In the process of building our house, Adam and I messed up. We knew that we only wanted the builder to build the "shell" of the house and leave the rest for us to DIY, but what we didn't realize (no one along the way did... I'm guessing people don't finance half-built houses very often) is that in order to close on a construction loan, the house has to be 100% finished. This led to a giant, stressful, drawn-out mess when we tried to convert the construction loan to a mortgage. Our solution was …
Read More
Rustic Wooden Blanket Ladder (for free!)
There is this empty wall in our living room that has been begging me to put something on it, something large but with a slim profile. A framed picture would be too small, furniture would be too big, but a wooden blanket ladder....well that would be just right. So I decided to make one myself, and the best part is that is was an easy project that I did for free using branches scrounged up from the yard.
Materials needed:
branches - two large ones, 3-4 smaller ones
using …
Read More
Wood Slice Coffee Table
So this morning I woke up at 6 am, made breakfast, made lunches, got the kids ready for school, finished that last little bit of homework, found everyone's shoes, and made it out the door in time to meet the bus. The boys and I waited for about 20 minutes (while getting attacked by mosquitos) and the dang thing never showed. Since we are at a new stop (just added last week), I figured they forget us and went to get the car to drive them to school. Well guess what? Turns out it's Colombus Day and …
Read More
Double Sliding Barn Doors for the Office
Remember that time Adam and I DIYed some double sliding barn doors and it was the biggest fail ever? Well I'm happy to report that we have learned from our mistake and these sliding doors are a complete success. I love DIY, but many times it is just not worth it. Considering this hardware was about the same price as the failed DIY hardware (that now sits in our garage taking up space) I'd say DIY barn door hardware is forever on the "just buy it" list.
Alright, so here is the story of the …
Read More
DIY Basics – How to Recover a Dining Room Chair
*Thank you to HomeRight for sponsoring this post, all thoughts and opinions are 100% my own.
After writing this blog for nearly six years I tend to assume that my readers are all DIY masters. A lot of you are, but new people happen upon this blog everyday, many of which have never DIYed a single thing. So If you are new to DIY then a great place to start is reupholster a dining room chair. It’s easy to do, requires minimal tools, and old chairs in need of new new fabric are everywhere.
So …
Read More
A Corrugated Metal Ceiling
I know I keep talking about the hailstorm that hit earlier this year, but that dang hailstorm seems to have led to a lot of other things...like rustic beams instead of fake ones, a quick sale of our old house, and now a practically free metal ceiling in our living room.
Since day one Adam and I have planned to put a metal ceiling on the living room and master bedroom of our house. We have always loved the look, and we were so sure about it that we even had the sheetrock crew leave the ceiling …
Read More
How to Make a Lego Table
I've been so concentrated on building the new house that I haven't done a project in a good long while. I finally have one for you today though, a Lego table!
Last month Levi (my middle son) turned four. Four. I remember blogging his birth story like it was yesterday, and now he's my four-year-old middle son. Crazy.
Anyway, I made him a Lego table for his birthday. He loves it, my other boys love it, and I kinda love it too...despite the fact that it lives in my living room and has a …
Read More
Round Inlay Table…err, Wall Medallion
Three years ago I stenciled a dining room table for my in-laws using the Indian Inlay kit from Cutting Edge Stencils.
It turned out gorgeous, but admittedly took me forever to do since the stencils comes in a bunch or small pieces (which also makes it super versatile).
I remember a few of you asking if you could use this on a round table, and at the time you couldn't. Since then Cutting Edge has come out with a round version of this stencil (two actually). As great as that news is, …
Read More
Tomato Cage Tables
Sometimes I get the itch to try a project just for the heck of it. Even if I think it will fail, or look horrid, or be a total time-suck...I just want to give it a shot. These tables are one of those projects.
I've been wanting to bring some gold into the house somehow, and I figured guest room bedside tables would be a great way to do that. The first thing that popped into my head was a gold wire table, mostly because I've seen them all over the internet (Pinterest) and they are stuck in my …
Read More
Upcycled Giant Chalkboard
A couple of years ago I made a chalkboard for my kitchen/dining room area.
I use it every single day for my household to-do list. It's probably one of the things in my house I use most (that's not an appliance, computer, or sink). Recently the boys have taken an interest in it, and each day they drag their little step stool over to the chalkboard and go to town writing all over my list. I let them too, because seeing their little doodles and chicken scratch letters is way better than …
Read More
Empty Frame Christmas Ornament Art….or something like that
Alright, today we have Christmas craft number two! I really enjoyed spending time with my glue gun for craft number one, so we (that would be me and the glue gun) decided to keep a good thing going and we made these things (I honestly have no idea what to call them)...
Materials -
Empty frames
Spray paint (I used Colonial Red by Rustoleum)
Hot glue gun and glue sticks
Miniature ornaments
Twine, string, cord or something similar
I started out by collecting some …
Read More
Make Your Own Birdbath
This project is an easy one, though it still started off as a DIY fail. So the first part of this post will be the perfect sparkling tutorial on how to make your own birdbath...then I'll let you know what NOT to do.
I made my birdbath out of a terracotta pot, saucer, and an old brass lamp...but you can really use anything. Go crazy. The motto here is "if you can glue it, you can do it." I literally JUST came it with that.
First I cut the cord on the lamp base and pulled all the extras …
Read More
15 Ways to Give Your Furniture New Life
Let's face it, buying new furniture is expensive. So expensive, in fact, that I've never actually done it (besides couches, because I'm not awesome/crazy enough to DIY a couch). There is also the problem that new furniture is, well... boring. To me it all looks the same and basically has zero personality. A great (and super cheap!) solution to this is to redo old furniture. But what do you do with your ratty old thrift store furniture once you get it home?
1. Paint it a fun …
Read More
White To Green – A Dresser Before & After
I'm slowly chipping away at my boy's room renovation. I've paper bagged the floors and were about halfway done with planking the walls. My next victim was this dresser/changing table.
It's really feminine, plus it's slowly turning from a nice crisp white to more of a muted yellow. Wait though, that's not the actual before picture. Get ready for the worst before picture of all time.
Yes, that is our master bedroom circa 2008, a few months after we bought our house. It literally hurts my …
Read More
Kids Step Stool (with Yardstick Steps)
I do projects around here when there is a need. Or a want, wants are project-worthy too. In this particular case I needed Elijah (who's in full potty training mode) to be able to turn on the bathroom light by himself. Enter - the need for a step stool. Or the want, cause I don't want to stop what I'm doing every twenty minutes to turn the lights on for him. So perhaps the motives behind the step stool were actually selfish. Whatever, I'm okay with that.
I told Adam my selfish desire for a …
Read More
$5 File Cabinet Makeover
One of my "loose goals" for 2013 was to buy a real file cabinet and finally take control of paperwork in our house. Why is it that it is sooo easy for paperwork to get out of hand? My command center has helped a bit, though only in my kitchen and only with recent paperwork. The rest of it is still a mess. My current "file cabinet" is too small and stuff comes busting out of it and then never makes it back in. Exhibit A:
There is also an exhibit B, C, D & E, but I'll spare you.
So the …
Read More
Yardstick Framed Kid Art
Happy Friday! I had fully intended to post three easy projects this week, but then Friday was here and I hadn't blogged about anything. Ahh, life. It happens. So I'm in the process of decorating my new kitchen shelving and have been doing lots of small projects for them. This particular project started when I was cleaning out my craft closet and came across a painting done by Elijah, it's the first time he had ever painted. I remember stuffing it in a bag full of scrapbook paper because I …
Read More
Kitchen Command Center
So this whole command center project started one day when I was at World Market...I saw this one and thought "man I could really use a command center in the kitchen".
I kinda sorta liked this one, so I looked at the price tag...it was nearly $80 bucks! It's just some plywood, chalkboard paint, trim and a basket. I bet I could make it for $15... probably less since I have most that stuff on hand.
So, I (of course) decided to make my own, more original, more useful and more unique command …
Read More
Crazy Easy Placemat Pillows (and Napkin Pillows and Dropcloth Pillows)
So pillows. We all love them and use them. We like them for comfort, we like them for decoration, we like them to add color to our neutral couches. The more the merrier really...except for one little problem.
Throw pillows are freakin expensive.
Not like Rolex and Mercedes expensive, but even cheap pillows are $20-$30 a pop. I've seen plenty a pillow go for well over a hundred bucks and that is insane....especially in my house where they are just going to get peanut butter and boogers wiped …
Read More
Upcycled Porch Entry Table
It took me forever to come up with a title for this post. The one it ended up with isn't that great, but its better than "Antique Dumpster Vanity Mirror Holder Thingy Turned Faux Outdoor Entry Table", or a variety of other things I things I came up with.
So a few days ago I showed you this broken old vanity top that was found near a dumpster...
and how I turned the mirror frame into this chalkboard.
I wanted to use all the pieces of it (what can I say, I like a challenge) and when I …
Read More
{Another} Chalkboard For The Kitchen
I love that when people in my life see old junk lying next to a dumpster, they think of me. I love it even more than those people put that junk in their car and bring it to me. My aunt is one of these people, she found this antique broken vanity top/mirror/thingy and thought I could do something with it.
She was right! As soon as I saw it I knew it would be the perfect replacement for my kitchen chalkboard that I was never really in love with. (I also have something fun planned for the other …
Read More
