Little Birdies

A while back on a shopping excursion to Michael's I came across these cute wooden bird ornaments.  They were carved out of wood with legs and feet made from metal wire.  I bought a few of them as I thought they would be fun to use as decorations.

 

I didn't want to hang them so my first task was to remove the metal loop from the back with needle nose pliers.  I then filled in the hole with wood filler and sanded it smooth.

 

I painted the birds in fun colors with craft paint I had and set them out on the shoe cabinet by the front door for a cheerful greeting as you come or go.

Revamping an Ikea Shoe Cabinet

Hi Everyone!  It's been a while since my last blog post!  The last couple of months have been quite hectic because we have a new addition to our family.  Here's introducing our new baby girl Emma!
So my days of late have been occupied by feedings, diapers, and trying to elicit baby smiles :o)

Back to the blogging business!  When we get home first thing we do is kick off our shoes, so inside the door we had sneakers, sandals, work shoes, slippers all scattered around the entryway.  We were in desperate need of something to store all our shoes!   On a couple other blogs I've seen shoe cabinets from Ikea so we started our search there.  We found one we really liked but it would not fit the dimensions of the space we planned to put it as it would be too tall and cover a light switch.  The cabinets that would fit were far from attractive and since it was one of the first things you would see entering the house we wanted something that would look nice.

We looked around at other stores but didn't find anything that would work.  We contemplated building a cabinet ourselves but couldn't figure out how to make the bin drawers that swing down and out to open.  We decided the easiest thing to do would be to buy an inexpensive cabinet from Ikea and modify it.  Well, make that two cabinets to fit the width of the space where we planned to have it.

So here we have the beginnings of our cabinet.  As with everything at Ikea it came in a box and we had to assemble it.

Well, Brian assembled it :o)

 

And here is what one completed cabinet looked like.  Not too exciting.

As I mentioned before to fit the space we attached two of the cabinets together (and because I have a bit more shoes than would fit in one cabinet!).

After that was done we moved on to making the cabinet look nice.  We wanted the cabinet to have a sturdy (i.e. not cheap!) furniture feel so we added a larger wood top and trim and beadboard to the fronts of the drawers and sides.

For the top we couldn't find a piece of wood to fit with 1 inch overhangs all the way around so we combined to narrower pieces of wood.  We attached them together using a Kreg jig to make the connections invisible from the top.  Brian first used the Kreg jig to drill pilot holes on the underside of the wood.

Then he attached the two pieces with screws.

 

Here's a closer view of a pilot hole and screw.  The Kreg jig provides a nice angled hole for attaching two side-by-side pieces of wood that will be invisible from the top surface.

Next I sanded the edges and the point where the two boards came together to make everything smooth and flush.  Then it was time to attach the top piece to the cabinet.  Brian glued the top down and attached it from the underside with screws.  He made sure everything was firmly held while the glue dried as you can see by all the clamps and weights :o)

We bought beadboard and some craft wood strips from Home Depot to add some style.  To the front of the drawers Brian added the beadboard and wood strips for trim using Liquid Nails glue.

To the corners he added thicker wood pieces along with the beadboard and craft wood strips on the sides, glueing and clamping everything in to place.

Once everything was attached I filled in any gaps with wood filler, sanded everything smooth, and painted the whole cabinet white with Annie Sloane's chalk paint.  We also bought bin pulls from Home Depot, in the Martha Stewart style that I  have used on a couple other projects.  So here we have the finished product:

 

A big improvement over how it looked in the beginning!

Here's a closer look:

And here it is in action, hiding our shoes!

It was quite a bit of work but I LOVE it!!!

Updating an 80's Dresser

The last few weeks have been busy with preparing for the baby.  After our baby shower (which was so cute, thanks guys!) we found that we had more baby clothes than we knew what to do with.  We received so many cute baby outfits and hand-me-downs from two friends who recently had babies that we definitely needed a dresser for the baby.........woohoo, painting project time!

When my parents came up to visit we scoured the local thrift stores to find a dresser.  We ended up with one that was the same style as one I grew up with in the 80's, the off white paint with gold embellishment.  So, it would definitely be needing a paint job!

Here we have the before picture of the dresser in all it's glory:

I got to work removing the old drawer pulls, roughly sanding all surfaces for better primer adhesion and  then applying the primer.  For the color, I was going to go with leftover Martha Stewart paint in "Peony" that I used on a nightstand already in the room but Brian complained that the color was too much like flesh color, the crayon that you never really used.  Personally I liked the color but sometimes you have to compromise so I found a color that was a little darker that Brian approved of, Dutch Boy's "Nantucket Red".  They didn't have no-VOC paint at Orchard Supply where they carry Dutch Boy paint so we went to Home Depot where they color matched it and mixed it up using Behr Ultra's no-VOC paint.  I also bought my favorite Martha Stewart pulls that I previously used on our dining room corner cabinet and are using on a project still in the works.

So I applied two coats of "Nantucket Red" and attached the handles and we had a new dresser!

The colors not really a red, closer to the "Peony" that I had wanted to use, but Brian says there is a difference and likes the color so that's all that matters ;o)  And it adds a bit of femininity to the room as we had kept most of the decor gender neutral up until this point.  I also added some leftover shelf paper from the dining room corner cabinet to the drawers for a bit of contrasting color:

We still have quite a bit of organizing to do but here is how things are coming along.  We placed the dresser in front of a window with the bunting I made recently.  You can also see the alphabet rug that I fell in love with and had to have :o)  I still need to re-organize the bookshelves with some baby items and find a new home for our old stuff.  One of the neat ideas for the baby shower was to have people sign books instead of cards so the baby has her own library started so I'll be filling the bookshelf with those. 

On the opposite wall is the "flesh colored" night stand with more baby books and the butterflies:

And then we have the crib and all sorts of baby items that need to find a permanent home!

So things are slowly coming along but are still quite a mess, but compared to before things are a lot better!  Hopefully we can get everything done in the next few weeks before the baby comes!

A Bunting Banner for the Baby's Room

This past weekend I worked on a bunting banner for the baby's room.  I found several fabrics in bright colors and followed the directions from a previous post.  I had wanted to string a couple across the walls in the room but as the walls already had decorations I decided to make two smaller banners and hang them across the top of the window blinds.

Here's a closer view to see more of the pattern:

And the banner across the other window:

I also hung two cute racks we found at Ikea:

So that's how the baby's room is coming along.  A little less than two months to go!

A Butterfly Wall

Scouting for ideas of how to decorate the nursery, I saw a pin on Pinterest where paper butterflies where adhered to a wall as if in flight.  I thought it was a really fun idea and had some butterflies left over that I got from Michael's for our wedding so I decided to use those.  I bought some poster putty from Joann's and adhered small pieces to the back of my butterflies.  The poster putty is nice because it can easily be removed from the wall but seems to hold very well at the same time.

So here's the back of my butterfly with the putty attached to the underside. 

And then I placed the butterflies to look like they were swooping across the wall.

Here's a closer picture where you can see the pretty patterning on the wings.

I also plan to use some more of the butterflies to make a mobile over the crib for the baby, but I have yet to start that.  I'm still in the planning process of how I want to make it.  We had initially bought a large umbrella-like leaf from Ikea that I was going to use but when I assembled it, it was huge, like cover the whole crib huge!  So I'm deciding whether to try my hand at shaping a smaller wire leaf to use or just going with a basic round shape for the mobile.  We will see where my creativity takes me!

A Yarn Egg Garland

By now you have probably heard of the site Pinterest.  It's a way to keep track of things that catch your interest on the web, sort of an online scrapbook, and you can see what other people find interesting too.  Whenever I need some inspiration I'll go on and see what other people are pinning.  Recently I saw a pin of Easter eggs made out of yarn.  The pin didn't link to a how to site, but I googled "yarn eggs" and found a few sites.   Simply Modern Mom had easy to follow directions that I added a couple of tweaks to use things I had on hand (because I forgot to buy things at the store.....oops!).

First to get the egg shape you will need some small balloons like water balloons.  These were impossible to blow up by mouth so I found a cheap balloon pump at Target to help out with this step.  I got Brian to fill the balloons because I'm always worried they are going to pop on me!  I did the the tying and releasing air to get desired sizes.  I didn't worry about getting them all the same size, but Brian was going a little overboard on the balloon filling so I had to release some of the air, we weren't going for dinosaur size eggs! 

 

This was a pretty messy project so I put down wax paper over my work surface.  Simply Modern Mom suggested rubbing the balloons with vaseline to prevent the yarn from sticking to the balloons at the popping step.  I didn't have any vaseline so I used vitamin E oil I had, I figured the main point was to prevent sticking so figured oil would work??  Then I prepared my yarn soaking glue mixture.  I used a mixture of 3:1 water to craft glue and made sure to mix it well. 

 

I bought a few colors of yarn that I thought were Easter colors (and were cheap at Walmart).  Not the normal pastels, but fitting for the brighter decor of our house.

I measured out the approximate amount of yarn to use by wrapping it around my hand.  Depending on how dense you want the yarn to cover the "eggs" you can use more or less than I did.  I wrapped the yarn about 30 times around my hand.  I also wore gloves because as I said before, this is a pretty messy project!

Then I soaked the yarn in the glue mixture.  I squeezed out any excess liquid before wrapping it around the balloons.

I wrapped the yarn around the balloons randomly trying to criss-cross over the entire balloon surface.  When I was all finished with the wrapping I dipped the wrapped balloons in the glue mixture to make sure all the yarn was soaked.  Then I left them on the wax paper to dry for 24 hours.  I also rearranged them after a couple of hours because excess glue formed puddles on the bottom of the balloons.

After 24 hours I popped the balloons.  I held the tied end of the balloon and popped them using a pin.  I found the faster the pop the better as slowly deflating balloons sometimes pulled the yarn in with it collapsing the egg shape.  For a stronger egg I think using more yarn would be helpful, but the amount of yarn I used held the balloon shape pretty well.

Lastly, I strung the eggs on a piece of yarn, tying the eggs to the yarn to hold them in place and hung the garland up in a doorway.

 

So cheerful and festive!

New and Improved Mason Jar Soap Dispensers

I have been loving our mason jar soap dispensers over the last few months, but with use I've noticed a few things that could use a little re-working.  The pump of one of the dispensers became loose so a stronger method of attaching the lid to the pump was needed.  Also, where I made the hole in the lid to insert the pump rusted.  So I searched online and with a few helpful hints from you guys as comments on the last post I decided to try new pumps and a new method to attach the pumps to the lids.

I bought some nice metal pumps online in a satin nickel finish and some galvanized lids that match pretty closely.  I also bought a metal punch set that Brian used to "punch" round holes in the lids to fit the pump.  Then he inserted the pump into the hole and used epoxy to attach the pump to a rubber stopper added on the underside of the lid to hold it in place.

Then all that was left to do was screw the lid onto the mason jar.

And a full view:

As for painting the jars, the jars I painted last time around have held up pretty well.  There are a few tiny spots where the paint scraped off but nothing very noticeable.  If you are relatively careful with the jars (no scouring pads for cleaning) then I think the paint will hold up well.

An advantage with the clear jars is that you can add any color of soap to match your decor or to add a bit of color.  Also, there are beautiful blue glass jars, like the "Ball" jar below, but they are harder to come by.  I found two blue jars at an antique store a while back, but for clear jars, thrift stores usually have a few in stock for a lot cheaper, or you can use any old jar you have on hand!

Brian and I are actually opening up an Etsy shop to sell these and other things we have made on our blog.  Right now we have two sizes for sale, the smaller and larger of the clear jars.  (The blue jar soap dispenser is a wedding gift for a friend.  She is using old jars as flower vases so I figured she could use the jar for that and then after the wedding she can use it as a soap dispenser, a little wedding memento!)  So if you are in the market for a mason jar soap dispenser follow the link below or click on the icon on the right of the page.  :o)

http://www.etsy.com/shop/ourlovelybungalow