text by Vicki Sign up here to join our weekly email newsletter!
There is an ongoing debate about having a TV in a bedroom. Steph just recently decided she DID want one in her room 'cause who doesn't want to watch a movie all cozy in a nice warm bed?
Although she wanted one in the room she didn't want to "see" it all the time. She came up with a clever wall-hung unit that hides the TV when not in use.
0 Comments
text by Vicki Sign up here to join our weekly email newsletter!
We have two amazing used bookstores in town. When my grandkids come to town, we have to visit the bookstores multiple times.
During their six-week visit this summer, all the grandkids accumulated so many books! All three of them love to read so I can't say 'no' to more books. The middle grand had run out of room for books in his room so he asked if we could make him bookshelves. So plans were made, lumber was bought and bookshelves took shape! It was fun to work with him on this project. This is a perfect beginner project.
text by Vicki Sign up here to join our weekly email newsletter!
Steph is an original Harry Potter fan. We have fun memories of staying up till midnight to purchase the original books. Good times!
With her love of all things Harry Potter, she wanted to share that with her niblings once each turned 10. This past December was Andrew's turn when he turned 10. To celebrate and to introduce him to the Harry Potter series, Steph purchased the entire book collection for him for his birthday. To make the gift even more special, she designed a book crate especially for him to store his books.
text by Vicki Sign up here to join our weekly email newsletter!
* We are brand ambassadors for Wall Control and they provided the product.
With almost any hobby, sport, or fitness activity, there is always stuff that is needed which then must be stored!
Steph has been utilizing Apple Fitness + for yoga and other exercise and has accumulated a storage tub full of essential gear. Up to now, she's stored that stuff in a storage tub in the living room. It was not a pretty sight! She came up with a clever idea to create a mobile storage unit utilizing two panels of Wall Control to store and to hide away her exercise gear. Take a look at how it all came together.
text by Vicki Sign up here to join our weekly email newsletter!
This rectangular silicone mold from TotalBoat Epoxy is perfect for creating themed charcuterie boards for the holidays or for special occasions.
The key to this version is a child's toy bubble blower! Read on to see how I used it to create a unique background pattern.
text by Vicki Sign up here to join our weekly email newsletter!
A visit to Disney Springs at Walt Disney World provided the inspiration for these picture frame Christmas trees!
Disney's are made of different varieties of molding, but I thought I could recreate the look with old picture frames. Plus, I had an ever growing stash of frames in my garage. Time to reimagine those frames!
text by Vicki Sign up here to join our weekly email newsletter!
This was a fun experiment to try to see if it was possible to embed battery powered lights into epoxy resin.
Spoiler: it totally worked! The lights still worked after being encased in epoxy. Read on to see how I did it.
text by Vicki Sign up here to join our weekly email newsletter!
I was late to the whole coffee drinking scene, but now that I do, I embrace the entire experience.
My first thought in the morning, "I can have coffee!" Can anyone else relate? Anyway, the coffee pot and accessories are about the only things I keep on the kitchen counter. The things are pushed to the back of the counter and in the morning I bring them forward to brew. I've been using an old corning ware tray, but now I wanted something with a little more personality which I knew I could achieve through epoxy. Materials:
text by Vicki Sign up here to join our weekly email newsletter!
Here's a unique DIY Steph designed to give an ordinary camping candle a little more presence to use as home decor.
Take a look. Along the way she shares some cool accessories she uses with her candle. The rechargeable USB lighter is magic!
text by Vicki Sign up here to join our weekly email newsletter!
Steph was gifted a massage chair from a relative a few years ago. Since then she's been enjoying massages all while editing on her laptop.
Recently she decided she needed an upgrade from the pillow she was using to elevate her computer. After a quick trip to the garage to source material, she was on her way to designing and building a folding table for her favorite chair.
text by Vicki Sign up here to join our weekly email newsletter!
Steph recently built a flat-pack sofa from Home Reserve, which meant the side table she had been using just wasn't going to work with the new sofa.
She thought about what she needed, which was storage for a few remotes and such and enough space for a beverage and track pad. Here's what she came up with.
text by Vicki Sign up here to join our weekly email newsletter!
We've used TotalBoat epoxy for a number of projects and because we like their products, we subscribe to their emails to keep up with their newest products.
Well, in one email a fews weeks ago, we saw they had new silicone charcuterie molds for sale. I talked it over with Steph and we decided on the spot to buy both the circle and rectangle molds. The shipping was super fast so I was on my way to some creative fun in no time! By the way, I really do enjoy all kinds of epoxy projects. Most have been large multi day projects, so I was looking forward to working on a small project that would take very little time. Take a look at the latest offering from TotalBoat.
text by Vicki Sign up here to join our weekly email newsletter!
Part three in the four-part Home Reserve DIY Sofa series: Putting it all together!
Once the five chairs and two ottomans were assembled, it was time to bring them in the house to connect them all together. This part could not have been easier! The hardest part was working around the greyhounds! As easy as this is to assemble its just as easy to take apart to rearrange or move, which we did a few weeks later!
text by Vicki Sign up here to join our weekly email newsletter!
This is part two of four in our series on the DIY flatpack sofa from Home Reserve.
In the first video/post, Steph shared the ordering process and building the test armless the company suggested we build before getting the rest of the pieces. This video/post is all about building the various pieces: the small and large ottomans, the arm for the armless, stuffing the cushions, and "upholstering" the frames.
text by Vicki Sign up here to join our weekly email newsletter!
When Mac, Steph's retired racing greyhound, came home to live with Steph, she was not interested in getting on the furniture. Mac was content to chose any of the many dog beds throughout the house leaving the furniture for the humans.
Well, that came to a screeching halt when Tosh, another retired racing greyhound, entered the picture. Two weeks after adoption, we discovered Tosh was quite happy to make her snuggle place the couch! (In the video, you can see that first hop up onto the couch which was caught on security camera footage!) A short while later, Mac decided she too would rather lay on the couch! Now, there was no room for humans! We dealt with this by buying a small sofa, but this just didn't solve the lack of room for dogs and humans. This is Steph's solution to the sofa problem. Read on...
text by Vicki Sign up here to join our weekly email newsletter!
Here's a quick gift you can make for that friend with whom you share special memories. You can use any printed photo, but this one is sized for retro cool Polaroids!
Grab a small piece of lumber, the stain of your choice, and a few clips and you're ready to build.
text by Vicki Sign up here to join our weekly email newsletter!
Last year, I participated in the Builders Challenge furniture flip challenge. I enjoyed it so much that I wanted to participate again this year.
Prior to the start of the challenge, I happened to see a picture online of a furniture piece by my favorite mid-century designer, Adrian Pearsall of Craft Associates. The Brutalist Hanging Disc Bar was nothing I’d ever seen before—I decided I'd try to recreate it for my challenge entry.
text by Vicki Sign up here to join our weekly email newsletter!
It's been a long time since I shopped for a new mattress and box spring and had no idea that the standard size was so deep. Which meant the combination of mattress and box spring on a standard metal frame is much taller than what I was used to.
And that is the reason that after I ordered my new mattress and box spring and put it in place, I found it to be much too tall to be comfortable getting in and out of it! I tried placing the bed on the floor which made it easy to get in and out of, but let's face it, it looked silly! The solution was to make a custom bed frame to the style and height that I needed.
text by Vicki Sign up here to join our weekly email newsletter!
It is always satisfying and cost effective to complete a project with what we have on hand. This is one of those projects!
If you saw the under-bed storage boxes, you're aware that Steph's new bed frame created more space underneath for storage, but then made her existing bedside tables too short! Rather than build something new, we decided to reimagine the old ones by creating new tops and simply adding a longer pipe to make them the needed height.
text by Vicki Sign up here to join our weekly email newsletter!
Although this project started because of one of the dogs, it's not a pet project!
Tosh likes to get on Steph's bed and when she does she sometimes does zoomies. Here's a link to what that looks like. Anyway, the bed frame Steph was using started to squeak annoying her to no end. It was time for something different. So, Steph started looking for something new and settled on a metal frame from the Purple company. (Which led to the purchase of a new mattress, which then led to the need for taller nightstand, which leads into more projects!) The Purple metal frame while nice and strong, without squeaks, is quite tall. Steph decided to make use of that under-bed space and make a couple of storage boxes with a rustic look to blend with the existing headboard.
text by Vicki Sign up here to join our weekly email newsletter!
This custom TV stand was planned with two goals in mind:
1. Hide all the tech including cables and cords 2. Provide storage for all the things previously stored in the coffee table This build does both, plus it reduces the light from the tech "on" lights! That's a bonus for anyone who has ever spent the night in someone's home office!
text by Vicki Sign up here to join our weekly email newsletter!
Over the last few months, Steph has been building miniature rooms from various kits. She is enjoying it so much that she has slowly been adding miniature tools in which to make the builds a little easier.
With all those new tools, she needed an efficient way to organize and store them. She created a simple three box caddy that is easy to use and move around. Although this is for her miniature supplies, it can be customized for whatever hobby or craft is your passion!
text by Vicki Sign up here to join our weekly email newsletter!
We've made several DIY projects based on inspiration from trips to Walt Disney World over the years. But for now, to get our theme park fix without an actual visit, we have been watching videos from a number of theme park content creators.
Recently, one of those YouTubers posted a room tour of the Universal Studios Florida Hard Rock Hotel. In it, we spotted the most intriguing wall art made out of drumsticks. We decided we needed to recreate it as we had the perfect wall for it to hang!
text by Vicki Sign up here to join our weekly email newsletter!
One of the advantages of doing things yourself is the ability to customize furnishings to fit your home. That's what we recently did when we built this footstool to replace a large coffee table at Steph's house.
Steph adopted a second greyhound, which meant having a second dog bed in the living room. With the two beds and the large coffee table there just wasn't enough room. Steph designed a heavy base ottoman that would better fit the space. Take a look at her customized piece of furniture. text by Vicki Sign up here to join our weekly email newsletter! We rarely label a project quick and easy but we WERE going to label this one as such. BUT, this very simple project was anything but that due to a series of mishaps!
Read along. Have you ever had a project that was just one roadblock after another? Do tell! |