Prior to moving into our new home, one of the bigger projects that we opted to tackle ourselves was refinishing the hardwood floors on the main level. We weren't looking to sink thousands of dollars into the project which is why we went the DIY route. The two key factors that went into our decision to refinish them were (1) we weren't crazy about the color, and (2) they had 14 years of love starting to shine through. We were able to complete the project over two weekends which fit in nicely with our moving timeline.

I also feel as though I need to preface this post with the "we are not professionals" language. What we did worked for us, the floors look great and are holding up wonderfully after almost two years of semi-rough use (dragging an 800 pound piano across them, dogs running laps around the house, dropping heavy toys, etc.).

What we bought/rented:

• Drum Floor Sander - $68/day
• Floor Edger - $45/day
• Sanding Belt for Drum Sander (36 Grit, 80 Grit and 100 Grit) - $72 (we needed 9 total)
• Edger Disc for Floor Edger (36 Grit, 80 Grit and 100 Grit) - $5 (we needed 5 total)
• Palm Sander (already had this and purchased this and these x2) - $50
• Tack Cloth - $6 
• Swiffer - (already had)
• Paint Roller - (already had)
• Paint Roller Cover - $13
• Paint Tray - (already had)
• Paint Brush - $4
• Applicator (x2) - $25
• Paint Roller Extension (similar) - $14
• Stain -(x2) - $60
• Terry Towels - $30
• Square Buff Floor Sander - $62/day
• Scrubbing Floor Pad (similar x2) - $18 (we bought ours at a local hardware store)
• Polyurethane - $95

Total project cost us: $567

Here are what the floors looked like before we started the project:

First.
We gave the floors a good sweeping and picked up the random odds and ends. We opted to remove our baseboards but that is only because we had plans of replacing the millwork all throughout the house. 

Second.
Watch 2,000 youtube videos until you work up the courage to let the drum sander touch the floors. Everyone recommends that you NEVER let the sander sit in one spot for any amount of time and to always keep it moving to prevent it from making stationary marks. We had a few instances where this happened. We started with 36 grit sand paper and worked out way up to 80 grit and then 100 grit. We had to use a palm sander to get some of the hard to reach places and in between some/most of the boards. Be sure to run with the grain.

Third.
After a grueling day of sanding (which you might think will never end), return the sander, sweep up all the dust and use tack clothes and a swiffer to remove everything you can't see and feel. It's there!

Fourth.
We water popped our floors by dipping a paint roller in a tray of water and then rolling that over the floors right before we stained. This opens everything up and helps condition the floors for a more even look.

Fifth.
Use a paintbrush to stain the perimeter of the floor in a small workable section. Once that has been done, apply stain to the floor in a timely manner so that there are no distinct lines. Before we moved onto the next section, we would use terry cloths to absorb and evenly distribute the stain.

Sixth.
Once the floors have dried (at least a day or two) use a deck sander to ruff them up before poly is applied. If you do not do this, you will get small bubbles like we did. This will need to be done in between each layer of poly. Make sure the poly is completely dry between each layer. Another mistake we made was applying another layer of poly too quickly which made it messy and caused more bubbles. We were able to easily fix that issue by running a deck sander over it after everything had dried.

Once everything was completely dried, we refrained from walking on the floors for a couple days and did not move anything into the house for a couple of weeks.

I don't have many after photos, but here's a great picture of the dog room with the new floors and trim!

Pictures and a video of the house when we first moved in can be found here!

And here's a shaky video of the adventure!

DIY: Paint Stirrer Table

I've been on the hunt for a piece of furniture that resembled a butcher block but with more dramatic coloration for a reasonable price. Of course that doesn't exist on my budget so I moseyed on over to ye ole faithful Amazon and Home Depot to attempt to DIY my vision. Like every project I seem to take on there was one small fail, however, I am pleasantly pleased with how this one turned out and am ready to start on a second one -- let's be real, the second one has been sitting in my basement half finished for months now. But when the motivation bug bites again, at least I have my ducks in a row! 

WHAT IS IT?

It's a ton of stained paint stirrers glued onto a piece of plywood with hairpin legs. 

I used a 4' x 8' piece of pre-sanded 1/2" thick plywood

WHAT YOU NEED:

Here's what I bought:

• Plywood
• Paint Stirrers
• Table Legs
• Stain (1, 2, 3 & 4) I ended up mixing #3 and #4 together to get it a little darker. I highly recommend buying the smallest can you can find - you won't use that much.
• Liquid Nails

Other items that I used:

• Screws
• Gloves
• Sander or Sand Paper
• Painters Tape
• Some type of weight

Dark Walnut is one of my favorite stains - we used it on our floors (hence the large can). I also used Ebony, Driftwood and Special Walnut for this project.

I bought 30" hairpin legs and they seem to be a great height for what we use the table for.

THE PROCESS:

Putting this together was relatively simple. I started by sanding the edges of the plywood. Once everything was as smooth as butter, I threw a layer of dark walnut stain on both sides of the plywood. 

I divided the stirrers up evenly into four different section and stained them one by one (wearing gloves is a must if you don't want to go into work the next day with multicolored digits). 

My project manager overseeing my work. He has high standards - after all it did end up going in his room. 

Voila! Pat yourself on the back, this part can take awhile!

Once the stirrers were dried, I cut the ends off with a miter saw and laid them out on the plywood in a somewhat random pattern. Once everything looked good, I broke out the liquid nails!

I used a few weights to keep everything in place overnight.

I'm shocked the sawhorses weren't crushed.

Final step is to screw on the legs. I used painter's tape to help measure where I wanted them to line up.

WHAT YOU SHOULDN'T DO:

Lesson learned. Do not poly this table. I tried this and the poly caused a handful of the stirrers to warp and pull away from the plywood. I ended up having to rip them up and replace them entirely. 

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT:

I will be buying a piece of glass to put over this table to prevent dirt and other shenanigans from getting down in between the stirrers and to also create a flat surface. It's a gamble every time I put a beverage on top of it right now as it is slightly uneven with all the stirrers.

TO SUM IT UP:

I LOVE THIS TABLE. I'm pleased with how it turned out and receive compliments on it frequently. I love that it incorporates different colors of wood which makes it easy to decorate the room. Almost everything matches it... especially the floors! I moved it into the "dog room" which I am slowly transitioning into the dog room/office to serve as a desk.

DIY: Holiday Ornament Tree

I've been in quite the Holiday craft mood these past fews weeks and have been running around making a mess in a different room every other day to satisfy my desire to craft! My most recent project being an Ornament Tree. I've seen variations of this idea floating around pinterest however I wanted to use  smaller ornaments that varied in size opposed to one size. Surprisingly, tiny ornaments are rather hard to come by so I settled on some pearl beads, some vase/bowl filler, and tiny Christmas bells.

Before I started the "glueing of the ornaments" which actually took a lot longer than I had anticipated, I spray painted a paper mache "tree" metallic so that there would be no gaps where I was unable to fit any beads. I also spray painted a handful of the gold styrofoam balls and pearl beads metallic as well so that I could have every color in the book (and by that I mean gold, silver and white).

I try to avoid hot glue whenever possible. I hate working with it and I always end up with a huge mess. For this project I used Gorilla Glue super glue, however if I were to do it again, I would have used the gel version of that glue. The regular version took awhile to dry and it couldn't support some of the heavier beads. I eventually ran out, so I rant to Rite Aid and picked up the gel version of Krazy Glue to finish up the project.

I didn't have any particular pattern in mind when I glued everything together giving it a rather eclectic look to it which I loved!

I glued little Christmas bells in places where there were maybe too many of one color, or a gap in beads to help fill it in.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

ORGANIZE: Greeting Card Organization

While sorting through our new IKEA hack of a cabinet the other day, I came across a couple organization solutions that I had put into place and felt as though their functionality was worth sharing with you. One of which is how we keep all of our greeting cards organized.

Prior to the system that we have now, I used to throw everything into this jazzy box and slapped a swanky label on it. It wasn't the worst system, however it wasn't as functional and efficient as it could be.

The container that I used for this project is made by IRIS and is actually a photo storage box that I purchased form the container store for around $14. Out of the two sizes that are available (4"x6" and 5"x7"), I used the one that was made to hold 5"x7" photographs. I have seen inserts for this same container at Michaels and on Amazon, however I have been unable to find the entire set. IRIS also makes a larger container that is made specifically to organize greeting cards. It comes with 6 or 7 plastic inserts that can divide the box into different card categories. I noticed though that the inserts didn't stay in very well, so if a certain section was overfilled it would push the insert out of place. I prefer this photo box method because it is more compact and each card category is separated by containers.

I'm also a fan of how easily these stack on top of one another. As you can imagine, I have a small supply of these which makes storing them a breeze.

I taped a chart to the interior of the lid that has our friends and families birthdays and anniversaries with the date and year of each event. This is helpful for when I'm writing a card and am trying to figure out how old they are turning or how many years of marriage they are celebrating!

There are six different compartments in this container. While I may have preferred a few more, six is just fine and works just as well. I labeled each section with clear label tape, adhered it to some fun washi tape and then put them in order of use. We tend to reach for blank cards and thank you cards the most, followed by birthday cards, congratulations cards, mother's and father's day cards and then sympathy and get well cards.

I originally wasn't going to include a mother's and father's day section, however I almost never have those on hand when I need them, so having a container for them serves as reminder to make sure I have them in stock for when those holidays creep up on me! The congratulations section works as a mixed bag for weddings, babies, graduations and anniversaries.  

I pick up most of my blank and thank you cards form Marshall's which means I usually have a collection to choose from. I typically just wrap a rubber band (or a hair tie in my case) around them or clip them together to keep the different cards separated.

I also always try to keep some more "manlier" cards on hand as well.

In the last container, which is also usually the most empty, I keep a book of stamps, a pen and extra clips. It's always nice to know that there are stamps in the house! I hate when I go to send a card and we don't have any.

So far this system has been working out extremely well for us. Whenever I need to write a card, all I have to do is refer to this container... all of the resources are right in front of me!

How do YOU organize your greeting cards!?

DIY Ikea Besta Hack

L and I have a room in our house that wears many hats. It is a space that serves as an office, dressing room and storage. One wall has two racks of clothes, another wall has a bureau, the third wall has my all time favorite storage containers stacked to the ceiling, and the last wall had a small bookcase filled with all of our office supplies. Unfortunately, that cluttered and dark bookshelf was the first thing I would see every time I walked into the room making it a huge eyesore. Because this space (which I lovingly refer to as my woman cave) is undergoing a makeover so that it will eventually be a cozy and bright oasis, this bookshelf was the perfect place to start!

If you want to skip past reading this post in its entirety, I made a short clip that shows the project from start to finish with all of my mistakes along the way!

I guess you could say I did a lot of homework when deciding what type of furniture I wanted, but I was most intrigued by the versatility and affordability that the Ikea Besta system offered (this is not sponsored, btw!). When planning this project out in my head I knew that I wanted it to be bright, mirrored, chrome, I wanted it big enough to house our printer, I wanted it to have adjustable shelves, I wanted to have the option to add to it down the line, and most importantly I wanted it to be a cabinet with closing doors so that I could hide the mess clutter. I also wanted it to be somewhere under the $300 mark. It was no surprise that I couldn't really pin down what I was looking for. SO... to Ikea it was! ...and when I say "to Ikea" I'm referring to the website because I can assure you there are no Ikea's east of Boston where I now live.

Because it's Ikea, you do have to order all of the parts individually. Don't assume that the doors come with hinges, or the cabinet come with feet and a support leg... those are all extra pieces that you should add to your shopping cart. I purchased:

• IKEA Besta Frame - $60
• (2) HANVIKEN doors - $50
• (2) BESTA shelves - $20
• (2) packages of NANNARP legs (4 legs total) - $30
• (1) BESTA support leg - $10
• (2) packages of BESTA soft closing hinges (4 hinges total) - $20

Other items purchased for this project that were not from Ikea included:

• (2) custom cut mirrors - $56
• Metallic wallpaper - $25
• 3M Super 77 Spray Adhesive - $5
• (2) Liberty Brushed Steel Bar Pulls - $15

The total for all of the products used for this project cost me $281 (not including any shipping expenses).

I love the look and brightness of mirrored furniture which is why I really, really wanted to incorporate it on this cabinet. I took both of the HANVIKEN doors to a local glass shop and they kindly cut two mirrors to size and glued them onto the doors so that they were flush with the trim. I was thrilled. If you don't have a local glass store, I'm sure Lowe's or Home Depot would work as well, however you may need to glue the mirrors yourself.

The Besta cabinet comes with what I believe to be flat "feet" that you can screw onto the bottom of each corner so that the cabinet is not sitting directly on the floor. I knew I wanted it to be lifted a little and I knew I wanted the feet to be chrome to match the handles so I purchased two packages of NANNARP legs to dress it up a little. I do plan on eventually adding another Besta cabinet on top which is why I also purchased the support leg to help give it a little stability should I add on to the cabinet down the road. This isn't really necessary, however I would like to add to it eventually.

The next customization that I made was dressing up the two panels that slide in the back of the cabinet. I wanted it to have a little pizazz as well as tie into the chrome accents that I was adding to it. I purchased come metallic wallpaper from an online store, aliexpress, which I have never heard of before... but was pleasantly surprised by the speedy shipping. I definitely purchased way more wallpaper than I needed for this project but am sure I will be able to find another use for it down the road. I glued it down with some 3M spray adhesive which ended up making a huge mess. If I were to do this again, I would try to use something a little more controllable and less messy. This stuff gets everywhere. By the end of this I had glued every speck of dirt from the floor onto my fingers!

Unfortunately, when I went to slide the panels into the back of the cabinet, they kept catching and ended up ripping. This made me very sad... especially after the whole 3M glue fiasco!

SO! Back to the drawing board I went, this time I covered the entire panel except for where it would be sliding on the sides.

I ended up putting wallpaper on both sides of the panel which meant that the back of the cabinet got a little facelift! What a beautiful surprise, I love it!

I wanted the cabinet to have a little bit of a dramatic flair which is why I purchased these 15" Liberty Steel Bar Pulls from Home Depot for the front of the doors. They also tie in nicely with the feet and wallpaper that I added to the cabinet earlier.

I'm no master measurer, however once I figured out the correct measurements for one of the doors, I stacked them on top of each other and drilled through both of them to get a consistent and even measurement. This probably isn't the most proper measurement technique, however, it worked for me!

It was important that we use this new space to store our printer, so we drilled a small hold towards the bottom of one of the panels to feed the printer cord through to the outlet.

I haven't quite organized it how I would like to see it organized, however, here is an idea as to how we are able to store all of our office supplies so that they are out of sight, yet still functional! The lower left shelf has a container filled with cords, cameras, cables... you name it! The lower right shelf has our printer, binders and my favorite zippered poly envelopes. Above that I have several sterilite containers filled with paper, envelopes, ink, manuals, pen, paper, tape, etc., and the other top shelf is a mixed bag of other random items (greeting cards, notepads, stapler, labeler).

 I'm pretty please with how everything turned out! My only complaint would be that the door on the left is slightly higher than the one on the right and it's my own fault. One day when I am feeling ambitious I will fix it by loosening the screws. Over all though, I am loving the clean, crisp and bright aesthetics that it brings to this multi-purpose and slightly busy room.

What's your favorite IKEA hack!?