DIY Industrial cabin sofa table

Industrial cabin? Yep, that's a thing.

This project is the epitome of quick and easy and can be made to fit in any space. We needed a long, skinny sofa table and when we saw this fabulous piece of mesquite ON SALE at Clark’s Hardwood we went for it! 
Yes, lumberyards have sales! Who knew??

This is a really fun statement piece, and everyone who comes to our house asks about it.
I originally envisioned it with a fancy wrought iron base and wasn't too keen on the industrial pipe look. It took some convincing, but I decided to give it a try—and I LOVE it! It’s also a tiny fraction of the cost of a custom wrought iron table base (holy $$$). 

Materials:
Wood for top
Galvanized pipe for legs
Tee fittings (X6)
Floor flanges (X8)
Fine sand paper
Minwax Polyurethane
Rustoleum Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint
Screws

I had some "during" pictures, but I've lost them. Thank goodness it's so easy, pictures aren't required!

First, we lightly sanded both sides and cleaned them off. We also cleaned up the edges a little by pulling off any pieces of bark that looked loose or scraggly. Rhett applied a clear coat of polyurethane in a satin finish on both sides to seal it and bring out the natural colors. When applying poly, use long continuous strokes and follow up with a rag to smooth out any bubbles. Each time you lift up, small bubbles form, so you’ll want to avoid lifting up as much as possible. He used a foam brush to press some poly into the edges to seal those as well. Let the poly dry according to the can—we left ours overnight.

Next, assemble the base! The big box stores sell pre-threaded pipe in various sizes. If you can’t find the size you’re looking for, Lowes will cut and thread pipe to your particular dimensions (more on buying pipe here).  We also got floor flanges and tee joints for the bar across the bottom. I wasn’t super particular about height—I just wanted it to come to about the top of our couch, so the pre-made worked just fine for us.

Put the base together however you like! There are so many ways to connect the pipe--just search pipe table on pinterest for some great inspiration! 
Spray it down with Rustoleum Oil Rubbed bronze spray paint (or don’t to make it look even more industrial). When the paint’s dry, screw the base onto your top and you’re good to go! Make sure you use the right length screw—if they’re too long, they may poke through the top of your table!
Note: In order to connect the base to the top, you have to put floor flanges on the top AND bottom of your base.

Once the top is dry, this is definitely a 1 afternoon project! Which means it's less likely to be 80% finished and sitting in the garage until you get back to it--someday... (I'm talking to you, kitchen table)! 
Gotta love that!

Linked to:

The Shabby Creek Cottage

Miss Mustard Seed

Tatertots and Jello

Dreaming of a white kitchen

When we first viewed our house with our Realtor in January, there were many things we loved and also many things we said we'd like to change (which, in my opinion, is the perfect combo!). Some needed immediate attention, like the canary yellow walls, and some fell into the wouldn't that be cool eventually category. The kitchen, however, wasn't on either of those lists--I liked it just the way it was. In fact, I'd say it was the main selling point (or at least top 3).

So, naturally, we got to work on it right away! 

You know how when you move into a house, especially one that was previously owned by someone with drastically different taste than you, it feels like you are living in someone else's space. I think that was one reason we decided to paint our kitchen cabinets--we needed to do something with impact. We had the yellow walls professionally painted, along with several other rooms, but since we didn't do that ourselves, it didn't satisfy. It felt like we lived in someone else's house, only they let us pick the paint color this time. 

We did get our painter to give us an estimate to paint our cabinets (just for giggles) and he came back at $1700! He said the price was mostly for labor, and after doing it ourselves, we totally understand. This is a huge undertaking, but we did it ourselves for around $250 AND we added things that our painter wouldn't have done, like beadboard wallpaper insets!

I should mention, we weren't living in our house at the time which made this project MUCH easier to tackle.

Here is our kitchen before (picture from the listing):

Not too bad, right? With the table gone, it's really open and we have a ton of counter space! But think of what it could be with a little paint and about 1.5 million hours of labor?!? Let's do it.

First, we took off all the doors and pulled out all the drawers. I cleaned them all really well before we got started.

Instead of sanding to rough up the surfaces (that would have taken forever!!), the folks at our home improvement store recommended Valspar Bonding Primer. We brushed it on to make sure we got in all the creases. It creates a rough, matte surface, as you would expect if you roughed it up with sandpaper.

It was so nice to use our empty living room at a makeshift workshop!

Now for the fun part...paintable beadboard wallpaper insets (great tips in this tutorial)! These are so incredibly easy to do and they add so much to plain kitchen cabinets. I bought two rolls from Lowes (at $20 each, they're a steal!), and only needed a couple feet from the second roll (each roll is 56 square feet).

Cut your pieces before you wet the adhesive. I had 4-5 different sizes of insets, so I'd cut one and use it as a template for the rest of the cabinets of that size. It's not too important to cut them exactly the right size because you'll caulk around the edges which will cover any spots where you are a little short/long/wonky.
I'm a measure once, cut once type of girl. Aint nobody got time for measuring 8000 cabinet insets twice.

The back already has adhesive, so I used a spray bottle with tap water to get the back pretty wet. Since the cabinets are horizontal, it's okay for it to have a little excess water on it. If you don't have enough water it won't activate the adhesive as well and you'll get some areas around the edges that don't want to stick. You can fold the edges into the center and let the adhesive set up for a few minutes.

That step also falls into the category of things I stopped doing once I realized how long this project was going to take :)
You don't have to worry about the back being too wet because your cabinets will be horizontal until it's dry.
When you put the insets in, you should be able to slide them around and get them into place. If you are having a hard time sliding, you may not have used enough water, or you may have let them set up too long. Just re-wet and stick again. Easy!

You can see that my edges are a little wobbly--but that's totally ok. I was told that you should put the most effort into the last 5% of a project, because that's all anyone will see, and that totally applies here. No need to be a perfectionist at this point.
I put all the insets in and let them dry overnight.

Once they were dry, I went around the edges of the wallpaper with a bead of caulk. Then, I wet my finger and ran it along the edge that I just calked, smoothing out the caulk and pushing it into the edge of the cut-in, so there was no seam between the beadboard and the wood.

Make sure to use paintable caulk!

We also put beadboard on the back of the open areas and where we have glass cabinets.

While I worked on the cabinet doors, the hubs primed the cabinets.

After the caulk dried, we started on our first coat of paint. We used Valspar Ultra Kitchen and Bath because it's made to be really durable and cleans really well. We did two coats over the whole cabinet door--even the beadboard. We used a brush on the insets because they are fairly narrow, and we used a foam roller on the edges. We also used the roller where we could on the cabinets. The paint is fairly thick, so I think the coverage and texture is really similar with a brush or a foam roller.

I ordered these bin cup drawer handle pulls (X19) and these matching knobs for the cabinets (X24). Including shipping, I replaced my entire kitchen hardware for under $75! I was a little nervous ordering sight unseen, but it worked out. They are high quality, heavy, and didn't have any dings or imperfections! I also sold our old hardware on Craigslist for $30, so I netted $45 for new kitchen hardware!
We put the doors back on and put our new hardware on and called it a day! I'm so pleased with the outcome. The hardware and beadboard make all the difference!

It took us several weeks to complete, but we were not living in the house and were mostly working on the weekends.
We love how open and airy it feels now!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Have you used textured, paintable wallpaper? Do you love it? I think it's the perfect touch for our otherwise boring cabinet doors!

A Stroll Thru Life -- Inspire Me Tuesday

Bridesmaids packet printable & oversized confetti

Hello, hello! Happy Friday!

We are leaving tomorrow morning for a girls getaway weekend/bachelorette party :) If you haven't checked, the wedding is 15 days away!!! WHAT? We are so ready.
Also, we found out that some of our engagement pictures are going to be featured in the David Gardners Jewelers magazine!! We absolutely loved working with them and couldn't be happier with our rings :)

***

Anyway, I sent my bridesmaids a fun info packet a while back and just realized I never posted about them! These were so fun and easy to do.

The downloadable PDF is at the bottom. I left it mostly blank so you can fill in your own info, and I included a blank one at the end. The font I used is sunshine in my soul which you can download from dafont! 

I'd been in contact with my girls, but it's always nice to have a paper copy to refer back. I made the template in powerpoint and printed it on heavy cardstock. I also made the oversized confetti using tissue paper and a shape puncher from Hobby Lobby. This is so easy and cheap! A great way to spice up a party, package, etc.

The envelopes are 5X5 velum and I love how you can see the confetti through it! I cut the cardstock to fit once they were printed, and voila! Cute bridesmaids packets that you can send through regular mail!

Follow this link to download your own!

Bridesmaids packet printable!

I may or may not be obsessed with confetti right now.
How stinkin' cute is this?!?

:)

hair chalking

Meet my new bff, hair chalking.

The process is really easy and cheap and the outcome is excellent. There are a ton of youtube videos explaining the details, but I'll share some basics and tips for those looking to try it.

1. This hair color method comes with basically no commitment. For those of us who have dropped some major cash to permanently alter the color of our hair, it's perfect.

2. I'm a blonde (obviously), but I didn't get it from my momma. This blonde spawns from many hours in a swivel chair and half a roll of aluminum foil. My hair is also fairly long (ie, I have a split end or two, or 5,000). With that, I thought my hair might be more susceptible to retaining the color a bit longer. Wrong. The color washed out the first time I washed it (I shampooed a few times to make sure).

Ready to get started?? 

3. I used Faber-Castell brand soft pastels (not oil pastels). I bought a 24 pack at Michael's for about $16. There was a cheaper option but it didn't have very good colors. I washed my hair the night before (only because I don't wash it every day).

4. Start with dry hair and a squirt bottle, cup of water, or a really wet paper towel. Take a small section of hair and get it fairly/very wet.

5. Choose a color and apply it to the wet section of hair in a downward motion. The wetter your hair is, the easier it applies. I did a two tone with lighter blue on the top and dark purple on the bottom. When your hair dries, the color looks lighter, so when selecting your colors, go a shade darker than you want it to turn out.

You'll probably want an old towel or something to cover your clothes during these steps. Do as many or few as you want. I ended up doing quite a bit.

6. As your hair dries, it will begin to seperate. I used a thick comb to separate the strands once they were dry to almost dry. Some of the color comes off, but that's okay.

7. When you feel confident that your hair is completely dry, set the color with a curling iron. I used the magical Remington curling wand. The color itself acts as a fairly strong hairspray, but I used a bit just in case.

The heat makes it not rub off very easily. I slept in it that night and didn't get any blue on my white quilt. I also wore a white shirt all day the next day (how better to show off my new blue hair??) and it didn't rub off on my clothes at all.

So, indulge your inner Katy Perry for the day! I'm really a fan of the two toned, though it's a bit hard to differentiate with two colors that are so close. Hot pink with purple tips next. Yes or yes??

the fold over clutch obsession

Remember the fold over clutch from the photo challenge?? Well, I've since made many more (following this and this tutorial). I snatched up a few cute patterns and some hot pink linen at Hobby Lobby and made a small and large bag for a couple of my out-of-town friends.

I love the bold geometric pattern and the tan/hot pink/white/navy combo. I may or may not have made this exact one for myself :)

The houndstooth actually has a cute story behind it. My friend has an adorable dog, Bella, with a sassy alter-ego known as Stella. Her favorite jacket is houndstooth with gold buttons, so I made Bella Stella a matching clutch because diva's don't carry their own things. :)

I also made each one a smaller version of the opposite pattern.

These are so fun and easy to make (even for beginning sewers like myself!). I have several and I use them all the time. Don't be cautious about the zipper, either! Go for it! I didn't use a special foot or fancy technique. The tutorial tells you everything you need to know :)

sewing success: clutch

January 25, 2012: Something you made.

I may or may  not be completely obsessed with this clutch. I also may or may not have already made four of the large one and one of the small one (to send to friends, of course!). I'll show you the one's I'm keeping (the first two I made) and after I send the others out, I'll post about them.

The tutorial is very easy to follow. The zipper can be a bit tricky but she has a diagram (that I have to go back to every time) which helps a lot.

This one was made from start to finish during the second half of the Giants/49ers game.

The fabric is from a thrifted men's pearl snap shirt :)

I cut a pocket off the front and sewed it to the interior fabric.

(If you look closely, you can see that kittens wreak havoc stay very involved in the sewing process.)

I also made one of coral and aqua linen.

These are so fun. Grab-and-go with the basics or stuff into your large bag.

If you've never sewn a zipper, don't fret! This was my first time and I had no troubles. I didn't use a special foot either...just went with it.

In fact, I saw this print and think it serves as an excellent sewing (and life) mantra.

(This is from Etsy and, unfortunately, appears to be gone).

So, the photo challenge is almost over! Do you feel like you know me better??

I think it will be fun to look back on this eventually and have such a clear picture of this month! (possibly too clear??) 2011 will not be so clear...ha. 

Who cares about 2011, anyway?