Dining room built ins

Hello my friends! How are you? My sister-in-law and nephew have been here all week and this is our last day with them. I’m excited we have a sunny day (I think ALL day) to do something fun!

In celebration of two anniversaries recently – ten years in our home and my blogging anniversary – I’ve been sharing the progress of some of the rooms in our home over the years. By the way, I totally forgot about my blogging anniversary when it hit – six years at the end of May. Whoot!!

I ALWAYS struggled with our dining room. I don’t know why. Part of it was that shortly after we moved in I marched myself to the furniture store and bought a complete set of dining furniture. I liked it OK – but I wasn’t madly in love with it. I just wanted to fill the space. Now I know better and would wait it out, but you know how that goes.

Long ago I added molding to the walls (with Liquid Nails! No.) and jazzed up the ceiling:

I also recovered the seats of the chairs almost immediately to add some color to the room. It was very beige/brown.

You’ll see here that this was my gold and red phase as well. Ah yes…

I still wanted some more contrast so I changed up the drapes and added a solid red to the bottom:

Then things just got crazy and I painted the whole room (the entire. room.) brown:

You know, looking back, I don’t hate it. It was dramatic and pretty – I say you can go dramatic in two rooms safely – the powder room and the dining room. Or all the rooms, it’s your house.

I always struggled with the fact that this room opened up to our two story living room so I just added a piece of trim down the wall to separate them. Probably a major design crime but you know, I like to live on the edge.

But the thing is…it was DARK. Shocking, I know!:

I didn’t mind it much till we had new floors put down after a water issue. Then it was positively cave-like. Dark on every surface in the room and I couldn’t take it anymore.

A new idea formed in my head over time that I talked about here. I was tired of not using this space. I wanted to make it more functional and change up how we used it.

So the DIY built ins began:

You can see the synopsis of how my Dad and I built them here. It wasn’t hard, just time consuming. It took me forever to get them finished – eight months total I believe.

I had a design in my head all those months of thinking about it and a big part of that design was lights at the top of the bookcases. It took months to find something that was affordable but I finally found what I wanted in the outdoor section:

And now…I love it. This room is one of my favorites in our home.

I could not be more pleased with how it turned out:

It’s been about a year and a half since they were finished and they are holding up great. I’m really proud of Dad and I for tackling it. :)

Funny thing is, the plan all along was to put a coffee table and four chairs in here, but we moved our old kitchen table in here a year or so ago and it’s become my husband’s office in the summer months:

He has a basement office but can’t stand to be down there without natural light in the summer. So although his stuff laying around kind of drives me batty, I love that we’re actually using it. Many of you have suggested adding a more casual table back in here and the idea is growing on me. Plus, finding four matching (comfy) upholstered chairs is so dang expensive!

I can’t forget the other view of the dining area – it’s really more of a landing/hallway of sorts. I found this before shot of our stairs that I didn’t know I had:

And I showed you this more recent after here:

Such a difference! (Here’s the how to on pulling the carpet off of stairs.)

Many of you have asked how much I spent on the built ins and I’m not positive of the cost because we did them over such a long time. The kitchen cabinet bases were $320 total and the butcher block from IKEA was $130. I’m guessing we put in another $150-200 in trim and wood (I used basic pine wood for the actual bookcases). And the lights came to $140. So a rough estimate is about $750-800 for 12 feet of built ins.

I would have paid three times that to have them done. Easily.

So there’s a look back at what is now one of my favorite spaces in our home! It was one of my problem children before though. :)

Do you have a dining room? Do you use it? Have you considered changing up how it’s used?

P.S. Check out my tips on decorating bookcases in this post.

Have a great weekend!

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Fireflies in the trees

So I’ve wanted to do this little project for the longest time, and I finally got the courage up this weekend. It involved one little part that totally had me intimidated.

I’ve always wanted to hang DIY glass lanterns along the trees in our backyard – I’ve seen it done with mason jars and regular jars and I’ve planned to do it for years. But I knew it would mean I’d have to drill a hole in the bottom of the glass to do it.

Otherwise they will fill up with rain water and I’d have to dump them regularly and I know myself and myself would never do that. So they’d become little mosquito breeding grounds and those guys like me enough as it is.

SO. I knew all along I’d need to drill holes in them to avoid mosquito production and my well being. :) I finally bit the bullet and just did it this weekend. My original plan was to use mason jars, but I didn’t want to put a hole in the ones I have because I use them quite a bit during the fall and holidays. So I took a trip to Goodwill, where I’ve gotten EVERY ONE of my mason jars over the years, and they had none. None!! Well, I did find one itty bitty baby one marked at a dollar, which just annoyed me so I put it back.

You know how I feel about Goodwill prices lately. :)

So I was just going to use food jars and wire, but then while shopping the other day I found some super cute mason jar versions for $2.99 each (Kirklands). For that price it was worth it to just get them instead of DIYing – they had cute wire already and everything. They are SO much cuter than a jar too!

Here’s what I ended up needing to drill the holes:

The drill bit gets hot so you need to have water near the spot you’re drilling. You can do that by just pouring it constantly, but you need three hands to do that. (Or you can stop constantly to pour.) I found the easiest way was to fill a bucket just higher than the height of the jar.

I picked up a drill bit just for this, and it was pricey at $18, but I know I’ll use it for other things in the future. There are two types of glass cutting bits:

I used the one on the left. From my understanding you won’t be able to use these on tempered glass, so don’t try it on that. (It just won’t work.)

Getting started was the hardest part. I was seriously wondering if I’d be able to even do this because the bit kept skidding all over the place. You need to start at an angle at first, not flat – so the bit can get a grip on the glass.

This pic was a little later when I had straightened it out a bit more, but it gives you an idea of how I did it in the bucket.

Once you get that grip it’s easy, but that’s the hard part:

Those half moon shapes are where I started. Once you get those going you can straighten out the bit and put it straight down:

By the way – use gloves, eye protection and if you are not doing this in a bucket of water, I’d use a mask as well. With the water there was no need for that.

OH, and use a cordless drill. No water and electricity please. :)

When you get the bit going it’s not bad at all – you just have to be patient. You don’t want to push too hard, just let the bit do it’s thing. I’d say each time took about 30-45 seconds of drilling once I got a good grip:

Here’s what you’re left with:

I got overconfident by my fourth one and pushed too hard:

Nice. I was pushing the drill too hard and it pushed through. So just be patient! Patience is really not my thing.

I seems intimidating but honestly it wasn’t bad at all. Having the glass under water was a huge help because I wasn’t worried about the bit getting hot or glass flying everywhere. Overall it was actually kind of a cool DIY.

I’ve had little indoor/outdoor tea lights from IKEA for a about a year for this project:

By the way, I used the wire from the jar that broke to make another lantern with a jar from the fridge. :)

I hung them from the trees along the back:

And waited for the sun to go down:

I have these tea lights in white and yellow and love the yellow out there – I feel like they look more like fireflies or something. :)

I can’t find the lights online at IKEA though. I hope they still carry them because I want more:

Now I want to do this along the whole length of the yard – how pretty!:

I want them everywhere. ALL THE JARS.

Of course we have to turn on each light but that’s no biggie –- we won’t use these every night. I’m pretty much in love with them though:

I’ll be making more but will be raiding the fridge for jars to the do the rest.

I love how they turned out and love that they’ll have very little upkeep – I’ll probably have to clean them every month or so, but they are secure (I made sure not to hang them too close to each other so they won’t bang together during storms) and will drain easily.

I knocked two things off my list – a project I’ve been wanting to do forever and a DIY that I’ve always been too intimidated to attempt. :) Here me roar.

The possibilities are endless now that I know how to drill through glass. Have you ever tried it? I’ve seen tutorials on cutting wine bottles and that looks interesting as well.

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Butcher block in the kitchen

Hello all, hope your weekend was great!! Oh my goodness – we had a blast at the mud run. It was SO intense though – it had rained five days up to it so the course was 95 percent mud up to your mid-calf. It was insane. Many of the ladies lost shoes and socks and it took us almost two hours to get through the three mile course…but we did it. :)

So Sunday I was pretty much toast. I laid on the couch most of the day but did get a small DIY project done. We’ve had our butcher block counter on the island for nearly four years now and it’s held up GREAT. I don’t know if I’ve shared this process before, but it never hurts to show it again since I know there are a lot of questions about butcher in the kitchen.

First up, I have to say I LOVE having the wood on the island. It did worry me a bit at first – the first few weeks I was extra careful with it. Now? I put anything on it. I’m finding I love it more with the little cuts and dings. It’s incredibly easy to keep up. I rarely have any stains or issues – I think there’s only two times that I’ve had a mark on it and both times were from paint cans:

I left a small can on there for a few days and it left that mark. But I’ve had juice, wine…anything else you can think of on there and it wipes right off. I’ll share why in a minute, but first my process for dealing with any marks.

This only takes me a few minutes because it’s just the island and the wood is not stained. I used a 220 grit sandpaper:

And my favorite sander:

I love this sander for two reasons – it keeps most of the dust in the little container (last time I did this with another sander the kitchen was covered in a layer of dust). And it doesn’t leave the little swirl sanding marks that others I’ve tried did. If I don’t sand properly it still does it occasionally, but nothing like I’ve had in the past! If I take my time and do it right I never get them. :)

Again, this just took me a few minutes -- I wiped it down after with a wet towel after sanding and then let it dry well.

I use Formby’s Tung Oil to seal up the wood (on recommendation from my Dad):

It has worked incredibly well! I usually reoil about once a year – if that. And I don’t always sand it down first (I only did this time because of that paint can mark). Usually I just clean the top and then apply one or two more coats.

It takes a couple minutes to apply – just use a clean white rag (with gloves on) and wipe it in:

  

It needs to dry 12 hours and they say to buff with fine steel wool and then do another coat. I kind of cheat – I don’t sand it down again, I just put another coat on. :)

I did the first yesterday evening before we left for a movie, I’ll do another coat tonight before bed:

I wasn’t sure I’d like the more natural finish all those years ago, but now I LOVE it. It helps to lighten things up with our dark cabinets.

Butcher block for a kitchen island can get really pricey! I got mine from IKEA for less than $200 but I’ve heard they don’t sell this size anymore? That would be a major bummer because I’m always thrilled with their butcher and this is a fantastic option.

I had a local woodworking place router the pretty edge on there for an added detail:

I have zero complaints when it comes to this countertop – there is a little bit of maintenance but it’s maybe once a year that you need to oil it up again. It’s probably been longer than that since I last did it.

If you have them stained then the care will be different. I’ve seen Waterlox used a lot on stained counters but Tung oil may be fine over stain as well. I used a poly over my stained butcher block in the dining room and mud room but those get very little wear and tear. If you like the natural look this oil is great option to seal up counters from stains and liquids and it’s incredibly easy to apply.

Do you love the look of butcher block counters? Could you have them throughout your whole kitchen? I’m considering it!

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Making waves

Hello my friends! First of all, thanks for all the suggestions on my last post! I’m checking out all the links for the rugs. You guys rock! I’m back with a quick little project I finally finished up for my son’s bathroom. I shared my plans for this room a few weeks ago and your comments were so helpful as always! I’m looking into a window for the room right now. I have to special order the size I want but I found someone to put it in. SO excited.

The rest of the big plans will come later, but for now I want to at least do a few little things to start updating the space. My boy is a baby no more and he needs a slightly more mature space. The little leap frogs must go.

CRY. WAIL.

I found a ship’s wheel at HomeGoods years ago – knowing the direction I wanted to go in this room even back then. It’s been sitting under his sink for all those years. I actually forgot about it till I cleaned out the cabinet late last year. Awesome.

I held it up on the wall and it felt a little sparse all by itself, so I decided to add a little somethin’ behind it. It started with some scrap wood in the garage – don’t they all? I don’t throw wood away and this is why.

I cut it down to 24 by 24 inches using my jigsaw. I’m horrible at cutting straight lines but I’m getting a bit better. To get a good line to follow, I measure my distance every few inches along the wood, then use something long and straight (like scrap wood) to make my line:

 

If I take my time I can get a fairly straight line with the jigsaw:

Not perfect like a table saw would cut, but decent. This is why they invent wonderful things like caulk. :)

This is more of a particle board than a nice finished wood but it’s all I had in the right size, so to smooth it out a bit I sanded it down and then used some spackle to fill in the bigger divots:

I didn’t fill everything because I didn’t mind it having a slight texture. After another sanding it was ready for primer and paint. I did one coat of primer and two coats of the almost white color I used in the mud room. It has a ever-so-slight grey undertone to it but if you just look at it, it looks white. I’m planning on using this color in the bathroom since I have some leftover.

I wanted to add some fun so I picked one of the FrogTape® Shape Tape™ options to use. I haven’t used the wave design yet and I thought the bathroom would be the perfect place! I started by putting the first length of the tape right in the middle of the board. Then I measured about two inches down for each one, but I wasn’t crazy particular about it:

The goal was to make them the same distance from both the top and the bottom.

I made sure to press the tape down really well – I was a little nervous about this wood and it’s rough texture and potential seepage. After it was sealed well I gave it a few coats of a blue color I’m hoping to use on the vanity in the bathroom. Usually I like to pull up my tape when the paint is wet, but when you have to do multiple coats you just have to wait it out. It’s SO hard to wait to see how the lines look! :)

Thankfully they were PERFECT!:

I added some lattice wood around the edges as a “frame” of sorts and then laid the whole thing on the floor to see where I wanted the wheel to sit on the board:

And I LOVED it! So preppy, so fresh! Love that blue too, it’s a definite for the vanity.

Here it’s hung with a nail but I later went back and put a little cleat on the back of the wheel instead. That nail was bugging me. Details. :)

I went ahead and painted the one wall (the wall I may knock down much later) and was surprised at how much better it looked without all that yellow. The yellow tone wasn’t doing any favors without any natural light in there.

I hung the wheel on that wall and it was a perfect fit!:

I just think it’s adorable, really. The waves totally make it.

Have you done any fun projects like this lately? This one will set the tone for the whole room – now I can’t wait to get started!

Have a GREAT weekend folks!

 

P.S. The annual Earn Your Stripes™ painting contest is going on now! If you are interested in entering a project, check out all the details here. The projects last year were AMAZING. And all entries will receive a roll of Shape Tape! :) Fun stuff.

I received compensation to complete this project for using FrogTape® products but use them anyway. :) All opinions, projects and ideas are based on my own experience.

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Desk do over

Hello all! Hope your weekend and holiday was wonderful! Our Easter ended up being a lot more low key than we planned and it was great! My boy played outside pretty much all day long yesterday and it was fabulous – this is the weather we’ve been waiting for!

So the project I’m sharing today was frustrating – sometimes you put a lot of time into something and it ends up not working. Well, it may work great – but it just isn’t what you envisioned. It’ll make more sense in a bit. :)

I mentioned last week that I’d like a smaller desk in my office. We have a couple options in the house that I thought would work as a replacement – I tried the first and it was way too big (too long). The second was this small desk I got from HomeGoods years back:

In that spot it was mostly decorative – you can tell by the height of the chair that there wasn’t a lot of leg room there to sit. The desk was low and the middle section was in the way. I tried a couple different chairs and that one is actually the only one low enough for it – the desk just isn’t made to function I guess? (Which I didn’t realize till getting hit home and taking off all the tags, of course.) Weird.

So I pulled it into the office to see if I liked the size. It’s about half the width of my current table and I LOVED how it opened up the space. I actually placed it at an angle in the room and loved how it looked in there.

But as I mentioned, I couldn’t really sit at it. So I did some checking – first to see how much I would need to raise the desk to make it work for me. Then I looked at the legs closer and figured out that everything came off easily – the feet first, then the cross bars:

Then I was able to take the legs off as well. This was going so well! :)

I ran to the hardware store and grabbed a 2 1/2 by 2 1/2 board – when I got home I cut it down to size and installed it on the bottom of the desk:

Then I reinstalled these little doodads that the legs screwed into:

I was making a mess, as you can see. :)

So far so good – it was actually going fast and easy and I put the legs back on and the height was great!

Little issue. When I sit at my desk I rarely sit with two legs on the floor. I pull them up and tuck them under, or sit criss cross, whatever – I LOVE to have my legs up. Because of that I need extra space under the desk that normally wouldn’t be needed. My current table/desk works great because it has a small apron that doesn’t get in the way of my legs.

I tried sitting at the desk as it was but couldn’t handle not being able to pull my legs up. It’s my thing I guess. So…plan B happened. It got ugly before it got better:

I cut the middle section away with a jigsaw (it was just thin particle board) – not all the way back, but enough for my legs to be able to fit in. The photo above was a rough cut – I evened it all out and then used some small trim molding to cover up the rough edges.

It actually worked out great! I wanted to paint the desk anyway so these changes weren’t any big deal. The painting is where things went downhill. ;)

We took it outside so I could spray paint it – with all the detail on the legs and the grooves in the top I knew that would be the best option. I sanded it down lightly first, then spray primed it, then started painting the final color.

I loved my navy blue lamps in the master bedroom so much, I figured a navy blue desk would look great. My office is light but I thought having more of a statement in the desk would work.

It did not. :)

I didn’t even take pics of it in the room – we put it in there and I had to pull it back out immediately. HATED it. Don’t hate the desk, hate in in the room:

Did I mention I ran to the hardware store ten minutes before closing to get more spray paint cause I ran out? And then the color didn’t even work. GAH. (I wasn’t 100 percent sold on it outside in the sun but thought it would look different inside.)

And the spray paint covered really crappy. It can get a cloudy look if you don’t apply it just so – this was user error though. When you’re painting smaller projects this won’t happen as badly because it’s easier to get good coverage. With larger furniture it’s hard to get it just right.

Thing is, both the new height and the cut out turned out great, and I love how the changes look!:

The color is just all kinds of wrong. :) I actually like the navy on the desk, I just think it needs to be a deeper blue.

I’m determined to use it somewhere though – I have a couple spots in mind for it as is (I’ll touch up the uneven spray paint if it works). If I don’t like the blue I’ll be painting it, again. :)

One thing I’ve learned – I’ll need to stick with the table-as-desk idea, for the way I work…err, sit. I’ve been searching on Craigslist here and there for months and haven’t found anything that would work.

Something like this on a smaller scale would be ideal:

I’ve been thinking lately I could just DIY something, since the size I want is so specific:

(source)

And then I came across this small table from IKEA:

It’s a little plain but only $40 and the perfect size. I think I’m leaning towards making something though. We will see!

All I know is the desk will NOT be navy blue. :) Live and learn. Most of the time I put into this project was spray painting – extending the legs only took about 30 minutes.

All in all not a complete waste, so I can’t be too bummed about it. For now I continue to sit at my gigantor table/desk in my office with my legs crossed. :)

Have you had any projects that didn’t turn out the way you envisioned? I happens to all of us at some point! Were you able to salvage it?

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