31 Days of Pinterest Projects - Day 25 - DIY Rustic Mudroom Bench

After being inspired by tons and tons of DIY furniture photos on Pinterest and then seeing what Dave built out in the woods a few weeks ago, I urged him to please, pretty please, build us a bench for the mudroom. Finally, he conceded.

The source of our lumber came when his dad hired someone at his place next door to cut up a few fallen oak trees into lumber for a lean-to that he's planning to build. He let Dave grab some extra slab wood with the bark still on and a few rough-cut 2 x 3's and with that, Dave fashioned us a fabulous rustic DIY bench. I am absolutely in love with this thing.

With the pieces of wood that he chose, it looks like they just sliced the tree in half long-ways and unfolded it to make the bench. 

It is held together with some mortise & tenon joints and a few square nails that we purchased from an Amish hardware store in PA a few years ago.

This piece of furniture has a story and I love that most about it. For example, this piece of wood holding the legs together on the left side has a blue streak in it. Phil pointed out that the streak came from a nail that he pounded into that tree 55 years ago when he built a tree house. As the tree grew around that nail, it discolored the wood. The nail is still in it.

Dave thought that story was so neat so when he needed a short piece to brace the legs together, he went back over and dug through a pile of split wood that was still sitting in the yard and picked this particular piece out.

We talked about staining it but I think we've both decided we love it just the way it is.

You just can't buy furniture this special. Seriously. It is the perfect addition to our mudroom.

What do you guys think? Would you love to have one? And isn't my husband a genius?

For the rest of this 31 Day Series, click here.

31 Days of Pinterest Projects - Day 5 - Map Backed Bookcases {In Progress}

I'm keeping it real today. I knew that it would be tough to complete 31 entire Pinterest Projects in just 31 days. And sure, in the perfect world, as I imagined in my mind, I would have spent the entire month of Septemeber doing the projects and taking and uploading photos and then I would only have to do the work of blogging about the projects for the entire month of October. But, this is not the perfect world, and now I'm trying to cram 31 actual projects into 31 actual days and blog about it along the way meanwhile keeping up with all my other responsibilities.

So today was one of those days where I didn't actually get my project done. And as I blog about this at 11:15pm, dirty dishes and clothes still await me in the other room!

For now, I'll share a few {In Progress} photos with you and I hope to show you the final project later this month.

Earlier this evening I posted this image on my Facebook wall:

 

Then I asked my friends to guess what Pinterest Project they thought I might be tackling today - guesses included "photo mat" or "weaving a basket" or "string art".

 

 

 

 

Sorry ladies...good guesses. But actually, I am going to work on this - our built-in bookcases in the family room.

 

 



Ever since we moved in, I have wanted to make them over in some way. I've wanted to do a better job with styling them for sure. I just threw things up there in a functional way when we unpacked, and I haven't really done much since {other than make a whole Pin Board for inspirational photos of Styled Shelves...LOL!}. And I really don't like the heavy oak wood grain that shows on the back behind the books. No idea why but it just bothers me at times.

So now that it's 31 Days of Pinterest Project month, I thought, I HAVE got to do something to these puppies. I'd really love to paint them white or gray and line the backs with fabric or burlap or something. However, the fact remains that we do not own our home, we're renting it; and I have some major heartburn about painting someone else's woodwork. That and painting with a toddler in the house also generally equals disaster. Especially a house that you don't own the carpet in :) So, I thought I ought to pick something that would be a little less permanent.

A few of my pins involved wallpaper backed wooden bookcases:

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And I thought they were pretty cute. But I also didn't know where to find stylish yet inexpensive wallpaper. Nor did I think that was any less permanent than painting the bookcases. So, I was back to the drawing board, er, Pinterest.

And that's when I found this makeover by Melissa on The Inspired Room.

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Map backed wooden bookcases. And the map was just taped to the bookcase! Easily removable. Woohoo! A perfect solution for a renter. And it goes along with the recent trend of decorating with maps, which I love because it is such a green solution and I feel like maps are pretty timeless accessories.

 

Here are just a couple images of other map decor pins I've gathered recently.

 

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So this afternoon when it started raining and I wanted a fun indoor project, I just grabbed the "Removable Double Sided Tape,"

 

 

and I pulled out our old 2009 Atlas from a box of stuff we'd removed from our second vehicle before we sold it last summer - and I had all the supplies I needed!

 

I simply removed all the shelves {and books and other miscellany}, starting only with one third of the entire built-in unit, so as not to cover everysingleflatsurface in our home with junk!! Then I just tore out pages from the Atlas and taped them to the back of the bookcase, overlapping as I saw fit and being sure to include pages of cities and states we'd actually been to. It was really fun and super easy to do. I did this much in about 10 minutes.  

 

 

 

 

 

And then I wondered where my two year old was. . .This is where I found him:

 

 

Yep. Inside one of the upper kitchen cabinets. He was very proud of himself.

 

"Now...how do I get out of here?" he ponders...

 

 

"Hello Mommy!!!"

 

 

"Hmmmm...."

 

 

"That was fun!"

 

"Huh...maybe I don't want to be out yet."

 

"Let's try that again."

 

And you see, folks, why there is never a dull moment in this home!

 

So, anyways, I have only finished about 10-20% of this project. But I have some high hopes of wrapping it up in the next few days, because I'm just not sure how much longer we can live with tables and counters looking like this...

Furthermore, when I finish lining the back of the bookcases with the maps, I'll be able to move onto the fun part - styling the shelves {which I will be sure to share as part of the 31 Days as well}! I just have to keep my eye on the prize!

Speaking of fun parts, I'm also thrilled to announce that tomorrow I'll actually be headed to my sister-in-law's home to work on organizing and making over a couple spaces with her, so I hope to share some details of those projects with you later this month too.

Have a great weekend!

Look what we've been up to!

I apologize for being MIA on the blog lately. I've definitely not been posting as often as I want, but we've all been busy around here scrambling to get my husband's automotive shop, Solomon's Garage, up and running at full-speed. Things are starting to calm down ever-so-slightly, so I thought I'd share a little peak at the work that's going on here lately...the stuff that those who read this blog "might" find interesting, stuff that has to do with the building, DIY-ing things, etc. The photos are definitely not my best work, but hopefully you can get the idea.

See that building on the far left, below. That's where his shop is, on the far left end of it.

We had a 20 ft wide overhead garage door installed. My hubby is THRILLED to have those little windows in the door. Someday soon we'll also have a walk-out door and like, a sign, and all that kind of official stuff. But...hhh...one day at a time, folks. I just keep having to remind myself of that fact.

And then we had an excavation company come and make a brand new driveway and 

gravel parking lot that comes right up to the door. 

We built a giant 2x6 wall, 55 ft long, that ranges from about 12 ft tall to 18 ft tall in the center to separate his shop area from the rest of the building (that his family uses for their farm). I helped him install about 4 of those studs right in the middle. Let me tell you, an 18 ft long 2 x 6 is hard to maneuver! My job was to trim it on the miter saw and kreg jig it so we could screw it to the bottom and top plates. 

It's definitely harder working with lumber on that scale than a normal 8 ft tall 2 x 4 you'd deal with inside a house. I'm sure glad he bought a 16 ft wide miter saw stand to go with our DeWalt compound miter saw. There would have been no other way for me to do it.

He covered the farm side of the wall with OSB and we'll cover our side with insulation and white sheet metal at some point later this year.

We purchased a Used Oil burning furnace so we can create our own heating fuel with fluids he has changed out on cars and trucks.

 

He has spent many late nights out in the shop hooking up that bad boy, installing the flue out the roof, etc. Only a few more steps to go till he can fire it up. And I'm sure he can't wait. 

Although, I did spot one of these in the yard the other day so we are incredibly thankful God has blessed us with a mild winter so far.

The furnace and oil tanks sit inside a storage closet on one side of the shop. It is about 12 ft x 30 ft. We'll have the air compressor and other large tools in there.

And here's my handsome honey working on a truck one night before his lift arrived. Creepers are not his friend. His knees hurt.

And here is our new 10,000 lb Rotary Lift - INSTALLED. Woohoo!

I've never seen him so happy.

We still have a ways to go, and a lot of organizing to do, but it's definitely starting to look more like the shop of his dreams. And I can't thank our friends and family enough for all they've done to help us get to this point!!!!!!!

And while he's been out there hammering away at the shop, I've been inside worrying about him climbing around like a monkey, and watching our boy (and sometimes his cousins!). So here are a few inside photos for fun.

Me and Levi loving on each other.

Levi wearing mommy's boots. He gets around surprisingly well in them.

And here's a classic. Levi with a train in one hand, a car in the other, wearing his boots that are way too big, some goggles and, yes, my underwear around his neck. This is how he said Happy Valentines Day to his Daddy last night. And yeah, there are Cheerios and blocks under the stove. Oh well.

And here's Levi hanging out in the wood- stall- turned- reading- nook. He took all the books off the shelves and got up there himself.

Levi wearing Pappy's boots one evening.

And Levi sitting in a mixing bowl. ...alongside our new-to-us World Market island, which I might blog about someday. ;)

And as I mentioned, sometimes Levi's cousins come over to play and we are very thankful for that. After all, this is one reason we always wanted to move back home, so our baby could grow up with his cousins and know them. And believe me, he adores them!!! Here's his older boy cousin, Daniel, dressed as an angel with a homemade halo and wings. 

And here's Levi with Rosie, Renee and Rachael, playing with homemade PINK clay. We had so much fun mixing it up together. (Just ignore the giant mess of an office space in the background!)

Levi was definitely NOT too sure about clay. It was his first rodeo, so to speak. LOL.

So, what can I say? We like arts and crafts in this house. At least it keeps us from fighting on boring winter afternoons. Or maybe I'm just a bit crazy to let 4 kids play with something so messy as clay. =) I'm still finding hunks of it on the soap dispensers at all the sinks in the house 3 weeks later.

So, tell me, what have you all been up to? Anyone else taking time out of the craziness of life to have a little fun with the kids in your lives? What's your favorite inside activity to do with kids?

Tweaking the Mudroom - Part 1

I believe I last left you with the mudroom looking something like this. To quote all HGTV design stars, it was "a hot mess".

We were still in the process of unpacking and Dave's parents were still in the process of moving out. After getting their freezer, the dolly and other random things out of there, we were able to really take a good look at the room and determine how it would work best for us.

Excuse the wet floor in the photo below (I had just mopped!)

Dave's parents used to have hooks and a shelf on the wall opposite the washer/dryer (roughly over the 2 coolers in the photo below) but they moved them over to their new house and we didn't want to just automatically put some new hooks back up in the exact same spot. We wanted to live here a bit and figure out what would make sense for us. Once we spent a few days here, we realized that it was too crowded to have our coats hanging there opposite that cleaning closet door and we might easily knock them down when we were doing laundry (kind of like when we had hooks in our narrow laundry room in our old house).

So we spent a few more weeks brainstorming what would be the best option for this "mudroom". Dave was convinced we should do absolutely nothing then someday just tear out all the walls and turn the whole business into an open back porch and relocate the washer and dryer to the basement or something but I told him he better come up with a temporary solution because coats, bags, shoes, etc. were taking over our kitchen table, sofa, floors, etc. And everysingletime we had to leave the house I had to spend an extra 10 minutes that I could not spare roaming around the house in a complete panic trying to figure out where I last put my coat, purse, keys, Levi's coat, shoes, etc. because since there really was no place for that stuff I didn't ever set it down in the same spot. It was chaos, I tell ya!

Finally I got Dave on board with the idea of building some shelves and/or installing some hooks. And I gathered some inspirational photos from Pinterest (where else??)

We loved the fun bright colors of this mudroom but Dave thought those baskets underneath the bench wouldn't be all that handy. Plus if we wanted to keep shoes in there, they'd get each other dirty, jumbled up into a big mess inside the tub.

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I loved the closed cabinets in this photo. And the thought that I could keep "pantry" type items like the wheat buckets, wheat grinder, etc. out there too.

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We both loved the baskets on shelves in this photo and the beadboard.

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We also contemplated DIY-ing a hook system out of random items like the following two photos. But we couldn't really find enough inspiring random items around the house...

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And we loved the shoe shelves underneath the bench, shown below.

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But since we just moved, and we're starting a business and have no jobs, money is an issue. So we pretty much gave up on these ideas at that point. We walked downstairs to build a fire in the wood stove, fully planning to sink into a deep dark depression and that's when I saw this:

An entire mudroom unit. Already built. By my father-in-law years ago. (Have I ever mentioned how thankful I am that I married into this handy family??? Seriously!!!) It was exactly what I wanted. In the basement of the home we're living in. Hmmmm...

All I can say is that it didn't take long for me to convince David to carefully unscrew it from the basement wall and move it upstairs. (Note that Dave's parents often used a basement door as a point of entry, but for us, I don't think we ever have...so it just makes way more sense to have this thing upstairs now.)

We then had to make a couple runs to his brother's house to pick up a handful of our DIY tools and to his sister's house to pick up her husband's air nailer and then we got to work. I have to admit that it was a lot of fun doing a project like this with my honey again. It's been a while...

It was a bit tricky finding studs to screw into behind the wood paneling, but it worked out in the end.

Here David was holding up one of the shelving units so we could decide exactly where to place it.

Here both units had been installed.

Here we were adding the top shelf back on, along with the trim pieces.

We stayed up till midnight that night, but by the time we went to bed, we had a fully functioning mudroom unit with hooks and shelves. I was SO thrilled. As I said before, we'd been living in chaos not knowing where our coats were, etc.

The next day I ran out to Lowe's and picked up a couple items so we could "beautify" the unit. 

First thing I got was a 4 x 8 sheet of pre-primed beadboard for like $14. I had them cut it into (2) 4 ft x 4 ft pieces. Much to my dismay, once we were out in the parking lot, I couldn't get them in my car!!! Ah! So I carried my sick, screaming, hungry little one year old back into the store, dragging a huge cart behind us and had the guy cut my beadboard down yet again, into (6) 16" x 48" strips. Then they fit in the car. Hallelujah! I was so thankful cuz I don't think Levi would have put up with much more time at Lowe's!! 

Now, I'm sure you're wondering what we were going to do with the beadboard. We had decided to put the beadboard on the sides of the shelving units to cover up the MDF.

I also picked up (2) 8 ft long pieces of crown mold (for about $18), just like we used on the cabinets in our old house's laundry room.

After a morning of work, getting everything just right, Dave got the crown mold and the beadboard up and I added some cute baskets that we already owned to the shelves. So now it is super functional and starting to feel more like us.

As soon as I get up the motivation, and decide on colors, I'm going to paint the unit and we might possibly get some new hooks or spray paint the existing ones oil rubbed bronze. And we will either put wood filler on the face of the shelves before painting them or put an 1 1/2" thick face frame (from scrap wood lying around) on them to make the shelves look chunkier and cuter.

And we're planning to maybe build a bench with shoe storage under it, kind of like in that last Pinterest photo, to go directly under this unit.

In fact, I have an antique table that is completely broken and we've considered just burning that we may actually repurpose as the seat and legs for the bench. Just not sure yet...As soon as we figure it all out, I'll be back with a Part 2 to this post.

In the meantime, does anyone have any suggestions on paint colors for the unit? We've talked about painting it all white, all black, or white with a colorful punch inside the cubbies, like pale green, orange or even bright red, etc. I need help deciding!!!

And I'd love to paint the wood paneling in the whole room but not sure when that will happen. That would definitely be a Part 3 to this post. ;) 

And while I'm daydreaming, just thought I'd share that it is kind of my dream to add a fun, cheerful little sunroom type sitting area to the one end of this back porch to enjoy sunny summer days, kind of like these wildly inspiring photos:

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Well, that's all for now. I'll hopefully be back very soon with Part 2 of the Mudroom tweaking projects. Stay tuned. . .