Repurposed Armoire

My kids have too many toys.  It is a constant battle between me and the toys!  I needed something to help hold and organize some of them.  But I also wanted it to somehow mask, or somewhat hide the toys.

 I found this baby on Craigslist for $30!  YUP, $30 for this solid, lovely piece! Of course it looked nothing like this picture.  I had to spend many hours on her to get her looking this good!  Now I know she was meant for a TV, but with the drawers on the bottom, and the one shelf on top, I knew it had potential for some type of toy closet!

So here's what I did:  I moved the top shelf (the original one) down a few inches so it was low enough to house books.  The shelves holding legos (and the two tiny drawers below it) was one solid piece that I also found on Craigslist.  I think it was meant to hang on the wall or something! So I screwed these together, and used a lot of wood glue too.  Then I used particle board and wooden shelf brackets from Goodwill to construct the side with the baskets.  Pretty cute, huh?!

Then of course I went through the task of painting, sanding, glazing, and sealing.  For this piece I thought it would be fun to paint the inside a different color than the outside.  I like it!  And the hardware on this is original!  Awesome!

I thought it would be fun to put cork on the inside of one of the doors.  This was tricky!  I first tried using an all-purpose adhesive, but the cork kept curling away from the wood.  So I turned to my trusty glue gun.  I then pushed metallic thumb tacks around the cork to hide the raw edges.

On the other side I painted the door with chalkboard paint.  Simple!

And look!!! One of the small drawers worked perfectly to hold the chalk and eraser! YAY!

The large bottom drawers I used for puzzles, and toys for my 8 month old

And the BEST part about this for me (besides the fact that it only cost me about $50)......I can close the doors and hide everything inside!!

For the Love of Pallets

I have discovered pallets, and have become a little obsessed! I drive around in search of them, I make my hubs dumpster dive for them, and now I'm officially a hoarder of them.  Not sure exactly what or how I'll ever use them all, but this is what I started with!

My shelves!  I have a wall in the boy's "playroom" that has bothered me since the day we moved in.  Just never looked right.

So this is what the pallet I started with looked like before I transformed it:

And this is what I ended up with after I sawed, hammered, painted, sanded, and glazed

I was able to make 4 shelves out of the pallet.  One problem I ran into was when I went to decorate it, realized that there was no actual "shelf" in which items could be placed on.  My intention for these shelves were to hold pictures, so I used easels to hold them, and it worked perfectly, and looks pretty cute too!

My wall, however, was still missing something!  So I grabbed another pallet and tore this one completely apart for this next project:

 I have seen so many variations of this "house rules" type thing and knew I wanted one for the boys.  So I just took my pallet and sawed pieces of the wood into different lengths, then nailed them all together using the vertical pieces.  Easy Peasy! Then I followed the tutorial that I found here to do the lettering.  I thought this would be the best, cheapest way to do it.  It was harder than it looked.  I barely got a shadow of the ink to transfer, so I had to go back with a sharpie and color in all of it, but it worked.  Plus, once I sanded over the words, it gave it the perfect look I was going for.

So this is the final "Wall" that I can now say no longer bothers me! YAY!

Party Links:

By Stephanie Lynn, I Heart Naptime, DIY ShowOff, Pink When, A Stroll Thru Life, Coastal Charm, Nap-Time Creations, Rain on a Tin Roof, Mod Vintage Life, Artsy Chicks Rule

The Beginning

I have always had a passion for decorating, painting, crafting, sewing, cleaning, organizing, etc.  I am constantly trying new ideas and projects for my home, and I LOVE finding awesome deals and things to refinish or upcycle.  In recent years I have been asked by more and more friends to help them out with their projects.  So I thought it would be fun to blog about the things I do..... So here it goes!!!

Project #1:  Hutch

I found this beauty on Craigslist for a screamin' deal! It is a Sears Open Hearth, and almost identical to the one my grandma has in her home.  So I couldn't resist!  Unfortunately since we are new to this blogging thing, I didn't think to take a "before" picture.  So all you get is the "after".  Sorry!

                                                                                                                                                                             This hutch was originally a DARK (almost black) wood, so I painted this baby in antique white, using the vaseline technique to easily distress it. 

Then, of course, I replaced the hardware. I also thought it would be fun to remove the glass and put chicken wire in its place.  I love the way it turned out!

Party Links:

Start at Home, By Stephanie Lynn, Miss Mustard Seed, Domestically Speaking