Tag: DIY

A Menagerie of Makeovers

Summertime, is a busy time. With yard work finally able to be taken care of and everyone wanting to enjoy every moment of warm summer sunshine. Though it’s typically a bit busy, it’s also a time that beckons for projects to be done, so thus, I undertook a few smaller things and decided to share them here ☺️

Starting with a coffee table.
I’d been keeping my eyes open for a coffee table on the local buy and sell pages for sometime.

Wanting a change from ours but nothing too pricey and also wanting it to be something a little less detrimental to small noggins, as Lakes mobility increased.

It took sometime, but I’m happy with the waiting as it lead me to this $50 table that was in Birch Hills.

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We picked it up one Sunday after church and in the following days, it got taped off and the legs were spray painted gold.

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I like using the Design Master Brilliant Gold spray paint from Michael’s for a slightly antiqued looking gold color ☺️

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A couple coats later and violà, ‘a new to our home’ coffee table that I’m very pleased about 😁

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Next up was a mirror that’s been sitting in our garage for literally years.

It came with a dresser I’d purchased second hand when we’d first moved and then once the house reno was completed, the dresser didn’t actually work anywhere.

I’d had the idea for sometime to do an anthro-esque inspired DIY to the mirror but just never got around to ordering the required things/pulling it out to do it.

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I hesitate to undertake anything that requires sanding these days, as I have to time it juuuust right to not only get the sanding done but also have time for a shower afterwords, all while Lake naps.

So that’s another reason I just never seemed to be able to get around to finishing it 🤪

I sanded it down and admit to unfortunately scratching the mirror with the sandpaper 😒

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So be cautious of that if you do any such similar project.

After sanding and wiping it down, I taped off the mirror itself using painters tape and Amazon packaging paper 🤪

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I ordered these wooden plaques from Amazon and spray painted them along with the wooden frame of the mirror.

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I had to wait for Mike to get a chance to cut the bottom flourishy bits, as I didn’t want to attempt it and break them, as I most likely would have since I lack skill and patience 🤪🙈

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Using wood glue, I placed the appliques where I wanted them and… once again, a mini makeover was completed and I was very pleased with the end result!

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I’d originally thought it would go in our bathroom if we got around to a refresh in there, but we never did… so now it’s done, but has no home. For now I placed it on the dresser in our living room, though I’m not certain I like how it looks with the staircase wall behind, being smaller than the mirror.

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(Peekaboo to the little misbehaving stair climber;)

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Oh well, it’ll work somewhere eventually I’m sure 😉


Last and quite literally least (in amount of effort anyways) to be honest, was this little wooden bowl from our local antique store ☺️

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We stopped in there one Saturday and after looking around, I took this wooden bowl home for $5.00.

I quickly sanded it and though it took away the woods various colors more than I expected, I didn’t mind too much.
I got some liming wax from my sister and quickly applied some to the sanded and cleaned surface with a rag and that was it.

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A simple Saturday salvagery that left me with a beachy wooden bowl to use for whatever I desire ☺️

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Small Space Storage Solution

This little space beside the stairs in our homes entryway, was always been a bit of an eyesore and a convenient ‘catch all’ area that would look very messy, very fast 😬

We had the entry closet to store some things in but after putting a small freezer in there, that storage went away too.
With babester on the way, I finally drew out an idea and got the husbster to sit down with me and measure out some IKEA pieces to use for the creating of my vision.

Turns out, he was not at all pumped to create it 😬🙈
BUT, he did a fabulous job in the end 😅

Mom helped me assemble some of the pieces so they’d be ready to go when Mike finally had some time. Which happened to be the day after we got back from our baby moon, hence the suitcases you can see below.

 Once he had secured the base, we contemplated what to do for a top. The length of the whole bench was a bit too long to use the boards we’d planned on using, as they all had a little bit of twist to them, making installation too difficult.
We went with a piece of birch plywood to put on top, as per a suggested idea from the mumsie 🤓

Edging to give the front a finished look was available in the matching color and that went on simply by ironing and then going behind that and pressing it on firmly with a rolling pin.

Kinda funny that two house items I avoid, the iron and rolling pin, were actually needed for a reno project 🤪

I of course spray painted the knobs that came with the cupboard/drawer fronts, gold 🤪👌🏻

I tested out a few different sealers my mom happened to have and ended up going with clear, ‘Diamond Finish’ Varathane . I applied three coats, letting it dry, as well as giving it a super duper light sanding and wipe down, between each coat.

I’m SO happy with how it turned out and somehow, it still always floors me how FILLING a space, can actually make it feel bigger.
Now we have good bench for putting on shoes, storage for shoes and other odds and ends as well as a very handy place to set the car seat, diaper bag, mail etc. when you enter the house.

Price break-down –

 

$180.00 – 2 Kallax shelf units
$40.00 – 4 Kallax door inserts
$80.00 – 4 Kallax drawer inserts
(All in high gloss white)
$45.00 – 1 Sheet of birch plywood from Rona
$10.00 – 1 Pack edge banding from Rona
$10/20 – Clear finish – not certain on the price as I used my moms and used very little + misc. screws, applicable taxes etc.

Prepared For Landing – A Nursery Reveal

1 week and 4 days until Baby H’s due date and his room is now officially completed! And none to soon I think 🤪

Since our house only has the option of two bedrooms upstairs or one in the basement, it was a simple choice of where the newest addition will be dwelling.

Upstairs… in my craft room 🤪

Meaning I had to sort, discard and disperse my craft/art supplies throughout other areas of the house, which was no tiny task if we’re being honest… though it was rewarding because I do SO enjoy getting rid of items and finding new, usable spaces in our home 🙈

I put together an idea board for how I was envisioning the rooms transformation and so it began…

Continue reading “Prepared For Landing – A Nursery Reveal”

Upcycled Accent Storage

 

Back in February while Mike was away visiting his family in Holland, I finally decided to take the time and tackle the makeover of this piece we salvaged from the items in the Mac house makeover 🤓

Firstly it got a good scrubbing with some TSP cleaner.
Next it was taken apart and I gave it a light sanding, followed by another wipe down/vacuum.

The entire process ALWAYS takes longer than one first thinks when looking at a potential project, so this was done over two full days with multiple breaks, delays, movies for background noise and nourishment stops 🤪

I gave the dresser a coat of primer and while that dried, took the old hardware and gave it a vinegar/baking soda soak and scrub before spray painting it all gold ☺️

Mumsie had dark teal/blue paint in the color I had envisioned so luckily I was able to use that and love how it turned out.

It took multiple coats and I had to first brush the paint in the cracks and then roll it on the remaining surfaces to get full coverage.

After I’d got it all painted, the doors were to thick/tacky to actually close, so I had to shave them down… it was a soft wood and I was able to do it using a utility knife.

Thankfully so because I don’t like power tools and that would have meant needing Mike around for completion and I really didn’t want to wait for him to finish this thing that I had started in order to semi surprise him when he returned home 🤪

He did have to install some sleek new gold handles and magnetic cupboard latches when he retuned but after that, it was officially and totally transformed! The gold handles were purchased from Amazon.

The dried palms displayed are actually from my own palm plant.

When one leaf starts to die, I cut and save it to dry and use for filler… maybe not the most beautiful thing I could find but it is free and I have contemplated being able to spray paint them if I want them to look a little more ‘purchased’.🤪

I’m super pleased with how the dresser itself turned out and am always game for extra storage 🤓👌🏻

The decor vibe in the basement is semi different from our upstairs and I’ve struggled a bit with it but I like the sort of ‘eclectic/travel vibe’ that I feel it is now starting to embody, in part to this piece 🙂

Beachy Wall Decor – My Creativity During Covid

 

Many moons ago, I’d made this decorative wall hanging/decor for our bathroom wall, using a piece of beach wood, air plants and string.

After successfully killing all of the air plants over the span of a year or so, the wood has hung empty for much, much too long 😅

Though I loved how it looked, I wasn’t about to purchase more plants. just to kill them :p

I’d notice the empty piece of wood while in the bathroom and then just as quickly forget about it…
Finally after a little thought and inspiration blossoming after Instagram/Pinterest scrolling, an idea formed.

I bought this ‘air drying clay’ from Walmart for around $5.00 and during one Sunday morning after we’d had breakfast and were listening to some preaching online, I got Mike to accompany me in making some clay shapes to begin the project.

I laid out parchment paper to roll the clay out on and used a variety of home items to cut out my desired shapes.
A small knife, some lids from these bead containers and a sewing needle to create the holes that would be used for assembly.

The clay began to dry out fairly quickly so I wouldn’t take off more than you need at one time… just so you know if you decide to attempt anything 🤓

You can see when the created pieces are dry, as they go from a grey color to more of a white… I didn’t time it and we rolled out pieces pretty thin but I didn’t find that it took crazy long.

What DID take long was installing a loop on each one, then arranging and rearranging the shapes until I found them to be mostly visually pleasing and used jewelry chain to attach them all in the correct order.

They then sat on my coffee table, in order, for probably over a week before I got up the ambition to actually paint them and complete the project 😬🙈 I have to be in just the right mood to actually ‘paint’ anything… anyone else?

I would have left them neutral but since the wall behind the piece is white, I decided to add some color.
I painted them and then used a damp paper towel and my nail to distress them a bit which gave it more of a beach feel to me, since I wasn’t going for perfection in my paint strokes anyways 😉

I used hot glue to attach the top of the chains onto the driftwood and some ‘quake putty’ on the back of some of the pieces to gently adhere the odd one to the wall, so they would lay flat.

 

I don’t know that it’s my favourite creation but honestly, it’s rare that I absolutely love a thing that I come up with 🤪
So, it’s better than nothing and I can see myself turning to clay more often in the future… maybe 😉

Now, after an embarrassingly long time, the stick on the bathroom wall no longer hangs empty 🙂

A Refreshed, Rental Investment

So we bought a second, or I guess I should I say, third house, a couple months back 💁🏻‍♀️

Hubster found a bank repo for sale in a town 15 or so minutes away from us, so we went and were the first people to take a look.
The rest is history 🤪

This one was purchased with pretty much only the intent to clean it up, fix a few things and then rent it out.
I wouldn’t have minded cleaning it up, making it look a bit better and trying to sell it again right away buuuuut Hubster wanted to get his fingers in the rental market, so that’s what we did 🤪

 

 

What’s really unfortunate about it all, is that we (the sister and I) cleaned for about 8-10 hours, I cleaned for a few hours alone before that and Mike repainted all the walls, took out trash annnd you can’t really see ‘missing dirt’ in ‘after’ photos 😬

 

So the look isn’t much different from photo to photo, but imagine if you will, how gross it was if it took two steady cleaners, 8 or so hours to scrape off unknown substances from the walls, baseboards, kitchen cupboards and then vacuuming, mopping and carpet cleaning and then a few hours of bathroom scrubbing.

And, that isn’t touching the state of the basement, aside from what Mike and a friend did, removing a bunch of the old owners items.

We now have a renter in it and are just trusting all goes well in this new venture* 🤓
Fingers crossed we don’t find too many terrible ‘surprises’ in the yard once the snow melts 🤪
By surprise, I mostly mean dog poo, as that was found multiple different places, IN the house 😬

*Since I wrote on here last, Michiel began his own construction and renovation business! The name is ‘Hagenouw Ventures’ and so far, he’s been kept pretty busy and is still enjoying being able to use his hands and set his own hours 😉

@HagenouwVentures

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