Gallery Shelves

I like to change things up. I get bored with the same ole same ole. I also love art and photographs, and I love making art and photographs. You can never have enough pictures because they really are worth a thousand words and they really do capture precious memories perfectly. We have so many pictures and a long wall in our living room with nothing on it. I didn't want to put a hundred nails in the wall because it just felt too permanent and I wouldn't be able to switch them out easily. 

Solution: Gallery Shelves! 

The pre-made ones are so expensive, like $30-$60 a piece, and they are really short. I wanted some that were the entire length of the wall. The supply list for this project is small. We used 1x4's for the bottom and back, stop molding on the front, and angle brackets for strength. I was in between painting them or staining them. But I decided to paint them the same color as our walls for a clean, blended look. 

side view with angle brackets

I have rearranged them so many times already, but this is what they look like now... 

I love that Eli has the bottom shelf for all his books! We also hung a t.v. in the middle shelf and I put pictures around it. I like that its not the focal point of the room.

They are such a fun way to easily change things around, add new art, books, pictures, keepsakes, etc. If you have a long wall in your house that you don't know what to do with, this is a beautiful way to fill the space! 

xoxo,

Lauren 

Laundry Room

We just went from one giant construction project to the next here without really taking a minute to breathe. From the screen porch to starting the laundry room, we really are starting to make this house our home. It’s amazing to see the imprint previous owners have made on this house and how we are molding it to fit our desires. The house never had a laundry room; which is hard to believe this day and age, but I guess in the 1960’s it wasn’t a desirable room to have like it is now.  

We have a double car garage and two closets off the garage. Both of them are a good size and share the same wall as the screen porch. The closet nearest shares a wall with the kitchen and is where the washer and dryer are. The door from the garage goes into the kitchen and this entrance is used more than the front door. Also that door into the kitchen is right in the middle of the wall, so there’s no space for a kitchen table; making one whole corner of the kitchen completely wasted space. We use to have a chair in that corner. The most exciting and best solution for having a laundry/mudroom in the house and making the kitchen space more usable was to open up the closet to the kitchen and finish it out. Here are some pictures of what the kitchen and closet off the garage looked like before: 

kitchen wall with garage door entrance

where the laundry room door will be (new entrance)

Washer on one side of garage closet

A HUGE side project, moving the electrical panel. It was conveniently placed right where we needed to put the door. So we got a larger panel and moved it to the garage. Larger panel=hot tub being able to be hooked up! yeahhhhh!!! one project leads to another, leads to another...leads to anoth..er...

Dryer on the other side of garage closet

The window in the closet looks out over the screen porch, so we took that window out and put a door there. Now we will have access to the porch without having to go outside.

window out onto porch

framing it for the door!

framing the floor!

Time for demolition, after the electrical panel was moved, floor put in and exterior doors to garage and screen porch were installed. So fun!

Just a lil scary knocking a hole in your house!

He did so good!

All framed out and it's night time now...big day

bye bye old entrance!

You can also see in the above picture the door going out onto the screen porch. We sheet rocked where the old door out to the garage use to be. Put in insulation in the laundry room and kitchen, and the washer and dryer are on the same side now. 

 

Another laundry room update soon to come as hubby is already making more progress as we speak! 

Porch Bed

We built a hanging porch bed for the screen porch and love it! Here’s the design we came up with:

We kept the left side open and put a lower ledge on it, flush with the frame, so that you have space to completely stretch out or place a lovely beverage while lounging. It also makes it look less like a day bed and more like a giant chaise lounge.

Lumber and Supplies List:

3 turned posts

12 spindles

1 sheet of 3/8” plywood

2 of 6’x2”x4”s-span the middle

3 of 6’x1”x4”- support the sides and ends of the plywood
5/4"x6"-leftover decking boards

4x4 -for front left support (instead lieu of turned post)

4x4’s to hang from ceiling

3/4inch manila rope

Most of the lumber we had left over from building the screen porch, we had to buy the turned posts, spindles and sheet of plywood. First Ryan built the frame with left over 5/4" x 6" deck boards, with 2x4's in between and 1x4's on the sides to support the plywood.

On the front left, since it’s going to be open without a post, we used a 4x4 for support. Then we took the 3 turned posts and cut the ball top off each of them and cut the bottoms of them at a 45 degree angle on all four sides.  

This gave the posts a little more shape and makes them look more finished instead of just bluntly cutting them off straight. Then he mounted the 3 posts in each corner except for the front left. Then take the 5/4"x6" decking boards and cut them to length to sit on top of the posts. Making a back/arm rest. We also cut another 5/4"x6" decking board to place at the open end for that lovely beverage holder. 

attaching the posts

5/4"x6" decking boards

 Take the spindles and evenly space them out along the back and right side of the bed.

Cut the 3/8” plywood to fit the frame. 

Drill holes in all four corners of the 5/4"x6"decking boards large enough for ¾ inch rope to go through. Then drill holes horizontally in all 4 posts. The rope will go through the 5/4"x6" decking boards and down through the post for secured support. 

We already had a twin foam mattress and to protect it I bought a plastic zip mattress cover from Bed, Bath and Beyond. 

Now on to the fun part! In order to hang the bed from our ceiling, since it’s recessed in the rafters, we used two 4x4’s to go in between the rafter beams and secured those with really long screws, like 8” long, from the other side of the beam all the way through the 4x4.This thing isn’t going anywhere and my engineer assured me it could hold close to a ton. Then loop the rope over the 4x4 in the ceiling and tie a knot, then thread it down through the drilled holes and tie a knot at the bottom, do this on all four sides… and here it is hanging! 

Of course, decorate with a fitted sheet and pretty pillows! We LOVE it and it’s the perfect place for an afternoon nap!  

Firewood Rack

Our home has two front doors, which is a little odd, but that’s just one of the many cute little quirks of owning an old house. One of the front doors is the obvious, main front door that goes into the foyer. The other door is off the den where our fireplace is. (Neither of these doors get used as front doors-everyone comes in the garage and back door. That’s okay, that just means we have great close friends and family!) The sole purpose of our den front door is to store firewood for the fireplace. It’s so convenient to open it up and be able to grab a couple of logs sitting right there. The front door opens up onto a little covered front porch area, so the wood stays dry as well. The only thing is the neat stack of firewood very quickly becomes a disheveled pile of wood and bark that looks messy from the street, not to mention the mess that gets tracked into the house. (There's usually more wood than this but we just had a fire..seeing that it's still snowing!! <sigh>)

Before

 Ryan’s idea and fix? Weld up a firewood rack of course!  We bought a ton of scaffolding off Craigslist to build the porch and have several odd pieces left over, which is what Ryan used to make it. Here are the two pieces of scaffolding that he used. 

 They were chipped, rusted, old and basically thrown over our stone wall for trash. Trash to treasure…since Ryan has recently gotten into welding I should start a section called reclaimed metal…

He cut some pieces out of the middle, then he welded it all together basically making a regtangular frame…<insert magic sparks flying here> .  He flipped it over so it has legs and isn’t sitting on the ground; which will be ideal for keeping bugs and things from getting under the wood. The only input I had in this was to spray paint it a flat black to make it look more finished. And here it is:

a much neater stoop!

He’s pretty creative himself…It’s a great feeling to reuse a piece of “junk” you already have and make it into something new, better, practical or a piece of art. I challenge you to do the same ~ modern recycling.

Stone Steps

We never thought we would say this….all the stonework is done!!! It’s such a huge chunk of the project finished, fin, complete! The steps in the last post that were halfway done were the last bit of it and they are finished. We made them a little deeper and shorter so they aren’t as steep to go down. And the porch door now has a nice landing!

Our next step is to finish the ceiling…screen and doors..and we are, dare I say? Done! well not done, done…nothing is ever done here..we ARE an ongoing project, :) but that’s the way we like it.

I have been stocking (junking) up my laundry room of thrift store finds to re-do for the porch. You'll probably see a post about those soooooon.

What projects are you working on? Need advice on a DIY? Feel free to comment and I'll get back with you!

Guest Bedroom Makeover

I don’t think I took any pictures of the bedroom before I started getting ready to paint…because it really was BAD and I just didn’t think about it. Besides the bed being in there, it wasn’t a usable space at all due to the amount of boxes stacked high to the ceiling and across the floor.
Here are a couple of pictures I took before I started painting:

yellowed doors and pink walls-yum!

The walls were a light pinky color and the ceiling, doors and trim were a semi-gloss and stained yellow. The trim and baseboards were white (at one time) and the window casings were brown. Not to mention all the baseboards were cracked or chipped and needed to be replaced. There was also a hole in the sheetrock that needed attention... Boy did I have my work cut out for me!

I started painting the ceiling first-I just did Ceiling White-Flat. Then I started on the walls…trim…windows..doors. I used Sherwin Williams, Nomadic Desert on the walls and for the doors, windows, and trim I used Sherwin Williams-Shell White, semi-gloss.

Swatch of Nomadic Desert

 We bought new wide baseboards and I LOVE THEM! I want so badly to do the rest of my house like that…but it would cost a small fortune. One room at a time!

and all the painting is done!

Now the room serves as a guest bedroom and more importantly my craft room! I have a nice big desk and armoire that holds all my craft stuff, sewing machine, etc. I made another (large) chalkboard frame to go over the desk.

I got an awesome deal on the bed set from our K-mart that closed and I am super excited that it's Ikat.

my creation station! yeah!

More decorations will come soon I’m sure, I have lots of wall space to cover! I am also happy to say that with this bedroom being done, that only leaves ONE more room left to paint (our bedroom)-yippee!!!