to work with. But honestly, even just having the photos of our appliances to show them will help!

Also, I will say that it’s totally possible to do the install yourself. But you would just want to make sure you use vinyl that is made for cars because it can safely go up to a very high heat and you need that for the oven.

Pink Bunk Beds
The pink bunk beds were a good decision. We bought these affordable bunk beds from Amazon, painted them with pink oil-based paint and then added these felt succulent window boxes. We’ve used these beds A LOT and now that I’ve tried it I highly recommend bunk beds like these for a guest room.

Closet Organization
I still love and appreciate this simple closet organization we installed every day. It basically took a blank wall and made it useful for storing hats, necklaces, scarves and bags.

I have to say, organization DIYs are SO WORTH IT. My closet and also pantry renovation are two of the best things we did to make better use of the space we have.

Cactus Stenciled Wallpaper
This project was a good amount of work—one of the most time consuming DIYs in our home. But I still love it and there have been no issues with it whatsoever. It still looks just as good as the day we completed it. I would totally do this project again in the future. The gold paint pen makes it look really cool.

A few other projects people asked about …

Stick on Subway Tile (in our laundry room)
I’m not sure when it happened, but we recently noticed that ONE block of tile from the peel & stick tile had turned yellow. Just one. And it was pretty noticeable. I have no idea why or how just one piece of the tile changed colors, but I was pretty disappointed! I probably would not do it again now just because I would be afraid of that happening again. It did save money to do the stick-on tile (on install), but it didn’t really save supply money. So it wasn’t one of those DIYs that could save you a huge chunk of money. I will go back and update that post with this new info about the color change.

I’m not saying that all peel & stick tile is problematic, because I am sure it isn’t. But I would no longer recommend what we used.

Luckily, we were already considering a more thorough renovation (we had never renovated this room, just changed a few finished when we first moved in). So it was pretty good timing for us. And what is kind of crazy is that I ended up choosing shiplap and it was less than half the price of the peel & stick tile.

Live and learn!

Chalk Paint Rainbow Wall
A few people asked why we painted over this wall. It wasn’t because there was anything wrong with it. In fact, I really miss it and kind of regret painting over it.

But the reason I made that choice was because when I was designing the playroom I really wanted to use this leftover juju wallpaper I had on just one wall and it seemed crazy to have two statement walls in one room. So the wallpaper won.

The problem with the rainbow was that I did it before I knew what I was doing with the rest of the room … so it didn’t fit.

It’s still an awesome DIY and I hope some of you do it for your homes!

Faux Tile in Jeremy’s Entryway
This still looks perfect! I don’t have a photo on my phone, but I’ll show it on IG stories. It is a very tedious project, but Collin did an amazing job! Since the space is covered and low-traffic, it hasn’t to be touched up yet. It’s lasting really well and really makes the space a lot more special and thought out.

White Walls and Light Floors
I had a few questions on whether I ever regret having mainly white walls and floors and whether they are difficult to clean. I love them and I do think they hide mess a lot better than dark floors—especially since we have a lot of white-based rugs (that shed furballs) and a light colored dog.

ZERO regrets on the floor and I would totally do it again.

As for the walls, we do mainly use matte paint, so they do get smudged and scratched easier than semi-gloss. But I don’t mind a once yearly touch up and magic eraser (or just a wet washcloth) gets most of it.

I love living in an mainly white home! The only things I honestly EVER think about changing are the colored accents. Like our pink bathroom vanity or yellow guest room. I love them and they are some of the most “shared” photos from our home, but I do get an itch to change bold accents so so so much sooner than neutrals.

In our next home (which is years off, but I am still a psycho who loves to plan five years in advance…), I may consider a more high contrast look. Mainly because I had so much fun using those colors in our bnb home.

To answer the question though, white walls + light floors forever & always!

Thanks for reading!!! I am happy to talk about any other project you are curious about in the comments. Every design project is a learning experience for me and I don’t believe there is ANY shame in regretting a project once in a while or wanting to do it differently the next time. I know this post was mostly positive experiences, but that is also because the projects I remember to recap years later are the ones I use for years so they stay at the top of my mind!

These projects can be so intimidating so I hope these recaps of how things have held up are helpful. xx – Elsie

Credits/Author: Elsie Larson. Photography: Amber Ulmer. Photos edited with A Color Story Desktop.