Playroom Shelves

I left off with my last house post talking about the boys' bathroom. It's a hard room to photograph and it's just a normal bathroom, but I still love it. This week I'll keep up upstairs and circle bath to the Bonus Room.

I shared a post about our Bonus Room, and I think I mentioned how that room was not complete. I wasn't yet happy with it. It currently serves as a play room with the majority of the toys. We used existing furniture we had, but it wasn't working. We had some wire shelving that was meant to hold storage cubes. I had cute baskets to hold toys in there, but I didn't like how it looked. It felt cluttered. And when you have lots of toys, it's hard NOT to look cluttered.

I searched for cube storage and just wasn't finding what I liked. And when I can't find something I like, I make something I like!

Mr. JCrew has an amp for his guitar, so I wanted to created something that made it looked built in to the storage area.

It started off as buying wood deep enough for the cubes. They are 13 inches square. If I bought a 12 inch piece of wood, the cube would hang off. And my first idea was to make floating shelves.

I bought the wood, stained it and bought simple brackets. I also searched for brackets I liked, but went with cheap ones I could buy in a big box store instead of a custom order. They were silver and I painted them bronze.

I used a new stain for this wood and fell in love! Best brand! I've stained before and always did a bad job. This stain covers your sins! (ha) I felt like a pro and wanted to find more projects to stain!

Once I got the shelves up, I realized I needed longer brackets to make sure the weight would hold. Even without toys on the shelf, it was already dipping forward.

I then decided to put pieces of wood on the end that I could bracket the front end of the shelf to. It would feel much sturdier. And it did!

I was hesitant to make it look like a piece of furniture when I already have a console under the TV, but it works.

And it cleans up that area much nicer. Looks much more open and less clutter!

One day the shelves won't be full of toys, but we'll turn it into library shelves.

Staining Concrete

On Facebook, I had posted a picture of the porch.

Mom has already started decorating the porches. It is premature, but it does help to make it look like we have already moved in. A couple of you noticed the stained concrete, and I said I'd share the process.

We used a semi-transparent stain rather than a solid paint like we used on our previous porch. The hardest part was choosing a color.

We used Behr in the color Loden. It turned out perfect.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/BEHR-Premium-1-gal-STC-22-Loden-Semi-Transparent-Concrete-Stain-85001/203939946

For the front porch, Mom just used a roller and rolled the stain on. This did create some roller marks and you had to work fast. Once a drop hit, it was there for good.

The directions said to use a sprayer and we had bought one, but Mom had never used one and didn't want to. I then used it for the back porch. Getting the hang of the sprayer was tricky. For one, I was doing it in extreme heat, so it was hard to spread. The hot concrete just soaked it up.

I did small sections at a time. I had to move so fast because of the heat. I eventually did the other porches at night and early morning before the heat and it was SO MUCH EASIER. I actually had to let the stain sit before spreading it.

Mom's porch was the last and I had perfected my technique.

You're suppose to make small circular motions. When I first got started, I forgot but quickly remembered after it was too late. The below picture is the result of non circles.

I really am glad that we decided to stain the concrete. With the clay that we have here, we were bound to get muddy prints all over the place.

Here's a video Mom took of me with the sprayer and roller. This is how fast I had to be in the direct sunlight.

Happy Staining of your own!

Refinishing A Table

We had a table growing up that I loved. We named it the “Kids’ Table” that was used for breakfast in the morning and for the overflow at family dinners. It was a lightly stained table with beautiful details. We had two red chairs that went with it and two natural chairs. I loved this table.

This table has been passed around in the family. My parents gave it to my oldest sister to use in her kitchen for her three girls. Then I got it when I moved into my current house.

I knew I wanted to use it in my breakfast area of the kitchen, but found a new purpose for the chairs. Since I had saddle stools are the kitchen island, I found shorter saddle stools for the new table.

The red chairs were placed alongside the console table I put behind the couch.

I found paisley pillows I sewed snaps on and a button in the center. They made perfect seat cushions.

Button sewn to make it look less like a pillow

Snaps to keep pillow on chair

Back to the kitchen table… The table was a pretty color, but it didn’t match the color of the kitchen cabinets. The table didn’t have to match perfectly, but I couldn’t leave it the color it was.

I took the idea from my dining room table and decided I’d keep the top of the table a natural color and paint the legs black. I had fun painting the legs, but I did not pick up a latex paint. I ruined my nicest paint brush!! I had forgotten to pay attention to that small detail. I learned my lesson!

(can you tell this was before we added the lighting in the bonus room? It was so dark!!)

I took the table downstairs and placed it in place in the kitchen.

I played with the placement.

It didn’t strike me as beautiful. It worked by itself but not when I put the saddle stools with it.

I then decided to stain the top to match the color of the saddle stools and paint the legs a lighter color to stand out.

I had come across a beautiful light blue before that I was trying to decide where to use. It’d be perfect for the legs. It went naturally with the green walls in the kitchen.

So, I painted the legs blue and stained the top of the table.

I love how the stained top turned out. It’s my favorite detail of the table. It still shows off the grain of the wood.

Close up view of table top

The table has been so useful. Guests use it to set their purses on when they come over or people actually use it to eat on when the dining room table is full. I imagine all of our little JCrew’s using it as their breakfast table as we get ready for school in the morning.

It’s a great table that is still going strong. I love it.

IN THIS POST:

Paint: Freshaire Choice in 'Organic Garden' (Satin finish)

Stain: A walnut stain I did not use correctly. :)

Peg Leg

There are many things you can do to kitchen cabinets these days. There are so many colors and finishes to choose from. One trend I like is making the cabinets look like pieces of furniture.

One trend I discovered adds “legs” to the bottom of cabinets.

I love this peg shape!

I have seen it a lot in the last two years and love it. I began my research of what local stores had. I didn’t find the exact match, but I got something close.

Forgot a before picture. This is after I stained and cut it.

I bought a stain that matched the cabinets.

And I used the table saw to cut each peg to length.

Surprisingly, each peg was different. I’d shave off a little at a time until the peg was snug under the cabinet.

I made the island look like a piece of furniture.

I made the range look like it was included in a piece of furniture.

The sink of course had to be a piece of furniture.

And then pegs were added to the ends of the cabinets just to give a finished look.

The island will eventually get a bigger upgrade and look even more like a piece of furniture. In the meantime, I love the look the pegs have added.

In This Post:

Wooden Pegs: Lowes, $4.99 (Qty 8)

Stain: Cabot Penetrating Wood Stain in Pecan (8127)