Dresser Facelift

Time to make a switch to decorating a bit. The guest room needed a dresser, because, well, I need more clothes storage :) So to the Salvation Army I went. There was no way I was going to buy a brand new dresser for my guest room when the master bedroom set needs some help. Perfect opportunity to try refinishing something. I found this guy for $15 (their prices have since gone up a lot with new management - annoying!).

 

Had a kind of 70's feel to it. The second picture makes it look better than it was, but shows it in the space. It needed some serious refinishing, but the bones seemed solid. There's some very dated 50's wallpaper in that room, but it's the guest room, so if it gets changed it's probably going to be the last room to be done so I needed for work with it.

My inspiration was this Ikea hack by Ashleigh:

http://ashflynn.blogspot.com/2012/11/before-after-ikea-dressers.html

Before painting though, the refinishing. I sanded down the drawer fronts and all the flat surfaces with the power sander. All the little curved surfaces had to be done by hand which was tedious. There were also some spots that needed filler, which then had to dry and be resanded. Eventually, I had this:

Parts of this dresser has veneer on it, so I didn't want to try to get all the stain off. I chose a stain that was close that I hoped would blend well. I wiped it all down, and stained it with Early American by Varathane. It took 2 coats, and then 2 coats of poly. I always hand-sand with 400 grit in between coats to get a silky smooth finish. Turned out pretty well I think.

Then the same with the drawers, except they got painted with an ombre effect. I picked a green pallette that had one of the shades of green from the wallpaper leaves in it. I really like how it came out.

It still has a vintage feel, but meshes much better with the room now and has a bit more character I think. 

Shed foundation DIY

Ok, so when I bought this house, I knew I would need a shed. Storing yard and garden equipment in the porch was going to get old real fast (and it did). The thing is, where the shed was going would be the back corner of the yard that has a gross little slope. I didn't want to pour a slab because I'd have to dig down quite a bit to get the back level with the front. I came up with two options; either deck blocks with a frame and then plywood floor or a paver patio. I costed out the two options, and for me, paver patio was cheaper.

So here's the start. We dug up the grass and leveled it as best we could to start. The green garden borders won't serve a structural purpose, but really helped to outline the footprint. Then 2" of gravel went in followed by 1" of sand.

After the gravel/sand, we used 12"x6" paver blocks. I used a spiral configuration to help the platform not to spread. I leveled each block with itself and the ones next to it. I would add/remove sand to fix where needed. It turned out that we didn't dig down enough in the back to level it out, so I had to build it up in the front. Not great, but that front row won't actually have any load on it, so I'm not that concerned. At some point in the future I'll have to repair/fix that, but it's mostly an aesthetic problem.

The shed itself was pretty easy to put together, although picking the windiest day of the fall was a very bad idea when trying to link the wall panels together. We chose the Rubbermaid Big Max for low maintenance, size and price. It works. 

Definitely true when the manual says you need a level surface. The walls would not go together correctly on the grass (I was trying to preassemble and then move it up to the slab). Good thing the slab is level enough! 

In hind sight, I may have gone with the deck blocks foundation for my non-level area. Oh well, live and learn. Not too bad for my first shed, right?

Shamrock Flag

Well, once again, I got an idea for a project a bit late for the intended holiday. I wanted a St Patrick's Day flag, but all the cheesy nylon ones in the store just weren't my cup of tea. Well, since I was planning an Easter Flag made of burlap (that post later!), I figured I could make this one out of burlap too.

Floor Easel Chalkboard



So, I have no children, but some of my friends do, and I take every opportunity of spoiling their children that I can. Why not? :) We got the pleasure of watching my friends' little boy recently, and I figured since we were gating off the kitchen demo zone from him, I better have some entertaining distractions. This chalkboard fit the bill perfectly.

Pumpkin Carving

Ok, so if you've been reading my blog, you may have gotten the impression that I tend to go a bit over the top in the ambition department when it comes to something new. I'm the person who would (and potentially has) decided that she is going to get into gardening after never having done it, and go out and buy a greenhouse and all sorts of equipment. No starting small over here! It's not so much that I have a great opinion of my abilities as that I am extremely impatient.

And so it goes with pumpkin carving. Why make a standard jack-o-lantern in an hour with tools I have at home when I can spend a ridiculous amount of time attempting to make a masterpiece? So I got a cute little rechargeable Dremel with various tips, some pumpkins, and a couple stencils, and set to it.

This one is a tribute to a friendly puggle that will be be visiting for Halloween.

And this just looked cool :)

Overall, pretty happy with the results, but not sure if I'll do it again next year. It's a lot of work!

My house is watching you!

Yeah, it's probably cheesy, but I saw these window decorations at iParty, and couldn't resist. Especially since I have a white house with black shutters, and the front windows are so perfectly spaced.

And yes, I find it hilarious that the little yipping dog down the street was terrified by it. The little boys next door think it's "so cool!". I have impressed a five year old; my job here is done here :)

Work Bench

One of my first projects, primarily out of necessity, was to build a work bench. This was so easy and I use it constantly. It is built from Ana White's plans. I modified it slightly to be deeper, and since I was in a hurry, I just went with a cheap plywood top that I had. LOVE the extra shelf on the bottom; it's always packed with "stuff".