Design

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Picture of our updated livinging room

How to Build a Mid-Century Modern Fireplace Mantel

We wanted a simple, elegant, mid-century-esk fireplace mantel. A fireplace mantel is an easy project to undertake and it will drastically change the character of your room! Our challenge is that we needed a mantel larger than the common 60- and 72-inch kits. And I love an excuse to get my saws out. Here’s a before and after and some tips for the design and build adventure. To brighten our living room, we removed a massive bookcase and shelving unit,...

Make a Contemporary Parsons Kid Desk with this DIY Desk Hack

Recently we’ve converted two full size tables into desks for the kids (the littles). It’s a brilliant way to make a fantastic solid wood desk for much less than buying new or buying wood and a leg-kit. With a few carefully measured cuts and some wood refinishing you can achieve fantastic results. Student Desk from a Large Console Table Nichole found a plain amber stained table on Facebook marketplace that was listed for $20 – likely from IKEA at one...

IKEA Kallax Bookcase Hack – How To Wrap Your Bookcase

For our children’s playroom, we were looking for a practical and stylish way of storing toys and devices. This simple DIY hack turns a simple white IKEA bookcase / shelf unit into a stylish piece of furniture. It elevated the design and style of a traditional bookcase while adding some warmth and character. We had two IKEA Kallax shelf units – smaller one at 30 3/8 x 30 3/8 and a larger unit at 30 3/8 x 57 7/8 –...

wood glue bench configuration with clamps and braces

How to Glue Your Wood Together – Setting up your Glue Station

Your equipment doesn’t need to be fancy to work! Gluing wood together can be fun and makes an incredibly strong join. Here are some of the tools and tips I’ve picked-up along the way to make your glue project go smooth. The following example photos here are from a recent glue-up for a nearly 10-foot long desk as we were needing more work space in our office. Tools I Use: Gorilla or Titebond wood glues work! Clamps I use (Irwin...

Bold Front Door Colors to Make Your Exterior Pop

We repainted our house recently, and I was on the hunt for some inspiring, bold color choices for our front door. We live in a builder-boxed house neighborhood with an active HOA, so by “bold” I mean we wanted to avoid brick red, white or ivory. A friend had painted her front doors a plum shade of purple, kind of like this. While I love purple, I chickened out of going that route. We decided to go with a bold...

How you can make perfect edge lines when painting

Perfect edge lines are possible with a little extra work. If you don’t have a steady hand like a pro, blue or green tape has let you down, and you like straight edge lines, here are a few tricks we’ve learned along the way. Option 1: Paint the Tape Run your blue tape to set your edge line. Now paint a very thin coat of the paint the tape is covering. This will seal your blue tape and you won’t...

How to Pick a Gray

Gray has been my challenge supreme since we moved into our current house a few years ago.  Such a challenge, in fact, that we’ve actually repainted a couple or rooms more than once trying to get the shade right against the lighting in our house.  Let my and Ryan’s shoulder pain from rolling and blue tape parties be lessons to save you time.   Our current house is a south-facing house, with a slight tilt to the west.  We also have a lot of...

How to Choose a White

What seems to be such a simple thing – choosing white for the walls and trim of a room – proved to be one of the hardest parts of our recent remodel.  I will admit to having to repaint an entire bathroom when the white didn’t look right on the walls.  Here are some things I learned that might save you some sweat.  Swatches don’t cut it.  Getting a swatch is not enough – you really need to pick two or...