Furniture

Armoire turned Computer Cabinet

March 27, 2013 By Stacy 32 Comments

We are probably the most un-tech savvy family ever. Everything we have is old. I just got my first cell phone a year and a half ago. And we still have a land line. So it was big deal for us to upgrade and get a new computer!

Our computer was almost 10 years old which in computer years is like 12,587. Sheesh! No wonder why it didn’t work.

We got our new computer from Staples. P.S. I was surprised at how many different things Staples carries. I think I am officially addicted to office supplies. My hubby and are were not super picky but we definitely wanted something with a lot of storage. Between taking pictures of my 4 kids to the blogging pics, I need STORAGE baby :) We got an HP and I love it! I am still trying to get used to Window 8 though. Please tell me it grows on you!

(source: Staples)

So our new computer was going to need a home…..

When I finished my office over a year ago, the plan was to turn our old armoire into a computer hutch. Yeah…… It has sat there this whole time, almost empty. Why are the little, easy projects the ones I always put off? Getting the new computer was a much needed kick in the pants to get this project done.

This armoire was the very first piece of furniture my husband and I bought together. We had been married for a month. We used it for clothes since our tiny apartments had tiny closets.

Ever since we moved to this home (about 6 years ago) it has been kind of useless. It held random things. So I am happy to have it actually functioning now!

The only thing I really had to do was add a sliding shelf for the keyboard and cut a hole in the back for cords. Easy, right?

I cut a 1″x12″ board to the right width, stained it to match, and added drawer slides to the sides. The drawer slides are about a 1/2 inch each so I subtracted an inch from the width of the inside of the hutch to figure out the width of the board.

One easy change and it has a whole new function!

I also decided to add some magnetic paint, chalkboard paint, cork board, and dry erase vinyl to the inside of the panel doors.

(See our home phone? We are probably one of the last people in America to still have a land line :P)

The chalkboard section I put at the bottom because I figured my 3 year old would want to use it too. It is right at his level. I try hard to not be on the computer during the day very much, but if I am, he can be a little helper.

I happened to have some dry erase vinyl on hand but they also sell dry erase paint. Rustoleum is the brand, which is also the same brand as the chalkboard and magnetic paint. I had to paint 6 or 7 coats of the magnetic paint to get it to hold the big heavy magnet clips.

The baskets on top and the file folders (I painted them blue) are from IKEA and the chair is the chair I painted. It has held up really well! The drawers hold printer paper an other supplies.

I am sure as I use this more and see what works and what doesn’t, that I can make little changes. But for now I am having fun with my new blogging space. I love that I can close the doors and the mess and work is hidden. I am kind of OCD like that, hence the desk with nothing on it! What about you? What is your work space like?

Full disclosure, Staples provided me with this computer. The words and opinions expressed in this review are strictly my own. To see the full line of computers visit Staples.com.

Filed Under: Decorating, Furniture, Painting, Projects, Tutorials 32 Comments

Fireplace Mantel Decor

January 31, 2013 By Stacy 15 Comments

My fireplace is one of my favorite things in my front room! Today I want to share with you the meaning behind the choices I made for my fireplace mantel. As you already know, I am a huge believer in decorating with meaning. I think you should surround yourself with items that have deep personal meaning and things that have a happy memory attached to it. Not every single thing in your home, but at least some :)

This is probably my favorite shot of the fireplace. I took a ton but this one stood out to me as “the shot”.

I will start with the clock. My mom collects clocks (among other things) and when we got married, my siblings and I all got to pick one of my mom’s clocks as a wedding present. I picked this antique mantel clock. I love it to pieces. I have to wind it once a week for it to keep time and I often forget. It has confused many visitors :)

When I was a little girl my dad had a brass pheasant in his office. To be honest I never paid much attention to it. I knew it was there and that was about it. When my dad passed away from cancer when I was 15, some of his things were packed away. His pheasant fell and the tail broke off. When I was in the planning stages of my family room I knew I wanted to add more brass to the room to highlight the gorgeous brass door knob on my 1938 front door and the other brass elements in the room. My mind went immediately to the brass pheasant my dad had. I searched on ebay and was able to find several. I lucked out that they are not rare. I found one for a decent price and was THRILLED when it came. I teared up as I opened the carefully wrapped bird. It is such a little thing but it makes me smile when I see it on my mantel.

I have shared my love of the book Mandy before when I shared my secret garden. This was my favorite book as a child. It was what made me yearn for a small cottage of my own to decorate. I was gathering books for the mantel and discovered that under the paper cover it was the perfect shade of yellow for my room. It was meant to be! The other books are some I already had plus thrift store finds that I thought were fitting.

This key is the original key to this house. Can you believe it still locks and unlocks the front door! We have a deadlock on there now and use that key so I framed this so it would not get lost. I ADORE old keys and was so delighted when we bought the house and discovered a small bag full of the original keys :)

The frame it is in was one we bought when we were newly weds. I have a thing for frames. I buy so many and will never have the wall space for them all. Can you say addiction? Well, we were window shopping and I spotted this frame. I LOVED it. We didn’t have very much money since we were still in college. I really wanted the biggest size. They were at a boutique and were very overpriced. We were ready to leave and my husband went back and grabbed the smallest sized frame and bought it for me. I will always love this frame.

I love to garden and I love plants of every kind. That is why there are so many in my family room. I love to bring nature indoors. Plants just make me happy. I especially have a thing for topiary plants. I ordered some rosemary topiaries from Joss and Main. They were alive…. the real deal. I think when I opened them they took a deep breath of this DRY winter Utah air and went into distress. The were stunning and perfect. But I couldn’t keep them alive. I didn’t want to throw them out because even though the leaves had turned dark brown, they were still pretty and the leaves were still stuck on there. So I went to my trusty paint supply and guess what I found???

The hubby and I used this way back when he was in school for architecture because we had to build models complete with landscaping. We would make little trees and spray them with this. My habit of holding on to everything (cough, cough, hording, cough) paid off my friend. I taped the stems/trunk of the plant off and then sprayed them with this. The look great!!! They still look like they are alive :)

The tallest topiary is from a place called Tai Pan Trading. The harlequin pot is from Hobby Lobby, and the white flower pots are from IKEA.

Thank you for letting me share the story behind my fireplace mantel decor. Stay tuned for the tutorial on how I built the fireplace and what secrets it holds…….

Filed Under: Decorating, Furniture, Painting, Projects 15 Comments

How To Build A Card Catalog

January 21, 2013 By Stacy 47 Comments

I have always wanted a piece of furniture with a bunch of tiny drawers. My mom had a spice cabinet on the wall of our kitchen growing that I would hide all sorts of treasures in. As I grew up I wanted my boys to have something similar. What I really wanted was a card catalog. I have actively searched for one for one for about three years. And the ones I found were either too big or too expensive. Every once in a while I would find a decently priced one on ebay but then I would notice the shipping. The shipping more often than not was more than the price of the cabinet!

So when I was in the planning stages of my family room renovation, I decided to figure out how to build one and make it look like an antique.

Before I show the tutorial, let me apologize for the crappy cell phone pics. I do a lot of my DIYing at night when my kids are in bed and since I was doing this project indoors (because of record low temps this winter) it got pretty dusty in my dining room so I didn’t want to pull out my nice camera. They won’t win any photography awards but you will get the idea :)

The building………

You basically start with a box. Make the dimensions fit your own space but be smart and make sure with the size that you choose, you will have the least amount of cutting possible to eliminate extra work. For example…..

I am old school. I should one day learn sketch-up or some other computer program but for now I really enjoy just drawing out my ideas on paper. I had it all done. The dimensions, shopping list, cut list, etc. And then I lost it. I was pretty confident that I remembered everything so I went to the store and bought the lumber. I had remember the width of the box being 18 inches. So that is how it was cut. But what it really was, was 18 inches on the inside of the box, not the outside. If I had made it 19 1/2 inches like it was suppose to be, the 1×6 boards I was using for the drawer fronts (which due to planing/sanding are really 5 1/2 inches) would have worked perfectly and I would not have had to cut them down. Instead, I ended up having to shave some off with a saw. Just something to think about when you are doing the math.

I went with a mitered joint since you would see the edges and because I was choosing to stain and not paint.

Then it is time to do the insert. You can do one of two things…..

Here are some lovely sketches. The first is just like the shoe cubbies you can buy for cheap at Target or Walmart that you put together your self. There are notches that slide together.

The second way is to screw the pieces together using a Kreg Jig. I used one on the barnwoood cupboard I built awhile ago and you can buy a small inexpensive one like the one I have.

Kreg R3 Jr. Pocket Hole Jig System

Here is a good look at the joint up close.

(image source)

If you go this route make sure and put the screws on the bottom so you will not see them. I know the drawers will be in the cubbies they create but it will just look better ( in case you take the drawer out) if the screws are hidden.

Okay, if you cut everything right your insert should slide right in. If it is too tight, just use a hand sander ( don’t use a belt sander since they eat through wood VERY quickly) and sand it down a bit. If it is too small and there are gaps, then cut a thin piece of wood to act as a shim between the box and the insert.

Luckily mine was a perfect fit :)

I then nailed it into place with my brad nailer. I draw a line across so I know where to nail.

This was the easy part. Now on the the tedious job of making all 12 drawers!

I cut all the the wood except for the ply wood I used for the drawers. Home Depot will cut wood for you so to cut down on my work load I decided to have them rip cut the ply wood into 4 1/2 inch strips. That way I just had to come home and use the miter saw to cut them to the right length. I do not have a table saw and this would eliminate having to ~~mooch~~ ask our neighbor to use theirs AGAIN.

I chose 1/4 inch plywood because the thinner the drawer sides the bigger the inside of the drawer. That was my reasoning. I had used 1/4 inch ply wood on my son’s floating side table drawer and it worked out pretty good. BUT I will say that it is very hard to nail the brad nail into such a thin board without it missing. I would recommend using 1/2 ply wood for the drawer sides, back and bottom.

I wanted the drawer to be shallower than the cubby it was going in so it could have some wiggle room. You don’t want it to be the same height or it will get stuck easily.

I cut the drawer fronts one at a time. I measured each individual cubby, then cut the drawer front for that specific cubby, and then labled it with a number. There are bound to be tiny imperfections ( something bog ones) so even if it only off my a 1/16th or 1/8th of an inch, it will look better if you cut them one at a time to have a nice fit.

I knew I was going to be sanding mine quite a bit to make it look aged so I was okay if the fit was a little tight. If you want to sand it, keep that in mind.

As far as how I got the drawer fronts to be nailed on with out too many nails missing their mark, I hot glued a tiny dot on each drawer and stick the front on. Once it was stuck, I drew a line (like shown above) to know where to nail. The thicker the wood the bigger the target and the less likely you are to have a nail miss. That is why the 1/2 inch would be easier.

I puttied the crap out of it. I always add more than maybe what I need because you can always sand it off, but that way you don’t have to go back and add more. ALWAYS use a paint-able, sand-able, stain-able putty. And pick the color closest to the color you will be staining. Especially if you are going to stain.

The staining…….

I wanted it to have an aged look. It is easy to get an aged look if you paint something. You either sand it or you glaze it (or both). Aging something stained is a whole other ball game. If you look at a real antique, it looks almost rubbed off. It is smooth and lighter in those areas. I had actually never tried to age a stained piece so this was an experiment for me.

I applied a thick coat of Minwax’s oil based stain in Dark Walnut. (This method will only work with oil based stain. Do not use water based) Instead of following the directions and letting it sit for a bit and then wiping off the excess stain, I let it sit for quite awhile. I let it sit to the point of it being almost dry. It was sticky. And very dark. You couldn’t see a lot of the wood grain. I then got a cloth and wiped it. I had to wipe hard and almost buff it because it was so sticky. And at first the fibers from the rag were sticking and I thought “Crap! What have I done?” But as I kept rubbing along the wood grain it began to get better.

I thought about the places that would normally get worn, like the edges, and the top where things would get set. I rubbed those areas more and it took off more stain. You have to play around with it. There were a few places I took too much off so I lightly brushed a little more stain over it and it was fine.

Once I got it to where I wanted it I let it completely dry over night. The next day I looked at it with fresh eyes and realized I wanted it a little more worn. Since the stain was dry at this point I got a very fine sand paper (220 grit) and ever so lightly sanded a few more spots. The sanding worked but didn’t look as good as the other way.

I normally use Minwax’s polyurethane to seal and finish off a piece but since I was going for a worn look and since antique stained pieces have a rubbed look, I decided to go with a wax this time. It requires a little more elbow grease to buff, but the look was perfection when I was done!

The hardware…….

I knew the kind of drawer pulls I wanted. I searched online and MAN! They were pricey. I needed twelve and I didn’t want to break the bank. While I was searching for them I saw on my friend Beth’s blog, that she had found the same style I was looking for at a really good price from a place called Van Dykes. I am not sure why or how the site works, but the prices vary all the time. I got the drawer pulls for like $1.20 each but today the price says $3.50 each and I think Beth got them for $2 something.

I knew they would be too shiny and new for my aged card catalog but I knew a trick…..

A long time ago my mom told me about soaking metal in ammonia to age it. I did it for the first time about 10 years ago on the yellow side table in my front room. So I did it again for these.

The first that will happen after a few days, is the clear ammonia will turn blue. Then clear coating will dissolve and they will look dull. After that is when it starts to get darker.

*A little tip….. If you don’t watch it close and it goes too dark, then you can stick it in new (clear) ammonia for a few seconds and it will lighten. And if you lighten it too much you can stick it back in the blue used ammonia. BUT be careful how long you let it soak because eventually it will eat through the metal coating down to the real metal it is made out of. These pulls were made out of copper and a few of them have the copper peeking through.

Filed Under: Furniture, Power Tools, Projects, staining, Tutorials 47 Comments

Cheerful Yellow Family Room {The BIG Reveal!!!!}

January 8, 2013 By Stacy 91 Comments

I am so stinkin’ excited to finally share with you my new family room! This post is the reveal. I will be doing more posts with tutorials, details, paint colors, ect. I will also come back here and add the links to those posts as I post them.

But for now, here she is in all her yellow glory :)

Lets do a 360 around the room.

I kept all the same furniture except the entertainment center got moved downstairs. And I added a side table. As far as furniture goes, I only painted one piece and the others stayed the same. I even kept the same layout. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it…. right?

Oh man! I wish I could invite you all over to see how bright and happy this space is. The pictures never do a room justice.

During the winter I sometimes splurge and pick up some fresh flowers at the grocery store. I LOVE having cut flowers around my house which I why I plant so many in my yard.

I have searched for YEARS for a small card catalog that I could use as a side table. They are either too expensive or too big or both. So I built this one! (Tutorial coming soon)

The bench that I built use to be upholstered in red. I don’t know a lot about sewing. If I DID know a lot about sewing I would not have picked striped fabric to make this bench cover! Holy moly it was hard for me to line up stripes and keep them straight when I upholstered (AND tufted) it.

Eeeeek! I have a fireplace now :) I am so in love with it and so are are my kids. They have always wanted one. I grew up with a real wood burning fireplace and have miss it so much. I built this baby and added an eletric insert. And I CAN NOT WAIT to show you what secrets it holds………

You know I am all about decorating with meaning. I look forward to sharing with you in an upcoming post why I chose these things for my mantle.

This gallery wall was the first wall done. I would just sit and stare at it. It has LOADS of meaning too.

HERE ARE THE POSTS WHERE I BREAK IT ALL DOWN AND TALK ABOUT EACH PROJECT IN THE ROOM:

Tutorial for the Barnwood Cupboard

Tutorial for painting lead paint: Tin Ceiling Tile Picture Frame

Painted Pillows

Gallery Wall

Card Catalog Side Table TUTORIAL

Products, Paint Color, and other details

Thanks for taking this little virtual tour of my new space. I can’t wait to get started on breaking it all down. I have so much to share! I will leave you with a before shot of what it used to look like.

Linked up to Home Stories A to Z

Filed Under: Decorating, Furniture, Painting, Projects 91 Comments

Heirloom White Cabinet

November 5, 2012 By Stacy 11 Comments

I have been working hard on my family room update. I would love to have it done before Thanksgiving so I can take pictures for the reveal before I decorate for Christmas. Fingers crossed that can happen!

Here is the latest project for my family room.

A long time ago I built two cabinets for extra storage. I painted one red and heavily distressed it. I built another one and painted it blue for my boys.

The red one was in my family room. But I did not want to paint it because I ADORE it and want to put it in another room later on. So I put it in the boys room and painted the blue one instead.

I wanted to paint it white and then sand it to distress it. But I did not want the blue paint to show when I sanded. So I painted it dark brown first, then painted it white. I used a very fine grit sandpaper (220) to sand it in certain places to make it look old and worn.

Now that it is done and in place I can’t wait to start hanging things on the wall above it!

Filed Under: Furniture, Painting, Projects 11 Comments

The Handbuilt Home {Giveaway}

October 14, 2012 By Stacy 141 Comments

My sweet friend Ana White has written a book that includes her beautiful furniture plans. I know how hard she has worked on it and how HAPPY she is to have it published :) So I am excited to share it with you and to have a giveaway so one of you can win one for yourself!

I got my copy in the mail a little while ago and it is STUNNING. The photography takes my breath away and makes me want to build everything in there.

Ana is on a book tour right now. And guess what! She is coming to MY area :) So all you Utah peeps listen up. She will be here on MONDAY (as in tomorrow). Here are the details:

I am going to try my best to be there. I fly out EARLY the next morning to go to another Home Depot service project. So if you go come find me. I would love to say “hi” and hug the crap out of you!

TO ENTER TO WIN A COPY OF ANA’S NEW BOOK:

Just leave a comment :) That’s it!

*You must live in the US

Filed Under: Furniture 141 Comments

Decorate with Meaning

September 14, 2012 By Stacy 19 Comments

I have talked about this a lot in the past. It is something I feel strongly about. I personally don’t think you should run out and buy all new decorations. I think you should have things in your home that hold deep personal meaning. Whether that means something that reminds you of your childhood, your early years of marriage, something that represents your heritage or something that is from a family vacation.

Today I am going to tell you about the things in my dining room that have meaning to me.

I already mentioned that the corner shelf was a gift from my mom and that is was the first piece of furniture my husband and I owned. But there are a few thing on the shelf that have meaning as well.

My dad was a milk man. He started doing his route to put himself through college. He went to school to be a councelor for troubled youth. But once he realized that the job offers were in big cities with high crime rates he had second thoughts about his carrer choice. He had grown up on a farm in Idaho and he didn’t want to raise us in a big city. So he chose to keep doing what he was doing, delivering milk. He was a milk man until the day he died. He passed away of cancer when I was 15 years old. He loved his job. He was a morning person and a people person. This job allowed him to intereact with a lot of people. He also was able to hire on young men who were struggling with life. He gave them a job and he was able to use his counceling skills to help these young men turn their lives around.

As kids we also got to go to work with my dad. In the summer we all took turns going and helping him wheel all the milk, ice cream, and other products in and take care of them. There was a lot of time spent driving since he delivered in a very rural area. It gave us a lot of time to talk. We all had a good relationshp with our dad because of those drives and working side by side.

I believe the Lord has a plan for all of us. I believe that it was meant to be that he was a milk man. He changed a lot of lives. He also spent a lot of time with us kids. His time on earth was limited and having all that time made such a difference.

So I bought a vintage milk bottle. It says Meadow Gold on it because that was the brand he delivered. This bottle is the same kind that he use to deliver when he first started out. And it makes me think of him evertime I see it :)

It has another meaning as well. My mom had some old clear glass vases growing up. Any time one of us (usually me) would bring her dandelions or other “flowers” we had picked for her she would put those weeds in one of those small vases on the table as if they were the most beautiful flowers on earth. So I have reserved this milk bottle as my “weed” vase for when my boys bring me flowers :)

My grandma and my mom collected tea cups. My mom had them displayed in our house growing up. So when I saw this little once I fell in love and brought it home. My mom also had a thing for old books whick I also have inheirited. I can’t but help picking some up when I am in thrift stores. I had a few green ones in my collection that were perfect.

This candle stick belonged to my mom. She collects and collects and collects and then she has to get rid of some of her things (Does that sound familliar all you DIYers???). And I am lucky enough to be on the recieveing end a lot of the time. It was the perfet green and fit with the feel of this room.

What kind of items do you use to decorate your house that have meaning to you?

Filed Under: Decorating, Furniture, Projects, Uncategorized 19 Comments

Dining Room Update {French Country}

September 12, 2012 By Stacy 34 Comments

I posted awhile back that I was wanting to do a mini makeover on my dining room. I had never really liked it before. The decor needed a little update.

Here is my *new* French Country Dining Room!

Here are the before pics in case you don’t remember……

This corner shelf was a wedding present from my mom. I had seen it in a little shop and fell in love but my small college budget couldn’t afford it. My mom knew how much I loved old barn wood and surprised me with it after I got engaged. It was the first piece of furniture my husband and I owned :)

I filled the corner shelf with things I love.

Oh my word I love this mirror! I bought it at Home Goods for only $24.00! It started out a distressed black. But I thought It would look better sprayed Heirloom White. I attached barn wood to my wall and then hung the mirror on the old wood. I love to mix old and new.

I am so happy with how it turned out. I wish I had a wide angle lens so I could get back even further. It goes so well with the kitchen right across from it. The curtains have made a huge difference too. I had blinds before and was nervous to take them down because they functioned so well. But I LOVE the filtered light from the curtains and the privacy. We open them a lot too. I am so happy with them I am taking the blongds down in my family room too and putting up these same curtains. They are from IKEA and are called LENDA.

Filed Under: Decorating, Furniture, Painting, Projects 34 Comments

Floating Side Table

August 10, 2012 By Stacy 17 Comments

I love this little side table! It is such a space saver and was really simple to build.

Like I mentioned in the reveal post of my son’s new space, he wanted a side table with a lamp. I had a side table that I had built but then had a “duh” moment when I realized that his bed has drawers. If I had a regular side table the drawer would be blocked. So I moved on to plan B.

I decided to make a side table that didn’t have legs and then mount it to the wall. I had done something similar in my bedroom with an old medicine cabinet.

Fist off, you need to decide on the size that you want. I didn’t want the door to hit into it when the door opened so I measured based on that. I cut some wood I already had out in the garage to the right size.

The using a table saw with the blade at an angle, the pieces got cut at a 45 degree angle so the fit together like this:

I like to do this so there are not any noticeable seams. Especially if you are going to stain it.

Another option though is to do a butt joint. Here is picture from my shadow box tutorial showing an example of a butt joint. It means the pieces of wood are butt up against each other.

Then I used some scrap plywood to make the drawer. I only did three sides of the box and used the drawer front as the 4 side which means I nailed through the front of the drawer to attach it. If you don’t want nail holes on the drawer front then make the fourth side out of plywood and then you can nail through the plywood into the drawer front and you will never see the nail holes.

I was going to be using a Walnut colored stainable putty so I was not concerned.

Remember that you will have a board on the wall that this table will be attached to so don’t make your drawer as deep as the shelf. Leave at least 3 inches of space or the drawer won’t shut. Also, don’t make the drawer as tall as the shelf. Leave at least an inch for wiggle room.

Here you can see the nail holes on the drawer front. I traced the drawer so I knew where to nail and so I could make sure it was centered. Then I puttied the nail holes. Sanded, and stained it using my favorite stain…. Gel Stain in Walnut from Minwax. Best. Stuff. Ever! I put a lot on because I wanted it really dark and rich.

As far as haning it goes, I hung them the same way as I did the floating shelves (with a drawer) in my office. The difference was that I held the drawer up where I wanted it with the level on the top. I made sure it was where it needed to be and then traced the inside of it with a pencil. When I set the shelf down, there was a rectangle on the wall. This way I knew where the 2×2 boards needed to go.

(Pardon the bad cell phone picture taken by my son!)

The other difference was this time I used two boards on the wall. It was because this table/shelf is so much bigger than the ones in my office. I wanted the fit to be snug.

I slid the shelf/table on and then screwed the shelf onto the boards on the wall. I screwed from the top and from the bottom.

And there you have it! One shelf/table/drawer!!!

And it is perfect for holding all sorts of treasures :)

Filed Under: Decorating, Furniture, Power Tools, Projects, staining, Tutorials 17 Comments

An Airplane Bedroom

August 6, 2012 By Stacy 21 Comments

My 10 year old son’s room I decorated has been complete for awhile but I was waiting until I was done posting about my secret garden before I posted about it . It was just a mini makeover since he really wanted to keep the striped wall the way it was.He knew he was getting a new bed but he thought that he had to wait until this fall for his birthday. He is such a good helper with his brothers that my husband and I wanted to surprise him and do it early. We told the kids they got to have a sleep over in the family room and as soon as they went to sleep we went to work!

Here is a reminder of what it looked like before as the nursery…..

It is a small space. Really small. The room itself is about 10 feet by 21 feet. But just this end of the room is designated as his. The other side of the room has the bunk beds with a trundle, a dresser, and the closet.

But we managed to to fit everything on his wish list into the 5 1/2 by 10 foot space :)

Since the bed is the main thing in this space lets talk about it first, shall we? I {heart} it. We got it from IKEA. It is called the BRIMNES Daybed. Not only are the drawers huge and can fit all of my kids’ jeans (yep, all four boys!) but it has a secret….. I LOVE furniture that can do double duty!!!

It can pull out and become a king sized bed!!! Just look….

We brought home 2 mattresses from IKEA. Right not they are stacked up on top of each other and if we slide it out to use it as a king, we can just put the mattresses next to each other. Isn’t that genius! As a person who lives in a small home with a lot of people, I appreciate that IKEA makes furniture like this. They rock when it comes to maximizing space. This bed would be great if you did not have a guest bedroom. You could use it when company comes :)

I gave the headboard a makeover about 8 years ago when we were living in Las Vegas. We were given a bunk bed from the 1970′s for free from some neighbors. It had seen better days. It also came off a little to feminine. So I made some alterations. I used a jigsaw to round the top and I replaced the spindles with 1×4 boards. I primed and painted it. When we moved here, the headboards and foot boards got put into the garage and forgotten. Since we were trying to do this bedroom as inexpensively as possible, I decided to reuse one of the headboards. My son was excited because he could remember having it a long time ago.

Another thing on his list was a side table with a lamp. I had built another side table like the turquoise blue one in my tutorial from last year, but then realized that “DUH!”, the bed has drawers. Whoops!

So I had to come up with another idea.

I made a floating side table with a drawer!

(I am not sure why my pictures randomly upload with a grey line across them. Grrrrrr!)

Here is the tutorial on how I made it. It was very simple!

The lamp on the table came from Wal-Mart. We got one from IKEA, and it would have worked, but since I didn’t use the original table (which was bigger) the lamp didn’t look right on the smaller floating side table. So I put it on my office desk! And I am kind of glad it worked out that way :)

It is called the Barometer Work Lamp. Man, I just love it!

Another thing on my son’s list was he wanted some shelves for books and his favorite things. We have never had shelves in the kids room so they have never been able to really display anything in there.

I made three shelves. And I was about to hang the third one when I realized that my 2 year old would be able to reach/climb it. I held off. I may hang it later on, or maybe not. Either way my son is thrilled to have some shelves. And all it took were som scrap pieces of plywood and shelf brackets from Wal-Mart :) The planes are from Hobby Lobby (thanks to the 40% 0ff coupon). And the magazine holders are from IKEA. They are covered in navy blue burlap. Here is a close up shot since mine is not super close.

The space at the end of the bed is perfect for his guitar and the stuffed animals that he is *almost* too old for but doesn’t want to give up just yet :)

The picture frame is from IKEA. The print I found online for free and had it printed in black and white.

It was a simple change from nursery to 10 year old space. He wanted airplanes and I could have easily made it cutesy by adding a lot more airplanes, a mural, or maybe an airplane shaped pillow for the bed. But he is ten. I wanted it grown up enough with out being a teen room but young enough because he is still a kid. I think we found a good balance.

I want to thank IKEA for providing the items for my son’s room. I also want to mention that Sharee from the bedding department in the IKEA Draper store totally rocks! She has amazing customer service skills and an upbeat personality.

The new IKEA catalog is out and it is my favorite one so far. I love that they not only show their products and how they look all together in a space, but they show you tips about painting their furniture, covering things in fabric, etc. They understand that us DIYers want to customize our spaces and furnishings. You can get even more ideas from their blog as well. Just a warning if you visit the blog…. you may get sucked in and all of a sudden look at the clock and realize it is dinner time. Not that has happened to me or anything *wink*.

I am linking here:

DIY SHow Off

Filed Under: Decorating, Furniture, Painting, Power Tools, Projects 21 Comments