A Story About a Sad and Neglected Cabinet Door

In February and March I was busy working on several projects, and was really finding my niche at "upcycling" old scraps into new pieces for our home. 

Many of you may remember my growth chart project. It started off as scrap piece of wood that I paid $1.00 for, and turned into a great way to track our little family's growth!

I started by filling up the holes with wood putty in hopes that it would even out the plank.

Then I sanded it down and gave it a nice smooth finish. I also asked Rob to saw it down to size for me (6 feet). 

Then I stained it a rich walnut color and added the blocks and numbers, yet it was looking too "clean." I was going for a distressed look, but I have never distressed anything before so I was pretty nervous! They say you never learn unless you try, and I was amazed at how simple it was to distress this piece!

Now let's talk about my sad and neglected cabinet door. My friend, Casey, had made an awesome after-school schedule for her kids on her chalkboard. I loved the idea, and wanted to replicate it... but I didn't have a chalkboard. While I was at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, this little gem spoke to me. I'm sure Rob thinks I'm schizophrenic by now because I keep telling him that all of this "junk" speaks to me, haha! But I was willing to sacrifice another two dollars to see just what this door could do for me.

This was one of those projects that I started right before we bought a house. Then we decided to take on a whole home renovation, and this little dude got pushed to the side. But this week was its glory week and it is looking mighty fine since I bought him a couple of months ago!

  

After removing the hardware and giving it a good sanding, I painted a couple layers of chalkboard paint on it. It still looked very "unfinished" so I went digging through our garage. Thankfully, our moving company thought our art was worthy enough to be crated in custom-made wooden crates, so we had a bunch of scrap wood left over that we had been using for firewood. (For the record, all of our "art" is from TJmaxx, Ross, or IKEA- I don't think I paid over $50 for any of it!) I salvaged 4 pieces and Rob and I made a frame for my poor cabinet. Then it sat in our garage for 3 months....

After giving it some fresh paint this week, gluing the frame to the cabinet, and adding an old drawer pull for the chalk... we have an awesome new addition to our kitchen! 

  

The kid's chore charts will go up there after we get back from our vacation, and I can't wait to put their after school schedule on the board. (Only because that means they will be back in school and not driving me crazy everyday! haha!) 

I'll be on a little DIY hiatus for a couple of weeks, but I'm sure I will have warm & sunny pictures to share with you when I come back! 

Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay

Ok, so I'm not sitting on the dock of the bay. However, I was sitting on not-so-pretty bar stools. They weren't bad, just... plain. Why be plain, when you can be beautiful? That is exactly why our bar stools got a makeover today. Thanks to a great sale at JOANN's, this little project only cost me five bucks!

Before: A mediocre plain Jane chair in need of some love!

After: Voila! Amazing what a little bit of fabric and a nail gun can do :) 

Baby Room Sneak Peak!

Before Lucas was born we purchased a set of secondhand baby furniture. I remember being elated that I could finally have a complete "set" of furniture, and I easily overlooked the bits of water damage that were on the changing table. 

After 4 moves and toddler wear-and-tear, his old furniture was looking a little rough. I looked into buying something new for our princess, but let's face it.... I have expensive taste, and with a complete house renovation I decided I would give my hand at refinishing furniture. 

Had this furniture been solid wood, it wouldn't have been such a challenge. Unfortunately for me it's high-quality MDF. From my experience you can lightly sand good MDF, but don't expect to get water damage marks off of the furniture because it will crumble!

This is the changing table that I've been working on. I had already removed the back, normally it isn't see-through!

And this is the water damage that I have been referring to. After attempting (and miserably failing) to sand it  down, I realized I needed a plan B. I googled my problem, and several people had recommended using KILZ over the affected area, and then sanding it down. Since I had already tried sanding it after painting the area with a primer + paint, I decided I needed a plan C. Out of the pure genius of my own head (haha!) and with the help of my crafty husband, we placed a thin sheet of oak wood on top of the dresser. 

I instantly fell in love with this piece of furniture again! 

We glued it down with wood glue, then placed blocks of cement on it over night. In order to make it look like one unit again, I used paintable silicone caulking around the edges. 

After some more paint, and patiently waiting for Rob to get some help to carry it inside, I finally get to begin nesting!

I am enamored over my what-feels-like-new furniture! Now I only have to paint her crib and the large closet that comes with this set, ha ha :) 

Laundry Room Makeover

Time for another before and after post! The laundry room was the first room that I tackled in the house. I thought it would be a great way to ease my way into our massive renovation, but it was much more work than I had anticipated. 

The beautiful olive green was the same color as in the boy's bathroom, and it took me three coats to paint over it. Additionally, the built in cabinets (awesome storage!) hadn't seen paint in years, so they received a good sanding and fresh paint as well. The small shelf under the cabinets didn't seem functional, so I removed that and filled the massive holes it left behind. Although a fire extinguisher is very convenient to have, I didn't think it needed to be displayed by the garage door so it found a new home. 

Furthermore, the fluorescent lighting quickly made a departure from our laundry room, and will eventually provide extra lighting in the garage. Lastly, the trim received some TLC too!

No, I hadn't sanded the baseboards before snapping this photo- they came complete with 20 years of wear and tear!

I love IKEA, and am so happy my husband is crafty enough to hang their lighting! I love the crisp, clean light this lamp provides. 

The white rectangle on the wall is a fold-out ironing board. I do iron on a weekly basis, but I'll keep my large ironing board in front of the TV instead :) Removing it would create a massive hole in the wall, so it will stay put.

And the (almost) finished product! Our front load washer and dryer are a bit larger than the standard machines they had 20 years ago when the house was built, so unfortunately they take up quite a bit of space. We also replaced the plexi-glass around the utility sink for splashes (we tend to have a lot of those when cleaning paint brushes and rollers!). {Side note: There is quite a bit more light in the room than this picture shows, I'm simply too tired to edit or retake the picture!}

Memorial Day 2013

Memorial Day weekend we headed out to Alabama to see my "little" brother graduate from high school. He graduated with highest honors, and I am so incredibly proud of him! 

Zach and his girlfriend Lindsay :) 

Lindsay and her other two boyfriends!

After 2 days in Alabama we surprised the kids with a weekend in Destin. It was so wonderful to relax on the beach and do absolutely nothing! 

Our last day started out quite interesting. The boys got sick right before our 6.5 hour drive home, and I was stung by a nest of baby jellyfish the day before. Thankfully, (besides the projectile vomiting experiences in Panera), our drive home was rather uneventful! We hope you all enjoyed your Memorial Day weekend as much as we did! Laundry room update will soon follow! :)