the Shop

Here's some photos of the garage, though I'm no longer referring to it as that. Garages contain cars or clutter and this really has none of that. It's a shop.

Built my last workbench and incorporated the metal drawer cabinets that I got off of Craigslist.

Still more work to be done, but it's really nice to have an organized place to play in.

Adeline's Nursery

We've posted a bunch of photos of this room in various stages of completion, but here it is in it's most recent and final stage.

Our theme for our little girl’s room was “woodland” and we incorporated that with various stuffed animals (foxes, owls, etc.) as well as some of the prints which were from etsy. But before we got started on the decorating, we pulled up the carpet and refinished the hardwood floors as well as painted over the dingy/dirty/ugly tan wall paper.

We wanted the room to be feminine for our little girly, but we didn't want a pink Pepto Bismol explosion. To combat the inevitable pink we brought in oranges and yellows, all in sherbet tones.

The best before/after in the room is the dresser which was $7 at a thrift store but it had really old and ugly yellow paint and a drawer was broken. We painted it glossy white around the tops and sides and the drawers themselves are a gradient of a coral color. Because we only needed a little paint we used the Home Depot $3 paint samples for the drawer fronts. Then, because the sample paint comes in flat sheen only, I sprayed them with a gloss clear spray paint.

We saved a bunch of money by getting most of the items at either IKEA, thrift stores or Craigslist. The room has a nice bright and cheery feel to it and we love playing with our little girl in there. There are some special family touches in the room, including the pennant flag banner made by Auntie, the embroidered squirrel, made by Mom, and the Raggedy Ann, made by Great Grandma.

Now the photos:

Rachel's Grandmother made this little Raggedy Anne:

Paolo the Fox series from etsy: 

Rachel needlepointed the little squirrel ---- which is hanging from a brass owl: 

It's pretty obvious Adeline loves it! Thanks for reading.




Crib: IKEA
Paint: Behr Ultra Custard Cream semi gloss with White trim and ceiling
Rug: Home Depot
Bookshelf: Craigslist - it came painted white so bonus! Though we added the wood effect backing
Dresser/changing table: Thrift store for $7 though it was hideous yellow and a drawer was broken.
Prints: Felix the Fox, and Paolo the Fox series in IKEA frames
Flag banner: Kaitlin, Rachel's sister made the awesome flag banner over the crib
Rocking chair: Craigslist
Floor lamp: IKEA

Master Bedroom: the DIY headboard

This post isn't about the silver ceiling tile headboard I had made for the Master bedroom about a year ago. Rachel wanted something "softer" ----- figuratively and literally.

We had online headboard shopped and nothing was cheap and I kept saying, "I could make that". For example this Target headboard for $300:

So finally, I got around to making it.

Materials:
3 2x2's from Home Depot @ $1.87 each ($5.61)
1 4x8 particle board @ $12
1 picture frame wire @ $2.50
1 pack picture frame mounts @ $2.50
2 yards of fabric $13
2 yards of thick batting $15
11 packs of upholstery nails @ $1.30 each ($14.30)

Total cost: $65

For our Queen bed, I made it 67" wide by 41" tall. The frame is pretty simple, then I screwed the sheet of particle board to it. I then used a router around the edges so that the fabric would wrap around a little smoother and make it look less like fabric wrapped around a board. The 2 x 2's give a nice depth and help add to the structure of it.

I mounted the picture frame hardware on the inside of the frame (rather than the back side) so that the hardware wouldn't be against the wall:

So here it is looking pretty decent pre-upholstery nails. The nails took a decent amount of time. I used a straight edge and a pencil to draw a line down the top and each side where I wanted the nails to go to help keep things straight. 

Also, I found by using needle nose pliers to hold the nail part it made things easier ---- the nails are about an inch apart: 

Anyway, here it is: 

Still planned are new matching table lamps and a sunburst mirror over the bed.