Emergency Garage Shelves!

My garage was starting to look like a scene from Hoarders. I had some free time on Saturday morning so I headed down to Home Depot for 2 X 4s, and thin MDF sheets for shelving. I didn't need anything fancy. I just needed to build something that would keep my junk off the garage floor and make items easy to find. I built two 8 foot long shelf units with 2 shelves on one unit and three shelves on the other. The best part of this project was that since I wasn't doing anything fancy (just cutting and putting 2 X 4s together), the cost was only $88!

From Barely Used Closet to Much Needed Home Office

If you've been reading my blog, you know that I have an awesome office closet. Well, my husband doesn't. When he works from home, he schleps his files with him and camps out in the kitchen or the living room. He really wanted his own office space. So the best solution would be to convert a guest room into an office, right? Not in our case as our guest rooms are in high demand by relatives and out of town visitors. Next solution would be a combo guest room and office, right? Nope. I hate those! While they work for some households and Pinterest has some awesome posts of guest room-office combos, they wouldn't work for us. First of all, our guests always come in pairs or more and neither of our spare guest rooms are large enough to accommodate a full or queen size bed plus a desk and other office necessities. So, what to do?

I decided to get a little creative. I knew that I wouldn't find the space in either guest room so I walked around the house to determine where I could find the space. I found the solution in a barely used guest room walk in closet and the linen hallway closet built next to it. 

Top row (from left to right) : 1) Before of the original (and very stinky) linen closet 2) The linen closet gutted to the studs now exposing the drywall of the guest room walk in closet behind it 3) The drywall of the partition wall between linen and guest room closets now removed. 

Middle row (from left to right): 1) Studs of the partition wall and remaining drywall removed 2) Room freshly drywalled and painted with Pergo laminate flooring installed 3) Office desk built and base boards installed

Bottom row: Office unit now complete with shelving unit and track lighting installed

After: My husband's new home office. No more paperwork schlepping or having to do his work on the kitchen island! I hope he gets a lot of use out of it

Project logistics: This project took around two weeks to complete (this included two full weekends of work and around 2 hours every day after work). I did the demo, sealed the old closet door to the guest room, painted and installed the laminate flooring, base boards, trim, desk and shelving unit. However, because there was electrical running through the partition wall, I did have to hire an (awesome!) electrician who moved the wiring, added two electrical outlets to the office and installed the track lighting. 

Big thank you to my personal assistant on this project, my patient english bulldog, Mac. 

Chair makeover

I had a red chair from my old home and a silver and gray room in my new home. I loved the chair but hated the fabric and decided it was time for a quick makeover. This project took me around 2 hours to complete.

Before

After: I removed the seating cushion and spray painted the frame with a a quick coat of primary followed by two coats of metallic silver paint. I had leftover blue and white fabric from a prior project and covered the fabric portion of the chair with a staple gun. I used silver cording from Joanne Fabrics to hide the staples.  

Amazing Moroccan Lantern Wall

Greetings from San Diego! I'm taking a breather from my own household projects and decided to showcase someone else's awesome DIY for once.

This gorgeous set up was created by my cousin, Lora. She wanted to dress up her detached garage wall and used a variety of decorative lanterns and spare curtain rod holders and plant hooks to hang them.

I think what makes this wall so eye catching is that the lanterns are of similar design but no two are exactly the same. Lora decided to hang the lanterns at different heights, which makes the display more interesting to look at.

This design would also look great on a fence panel in your yard or an a blank wall inside your home. If you are feeling inspired, World Market and Pier1 Imports have a great selection of exotic lanterns at affordable prices.

Big thank you to my brooha, Lora, for letting me crash at her house, eat her food and take pictures of her gorgeous backyard. :-)

Super Bowl Party!

I am not a big football fan but my husband loves the sport and treats Super Bowl like it's the sequel to Christmas. I'm always up for a good party so this year, we decided to do a baked potato bar and a nachos bar. We have a huge kitchen island so I decided to have some fun and create the "Nachos vs. Baked Potato Bowl 2013". Can't wait for the 2014 Super Bowl! 

We decided to create a football field on our island. Every football field needs goal posts. I created these using precut 12 inch PVC pipes from Home Depot. They were $1.29 each. To ground them, I stuck them in a small clay pot filled with gravel and painted it all yellow. 

We had around 12 toppings for the nachos and baked potatoes. I created two "bleachers" using 6 inch pine boards that I spray painted metallic silver. One bleacher stood 6 inches in height and the other one stood 3 inches in height. 

Isn't my husband talented? To stick with our Nachos vs. Baked Potato theme, he created little 49ers using craft store paint and red potatoes (leftover from Christmas, haha). 

We bought a green tablecloth with a grass pattern from Party City. My husband created the field lines and team names using medical tape. He's the true Pinterest junkie in this relationship :-)

Formation time: Going with the purple color scheme for Baltimore, he created the opposing team out of purple corn chips and arranged them to look like Ravens. 

Touchdown!

One Hour Makeover: Kitchen Coffee Station

I had a wall cabinet with a wine rack in my kitchen that I wasn't using. Rather than let the cabinet collect dust and take up space, I brainstormed over what to do with the cabinet. I didn't need to hold wine since I built a bar in the living room. I had a pantry for canned goods. Hmm...

I decided to make over the cabinet as a dedicated coffee station. I have a Keurig (once you go Keurig, you never go back) and tons of K-cups floating around my kitchen. Also, my coffee mugs were stored in three separate areas (very annoying when putting dishes away and more annoying when you are dying for a cup of coffee and can't find a cup in the morning).

Step 1) I removed the wine rack that was installed in the cabinet
Step 2) I added two shelves to the interior. To make the project simple, I purchased two laminate shelves that were a similar color to my cabinet from The Container Store for $8 each and trimmed them down to size. Hey, it's a one hour makeover.
Step 3) I filled candy jars and a Keurig storage case on the bottom shelf. On the second shelf, I displayed white cappuccino cups and matching saucers. On the top shelf, I displayed white decorative teapots. I had two storage spaces on the right hand side of the cabinet. I used these spaces to store  mugs that I use the most.
Step 4) I placed my Keurig underneath the cabinet and plugged it in. I found some really cool jumbo sized mason jars from Target that I filled with all of my coffee essentials (such as Splenda, sugar and cookies)
Step 5) In the bottom cabinet, I stored ALL of my mugs that were in various places around the kitchen.

I LOVE my new coffee station and I use it all the time.

If you build it, they will come...over for drinks

We have a huge kitchen island in our house that takes care of all our dining needs. In our home, it didn't make sense for us to have a separate formal dining room. We are always eating at the island and we are not formal dinner party people. I really feel style and decor should be based off function and needs of the people in the living room. In our case, it made most sense to have a large bar area and entertainment space. Cocktail hour followed by poker night, anyone?

Before: This was a pretty simple plan. I would build two shelve units that would house a small counter with storage in between it. There would be plenty of room for drinks (lots of drinks, haha), glassware and other miscellaneous bar ware.

Bar in progress: Since I was adding a backing, I decided to use two pictures I already had around the house for a back splash effect. 

Bar in progress: I decided to add shelves above the counter. More storage for drinks :-)

After: I added trim, two coats of Minwax Ebony stain and one coat of semi-gloss polyurethane.  The center storage unit has plenty of counter top space for drinks and our mini kegerator. There is also plenty of room inside to hold various party supplies (appetizer plates, extra glasses and two huge beverage tubs). The shelf unit on the left has a dedicated space for our new wine refrigerator ($148 on sale at Home Depot this week). I also left a dedicated space in the other shelf unit for our future  cooler or another wine rack.



 
No bar is complete without a game table. This is a 3-in-1 game table that has a removable dining table top to reveal bumper pool. The dining table top can also be flipped over for poker night. I found this gem on Craigslist for $150.