DIY – Page 11 – Dust Bunnies and Dog Toys

DIY Raised Dog Bowls

Published on May 20, 2015June 5, 2015 by JennaLeave a comment

The second project we wrapped up last week were two raised dog bowl stands. We’ve been wanting to do these for a while but kept putting it off. Although we had heavy ceramic bowls for each dog, they would be pushed around on the floor each day and our youngest liked to play in the water bowl creating a wet mess, even with a mat under the bowl. I’d seen raised bowl stands made from vintage crates and loved the look but A) didn’t have a vintage crate and B) if I did I wouldn’t have two that matched, or want to destroy an antique for a dog bowl stand. So we DIY’d an alternative.

The hubs built simple hollow wood boxes and then cut the holes out for the bowls, using small holes inside the diameter of where each bowl would sit as a staring point.

Then it was up to me to finish the look. Since I knew these pieces wouldn’t stay pristine being used by the dogs, I decided to intentionally create a distressed look. I started with a coat of stain, followed by a coat of light grey paint, which I sanded randomly to make them look vintage.

Here’s the finished look! It’s so much nicer than the hodge podge mess we had before! (Apparently I hated it so much I never took a single picture of it, because I can’t find any before pictures to share!) We have one stand on either side of the buffet in our dining room, so we all eat together. One holds two water bowls and a single food bowl for Tequila since she’s the alpha and likes to be separated from the others when eating. The other has two food bowls and a single water dish for Stoli and Bacardi who often share while eating.

I wasn’t sure how well the kiddos would take to the new set up and planned to ‘introduce’ them to the bowls with treats, but it wasn’t necessary. In fact they started using them as soon as they went down, which made me even happier with the project! Eating at this level is easier for them and is supposed to help improve their digestion.

I think Luna is actually a little jealous of their new bowls! But since her bowls are in the laundry room window ledge, where she has plenty of privacy I think she’ll be just fine.

This post linked to Tatertots and Jello’s Link Party Palooza!

and

Wall-to-Wall Work Space!

Published on May 19, 2015January 6, 2016 by Jenna7 Comments

Hi everyone! The hubs and I were so busy working on projects last week that I didn’t get a chance to write about any of them, so this week I’ll be playing catch up and have a lot to share! Up first is the biggest project, our wall-to-wall desk in the office!

Finished

It’s come a long way from the first DIY set-up we did with two filing cabinets and a freebie door when we were in the rental. I started to get a sense of how my dream workspace would function when we expanded the desktop after we moved in to the new house and the recent addition of the industrial style shelves took it up another notch. Next we stained the raw desktop to match the shelves, which made the desk visually ‘heavy’. Unfortunately, I somehow neglected to take a picture of this stage, but even the hubs agreed that the darker desktop made the entire unit feel a bit big and bulky. Luckily, painting the cabinets was the next step. To prep, we removed all the hardware and gave the surfaces a light sanding. The hubs taped off the areas around the cabinets and I painted them white. It took a couple of coats, but it definitely brightened the space.

I wasn’t loving the white at first, but decided to live with it for a while before I made any final decisions. A few days later the hubs installed the new hardware we’d purchased to match the pulls on the cabinet nearest the door and that made all the difference. Suddenly I LOVED the white. Maybe I couldn’t see past the displaced clutter before then or maybe I just needed some contrast so they didn’t feel like big white blobs. Whatever it was, I did another happy dance when I saw them together with the white.

Three of the four cabinets went all the way to the floor, but the cabinet nearest the door had legs. Not only did this not match the other cabinets, it was the perfect place for dust bunnies to collect which meant they had to go. The easy option would have been to cut off the legs, but that would have made the cabinet too short, so instead we opted to install molding around the legs. We picked up a plain baseboard molding with a small curve at the top and cut it to size. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite tall enough to cover the entire height of the legs, so we got creative.

A piece of scrap wood filled the space between the legs, but because the legs stick out from the body of the cabinet a bit, there was a gap between the filler board and the molding. The hubs solved this with a paint stick and some wood filler. Genius! Once everything was painted you’d never notice.

The hubs also rigged up a shelf for the printer in the middle cabinet. He added a small platform on tracks so it can be pulled out when we need to replace ink cartridges or clear a jam.

Because the space where the shelf was had previously been another drawer there were some odd supports on either side of the interior of the cabinet. Once again the hubs flexed his thinking muscles and came up with a solution. A thin panel attached to the supports made everything flush and quarter round hid the supports from the front. Luna made sure to inspect his handiwork and apparently approves.

I swapped out the blue bag the local shred company provides for a much prettier basket I picked up at Target. The grey material has a bit of white, which plays off the cabinets nicely. I keep the bag tucked behind the basket so I can fill it when I need to take it in, but since we typically use our shred file for fire starter and filler in the fire pit that’s not very often. This change was also approved by Luna, who loves her new hiding spot. 🙂

I also stained the cord box so it blends in more with the flooring and is less noticeable. Now that everything is finished, I cleaned up the wires and will soon hide them in a channel that can be painted to match the wall so you’ll never even notice them. Now that the printer is tucked away, my Silhouette sits in the middle of the desktop and both of us have plenty of room to work.

I’m still finessing the accessories on the desktop and shelves, but it’s pretty much done. The top shelf is strictly for photography props (including some room for new items!) and we each took a third of the bottom shelf. The center third is home to models of the planes the hub’s dad flew when he was in the Navy. On my side, my photography guides and smaller extra gear fit in two decorative storage boxes, which also hide the driveway monitor speaker. Next to that are my books and a basket for a few magazine style guides I keep.

The hub’s side became home to his cookbooks that had previously lived in the pantry. I gave him a storage box and canister so he could also store all of the cords and miscellaneous gear he wanted to have handy. And that means the tub of “stuff” that has sat on the other side of the room since we moved in is now gone!

Finished2

I’m loving the industrial farmhouse look the whole project has and the storage it provides has created so much space in this room. Now it really functions as an office, craft room and studio with style. And that make me very, very happy!

This post linked to Tatertots and Jello’s Link Party Palooza, Knick of Time’s Vintage Inspiration Party and

We Have Shelves!

Published on April 2, 2015April 1, 2015 by Jenna8 Comments

So remember way back when I told you we planned to add shelves above the wall-to-wall desk in the studio? Well it’s finally happened. Although the desk itself hasn’t had any additional progress since you last saw it, the finished shelves give you a sense of what the whole thing will look like when we’re done. And now that we have some extra storage space, we can organize and move things around to finish the rest of the pieces while we continue using the space. Here’s a quick recap of how they came together.

After much debate and a good deal of Pinterest browsing, I decided to go with the rustic industrial shelves you see everywhere these days. Yes it’s trendy right now, but both the hubs and I love the look, plus it compliments the craftsman style of our home so we’ll be happy with it long after others move on to the ‘next’ thing. The first step was gathering enough supplies, which sound simple, but turned out to be a little difficult. The hubs had to visit several stores and event shop online to find enough of the pipes, nipples and flanges in the right sizes. And even when he did find enough, it wasn’t always the same color so we ended up painting all the parts to match. The metal supports start with a flange which screws onto the base of a piece of pipe. The other end of the pipe is capped with a nipple, which also screws on. The hubs attached the supports with extra long screws, directly into the studs for additional strength. You might notice that some of the pieces seem higher than others in the picture above. That’s because he initially attached each lower support with just one screw and we made them pivot on the single attachment to decide which height we liked best. We ended up going with the higher option just to give ourselves a little extra space when sitting.

Once we had the lower supports lined up and screwed in, he moved on to the top supports, directly above. We didn’t have a specific height in mind, so we just eyeballed it to decide what would work best with what we planned to have on the lower shelf. It looked a little strange from across the room without the boards, but this is how it sat for several days while we searched for wood that wasn’t split, bowed or cracked on multiple trips to various local hardware stores.

Eventually, the hubs found two decent boards in the right size, length and most importantly, price range. He set them up in the garage and I got to staining. I forgot to take a picture before I started, but you get the basic before and after idea.

I had originally planned to stain the boards, then do a white crackle paint over top and randomly sand areas to create the faux reclaimed barn wood look described here, but once we saw the color of the stain and how it brought out the grain of the pine we fell in love with it and decided to leave it as is. Realizing that the stain we’d used was a primer, stain and sealer all in one, helped reaffirm that decision – especially when we considered that we wanted the same finish on both the desktop and the shelves. I was secretly relieved that we wouldn’t be painting and sanding in the house, because my allergies would have kicked into overdrive if that had happened.

When the boards were dry the hubs cut them to size and I helped him carry them in. All we had to do was set them up on the supports with the cut edge hidden against the wall. It was at this point that I broke out in my happy dance. Literally. I’m just giddy with how it turned out. They provide a TON of storage space for my photography props, which until now have been piled up against the opposite wall.

You might notice that the far end of the shelves don’t go all the way to the wall. That’s by design. We will eventually add sliding barn doors to the inside of this doorway so we needed room for the doors to slide open next to the desk. Since the space is on the hubs side of the desk I rarely even notice it.

I’ve started organizing things on the shelves and will share the final set up when it’s done. It’s a process to decide what goes where, but it’s already making the desktop clearer and the room feels larger without the pile of props in the corner.

The next step is staining the desktop, which should happen this week. After that will be setting up the pull out shelf for the printer and then we’ll move on to finishing the cabinets with paint and new hardware. And finally, I’ll add some decorative finishing touches to pull it all together and make it cozy. So stay tuned to see each step in the coming weeks! 🙂

Driveway Monitor

Published on March 18, 2015March 17, 2015 by JennaLeave a comment

With a driveway that is over 300’ feet long it’s a little difficult to hear someone pulling up to our house until they are literally at our door. Even in the boonies we sometimes get unexpected visits, so it’s nice to know when someone is on our property for safety reasons.

To solve this problem, the hubs purchased a wireless battery operated system with a range of 300-400 feet. He attached the sensor to a tree along the driveway. Unless you’re looking for it, you don’t even notice it when you drive by.

The base unit sits in the office window, where it gets a good signal from the sensor and can be heard throughout the house.

Now that we’ve had the system for a while, the dogs have figured out that when they hear the chime it means someone is coming, which prompts them to either stand guard at the front door or dash out the doggie door to investigate from the fence line. Needless to say, if someone ever planned to sneak up to our house and break in they’ve got a crowd of fur expecting them by the time they get to the porch!

The one downside to the system is that it just senses movement, but can’t distinguish what kind of movement it is. So when the neighborhood moose wander through the yard they sometimes come close enough to trip the sensor. Guess that’s just life in Alaska.

DIY Glass Hurricanes & Pedestals

Published on February 26, 2015 by Jenna1 Comment

This was seriously one of the easiest DIYs I’ve ever done. All it took was some glass candle sticks, glass candle trays, a couple simple vases and some industrial strength glue. I found several tutorials on Pinterest for both the hurricanes and pedestals, so it’s certainly not a new idea.

The hardest part was deciding which glass candle sticks to pair with each topper. I mixed and matched the different pieces, doing a “dry fit” to finalize my selections. I decided to use the taller candle sticks for the hurricanes since the added height made them feel a bit more like the expensive versions I’ve seen in the designer catalogs.

The three shorter candlesticks were paired with the glass trays to create pedestals of varying heights. I think one of the trays was actually a paper weight, but I like that one has a thicker platform since some items might look better with that.

Once I was happy with the dry fit, I lined up all my pieces and broke out the super strength glue, which other bloggers recommended. This stuff is pretty strong, so I wore gloves while working with it as a precaution.

The directions say to apply the glue to both pieces, wait 2 minutes and then join them, so that’s what I did. And it worked like a charm. The glue does need 24 hours to cure, but once it did it created a super strong bond. I painted the pedestals white, so I could use them for multiple occasions.

My only disappointment with this project is that I don’t have a large pillar candle that fits in the curved vase hurricane so I have to use a smaller votive candle. But for a fraction of the designer price I can work around that.

Since I already had the spray paint and had picked up all the glass pieces for about $25 at thrift stores before January, all I needed was the glue which runs about $5 at the hardware store – although after a military discount and a gift card it was free. So there you have it, another 0-cost project wrap up for No Spend January!

The Sickness

Published on February 25, 2015 by JennaLeave a comment

Hi, there. After a lengthy battle with “the sickness” – a nasty, allergy-induced, head cold – I’ve finally returned to feeling human. The hubs was amazing through it all. He drove two hours to pick me up at work and bring me home early because I car pooled the day I got sick and then took great care of me until he came down with a bug himself. We’re both still fighting some congestion, but at least we’re back in action. And now begins the game of playing catch up since I spent my long holiday weekend, including Valentines, hacking up a lung instead of making progress on my to-do list.

One of the items on that list was sharing my Valentines décor with you. I know it’s now passed, but I wanted to share what I did anyway. I had this grand plan to make a sweet X & O like this, but things didn’t pan out quite how I hoped. I bought plain white X and O letters at Michaels with the rest of my no-spend January return gift card.

I originally planned to paint gold stripes on one and gold dots on the other, so I taped off the stripes and poured a bit of craft paint.

Apparently the finish on the letters wasn’t well suited for painting because the paint didn’t adhere well and bled, even with the tape.

I decided to try making the dots with the end of a large brush. That didn’t work out so well either.

Since I had limited time and didn’t feel like sanding anything, I ended up just wiping off the paint and leaving them plain, atop the curio cabinet.

The media cabinet got some love from a few of my recent bargain finds, including a super simple DIY glass hurricane candle votive, which I’ll share a tutorial for in my next post.

I was pretty happy with the mantel arrangement, which included another DIY glass hurricane votive, milk glass and a DIY lipstick heart framed art thanks to several of my gal pals donating their old unwanted lipsticks. They all thought I was nuts when I asked if they had some to donate, but thought the end result was pretty cool.

The side table held some faux tulips in a white crock (another fairly recent bargain find), paired with a long-ago thrifted gold heart votive candle. And my chair became home to my “Love you More” pillow.

I added a “Love” cover to a pillow I already had and it looked perfect on the bench near the entryway. Beyond that you can see the heart rose wreath on the wall in the entry.

The dresser in the entry gave me fits. I just couldn’t seem to make it work. I started with this set-up on one corner and really liked it, but that left the other side barren.

So I reworked things and ended up with this arrangement. Certainly not amazing, but it filled the space and didn’t cost anything, so I decided to go with it.

Clear and red glass heart ornaments, along with some pink ribbon brought my holiday tree to life. I used to have a topper for this holiday but it bit the dust last year so I just went without this time.

I kept the dining room simple, with two large felt hearts on the buffet lamp shades and a little bear holding the wooden heart the hubs mom brought back from Jerusalem under a cloche.

A flameless candle and some rose petals finished off my recent bargain hurricane for the perfect simple centerpiece.

There you have it – my 2015 Valentines décor. Just in time for me to switch it all out to for green St. Patty’s stuff! LOL. I’ll try to get that glass hurricane tutorial posted tomorrow, so stay tuned for that!

Recent Bargains

Published on February 6, 2015 by JennaLeave a comment

Just before No-Spend January started (hence the Christmas centerpiece) I snagged a couple really good bargains on a trip to the thrift store. I only paid $45 for all of this! Several of them got a makeover during the last month – I’ll be sharing those very soon – and several became part of my Valentine’s décor – which will also be shared soon.

Although my favorite find was the milk glass vase for $0.99, I was pretty excited about the tall hurricane vase since I had bought one on the local buy/sell page for $5 about this time last year and ended up selling it to someone at a spring bazaar even though it was only part of my display because she liked it so much and offered me double what I paid for it! I snagged this one for $12 and although I originally planned to paint the base I’ve decided to leave it as is for now. The wooden pedestal bowl is still mid-transformation, but I think it’s going to be fantastic when it’s done – just in time for some spring decorating.

But the best recent bargain is this leather arm chair. Wanna know what I paid for it? NADA! Zilch! Absolutely nothing! Every once in a while trolling Craigslist’s free section pays off! 😉 One of the arms is a bit wobbly and needs some reinforcement, but the hubs is pretty sure he can take care of that at some point. That point will probably be right before we have company coming one day when it’s a priority. Oh well, at least for now it looks pretty darn fancy!

Now that No-Spend January is over, I decided to check out a local clothing consignment store last Sunday and brought home a lovely Banana Republic jacket for just $7! I also found a pretty pink scarf at the thrift store in their ‘new/retail donated’ section for just $9. I’d been on the hunt for one for some time now so finding one at such a great price was even sweeter. Isn’t finding a great bargain wonderful? Tell me about your recent favorite in a comment!

First Project of No Spend January – A Laundry Room Cabinet!

Published on January 7, 2015 by Jenna3 Comments

I’m so excited to share this project with you all because I’ve been dreaming about it since before we moved in! Our builder provided a basic utility sink in the laundry room which is great for washing large items but didn’t make good use of the space around it so the plan has always been to replace it with a cabinet matching the ones over the washer and dryer. We have a large remnant piece of granite from our kitchen that would create a counter top with a deep sink perfect for pretreating laundry or folding while creating lots of storage underneath for cleaning supplies. Seeing this every day as I enter or leave the house for the last year seriously made me twitch so I was definitely ready for this project to come to fruition.

The plan started to become a reality when I recently found a free cabinet on Craigslist that was the perfect size of the space. Someone was remodeling their bathroom and wanted it gone asap. It needed a replacement door and a paint job but that seemed reasonable for being free so I picked it up and hauled it home.

Before I could start working on rehabbing my freebie cabinet, the hubs told me the backordered Christmas present he got me had finally arrived – two base cabinets matching the upper cabinets already in the laundry room! Because they weren’t a special order item he didn’t have to pay in advance so if we chose not to get them the store would simply sell them as regular inventory with no penalty to us and use the free cabinet to complete the project. Although the new cabinets were obviously more expensive than it would be to update the free cabinet, time was a critical factor making the decision fairly easy. I also knew we’d I’d be happier in the long run if the cabinets were an exact match rather than just similar since they are so close to each other. And because they were my Christmas present they didn’t technically violate my No Spend January!

So the hubs started removing the utility sink and installing the new cabinets as soon as he got them home. I wanted the kitty litter box to be out of sight (and reach of the dogs) yet easily accessible for cleaning so I’d planned to put it inside the cabinet and cut a hole on the side for Luna to use. We did a test fit to determine where we should put the cat door only to discover that the shelf in the back of the smaller cabinet prevented the litter box from fitting all the way into the space. So the hubs removed it. Our second test fit, sans shelf revealed that there wouldn’t be enough room for her to enter the cabinet and get on top of the litter box. Kinda made me feel about the same as seeing that little present inside the litter box does…

I wasn’t giving up on the plan so I decided the litter box would have to be what changed. We had a small plastic tub that we never use tucked away in the broom closet and I knew it would be the perfect size to fit the space. Since it would now be out of the dogs reach I no longer had to worry about having a box with a top, so problem solved. Once we’d decided how the litter box would be positioned, the hubs was ready to cut a hole in the side for Luna, who was apparently ready to give her input on the placement of this very important feature.

With the litter box situated and the kitty door cut, he moved on to installing the second larger cabinet which will hold the sink. He had to cut a hole for the drain pipe on the side and for the water lines on the floor, but everything fit perfectly. Since we don’t have the countertop and sink ready just yet we covered the top with a board for now and left the shelf in the back of the larger cabinet as is until we see how the P-trap sits. I quickly stashed the cleaning supplies that had lived under the utility sink and in the cabinet above the washer away in the second cabinet and stood back to admire the clean look. Plus I now have a spot to store all my laundry supplies within easy reach of the washer. (Cue heavenly music!) It’s so nice I don’t even mind that the cat food storage tin sits in front of the cabinet because it blends in!

I’m glad we decided to go with the new cabinets because having two cabinets separates Luna’s space from where all the cleaning supplies are stored, which makes storing things she shouldn’t get into easier and keeps kitty litter from migrating into said supplies. I was tickled to find the litter scoop fit right next to the tub and the current litter rug (which is actually a $2 placemat from Home Goods) filled the rest of the space making the possibility of litter being tracked out of the cabinet pretty slim. Plus the drawer in the top of that cabinet provides additional ‘cat proof’ storage.

Luna seems to like the new arrangement quite well and took to it without a hitch. I think she enjoys being able to sneak away to her box without anyone spying on her while she does her “Princess” business. 🙂

Not only does it make our laundry room much more functional it’s improved the traffic flow through the space since this is only access to the garage. We still need to install the kick panel at the bottom and add some hardware to the drawer and doors but it’s fine as is for now. I have no idea how much it will cost to have the remnant cut to size and fitted for the sink, but it’s certainly less if we had to purchase the material. The hubs ordered a sink he found on sale at Amazon and it should arrive later this month, which gives us time to get a few quotes and choose a company to do the measure and install – sometime after my No Spend January. The cherry on top was selling the un-needed freebie cabinet and old litter box for a few bucks to offset the costs and keep clutter at a minimum! Since I we were on a roll in the laundry room I also tackled labeling my laundry supplies the same day, so watch for a post on that very soon.

The Cutest Pumpkins EVER!

Published on November 24, 2014November 28, 2014 by JennaLeave a comment

Remember, last week when I said I had a little décor project to wrap up on the porch? Well, it’s finally done and I’m ready to share it with you! Wa-La! The cutest pumpkins EVER! At least to me anyway. 🙂

Besides being adorable, they were super easy to make. First, I spray painted some scrap pieces of 4×4 left over from our fence project. A couple coats of orange and they were looking like very square pumpkins. Now they just needed stems, so I went stick hunting in our woods, much to the dogs delight.

I let my pile of sticks “dry out” on the porch for a few days, ok, weeks – which caused several of them to fall victim to puppy playtime. But I digress. Once I deemed them “dry” I chose a few with interesting texture and curves and marked off sections for the hubs to cut. Yes I could have done it myself, but have a bad history with sharp objects so he came to my rescue.

Once I had all my stems ready to go I tested them out on the different bases and decided the combinations I liked best. A little hot glue and presto, stems!

Cute as they were at this point I felt like they needed a little softening, so I dug out some orange raffia I found at a yard sale long, long ago and tied some around the base of each stem. BAM. Delightful, rustic, recycled wooden pumpkins! On. my. porch!

They are the perfect finishing touch to my other fall decor on the front porch! Apparently Mother Nature didn’t agree because she added some little touches as well… LOL.

Lightbulb!!!!

Published on November 20, 2014November 21, 2014 by JennaLeave a comment

Now that the weather has turned chilly I’m in the mood for crockpot cooking, but many of the recipes I find to try only require 6-8 hours which is much less than we are away from the house thanks to daily commuting. I considered getting a new crockpot with a built in timer, but the one we have works great and we really like it. So I figured out a work around – a timer plug! We have a couple of these for our holiday decorations so I dug one out and and tested it the last time we made something in the crockpot.

It took a few minutes to make sure I had everything set just right and I left for work afraid I’d come home to find it never clicked on, but it was a needless worry because it worked perfectly! I felt pretty clever for figuring out a solution that would be beneficial all winter, but it wasn’t until I was telling a co-worker about it and she declared it genius that I realized just how smart it was.

Although her commute is significantly less than mine, she is away from home longer than the recipes she was using called for, so she would often request her husband run home during lunch to start the crockpot. Now she has a simple, no cost solution that won’t require coordinating a run home to start dinner mid-day. So I’m sharing the idea here in case it helps others as well.

As for what’s in that pot? Our current favorite is a six ingredient turkey recipe that only requires five minutes of prep, just in time for Thanksgiving!

Even though I have a Pinterest board full of them, I’m still in the hunt for more crockpot recipes so if you have a favorite please share it below.