Extreme Makeover: Entryway Edition

As I mentioned in my last post, we recently acquired a new bench for our entryway which set off a whole explosion of new ideas for a makeover.  Our bench is so large (I can comfortably lie down on it), it made the hanging shelf thing look so pathetic and measly in comparison and we knew a complete overhaul was necessary.  Going off some inspiration photos found on Pinterest, we decided to install some beadboard and build a wall mounted coat rack/shelf.

First step: hanging shelf thing gets the heave-ho.  More like gets the heck sawed out of it until John was able to rip it off the wall.  A stripped screw forced desperate measures.  As you can see below, John had to take the Dremel Multi-Max to it to first try to cut the head off the screw, and when that didn't work, he just cut the hole to bits until we could pop the shelf off.

Next step: building the wall mounted coat rack/shelf.  We're not carpenters or furniture designers, so it took me a couple months of poking around on the internet before I could find a plan of exactly what I had in mind.  In a stroke of luck, I came across this tutorial through a photo pinned on Pinterest (of course).  Going completely off of that tutorial, we picked up all our supplies at Home Depot and headed home to make our cuts.  Cutting the wood itself was easy peasy, but the crown molding was another story.  John had some difficulties getting the correct angles and our first attempt took approximately four hours... even though our Turkish neighbor's father (who speaks no English) came out to help... Once that first piece of molding had given all it could give, John headed back to Home Depot, found a piece of double-sided crown molding, made the cut, it fit perfectly, and it was all over in a matter of minutes.  I should mention this all happened the weekend before last when it was about 35 degrees and we were all bundled up in our winter coats, hats, and gloves.  After the cuts were made, we nailed on the trim, filled the holes, did some caulking along the seams, and took it downstairs for priming.

My lovely priming/painting station.

My lovely assistant.  He has a weird thing for plastic.

While the shelf was drying, we started in on the beadboard paneling.  Our first step on that was to install a thin piece of stop trim along the right side of the wall as a finishing piece for the paneling (so there wasn't just a weird raw panel edge).  After that was up, we cut the paneling to length (they come in 8' sheets and we decided to go with height of 5') and trimmed the bottom to fit over the baseboard molding.  We then did a dry fitting and used some old lipstick of mine (gotta love the Clinique free samples) to mark the register and outlet holes that would need to be cut out.

Step 1: Apply lipstick!

Step 2: Smoosh board on wall to create an outline!

John used his Dremel Trio to cut out the holes and the panels were ready to be installed.  John first used  paneling adhesive and 16 gauge finishing nails, but discovered the nails went all the way through the panel without securing it.  So, he switched to 18 gauge brad nails and that worked perfectly.  I was at work for the installation, but luckily, our neighbor was able to step in and help.

The paneling goes up!

We then installed a piece of chair rail molding along the top of the beadboard to cap that off.  John used some adhesive and brad nails to hang that, followed by some caulking to hide the seams.

The trim!

After everything was nailed into place, I filled all the holes with some Elmer's Carpenter's Wood Filler (in a little tub, not the squeezy tube which is awful and I would never, ever recommend unless you have a vice-like grip), waited for that to dry overnight, John sanded it down, and then it was time to paint.  Our first attempt went horribly, horribly wrong with the roller leaving a gross speckled/raised texture that was just nasty, so we gave up for the night and decided to take another crack in the morning.  So, I went to town sanding down the first attempt (which probably took an hour) and then painstakingly painted the entire thing with my trusty 1.5" Shur-line paint brush.  Luckily, it only took two coats and the beadboard was done.

In the meantime, I painted the shelf a nice light gray (Bedford Gray by Martha Stewart color matched to Glidden paint so we could just buy a little tester tub).  We had originally planned on painting the shelf white, too, but then realized we'd go from a blob of black to a giant blob of white.  Still wanting to keep it light and airy, we settled on a soft, kitteny gray.  When the shelf was dry, John drilled pilot holes and then counter sink holes so once it was installed, the screws would hide beneath the surface and we could patch over them.  John installed the shelf, patched the holes, and repainted and we were close to done!

Pre-hole filling, but it's getting there!  We picked up that giant cast iron "B" on sale at Restoration Hardware.  woop!

We had a slight delay in obtaining the hooks we had chosen to finish off the project.  Our Old Town Alexandria Restoration Hardware is sadly closing (boo), but we did score that giant "B" for 60% off.  The Tysons Corner Restoration Hardware was doing inventory the day I went in and wouldn't sell me the hooks (still don't understand that), so we had to order them and wait patiently for 4.5 days until they arrived this afternoon!  On the upside, they were on sale, so we saved about $36.  In case you're curious, we went with the Vintage Hooks.  After powering up with some Panda Express tonight, we came home and screwed those puppies in.

There's a tiny photo-taking John in the hook!

Bam!  It's done!

Don't you think the scale looks so much better?  And it's so much brighter!  Here's a side shot for you...

But how will it look all full o' coats and such??  Have a look!

We're still working on the shelf decor, so we just threw some stuff up there for photos.  Doesn't look half bad, though.  So, all in all, it took us about a week and half, with a lot of time spent on the crown molding and waiting for caulk/wood filler/primer/paint to dry.  I'd like to get a new appropriately sized rug for the entry way, add some pillows to the bench, and find some more or less permanent junk for the top of the shelf.  For now, though, we're happy... that it looks good and it's done.

Just another picture of Elliot because he's so darn cute.

Salvation Army Victory Bench

One of our very first purchases for Grafton was our entryway bench and cubby shelf thing.  It was great and held a bunch of our junk for a year, but one day, something switched in my head and I decided I hated it.  The bench and the shelf and their stupid selves had to go.  I don't like how dark they are, how plain the stupid storage cubbies are, and how small it looks on the wall.  Plus, when we removed it to paint, the shelf part got a little messed up and isn't 100% secure anymore.

Since we don't have an actual entryway/foyer or coat closet, I felt like it should all look nicer since that's what someone immediately is confronted by when entering our shack.  During my countless hours spent wasted on Pinterest, I came some inspiration which I, of course, can't find now, but this Pottery Barn example will do:

So, Mission: Hunt Down a Giant Bench commenced.  I really did nothing active to find one since it's hard to convince someone we need to spend money replacing something we already have and technically has nothing wrong with it except for earning my sudden and unrelenting distaste.  But when everything falls into place like destiny, who can resist?

A fun back story to set this all up for you: A couple years back I needed an oil change and took my trusty Ford Focus in to our local dealership.  While waiting, John and I perused the sale lot and couldn't help but notice how much nicer the new Focus looked and how nasty his old Toyota Yaris was and how much nicer he'd look tooling around town in an SUV.  To keep a short story short, we ended up going home with two new cars.

Fast forward to a month ago, we find ourselves at the same Ford dealership, this time with a small repair on John's Escape, and back out wandering in the lot.  Of course, they updated the body on the Focus again and I started getting that feeling... and we immediately left and walked over to the Salvation Army next door.  Lo and behold, right in the front, we come across a gorgeous bench that would be perfect for our entry way.  We're circling it and talking and trying to decide if it's too big or too expensive and maybe we'll just wait until 25% off everything Wednesday, but notice some older woman is also eyeing our bench.  Then we start feeling a little territorial and decide, yes!  We'll take the bench!  But... this kindly woman informs us her brother also wants it and she sent photos to him and he's still trying to decide.  What to do??  John was leaning towards letting her take it, but in my usual ruthless ways, I decide, we're here, he's not, we've decided, he hasn't.  Apparently, the rule at Salvation Army is whoever rips off the tag and takes it to the cashier first wins.  With a swipe of John's hand, the bench was ours.

Ta da!  New bench!  Aren't you jealous of our awesome shoe storage?...

Now I'd like to add a long shelf with hooks along the back, maybe try some sort of wall treatment, add a couple pillows, and find some baskets like the PB inspiration photo for storage.  It seems every time we accomplish something, ten more things to do pop up in its place.

Elliot loves it.  Just kidding.  Elliot only loves himself.

Battle of the Weed Forest: Part 2

In the continuing battle against our wild, unkept yard, last weekend we reclaimed another patch of land from the vines and pricker bushes.  Located in the back left corner of our fence, the vines and such created a decent looking patch of greenery in the warmer months.

See the patch of green in the back corner?  Past the azaleas.

However, once fall came and the leaves died, it was obvious all we really had was a nasty patch of pricker bushes.  Our plan is to one day landscape all along the fence line with little beds in each corner, so to start that, the strange pricker triangle had to go.

How it looked last weekend.

Strange vine growing up a tree.  And a board.  Not sure where that came from.

We raked and raked... and raked up all the leaves and then went to town hacking down the vines, cutting down some spindly trees, throwing large branches over the fence, and digging up stumps.  Once it had been cleared, we found a bunch of odd things like a mound of cement and random clumps of cement, a few old bricks, and a whole line of cinder blocks.  I'm pretty certain there are bodies buried in our yard.

The line of cinder blocks and some bricks.

Why are there so many cinder blocks in our yard??

After just a few hours, we were left with this... barren patch.  Mostly barren, I should say.  We're still working on the leaf removal.

I guess it doesn't look like much of an improvement right now, but it does make our fenced in space look so much larger.  In spring, we're hoping to plant a little shade garden with some hostas, lilies, ferns, etc.

Oh, and a special shout-out to our best little helper, Chewie.  He was extremely helpful in digging up roots and carrying away little stumps once I had ripped them from the earth.  Of course, they're now scattered throughout the backyard...

Look at those little dogs!

Elfa Redux

Back a year or two ago when I first announced my desire to get an Elfa system for my closet, John laughed at me.  He couldn't understand why anyone would want to spend a couple hundred dollars (or more) to add some shelves to their closet.  Oh how the tides have turned.  Following the installation of my Elfa system, he was instantly overcome with jealousy.  Thus began our Elfa Redux.

John saw the benefits of an organized and glorious closet and decided he, too, needed an Elfa.  So, he did the same wizarding I did and came up with his own closet design.  It's pretty similar to mine, as there's only so much you can do in a small space, but you'll see he has more room for shirts and a space for pants while I had more room for dresses (I make him store his dresses in the attic).

This time, he submitted the order electronically, and sure enough, when we arrived, a cart was waiting for us full of his Elfa components.  We did the same prep work as before - demolition, repair, and painting.  In case anyone out there is curious on how to go about installing an Elfa unit...

First, you hang up a support strip along the top of the closet.  They provide you with the screws, and all you really have to do is ensure it's all level and screw it in.

Don't you love how level/even the intersection of our ceiling and wall is?

Next, you just pop in the hanging bracket braces and slide them according to the appropriate spacing.  You're given a spacing guide, so you just scoot it over until it's properly spaced.

Then you just pop in the brackets and set the shelves in place.  You can space them as you'd like, according to whatever you'd like to store and if you don't like the placement, you can just pop them back out and try again.

Once your shelves are in, you pop in the rod brackets and snap in the rod itself.

Before you know it, you're done and so happy you didn't spend a ton of money paying some fool to install it for you!  Rejoice!

This time around, we removed all the tags and stickers beforehand and total installation was only about 15 minutes.  Of course, our systems are about as simple as they come.  

John's final product.

So, that's that.  Two nicely organized closets in two weekends.  Pretty good progress for us since on average, I think projects usually take us about 4 months from start to finish...

Merry Elfa-mas To Me!

Back at Overlook, we were enormously spoiled with a cavernous walk-in closet complete with shelving units and lighting.  Here at 64 year old Grafton, our master bedroom closets are minuscule in comparison.  I've been able to make it work, but since we moved in, I've been dreaming about adding an Elfa storage system.  Since most of our readers are Michiganders, you may not be familiar with the heaven-on-earth that is the Container Store (sadly, it looks like the nearest store location is Chicago).  Just another reason to abandon the Mitten and join us here in NoVa (obvious hint-hint, Mom and Dad).  Once a year, Container Store has their 30% off Elfa Sale and I just so happened to have a bit o' cash in my pocket from a Christmas bonus and thought: 2012 is the year my dreams come true.

So, you can go online and enter the measurements of your space and the closet wizard will suggest some designs based on the info you provide.  That is what I did.  Here is what the wizard and I decided on:

It's pretty great because it breaks down every component of your design and you can make all sorts of adjustments and it'll give you the exact price, so there aren't any surprises at check-out.  Once you're done, you can submit your design to your nearest store and they'll put together all the pieces in a cart for easy and quick check-out!  Amazing!  I didn't quite get that at first, so I just printed out my design and brought it into the store and a helpful employee still pulled all the pieces whilst we browsed the store.

Back at home with all the parts, I had to pull out all my junk and then remove the existing shelf and bar... and patch up the wall where our demolition caused some minor damage.

Before Elfa.  The horror! 

My handsome assistant demo'ing the existing shelf brace.

Post-spackle.

The walls of my closet were pretty banged up from me repeatedly throwing my shoes in there.  I thought, why not paint in there?  We have bought paint for our master bathroom and bedroom (months and months ago, as usual), so I brought out the lighter shade designated for the bathroom and went to town on the closet.

Freshly painted!

I'm not sure if you can really get a feel of the color, but it's a soft gray that looks so much better than the flat, banged up white and infinitely better than the nasty old yellowed paper color of our bedroom walls.  I'm glad I love it since our bathroom will one day be that color.  FYI, it's Benjamin Moore's "Big Bend Beige" color matched to Behr's Premium Plus Ultra base.

Once the paint was dried, we installed the Elfa.  You can pay Container Store to install it for you, which would have cost us an additional $180, but we were able to do it in about 30 minutes... which half of that was peeling off all the stupid price tags and opening assorted packaging.  I finally got my Elfa and I love it.  I'm still working on complete organization, but here's a sorta-after for you:

Doesn't that look so much better already??  If you can't tell, there's a top shelf that runs the entire width of the closet which is currently empty.  One thing I'd note for women, buying a couple solid shelves might be better than the wire ones I went with.  I found some of my skinnier-heeled shoes have a hard time balancing on the wires, so we might return one or two for the solid shelves.  I'm just hoping one day when we're ready to leave Grafton, it might help someone realize how much you can shove in a small space and not be scared off by our tiny closets.  In the meantime, I love my newly organized closet and am slightly afraid of how happy organization makes me...

A Slice of Paradise

OK, warning going into this post: it'll be my cheesiest post yet.  *dorky snickering*

As I mentioned in my last post, we made a trip to the Container Store last weekend and really, ever since the ball dropped and 2012 rolled in, we've been on a crazy organizing trip.  We were wandering the aisles and I (of course) came across something I never knew I needed, but now that I have, I don't know how I lived without: a single cheese slice container.  For individually wrapped Kraft slices.  You know, for grilled cheese?

Tell me this hasn't happened to you:  You buy your Kraft slices, bring them home, they sit nicely in your little cheese drawer until one day, the time comes where you must open said cheese slices.  While you try so hardly to carefully open the package and maintain some of its structural integrity, it rips all the way down the side and slices go flying and you curse your cheese slices and the depths of hell from which they came!  Sure, you might try to carefully stack the slices and slide them back into the demolished shell of a package, but it won't hold.  They won't stay.  You just end up with a mutilated wrapper that somehow goes missing in the cheese drawer and a whole stack of slices sitting nakedly, just waiting to collapse.

Shameful.

Apparently, some geniuses/wizards at "Resourceful Products, Inc." felt our pain, understood our misery, and came up with the revolutionary "Single Cheese Slice Container".  And at $1.99, who could resist?  Don't they know I'd probably pay like $5 for this innovative technology??  Fools.  But now, my Kraft slices safely reside in their plastic domicile, waiting for the day they will be chosen to grace a couple slices of bread and accompany a steaming bowl of tomato soup.

Is it wrong that a simple box for holding cheese slices makes me so happy?

Banishment of the Baker's Rack

Just about a year ago, I did some work on our baker's rack that made me not want to pitch it out the window anymore.  Try as I might, my hate for the stupid thing continued to fester for another year until it was just too much.  The baker's rack had to go.  We finally got our act together on a couple fronts which laid the path for banishment.  First, we (mostly) cleaned and organized the unfinished portion of our basement which allowed for some infrequently used appliances to be moved downstairs (a post on that will be forthcoming).  Second, we came up with something that looks so much better in the space the baker's rack used to occupy.

Offensive.

Look how horribly it blocked the view.  Ignore the wood in our kitchen.  Those will eventually be our built-ins.  I hope.

Back in June, we were at my parents' house and I noticed they had a vintage Singer sewing machine stand base in their garage... that my Dad was using as a base for a drill press.  I managed to convince them I could put it to much better use and they were kind enough to bring it down to us in August.  Just like all of our projects, the stand sat in the basement for 4.5 months until we finally got around to doing something with it.

We decided to build a top for the stand to use it as a little side table.  We contemplated buying a small piece of granite or marble or possible a more expensive cut of fancy wood, but decided in the end, we're cheap.  We ended up buying a 10 foot 1x4 piece of maple and a can of stain at Home Depot.  To make it look a little more interesting, I came up with this very technical and intricate pattern:

John dragged his saw and wood outside (last weekend when it was like 20 degrees out when this weekend it was 60!  Darn our luck!) and while we shivered in the cold, we cut up the wood into the 14 pieces we needed.

The chunks chillin' on the patio.

After I sanded the rough edges a bit, I stained the tops and sides of every piece.  It was the first staining project we've tried and I must say it went pretty well.

My staining station in the basement.

The pieces sat and dried overnight before John brought out his Kreg Jig and screwed in all the pocket holes to affix the pieces to each other.

Pocket holes in progress!

All the pieces screwed together.

Once that was done, all we had to do was screw our new top onto the base.  The base has four holes that we just used four one-inch screws and some washers to attach the top.  Easy peasy!  And now for the grand reveal!

We're not really sure what to put on it yet, but we're so happy with the end result.  The much smaller table doesn't block the view from the living room into the dining room and you wouldn't believe how much larger it makes the whole kitchen/dining room space feel.

Oh, I almost forgot about the stupid baker's rack.  As I mentioned, that's been banished to the basement where its job is now to hold cat litter and cans of cat food.  ha!