:: Nursery ::

Liam's nursery was such a fun project for Ben and I. We loved the "nesting" process and being able to imagine our baby boy in the little room we worked on for 9 months! We were going for a rustic, calming, restoration hardware kind of look and you would be surprised how hard it is to find things that aren't animal/disney/superhero themed for a little boy so most of it ended up being a DIY project, which we love anyway! Here are some pictures of the details:

These pictures were obviously taken before Liam was born (empty frames and baskets + shower gifts still out on the changing table). We've updated and added a few things since, including a baby and the mess that comes with that! Overall we are really happy with the way it turned out! 

DIY:: Sprucing Up the Living Room:: Part 2

Project #2: Pallet Art

We have a huge wall over one of our couches in the living room that needed some sort of statement piece. I had seen lots of uses for pallets all over Pinterest, so that is what inspired this next craft.

-Materials:
8 pieces of 1” x 2” x 10’ slats
nails
glue
wood stain
sand paper
white paint
“ABC” stencils
paint brush

We made our pallet 3 ft tall and 4 ft wide, so we cut 3 3ft. pieces and the rest of the slats to 4 ft pieces. Use the 3ft. pieces and 2 4ft. pieces to frame the pallet. The 2 4ft. pieces are the top and bottom of the frame, the 3 3ft. pieces are the sides and middle - nail and glue these together. Use the rest of the 4ft pieces to create the flat slats across the front of the frame. We used 1 inch gaps between each slat.

*Builder Ben says to avoid the shape of your pallet warping, make sure you nail each slat alternating from top to bottom and work your way to the middle. You can also measure the distance of your top right corner to your bottom left corner and make sure it consistently matches the opposite corner to corner measurement.

Next, stain and sand your pallet and decide what you want to write on it!

We chose one of our favorite Bible verses. I used individual letter stencils for this and a teeny tiny paint brush. It took forever but we loved how it turned out! 

After letting the paint dry, we lightly distressed the letters by hand. We're so happy we chose to make this ourselves, I think we'll love it forever!...sorry for the blurry pic, I'll get a better one ASAP! 

DIY:: Sprucing Up the Living Room :: Part 1

When we first moved into our house, the previous owners had the living room set up in a way that made zero sense to me - it was also painted a pea soupish color green. So, this room became my number 1 priority since it would be where people gathered and the first thing you see when you walk in our house. Obviously, it needed some help.

I was pretty compulsive and went out and bought a new color for the walls by just picking one I thought would look good - I wouldn’t recommend ever doing this - but just this one time, it worked out! Painting made a HUGE difference. I already liked the room better and the color set the tone for the rest of the room. After adding our furniture and rearranging 10 million times, we settled on the set up of the room.

Then, the fun part. We got our DIY on:

The Shutter Table:

The entrance to our house needed some kind of console table, so instead of going out and buying one - we decided to brainstorm a fun way to make our own. During a quick trip to the Habitat Restore, we found our inspiration. We bought a set of 2 shutters already painted a great color blue for $15. After that we headed to Lowe’s and bought the rest of the materials:

-4 spindles (the vertical things on stairs :) super cheap, $1.50 each!)
-1” x 2” x 8’ batting (4 pieces)
-sand paper
-wood stain
-wood glue
-nails

Then Ben went to work on the actual building and here's how he did it:

Cut the batting into 4 6ft long pieces (This was the length of our shutter, make sure to cut the batting to match the size of yours. In other words, the width and length of your shutter will determine the dimensions you use to cut the batting). Hold on to the 4 2ft. long off cuts - these will be used for the frame of the base along with your 6ft pieces.

Make the base of the table by nailing and gluing the batting to form 2 identical rectangles using 2 6ft pieces and 2 2ft. pieces for each. Then, nail and glue 1 spindle inside each corner, to the batting, at the top and the bottom. Sand all the edges and stain the base whatever color you choose. We chose to sand it again for a distressed look to the stain. Next, nail the shutter to the top of the base.

And there you have it!

DIY:: Daybed

I have been meaning to post about/brag about how handy and crafty my husband is for a while now, so here we go! When we moved into our house last year, we had so many ideas about how to make it our own without breaking the bank...and guess what?? We've actually started making some progress, yes its a year and a half later, but we're taking it project by project :) I hope I can get Ben to sit down with me long enough to explain how we (ok, he) made some of our favorites. I'll start with a project I actually have pictures of...the daybed!

We have a really awkward room off the side of our kitchen that could be a really cool nook or it could be a junk collecting room for our drying laundry. Thankfully, I found some inspiration for a room just like this:

The Lettered Cottage has some awesome design tips and DIY ideas and this was so cool to me that I showed Ben and began begging.

Ben, being the sweet husband that he is, looked up a few tutorials for a day bed design and while I was in the process of writing down every detail and every step, Ben was done reading and knew how to do it after skimming the directions for literally 5 minutes. Thank the Lord for the way Ben's brain works because it would have taken me a full week to even go to the store with a list a mile long to start this thing. So, after a quick trip to Lowe's, Ben started cutting away until he had built what would be the base:

P.S. - please excuse my iphone pics and their blurriness

We decided to paint it white...duh. 

Being pregnant and all...this was all I could help with, and even that was a struggle because I'm pretty sure that's not allowed either. At least I tried...

After letting the 2 coats of paint dry, we pushed the three parts of the base together, added our extra twin mattress and it's bedding, and there she was! 

Since this picture was taken, we have added baskets that my Mom found for us that fit perfectly and really make it look complete. Unfortunately, around the same time that this was built, we adopted this terror: 

She has managed to chew all of the pillows to shreds and even started on the wood of the daybed AND the mattress. It's a good thing she's cute and Ben is more patient than me. We'll probably have to start over on all bedding, but until then...we have a daybed! More to come on this awkward little room and how we decide to decorate!