In case you haven’t heard, my house is small.  Up until recently, we’ve had a giant ottoman taking up precious space.  It was useful – the top came off to store blankets and it was great extra seating when we needed it.  But the space trade-off just wasn’t worth it.  I half-heartedly looked for a new, smaller ottoman to buy; and whole-heartedly looked for something with which to make a new, smaller ottoman.

An old Coca-Cola crate turned out to be that something.  My original idea was to use two crates.  (I actually think that 2 would have made the stool more proportional to the chair it’s used for, but I don’t mind it being smaller.  Considering that whole small-house-issue...)

I found a $5 table at GoodWill that had nice legs and was willing to donate them to the project.

I painted and distressed the legs to match the crate.

(I used Minwax Wood Finish Dark Walnut stain over Krylon’s Sun Yellow Paint and Primer.)

Kevin drilled down into the legs and attached them to the crate with really long lag-screws (4 to 5 inch) to give it more stability.  He used this screw/washer combo.

I bought a small piece of dense foam to fit in the crate, and a small pillow to sit on top.  I’m sure there’s probably a better way to do it, but this was so easy.  Although it was painful to pay for the foam rubber.  Wow – that stuff is so expensive!!! Don’t even think about buying it without a coupon.  Thank goodness for 40% off.

I really cheated on this part.  I didn’t sew it at all.  I pinned the long sides together, and then folded and tucked the short sides underneath.  So lazy.  At some point I will probably sew something more permanent.  If I have to.

I really like how it turned out.  And it’s comfortable!

Zoey prefers the chair.

Much love!
Brenda

Linking up with…

I’m so excited to be sharing this post at Meridian Road today.  If you haven’t been by Suzanne’s blog,  you are truly missing out!  She lives on a beautiful farm in Idaho and shares her rural life with gorgeous photos.  If that’s not enough, her great DIY projects and sense of humor will definitely keep you coming back! 

It’s been a while since I posted about my kitchen makeover.  One of my favorite projects of the makeover was the update that we made to our dishwasher…

I am in love with how this turned out! I wanted to make it look like part of the cabinetry, so we started with a piece of beadboard paneling cut to fit the front of the door. We glued it in place with Gorilla Epoxy. (I read the details about the glue before using it to make sure it would hold in high temperatures. The dishwasher gets nowhere near as hot as this glue can handle.) He then attached a few pieces of trim (cut from 1x4s) to mimic the cabinet doors. A little caulk and some paint, and it looks just like the cabinets!

So how to make the top panel look like one of the drawers? Obviously it’s necessary to have access to the top panel of the dishwasher, where the handle and dishwasher controls are. Attaching the faux drawer with hinges was the only solution (that I could come up with) that would provide the necessary access. We glued a wood slat across the top of the door. Kevin actually screwed the slat into the door as well. (I was surprised when I saw the screws right into the door, but he said that section is just a hollow piece of the handle, and didn’t extend into the dishwasher

The slat provided 2 things – a cover for the top edge of the door that can be painted to match the cabinets, and a sturdy surface to attach the hinges for the faux drawer.

The faux drawer was cut from a piece of 1x 8 long enough to cover the top panel. (He used a table saw to bevel the edges to match the other drawers.) We attached it to the dishwasher with 3″ bifold door hinges.

I spray painted the hinges with Rustoleum’s Dark Bronze to match the hardware. I struggled with this a bit – whether I should paint them the cabinet color or the hardware color. (I thought that I might be able to disguise the hinges if they were painted the same as the cabinets.) Regardless of the color, it’s important to use bifold hinges so that there is enough swing to move the faux drawer out of the way when the dishwasher is operating.

I love that the faux drawer sticks out further than the actual cabinet drawers. I think it adds a little architectural interest to an otherwise flat landscape. I feel ridiculous saying that about my tiny little kitchen (sounds so fancy and almost pretentious!), but I don’t know how else to describe it. I like bumpy rather than flat??? No – that really doesn’t sound any better at all – and that’s going somewhere else entirely. ha.

I mentioned that using bifold hinges is important. The first time that I ran the dishwasher after installing the faux drawer, water puddled on the floor in front of the dishwasher. I panicked thinking that maybe we did drill into something important! However, the water was from steam that exhausts through a small vent at the top of the door. The faux drawer was blocking the exhaust, so condensation built up on the back of the drawer and dripped. Here is how the drawer needs to be situated when the dishwasher runs…

(It still gets wet during the process but no more dripping! It’s kind of like the cabinets above the stove when you boil water – a bit of condensation, but no harm done.)

Adding cabinet hardware put the finishing touch on the dishwasher update.  I could not be happier with how it turned out!

Thanks so much Suzanne for allowing me to be a guest today. I hope that your readers enjoyed my visit!

Much love,

Brenda

It took days weeks months but I finally picked a color for my kitchen cabinets.

So many swatches.

So many sample quarts.

yikes – scary basement!

After I took this picture, I realized there were 3 more quarts sitting behind these.  geesh.  (Yes, the employees at Sherwin Williams know me by name.)

Painting cabinets is no small task, and I wanted to be super sure and super happy with my color.  I finally settled on SW Rain.  It has a cottage-blue look, but with enough gray that it doesn’t look baby-blue.  So many of the other colors I tried did.

Again, here is my inspiration picture…

Here are my cabinets before…

And here are my cabinets after…

Loving my kitchen now!

I also replaced the blind that used to hang at this window with a roman shade.  Shanty 2 Chic had a super-easy tutorial that surprisingly doesn’t require too much sewing –  I was able to put it together in a couple of hours.

This is the only section of countertop that’s built so far.  And obviously no backsplash yet.  But yummmm – how I love the dark countertop with the blue cabinets!

See how we transformed the fridge into a framed chalkboard – without damaging it at all.

Can you spot the dishwasher?  We were able to cover it to match the cabinetry.  It was a pretty simple project that I’ll be sharing soon.  It made a HUGE difference in the overall look of the room.

I updated the cup pulls with Rustoleum’s Dark Bronze spray paint.  (The cabinet handles are actually the same ones I had on the drawers before I replaced them with the cup pulls.)  Lots of shuffling going on!  But it was so nice to avoid the expense of buying new hardware.

This was originally a medicine cabinet that we used at our previous house.  Since this section of wall is so small, we decided not to put a kitchen cabinet on it, but this little cabinet fit perfectly.  Can you tell that I love using red as an accent against the blue?

I canNOT wait to replace the counter and backsplash!!!  It might be a while though.  Kevin is getting antsy to start the bathroom remodel – I guess I shouldn’t complain about that.  No promises, though! 

I thought I’d make a list of some of the things I learned about painting cabinets.  Not a how-to (I am not at all qualified to write that tutorial!), just some tips and suggestions.  Things that worked for me.  Or didn’t work for me. (That’s a long list.)

So what do you think???

Would you consider painting wood cabinets?  How about painting them a color other than white???

I’d love to hear from you..

Brenda

Now… what to do with all of those sample colors???

Linking Up…

I know what you’re thinking…

Oh wow – another chalkboard covered refrigerator.  Yawn…

But read on, this one is a little different I promise!

Our kitchen appliances are white.  It’s what we could afford when we bought the house and updating them now isn’t an option. (New windows took precedence over updating perfectly functioning appliances.  Darn rational husbands! ;))

Here’s the thing about our refrigerator – it is one of the first things that you (I) notice when you walk through the door.  It’s crazy.  Who wants their visitors to see a big white beast covered in hundreds of school papers and drawings as soon as they walk in the house?  (Drama, much? ha)

I am being overly dramatic, but my messy fridge has always been on my nerves.

So here is my solution…

Please pretend you are NOT seeing my painted cabinets.  They are not quite ready for their debut! 

It makes me so happy.

It works for us for so many reasons:

I think the frame around the chalkboard makes it look polished and tidy.  It’s not magnetic, so I am not tempted to stick papers all over it.

It takes the glare off of the white beast.

It’s perfect for reminders and messages.

It adds some cottage flair!  ha.

It makes me so happy. (oh – I said that already!)

Originally, I wanted to add a beadboard panel to the door and paint it to match the cabinets.  But I worried that it might be too much blue.

 I’d seen other refrigerators painted with chalkboard paint, and while I like the idea, I didn’t want the permanence of paint.  (Also, the side of my refrigerator is visible, and I wasn’t sure about painting it.  And – the surface of the refrigerator isn’t smooth.  Maybe not the best surface for paint.)

I decided on framed chalkboard panels.  And here is the best part – I used magnets to hold them on.  Really, really strong magnets.

I thought I could buy the magnets for this project at Home Depot or Michael’s.  They actually worked to hold the freezer door panel in place.  But if you noticed, I took the original handle off of the refrigerator and added a black gate handle to the panel.  There weren’t enough Home Depot magnets in the world to hold the panel in place and open the freezer door.

A little google-ing later and I found an awesome magnet company K&J Magnetics, Inc.  I e-mailed customer service and Kevin Stayer got back to me immediately with recommendations for my project.  I had my order in a couple days, and they work perfectly!  They are super strong – like be careful they don’t smush your fingers strong.  We can open the refrigerator doors and the panels don’t even thinkabout pulling off!

(Ok – I have to make an admission here.  Only because I had witnesses.  ha ha.  The freezer door opened flawlessly.  From the very first time.  We had a little glitch with the fridge door, though.  The first time I tried to pull the door open, the panel pulled right off.  Very sad.  We stuck it back on thinking it probably needed a couple more magnets.  But it hasn’t pulled off since that first time.  I think the magnets needed a minute or two to fully stick (we used a rubber cover over them to protect the fridge surface).  I am still going to order a couple more just to be safe, but I think it would be ok as is.)

One more picture!

It makes me so happy! 

What made you happy today???

Oh – in case you were wondering.  I have a new place for all of the 4C’s school papers and artwork.  These boards from Ikea.  Still in the kitchen.  Not in plain sight from the front door.

Much love!

Brenda