Ikea Hack Media Console Part I

I am so excited to be back today with part one of an Ikea hack.  One of my most popular posts involved my Ikea hack of some Expedit shelving units that I made into a window seat for my porch. You can check that post out here.

We were in Minneapolis a few weekends ago and decided to stop at the Twin Cities area Ikea to pick up some door inserts for the window seat unit (more on that in a future post).  While we were there we decided it was also time to upgrade our media console and when we saw this Expedit unit we knew that it would be perfect.  

The best part about Ikea furniture is that it can be easily changed to make it unique thus the term Ikea hack.  When I was pinning ideas for my nightstands I fell in love with this image.

Source

I decided not to do this on my nightstands because at the time the idea of sawing wood intimidated me but I wanted to give it a try for this media console project.  The best part about this project is that the wood that is used is from paint stir sticks!

I started by taking a trip to my favorite hardware store, Scheels Home and Hardware.  Now you could take multiple trips to the store and try to score the paint sticks for free but I felt weird about that so I asked how much it would cost to purchase a large quantity of them. The guy at the paint desk was very friendly and he called someone right away to get my question answered. They charged me 5 cents a piece so I got 100 for $5.38 with tax.

Then I marked off 4 inch pieces on each of the sticks.

I then used the miter box and saw to cut them to size.  This step was a little tedious but I just blasted some tunes in the garage and it made it seem to go much faster.

Next I glued the sticks onto the Ikea shelving unit using Liquid Nails.  I laid them out in my pattern first and did some measuring to make sure I started the design in the center of the unit.  I also used a grease pencil to mark where I wanted those first pieces.

Later I laid down some pieces of painters tape to make sure that I kept the design straight and centered.

Then I started working on the end and side pieces which involved a lot of 45 degree cuts with the miter box and saw.  I actually marked each of the pieces individually with a pencil so that I would know exactly where to cut.  I also numbered the pieces so that I could cut them all at once in the garage and then know where to put them when I came back in.  

I ended up with a lot of gaps because I wasn't the most precise sawer so my next step was to take some wood putty to fill in the gaps.  I have had a lot of practice repairing holes in plaster walls so this was a piece of cake since applying the wood putty is the basically the same process.  

My last steps were to sand, apply wood conditioner, apply stain and then a couple of coats of wipe-on poly to seal it.  The stain that I used was Minwax Provincial.

I love the rustic look of it.  It looks awesome with my beachy blue walls.  Part two of the hack involves putting a backing on the shelving unit so check back next week for that post.  I will also include a cost break down for the entire project with that post.  I believe that I still have one more post for you this week on an art project to the living room so you don't even have to wait until next week to read more!

Some Updates and Some Art

I know, I know, it has been a while since I've posted. That doesn't mean that I haven't been busy with projects though! I am currently in the middle of two big projects for the living room. One of them will probably involve a two part post as it has many steps to it. You can look forward to that next week. Today I just have a few updates for you plus a little art project.

First of all, you may or may not have noticed a new tab on the blog. I have added a project gallery page so that you can browse the projects that I have completed. They are organized into different categories so be sure to check it out.

Secondly, I shared this lovely picture of our roof a while back.

After talking to insurance and then taking some bids from a few roofing companies we were able to get a new roof.  The roofers came one weekend at the end of September and finished it completely in the weekend.  It looks so nice and it is a relief to have it done before winter.

My last thing today is a little music themed art project.  I had my first student teacher for the first seven weeks of school this year.  I wanted to make something special to give her so after spending some time on Pinterest I decided to make a little art piece with the words of one of the songs from "The Sound of Music." I will take any excuse to play with my ever growing collection of fonts.  I made the piece in the Pixelmator software.

I used clipart for the images with exception of the little name tag which uses shapes from the software and the arrow.  I used the magic wand tool to get rid of the white backgrounds of the clipart. 

I bought a frame at hobby lobby and made a mat out of some textured art mounting board also from Hobby Lobby.  I brought the mat and some fun sharpies to school and had all the students and faculty sign it.  

I really like how it turned out and it was fun to give it to her.  My students were also really excited to see how it turned out so I made sure to give it to her early in the day so that all the students could see it when they came to music.  

And you can bet that I printed off another one for myself and am looking forward to framing it and finding a place for it in either my classroom or at home.  Please check back later this week for a part one post on an ikea hack for my living room.

Grommet Curtain Panels

Last week I left you with this image of some lovely fabric I had ordered.

This week I am back to share the grommet curtain panels that I made for our bedroom using this fabric.  I made these panels the same way that I made the curtain panels in both our living room and dining room which I detailed in this post.

I started by cutting the fabric.  I was concerned about how the panels would look if I didn't line up the pattern on each panel so I made sure that each panel was cut so that the patterns lined up with each other.

Ironing the sides

Laid out and ready for the lining

Lining

Pinning the lining

After I finished sewing the panels it was time to add the grommets.  I found the grommets at Joann Fabrics and they come with 8 in a pack so I purchased a package for each panel.  Putting in the grommets is actually quite simple.

p.s. watching New Girl will help aid in the process of constructing curtain panels.

I measured the top of the panel.  I didn't really want to do any math so I just laid the grommets out and eyeballed it.

Then I used the provided template to trace the circles that would be cut out.

Then I cut out the holes.  They don't have to be perfectly round as evidenced by the above picture.

Finally I snapped the grommets in place.  One side of the grommet has grooves and the other has little spiky things so that they snap together.  If you mess up in placing them they are easy to pop off again.

And that was all there was to it.  Now I finally have some curtains to hang on the curtain rod that I put up months ago.

I love these so much because they turned out exactly like I had envisioned the curtains for this room. I like the grommets so much that I am thinking about adding smaller grommets to my living room curtains. Let me know what you think of my grommet curtain panels!

DIY Bracelet Holder

I am back this evening with a post on a simple project that I created in an afternoon. The best part of this project is that it only required stuff I had laying around the house already with the exception of one item.  So I have an obsession with a particular item of jewelry/accessory but it stems partially from necessity.  I have been teaching at the same school for the past 4 years and the clock in my classroom never seems to work.  Because of this I have gotten in the habit of wearing a watch everyday.  The danger of this is that there are a lot of cute watches out there so my collection has gotten fairly large.  I needed a way to store all of them.  I am no stranger to jewelry and accessory organization.  My post on my necklace and scarf organizer and my earring frames has been viewed 36,000 times. I had no idea it would be so popular!

After seeing this post from the iheartorganizing blog I knew that I had to make my own bracelet display.  So I gathered up my supplies and got to work.

Supplies:

1. Paper towel tube-I actually had a sturdy cardboard tube from my Silhouette adhesive vinyl

2. Wood plaque for the base-this was my only purchased item for this project at $2.99

3. Wooden dowel-I had some leftover from my washi tape organizing project

4. Fabric-I used leftover fabric from some monogrammed napkins that I made this summer

5. Drill

6. Glue gun

7. Mod Podge

8. Paint-the little bottle of Martha Stewart Vintage Gold paint that I got at Home Depot can last for a lot of projects!

I started by sawing my dowel down to the length I wanted and then drilling a hole in the wood plaque just a little smaller than the wooden dowel.  I didn't glue it in because it was pretty snug and our wood glue was dried up but you can if you want it to be more secure.

I then painted to coats of gold paint after I did a coat of primer.

Next I used Mod Podge to attach the fabric to the paper towel tube.

I used my drill to put the hole in my cardboard tube since it was really thick but if you are using a paper towel tube you might want to use something like an knife to poke the hole.  I used hot glue to secure the tube to the base.

And that is it.  My $2.99 bracelet and watch display is complete.  I apologize for my dusty dresser in the pictures above.  Maybe dusting needs to be my next project.  Right now I am hard at work on my next project because look what showed up on my porch on Tuesday!  I can't wait to share this one with you next week.