DIY
Kitchen Refresh Part 5: Backsplash Dilemma
Free time is a precious commodity. Am I right? That’s why it pains me to think about the amount of time I’ve spent online searching for backsplash inspiration. It really is ridiculous. I’m really surprised I haven’t dreamed about backsplashes since they are top-of-mind lately. I want a backsplash option that isn’t permanent and isn’t expensive. Shouldn’t be too hard, right? My first choice was to use Smart Tiles since I’d heard about them from somewhere. I can’t hold the “where” part in my feeble mind. My heart was set on trying out their peel and stick backsplash tiles. It sounded like just my kind of project! Looks like real tile, right? It’s not!…
Kitchen Refresh Part 4: Unexpected Kindness
I am still making headway on the kitchen. As of last night, I had FINALLY finished sanding the remaining 5 cabinet doors. That means I only have the cabinet frames on one section to sand down and then we’ll be in the home stretch! Considering that it took 35 minutes to sand this ONE SINGLE door front and back, I will be happy to be done with the down and dirty sanding phase of this project. Oh, and I wasn’t messing around. I used 40 grit sandpaper to get through a billion and one layers of paint on this door and it still took that long. Then I had to go back…
Kitchen Refresh Part 3: Be Prepared For Anything
I didn’t make as much progress on the kitchen last week as I wanted to. Apparently real life can’t stop for labor-intensive DIY projects. Say what? Plus, the labor-intensive part of this project multiplied a little this week. Haha! Joke’s on me! If I haven’t said it before, I will say it now. (And I will use some all-caps typing to drive home my point.) When you are doing ANYTHING to an older home be prepared for ANYTHING to happen. Seriously. There are all sorts of crazy things hiding behind the walls of your home just waiting for you to open them up. Then they jump out and yell “GOTCHA.” So,…
Coatrack from a Wine Bar
Before we had kids we spent money on things like furniture instead of nerf guns and Pokemon. It was so long ago, I barely remember. At least we purchased some long-lasting pieces that I still love like this wine bar cabinet from Pier 1. We use the piece, but not to hold wine. That goes in the wine fridge. 😉 The back of the cabinet had a wood ledge on hinges that you could push up to act like a real “bar” area if people wanted to sit there while you poured a drink from the other side. That never happened. The wine cabinet has always been pushed up against the wall and…
Kitchen Refresh – Part 2
I made a little bit of progress on the kitchen project this weekend. I always seem to invite friends over when I’m smack-dab in the middle of a project. “Hey! I ripped my kitchen apart! Come over for a BBQ!” Good friends don’t judge. They just bring wine. So, that meant there was more fun, but less work happening! Not really a bad thing, in my opinion! If you recall, I said we were going to try a few different methods of getting our cabinets ready to paint. We started on the bottom half of the cabinetry because I had a plan in place for that section. The plan for…
Kitchen Refresh – The Beginning
I considered calling this post “Putting Lipstick on a Pig,” but I thought that would confuse the Google search algorithm. Our kitchen needs a major gut job. What it’s going to get is a little glamour session. Is it warped that I’m slightly more excited to see how little or much we can transform a space with just elbow grease and minimal dollars spent? Probably. #noapologies So, this is the disaster I’m working with: I’ve actually seen worse. I’m sure I’ve lived with worse. At a minimum, the plan is to paint the cabinets and figure out some sort of backsplash, since there is no backsplash to speak of. I’ve already…
Turning a Tub/Shower into a Closet Without Damage
Yes, you read that right. We turned a tub/shower combo into a closet of sorts without damaging the shower surround. Why, why, why? Don’t you people like to take showers? That might be what you are wondering. Fair question. For the record, 50% of us like to take showers. The other 50% of us seem to be content having dirty feet and faces, but their parents make them take daily showers/baths anyway. Here’s the real reason we’ve made this journey down the creative, DIY rabbit hole. Our new house is an older home with terrible storage, as is normal for older homes. We don’t have a coat closet. What we…
Pottery Barn Inspired Farmhouse Bed – Update One Year Later
Last year we made a Pottery Barn Knock-Off Farmhouse Bed. It still makes my heart go pitter-patter. Now that we’ve moved (more on that when I can find my camera cord), I thought it would be a good time to update you on the “state of the bed” and what we’ve learned. It’s actually a couple of months shy of being a full year since we made this bed. I mentioned at the time of my original post that this bed is made of all wood and is heavy. I cannot emphasize the word HEAVY enough here. If you EVER plan on moving again, please take this into account before…
Lego Table
I have kids. Therefore, I have tiny plastic bricks laying around the house causing parental foot injuries. It may also be the source of all the bad words my children know. “Oh, fu-dgesicle!” “Shiiii-take mushrooms!” It’s no wonder I have a picky eater. Meme Credit: Meme Center A couple of months ago I came downstairs in the dark. I knew my son had left his precious Lego creations on the floor. Heaven forbid that half firehouse-half motorcycle creation gets broken when put back in the storage bin! Anyway, my first step went so well and I continued to navigate through the area with ease. I had a momentary surge of pride that…
Potting Shed, Part 2
Someone is ready for spring planting! Spoiler alert: It’s not me! Before the end of 2014, I posted about my stepmom’s new potting shed. By new, I mean they just built it, but most of the materials are salvaged or repurposed for the space. So, totally new, right? Ha! Isn’t it charming? Let’s go inside! The beam work you see on the outside of the building is carried through to the inside. I’m not the only one drooling over those beams, right? That sliding door sections off an area that will be used for storage. Fun fact! This wood door used to be the front door to our house before the home…
