Think Spring!: My Desk Makeover

It was more than two years ago that Nathan and I (or just Nathan) took on my desk project. To refresh your memory, here it what it looked like when we finished.

 

 

And that above is what it has looked like for the past two years. (Except for the fact that I got some marker stain on it. And there's a ton of stuff in all of the shelves.) It wasn't that I didn't want to stain it, but more that I couldn't commit to what color exactly I wanted it.

 

But that decision was finally made (officially) back in September. Nathan got me a new chair as a surprise that matched the dark wood of these framed prints that I got for my birthday also a couple of years ago.

 

 

    

 

We had a very scientific way of finding stain. Because the frames matched the chair pretty well, we decided to take one off the wall and with us to the hardware store. We picked out stain and brought it home, but as I was applying it, it wasn't quite the color it needed to be. Luckily we still had some stain leftover from when I finished our Ikea nightstands. It ended up being the perfect match for the chair and the frames.

 

It seemed like it took forever for it to finally be finished and ready to put back inside. There were many coats of stain and poly. But it turned out just right and it looks much better than it did before. I'm really glad that we took the time to build something that works just right. Here's what it looks like today. Literally. I just took this picture.

 





Summer Loving: Indoor Improvements

I know that many of you have noticed I haven't been around all that much this summer, so this week, I thought I would share some of what we have been doing before the summer is over.

While the outside of the house has been the main focus for us, we have also done a few improvements to the inside of the house. Some of these include:

*New nightstands for our bedroom.
*A new chair fabric for my writing desk.
*A freshly-painted laundry room/guest bathroom.

I have lots of before and after photos and possibly-helpful tutorials for these projects, so I'll separate them out into more detailed posts next month. Who knows, there might be more indoor projects to add to that list, too.

Summer Loving: Outdoor Improvements

I know that many of you have noticed I haven't been around all that much this summer, so this week, I thought I would share some of what we have been doing before the summer is over.

Nathan especially has been spending a lot of time outside this summer working on the yard, and I've been known on occassion to help him out. One of the biggest projects he has taken on are the raised beds, which you've seen before here.

Now, the beds have not only filled in, but the path has been laid down.

I love the way this turned out, and Nathan put a lot of work into it. It's especially nice to sit on the back patio with a drink when it's cool and see how nice the beds and the path look. Speaking of sittting...

We also added a new seating area on the newly expanded back patio. We had some chairs that went with our patio table originally that started falling apart, because they used the vinyl webbing and it eventually started tearing.

The bases were still really awesome though, because they swiveled, so Nathan removed all of the broken webbing and ordered vinyl strap material off the internet as a replacement.

He first drilled holes on each side of the chair and cut the straps to the right length. Once the straps were cut, he drilled holes on either end and made a triangle shape on the ends so they would fit underneath the chair frame. The straps then must be stretched acrros the frame, and plastic pins fit in the holes in the frame. Here's a work in progress:

I had planned on making chair covers for them, but then we found these at Target on clearance for $8, which is cheaper than it would be if I made them.

So that's how we were able to repurpose chairs we already had to create a fun seating area. I also added a coffee table I found at Target, as well.

Kitchen Progress

I had planned on doing a book review for you all today, but my friend Kelley requested kitchen photos instead. So we will save the book review for another day and instead let my first post in a while be mostly pictures!

These are the new cabinets about the stove, and our awesome corner cabinet. Originally, if you remember, we planned on doing open shelving over there, but it wasn't as easy to build as we thought. In the end, I was very glad we ended up with it because it holds all of our small appliances easily, and I don't really like everyone seeing the chaos that is generally our cabinets.

This is the other side of the kitchen. Even just with the upper cabinets done, we have more storage, so I moved my cookbooks into the kitchen so they are more accessibly.

Here is the fun rug I found at crate and barrel while shopping with my mom. You can also see some work that we still have to do--baseboard over on the far wall, the tall cabinet will be emptied and taken out of the kitchen so we can put the door in, and the bottom cabinets still need to be painted or replaced so the dishwasher can be installed.

Jim is currently working on the cabinet for the other side of the room, next to the fridge, so I'll show you that when it's all done.

Prepping The Kitchen

Fourth of July weekend, we spent most of our time prepping the kitchen. We took down the orignial cabinets, which we planned to re-arrange. The first couple came down relatively easy; however, the last set was so wedged into the wall opening that Nathan had to take it apart to get it down. In the process, we actually tore up some of the wall, which we had to patch.

But that was not the biggest patch job. When the guys were working on the garage, they had to disconnect our hardly-used kitchen fan. So, before we could paint or eventually put up new cabints, we had to take that out. And by we, I mean Nathan. It was also wedged into its original space, so it took a while to get it out. We then had to cover the hole with drywall. Once everything was sanded and ready, we used two coats of primer to try and cover up all of the gray and blue. It was about two-plus coats of purple, too.

While everything was drying, we started priming and painting the cabinets. Even after we decided to have Nathan's dad build us new ones, we still finished painting them because we could use them in the garage. And it's a good thing, too, because they don't look as pretty as I thought they would. Here are the lessons I've learned about painting cabinets since: sand the old gloss off and clean them. Watch out for paint globs. Use small foam brushes for the doors.

Thrifting: My Treasures

I consider myself to be a pretty organized person, and I seem to function a heck of a lot better when everything is organized and doesn't feel chaotic. However, with my new job, I get a TON of paper handouts (and email, for that matter) that seems important and I always reference, but I just don't have a way of organizing it without going too far over line and OVER organizing it (which, in my opinion, is almost even harder to deal with than not being organized). I mean, look at this mess:

THIS is why the dish drainer solution appealed to me as much as it did. And after searching (it seems like a lot of searching, but really, it wasn't that bad), I found this really cool-looking yellow dish drainer, for only $3.50. And that includes the cool mat thing that came with it! You know, if I was using this as an acutal dish drainer.

But before I could fill up my pretty new treasure, I needed to go through and file everything and THEN label my folders. It turns out I had a lot of folders already in place, but they were so overwhelming to use because I had to open each one to see what was in there. So I got out my trusted label maker and got to work, reworking folders and relabeling folders and all around having a good time. Here's my before picture (and yes, that's facebook in the background. I love distractions.):

Now, I know what many of you are thinking, and that's "Well, you know how they make these things called filing cabinets? You could maybe invest in one..." Let me tell you--we DO have a filing cabinet, but it's all the way down in the basement. And I love this solution because these are files I use on a daily basis, and while opening a drawer every time I need something might help me build some arm muscle (a girl can dream!) this solution gives me easy access to everything I need. And I mean, come on, how cute does this look?

I have to say, I didn't love the yellow color at first. I thought about spray painting it pink, until I realized that if I ever decided to use it for actual dishes (novel idea, right?) the spray paint + something you eat off of would probably = a no no. And then I overanalyzed even further: This room will become a nursery when we way down the road have kids, and when it does, I will have more yellow incorporated (yes, of course I've thought about how cute a nursery inspired by my childhood blanket my mom made me would be!) and as it turns out, dish drainers are also great for storing puzzles! So, that is how I eventually accepted the school bus yellow color.

Now, I said I went out with two missions: the dish drainer and a utensil tray. As it turns out, people who have super cute utensil holders don't give them away. Only people who have not-as-attractive plasticy ones (like us) donate them when they've outgrown their usefulness. So I had to find another solution for the keys, because Nathan was really desperate for one. And I didn't find anything I liked at the thrift stores, so I bought this cool white square bowl thing at Target for .  . . $3.50! That's right, the same price as my organizer, but new. It matches our dishes, and I think it looks pretty nice on the table here.

But I have one other thrift store find, and it's my favorite. A friend gave me a book by Sophie Uliano, and I found her health- oriented book there for $2. For a hardcover! Too fun. I can't wait to read through it and see what I can do to "live lean and green."

Now tell me: what's your favorite thrift store/garage sale/antique store find? Or even etsy find!

Thrifting: Overcoming The Fear

In theory, I should be a good thrifter. I'm cheap, I like hunting down the exact right thing I'm looking for, and I like to dig through things to find bargains. I'm also surrounded by people who are fantastic thrifters. There's my mother-in-law, who seriously finds amazing things at the lowest cost possible and also sees a potential solution in something I wouldn't have even looked twice at. There's my sister, who strives to live simply and be eco-friendly, and if buying used things doesn't go with those philosophies, I don't know what else does. And then there's my mom, aunts, and grandmothers who have given me a taste for everything vintage.

But, the truth is, I'm a horrible thrifter. I see all of these bloggers taking thrift store finds and turning them into something super amazing with spray paint, paper, etc. And I look at the process and think, I could totally do that. But, the project requires me to have some sort of thrift store find, which requires me to not only go into a thrift store, but to find something.

This is probably going to make me sound kind of snobby, but thrift stores stress me out. Generally, there are tons of people croweded in the small aisles, and they're generally on a mission and I'm scared to get in the way. Some thrift stores smell funny, and there always seems to be a ton of noise. The amount of stuff is so overwhelming, yet I can never find what I am looking for or even anything that has potential.  And then I just leave empty-handed and go buy something new.

I recently got an invitation to join pinterest and found some thrift store awesomeness I just had to mimic. The first was a solution for organizing file folders: a thrifted dish drainer. And the second is repurposing a silverware organizer for keys, wallets, phones, and all of the other stuff that seems to just end up on our kitchen table. So I decided to try and conquer my fear to find said items.

I went to a Goodwill yesterday and didn't find anything that fit my needs. Today, I stopped by another Goodwill and again, didn't find anything. On my way home, I passed St. Louise Gift and Thrift, which always has gorgous window displays and essentially calls my name every time I drive by. And it was there that I found what I will call Thrift Store Heaven. Seriously.

Everything in the store is displayed nicely, organized appropriately, and labeled clearly. It was easy to look at things and not feel like I was digging, and it was almost like shopping in a department store of used products. There was quiet, spiritual music playing and it was actually not super busy. And I found exactly what I was looking for and more.

I'm going to show you my thrifted treasures in use in my next post (trying to make up for being MIA this week!), so now I'll end by telling you what I didn't buy.

-Vintage Pyrex. This is all the rage over on pinterest, and it was so tempting because I found two sets. I might have to go back for it.
-Vintage copy of The Long Winter. Wanted it, but so particular about matching books that it seemed to be more of hassle than something I really wanted.
-A star-shaped candy dish. It would be so cute for the upcoming holiday.
-Picture frames. At 75 cents each (for 8x10), the were the right cost to buy in bulk for our recently-painted basement stairs and spray paint red, but I thought we should design first, buy second.

And there you have it--my adventures thrifting. I'm not sure if a good experience at St. Lousie's will help or hurt my apparent snobbery for other thrift stores, but maybe it's just something that takes practice. Or maybe I just need more pinterest motivation!

Living Room: South Wall

Today is the last day you'll see the paint job on the living room, and I have to warn you, I saved the least exciting wall for last. All we have is . . . a loveseat.

But while this wall is boring now, it's also a blank canvas. I'm currently working on framing some wedding photos and making a family tree of sorts.

Let me just tell you, the loveseat was my favorite craigslist find. I stumbled across it early enough in the day that there was no way anyone else had contacted the poster about it. Wrong. I was heartbroken (also, over-dramatic) but she said if the other person didn't want it, we could be next. And the stars aligned just right and the person who had the coveted first spot in line had wanted something that folded out into a bed, so we got it. I think we paid less than $50 for it and drove it home in the Matrix, which is a bigger car than it appears to be.

We plan to re-cover the existing cushions in a dark brown to match the chairs, and it's a good thing this was my plan all along, because I somehow managed to get paint on one of them. And when I went to flip it over, I discovered red paint on the other side, I'm assuming from the previous owners. Luckily, I won the sewing machine game yesterday and might actually be able to accomplish this project now. And I discovered a very gratifying hobby. But that's a post for another time.

Living Room: West Wall

All right, today we're going to continue the tour de living room once again. And I hate to do this to you, but I'm going to jump around. If our living room is a square, which it is, you saw the north wall Monday and the west wall Tuesday. And today, we're skipping over to the east wall, which was previously the accent wall, painted a metallic blue. This is where the bookshelves were originally.

We originally planned to keep this wall, until I found my perfect curtains, and decided that it would be neat if we extended our accent wall color into the kitchen. So we painted the former accent wall the same color as the rest of the room and moved the accent wall to the north wall. Got it?

This is not super exciting right now, and let me tell you, the table is never that clean. But let me tell you about that table. Nathan's dad built it for us when we moved in, and we designed it to work with the small space. It's long and skinny to fit on the wall, and it also has two big leaves for when we have company. Nathan also wanted his dad to build it a bit taller than normal tables so it was better for him. Alas, we did not consider the fact that making it taller would make it too tall for me, so a lot of the time I have to sit on my knees on the chair, even though my mom tells me how bad it is to do so. The other issue we ran into was that the custom size does not make tablecloth shopping easy. However, we learned that fabric shower curtains are the perfect size.

Even though the wall is bare now, I have been doing some projects this week (slash this morning) that still need to be hung up. I shall call them "travel art." Here are the three pieces all together, followed by a tutorial on how to make them. It's pretty easy, but there is math involved.

Let's start with the collage frames, because they are the easiest and really only take about 10 minutes each. You will need scissors, tape, a pencil, exacto knife (if you have one), pictures, a frame of some kind, and an atlas. I went thrifting with Nathan's mom to find an atlas and we had no luck, and then she realized they had an old one at home. So she brought me the atlas from 1977 and it was perfect.

Ideally, you want the maps to be the same approximate size as your frame or the matte you're going to use--you can see what I mean here.

First, you choose the map you want to use. I wanted to use the one of the entire country, but I only had one and two frames. So I decided on Nebraska and then spent a lot of time thinking about what other state had meaning for us. It took me longer than I'd like to admit to decide on Colorado, considering I lived there for the first 18 years/majority of my life, but it eventually came to me.

Next, you cut out your map pages with the exacto knife. Try to get the line as clean as possible, and I learned that if you turn the page and cut from the back on the second one, it's easier. You want to be able to match them up nicely.

Your third step should be taking the photos to the matte. I learned this the hard way; the first one I did, I had all of the maps taped down and then had to maneuver the pictures in just right. So learn from my mistakes. The photos I used are ones of us in the places we've been: California, Monte Carlo, Rome, Pisa, Dallas, Bahamas, and two South Dakota places, Mount Rushmore and Laura Ingalls Wilder's house. That's where the map idea came from--I wanted to show off the travel photos, but we haven't been 16 places yet and so I wanted something to fill in the empty space.

Once your photos are in place, put the map behind them, making sure the two pages line up. You'll probably have to cut away part of the map to make it work, but I found what needed to be cut was the close up of the bigger cities that are off to the side. Now, just tape the map down (regular tape is way better than double-stick tape, and put the frame back together. Repeat if necessary. You're done!

Now, onto the small frame. I originally had an L thing made to go in the middle, but then I came across a cool print on etsy (via younghouselove) that said "Let's Go Anywhere." I had planned on buying that, until I found these really cool travel-themed letter stickers at target yesterday that would let me do something similar and make it myself.

I googled travel quotes and thought of some on my own. The front runners were let's go everywhere (similar to the one above), love is an adventure, not all who wander are lost, let's go together, etc., etc. And then, when googling adventure, one of the more "popular" searches was "Up" adventure quotes, which turned out to be "Adventure is out there." The movie "Up" is one that we have not seen a gazillion times, but we went and saw it in the theater after looking at engagement rings, and out of all the Disney movies, I think it paints such a realistic view of marriage. We used the main theme song, married life, at our wedding, and Nathan liked the quote best, so I chose that to use.

I thought this would take me no time at all. Put some stickers on a piece of paper and be done with it. Wrong.

First, I cut a 12x12 piece of paper down to 8x10 using the fake photo that came with the frame as a template. This was a bad idea, because it actually was too big, as I found out later. So used the inside of the matte to trace a rectangle on your paper before you do anything else.

Then, I did some math. I spelled out my words and the measured the width of the corresponding stickers, accounting for spaces on the second line. Then I accounted for spaces between the letters, added it all up, and subtracted that number from the total width. Then I divided that number by two to get everything centered right. For example, my top line was 1.5 picas of space on either side--yes, I did everything in picas because it's easier for me to do the math.

I did similar math when trying to figure out how to center the words on the page. But instead of figuring out space on either side, I was trying to get the words centered. I measured the height of the letters, which was standard: 8 picas. Then I found the center of the page and made a mark. I accounted for two picas of space between the lines, so I added one pica above, then 8 for the letter height, and drew a line 9 picas above the middle, followed by a line 9 picas below the middle. I drew a line straight across--the top line was for the top of my first-line letters, the bottom line for the bottom-line letters. Got it? Here's a not-very-good shot of what it looked like, but it might help you visualize.

My method worked perfectly for the top line, because it was only one word. But I didn't account for enough space between the words on the bottom line, which I found out after the first word was placed. So I had to improvise, but everything still fit (thank goodness!). It just doesn't look as clean as the top line, but when it's hanging on the wall, you probably won't notice. At least that's what I tell myself.

Use a pink pearl eraser (my most essential craft supply) to erase all of your crazy marks and put the frame back together. Now it's ready to hang up. 

And you've made it through the longest. blog post. ever. See you tomorrow for our final wall reveal--I promise, next week I'll get back to writing about something other than just one room in my house!

Living Room, East Wall

Today we are on part two of our living room makeover. Here's a before shot of the wall as it was when we moved in.

And here it is now. The curtains you see are the inspiration for the entire room.

These are my favorite chairs ever. Not only are they comfortable but they are dpg-durable, the perfect size, and I think they look just right for what we wanted in the room, which was more seating but but small "footprint," if you will. The only problem with them is that I can never seem to get them angled just right. I need to get them perfect and put tape on the floor, I think.

The other thing that might change is the door color. Right now, we're (I'm) thinking it will be the same color as the wall, though Nathan wants it purple and my mom suggested white. And yes, Shelby did decide to chew up that rug, but we just left it. It's HER rug, where she takes her food and treats and toys and sleeps on. So it can stay chewed up for now.

Living Room: North Wall

So, I'm very excited to say that we're sooo close to having the living room done. All we have left to do is make/hang up some art. So I'm going to share the room in four parts, not to drag it out any longer, but just in case the two picture-less walls get finished in the next few days.

We'll start out with a before shot, and by before, I mean, way before. This is what the living room looked like when Nathan moved in. Nothing in this picture is in the room today. It's all been moved around, and you'll see the new furniture in the coming days. So, BEFORE:

And here is the after, though I'm only showing you one wall--the one with the picture on it in the before.

It was hard to get the full wall shot on this one (I needed a wide-angle lens or something) but I wanted to showcase the purple with the bookcases. I wanted our living room to be kind of like a library/dining room combo, because we have a full finished basement for our TV. So these bookshelves (which the previous owners actually left behind--score!) are probably my favorite thing. Aside from the fact they are black and always look dusty, that is. And so, really, they are the focus of this post, because I think what's actually on the shelves tells a story about us.

So, here's what we have:
The very top shelves have hurricanes from the wedding and some antique champagne glasses from my aunt, friend Leah, and Nathan's mom. I kind of love them all a lot.

Top shelf, left. The wooden box thing you see is actually a card catalog drawer from the wedding. It has our guest book cards, cards we've gotten in the mail from Christmas, birthdays, and other misc. notes, and our mail. There's a vase of flowers from the wedding that were in the hurricanes, and I need to find our wedding cake topper to go on the other side.

Second shelf, left. This is my vast collection of Laura Ingalls Wilder. I have almost every book in all of the series, but I'm missing some Charlottes, Carolines, and Marthas. The blue set is a vintage set I got from Nathan, and I have a replica of the china shepardess we bought in South Dakota.

Third shelf, left. COOKBOOKS. I am starting think I like reading cookbooks more than actually cooking.

Fourth shelf, left. Shelby's stuff all fits in those two buckets, and there are also some dog books there, including a dog cookbook.

Bottom shelf, left. This currently has library books, though I think I'm going to move some games up from downstairs to have on hand, at least the ones we play often.

Top shelf, right. Here, we have two more sets of champagne glasses from our wedding and engagement, a wedding photo, Willow Tree wedding gift, and a wedding gift from my aunt, a miniature library.

Second shelf, right. Photo albums, some of which are currently empty, but that will be fixed when Nathan gets his 100 free prints from Shutterfly in the mail.

Third shelf, right. These are all of the books we've gotten each other for Valentine's Day, and also a cool purple bowl we got as a wedding gift that just fits right in.

Fourth shelf, right. A set of Harry Potter books and other kids' books that might be useful should we ever entertain young visitors. I also like having some childhood favorites out for me.

Bottom shelf, right. This is Nathan's Husker and sports memorabilia--books, media guides, baseball cards, etc., etc.

There's your look at our living room, part one. Be back tomorrow with part two.

Trading Spaces, Whitney-Style

Does anyone remember the TLC show "Trading Spaces"? I was obsessed with this show in high school. For those unfamiliar with the concept, two neighbors swapped houses, were given a designer and a carpenter (such as Ty Pennington before he got all Extreme Makeover Home Edition) and had two days to redo a room in the other person's home. Most of the time, the rooms were wild and crazy and themed and people either really loved them or really hated them.

I did my own episode of "Trading Spaces" this week, and I even caught myself doing the corny "Ooooh!! when I opened the paint color and stirred it. And I never understood why the people were so tired and complainy by day two though. Until now. Painting and redoing a room is hard work, especially if you make a week of it. And honestly, it took me way longer than I thought to even get the room just painted.

But, it's done! The walls required two coats of primer and one and a half coats of paint. The other half was re-edging, which I have discovered is my least favorite part of painting. I also went ahead and painted the trim and the windows, so we wouldn't have to move all of the furniture out again. I mean, this is what the living room currently looks like:

Nope, we don't want to do that again. Luckily most of our furniture is mobile, thanks to being lightweight and those little sticky cloth pads that we put on the feet. The bookshelves were the only thing I needed Nathan's help with. And taking the curtains down, of course.

But back to the paint. I'm going to do some before and after photos when the room is put back together, but for now, I want to show you the colors we chose. Originally, as in way back in the day when Nathan moved in, we planned to keep the blue metallic wall and only repaint the weird coppery brown color walls something lighter. And then I fell in love with some curtains. I went online to Pottery Barn to get you a link, but they are no longer available, so you'll have to just check them out when I do the after photos. Basically, they have red and orange and purple and blue flowers on them, and I knew they were the perfect way to bring some purple (my favorite color) into the house.

I kind of love Martha Stewart, so of course, her paint was my first stop. And I found the perfect color there, Purple Agate. The best part of Martha's paints is that they have coordinating colors crossed referenced all over the place, and one of the grayey-beige colors we had picked out already turned out to be a match: Sharkey Gray. Nathan was not quite sold on the gray idea, so we also chose a lighter white recommended with the Purple Agate, Pink Sea Salt. And then, we tested them.

We know that we should look at them in different light, etc., etc., but really, all we did was see if we liked them. And as it turns out, the gray looked more brown than gray, and the pink was much too light. So, those are the colors we decided on, and to hold you over until I put the room back together, here's a preview of how it turned out. This is where the two walls meet. And now I'm off to finish up! I want my house back to normal, and I think Nathan and Shelby want this week's episode of Trading Spaces to be over, too.

DIY: Living Room Artwork

As I posted yesterday, we're getting a lot checked off of our list! If you hadn't noticed, pretty much every room has "hang photos" as a task. Nathan loves photography, and he is quite good at it, so we have lots of choices for our home. He likes pictures of scenes, while I like pictures of people, so we compromise, mix and match, for a look that is perfectly us.

I had found an idea on a blog (though I am not sure which one) for a butterfly specimen shadowbox using punched out paper. I thought I could make it using some of the paper remaining from the wedding to hang up in our living room, among the photos. I thought it was originally a Martha Stewart project, but couldn't find a tutorial on her site; however, I did find lots of other projects I wanted to try out. There are also several versions available on etsy, but I like to think this is uniquely us because I used the same punch used for our aisle decorations and the paper leftover from those as well as the book covers and centerpieces.

Here's my version of how I put everything together, though it seems like the other tutorials out there are much easier.

My supplies were all ones that I already had. The four kinds of paper were from the wedding, and I also already had the punch. Then I just needed a pencil, glue, and a ruler.

I originally planned on using the white paper for the backdrop, but with the other white paper, I thought the punches wouldn't pop as much. So I chose blue as the backdrop, which actually goes with our curtains better and will pop more on a grayish wall once we paint.

I used my ruler to draw out a grid. It took a few tries to get it just right, but eventually I ended up with 2 inches between each dot. I had to take the punch size into account when figuring all of this out.

Then, I just glued each punch onto the paper where the lines matched up, making sure they were straight, and let it dry. I chose to alternate the whites and use the orange punches to make an L, though I wanted it to be subtle.

Once the glue was dry, I erased the lines and put it in a 12x12 frame we had already bought. And here it is, the final product. I'll show it again when it's hung up, because it's going to be part of something bigger.

P.S. Yes, that is the stair ledge I meant to paint white today. Someday, it will be checked off the list.

DIY: My New Desk

So, I've already teased you with this link showing you the plan for my new desk. Well, not the exact plan, but that's the point of this post. I'll show you how we adjusted the initial plan to better suit my needs and show off some pictures of the work in progress and the finished product. Here we go!

I started looking for a new desk when I got my new job. I was going to be working at home, and I felt I needed something more functional than what I had if I'd be spending so much time working at it. I had a desk in my room with my computer and piles of stuff to be filed, stuff to be put away, stuff to be shredded, stuff to be tossed . . . you get the idea. In the basement, I had a craft table set up, with stuff I'd bought for my etsy store, stuff leftover for the wedding, works in progress, and supplies. Basically, I had two desks full of stuff and no space to work. So I started searching for something that had lots of storage and a huge area for me to work. I found a plan that used a door as the top and then found a door on craigslist. Alas, the man wouldn't let me get the doors the next day—he wanted them gone ASAP and couldn't guarantee me a door. So, I finally convince Nathan we/he could build my craft table.

The only problem was that my room is not quite big enough for what the plan originally called for. It's a small, cozy room, with a daybed and a rocking chair, and I didn't want to sacrifice either of those. So we cut the depth down, and to keep the space, we also made it longer. It was also too high for me, so we made it shorter. And because of these measurments and the fact that I wanted to store my sewing machine on a shelf, we decided to only have one shelf on the sides. Let's just say we spent almost the same amount of time figuring out the math for the new plan as we did building it. But we got it (almost) perfect in the end.

We checked with Nathan's dad to see if he had any scrap wood he could cut for us, but while he was waiting for said scrap wood to dry out enough, Nathan's mom found a sale on plywood at a local hardware store. They were able to pick that up for us and cut it according to our measurements, which was very helpful. And then, on my birthday, the wood was delivered and ready for us to put together.

The first thing we (I mean, Nathan. Let's face it—I helped but he did the hard work!) did was build the big side box. We had to hold everything up so that we could visualize where it went, and then Nathan put everything together. We only had a few missteps along the way, mostly in shelf placement, but it only took about an hour and a half.

We thought the second one would be even easier because we'd already done it once. WRONG. We started with the wrong boards three times before we figured it out. Turns out we need to visualize and then build, even if it's just repeating a process we've just done; we don't learn from experience. Once both sides were done, we carried them upstairs and put the top on in the actual room. We'd discovered earlier on that the only mistake we made measurement-wise was that the front side pieces were taller than the top, meaning that we needed to add a quarter-inch board to the back to level it. Luckily, I remembered that we had one in the shed that the previous owners had left behind, and Nathan used the snowblower to get back there so we could finish the desk. 

And there you have it! Now for a tour of the desk. Shelby does like to sit on the rug while I'm in there working (or Facebooking, as the case may be). On the left shelves, I have all of my etsy stuff: paper, fabric, ribbon, notebooks, and everything I have in my inventory. The front shelves in the left hold my craft supplies: glue, glue gun, tape, markers. The right side has all of my personal projects and supplies: paper for my scrapbook, work stuff, a plastic bin of things I need to scrapbook. And the front shelves hold office supplies (staper), my books (dictionary and style guides), journals, and supplies for the printer. It's really nice to have everything organized in a way that makes sense with my mind, even though it doesn't look especially neat (which is why you don't get pictures of the finished space!). But what's important is that it's functional. And don't worry: we plan on painting the whole thing white when it gets warmer out, though I can see a benefit of leaving it as is: If I get paint or glue or whatever on it, it doesn't really matter.