• Crafts,  DIY

    Reclaimed Copper Tile Tray

    I have a DIY reclaimed copper tile tray to share with you today that has the coolest backstory. First, did you know copper tiles were a thing? Actual metal tiles. I did not until I found them hidden under some drywall in our kitchen! We could see a sliver of them and their glorious copper sheen when we replaced some trim. For many reasons, we did not demo the wall to see how many copper tiles were hiding back there or what condition they were in. Yes, this was disappointing in the short term, but now I know there’s something to look forward to – besides the extra work –…

  • copper wall tiles made by Vikon Tile hidden behind drywall in a new jersey house
    colonial farmhouse,  DIY

    What We Found In Our Kitchen Wall – Copper Tiles

    While repairing the trim in our kitchen we found 4-inch copper tiles behind the drywall. Surprise, surprise. It’s not exactly the hidden treasure I’ve been looking for in this old house of ours. I was thinking more along the lines of a stash of gold coins or Prohibition-era liquor, but copper tiles are pretty cool. The internet is curiously vague on the subject of metal wall tiles. There is plenty of information about metal ceiling tiles or tin ceilings as they were called. Fun fact, they weren’t made from tin for very long, but the name stuck. They were made from sheet metal. Tin ceilings gained popularity in the United…

  • wood heart on a window ledge of a stained glass window on the happy list
    happy list

    Happy List: #375

    Hello, welcome to the 375th edition of the Happy List! Whether this is your first or your 375th Happy List, I’m tickled to have you here. This week on the blog I shared the reveal of our refrigerator that we built in with cabinetry. That was a bigger job than we anticipated (they always are), but completely worth it. I also rounded up some of my favorite heart crafts made out of wood! I have a fondness for February because that’s when we got married. Of all the ways you could spend your time, I am so thankful you chose to spend a few minutes here. I enjoy sharing what…

  • DIY rustic wood hearts
    Crafts

    7 Heart Crafts To Make Out of Wood That Aren’t Cheesy

    We are rapidly approaching February, the month of love. But why wait? You can start spreading love around now with these 7 heart crafts made out of wood. These heart crafts will give you all the mushy feelings, but these are not cheesy crafts for kids. They are fun, festive, and a few might even be a bit refined. I think you’ll love them. Here we go… Heart Planters Instead of gifting over-priced cut flowers that will die in a week, gift a plant in a heart-shaped planter that should last longer than a week…as long as someone remembers to water it. I created a free template to use for…

  • old fridge built in to look cabinet ready with custom hinge cover cabinet feet how to customize an old fridge
    decorating,  DIY

    Building In Our Fridge: The Reveal

    It’s reveal day! We’ve been working on building in our fridge and customizing it to make it look panel-ready(ish) and now I get to show you how it looks. It does make me a little insecure to release these photos into the wild because I know this is just one step in a multi-step process of making over our kitchen. There is still more to come as time and budgets allow. I hope you enjoy seeing a transformation over time because that’s what happening here. Here’s the original before photo of the refrigerator. Try to contain your jealousy. Fast forward a few years and we removed some wallpaper, painted, and…

  • old house fireplace with tulips on the mantel on the happy list
    happy list

    Happy List: #374

    Why, hello there! Welcome to this week’s Happy List. I am happy as a clam that you are here! This was Refrigerator Week on the blog. It’s more exciting than it sounds, at least for me. Ha! I wrote about the effort we expended to prep our kitchen to build a cabinet around the fridge. I also wrote about the things we did to customize an old refrigerator to make it look as close to panel-ready (a fridge with cabinet fronts) as possible without actually giving it cabinet fronts. Also, special thanks to Beth at Creatively Beth for featuring not one, but two of my Valentine’s Day crafts on her…

  • building in a fridge 4 ways to customize a fridge 20 year old fridge looks panel ready
    DIY

    Building In Our Fridge: Four Ways To Customize A Fridge

    I’m back with the second installment of building in our fridge. Part 1 was all about the prep work that needed to be done for this project to fix the trim and ready the wall. Now we can get to the building of the actual cabinet and the four ways to customize a fridge that catapulted this project to the next level. There are a million tutorials of how to build a surround or cabinet for your refrigerator. Most of them claim to be “easy.” They may very well be. But that’s not how we do things. Below is the refrigerator that’s getting a glow up as seen in all…

  • building in a fridge to make it look custom and panel ready fridge with wood handles
    DIY

    Building In Our Fridge: The Prep Work Is What Gets You

    When we purchased our home, it came with a perfectly functional older refrigerator in an off-white color. I’m so glad we didn’t replace it because now we have the opportunity to hone our DIY skills while in building in our fridge. Adding a cabinet around a refrigerator so that it looks built-in is not a novel concept. It’s been done millions of times, so this should not require a multipart blog series. But have you met our house? It is the “hold my beer” of houses whenever we want to do something simple and basic like building in our fridge. This house gives us a run for our money and…

  • colonial farmhouse in the snow 2023
    happy list

    Happy List: #373

    Hello and welcome to the first Happy List of 2025! I can see you’re starting the year off right by reading blogs and I, for one, would like to encourage this behavior. Not that I’m biased or anything. This week on the blog I discussed transitioning holiday wreaths to winter wreaths. It’s currently snowing and I’m already craving color, so don’t be surprised if I ditch the winter decor soon for tulips. I also shared how to make a magnetic bulletin board and why we had to make one in the first place. Be glad there are no pictures of the gross before. As always, thank you for being here.…

  • magnetic bulletin board made with sheet metal hung on a stone wall in a gym
    decorating,  DIY

    Make A Magnetic Bulletin Board With Sheet Metal

    I prefer to test out our DIY creations before I share them on the blog and the magnetic bulletin board we made with sheet metal is no exception. It is the second bulletin board we made for our Carriage House Gym and we have put this magnetic bulletin board through its paces to see how it will hold up. If it can survive being hung in a well-used gym with no heating or cooling and some moisture issues (humidity, not sweat – but a little of that too), it can survive your house or business. Why did we make magnetic bulletin board instead of a cork board? First, they are…