Studio Progress: Building a Desk out of a Door.

The studio needed a desk. I wanted something that was inexpensive, since the budget is low, it had to have storage, and I really wasn't wanting more counter top for a desk.

Here is what we came up with:

I'll tell ya how we got there...

While wandering around Menards with the hubster, trying to come up with ideas of how to make a desk and not spend a fortune, we came across the damaged door area. I've seen a few places in bloggy-land where people have turned doors into desks...and we thought HEY...lets do it!

So, here is our 5.00...yes..$5.00 door! Wahoo score!

It's an 18 inch door, which was perfect as a deep desk wasn't necessary. It's mostly a place to do paperwork and computer correspondence.

Load 'er up!

The door was to long for the space where the desk was going to go.

We measured how long we wanted the desk {as long as possible, with room on one side for curtains to hang}.

We made a mark where we wanted to cut the door. And used a level (straight edge) to draw the line where we would cut!

Then, because Chad can cut straighter and I wanted to take pictures, he cut the section off.

We thought it was a hollow core door. To our surprise, it was a foam core door, so no need to in force any weak area, like a hollow core would have had.

Sore!

I was hoping for the piece to be somewhat substantial in the room, so we got some unfinished cabinets, all upper cabinets ( 2, 12 inch for the upper, and 2, 15 inch for the lower). We chose all upper because they are shorter then a regular base cabinet.

First, Chad lifted up one of the upper cabinets, I stood back and figured out where they should go, and he drew a line where the bottom would line up.

We then used a stud finder in hopes of...finding a stud!. No luck, so we got some beastly anchors that we had, he drilled the holes and tapped the anchors into the sheet rock.

Then I held the cabinets up, and he screwed them up onto the wall. We did the same thing for the other side. He measured where the line was from the first one, and used that distance up from the desk on the other side.

Since we were both working, no pictures of this step.

But here ya go.

The reason for the distance from the ceiling? We are going to put a shelf across the top and then use crown molding along the entire top, to give it more of a built in look. And will also do another shelf about in the middle of the cabinets from one side to the next. 

I also painted the cabinets white { if you have not already noticed that}.

Since the doors have the raised panels in them, the door couldn't just get painted, something else had to be figured out!

Enter in: Plexiglas!

I figured if we put plexiglas across the entire length of the door, then different fabric or paper could be put under the plexiglas and it would be ooohhhh so pretty!

Being a cheap-o, buying a large piece of plexiglas wasn't something that I wanted to do. So, we purchased 2 pieces, each 20 inch by 24 inch. 

Since the door is 18 inches deep, we had to cut off 2 inches. I had visions if I did it I would end up with a big ole slice in my finger or something, so Chad did it for me!

He used the straight edge, and drew a line with a dry-erase marker so we would not have any permanent lines or writing on the plexiglas.  Then he went over the line multiple times, I'd say 10 or 12 times with a carpet knife. After he did that, we put the line that he scored, on the edge of the level and applied pressure until it snapped. It turned out great!

Since the door has some weird spots on it from the hinges and such, I used trim that was the width of the door. I believe it was called Pine Moulding Lattice 26 (as per my reciept) . I put the trim up from the level of the door, so that the plexiglas would have a little spot to sit inside.

Since the trim was the width of the door, when I moved it up, there was a gap. So...back to Menards I went {Jerzie is so patient with me while I stand in the trim isle trying to figure out what on earth I need to get}, and I found some trim that's used for wainscoting, it has a slight lip on it, and I put it upside down. It covers any gap at the bottom and adds another layer! My reciept calls that one Pine Moulding Wainscot 2.

After using the air nailer to apply each piece of trim, I filled the holes and painted it all to match the cabinets. (I didn't paint the entire surface of the door since it was going to be covered with some fabric, just about 2-3 inches in)

Now it was time to cut the fabric!

I took the plexiglas off the top and laid it down on the fabric that I had spread out on the floor to use as a guide to tell me how wide to cut the fabric! Jerzie helped! She holds the plexiglas very still! :)

No pictures of the next step...very hard to take pictures while I'm working .

I cut the fabric, then laid it down on top of the desk.

 I put tiny drops of hot glue in the corners and in the center so that the fabric would not get loose under there for some reason and so that it would stay put! I didn't use very much so it will be easy to take off if and when I decide to mix it up. When the glue is super hot, applying the fabric right away and applying pressure makes for no bumps or lumps underneath, so it still lays very flat.

After I finished up with the fabric, I laid the plexiglas down...and then admired what the desk was transforming into!!

The sides will have painted beadboard on the sides, we got a few sheets, but it wasn't unfinished, so I have to go exchange for unfinished so it can be painted to match the cabinets.

I love the pop of color underneath!

I'm in love!

Now, to go to Menards, get the shelving, crown moulding, and beadboard (wainscoting) and we should be close to complete.  I also have hopes to paint that chair a great magenta-pinkish color!

In other news: the white memo board wasn't doing much for me. I gave it a quick coat of blue paint, and it looks so much better!!!

So, what do you think? The space is coming along, but work to still be done!

Turned any doors into anything crazy lately? I love a good ole 5 dollar bargian door!

A Place for Everything, and Everything in it's Place. Organizing Jewerly, and make up.

It's Monday again, the boys are back to work/school and Jerzie and I have a few things on our agenda for the week!

We had a nice weekend, it snowed, quite a bit! We've been very fortunate this winter and not had alot of snow, well, haven't had any snow that has stayed. Sunday night, and all Sunday it snowed non stop. So pretty, and was perfect because we were all home and had no place that we needed to go!  The kiddos have been wanting to play in snow, so when they woke up and saw all that was outside they were beyond thrilled to go play outside!

Somebody tell these kiddos to stop growing, I can't believe how big they have gotten.

  

The kiddos were so excited when we told them we were going to hook them up to the 4 wheeler and pull them around the neighborhood. The snow was so fluffy and soft, they just plowed thru the fluffy piles.

Jerzie lost a glove, so we had to slow down, I got off the 4 wheeler to grab the glove, and the 4 wheeler died. The battery was not charged all the way because we have not had the need to use it to push snow. It would not re-start!  So we had to walk home, Chad went back and took care of the situation!

In other news:

Organizing!

I love to organize, if everything has a home and a place to "live" I really feel like life is so much easier and so much less time is spent wasted searching.  I've tried many different ways to organize the "small things" in a bathroom. You know, earrings, bracelets and make-up. This is the method that I have been using for a while now, and it seems to be working out great, so I thought I'd share!

 We've had a ton of these baskets floating around the house for quite some time, they have been  used in various applications and it seemed like they would be perfect to use as drawer storage!

                                               

I also had a few of those plastic containers that have little compartments, I believe that they are made for beads or something, you can get them in the craft store for around 1.99. I took the top off, added all 3 in a drawer and I ended up with this...

I sorted all my eye shadows by color, that way if I wanted blue, I could see all the blues that were in the drawer. It makes it easy in the AM while getting ready.  The longer compartment stores liquid eye shadow.

The white baskets fit perfect in the drawer.  One holds brushes, eye liners and my large eye shadow palette. And the smaller white basket holds blush, powder and large brush. Everything is right at hand is easy to see.

                                      

On to earrings:

I have quite a few pairs of earrings, none of them are anything fancy or expensive, but there seems to be quite a few pairs. Again, jewelry boxes never seemed to work for me, I wanted something right at the sink when I was getting ready for the day or at the end of day that was easy and accessible. We had this plastic container that I believe is for kiddos cars to be stored in.  It wasn't being used so it was fair game!  There are a few pairs of earrings in each compartment, it makes it easy to see what is in the drawer and which pairs to choose from!

                                       

Large earrings are on the side, and brushes are at the front of the drawer. Along with mascara, not sure why that is not in the drawer with makeup it just always tends to get put in this place. And if it works, and that's it's "home" then hey, it works for me!

Picking out earrings and putting them away is super easy.

Bracelets:

These have always just floated around until this came about. I've seen in various places where people have used fun tea-cups and things to sort bracelets and small things. I didn't have a bunch of tea-cups but I scored these little pink cups at Hobby Lobby on an after season clearance, and they work perfect!

Bracelets are sorted by color, and the larger bracelets sit in the back part of the drawer.

I also have a small notebook in this drawer. While getting ready I've had the need for note paper quite often, weather it's something that needs to be picked up at the store, an idea for something or whatever it may be. It has came in handy to have a small note book and writing utensils in the bathroom for those sudden thoughts or ideas

And there you have it. That is how the bathroom drawers are sorted in the Master Bathroom. Having lots of compartments and places to store things seem to make getting ready for the day, or night much easier. It's always nice to re-purpose containers or see things in another life!

How do you store your bracelets? Make up? How about your earrings??



Craft Room Color Thoughts...

Happy Friday!!! We have some home projects we want to get finished up and a few others I'd like to get started! One thing I want to do is get the craft room {scrapbook room} painted. Right now it's a green color, that I have not liked since the second I put it on the wall, but left it because I didn't want to repaint it right away. Now that the countertop is gone and we are going to arrange things a bit different, I figure it's a great time to get that nasty green paint off the walls, and onto a new color.

Quite the mix-mash right now:

I would like to steer away from green since I just did the studio room grellow, and the family room is a slate blue color, I don't want to orange or yellow {just not my thing} red is out, and blue is out because I don't want to get blued-out.

I kinda wanted to go super girly and do some sort of pink, but thinking I might get sick of it?

I found this picture on Pinterest:

                                                                                              www.houzz.com

That greyish purple is looking super cozy to me! It's pretty, and still girly...

Then I found this picture and this color combo has me thinking that this color scheme might be able to go somewhere??



www.pbteen.com

How pretty are those colors? I don't want it dark since it is downstairs, but I think if I pick the right shade it will just be warm and cozy and not dark.

Most of everything in there is white, and the things that are not white could be utilized else where.

I see a teal chandalier possibly???

What do you think?

Have any other color ideas?

I'd love to hear your thoughts to help my mind go in the right direction!!

Linky Parties

I've started to join in the fun of Linky Parties!!! I've only done a few but have met some fun bloggers already!! These are a few that I've done, and am so excited to join as many as I can!!!


Sunday:

Monday:

Tuesday:

Wednesday:

Thursday:

Friday:

Saturday:

The Studio - A Little on the wall- Frame Memo Board Tutorial

How are you doing today??

Things are good this direction, we have a light dusting of snow on the ground, {which is rare for us not to have 4 feet of snow...this year is way different then any other year, but no one's complaining}.

I've gotten a small bit of progress done in the new studio .  I've working my tail off in the studio painting some fun pieces, so not alot of time to decorate, in time....in time!

I needed to address the paint situation first and foremost. I have this cool 3 tiered piece that I got for a Christmas present and loved having my paints by color in it, but I quickly have out grown it. I wanted the paints to be visible, so I could see the colors and take a quick glance at what I needed...

See the problem.....

We've had these IKEA  RIBBA frame ledges hanging out for quite some time. I was going to put them up on the wall by the kiddos loft beds (when we get them made) but this project came up and I thought they would work great, and surely we will be back to IKEA again in the future (hopefully near future) and I will get more!

These were way to long for my space. And since driving the 8 hour drive to IKEA wasn't an option {for the hubby at least, I'm always up for an IKEA trip}, I thought I would cut these ones down.

I measured them, and decided that for my space it would best to cut them in 3's.

Each section to be 24 inches long.

They cut really well. I was a bit nervous that the saw blade might hack up the paper type coating on them, I just went slow and it cut like butta'! Horray!

The black color just wasn't going to work in this space, I wanted something brighter, and didn't want to choose a color in case whatever color I chose would not fit in, in the future.

White it was.

If you have ever spray painted you know they have to be primed.

If you have not ever spray painted them before...They have to be primed! :)

If they are not primed they don't take the spray paint even, maybe in spots, but I have not had luck with the entire thing being perfect. First, I got some primer, I used Rustoleum 2x Coverage white Primer! Gave them all a nice even coat and let it dry. I didn't worry about doing the back, it will be screwed against a wall and no one will ever see it!

After they dried, I used Rustoleum 2x Coverage White Satin paint.

After they were all evenly coated and dried, it was time to bring them downstairs and get to work.

Note: the edge (where it was cut) will not cover with spray paint. I have a quart of white satin Rustoleum Satin oil based paint that I used. It covered perfect, only 1 coat and can't tell the difference from where it was spray painted!

Chad was at work so I had to tackle the whole, measuring and hanging straight project on my own!! Grabbed a can of Code Red Mtn. Dew and I was ready to get started!!

I measured the entire space of the counter they were going to be above. And centered the shelves. I was going to use 6 shelves, but after I got to measuring and eyeballing the situation, I figured that 4 would work and should hold the paints I have...if not, I need to downsize on paints!

I measured up front the countertop, made a small mark on the wall, and then measured in from the end of the coutnertop, and made a small mark. Where the lines intersected, would be the inside corner of the first shelf.

One screw in, level and screw the other one in.

                                     

STRAIGHT! :)

Ok, so the first shelf was the easy part, now to get the other to match up. I did the same with measuring, held it onto the wall, and laid my level on so they were straight with each other.

I measured up from the bottom shelf and made a mark on the wall, made sure it was level going vertically, and then screwed in the one above it, made sure it was level and waa-laa...I did it!!!

At this point I was excited, they were all even, and level and I couldn't wait to get the paints up!

Here they are, in their new home!!

I love that I can see what I have, what colors I have or need and take quick inventory when it comes time for a new project!

{need to touch up underneath on the cabinet}

So that was fun!! Exciting to get something on the walls, hopefully it will echo less when we're in there. :)

I had this white frame that I spray painted quite a while back.

I had a list of things I needed to purchase laying around and never would remember where it was at amongst all going on in the room.

Got me thinking, sure would be nice to have something near the door, that I could clip notes onto and grab as I leave the room.....

The frame would be perfect!

I got a few screws, and some wire.

I screwed some very small screws into the back of the frame. I wanted to do 2 rows, so I eyeballed where each row would go.

With the screw in, but not all the way, I used some thin wire and wrapped it (in the same direction as the screw would turn) around. When I screwed the screw in the rest of the way it would tighten up the wire.

Repeat on the other side, and on the other row.

And we have this.

Notice, again, I didn't spray paint the back of the frame, no one sees it so it won't matter if it's white, brown or pink!

I needed a way to hang the frame. I had these D hooks that I use for my etsy pieces and they would work perfect!!! I get them at Target, and they are the best and best price that I've found!

The back:

I stuck 1 push pin-in in each D hook, stuck it up next to the wall and when it was where i wanted, pushed them lightly into the wall. When I took the frame down, the push-pins were where I wanted to put screws in to hold the frame.

After getting it hung up, I used some very small little craft clothes pins, and I have a message/ note holder!



Still needing to do a few things on this wall, but I'm loving it so far!

What do you think?!

Super simple way to hang some notes, could be used in so many places throughout a home! And I love the little shelves with the paint!