Category Archives: Build It

July 23, 2012 · 9:00 am

Quick Ledge Shelves

Here’s a quick afternoon project we did one day to dress up the back wall of our eat-in kitchen area.  You might remember that this is what it looked like after we finished our kitchen makeover (in case you missed it, read  about it in part 1, part 2, and part 3):

Vastly improved (in my opinion), but still lacking some decor.  Before the makeover, that back wall had been home to a bunch of random canvas paintings I picked up at thrift stores (here’s one that looks so sad and awkward…also, a lovely reminder of how the kitchen looked pre-makeover):

For a change, I asked Bryan to make me a couple of narrow ledge shelves to display random stuff on the back wall.  He had some scraps laying around, so he whipped up two 4 foot long shelves from using 1x3s (for the back and bottom), and a 1×2 (for the front facing piece, creating the ledge).  A few minutes later, we were leveling them and screwing them into the wall.



We didn’t worry about filling the nail holes, since it would be so easy to cover them with the frames I was planning to display.  Once they were attached to the wall, I taped them off and gave them a couple quick coats of the same semi-gloss white paint I used on our cabinets and trim:

I swear these are level, despite how they look in the picture below.  It’s impossible to get a straight-on shot of this room for whatever reason…

And here’s a little dressed up shot, nail holes and awkward middle-of-the-wall outlet nowhere to be seen.

Nice improvement, eh?

-katie

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May 22, 2012 · 9:50 am

Basement Built-Ins

Hi and happy Tuesday!

I really want to wrap up this basement project, but I feel like the projects just.keep.coming.  Luckily, in “real life” it is finally all finished, but in blog land there’s still a couple little things we haven’t shared yet.  Hopefully I can get them knocked out in the next few days so we can finally move on with our lives. Sound good? Ok, here we go…

So this post is basically a photographic progression of the built-ins that we added to the back wall of our basement…remember this lovely area, complete with a random “what is this??” block in the corner (for more about the beginning of this project, check out this post):

Never content to just paint a wall, we decided to add some built-in storage across that wall to add some architecture to an otherwise pretty plain space. Since I’m not really up on all the details of cabinet making, this will mostly just be pictures with my ingenious descriptions.  Let’s be honest – you probably just scan the pictures most days anyways. If nothing else, pay attention to how much progress we make in the basement while making relatively no progress on the cabinets.  There’s a reason this post took so long!

Here’s the base that we built after painting, starting the ceiling, and installing the beadboard/trim, but pre-floors:

Oooooo look! Progress! Floors, furniture, and some cabinet carcasses (FYI: Bryan told me that the “bones” of the cabinet are called “carcasses” and I straight up told him he was lying.  Turns out he’s right…I only believe it cause I heard it on the Nate Berkus Show, and if Nate says it, you know its true).

Fine Strawbridge craftsmanship (no, seriously….it’s legit):

Here’s a close up of in interior:

I gave them a couple of coats of the same white semi-gloss paint that we used on the beadboard…you can see it in the background.  This is how we were living with the room for a good couple weeks.  Notice the little decorative boxes and candle we set up to try to disguise the weird corner block. Fancy.

Here’s the last bit of the lower cabinets installed and waiting for paint…and check out the wine fridge in the far right cabinet! And yes, that’s beer inside that we were trying to cool down.  Classy (and, as it turns out, ineffective).

It was finally time to paint over the black tile-esque top on the corner block, since it would be visible when we opened that cabinet:

So after giving the final cabinet a coat of paint, our built-ins needed a top.  You may remember our precarious trip home from IKEA, resulting in this situation for the 2 hour drive…

Notice the cardboard mass taking over the upper half of the photo?  That’s the countertop we brought home, and here she is partially unwrapped. Yeah, somehow we fit that in the Tahoe…but just barely.

Here’s the info packet if you’re interested in the type we purchased, and here’s the link to the IKEA page about the countertop.  This is one of those things where IKEA is an amazing resource…the 96 inch countertop only set us back $69 and we think it looks pretty amazing!

It was a little longer than we needed, so we had to cut it somehow.  The instructions suggested using a hand saw, so that’s where we started after measuring the cut line and covering both sides of the countertop with painters tape to prevent chipping.

The handsaw method flat-out sucked.  It would have taken all day. Enter, jigsaw.

We popped the countertop on with a little glue and some screws on the underside to hold everything in place.  We had also added some more beadboard going up the wall to create a back for the next project…bookcases!

I’ll spare you the details (since I don’t have any pictures), but here are the bookcases up and painted, along with some crown molding across the top to finish off the look.  These still needed some caulk and paint touch-ups, so ignore the messiness.

 

Alright…home stretch! We touched up the paint/caulk around the bookcases and decorated them with empty picture frames (anyone else do this? I just haven’t found the right picture yet…oops):

…added some cabinet doors (also made by Bryan…he’s so handy to have around):

And FINALLY this project is finished! (Ignore the glare on the wall…It’s not a crazy painting mistake, I promise)

Eventually we’ll find some baskets or other chotchkies to fill the open shelving, but for now this is it.

Don’t worry – there’s only 1 basement post left and then we can all finally move on with our lives. Til then…

 

xox,

 

katie

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December 28, 2011 · 5:25 pm

Liquor Cabinet

If you know us, you know we like our booze we like to build furniture (no joke, I’m writing this while sitting at our favorite bar having a beer. I swear I don’t have a problem). You probably think it’s been forever since we posted about our last build, this dining room buffet…and you would be correct. But honestly, as it has been getting colder here in Indiana, the prospect of hanging out in our “shop”, aka our 85-year-old uninsulated, unheated, one car garage has lost its appeal. So, this project was completed in small steps when one of us could bear to be out there.  Let me tell you, painting in the cold is not fun and actually pretty difficult (cold paint doesn’t exactly go on as smooth as you would like), but we finally finished it and moved it inside, so I have to share the details!

This plan was loosely based off Ana White’s Benchmark Storage/Media Tower plan.  The bones are basically the same, but we added a few details to make it more functional for us and our boozy needs.  Here are a few pictures of the process :)

Beginning to build the frame:

Frame built, ready for some shelves. I will note that Bryan ended up using plugs to fill all the pocket holes, which makes the interior look SO nice!  You can kind of tell where the holes used to be if you look verrrrrrry closely along the right edge of the interior of the left side (that makes no sense, right? Oh well…just take my word for it…there used to be holes and now there aren’t. WOO!)

Some details added with the router:

And a close up of the details:

Pretttttty huh?  We used a combination of routed edges and premade quarter-round molding to bulk up the top and hide seams along the joints for a more finished look.

We also altered Ana’s plans a little by adding a slotted rack on top for stemware.  We had seen similar features on bar cabinets at Crate and Barrel and desperately needed to clear some glasses out of our kitchen cabinets, so this was the perfect solution! Bryan figured out how to build this on his own and it turned out great!

After everything was assembled, we gave it the same paint treatment that we used on the buffet  - a coat of white paint and then a coat of dark ebony stain wiped off after application (you can read about how to do this here).

We were sooo happy when we finally got to move this thing out of garage and into our dining room!

Here’s a close up of the stemware holder, with the perfect amount of space for our stemless (i.e., favorite) wine glasses underneath.  Heck, we even have Kilroy’s shot glasses….cause we’re classy like that :)

The second shelf will hold miscellaneous bar items.  Right now, it holds a marble wine cooler, a lone wine glass that wouldn’t fit up top, and a decanter of Scotch. I love scotch. Scotchy scotch scotch. Here it goes down…down into my belly…yum yum yum.

I really hope at least some people picked up on my SUPER obvious Anchorman quote up there!  If not, here’s a scene from one of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen:

Moving on…the bottom portion of the cabinet features a glass door and plenty of storage for our prestigious liquor collection.

I know you’re all super impressed by our selection.  I love how the Patron is the only straight-up liquor we have down there…the rest is weird blended stuff (Baileys, Skinny Girl margarita mix, etc).  We just have trouble keeping any inventory cause we drink so much, cause we’re too cheap to buy nice liquor, for some unknown reason. Oh well!

Anyways, hope you enjoy.  Now that it’s getting super chilly, we’ll have to re-evaluate our house-related goals for the winter.  I think I’ll post a New Year’s Resolution-esque list on here in the next couple days, to keep us accountable :)  Happy New Year everyone!

xox,

katie

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