Design

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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...

How to Create a Wood Accent Wall

We have always had an “accent” wall in our son’s room. Even when we repainted his room to create the Star Wars Boys Room, we kept a wee accent. A recent overhaul of our daughters room and some need for balance between siblings gave us the idea to punch it up — and having a bunch of free wood that Nichole found on our local marketplace that was begging to be made into something. We drew many options of what...

How to Remove Trim without Wall Damage

Here’s a simple way to remove trim without putting decent holes in your wall or pulling some of the paint and drywall paper off – it may take longer to remove the trim but overall, it’s faster than having to patch holes from your prybar or mud, sand, and texture where the wall comes with your old trim. Tools you’ll Need Utility Knife: My Olfa is going on 10 years (similar knife) I like that I can extend the blade...

How to Brighten Fireplace Grout and Stone for $50 – Schmearing DIY

Schmearing a fireplace can positively change the way your fireplace looks – our reason was to brighten up our room! When we moved in, we wanted to update this fireplace. It’s in our family room, and we wanted to keep the cozy look of stone (which matches our exterior stone), but wanted a different look. Here is how we’ve had it for a few years, after Ryan updated the mantle to a new beautifully made mid-century model wood mantle (which...

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...