Drawer Revamp!

I am a bit of a nut.  I really really like to organize.  This isn't to say that I am super organized, but the idea of it all just calls to me.  When I was little, my parents would tell me to clean my room, and I would always start by emptying out my toybox and organizing it.  It drove them NUTS, but I couldn't stand having the floor and whatnot clean if the toybox was just going to be a mess.  Anyone else like that?

Anyways, I've been working through some residual nesting lately.  It's weird.  Maybe because I'm home all day, staring at the house, coming up with improvements that need to be made.  Or maybe it's because I return to work in less than a month, and I feel a sense of urgency to tie up any loose ends at home.  Regardless of the reason, it is causing me to spend way too much time on Pinterest. 

So here is one of the sights that has been staring me in the face.

Shriek!

Yup.  That's the drawer that holds all the spatulas and other kitchen what-nots.  Good luck finding anything in there. 

While I was still pregnant with Nora, around the time that "we" (ahem, Doug) redid her closet, I found this gem on Pinterest from www.bystephanielynn.com . We purchased the materials months ago, but never got around to it.

Until now.

Doug's so handy.  He made the insert so that it was removable.  Good idea, Doug!

"And I helped!" I put shelf liner in all the drawers this weekend.  I love the pop of color it adds! 

Squeeee! Lookit.  Lookit all the organizy-ness.

"A place for everything, and everything in its place." And then in that place, have more places for the things.

Hmm.  The store-bought attempt at organization.  Would slide all around the drawer.

Better than nothing, BUT...

For the win!!!

Maybe we should make one for this junk drawer? 

Well, there you have it.  I keep opening the drawers to see how pretty they are.  Maybe I'll just leave them open all the time now.  Oh, and last time we did a kitchen project, we were adding the hardware to the cabinets and drawers.  We were in the middle of the project when we got a phone call from the doctor saying we were pregnant!  Every time I touch a handle or knob in that kitchen, I'm reminded of that day.  (Ok, enough of the mushy stuff.  Go organize your drawers!)

Latest DIY Project: Rug Rack

A couple of years back, Karl (Amanda's Step-Dad) gifted us a beautiful Navajo Rug.   We were very excited to display it, but 2 problems persisted.  The first problem was the smell of mothballs.  The rug had been stored in a barrel, from the time Karl's family closed their trading post many years ago.  The other problem was that we had no way of hanging it.  We tried to buy a rug hanger, but they were very expensive, and not really the style we wanted.  The only other option was to design my own!  

So after a couple of years of airing out the mothball smell, I embarked on a journey to make my own rug hanger.  With the help of Amanda's uncle Pat's router and miter saw and my ingenuity I completed the task.   

Routering the front design.  On the back side I routered where the rug would be pinched between an aluminum bar and the wood.

Completed front design!

Drilling the aluminum pinch bar!  This will get wrapped in a heavy duty cloth and then attached to the wood.

Side-view of the final design!

Decided to stain the rug rack Classic grey, because it would match the rug nicely.

First layer of stain complete

Finished product!  I think it turned out really nice.  Oh, yes i am bragging.

Thanks Karl, for the beautiful art addition to our home!

Updating the Bathroom Mirror

Lately on Pinterest, I've been seeing a lot of tutorials for framing builder-grade mirrors in bathrooms.  This is something I had heard of years ago, but had never seen, and certainly had not attempted.

The mirror in our bathroom didn't bother me too much.  It was nice and big, and reflective (a quality I see as a "must" in a mirror).  However, there was a lot of water damage on the bottom of the mirror, which I had always seen as an eyesore.

Before

Before

A close-up of the water damage.  Ew.

So, with Pinterest and its access to tutorials, we decided to tackle this project.  Here are the links to the tutorials that helped me: http://www.thehouseofsmiths.com/2010/04/framed-mirror.html and http://impatientlyprayingforpatience.blogspot.com/2010/05/mirror-frame-tutorial.html

First we measured, cut, and put the frame together.  And when I say "we", I of course mean "Doug".

Measuring like a boss!

You know he's serious, because he is closing one eye.

  Then "we" applied some wood glue to hold it together.  Didn't read the blog very carefully, which said to use Liquid Nails, so it didn't hold very well.  Doug put some staples in the corners to strengthen it.

Glue time!

After that, Doug notched out the areas for the brackets that hold the mirror in place.  We had a bit of a scare, because the ones on top were peeking out of the top of the frame!  Luckily, Doug discovered that the mirror is completely glued to the wall, and the brackets were really unnecessary.  So he took them off.  Problem solved!

After the glue had dried, Doug used wood-filler for the seams and any imperfections in the wood.  Then we let it dry.

After this, we spray-painted the back black, and took it into the bathroom for a test run.  Yuck.  I liked the black frame in the tutorial, but it just looked wrong in our bathroom.  So we decided to go with white instead.  We just used some primer and paint that we already had.

Yuck.  We didn't like that either, because the countertop is more like an off-white, and so it just looked dirty.

So we took one final trip to Home Depot, and we found a grey that matched the towels in our bathroom.  And painted it ONE more time...

SUCCESS!  So we put the mirror up and traced inside of it with chapstick to see where the glue should go.  Then we took the Mirror Liquid Nails and put some gobs on the mirror.  Then we stuck it on...and prayed.  We taped it down with some painter's tape, and Doug rigged up some other ways of keeping it in place.

We used quarters as spacers, as we couldn't put it right up against the wall because the vanity is crooked.

Tape

Just to be safe.

The next day, we took the tape off, and voila!  I think it looks sooo good!  It really seems to finish the bathroom, and make it look more grown up!  If nothing else, it covers the nasty water stains.

The finished product!  And a handsome photographer!

Ta-da!

After, yo!

So that's it!  We feel so proud of our work, and ready to tackle the next project!  Well, actually we have tackled two more, so we'll blog about those soon too!

Bathroom Remodel

We have lived in this house for nearly 4 years.  When we bought it, it was nearly completely move-in ready, but we have done a few little projects here and there.  Doug was off of work on July 4, and we decided to finally fix up the master bathroom.  It was not a complete remodel or anything, but we think it looks fresh, and more grown-up.  Here are the "before" pics:

Ugh.  Those rugs had no backing, so they were always shifting and bunching up.  No bueno.

Of course the bathroom had to be messy when we took the "before" pics!  It makes the transformation much more impressive!

Not hideous or anything; just time for a change!

 During...

Yeah, this is attractive...

After...

Looks so much cozier!   We added handles to the cabinetry.  And the rug has GRIP and won't move unless we want it to! :)  The next thing we want to do is frame the mirror with crown moulding.  And eventually, we'd like to paint or stain the cabinets, but I'm not sure I have the guts to tackle that!

I love the wall color, and it coordinates with our bedspread in the room, so it really ties everything in.  We still want to change the light fixture, but the electrical box is not centered, so it will be a big project.  

We switched the towel bar out for hooks and put Disneyland silhouettes above them for a "His and Hers" look.  We've wanted to do this since we went to Disneyland 3 years ago!

Blah.  Maybe we'll put in some corner shelves here, and a corner hamper.  But one thing at a time!

 We are really happy with how it turned out.  We are so indecisive; it took us forever to decide on a paint color.  But once we figured that out, it really only took a day!  We had fun spending time together doing this project.  And the best thing about it is that I want to keep the bathroom so much cleaner because I love how it looks, lol! 

Kitchen Lighting Remodel

Ok, so Doug and I are weird about weird things.  The other day, we were talking with our friends about how we don't like the fluorescent light in the kitchen.  Minutes later, we heard a loud "pop", and the light went out.  We went to buy a ballast, and then discovered that the ballast in that particular fixture could not be removed, and we would have to buy a whole new fixture.  (Insert frowny-face.) 

Before=Blah.

So, we decided we would just buy a regular light fixture, rather than the commercial-looking fluorescent light.  That just looked wayyy too dim, even for a temporary solution.  It reminded me of the kitchen in "A Christmas Story"--too dim.  So we decided to go for it--recessed lighting! 

The temporary solution...and racing stripes!  Can you spy Doug's finger?

Recessed lighting was the plan all along, but we were thinking we would do it later on.  We weren't even sure if we could get in the attic above the kitchen.  Well, Doug crawled right on up there, no problem!  He did a lot of research, and figured out how to do it himself.  I did my best to help. 
      

Up in the Attic

The hardest part was mapping it out.  We drew it all out on graph paper.  Then we cut out dots to make sure we liked the layout on the ceiling. 

Dots

Then we put coat hangers into the ceiling where they would go, so that he could see the location of the lights from in the attic.

Coathangers come in handy!

That's when he discovered that a gas line goes right through where we wanted to put our middle lights.  So we had to adjust. 

We got our plans finalized.  Then came the scary part--cutting! 

Peek-a-Boo!

But it worked out ok, and all the lights are now in their new homes.  It turned out quite lovely.  What do you think?

AFTER!

Classy?  I say yes!

"New" chairs!

Ok, so I got a wild hair and decided to re-cover my kitchen chairs. Well, actually, we have never liked the fabric on the chairs and we have been meaning to cover them for almost 6 years. Last night was the night. I got the idea from this blog, which is going to get me into a lot of trouble: http://makeitandloveit.blogspot.com/

Anyways, here are the pics:
BEFORE: Ho-hum.

Yuck! Even though I've cleaned these, I cannot believe how nasty they are!

Naked Chair!

Taking off the old fabric:

SO MANY STAPLES!

We used the old fabric as a template...

So like most projects I start, Doug got dragged into it. Well, I think he just wanted to play with his new staple gun!


Here's a closeup of the fabric. I love the coral!

The finished product! Wowsa!


For comparison's sake...