Hacks We Love

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Ikea Regissor Hack

IKEA Regissor Cabinet Hack – Cane Alternative!

We rescued an IKEA Regissor Cabinet and decided to give it hack it – give it a makeover by redesigning the doors and paint color. We wanted to use cane as the front covering, but cane is costly and we were looking for a less expensive alternative. Here is our hack for how we transformed this IKEA Regissor cabinet into a great piece of furniture with a simple burlap hack. This approach would also work as a rattan or cane...

DIY Vintage Modern Art for $3

I have been loving the new vintage Victorian transformative art portraits that are showing up across Instagram and other places. I have fantasized about being an artist, and dabbled with acrylics for a while. Unfortunately there is not an ounce of Picasso in these veins. So I turn to digital print for much of my art these COVID days. The transformative Victorian-era modified oil prints are so unique and interesting to me. Here is one example of of the modern...

DIY Dirt Vase Hack

I joined the bandwagon on this EXCELLENT upcycle vase hack! Here is how I turned a dated brown vase that I was thinking about donating into this awesome black dirty thing that looks peachy on my mantle. To pull this off, you need these things: A vase you want to get muddy Dirt (potting soil works too) Almond flour A little bit of water Black spray paint – matte works best Gloves optional This is the vase that I started...

IKEA Koppang Dresser Hack

I love a good IKEA hack. This super simple and inexpensive update made a big difference in this IKEA Koppang white dresser. IKEA dressers can be hard to find, and we lucked out by getting our hands on this one for delivery even though it was sold out everywhere in stores around us. There are other options that are very price friendly, including some on Wayfair, like this one. For E’s room makeover, we needed something narrow that would fit...

DIY White Velvet Headboard

I really tried to like the velvet headboard we got for E’s room last year. She went without a headboard for so long, and I found a great deal on a pink velvet headboard online (here’s the one we found for under $100 at the time we purchased). We repainted her room, lightened all the things around it, new white bedding, but no, I still could not grow to love this little pink headboard. And another closer: So this weekend...

DIY Pottery Barn Dollhouse Bookcase – Finishing

There were a lot of lessons from this series of projects for our daughters room. I had this wonderful thought about spraying with an airless sprayer — it was a spectacular failure. Such is life. At least you can sand your way out of those failures.. Involve the Kiddos One of the great things about this project series was our daughter’s design and finish input. We didn’t deliver on her request for a rainbow painted bookcase but we did keep...

DIY Pottery Barn Girls Desk Hack – Finishing Touches

We are so happy with the way this custom Chelsea Pottery Barn -esque vanity turned out for our daughter and the finishing touches. There was some finishing challenges and some good lessons on the journey as we undertook our first furniture project with red oak wood. See our Instructions for Building the Pottery Barn Vanity here! Time for Sanding the Vanity To clean up some of the drawer face markings from routing I put my oscillating tool to use –...

How to Build a Dollhouse Bookcase

There are great plans online for dollhouse bookcases and we wanted to build one with slightly different features – roof slope and dimensions. The inspiration is a Pottery Barn Dollhouse Bookcase. However, we wanted to put a small twist on the design – a light take on a midcentury modern style roof and a dollhouse that was 36w x 42h x 12d. Here are some handy resources and considerations when modifying the design. How to Modify the Design and Build...

How to Build a Vanity – Pottery Barn Hack

We set out looking for the perfect vanity for our daughter’s room makeover. There were plenty of options online, but none of them quite fit the space. Nichole found some inspiration in a Pottery Barn vanity (retails for around $300) but it was to small for the space. For about $120 in materials, we set out to design and build our own version. Overall our finished project was 32w x 17.5d x 29h. Here’s the Pottery Barn Chelsea Kids Vanity...

Office desk with real wood top

IKEA Hemnes Desk Hack – Finishing Style Touches

This year has been an interesting one for us all. The news in March that we were to work from home created some interesting space challenges for Ryan and I. My office became the guest bedroom, where we had a queen bed and large dresser, and not room for much else. Someone gave us a small Ikea secretary desk, which tied me over for some time. It was broken and when open took up a lot of space without a...