Caulking is one of those things when working on a house project that might seem unnecessary or even a little daunting to do. It can get messy really quickly and when you are at the end of a project, you kind of just want to be done and don’t really want one more thing to do. Caulking can totally change up a space though and give it a finished look whether it’s baseboards, trim, moulding, staircase, shiplap, board and batten, etc. It’s also great on bathroom projects and outdoor projects. I’m going to show you how to caulk baseboards and this is the easiest way I have found to do it. With just a little practice, you’ll be a pro in no time! 

Supplies Needed:

Caulk – This is the kind I use the most. I prefer white over clear because it’s easier to see what you are doing. You need to make sure that it is paintable. 

Caulking Gun 

Spray Bottle 

Old Rags – You’ll need to get them wet

Scissors To Cut The Tip Off Tube Of Caulk

Start by prepping your area, make sure to wipe everything down so there is no dirt or dust. Then you are going to load your tube of caulk into the caulking gun and tighten it until it’s locked in.

Once the tube is loaded, you can cut the tip off the tube – you will want to cut as small of a hole as possible and make sure to cut it at an angle. The bigger the hole, the more caulk will come out which can result in a big mess! You can always cut the hole a little bigger if you need more, but it’s best to start out small. 

When your tube is ready to go, you simply push down the handle and run the tip along the edge of the baseboard where the baseboard meets the wall. You can do as little or as much at one time that you’d like. I usually do about 10-15 inches before I stop and do the next step. 

Grab your spray bottle and squirt the line of caulk that you just laid down and then run your finger over the line to remove any excess. Take your wet rag and run the rag over the line to smooth it out and to dry up any water. Wipe your finger on a different wet rag and move onto caulking the next line. I like to keep one rag to wipe my finger and one rag to smooth and wipe the area I’m working on. 

You can start the next line right where you left off and once you follow the steps above it will all blend in seamlessly. 

These baseboards that I’m working on will need a coat of paint after I finish caulking, but depending on your project this could be your very last step and you could be done. Check out the before and after below – such big difference! 

I’ve had quite a few people reach out and ask me about caulking so hopefully this tutorial helps! Shoot me an email or DM if you have any questions. For more links of our favorite products that we love, check out our Amazon page.

 – Kim

 

Sometimes it feels like I have a never ending list of house projects going on. And while I’m not afraid of a serious DIY project, sometimes it’s nice to do something simple and fast but gives big results. Spray painting window casings does just that! I recently added board and batten in my son’s room and painted everything white. The walls and windows all seemed to blend together so in order to make something pop, I spray painted his window casings black. Super simple and really the only part that took the longest was taping everything off. 

Supplies Needed:

Krylon Color Maxx Primer (Gray)

Rust-oleum Satin Paint and Primer In One (I used Black) 

Painters Tape

Plastic Drop Cloths – (I used 5)

Mask

Goggles 

Fan

Hair Net – (You do not want spray paint in your hair!)

I started by taping off around each window, leaving the casing exposed. Then I went back in and taped the glass. I used blue painters tape and it took about a roll and a half for the entire wall. After the windows are taped, I put one plastic dropcloth down on the floor and then taped another one to the wall, one between each window, and another above the window to create a tent. I covered the larger areas with the plastic but used the tape for the detail work. It was a bit tedious but I took my time with the detail work to make sure the lines were straight so I didn’t end up with paint in places I didn’t want. 

The grilles are the pieces that run up and across the middle of the window (to create a grid effect) The grilles on these windows are in between the glass – so there was not an actual piece of the grille that was on top to paint like the surrounding outside pieces. I still wanted these to be black and have the same look, so I taped the glass and followed the outline of the grille. I then just spray painted the actual window so it looks like the grille is painted too. It’s really just the glass that is painted but you can’t even tell unless you looked really really close. You can see in the picture below how I taped it off. 

Once everything was covered, I first used Krylon Color Maxx Primer in Gray, adding 2 coats and waiting about 15 minutes between coats. Then I used Rust-oleum Paint and Primer In One, in the color Black. I sprayed two coats of the black waiting 15 minutes between coats. I let the paint dry for another 15 minutes before removing the tape. I want the paint to still be a bit tacky when I pull it which prevents the paint from peeling. 

There you have it! Super simple DIY that makes a big impact! 

-Kim 

Part One of our Half Wall Project. After the wall was finished we were left with a hollowed out space on one side that opened up into our family room. We could have closed off the entire wall but I wanted to add 2 long shelves that ran the whole length of the space. The shelves were built out out pine and plywood – using pine for the main part of the shelf and the plywood as supporting pieces. There was room for a third shelf but I didn’t think I would be left with much height on the shelves to add decor so we went with two. I used Minwax Stain in Jacobean and American Chestnut mixing the two shades together to stain the shelves. I love the rich contrast and the way the wood shelves look against the white wall. I’m really happy with how the shelves turned out – just like I envisioned in my head!

The actual build of the wall, shiplap, and shelves came out relatively easy, and it was the styling that was harder than planned. Because the shelves are so long it was a challenge to find enough pieces and then to make everything flow together and look cohesive. I did have to take quite a few trips to Home Goods, TJMaxx, and a few thrift stores, but that is the fun part! Books are one of my favorite things to use in home decor – they are fairly inexpensive and add height, texture, and color. Second hand stores like Goodwill or Deseret Industries are my go to places for books, and I usually pay $2-$3 per book. I typically only use hardcover books because they stack better and will stand up easier. When I look for books to decorate with I am looking to see what color the hard cloth is underneath the book jacket. I always remove the book jacket anyway because they usually have pictures and large lettering. While I am picking out books at thrift stores, I will pull back the book jacket to see what color the book is. Some colors are easier to find than others, with white being really hard to find so I will always grab all the white ones I can find! For my shelves I wanted to use a rainbow of colors grouping them in different shades. I ended up with blues, greens, reds, yellows, a few neutral colors. 

 

After a few shopping trips (or seven), I finally had enough books and decor and of course a few JaxnBlvd signs to fill up the shelves. I really enjoy this part of the process and love playing around with the different pieces. I have a pretty Eclectic style so mixing colors, patterns, and textures makes my heart happy. I also have a thing for globes, I really love globes but my husband thinks we have more than enough!

 

One of my favorite parts of the build was adding in the three sconce lights. I found the lights on Amazon and had an Electrician come out and install them. He was in and out in less than an hour and it’s so great to have the extra lighting in this room!

From start to finish this was a little more than a quick weekend project, but all in all it was not a super hard one, just a little more time consuming because there were quite a few steps. Now onto the next project!

-Kim

 

 

We moved into our house 7 years ago and there were quite a few things that we would have done differently had we built the house and not bought it as is. Thankfully my husband and I love working on DIY projects together so we’ve been able to change quite a bit and put our own touches into the home. We had a half wall or pony wall that was visible from the front door and separated the front room and family room. The wall not only collected a lot of dust and became a catch all area for clutter, but our kids also loved to use it as a jungle gym. It was on our top ten list of projects and we finally got around to doing it!

We decided to shiplap the wall that faces the front room, completely covering the cutout that opened up into the family room. On the opposite wall we added shiplap and long shelving so it would almost be like a built in bookshelf. We have shiplapped several other areas in our home and used several different approaches so we have a pretty good feel for what works best.

Curtis used 2×4’s to frame out the opening of the wall and he cut the 45 degree decorative angles, leaving the edges square. It was amazing how much better it looked right away! The 2×4’s were installed flush with the wall so the MDF shiplap boards could go right over the opening on the wall to cover it.

Materials needed:

-1/2 inch MDF Wood – Lowes is our favorite hardware store and they will rip your wood down for free. They supply all of the lumber for JaxnBlvd and we have always had a great experience working with them!

-Nail Gun and Nails

-Router and Router Bit

-Chop Saw or Miter Saw

-Stud Finder

-Level

-Caulk

-Sandpaper

-2×4’s if covering a half wall

We like using 1/2 inch MDF, it’s not too heavy and not too expensive. We routed all of the edges and sides which allowed us to butt the boards against right up against each other and still give a shiplap look – almost like tongue and groove but much more affordable. Using MDF can be messy, especially when using a router. Sawdust gets everywhere! We usually cut our boards for shiplap to be 7 inches wide but decided to cut the boards for this wall at 11 inches wide to save a little time on this project. We always like to remove the baseboards before starting and we work from the bottom up.

I wanted a clean, seamless look but ultimately decided I didn’t want to put in the work to create that look. It would involve a lot of caulking and sanding and that was not something I was interested in. In order to create a pattern that would not look busy but would still look clean , Curtis used he same 3 cuts and rotated placement on the walls. We also cut the ends at a 45 degree angle and this helped the boards fit together really well and look seamless on the edges.

I’m often asked how I’m able to complete so much so quickly. We plan out our projects 100% from start to finish and we gather all the materials we need so we can work, work, work as much as possible without stopping. My husband works really fast and is great about at not stopping until it’s done. If I am not tending to the kids then I am working right along side him. For this project, I spent several hours routing the boards for the shiplap so he could work on the rest of the project. We work really well together and pretty quickly with only minimal fighting 🙂

I can’t wait to share the finished product with you, so check back next week for the reveal!

-Kim

 

 

Christmas 2012 is where it all began when I made my very first sign as a Christmas present for my sister. I kept designing and creating after that and slowly built a following. My very first post on Instagram was of a custom that a friend of mine asked me to make. In writing this post, I had to dig pretty deep into my Instagram account to find old pictures. It was fun looking through old posts and seeing how much this little business of mine has grown and changed! 

When I first started JaxnBlvd, it was just me (and my sisters helping when they could) painting on my living room floor. I was pregnant with my youngest and when my belly got too big, I moved the painting to my kitchen table. After I had my daughter, I decided to hire my first employee and the painting continued in my kitchen until there was an abundance of glitter and paint that was constantly stuck to my poor baby’s knees when she tried to crawl around. I had a shed built in my backyard and JaxnBlvd continued to grow from there. The shed was only about 8ft x 10ft but once I added AC and a TV for Netflix, it turned into a fun and functional workspace. The signs were all painted in the shed and we used my garage to cut all the wood, frame, ship, and store signs. The business was growing and now that we had a dedicated workspace, I was able to hire a few more employees. 

JaxnBlvd continued to grow and we eventually outgrew the shed in my backyard. I had 6 employees at this point and finding space for everyone to work was becoming an issue. My garage was busting at the seams and the storage unit I had to rent to store extra signs was filled to the brim as well. The time had come to set up a brick and mortar and we opened our doors on November 13, 2015. It was so exciting that my business had expanded so much, but also a little terrifying at the same time!

With the expansion of our space we were able to have a dedicated place for our customers to shop and we also opened up space to support other local small businesses and carry their merchandise as well. We began hosting DIY Classes now that we had the room and they quickly became a customer favorite. Over time we started selling home decor and in the past year clothing, shoes, and jewelry. It’s been fun to branch out and offer a variety to our customers. 

In 2015 Hobby Lobby approached me wanting to use my designs to sell in their store. Ummmmm, yes!!! Working with Hobby Lobby has been such a great experience from the very beginning and it helped open up doors to work with other companies like, TJ Maxx, Marshall’s, Home Goods, Walmart, and Wayfair. It’s so fun to see your hard work come to life in different ways, and I still get a bit giddy anytime I see my work sitting on a store shelf. 

I am constantly thinking of new design ideas and projects and this new year will bring some fun things I have been working on – the biggest being a new location!!! The location we are in right now is 30 minutes away from my home and from where most of my employees live. We’ve all been making the commute for the past 3 years and we’re ready for a shorter one. Our new shop will be in a great location and I cant wait to share more details soon! 

This has been an exciting, crazy, tiring, stressful, and amazing experience so far and I had no idea when I made my very first sign that it would turn into all this! I have definitely learned a lot and as you can tell, our signs and our photography have come a long way too. I’m so grateful for everything that has transpired so far and I’m looking forward to much more!!

• Kim