Making Life Easier

Hello my beloved readers. All four of you.

Those of you who land on our blog from Pinterest: I realize you have zero idea who I am and probably don’t need to hear all of the details of my life. You don’t care that Olive is my dog who can balance things on her head, or that I lovingly refer to my husband Steve as The Lumberjack.

What you do probably care about, however, is seeing all of the projects we’ve done, so you can look at them and go “Hey, that’s a cool idea. But I bet I can hang a gallery wall without using long division.” And I don’t blame you.

Introducing! Our new little tabby thing that makes it easier to find project tutorials!
That rolls right off the tongue.

Behold:

If you look up at the top navigation of the blog you’ll see a new page called DIY Projects: Art, Build, and Decorate.

All of our projects will reside here in a tidy and organized fashion. No longer do you have to think to yourself TLDR when browsing through the blog. All of the good stuff is right at your fingertips.

You’re welcome.

Every time we complete a new project I’ll throw it into the library for easy searching. I hope this new development makes your Tuesday worth showering for.

Let me know if something isn’t working right or if you absolutely hate it and would like to see it changed. Otherwise, Happy Projecting! (Not projecting, like a projector, but projecting — as in the Act of Projects.)

Wonky Wood

As the title suggests, and as I mentioned before, we had some issues with the wood in our kitchen shelves being warped. I thought I’d show you a few pictures of how we tried to straighten things out, and see if anyone had any suggestions on how to do things differently.

Everything we do is very technical and scientific, by the way.

Case in point: trying to flatten out the wood by letting it sit underneath the removed cabinets overnight. We thought it would work because that cabinet was HEAVY. Like, newborn-baby elephant heavy. Ok, maybe more like adult-man heavy, but still.

That proved useless. The weight of the cabinet didn’t do squat; the boards were just as warped in the morning as they were when we started.

The next thing we tried was wetting them down with some water. Not enough for them to be soaking wet, but just enough for them to give a little. Then we laid them across our tub and tried weighing them down in the middle.

Another 24 hours passed and they were ever-so-slightly less wonky. EVER. SO. SLIGHTLY. Enough that Steve decided he was probably not going to be able to completely flatten them and should just move on to gluing and clamping and hope the glue sticks.

Do you guys like our array of weights? Aren’t we pretty official-looking with our paint cans and text books? I seriously have used those books more as weights, than for reading. I’m sure you’re shocked.

All the clamping and gluing seemed to do the trick, and although they were still slightly askew, it wasn’t nearly as noticeable as when this whole shenanigan began. Has anyone ever used that word singularly? Well, I just did.

Steve made spacers to sit between the hollow shelves to continue to force them into submission:

Now you can start to understand why building and hanging these shelves took an entire week. The building took about 5 days, and the hanging took about 30 minutes.

And if you’re wondering why my husband is always wearing those sexy white pants in all of these pictures: our projects take place promptly upon his return from work, where he has to wear “whites” aka “a uniform.” Maybe one day I’ll show you what he looks like in full uniform: hat, white jacket and pants, complete with pocket protector and two-way radio hanging from his collar.

The pocket protector is secretly why I married him. I couldn’t resist its powers.

So that’s the scoop. All of the behind-the-scenes, we’re-figuring-this-out-along-the-way re-cap. I need to save some hyphens for my next post, so I better be going now.

If anyone has a better way to straighten out wood boards I’d love to hear it. And don’t just tell me to buy straight boards. (Dad!)

Kitchen Shelves: After… sorta.

Since Steve and I both work full time I can’t really do a sweeping reveal of a dramatically different before and after. I mean, I could, but there would probably be a few months of crickets chirping between posts. (Which actually might be kinda cute — maybe it could be a love story.) Alas, the cricket thing probably won’t work, so instead, you get to see snippets of all of our work-in-progress.

Although we still have a way to go with our kitchen makeover, I’m pretty darn happy with where we are today. Let me start by showing you what our kitchen looked like last weekend, and what lead to this whole shelf-idea in the first place:

We were pretty pleased with how things were progressing but wondered if there was a way to open up the kitchen a bit more, since we finally decided on leaving the cabinets in their natural finish. (We just couldn’t paint them. I know it’s what all the cool kids are doing — but we just couldn’t bring ourselves to deface the wood.)

We wondered if replacing the single cabinet to the left of the sink with open shelving would create a more modern, open feeling in the room.

Our hunch was: Yes. Yes it would.

So, we got to work. We picked up a few boards of pine, and The Lumberjack locked himself in the garage for an entire afternoon. (Oak was double the price, and all of the pine was already in the neighborhood of $90! Yikes.)

Here are the basics of our floating shelves: Top, bottom, sides, and then a piece for the front. And then the whole, hollow, kit-and-caboodle would slide over a horizontal 2″ x 2″ anchor that we would be attached to the wall.

Steve had to do a lot of gluing, clamping, sanding, and weighing-down of the wood with weights because some of the pieces were pretty warped. We needed them to be as flat as possible since, you know, they were going to be shelves and all. The whole assembly process of these shelves took the majority of after-work hours during this entire week.

Olive supervised, obviously:

Then, after many days of waiting for the wood to flatten and for the glue to dry (Did you know wood glue is stronger than nails?! Neither did I. Crazytown.) We had some pretty gorgeous, new shelves to hang.

In the picture below, the shelf on the left is fully assembled and awaiting a sanding session, and the one on the right just needs it’s face put on. Sorta like Oprah before a live show.

FINALLY! We were ready to hang. I’ve been waiting for this day forever (really it was only 4 days).

Disclaimer: We have a bunch of friends visiting this weekend! So we’re putting this project on hold until after they leave. The shelves still need to be stained — which is a completely different ballgame. More on that later.

Use that wicked imagination of yours and pretend the shelves are stained, and the walls are painted. (Getting painter’s quotes next week!)

OPENNESS! Holy cow I just stood there with my jaw on the ground staring at the wall. My husband is like a superhero who’s special power is woodworking. Super Steve! I’m so proud of him. (I guarantee he’s blushing right now.)

And, we even managed to get in a new light:

$24 for a TWO-PACK at Menards! Did you guys know how awesome Menards is? Because I didn’t, and now I do, and I sort of feel like I’ve found the fountain of youth awesomeness.

So that’s our big shelf reveal! I can’t, can’t, can’t, wait to get some paint on the wall and get these bad boys stained. Once they’re the same color as the cabinetry, the weight of the room will feel much more even and balanced.

The staining portion of this project will be an adventure, as we needed to buy two different colors of stain because there wasn’t just one that matched our cabinets. Cross your fingers and as my Polish friend would say, hold your thumbs. We’re going to need all the luck we can get with that one.

We’re so excited to host some of our favorite people this weekend. Perhaps I’ll be back on Monday with pictures of our shenanigans. Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

**update** Here they are in all their finished glory:

 

Read the post with behind-the-scenes pictures and info about how we straightened out the wood.

Read this post to see the shelves stained and lookin’ mighty fine.

Thursday Randomness

Since our shelves are still baking — I know, another bad metaphor — I thought I’d show you a few random snapshots from around the house. Some of our finds aren’t post-worthy by themselves, but all together they might do the trick. You be the judge:

I made my first purchase from Joss & Main (It’s sort of like Groupon — for designer home goods) the week before Christmas, and I couldn’t have been more pleased with everything from customer service (my tracking number was wonky and I had to call in — a REAL PERSON answered the phone) to quick delivery, to quality of the product. I saw these Ikat pillows and knew they had to be mine:

(The geometric patterned pillow are the ones we ordered with the couch. Pretty snazzy, eh?)

In other pillow-related news: I found this bycicle printed pillow at Homegoods for $14 and couldn’t pass it up. Steve loves his bikes and I thought he deserved a little shout-out from the pillow menagerie:

Isn’t it charming? I love the various styles and ages of bikes, and also how it seems a little like a scientific diagram.

And by definition of “random” you guys HAVE to see these plates I came across when cleaning out the secret cabinet (it’s not really secret, it’s just that I’ve never really noticed it because it’s on the backside of the counter where the barstools are):

How scary is that little girl? Even her doll freaks me out. I put these in the Goodwill pile immediately. But not before I held the plate over my face and creepily and slowly stood from behind the counter to scare the bejesus out of Steve. I thought it was going to scare him but he just laughed. It was still worth it.

And lastly, we made a new discovery about Olive: she legitimately watches Pixar movies. We think it has something to do with the 3D style of computer animation because she doesn’t have any interest in plain-old animated cartoons. We watched Tangled the other night — yes, we’re adults who watch Pixar/Disney movies — and I snapped this picture of Olive intensely watching:

She thought the movie was good but had a few choice words about the acting. Specifically, she thought that Flynn was annoying and an over-actor. I happened to really like his character. She can be such a snob sometimes.

Anywhoo. That’s it for randomness. I hope you liked my less-than-exciting updates. All small changes and additions add up to the overall feel of the house, so even the little happenings around here are documented.

Our floating shelves are now built — and now we (Steve) just have to sand, stain, and hang! I will have updates the second they’re on the wall.

Helloooo!

Please tell me you read that in the voice from Seinfeld? Just me? Ok. Moving on.

Yesterday I alluded to buying some adorable trinkets from Anthropologie, so I thought I’d squander your anxiety and show them to you already.

Aren’t they just the cutest little things you ever did see? At $14 a pop they weren’t cheap — nothing at Anthropologie is — but since we do so many house-related projects on the cheap I figured a little splurge every once in a while is okay.

I really wanted to spell “WELCOME,” but that would’ve cost an arm and a leg AND it would’ve taken up a ridiculous portion of the wall. So I settled on “HELLO.” It still gets that welcoming message across and fits the wall perfectly.

In addition to my visit at Anthropologie I made a quick pit stop at TJ Maxx Homegoods on my way home. (I. AM. OBSESSED. with that store.) I picked up this lovely little mat to greet guests.

The dog is sold separately.

Now how about a before and after? Even though these are pretty miniscule changes it’s always fun to see a before and after.

Pretty simple and bare-bones if you ask me. Not the most welcoming entryway.

Although things are still pretty simple, it’s slightly more inviting with the newly acquired goods:

I have big plans to paint the walls in this little entryway the yellowish color from the laundry room. It will draw just the right amount of attention to the welcoming coat hooks, and it will also make the rug feel more at home with those subtle traces of yellow.

I really love this view from the entry into the family room. It’s almost like the house is talking to you: “Hello! Why don’t you come in from the cold and take off your jacket? Stay a while. Take a look at some of these pictures while someone gets you a nice, warm cup of tea. No? You’d prefer a martini? Well, we have that too!”

Doesn’t it make you all warm and fuzzy? Or maybe that’s just me. That’s okay; I know my habit of personifying my belongings is a bit less than normal.

I know I tell you this every Wednesday, but it just never gets old (for me): Happy Hump Day!

Gallery Wall — Chapter Done

This weekend was so exciting that I must’ve worked myself into a tizzy. I spent all of Sunday and Monday cooped up on the couch trying to get over a wicked virus.

Saturday, on the other hand, was a whirlwind of projects. Remember that kitchen project that I was positive would only take one day? Yeah, I lied. We’re still working on it and have a completion goal of end-of-the-week, so I’ll keep you posted on that one. I will tell you that it involves the removal of a large cabinet, and the assembly and installation of floating shelves. Pretty exciting kitchen-events happening over here!

Here’s a sneak preview:

Steve spent most of his Saturday in the garage measuring, and measuring, and measuring, and cutting wood planks, so I made myself useful and decided to tackle hanging the gallery wall all by myself. It was really just my excuse to use the power drill. Man, do I love that thing.

The first step was to lay out all of the frames on the floor. It took about an hour of shuffling frames around, but I finally got the arrangement where I wanted it. Olive walked over and sat right in one of the empty spaces which I think was her way of telling me she didn’t think the grouping felt balanced. I gave it another shot since she has a keen eye for these things.

I started with the largest, and most centered picture. Once that one was hung it sort of acted as my anchor. One by one I hung the surrounding frames. As I got toward the edges I sort of free-handed it so the frames filled the space naturally.

To quote myself from a conversation with a friend, “I, like, measured and stuff. It was intense. At one point there was even LONG DIVISION”.

I had no idea that this project would make such an overall impact in this room. The family room feels so much more complete now, and just so darn cozy. I think it works so well because the hugeness of the gallery wall mimics the massive fireplace, so the room  seems more balanced. I can’t stop looking at the wall; I seem to discover a new picture every time I glance up.

While The Lumberjack is busy working on our new shelves, I’ll have some new entryway pictures for you tomorrow; I may or may not have splurged on some gorgeous coat hooks. Some people eat chicken soup to feel better. I happen to buy gorgeous trinkets from Anthropologie.

Gallery Wall — Chapter One

I suppose we’re more accurately somewhere around chapter eight. Assuming this make-believe book is around 20 chapters long, of course. My implications with the “Chapter One” title were to say that we’re not finished yet. And now I’ve gone and confused the hell out of you.

Let’s start again, shall we?

I’ve finished curating photos and artwork for our gallery wall! The next step is to lay out all of the frames exactly how we want them hung on the wall (currently the frames are in no particular order), and then get ‘em hung.

We have some wedding pictures (Doy. Our wedding was only four months ago so it’s still fresh on the brain) mixed in with some art projects, mixed in with a few new designs that I whipped together for this particular project.

That big typography piece in the back was a total surprise from some dear friends of ours.

It is Steve Jobs commencement speech at Stanford University screen-printed on white heavyweight matte paper, with gloss black ink. If you’d like to have your very own, it’s your lucky day: he is selling them on Etsy! 25% of the proceeds will go to “Demand Cures Today” to help fight pancreatic cancer, so you can feel extra awesome about buying one.

A few of the other little things I designed were inspired from designs I found on Pinterest. And since I’m not selling them, and I’m just enjoying them from the comfort of my own home, I felt A-OKAY about adapting the designs so closely.

Because you can’t have too many letters in your house I whipped up an H with lots of adorable baby H’s:

Inspiration from here

You probably can’t even see this guy in the larger picture, but he cracks me up every time I look at him:

Inspiration from here

And because I’m a soft piece of sentimental goo, this one is my favorite (our first dance was La Vie En Rose by Louis Armstrong):

Inspiration from here

Here’s another shot of them all together — in no particular order:

I can’t wait to get them all hung. I’ve never displayed so many pictures together so I really don’t have a clue as to how it’s going to turn out. Hope for the best, plan for the worst — that’s my motto. We’re planning on hanging them sometime in the next week which will sort of be our trial run. Once we have the walls painted we’ll have to rehang them all, but I’m okay with that. I don’t feel as much pressure to get it right the first time. It’s that whole practice-makes-perfect thing.

I have a hot date tonight that I’m excited about, and then hopefully we’ll get some projects crossed off one of our many lists. Updates on Monday. I wish everyone a happy Friday and an eventful weekend!

Connie’s Collection

My mom is not a hoarder. Let me start with that.

She is, however, a collector of… well… things. I hate the word “things” because it’s so general, but when describing the goodies in my mom’s basement you can really only use that word. She has everything from serving pieces, to a full crawlspace full of Christmas decor, to antique birdcages, to an old pair of ice skates, to candlesticks, to picture frames. It’s a veritable flea market down there.

I am proudly identical to my mom in every way except for this “storage” trait. I get my OCD love of organization from my dad (THANKS DAD!), so you can safely assume that he is less than thrilled about Connie’s Collection down in the basement. Every time I’m home he tries to persuade me into taking a carload of decor back with me. Because I am so much like my Dad I tend to deny his plea, but last time I gave in. My parents were both happy to part with my newfound treasures.

Here is what I scored:

I’ve already showed you what I made from the 24 beveled mirrors I found. It just never gets old. This mirror has such an impact in the bathroom / laundry room, and it was so FREE.

This Picasso print was sitting in a corner collecting dust. I think the last time it saw the light of day was when it hung in my bedroom when I was in high-school. Now it lives proudly over the toilet. That sounded sarcastic, but I really meant it.

She had these candlesticks in a “return” pile but I snatched them up before she could make it back to the store. She was fine with it since she only paid a few bucks for them. My plan was to try a DIY method of mercury glass, but I’m kind of loving how they look untouched.

These were technically mine to begin with, but when I moved to Chicago I had to downsize; some of my decor went to live in her basement. They aren’t totally my style anymore, but I thought I might find a way to use them again.

This little guy was a sugar pot? Maybe? I’m not sure what he was before I got my hands on him. Now he lives on the sink in the LaundryBathRoom and will get a new life as a bud vase.

My mom bought this drawer divider for her kitchen, but when she brought it home realized it was much too large. I thought it just might fit our top drawer of the master bathroom vanity and replace our tuperware dividers. It fits like a glove.

I’m a vodka girl. And I’m recently a martini girl. And before now, I didn’t own martini glasses! Can you believe that? THE MADNESS. I saw these and my mom forced me to take them all, explaining that they never used them anymore. I was happy to oblige.

This was another total score from her servingware cabinet. My parents have some close friends who recently moved from the USA back to their home in the Philippines. The homeowner was going to get rid of this china, so my mom scooped it up. We’re not really Fine China kind of people so she was happy to pass them on to me. I love the gold accents and simple shape, so I happily took them home to enjoy as our everyday plates.

If anyone knows anything about Fine China, let me know. Here’s the stamp that’s on the bottom of each plate:

Everyone needs an apothecary jar. Next, I think I’m going to fill it up with almonds. (Please ignore the needs-to-be-recaulked caulk.)

And last but certainly not least: these lovely little dishes. They are dainty, and lacy, and oh-so feminine. I’m not sure how I’m going to use them but I just couldn’t resist taking them home with me. Aren’t they the cutest?

I made out like a bandit! I felt like I had just won the lottery as I was unloading all of my treasures, and it’s a win-win since my parents are trying to downsize. My rule when bringing new, fun “stuff” into the house is that I have to make a trip to goodwill to unload some of our not-in-use items. Otherwise we’ll just start collecting, and collecting, and as this sentence progresses I’m filling with anxiety.

So, that’s that. All my treasures. Who needs to go thrifting when you can just go and visit your parents?