Thank you! The seafoam green balls and teardrops were from At Home, a home decor store near me.

I have used Fusion a lot and Tough Coat a few times. To be honest, I have had a mixed experience with it, and it was a few years ago now. It definitely has a learned curve if you are using a brush or cheesecloth – I feel like other brands more consistently smooth out. I have two pieces that tough coat looks great on and a console table that was streaky no matter what I tried. Also note that it isn’t intended for dark colors as it *possibly* could turn cloudy over time. I am not trying to steer you from them. I actually like the company, the paint, and tough coat’s finish when it does what I want it to do. I like supporting smaller batch or boutique paint companies for the character of their products, but this one wasn’t foolproof enough for me when I tried it. While products from the same company are generally formulated to work together seamlessly, you can mix and match most water-based top coats and get all of the durability you want.

You can email a photo of it to Rachel@cravingsomecreativity.com If it’s badly gouged, it will most likely need to be repaired either with a wood filler or something that has a fiber reinforcement like woodpecker filler or bondo wood filler (not autobody filler). Then prime and match the paint color. That’s just some random thoughts without seeing it though.

This mancave makeover post is where I show all the ideas we incorporated into the finished basement has a lot more detail. For the walls, the paint color is Willow Creek by Benjamin Moore and the ceiling is smoke embers. All of the paint colors we used in the house are on our home tour page here. I hope your project goes super smoothly!

The toe-kick cutout area was a bit of a challenge. What we ended up doing is mimicking the other corners with the decorative columns. First, we ignored the toe kick and squared it in, just like the column one. We added an 1″ x 2″ board (actual measurements, not nominal) to that edge from top to bottom. It sticks out maybe a quarter of an inch from the side and is flush with the front. It isn’t as thick as the decorative column and it is plain, but it works with the style and makes the edge look intentional. Lastly, we added the baseboards similarly to how they are in the photo above of the corner. We placed these baseboards and quarter round around the 3 sides to make it look polished.

I bought the felt from a craft store like Michaels. I made enough for each of the kids at the party and a few extra so they could choose each character. It’s been a while, but I think I bought a pack of 12×12 sheets of felt in primary colors. The kids were around 5 years old, so they had small heads, haha. I used the elastic band to not have tails and this saved money.